Richard Kimball

Damn, I've spent a whole morning going through these songs. Here are a few that, to me, are perfect: George Strait, Amarillo by Morning. Wife and I are coming up on 38 years. This is our song. Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode It's not just a great song, the lyrics are great poetry Deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans, Way back up in the woods among the evergreens, There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood, Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode Who never, ever learned to read or write so well, But he could play a guitar just like he's ringing a bell. Rainy Days and Mondays. Karen Carpenter obviously suffered from depression and eventually died from anorexia. She is the only person that could sing this song, and make it bring tears to your eyes. Wagon Wheel, Old Crow Medicine Show. I'm a sucker for fiddles and banjos.

I did not know that.

Bring two popsicle sticks and a rubber band, just in case.

Who wins? Or is this the new "rock, paper, scissors?"

Give that man a hand!

I always thought the characters of George, Kramer and Elaine were amplifications of parts of Jerry's character. George, the manipulative and insecure side, Elaine the sexual side, and Kramer the insane side. The even have facial resemblances, like they're related.

Haven't looked through the early pages, so SIAP, but here's Andy Griffith singing the theme song:

You two probably liked Shemp.

Agree on Benny. Bob Newhart is the only other person that can get that big a laugh out of total silence and a deadpan expression. Seinfeld was sold as a comedy about nothing, but it was really a show about how stand up comedians get their material. On the list itself, meh. Comedy tends to be personal, and what one person finds hysterically funny, others don't. The stuff that stands up over time tends to be slapstick and goofy, rather than witty. The Three Stooges, Addams Family, Munsters, and Gilligan's Island, for example. My college students all know them. Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, All in the Family? Nah. Off the radar. Confession that I haven't seen any of the British comedies listed. Little bit of trivia on McHale's Navy. It seems pretty awkward now, but I loved it as a kid. The show was based on a Alcoa Playhouse TV show, "Seven Against the Sea," which was a straight WWII drama. That's why they cast a dramatic actor, Ernest Borgnine, in the lead. The guy that did the old Phil Silvers show came in, and changed it to "Sgt. Bilko Joins the Navy."

If you talk to someone who's lost a child, no matter how long ago the child passed, they always sound like it happened about three months earlier. They may bury their feelings most of the time, but as soon as they think of it, the wound is fresh. Had an aunt that lost a child shortly after birth. Until the end of her life, she kept a photo of that child in the casket on her dresser. She was in her seventies when she died. Was talking to a woman at a funeral, and she told me she'd lost her child (24 or so, but they're always your child.) She told me it was an unusual car wreck, and described it. I realized that I'd made the call, and it was twenty years earlier. Just to be sure, I asked her where it happened, and yep, same car wreck. I didn't tell her I'd responded to that call. When we were talking, I'd assumed the wreck was less than a year ago, the way she described it. You're right. Some wounds never completely heal.

Night Court was made by the cast. Rebooting it will be like trying to reboot other cast driven shows. Harry Anderson, Richard Moll, John Larroquette, Markie Post, and Warfield/Diamond had a great cast chemistry, and the writing played to their strengths. IMHO, the show took off after the writing solidified in the second season and Markie Post took over from the first public defender, who was just annoying. The new one will likely bomb, because cast chemistry is not an easy formula. Getting two characters who have good chemistry when interacting is tough enough. Getting five or six cast members that can all interact with each other with good chemistry requires not only great casting, but a certain amount of luck.

You inspired me, and I added a cover photo to my profile.

Just went back and checked on some people I went to junior high with at the class reunion sites for the two high schools they fed into. Shit, a lot of people are dead. Our starting quarterback on the 9th grade team turned into a druggie, shot his wife to death and got life in prison. That didn't make it onto the reunion sites. Of the other two junior high school hotshots, one got cancer and died in 1986. The other apparently ended up in Huntsville for dealing drugs, with another of the classmates serving as a guard, there. My best friend from those years died last year. I think it was from COVID, which makes me feel pretty fortunate that I spent ten days in the hospital, and am out and healthy now. Part of what was surprising was the randomness of the people who died. Some of them were the student council hot shots, some druggies, some were just the kids that faded into the background of the school tableau. Some were murdered, some had kidney disease, some cancer. I did notice some of the most beautiful girls died young, or at least before age sixty, which seems a lot younger now than it used to.

I still haven’t gotten over the ears on that guy on the left. He doesn’t have an alarm clock. That sumbitch can hear the sun come up.

Great scene. The other one from that movie was Queeg's break down on the witness stand. That movie has always been such a mixed bag for me. Every scene involving the main characters of Bogart, Van Johnson, Ferrar, McMurray, and most of the supporting characters was brilliant. Robert Francis and May Wynn were totally out of their depth in the movie, and all the scenes centered around them were bad. I didn't see the movie until after reading the book, and there isn't enough time in the movie to explore what happened after the mutiny, but the Hollywood tacked on ending of Willie getting assigned to a new ship with his old captain was terrible. In the book, the second half of the book is as riveting as the part with the mutiny. In the book, the mutiny takes place about half way through, and it follows the crew of the Caine through the end of the war until it goes to the junk yard. Last line: "Torn paper was flying in the air over the victorious marchers, and now and then a scrap drifted down and brushed the face of the last captain of the Caine."

Troof, but the ACC has let Notre Dame play it both ways. They're eligible for the ACC Championship game, then when they got curb stomped by Clemson, they still got in. When the bowls were created, it was a completely different era, one that's not coming back. They were totally exhibition games. It wasn't until around 1974 that most of the polls took bowl games into consideration. Notre Dame didn't play in bowl games from 1925 to 1970, supposedly because of finals for the fall semester. That's why up until the BCS, there were a ton of split championships, with, for example, Texas, Nebraska and Notre Dame all claiming a 1970 championship. Another issue is that for a playoff without byes, you have the choices of 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64, and colleges play very uneven schedules. You just gave me a thought that would be fun. The P5 tells all the G5s and Independents that they're going to bring three more conferences into the playoffs (total eight teams after conference championships.) Every team in the three accepted conferences has to meet certain guidelines, including football budget, stadium size, average attendance, etc. ONLY THREE MORE CONFERENCES. If a team falls below in any of the criteria, they have to drop out of the conference. No independents, no at large bids. Get in a conference, win the conference championship and you're in the playoffs. Otherwise, go home. Ain't happening, but it would be some real hunger games stuff.

Hey! I got to give you your first like, unless you meant Stanford Cardinal, which is the color, not the bird. If you meant Stanford, I'm taking back my like. Everyone uses Alabama as an example, but Alabama beats everybody. Nick Saban is probably the best coach in the history of college football. So, if we throw Alabama out, Boise State has beaten Oklahoma, Houston beat Oklahoma, UCF beat Baylor when they were conference champs, TCU beat Wisconsin when the Frogs were in the Mountain West, and in the NY6 bowls, the G5 is 3-3 against the P5. One of the reasons football tends to be top heavy is because the playoffs and many top tier bowls are all selected by committees, and those committees are looking as much at ratings as they are quality. That means the same teams always get the best bowls and playoff spots, and this helps them with recruiting, which further tilts the table towards them. If a SMU or UCF goes two rounds in the playoffs, their recruiting will jump the next year. They make the playoffs a few times, and yeah, they'll be able to compete. Coastal Carolina would have had a solid chance of beating PAC 12 champ Oregon last year.

Hmmm... that also brings up the question of if someone could or would make a player sign a "no transfer" clause when they take the money. Can they add incentive clauses and outs, like if the player doesn't start so many games, they lose their endorsement deal? The current system has been in place for years, and the one thing we know for sure is that things will change, but we have no clue what the ramifications of those changes will be. I do think you're probably right that there will be a "gold rush" and then a lot of companies falling by the wayside.

There are guys with clout that make a lot of money doing nothing but wearing ugly, bowl specific sport coats and going around watching football games and extending invitations to teams. Combined with the TV contracts, the bowls are pretty ingrained in the system. They won't go away without a hard push. Particularly on the lower bowls, I think a lot of colleges actually lose money going to a bowl game after spending for team travel expenses and having to buy an allotment of tickets that nobody will buy because they have to sell them at face value. As I've posted before, I'm open to a lot of options (like anyone that makes the decisions cares what I think,) BUT there are two things that really aren't negotiable if you want an actual playoff. 1. Entrants shouldn't be decided by a committee. 2. Every team should have a path to the playoffs by winning.

As was the writing. You telling me Jesus Christ can't hit a curve ball? Nice catch Hayes. Don't ever fucking do it again. We shoulda got a live chicken.

Miss: Glen Campbell in True Grit

Some of the photos have gone bye bye, but I don't think this one has been listed, and I expected it on the first page. You're a daisy if you do. That's a hit, BTW.

The Highlander next to MCC will kick your butt. Hale Bopp and Thor over the Bat Cave for me. Thor is a killer whether you're going up or down. On your way back, cut across the Pecan Bottoms and take Jacobs Ladder up, then the road back to UParks. Jacob's Ladder always makes my thighs feel like champagne bottles. There's not a bad path out there.

Boise State has beaten Oklahoma and Arizona. UCF has beaten Auburn and Baylor. Alabama's lost something like twelve games total in the last ten years. I guess nobody should be in the playoffs except Alabama.