MORNINGS WITH THE CAPTAIN

A predecessor of Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangaroo was an awesome inspiration of Boomer kids back when. Bob Keeshen had a cast of Mr. Green Jeans, Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose and others. He showed the cartoon Tom Terrific with that mean old Isotope Feeney.

The Captain taught lessons and values and morals in an offhanded way that kids didn't know that they were learning them. There were lots of laughs and warm good hearted fun.

Old reruns of Captain Kangaroo don't exist; at least I've never seen any. And maybe that's a good thing. He couldn't stand up to the fast paced ipod/blackberry world of today. I can't see my grandkids enjoying the singing of "Here Comes Suzy Snowflake," but then again, maybe I underestimate the values the show presented.

I'd still like to see Bunny Rabbit add to his stash of carrots. I always rooted for him. And Mr. Green Jeans was as genuine as the Captain.

Good show. Good times. Good memories. And while the Captain never told us he liked us just the way we were, we knew he did.

GEORGIA ON MY MIND

How do we do it? Let women get into our heads? Occupy our thoughts? Play on our emotions? Exert their control over us? Make us think differently?

What is it about them that causes us to act the way we do? Is it their guile, wiles, or ways? Is it their charm, their beauty, their mannerisms?

Enough questions. Now for the answers. And it's all pretty obvious. Upon close inspection, I mean. Seriously. I'm really surprised I or someone of greater intellect hasn't told us all before.

I was getting ready to reveal it all right here in this blog, but I just remembered--Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I have to get a card and a gift and flowers and candy and make dinner reservations and maybe even compose a poem.

Oh, I don't have time to tell you. But I know.

HOW ABOUT THIS REPUBLICAN? IS HE TO BLAME, TOO?

It seems that everytime I turn on the tv, another Dimocrat is ranting and raving about our President. Is it 2008 already? JKerry even got in the act by saying he wasn't running. This, of course, after his joke about our soldiers backfired. But he didn't stop there--he said something about the US was a pariah to the world. To top it off, he was not on US soil. In the old days that act was unconscionable, but he was just taking a page from BClinton who demonstrated (pun intended) his dislike for US policy while a Rhoades scholar in England.

And I see Hilar(it)y says she wouldn't have voted to send troops to Iraq had she known what she knows now. Someone--anyone inform her that when she becomes Lady Prez that she won't have the luxury of hindsight either.

I thought our current President gave a great speech on the State of the Union. Of course the union is strong thanks to his leadership. Are you kidding me? In this day and age and no acts of terror against our country? It's more than just happenstance: it's good leadership and a merciful God in heaven.

I wanted him to say in addition: the unemployment rate is 4.1 %. That's almost unheard of. I think statistics show that 4% of the people aren't looking for a job and don't want one. The stock market is at 12,500. The highest in history! Philanthropic giving is also at an all-time high. Is it still about the economy? Well, if it is, then it's all good.

Certainly Iraq is bad. And it may be bad for a long time. But there was no hindsight. There was an evil dictator and regime responsible for more than 200,000 deaths. Yet, we should have done nothing? And now it's like Viet Nam and time to cut and run?

I've known many in Viet Nam and in Iraq. I've prayed lots for both. But there is one huge difference. The soldiers in Iraq are volunteers: not so many, many of those in Viet Nam. I didn't hear many in Viet Nam say we should be there. I've heard many, many returning US soldiers from Iraq say that we should be there.

No, I don't think I have all the answers. I don't even know the right questions to ask. But I don't like what I'm hearing from the party not in the White House. Ask me again in a few years when that 20/20 hindsight kicks in.

SO WHAT'S REALLY IN THE PICTURE

At first glance, I saw a witch. I know it's a short broom, thick as well, but that's what I saw. And I'm sticking with it. Of course, it's all about a gull with the moon at its wing. Or is it the setting sun?

If it's the sun, I've never noticed it so black. If it were that black, then the sun would be obscured as well. And if it's the moon, then why have I never seen the moon set over the water?

It must, mustn't it? I've seen both sun and moon together many, many times. Now, I'm really thinking hard. Isn't it crazy how some seemingly easy grade school stuff can seem complex sometimes? Does the moon set? It would have to for it to be seen on the other side of the world.

But why are there no pictures? Why no comments about a beautiful moonset this morning? In fact, why was the moon, full and bright, so high in the Arizona sky this morning at 5:00 when I went outside to fetch the morning paper?

There's a principle here somewhere that I'm missing. Maybe it's the one about two orbital paths. But I still can't quite fathom how the moon can be seen in two hemispheres unless its positioning is longitudinally. Ok, I'm going back to the original picture of the witch. That's a lot easier to explain. Or for me to comprehend.

PRACTICING ATTORNEYS

They used to call Student Teaching Practice Teaching. They changed that. But lawyers, counselors, PC's still practice law. I know, physicians practice medicine, too.

There's something about the term that I don't like. And I don't like to practice much of anything. That's why my golf scores have ballooned. I just don't practice, and if you want to play good golf or anything that resembles good golf, you have to practice.

I don't even take a practice swing most of the time. I just address the ball take a look down the fairway and have a swing thought or two and let it rip. Once on the putting green, I take a prefunctory look at the hole and pick out a target and let it fly. When I chip, sometimes I don't even walk up to the green to see how much difference there is between green and landing area over the trap.

Lazy? Yep. Careless? Yep. Apathetic? 3-for 3 I'm even stoogier than the stooges.

WHAT IF CHICAGO NEVER EVER WON ANOTHER TITLE IN ANY SPORT

Would I be glad? Yessir.

I can't let it go. I just don't like the swagger. The uppityness. The superiority that its denizens think they have.

Maybe I got it from college days. Maybe from high school days when sports announcers would talk about the teams "coming down here (Champaign) to play." It was just an attitude thing even back then. Even back when the good southern Illinois coaches hadn't left the area for better paying jobs in the north.

The whole mind set of a people that think southern Illinois is Peoria or Springfield. To some anything south of I-90 is southern Illinois. And the best way to insult a people is to ignore them, to act as if they don't exist.

Maybe the way they'd trash Carbondale at SIU. Literally trash it.

Or just maybe it was the way they'd talk with their accents. When some of them start in, I want to offer them a kleenex to unclog their nasal passages.

See what the Super Bowl did to me. Oblivious to the game and undecided whom to root for, I was at the FBR Golf Tournament, but before I got back home, I knew it was the Colts just by the antics of the Bears fans at the golf tourney.

Oh well, I got my wish. But it's never as much fun rooting against some team as it is rooting for a team.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

And where am I off to? Church, of course, I mean it is a day the Lord made. And there's no place I'd rather be than in worship services on a Sunday.

But as soon as the service is over, my wife and I are heading to the FBR Open, for the greatest golf on grass or something like that.

Will we stay for the whole time? Even if it means we'll miss part of the Super Bowl? Probably, I don't know. That'll likely depend on what CQ wants. I'd stay.

You see, I like both Super Bowl teams. But I really don't care who wins. And that's highly unusual for me. Usually I am strongly cheeering for one team or, as in the case of the New England Patsies, strongly rooting against a team. This year it's different. Probably when I start watching though, one of the teams will earn my allegiance and I will be in their corner for the rest of the game.

I'm hoping for bad weather. Not for the people of Florida and certainly no more storms. I'd just like to see the weather have an influence in a football game again. Especially a championship.

But I'm hoping for great weather at the golf tourney. And I'm pretty sure we're gonna get it. So don't look for me at any Super Bowl parties (I hardly ever go anyhow). And don't look for me to talk to about Devin Hester running back the opening kick off. But you might catch a glimpse of me and 165,000 others at the FBR