Not Just A Hat Rack

IHF World Championships Semis & Final

Don't forget to tune into today's Semis on ESPN360.com (primarily available to Time Warner and Verizon Cable subscribers) or handballworldcup.tv on a pay per view basis.

Today's semi between Poland and Croatia should be incredible - there will be 15,000+ screaming Croatians in the stands in their trademark red-and-white checked shirts, while Poland is hoping for their first-ever World Championships title.  It's at 2:30pm Eastern time.  The other semifinal is France-Denmark at 11:30am ET.

The final is Sunday at 11:30am ET, I believe.  If Croatia wins, it will be a massive national party.

 Off to the arena.

Kass on Bla-gone-evich

Writing the satirical, biting political column that Mike Royko made famous, John Kass checks in today on Rod Blagoyevich, whose governorship hit its nadir, appropriately, in the just completed Year of the Rat.

Click here to read. 

Dreams in Zagreb

It was the first day of practice for the MLS team.  I had stopped by the office to help someone draft a sponsor-related press release.  Office space that was foreign to me featured 80% of the employees cramped into side-by-side cubicles to make their daily quota of sales calls.  The executives were through a door in large, customer-friendly spaces.

A sales manager I didn't know happened to wander into the sales "bullpen" to launch a tirade about fast-food soft drink cups not being permitted in the office.  Fortunately, I wasn't one of the guilty parties.   Then he began to single out people for not observing the dress code.  My sleeveless zip-up winter vest was borderline, he said - apparently not realizing that I wasn't an employee.  It was if he assumed I was one of the five new salespeople they were training that day.

A friend and former employee asked if we could walk outside for a moment and I obliged. He admitted he had been caught surfing the web for other jobs while at the office and feared he'd be fired that afternoon.  I empathized with him but said he might be in trouble.

I went back in to gather my things and the staff seemed unnaturally quiet after the sales executive's tirade.  On my way out, I couldn't resist the opportunity to say a few words.  

"Bye everybody," I said. "Remember to have fun.  Make your calls, project your enthusiasm. Remember that people love this team and they want to hear from you.  Have fun.  Do your jobs well as I know many of you can.  That's all anyone can ask.  Be well.  Have fun."

I walked out silently, then said hello to a pair of season ticket holders who lived near the stadium.  Exiting to the street I saw a gaggle of reporters with all the familiar faces so I asked one what was going on.  

"First day to see the new players," he said.  

I decided to stay a few more minutes.  The team's GM, my successor, came out of the player lounge first.  A buzz ensued, but he quickly disarmed it because some music started playing.

"This was my favorite song in the 80's," he joked.  He danced briefly for reporters.  He tried to break dance.  I helped him up.

"Steve," he said, "you have to see our new billboard.  Two players are on two boards.  One is outside Murphy's (a local bar). At first I wasn't sold on the location, but I was there last night and you cannot believe how many people are at that place at night."

The head coach comes out.  We shake hands.

"You should have been coach of the year last year," I tell him.  "Congrats."

He smiles appreciatively and moves on.

An Argentine player with a well-known sense of humor and good looks is immediately surrounded by female staff and reporters.  He tells jokes and they laugh.  He makes a point of autographing one young employee's bag.

And then he's off.

And then I woke up to a gray, cloudy Zagreb morning.  I went for a run.

Zagreb means "Place where they grabbed water"

Here's a scene from Croatia, although not the new arena I was at in Zagreb, where 15,000 screaming red-and-white-checked-clad Croatians can make an awful lot of noise.  Easily one of the most impressive spectacles of nationalist sporting fever that I have ever seen.  They cheer loudly, sing 1992 Revolution Peace songs, war chants, pro-Croatia hymns and otherwise create an intimidating home court advantage.  Cool.  More later.

But on the plane rides over, I read more of Pico Iyer's book about the Dalai Lama, interspersed with reading about the Obama presidency in Time, chatting about handball and watching the movie, "Bottle Shock."

Bottle Shock is based on a true story where California wineries beat their French counterparts in a 1976 Bicentennial publicity stunt.  It was a "shock heard round the vintner world" moment - and apparently the result was repeated 30 years later when California wines again beat French wines in a blind taste test by French wine snobs.  True wine lovers who have grown up in/around Napa Valley should definitely watch this movie!

Enjoy the front pages of 18 newspapers from across the world this week, as they announced the Inauguration of President Obama.  The photo gallery is courtesy of the Los Angeles Times. 

Now, the Salt Lake Tribune is especially proud that they used no words in their cover.  Their "Reader Advocate" wrote at length about it today, crooning about a unique shot that our local paper used of the Obamas walking across the presidential seal... but for all their enthusiasm, there's no sign of it anywhere on line to show to you.  I give you Pueblo, Colorado instead.

Here come the Fiats

In other news yesterday, Fiat announced it is getting a 35% share of Chrysler and will retool some US facilities to churn out cute little Euro cars like the 500 (pictured above).  Fiats (and Spain's Seats, France's Renaults, Czechoslovakia's Skodas and others) were the epitome of Euro-smallness that I recall from my first visits to the old continent in the mid-70's.  You needed a car this compact to get through the narrow arches above cobble-stoned lanes in centuries-old villages called Lucca, Marino or Colognora.  

Meanwhile, the USA was the land of the super-carmaker... Cadillacs... our Dodge Darts... "K" cars... Mustangs.  So much more impressive than these bug-like vehicle darting around Italy - hardly bigger than a scooter.  Some Fiats only had three wheels!  

So, as I understand it, the company that made the three-wheeled car is on the road to take over one of the USA Big Three?  And this is because Italy features such a strong economy?  Decades of economic prosperity? Unrivaled industrial expertise?  This is the country that goes on strike every second week over critical issues like nine weeks of paid vacation and subsidized wine?  Huh.  Doesn't say much for Chrysler and the U.S. auto industry, I guess

I'm all for the fuel-efficient, lean, cozy Euro cars with Italian styling, but... how do I fit the 'Hat Rack clan in it?

MLK & Obama in USA TODAY

The colorful, punchy USA TODAY always offers a pulse of the country – a worthwhile guilty pleasure about once a month, usually when I’m on the road.

Having spent three days sequestered in the world of team handball, and one night unexpectedly stranded in Dallas, my perusal of this morning’s paper reminds me this is Martin Luther King Day, that the Inauguration is tomorrow – and that America, along with many of us as individuals, is at a unique precipice of self-examination.

Here are some clips that seemed to portray this moment from today’s paper:

Os Guinness, “Faith and Inauguration” editorial:

“A terrible questions stalks our land, even at this moment of promise and hope: Is there any principle left by which the United States can transcend the present bitterness and divisions over religious in public life and live up to the promise of the American experiment?

Obama… demonstrates civility in action: the ability to respect and listen to people of profound differences, and to work with them on issues of importance for the common good.  Uniquely, perhaps, he would be capable of delivering the Gettysburg Address of the American culture wars…

What our nation requires is a statesman’s address by the “President of all Americans” to Americans of all faiths and no faith.  In short, what is needed is a challenge to the entire nation – activists, pundits and bloggers included – to live up to the promise of the American experiment in light of the culture wars ant home and the sectarian strife around the world.  What we need is a rebirth of a tough-minded civility that is a genuine habit of the heart, and valued as a necessity in a democracy as well as a virtue in a republic.” (italics mine) 

“Where King preached, Obama’s the Word” cover story:

“The dean of Washington National Cathedral calls it ‘one of those grace notes of history’ – the confluence, today and Tuesday, of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day.

Obama told USA TODAY last week he wasn’t sure exactly how King’s words would be reflected in his own speech Tuesday “because I’m such a student of his speeches and his writings that they’re probably burned into my consciousness.” But, he added, ‘certainly my presence is going to reflect him, because if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be standing there.’” 

Raphael Warnock, speaking as King’s successor as senior pastor at America’s Freedom Church, Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist:

(Warnock) drew a historical line from the biblical figure of Joseph to King to Obama – all dreamers who saw something better for their people…

“Joesph was a dreamer. And so his brothers tried to kill him. And don’t you know that’s what we do to dreamers. We try to destroy dreamers… And yet, come Tuesday we will have sitting in the Oval Office a dreamer in chief… It’s been a long time coming.”

 

“At Ebenezer, King spoke of tribulations, how he’d like to be remembered.” page A2

Excerpts from two of Martin Luther King Jr.’s final sermons before he was slain on April 4, 1968.

 “Unfulfilled Dreams” – March 3, 1968

“It will be dark sometimes, and it will be dismal and trying, and tribulations will come.  But if you have faith in the God that I’m talking about this morning, it doesn’t matter.  For you can stand up amid the storms.  And I say it to you out of experience… yes, I’ve seen the lightning flash. I’ve heard the thunder roll.  I’ve felt the sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus, saying still to fight on.  He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone.”

 “The Drum Major Instinct – Feb. 4, 1968

“Every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral.  And I don’t think of it in a morbid sense.  And every now and then I ask myself, ‘What is it that I would want said?’….

... If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice.  Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness.  And all of the other shallow things will not matter.  I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind.  But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I want to say.”

And that’s all I want to write today.  Are we drum majors?  Are we band members?  Are we committed?  Here's the World-Renowned Grambling Tiger Marching Band preparing for tomorrow's Inauguration from USA TODAY:

Counting Blessings

Tonight I'm in the Hudson River Valley, West Point to be precise, not the Hudson River.  It was chilling to see the video of the water rescue while waiting in Dallas to board a NY-bound aircraft.  I'm grateful that everyone made it out alive.  The pilot, apparently, is a true hero.  Everyone count your blessings.

Armas to Coach Adelphi Handball?

Chicago Fire legend Chris Armas is leaving the team, according to a report tonight on Luis Arroyave's Fire blog.   After a decade as a player, he spent one season as an assistant to coach Denis Hamlett.

So I think Armas, who attended Adelphi, would be a great candidate to bring some notoriety to one of America's newest team handball programs at his alma mater.  I might have to call him.

Walking with Dinosaurs

Roarrrrrr!

A few bellows from a tyrannosaurus rex were all it took to send my boys home with a smile from tonight's "show" at ESA in SLC.  Personally, I'd rank it as less tedious than a poor kid's movie - but not nearly as good as some of the best kid's programming that's out there.

One-quarter of the seats were in the ESA's upper reaches - and the "cheap" seats were not much of a value.  A low-flying rigging for lights obscured the big screen, a decent portion of the main floor and one of two side screens was not functioning.  That's what you get for $20 (same ticket costs $28.50 for the rest of the run), and the next step up to $50 is utterly ridiculous (for the upper deck!)  Lower bowl seats start at $75.  Insane.

The storyline was non-existent, more of a pre-Cretaceous history lesson for 75 minutes (with a 20-minute intermission).  The meandering robotic dinosaurs were large and impressive to 4-year-old, but my 6-year-old was not happy that all but a couple of the animals were wheeled around on motorized platforms.  For all the money invested in this show's production, and the fact that you can buy toy dinosaurs in a toy store that walk on two legs, why couldn't they build a robot dinosaur that could walk on two legs?  I'm just wondering.

Photo courtesy of siodmark.com.