CBS and Turner Broadcasting decided they would experiment with a three person announcer presentation of the Final Four games. Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg and Steve Kerr were selected for a three man booth. Kerr had been a NBA analyst. Kellog replaced Billy Packer who had been a lead college basketball analyst for CBS for 27 years. Kellogg has done game and studio analysis for CBS for 16 years. He was to partner with Jim Nantz. So, how was the coverage?…
My wife's sister, Monica is an officer at our Gig Harbor Elks Club where her husband Richard is Exalted Ruler. At the last meeting she got talking with a retired Gig Harbor purse seine fisherman Nick Markovich and his wife. She learned they knew my parents because they bought groceries at our family grocery store in Anacortes while running a salmon fishing boat in the summer. He also thought he remembered I had fished on a local seine boat Victory. She told me about the…
I am reading a collection of columns Dick Cavett wrote for the New York Times which he has collected into a book. In one, published in February of 2007, he talks about a conversation he had with the actor Basil Rathbone that reminded me of something I had posted in this blog back on November 30, 2009. It was about the strange death of Sam Kinison. https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2009/11/the-strange-death-of-sam-kinison.html Cavett told a similar story related to him by Rathbone. Rathbone was best…
President Obama has decided we should intervene in Libya and has authorized our dropping bombs on military installations as well as other military targets. He says it is to support the people and their right to freedom and to promote democarcy there. Many of us are mystified by his decision. We have now involved ourselves militarily in one more country when history doesn't support the bombing and cost is bankruptingly high. We are still mired in military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both…
When the rebellion against the dictator of Tunisia was reported by the media, the name of Mohammed Bouazizi was a central part of the reporting. Bouazzi was one of the poor young men in the town of Sidi Bouzid struggling to make a living in a country of unemployment and poverty. Bouazizi's income was from selling vegetables, something he had done for 7 years. He was one of many who operated an unlicensed vegetable cart because the license was so expensive. He supported his family of eight…
Probably the greatest golfer who ever lived is someone you are not likely to have ever heard about. Murray Norman was born July 10, 1929 and died at age 75 in Canada September 4, 2004. Known throughout his life by his nickname "Moe" he was brought up in Canada and played golf his entire life. This is a man who won fifty five Canadian tournaments, was the Canadian PGA champion two times. He set thirty three course records. His records include three scores…
My father in law, Hollis Barnett died on March 22nd 1990. He was a unique and wonderful man. You can read about his extraordinary wife Betty Barnett and more about this couple who I grew to love. https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2010/03/i-write-this-in-memory-of-my-wifes-father-hollis-hall-barnett-whodied-in-puyallup-washington-on-march-22-1990-at-the-a.html Hollis Hall Barnett died in Puyallup, Washington on March 22, 1990 at the age of 83. Hollis was born in Buckley, Washington on May 3, 1907 and spent his younger years at Mt. Rainier National Park where his father, Herman "Herm" Burke Barnett, was a ranger. Her man was…
Japan has been in the news because of the destructive earthquake. The news has described the calmness of the Japanese people and discussed their character in crisis. That brings to mind a Japanese dog, Hachiko who is famous in Japan. In fact, the people of Tokyo commissioned a statue of the dog which they placed in a popular location. Even Japanese children’s books make this dog a hero. Richard Gere starred in a 2009 movie of about the dog: Hachi:…
I’ve finished an excellent book The Flyboys – A True Story of Courage by James Bradley who also wrote Flags of Our Fathers, a best selling account of the battle in World War II in Iwo Jima. The Flyboys is about the war in the Pacific in World War II involving airplane warfare. While the entire book is of historical interested, I was very moved by the description of our bombing of Japan. The real horror of war is revealed in the description of…
I was interested in Graham Bowley's writing about where world dictators "hide" their money in Sunday's NY Times. He notes that el Qaddafi has stashed away billions in U.S. and other currencies in Libya and the problem he would have moving it out of country in bulk. Imelda Marcos was charged with trying to move 22 crates of Philippine pasos when they fled to Hawaii in 1986. Jean Claude Duvalier and his wife took $33 Million from the Haiti bank…
