It's Just Another Brilliant Day...

Via Chap… here’s an especially powerful piece by Christopher Hitchens. The introduction:

I was having an oppressively normal morning a few months ago, flicking through the banality of quotidian e-mail traffic, when I idly clicked on a message from a friend headed "Seen This?" The attached item turned out to be a very well-written story by Teresa Watanabe of the Los Angeles Times. It described the death, in Mosul, Iraq, of a young soldier from Irvine, California, named Mark Jennings Daily, and the unusual degree of emotion that his community was undergoing as a consequence. The emotion derived from a very moving statement that the boy had left behind, stating his reasons for having become a volunteer and bravely facing the prospect that his words might have to be read posthumously. In a way, the story was almost too perfect: this handsome lad had been born on the Fourth of July, was a registered Democrat and self-described agnostic, a U.C.L.A. honors graduate, and during his college days had fairly decided reservations about the war in Iraq. I read on, and actually printed the story out, and was turning a page when I saw the following:

"Somewhere along the way, he changed his mind. His family says there was no epiphany. Writings by author and columnist Christopher Hitchens on the moral case for war deeply influenced him … "

I don't exaggerate by much when I say that I froze.

Mr. Hitchens goes on to describe meeting Lt. Daily’s family and getting to know the young soldier through their eyes, and through Lt. Daily’s writings. To say the piece is moving is understatement of the highest order. Mr. Hitchens gives us yet another story that makes us ask "Where do we get such men?"

From the sublime to the ridiculous football… It was good yesterday, wasn’t it? Better than good, actually: it was frickin’ GREAT. I watched three games yesterday, and they just kept getting better and better as the day went on, beginning with Illinois’ upset of Number 5 Wisconsin, to the Red River Shoot-Out, and finally with LSU’s triumph over Florida.

Playing as a top-ranked team in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1959, LSU was in serious trouble much of the game. Their top-rated defense was shredded by Florida's double-threat quarterback, Tim Tebow, who led the Gators to a trio of 10-point leads.

But they couldn't hold off the Tigers.

No, they couldn’t. But they sure as Hell gave it their best shot. This game simply has to rank up there among the best I’ve ever seen. Both teams played with an intensity seldom seen in any game, and not just for a quarter, or a half…but for the entire game. As I said in the comments to the post below following the game: This was more like a knife fight than a football game. You really missed something if you missed this one.

Footnote: It’s ironic (for me…the die-hard ND fan) no one televised, at least in my viewing area, what could be Notre Dame’s sole win this year. And they won convincingly over UCLA by a score of 20-6, aided by the fact UCLA’s starting QB went out with an injury in the first quarter. I caught Charlie’s comments on SportsCenter last evening talking about the win:

Coach Charlie Weis obviously was relieved.

"When you're 0-5, everyone in the country is laughing at you," Weis said. "The only thing you can do is do something about it on the field. I'm really happy for the kids.

"We never had a better week of practice since I've been here. I said good things will happen, and it happened."

But Charlie was all I saw. Too bad, that.

In other sports news… the Wings lost last night to Chicago in their second straight shoot-out. Two games, two shoot-outs. I don’t like the way the season is beginning…but it’s only the beginning, nu?

It’s dead calm outside this morning, which is a welcome relief from the past two days of unrelenting wind. While the wind hasn’t been destructive in nature, it’s certainly been annoying. And hot, too. Not to mention dusty, which is always the corollary to wind here on The High Plains. But today looks like it’s gonna be perfect for a ride out to parts unknown. After the coffee’s been consumed, of course.

Today’s Pic: Something similar (but not identical) to a pic previously posted…SN3 and me just before we took off on a jaunt into the foothills of the Front Range near Fort Collins, CO.

Late May, this year.