Coach Cowher Update...

I'm sorry to keep bringing this up....What possesses people to google the words "Bill Cowher extramarital affair"??

Even though I have dropped to being the # 20 reference on this subject..sixteen (16!) of my last 100 site hits are this inquiry..

There is NO EVIDENCE Coach Cowher has ever cheated on his wife WHATSOEVER!

Happy Birthday Wolfgang...!

Just thought we'd a give a big shoutout to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who would be celebrating his 250th birthday if he were alive today...


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Stetson Law Trial Team Still Winning...

Below is the press release from Stetson University College of Law concerning the victory of its trial team in the Florida Bar's Mock Trial Competition concluded in Miami on January 19. Our beloved "Redington Pirate" is standing next to Arturo Rios who is holding the trophy along with other team members Angie Torrents and Senovia Lance. Congratulations to Stetson Law and the Pirate!
The winning trial team and Florida Bar members and President-photo courtesy The Florida Bar

Stetson Law trial team wins the Chester Bedell Memorial Mock Trial Competition in Miami Jan. 19

January 25, 2006
Contact: Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
(727)562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. - The Stetson University College of Law Trial Team won The Florida Bar Chester Bedell Memorial Mock Trial Competition for the 16th time on Jan. 19 in Miami.

Stetson’s team of Arturo Rios, Angie Torrents, Senovia Lance and the Redington Pirate defeated students from Florida State University in the final round of the state-wide competition.

Rios was named Best Advocate for the competition. Judge David Demers, Susan Demers, Creighton Shafer and Professor Roberta Flowers coached the winning team.

“This is a premier, annual statewide competition and Stetson has won more than half of the total competitions,” said Professor Lee Coppock, who directs the trial team program. “The trophy is deservedly coming home this year.”
Coppock, a Stetson grad, was part of the trial team that won the Chester Bedell trophy in 1996.

In November, a Stetson Law trial team won both first and second place at the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers 2005 Honorable E. Earle Zehmer Memorial Mock Trial Competition and won first place at the 15th Annual Cathy Bennett National Criminal Trial Competition.

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Stetson University College of Law is Florida’s first law school. It has educated lawyers for more than a century and offers continuing legal education programs for regional, national and international audiences. Stetson is tied for first in advocacy and third for legal research and writing by the 2006 U.S. News & World Report national rankings and is the headquarters for the National Conference of Law Reviews.

Lemieux Retires...

Mario Lemieux has decided once again to end his National Hockey League playing career.
The Penguins player-owner announced his decision today at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.
"This is always a difficult decision for any athlete to make," Lemieux said. "If I could still play this game I would be on the ice."
The 40-year-old Hall of Famer cited his health and family as reasons to stop playing.
Lemieux learned in early December that he has atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that can cause his pulse to flutter wildly and must be controlled by medication.
He said the decision to quit was in "the best interest of myself, my family and the Pittsburgh Penguins."
Leieux retired for the first time in 1997 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame later that year. He is seventh on the all-time NHL scoring list with 690 goals and 1,033 assists in 915 career games. Lemieux had seven goals and 15 assists in 26 games this season.

Pittsburgh Sports Streaks

Bloggers usually write about what’s on their minds. I haven’t written much recently because I’m a BIG sports FAN and that’s what has been on my mind. Unfortunately most of my regular blogging audience doesn’t really respond when I write about sports. Which is probably the way it should be because sports tends to be a localized and I am building an international audience.
Three of my favorite sports teams are involved in STREAKS at the moment:
The Ice Hockey playing Penguins are in last place and unfortunately have lost 8 games in a row…and I’ve watched about 80 percent of their games on TV. Here is a picture of Sid “the kid” Crosby who is having a great “rookie” season despite the team's poor performance.
The next team is the University of Pittsburgh basketball Panthers who are undefeated with a record of 15 and 0 ( 4 and 0 in the Big East). This was a surprise to us locally who thought last years graduation would leave the team weak for a few years.
Finally there are the Pittsburgh Steelers who through last weekend's defeat of the Indianapolis Colts have made their way to the AFC Championship Game this Sunday in Denver. The Steelers have won their last 6 games.
Locally the populace has spent this past week lamenting the bad officiating in the Colts game instead of getting excited about playing Denver. This has led some national commentators to assert that the Steelers will lose because their fans think last week was their “superbowl”. I hope they are wrong.

Here It Is...

A little over 26 years ago I had the opportunity to meet Jimmy Buffett personally. This is my story and its background:
On January 24,1980 The Tennessee Williams Fine Art Center of Florida Keys Community College had its Gala Grand Opening with a production of “Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis,” a Tennessee Williams play chosen for the occasion. This was not however the first event ever held in the then state of the art theatre.
When the theatre was experiencing a shortfall of funds to operate its first season Mrs. Flo Thompson, a Key West socialite prevailed upon her former neighbor and friend Jimmy Buffett to do a benefit concert prior to the Gala opening to raise money for the theatre. Jimmy agreed to do this and the event became a tune up for a 1980 winter tour he and the Coral Reefer Band were about to embark on. This concert took place in the theatre several weeks prior to the Grand opening.
A few days before the concert I received word from Bill Seeker, the recently hired President of FKCC, through my then wife Beth that it would be nice if Jimmy would receive one of our Chamber of Commerce welcome packets and would I arrange with the Mayor of Key West to present a “Key to the City.” This was something routine to me so we got to work on it.
The next day the Mayor’s secretary called me on the phone.
“Sonny says come over to the office. I have the key for you. He refuses to meet with Jimmy Buffett and says he has authorized you to present ‘the Key’ .” She then explained to me that Jimmy had given $1,000 to Mayor McCoy's opponent in the last election.
This turned out to be the only in time in five years of being Executive Director of the Greater Key West Chamber of Commerce, Inc. I was ever authorized to present the key to the city.
Now I was and am a big Jimmy Buffett fan. I owned every album he’d made up until that time (I even had a cassette once of an album he’d made while in Nashville before anyone ever heard of him). A month before I’d stood in line for the right to buy four tickets to this concert (and donate four tickets to FKCC students) so that my family could attend. Being at the front of the line we got tickets in the first or second row.
The day before the concert Beth called me at work. “Bring the gift pack and the key with you to my office at 2 PM this afternoon..We have a surprise for you.” The surprise turned out to be that we were going to “sit in” on the "sound check/rehearsal" of Jimmy and his band. It turned out that the band hadn’t been together for 6 months and did a full rehearsal of the show with three people sitting in the audience; Dr. William A. Seeker, the now Beth Blair of Apalachicola, Florida (a part time Florida lobbyist) and one Jipzeecab. How cool was that! It also was the first time anyone did anything in that theater.
When the rehearsal was over we went to the green room to meet Jimmy. I remember that he wanted a “coke” right away which someone got him from a vending machine.
Then I presented him with his goody bag and the KEY to the City of Key West. This was his response:
“Well, thank you very much. This is the first time I’ve ever been given the key to a city. Do you think this might get us into the kitchen at Logun’s Lobster House (a famous local restaurant) at 3:00 AM.”
That evening a party was held at the home of Captain Hugh McMurphree,ret. in Key Haven to honor Jimmy. In attendance was Tennessee Williams.
Kate Schweppe Moldawer, heiress to the ginger ale and tonic fortune attempted to introduce Jimmy to her famous playwright friend. Tennessee was totally out of it and ignored Buffett completely despite the fact that Jimmy was raising tens of thousands of dollars for a theater which bore his name. I personally think the late playwright could have cared less that the fine arts center was named after him either.
So that’s my story..except for one other thing. Jimmy is noted nowadays for having a clause in his performance contract that says “if anyone opens a door during a sound check, Buffett is released from performance and must be paid his full fee.”

Grandma's Bowl...

Tonight's main TV event is the Fed Ex Orange Bowl from Miami, Florida or as it is known this year in this household GRANDMA's Bowl!

Both of my sister's children attended Penn State University...were in the traveling band there. My son (the Pirate) and daughter-in-law and my son-in-law all went to Florida State University. Duchessadele graduated from the FSU Law School but attended the University of Florida as an undergraduate. Her Gators defeated Iowa 31 - 24 yesterday in the Outback Bowl.

The undercurrent story in the Orange Bowl is of course the two head coaches. Penn State's Joe Paterno and FSU's Bobby Bowden have been running neck and neck for several years now in a race to be the alltime winningest coach. Currently Bobby Bowden is 6 wins ahead of Joe Paterno in the official total with 359 to 353. Eddie Robinson coached Grambling University to 408 wins before retiriing in 1997.

The game is also the "poster child" for what is wrong with the "Bowl Championship Series". Florida State with a 2005 season record of 8 and 4 is in the game because it won the ACC Championship game. Normally a team with 2 losses would be lucky to get into one of the five major bowls. But the Orange Bowl is delighted because both teams "travel well" (they bring lots of well healed fans with them who will spend a lot of money in Miami). Penn State (ranked #3) is heavily favored over FSU (ranked # 22).

If Grandma is favoring one School over the other she isn't saying. She watches both teams when their games are televised here but because FSU is in another region it isn't on TV as much..

Happy New Year...!

Nothing fancy..just saying


Happy New Year WORLD !!

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