DrW

Watching a complete NBA game has always been a challenge; however, I often watch the last quarter or, if necessary, OT. Being German, my favorite NBA team was Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks. There had been German NBA players before (e.g. Seattle's Detlef Schrempf), but none reached Dirk's status. After Dirk's retirement, I stuck with the Mavericks, and it looks as if they have found their next superstar in Luka Doncic. An interesting question: What will be first, an NBA championship for Doncic or a SuperBowl for Josh?

My favorite song by The Band...

SPORTS Bills win SuperBowl Sabres win Stanley Cup German men's soccer team wins one more World Cup German women's soccer team wins one more World Cup TRAVELS (I love going by train) ROVOS 2-week rail trip from South Africa to Tanzania Transsib from Moscow to Vladivostok The Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin OTHER (I am a bird watcher) Getting my North America list to 500 species (I am at 405 now) Getting my World list to 800 species (I am at 550 now)

One of my high school classmates was editor-in-chief of one of the largest regional newspapers in Germany. Earlier in his career, he had uncovered that a bomb attack on a German prison for which a left-wing terrorist group was blamed, had actually been the work of the German secret service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celle_Hole

I love Roxy Music. While Bryan Ferry's voice and song-writing is unique, the other band members are no slouches either. My favorite tune: "A Song For Europe", with a long sax solo by Andy Mackay in the end of this live version. Enjoy.

When he was 17 or so, my son wanted to learn how to cook. Most of the cookbooks in my collection have excellent, but pretty difficult recipes with a lot of ingredients. Then, looking through the bargain bin at Barnes&Noble, I found this cookbook: It was a full success. The recipes are pretty easy and well-explained, and you do not need lots of strange ingredients. As a note of caution, the claim on the cover "30 minutes or less" is an exaggeration. Even I, as a cook with lots of experience, need longer for most of the recipes. https://www.amazon.com/Best-Simple-Recipes-Flavorful-Foolproof/dp/1933615591

You might want to consider combining these two. I am not particularly fond of opera, but, growing up in Germany, I have seen 20+. By far the most impressive considering the performance and the venue was Verdi's "Aida" in the Arena of Verona. The Arena is a quite large and well-preserved open-air Roman amphitheater from 30 A.D. When I was there nearly 50 years ago, they did not even have microphones and loudspeakers, which were installed in 2011. The Arena (Wikipedia pic)

The fruit came first. The color "orange" was named after the fruit, not the other way around. But what about blackberries?

While The Slits are my favorite female post-punk band, there is another one I like which garnered very little attention: The Mo-dettes. The only song that I could find with a video: IMHO, their best tune. Even if you have never heard of them, give it a try...

Born in Germany, came to the states as postdoc in 1990 to the University of Rochester. Did not understand American football initially, but then got hooked on football and the Bills. Now I am 68 and still working as university faculty, doing research, teaching, and administration. Just got some NIH funding and will continue for few more years.

Two of my favorite bands of the early 1990s were Lush and Elastica. About five years ago, Miki Berenyi (Lush) and Justin Welch (Elastica), together with Michael Conley (Modern English) and KJ McKillop (Moose), formed the band Piroshka. Overall, the melodies of the songs and their sound are reminiscent of Lush, but with a stronger emphasis on the rhythm section.

An early live performance of Siouxsie and the Banshees...

The German president during the 1960s was Heinrich Lübke. He was a very simple guy, sometimes even clumsy; his wife, Wilhelmine, had a much stronger personality. Fortunately, the German president's role is to "meet and greet"; he/she has no serious political function. There is a boatload of stories about Lübke's blunders, some true, some obviously invented. True: On a visit to Madagascar, he addressed the wife of the president as "Mrs Tananarive" - Tananarive is the French spelling for Madagascar's capital, not the name of the president. Of questionable origin: He supposedly started a speech in Cameroon with "Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Negroes". Obviously invented (the Summer Olympics in Munich took place in 1972; Lübke's presidency had ended in 1969), but still funny: At the opening ceremony of the Olympics, Lübke addresses the audience, reading from notes that he had scribbled on official stationery: "Ladies and Gentlemen, oh...oh...oh...oh..." when his wife Wilhelmine interrupts him: "Heinrich, that are the olympic rings..."

Another guilty pleasure of mine: the Bee Gees before they did their disco crap. While most of their songs of that era were overly simple and sweet, there were a few gems,

Inspired by the discussion on the main board about defensive coordinators, I remembered an incident of German soccer lore. Around the end of the 1960's, a German evangelist had a country-wide campaign with a poster stating "An Jesus kommt keiner vorbei", translated as "No one can get past Jesus". After a few days, some of the posters had been defaced by a comment scribbled on: "Ausser Libuda" ("except for Libuda"). Libuda was a German soccer player known for his dribbling skills. His nickname was "Stan" Libuda, named after the great English soccer icon Sir Stanley Matthews.

I had never heard of The Casualities. Interesting video - they seem to be somewhat older than their audience. I am not overly familiar with punk bands, but many of them are pretty short-lived. Even John Lydon slowed a bit down when he started Public Image Ltd. My favorite punk band - The Slits. Originally they were an all-girl band. In this clip the singer, Ari Up, was just 15. A few years later, they had replaced Palmolive on drums by a male drummer, and they had a slightly less aggressive sound, while making the lyrics more interesting. In the next clip, if videos of a park and middle-aged men bore you, the music starts at about 1:20. The Slits also incorporated reggae into their sound. Here they present a pretty competent cover of John Holts's "Man Next Door".

Back to Oasis, they were once sued for plagiarizing Neil Innes' song "How Sweet To Be An Idiot" in their song "Whatever". And indeed,there are astonishing similarities, especially in the beginning. For those of you unfamiliar with Innes, he was a member of the "Bonzo Dog Doodah Band" and provided music for several Monty Python projects. Here is the Oasis song... ...and here is Neil's original tune...

Great! I still remember the battle for Britpop supremacy in the mid-1990's between Oasis with the Gallagher brothers and Blur with Damon Albarn. I had always preferred Albarn's songwriting, while Liam Gallagher has the more interesting voice.

Elam, Cook, and Shakir will show what a good draft we had in 2022.

Citizen Kane

12 days ago many posters on this board they stated that they would be OK if our season would end early as long as Damar Hamlin would survive without serious damage. How fast we forget....

Before they became the Eurythmics, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart played in a band called The Tourists.

It should be mentioned that the web site and the report claiming that cannabis consumption may be on track to overtake alcohol are coming from the cannabis industry. Thus, you should expect some bias. I am sure that beer producers can present you with lots of papers showing that cannabis consumption does not make a dent in their business.

Sometimes, there is just a mainstream pop song that makes you smile. For me, this is it...

Recently, they played one of their songs on our student-run radio station. I had never heard of "The Good, the Bad, and the Queen" before, but I always liked Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz). Well, they are a kind of supergroup with Albarn, Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve), and Tony Allen (Fela Kuti's afrobeat). The concert recorded here is beautiful. If you do not have the patience to listen to the whole concert, just try the first and the last track. Enjoy!