Albany,n.y.

The Barefoot Boy By John Greenleaf Whittier Blessings on thee, little man, Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan! With thy turned-up pantaloons, And thy merry whistled tunes; With thy red lip, redder still Kissed by strawberries on the hill; With the sunshine on thy face, Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace; From my heart I give thee joy,— I was once a barefoot boy! Prince thou art,—the grown-up man Only is republican. Let the million-dollared ride! Barefoot, trudging at his side, Thou hast more than he can buy In the reach of ear and eye,— Outward sunshine, inward joy: Blessings on thee, barefoot boy! Oh for boyhood’s painless play, Sleep that wakes in laughing day, Health that mocks the doctor’s rules, Knowledge never learned of schools, Of the wild bee’s morning chase, Of the wild-flower’s time and place, Flight of fowl and habitude Of the tenants of the wood; How the tortoise bears his shell, How the woodchuck digs his cell, And the ground-mole sinks his well; How the robin feeds her young, How the oriole’s nest is hung; Where the whitest lilies blow, Where the freshest berries grow, Where the ground-nut trails its vine, Where the wood-grape’s clusters shine; Of the black wasp’s cunning way, Mason of his walls of clay, And the architectural plans Of gray hornet artisans! For, eschewing books and tasks, Nature answers all he asks; Hand in hand with her he walks, Face to face with her he talks, Part and parcel of her joy,— Blessings on the barefoot boy! Oh for boyhood’s time of June, Crowding years in one brief moon, When all things I heard or saw, Me, their master, waited for. I was rich in flowers and trees, Humming-birds and honey-bees; For my sport the squirrel played, Plied the snouted mole his spade; For my taste the blackberry cone Purpled over hedge and stone; Laughed the brook for my delight Through the day and through the night, Whispering at the garden wall, Talked with me from fall to fall; Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond, Mine the walnut slopes beyond, Mine, on bending orchard trees, Apples of Hesperides! Still as my horizon grew, Larger grew my riches too; All the world I saw or knew Seemed a complex Chinese toy, Fashioned for a barefoot boy! Oh for festal dainties spread, Like my bowl of milk and bread; Pewter spoon and bowl of wood, On the door-stone, gray and rude! O’er me, like a regal tent, Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent, Purple-curtained, fringed with gold, Looped in many a wind-swung fold; While for music came the play Of the pied frogs’ orchestra; And, to light the noisy choir, Lit the fly his lamp of fire. I was monarch: pomp and joy Waited on the barefoot boy! Cheerily, then, my little man, Live and laugh, as boyhood can! Though the flinty slopes be hard, Stubble-speared the new-mown sward, Every morn shall lead thee through Fresh baptisms of the dew; Every evening from thy feet Shall the cool wind kiss the heat: All too soon these feet must hide In the prison cells of pride, Lose the freedom of the sod, Like a colt’s for work be shod, Made to tread the mills of toil, Up and down in ceaseless moil: Happy if their track be found Never on forbidden ground; Happy if they sink not in Quick and treacherous sands of sin. Ah! that thou couldst know thy joy, Ere it passes, barefoot boy!

Take a look at what backups are getting: $6 million for Zach Wilson, $14 million for Daniel Jones. MITCH IS A BARGAIN!

$6 million for Zach Wilson? Is Miami out of their minds?

The Bills management isn't interested in a young, inexperienced backup. Mitch is the 2025 backup, like it or not. I don't get why NE signed a veteran backup. They have a great opportunity to develop Milton & trade him after 3 seasons.

A team can do a lot in a 3 year period. Think Bills 2018-2020 at the beginning of Josh's career. His 1st season he had nothing on offense but still made guys like Robert Foster look like an NFL WR. Then when he got some players in his 2nd year, the Bills started their playoff streak.

While you can hope the player will be a 10 year or more franchise guy, the bottom line is you draft a player for 4-5 years and with free agency, you can't count on him playing for you more than 5 seasons. Since you cannot guarantee the guy will even make it to a 2nd contract with your team, age shouldn't be a factor. Remember when we drafted Edmunds, he'd still be so young after 5 years? How did that work out? 5 years of mediocre play & gone via FA. Draft a player who can contribute for 5 years & don't look ahead to a 2nd contract, because odds are he won't be getting a 2nd contract with your team.

Those numbers indicate that MOST of the players have no shot & if the majority forces a strike, they are ruining it for the guys who actually have a chance of making an NFL roster.

That's the regular pre-season version, not the off-season which so far only had the NYG. Nobody wants to be the next team that needs a QB & sees the guys they passed on starting & playing well, like Bo Nix did with Denver.

Todd Schlopy is ditching his camera & getting his leg warmed up. Seriously, this indicates that most of these guys realize they have no hope of ever playing in the NFL because anyone who is playing in the UFL with hopes of impressing NFL scouts knows the last thing he needs is a strike.

Has she ever said anything about the time her brother left the Bills?

The week of the Bills 3rd or 4th straight Super Bowl, Marv said the best way to never ever lose a Super Bowl -Don't get in.

Someone needs to tell ESPN that Jay Glazer broke this "breaking news" 4 days ago. .

McDermott is the only coach in Bills history who succeeded in his 1st NFL head coaching job. Every other 1st time head coach has failed. All other successful Bills HCs were retreads and retreads like Rauch, Jauron, Gailey, & Ryan didn't exactly light it up as Bills HC. All the people calling for McDermott to go & be replaced by a rookie HC or a previously fired retread need a history lesson.

There will be no 1st round rookie QBs available where the Jets draft at pick 7. Tennessee, Cleveland, Giants & Las Vegas all draft ahead of the Jets & the top 2 will be gone by 7. If the Jets were to draft the 3rd QB at 7, it would be as big a reach since they drafted Hackenberg in the 2nd round years ago & he never took 1 snap with them.

Let's not forget there were other draft choices involved in the 2 trade downs and the final results will be more than just Worthy v Coleman.

Eli Manning wins kick of destiny. Both missed from 25. Peyton missed from 20, Eli-right down the middle.

The reason I remembered it was because there was a banner at the Rockpile that I saw on TV while watching the AFL championship game that said "Bills in Super Bowl, Chiefs in Soup Bowl" with Chiefs players drawn in a soup bowl. "

Jay Glazer reported on the SB pregame show that Rodgers met with the Jets & they told him they're moving on from him.

Your streak will end next year.

From what I've read, it will not be shown on the east coast.

I didn't want to mess up the attachment with more typing. I remembered them calling the 1st one the Super Bowl & went to the Buffalo downtown library years ago to get the proof because the Bills played in the AFL championship game. The NFL didn't officially call it the Super Bowl until III but everyone else was always calling it the Super Bowl. I printed this off the microfilm that the library had of all the back newspapers of the Courier Express. I also have a photo from the 1st one where at halftime the band spelled out Super Bowl.

It was always called the Super Bowl. Here's the front page of the CE in 1967.

Bathing includes showers. They just stay dirty in order to save water.

I find boycotts to be pretty useless, especially of free items. Most people are not participants of a rating service & whether they watch or not will have zero effect on the TV ratings. If someone doesn't want to watch the game, that's fine, but if they're not watching, thinking they are a social warrior, they're mistaken. Just about anything can go too far. I recently spoke to a Californian who said they weren't bathing in order to save water.

Prices continue to drop. They're now (Thursday afternoon) about half what they were when the conference championship games were played. Get in (600 level) at Ticketmaster & Stubhub! is now around $3,500 after fees. Lower endzone down to around $5,600. NFL On Location, which was lower is now higher than Ticketmaster & StubHub!.