Beavers make believers in Sun Bowl win

Sometimes it has been difficult to be a Beaver Believer. Oregon State has been the perennial underdog for, well, seemingly forever. But this year has been a year of redemption for OSU fans, who have weathered many difficult sports seasons over the years.

Not that Oregon State hasn't had some good teams over the years. When I was a student at OSU it was tough to get into a basketball game, as Coach Ralph Miller had a powerhouse program. And in recent years, Oregon State's football team has made several trips to bowl games. I was at the Fiesta Bowl game back on New Year's Day 2001 to see the big win over Notre Dame.

But this year has been special. Oregon State's baseball team won the College World Series and the NCAA national title by coming from behind and facing elimination time after time. So perhaps it is only fitting that 2006 comes to a close with OSU's football team coming from behind to win the Sun Bowl against Missouri.

It's been an underdog, comeback year for the Beavers. After struggling early in the season and heavy fan criticism heaped on head coach Mike Riley and quarterback Matt Moore, the Beavers game from 14 points behind in the Sun Bowl today to win.

Riley made a gutsy call to go for a 2-point conversion and the win with less than a minute left in the game.

I have to admit, I was puzzled by Riley's loyalty to Moore early in the season. Moore struggled with interceptions last season and was off to a rocky start this year, with a talented young QB getting some playing time early on. But Riley stuck by Moore and Moore got better.

Even today, I questioned whether Moore could keep the Beavers in the game, let alone bring them back. Moore was struggling and nursing some apparent injuries in the second half today. But Riley and Moore, with the help of Sammie Stroughter, Yvenson Bernard and the rest of the team, were able to change their offensive strategy to come back from 14 points down.

The Beavers had a chance to tie the game on an extra-point conversion. But Riley went for two and the win.

And win they did.

The Beavers have made things very exciting this year. I don't know which was more exciting, being in Corvallis to watch the Beavers upset USC or to watch them come from behind today to win the Sun Bowl.

Thanks Beavs for an exciting season. I'm a bit ashamed of my pessimism throughout the season and even today. In my defense I come by my pessimism naturally. I'm a Beaver and spent a lifetime learning to live with disappointment. This winning stuff still takes some time to get used to expecting. But I'm learning. And I like it!

Technorati tags: Oregon State Beavers, Sun Bowl, Football

So long, Mr. President

He did not serve the nation long in the White House, but he did jobs that needed to be done.

President Gerald R. Ford, who died last night at 93, did the dirty work for a nation. He cleaned up the messes of other presidents and never got the chance to establish his own legacy agenda by serving a full term in office.

I had the honor of meeting President Ford once. I was working for The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs where Ford and his wife, former first lady Betty Ford, have a home in nearby Rancho Mirage. It was at their Rancho Mirage home where Ford died.

Rancho Mirage is, or was, known as the playground of presidents. President Dwight D. Eisenhower played golf there. The hospital in Rancho Mirage carries his name, Eisenhower Medical Center. That's where the world-famous Betty Ford Center for treating alcohol and drug addiction is located.

John F. Kennedy spent some leisure time in Rancho Mirage as well. As did Ronald Reagan.

But it was Ford who made Rancho Mirage his home after leaving the White House in 1977. Rancho Mirage and the Palm Springs area is one of those rare places where a former president, complete with Secret Service detail, can sort of blend in amid the wealthy captains of industry, former sports athletes, Hollywood celebrities and other famous and infamous types who call the area home. Oh, sure, the area knows they are there, behind the walls of the gated communities and private compounds. And the residents there are proud of their notable residents. They even name streets after them. Gerald Ford, Frank Sinatra, Ginger Rogers, Gene Autry, and Bob Hope, among others, have streets named for them that crisscross the Coachella Valley.

As a journalist I've had opportunities to photograph and interview a few famous people. When I was younger it was the sports athletes I was most interested in, people like Ervin "Magic" Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Clyde Drexler, Sean Elliot, Gary Payton. But there was also an interest in entertainment types, like Jay Leno, Garth Brooks, Huey Lewis and the News. I'd even covered parts of some presidential campaigns with candidates like Jesse Jackson and Michael Dukakis. Most of that was during my college days. There weren't a lot of celebrities or high-powered political figures coming to towns like Hermiston, Klamath Falls and Coos Bay, Ore., or Porterville, Calif. Although I did get a chance to interview former U.S. Sens. Bob Packwood and Mark Hatfield along the way.

But when I was in Victorville, Calif., we did have our own resident celebrities there. Former Republic Pictures singing cowboy and 1950s TV stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans had their museum in Victorville, just down the street from the newspaper office and they lived in nearby Apple Valley. A few other celebrities came to town once in a while for the San Bernardino County Fair, or to visit the Rogers.

And earlier this year, just down the road from my old stomping grounds in Porterville, I did cover actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit to the World Ag Expo in Tulare.

But when I moved to Palm Springs in 1999, it was not unusual to run into a well known person while out for dinner or walking downtown. Lots of well-known and well-to-do folk were at least part-time residents of one wealthy enclave of the Coachella Valley or another.

For much of my early tenure at the Palm Springs paper, we referred to President and Mrs. Ford as part-time residents of Rancho Mirage. It was President Ford himself who set us straight on that. During a meeting with our editorial board he told us that he was a full-time resident of Rancho Mirage, thank you very much. He and his wife considered Rancho Mirage their permanent home and they maintained a vacation home in Colorado.

Ford was in his late 80s at the time of the interview on May 1, 2002, but it was remarkable to me how attuned he remained to domestic issues and foreign affairs. His speech was slurred ever so slightly at times, an apparently holdover from the stroke he had suffered at the Republican National Convention in 2000. But if his tongue was slowed slightly, his mind had not been. He talked to our editorial board about a wide range of issues, from our own sports section, which he said he read daily and told us he'd like to see more coverage of some sports outside the Pac-10, to national and global security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. I was impressed and awed by Ford. I would even say I was inspired by him. I was honored to get an opportunity to meet him and to shake his hand. I keep a photo of that meeting with the former president in my home office and another photo of that meeting is on a file cabinet in my office at Capital Press too.

I was proud to have played a role in getting Ford to come speak to The Desert Sun's editorial board. The idea was hatched one day when I was talking to then editorial page editor Cindy Uken. I had been on the editorial board for about two years, and Cindy had directed the editorial page for more than a year. We talked about what we would like to see and do with that editorial board. There were no shortage of people who wanted to meet with our board. We had guests at almost every weekly meeting. We were talking about how we would like to be more influential in state, even national, matters. And I said something about how we should take advantage of all the influential people who lived in our community and invite more of them to come speak to us. "Wouldn't it be great to have someone like President Ford come meet with us periodically on major issues…," was something close to what I uttered. I think I threw out a few more names too, like Lee Iacocca perhaps to talk on business issues. Who knows who else I mentioned. But the idea took root. And Cindy made it happen. And before we knew it, President Ford had accepted our invitation to meet with our editorial board. In many ways it was sort of my last hurrah on the editorial board. I came off the board a short time later. But what a way to go out, after having a chance to meet a former president.

Ford was a key figured in helping the nation recover from some of the most devastating crisis of the 1960s and 1970s. He served on the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President Kennedy. He was appointed vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace after being charged with tax evasion. Ford became president when Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up led to his resignation. Ford also oversaw the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from the long conflict in Vietnam.

Ford expressed no regrets for his pardon of Nixon, which was highly controversial at the time and probably cost him any shot at being elected outright in 1976. He firmly believed he did the right thing for the nation.
As he said after taking the oath of office on Aug. 9, 1974:

" My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. ... As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate."

Ford was honored in May 2001 with a "Profile in Courage" award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation for his bold step in pardoning his predecessor.

In all, he spent less than three years in the Oval Office, but it was a key three years in our nation's history. He and his wife Betty also contributed to countless causes in my former Coachella Valley home and in communities around the country where they lived or had ties. Betty Ford herself has displayed remarkable courage for her public disclosures of her battles with chemical dependency and breast cancer. Her courage and her strength in admitting her weaknesses has given many people, women in particular, strength to fight their own battles with hope and courage.

As a fellow native Nebraskan, I was honored to meet President Ford and to shake his hand on that day four and a half years ago. I left that meeting with a much greater appreciation for the man as a leader and statesman. I join a grateful nation in grieving for him and offer my own humble condolences to the Ford family. Thank you for sharing your husband, father and grandfather with the nation.

Rest in peace, Mr. President.

Related Stories:
• President Ford dies at 93
• President Ford recalled as excellent administrator and respected leader

Related Links:
• Read Cindy Uken's column on President Ford

New and improved? Moving temporarily

Update 12/28/2006: I'm getting frustrated. I can't figure out why we can't post new post on this site and so far I've got no response from Blogger to try to figure it out.

We were in the midst of upgrading to the new version of Blogger when we fell off the rails somehow. So, until we can make new posts here, I've created a new blog, at least temporarily.

For some strange reason, I can edit things on this sight, I just can't publish new posts. If anyone knows how to correct that problem, I'd appreciate an e-mail.

But until we can get that figured out, I'm moving out -- or at least going around the problem. The first post on the new site is about the time I met President Ford, which I posted on the Capital Press website earlier this week (since I couldn't post it here). So, that's what's new, or recycled here. Until we can get our problem fixed, look for new posts at http://blogriculturetoo.blogspot.com/.


Original post: We're making some upgrades here at Blogriculture. We're updating our template to add some new features and functionality, but that means some things may be moving around, disappearing or whatever. So be patient with is during this process.

In this conversion process we are running into some problems. For some reason now, I can't create new posts and get them to save. Our executive editor, Elaine Shein, is having difficulty logging in at all. Once we get this sorted out, we'll make some refinements to the template and some new posts.

Update 12/27/06: I did make a post that I intented to put on here on the Capital Press website. You can find it here. It's about the death of former-President Gerald Ford, who I met a few years ago while living in Southern California. We still can't create new posts, but can edit existing ones.

In the meantime, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Was Santa good to everyone out there?

NOTE FROM ELAINE 12/27/06:
While I might be off line currently from posting my own blogs, just a heads up that we are posting the last part of our climate change series this week online at www.capitalpress.com. The special section includes a look at where do we go from here as governments, companies and individuals in dealing with climate change, and gives some practical tips on how to be more energy efficient. We look forward to any feedback.

AND SINCE I STILL CAN'T CREATE A BLOG POST UNDER MY OWN NAME ...12/27/06:

I'll hijack a bit more space on Gary's last blog to add a blog I was attempting to post yesterday, still in the Christmas spirit, sharing Christmas from another perspective.

Gathered around a table with mostly strangers during Christmas day in the Portland area, I was soon questioned how did I celebrate Christmas in the past. What is it like to celebrate it in a rural area, or in a different culture?

Living now about a thousand miles away from my parents’ farm, I needed to pause and think how does one capture in a few words so many generations of traditions, so many years of learning from relatives and neighbors these traditions that range from the foods we ate to the carols we sang in another language.

I thought about how as children we grew up rather confused. There was the English version of Christmas on December 25, which seemed more and more commercialized and centered around Santa Claus. And then there was our version that followed the Julian calendar and had more ties to religion and even the land and crops we produced.

Our Christmas fell on Jan. 7, with Christmas Eve being one the holiest times for us but also the one where we or other people opened our homes up to relatives, friends and neighbors. We would gather for a feast of 12 meatless traditional dishes, some of which only are served during Christmas time.

“Twelve dishes!” one of the people said yesterday, rather surprised. “What ever could they be?”

It took a short while for me to recall all the dishes. After I moved away from the farm decades ago, it was tougher with my job to get time off to travel back and prepare the foods and celebrate with my family. I invited my parents to sometimes visit me and I would try to create as many of the dishes as I could, but it has been a long time since I have enjoyed the whole 12.

First, there is the dish with boiled wheat, honey, poppy seed and sometimes walnuts or pecans. Very sweet, and special because it is only to be made for Christmas as the opening dish.

Then there is the beet soup, mixed with other vegetables. Then two different types of fish: baked or fried, and pickled. There are cabbage rolls, pyrogies, cooked beans, and a cabbage and peas dish. A beets and mushroom dish. A mixture of dried fruits that are soaked overnight, simmered and sweetened. And of course, a special kind of bread with fillings like poppyseed and prunes.

There were other traditions associated with the meal. After we finished feeding and bedding down our cattle with dry straw for the night, we brought in some hay that my father placed under the kitchen table to remind us of the manger in Bethlehem.

A sheaf or vase of wheat was put on the center of the table to represent the crop my family had harvested that season. And one of us kids was always sent to the window to spot the first star in the eastern sky — representing the Three Wise Men — before we could begin the meal. Sometimes the Northern Lights would dance around that star, almost like Heaven was celebrating with us.

We set empty plates at the corners of the table for grandparents who have passed away, to show they are always remembered and welcomed.

We’d exchange Christmas greetings, say a prayer, and we’d sing a Christmas carol in the language my grandparents and great-grandparents had brought with them from overseas. And then the supper would begin.

There were times where occasionally carolers came to our door Christmas Eve, and they would always be welcomed as they blessed our homes. As I grew older, my friends and I were among the carolers who traveled on snow-covered roads to farms scattered for so many miles around.

Often the people we visited would join us in the carols, and for a few moments in each home it was magical. These weren’t commercial Christmas carols about shopping or about Santa and reindeer, nor were they songs that are played on the radio or found on any bestseller sales lists during the holidays, but rather these were carols with deep roots stretching back several generations.

So here I now sat, with these kind strangers who had welcomed us into their homes in Oregon since we were so far away from our families at this time of year. They asked questions, and I contemplated how best to describe what Christmas was like in the past.

I gazed at the various foods — from quiche to smoked salmon — people had brought for the meal, the lit Christmas tree, the pile of wrapping from opened presents and the roaring fireplace that had not long before had a row of stockings hanging in front.

Yes, this year’s Christmas was different from those that had been held on our farm so many years ago.

Every family and culture has its own traditions, no matter what part of the world you live in and the language you speak. What makes Christmas — or whatever other holy day is being celebrated — is family and friends being together to celebrate these times and create memories and traditions for the future.


Technorati tags: Agriculture, Blogging, Blogger, President Ford

What do you get the man who gave you everything?

Ready or not, Christmas is almost here. And I confess, I'm not ready. I still have some shopping to finish before spending the weekend criss-crossing the state of Oregon to enjoy the holidays with family.

I guess if there is any consolation, I've gotten better at this over the years. Once upon a time I did all my Christmas shopping on Christmas eve. I sort of had to get out of that habit when I lived in California. Even FedEx wouldn't have been able to pull me out of the jam I would have been in for sending my daughter's gifts late.

Now I get to hand deliver her holiday gifts, which is great. But compared to many people on my holiday list, she's pretty easy to shop for. I can usually get a few clues from her or her mother about things she would want to need for Christmas.

My parents and brothers are another story. For some reason, I always struggle figuring out what to get them.

Dad is the worst. I've lost count of how many gifts I've gotten him over the years that he didn't really get any use out of. Or the number of Pendleton shirts he's got from me, or others, over the years. He likes those wool shirts, but I've even managed to mess that up. One year I got him a shirt that looked real nice in the package, but failed to realize it was a short-sleeved shirt. Can you imagine? A short-sleeved wool shirt? Who would wear a short-sleeved wool shirt? "You know I love wool shirts, but I just can't wear them because my arms get too warm."

Efforts to be more imaginative haven't faired so well. Last year I went a different route with him and my brothers. I got them all Capital Press caps (my dad rarely goes anywhere without a cap) and our commemorative trucks. Not that my dad still plays with toys, or needs a piggy bank (which is one of the hidden features of the trucks), but in his office he has a couple of die-cast models of airplanes and trucks that he's either picked up or been given over the years. So I thought he could add one more to the modest collection.

But I'm not sure what to do this year. Another truck seems unimaginative. And he already has a Capital Press cap (not to mention dozens, if not hundreds, from every farm, farm supplier and probably from every vacation stop family and friends have made for the last 30 years).

A gift card would probably be perfect, but I'm not sure if he'd even use it. It would probably get tucked away in a draw somewhere and forgotten.

The irony is that my father and I are a lot alike in many ways, but I can't shop for him for some reason. I wonder if I'm that hard to shop for?

So, my quest continues for the perfect gift for my father and a few other family members who I haven't yet crossed off my list.

I hope you all better prepared than I am for the holidays.

Merry Christmas.

Technorati tags:
Christmas, Gifts, Shopping, Agriculture

Shoplifting doesn't pay ... but it makes great stories

As last minute shoppers scurry around for Christmas gifts, just a reminder: no matter how tempting it may seem, don’t shoplift. Especially don’t try to steal anything awkwardly shaped or heavy or might get you in the media stories about your brilliant stupidity.

That might be even worse that the criminal record.

An Associated Press not that long ago had a story about someone who was caught for allegedly attempting to steal a guitar in his pants.

I say “allegedly,” since of course the guy isn’t guilty until found so by a court of law. However, it appears the evidence was … well, pretty evident.

As AP reported it… “I saw him walking out to his pickup truck and the bulges in his leather jacket. I said, “Hey what have you got there,’” Clifton Lovell said. Lovell owns the music store that was robbed.

So, the suspect answers Lovell: “Nothing.”

Lovell points to what appears like oh, probably a guitar in someone’s pants, and says to the alleged thief, “You’ve got something.”

On that note, the suspect decided he could no longer keep stringing along the store owner and revealed what he had on his own accord.

“The neck of the guitar was almost down to his knee and the back of the guitar was almost up to his neck. It wasn’t hard to spot. There was no way he could sit down or get into the pickup,” Lovell said in the AP story.

Sound unbelievable? Maybe.

But the story reminded me of a former roommate I had. Her father owned a small town general store, the type of store that had all kinds of things crowded everywhere in it on counters as well as on the floor.

One day, some shoppers came in. They were members of a certain quiet, hardworking religious order who all dress alike, with the women all wearing long dark skirts and rather baggy clothes. They came in a grain truck, nothing unusual for a small town in the middle of farm country.

The visitors piled out of the truck and into the store, meandering through the aisles. My friend said her father and her were busy with other shoppers in the store, but watched as the group of people didn’t buy anything but began to move out the store door. One woman in particular seemed to walk a lot more strangely and slowly, but obviously with determination and purpose. Needless to say, this caught the eye of the store owner.

It wasn’t until the last moment before the woman was about to escape into the waiting truck outside that my friend finally realized what was happening and dashed out the store to save her father’s merchandise.

She had spotted the woman lifting her skirt to grab the prized shoplifted item underneath to put into the truck with her companions.

There was the large sewing machine, price tag still on it.

As she told the story later, my friend explained that the woman had targeted the sewing machine on the store floor, waiting for a distraction, gone to the sewing machine, promptly spread her legs, lifted the skirt, squatted over the machine, dropped her skirt, squeezed her legs together, lifted the machine off the ground, and had waddled the sewing machine out the store.

What my friend found most incredible though was how strong the thief’s legs must have been to squeeze such a big sewing machine, lift it off the ground, and walk as far as she did with it.

“I almost wanted to give her the sewing machine for her effort,” said my friend.


Technorati tags:
Agriculture
humor
shoplifting
Christmas shopping

Christmas week preview

Episode 6 of the Farmers' CAP (Capital Press Agriculture Podcast) is now available and posted. After a brief hiatus for a vacation and some time to recover from a nasty cold, the Farmers' CAP is back and ready to wear.

This week's episode looks at some of the stories on tap for the editions of Capital Press currently in production.

So, if you can't wait to open your Capital Press present this week, take a peek inside the wrapping at http://www.capitalpress.biz/podcasts or you can also download it through iTunes.

I'm trying to get in the Christmas spirit myself. I've got some Christmas music playing on the ol' iPod. There's nothing like some good old traditional Christmas carols to get you in the spirit of the season. And what could be more traditional than "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band?

Not your cup of eggnog?

How about a little "Christmastime is Here" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio from the "A Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack"? "Thank God it's Christmas" by Queen? "When It's Christmas Time in Texas" by George Strait? "Silent Night" by Sarah McLachlan? "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano? "Frosty the Snowman" by Jimmy Durante? "Santa Baby" by Eartha Kitt? "Please Come Home for Christmas" by the Eagles? "Honky Tonk Christmas" by Alan Jackson?

None of those?

Well then I'll play "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" by Thurle Ravenscroft from "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas" just for you.

Technorati tags:
Agriculture, Podcasting, Christmas, Music, iTunes