A Look Back at 2016

As The Golden Rules closes out its first year, I suppose it’s time for the obligatory “Look Back At The Year” blog.  As we look back at 2016, I think most of us can agree that it was a….well….kind of…well, it sucked.  From sports to politics to celebrity deaths, 2016 was a bummer.

First of all, consider politics.  Has there ever been a more divisive year?  From HB2 in North Carolina to partisan arguments about filling a vacant Supreme Court seat to Republican debates that resembled pre-UFC/boxing match press conferences more so than actual political debates, America looked less like a “shining city on a hill” and more like a flaming pile of dog poop.  The Democratic primaries and nominations went as expected resulting in Hillary Clinton becoming the first major party female nominee for president.  However, even that was somewhat controversial, as supporters of Bernie Sanders cried foul and the head of the DNC had to step down following the release of emails showing that the party was in cahoots with the Clinton campaign.  The Republican primaries and nominations were hard to distinguish from an argument in a middle school locker room, what with all of the name calling and the discussion of a candidate’s hand size.  Along the way, the country became more and more polarized.  Republicans talked of locking up Hillary Clinton, while Democrats painted Republicans as closed-minded bigots.  Unbelievably, so called evangelical Christians somehow coalesced behind an arrogant, thrice-married, xenophobic misogynist and got him elected.  Everything people thought they knew about American politics was turned on its ear in 2016 and Lord only knows what that means for our country in 2017.

2016 was also a lousy year for sports, unless you’re a long-suffering fan of the Cubs or Cleveland sports.  The highlight for me was the Blues (finally) getting out of the first round of the playoffs and actually advancing to the conference finals for the first time in 15 years.  They knocked off the hated Blackhawks (and I was there for Game 7) and the higher-seeded Dallas Stars before finally falling to the San Jose Sharks.  The star crossed franchise is still searching for its first Stanley Cup, but at least I was able to grow a good playoff beard.  Of course, the Blues celebrated their success by losing their captain to free agency, as well as watching their #1 goaltender and one of their postseason heroes move on to other teams.  The Cardinals missed the playoffs in 2016 for the first time since 2010 and watched their hated rivals finally slay the Curse of the Billy Goat.  After nearly a decade and a half of being the class of the NL Central, the Cardinals are now searching for a way to measure up to, of all teams, the Cubs.  Mizzou basketball continues to be one of the worst Power 5 programs in the country, while Mizzou football turned in a second consecutive losing season, something that hadn’t happened in more than a decade and a half.  My beloved Baylor Bears suffered through a first round upset in the NCAA tournament in basketball, followed by an unmitigated disaster in the football program that resulted in the firing of the football coach, athletic director, and president of the university.  The horrific sexual assault scandal and the way it was handled continues to reverberate through the university and figures to do so for a long time to come.  If there is a light at the end of the tunnel as we move toward 2017, it’s that the football program is poised to start anew with a new coaching staff and they closed out 2016 with a bowl win for the second consecutive year.  Oh yeah, Baylor’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are both ranked in the top 5 as we close out the year.

In world affairs, 2016 gave us horrific attacks in Paris, Orlando, Berlin and Nice.  It gave us Aleppo and Brexit.  It gave us record homicides in places like Chicago and countless killings of police officers from coast-to-coast.  In other words, virtually the entire world received a giant lump of coal in its respective stockings.  We can only hope for things to get better as we turn the calendar to 2017.

You’ve heard of “They Day the Music Died?”  Well, 2016 may very well be remembered as the YEAR the music died.  David Bowie.  Glenn Frey.  Prince. Merle Haggard. George Michael. Leonard Cohen.  A veritable Hall of Fame of musicians all taken from us in one calendar year.  We lose all of that talent, but yet Nickleback still perseveres?  Where is the justice in that?  Perhaps more miraculously, Keith Richards and Ozzy Osbourne have somehow survived the year.  Seriously, 10 years ago, if someone offered you a bet that ‘80s hit makers Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince, David Bowie and George Michael would all die BEFORE Keith Richards, you would have taken that chance, wouldn’t you?

2016 also robbed us of Princess Leia, Hans Gruber, Tessio, Willy Wonka and Mrs. Brady, not to mention Alan Thicke, Arnold Palmer and Harper Lee.  So many talented people gone, but yet we still have talentless hacks like the Kardashians among us?  2016, you are EVIL.  Good riddance!

 
To all who loyally read this blog, thank you.  You give me an outlet for my rants and sad attempts at humor.  May you have a blessed and wonderful 2017!   

I Remember

·         I remember riding in my parents’ car without a car seat or a seat belt…and I’m sure many of you reading this can relate to that.
·         I remember how beautiful my wife looked on our wedding day and how I felt as I saw her walking down the aisle toward me.
·         I remember how excited we felt when we landed in St. Thomas for our honeymoon – it was like something out of Fantasy Island.
·         I remember shopping for a live Christmas tree every year when I was a kid.  It seemed like we always picked the coldest day of the year to do it and it seemed like we had to go to about half of the tree lots in West St. Louis County before finding the right tree.
·         I remember when MTV actually played videos, back when the surest way to become a big music star was to have a killer video on MTV.
·         I remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.
·         I remember when Bill Murray was funny.
·         I remember when Kenny Rogers still looked like Kenny Rogers.
·         I remember when almost all stores were closed on Sundays.
·         I remember how excited I’d get as a kid when my parents would take me to a Cardinals game.  Seeing the field and the JumboTron, smelling the hot dogs, hearing Ernie Hayes on the organ…it was always so exciting.  I hope my kids experience that same sense of excitement and wonder when I take them to Cardinals and Blues games.
·         I remember going to my first college football game.  It was in 1987 and it was Mizzou playing….of all teams…Baylor.  I knew nothing about Baylor at the time, so it’s funny to think that I’d be going to Baylor almost 5 years to the day later.
·         I remember how excited I’d be when we had a snow day when I was a kid.  I’d wake up on my own (rather than my mom waking me up) and I’d look at the window and be so excited I couldn’t go back to sleep.  I couldn’t wait to go sledding or go play out in the snow.
·         I remember the Blizzard of 1982, when the St. Louis area got inundated with almost two feet of snow.  We’d had a couple of families over for dinner/socializing the night the storm hit and they were all stranded at our house for a couple of days.  We didn’t have school for almost a week.
·         I remember my first real rock concert: Stryper at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis in January 1989.  It was the “In God We Trust” tour and we had backstage passes and got to meet the band after the show.  The highlight of the concert had to be the encore when, during “To Hell With The Devil,” Robert’s Sweet’s drum kit (which was situated above a wall of speakers) began to rotate.  As a 14-year-old kid, that was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.
·         I remember how I felt when my parents dropped me off at Baylor for my freshman year of college.  Watching them drive away for the first time…it was a mixture of excitement and fear and I’m sure that many of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
·         I remember Looney Tunes on TV on Saturday morning.
·         I remember “Mikey Likes It,” “I’m a Pepper, You’re a Pepper” and the Pepsi Challenge.
·         I remember “Tastes Great, Less Filling,” “Give Me a Light.  No, Bud Light” and Spuds McKenzie.
·         I remember “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” “Growing Pains,” and “Who’s The Boss?”.
·         I remember “The Dukes of Hazzard” on Friday nights.
·         I remember when all of the girls were in love with Duran Duran and it seemed like they each had their favorite band member.  It was the big bangs and leg warmers version of Beatlemania.
·         I remember when all of the girls in St. Louis had a crush on Tommy Herr.
·         I remember Garry Templeton flipping off Cardinals’ fans and literally being dragged off the field by Whitey Herzog.  He was traded for Ozzie Smith a few months later and the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series the following year.
·         I remember when Glenn Brummer stole home against the Giants.  We were listening to the game on KMOX and Mike Shannon called the play.
·         I remember summer evenings, listening Jack Buck and Mike Shannon broadcast the Cards games on KMOX while we played catch or whiffle ball in the back yard with my parents.
·         I remember playing in the basement after dinner while my parents played ping pong.
·         I remember Baylor Homecoming my freshman year.  We beat Georgia Tech in a game that featured a reverse, flea flicker touchdown pass from J.J. Joe to Melvin Bonner.  That was also the same game when BUGWB and The Baylor Line cooperated to steal the helmet of a Georgia Tech player.
·         I remember beating Texas in the season finale my freshman year and rushing the field to tear down the goal posts.
·         I remember beating Texas on Homecoming in 1997 and watching the students tear down the goalposts and carry them all the way from Floyd Casey to the SUB, where people signed them.  My name is on there somewhere.
·         I remember driving around Central Texas at night, singing along to whatever tape was in the cassette player.
·         I remember a bunch of friends crashed on the floor of our apartment, waking up to find Sesame Street on the TV and my hat somehow on someone else’s head.  And, believe it or not, there was absolutely no alcohol involved.
·         I remember Rock-n-Bowl on Saturday nights from midnight to 2 in the morning, followed by trips to Whataburger or IHOP or Taco Cabana (for tortillas and queso, of course).
·         I remember a group of about 12 of us going to the Hootie and the Blowfish concert at Deep Ellum Live in Dallas.  We got back to Waco at about 3:30 in the morning on a Monday morning, after the obligatory late night stop at Whataburger.  I had a test at 9am the next morning.  I didn’t do very well on that test.
·         I remember Roscoe and Nellie.
·         I remember Sweet Pea and Bunnykins.
·         I remember the APO office, decked out in all of its colorful glory during pledging.
·         I remember Red Rules, Yellow is the Color of Jaundice and We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal, We Win
·         I remember finishing up Big Sib Hunt at a rickety old roller rink alongside I-35.
·         I remember standing on top of the Baylor sign on University Parks (next to Hooper-Schaefer) dressed up like a cave man during Big Sib Hunt.
·         I remember service projects at Animal Shelter and LaRue’s Learning Center.
·         I remember initiation at Armstrong-Browning Library, which was named America’s most beautiful library last year.  The toast song always sounded better there.
·         I remember the first time I met my wife, the night I finally got the courage to ask her out and the first time we kissed (which just so happened to be the night my window AC unit blew out the fuse and knocked out my power.)
·         I remember ringing in the year 2000 with a party at our apartment that involved card games and lots of interesting nicknames.
·         I remember everybody freaking out about Y2K, which wound up being much ado about nothing.
·         I remember 9/11 and how surreal it was to watch the towers fall.
·         I remember how excited and scared I was when my son was born – after my wife was in labor for 25 hours.
·         I remember how emotional I was when my daughter was born.  We didn’t know what we were having and when we found out it was a girl, I started bawling.  Happy tears, mind you!
·         I remember when I thought 30 was old and 40 was ancient.  I don’t feel that way anymore.
·         I remember now that I have to go, so I think I’ll stop.  I’m sure I’ll have more I will remember and will do this another time…

Ways that Work is a Lot Like Grade School

30 years ago this year, Robert Fulghum published an essay called "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten."  There is a lot of truth in that statement and it got me to thinking: it's also very true that adulthood isn't all that different from childhood.  With that in mind, here are some ways that Work is a lot like Grade School:

• You have someone telling you what to do and judging how well you do it.  In school, that "someone" is your teacher and he or she judges you via your grade on your report card.  At work, that "someone" is your boss and he or she judges you via your performance score on your annual performance review.
• There's always someone sucking up.  In school, that person is the "teacher's pet" who is always trying to help the teacher and get in good with him or her.  At work, that person is the one who is always fawning on the boss and trying to schmooze him or her.  In both cases, the others in the class/department are highly annoyed by the suck up and are talking about that person when he or she is not around.
• You spend most of your day every day doing something you really don't enjoy doing.  When you're a kid in school, you don't like most of your subjects.  Maybe you like history, but you hate math and science.  Or maybe you like math, but you hate language arts and music.  Either way, you spend most of your day doing something you don't really enjoy but you tolerate and work at it because you have to.  This same thing is true for most people at work.  There may be portions of your job that you enjoy, but it's probably a fair bet that you spend as much or more time every day doing things you don't really enjoy but that you tolerate and work at because you have to.
• There are bullies and there are people who are bullied.  In school, the bully is the mean kid who steals your milk money and maybe knocks you down during recess.  He or she gets their kicks picking on people who are smaller or weaker than them.  At work, the bully is the jerk employee who uses his or her position to dominate the people lower in the company than him or her and takes advantage of them.
• You spend your day in a room surrounded by other people with no privacy and no protection from germs.  In school, you're in a classroom with a bunch of other kids, all working almost elbow to elbow with little personal space.  When one kid comes to school sick, you can almost see that illness pass from one kid to another as it works its way around the class.  At work, especially with the recent popularity of open work environments, you're in an office with a bunch of co-workers working side-by-side at desks with little personal space.  When one employee gets sick, you can almost see that illness pass from one employee to another as it works its way around the department.
• There's always somebody whining.  In school, it's the kid whining that he didn't receive the grade he deserved or the kid complaining that she didn't get picked for the lead role in the school play.  At work, it's the employee complaining about their last performance review or the promotion they didn't get.  The whiner eventually becomes just as annoying as the aforementioned suck-up.
• Sometimes you will really like the person in charge; other times, you won't.  In school, we all have teachers that we really like and other teachers we couldn't stand.  At work, you'll have some bosses that you really like and other bosses you can't stand. 
• You hate Mondays.  I don't think this one needs any further explanation.
• You have to share the restroom with others - and the toilet paper is like sandpaper.  Seriously, I think the same toilet paper company provides the same cheap, giant industrial rolls of toilet paper at both school and work.  What's a guy gotta do to get some two-ply Charmin?
• There are custodians who come around in the afternoons and evenings to empty the trash and clean up the bathrooms.  And I feel sorry for whoever has to clean up the pee on the floor of the restroom used by the males in the building.
• The place is a ghost town between Christmas and New Year's.  Even though your company may not close down during that week, most people are off and won't be there.

What did I miss?  I'm sure there are other comparisons that would further prove that work is a lot like grade school.  I'd like to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading.

Sports Shorts

Here are some of my thoughts on recent developments in the world of sports:

• Baylor football has finally hired its replacement for Art Briles: Matt Rhule, who comes to Waco from Temple, where he's guided the Owls to back-to-back 10 win seasons.  Some may think it's a questionable hire, given Rhule's utter lack of connections to Texas.  While it may not as be as sexy as if BU had hired Tom Herman or Les Miles, I like it.  Rhule has experience creating a winning program and he will certainly have more resources and access to football talent in the Big 12 at Baylor compared to what he had in the American at Temple.  Obviously, time will tell, but given the mess at Baylor, Rhule seems like a good fit: a disciplinarian who is young and charismatic.  Sic 'em, Coach Rhule!
• I think it will be interesting to see what happens to Art Briles this winter.  He's made no secret of his desire to coach again (and soon), but you really haven't heard his name mentioned for any openings.  In fact, Houston issued a press release to specifically state that they WEREN'T going to interview Briles, something I'm not sure has ever happened before.  I realize that there are opposing viewpoints on Briles amongst the Baylor faithful.  While I think the Board of Regents and Baylor in general deserve some blame, I absolutely believe that Briles should have been held responsible for the things that happened on his watch.  He took on some players who had questionable pasts at other schools and it wound up blowing up on him.  Even Briles admits that he set up a system where he was the last to know things, which tells you a lot.  What will tell us even more is if he doesn't get any job offers this winter.  Somebody with his on field results should have his phone ringing off the hook.  If nobody calls him, it will speak volumes what folks outside of the Baylor Bubble think of him.
• The College Football Playoff needs to be expanded to 8 teams: the five Power 5 conference champs and then the next 3 best teams.  If they can make a real playoff work in FCS, Division II and Division III, there's no reason they can't do it in FBS.  The fact that there's not room in the playoff for the champions of what was unquestionably the best conference in the country this year (the Big 10) is ridiculous.  If they aren't going to expand it from 4 to 8 teams, then at least stop insulting our intelligence by telling us that conference championships and head-to-head results matter.  You've already proven that isn't true, so just drop the charade.
• I admit to taking a lot of enjoyment over the debacle that is the Los Angeles Rams this season.  LA fans, who gleefully made fun of the supposed lackluster support of St. Louis fans, are quickly seeing for themselves what a mess they have inherited.  The Rams are already playing in front of empty seats and the best TV ratings they've had in LA this season are still worse than the worst TV ratings they had in St. Louis last season.  Even more ridiculous is the fact that they gave a contract extension to Jeff Fisher, who is poised to become the losingest (is that even a word?) coach in NFL history.  This is a guy who hasn't coached a team to a winning record since George W. Bush was president!  And somehow he not only doesn't get fired - he gets an extension!  That sums up the incompetence of sports ownership embodied by Stan Kroenke.  13 consecutive non-winning seasons and counting!
• Speaking of Stan Kroenke, is there a worse owner in professional sports?  The Rams stink (again).  The Avalanche are terrible (again) and their attendance stinks.  The Nuggets are perennial losers who are in the bottom handful of the NBA in attendance.  The fans of Arsenal do anti-Kroenke chants during games.  I guess when the deck isn't stacked in his favor (like it is in business, thanks to marrying a Walmart heiress), he isn't such a good businessman after all.
• Cleveland won a championship in the NBA this year.  The Cubs won a World Series this year.  Surely that means that a Stanley Cup is in the cards for the Blues soon, right?  Right?  It has to happen eventually, doesn't it?
• I used to view Scott Drew as a great recruiter but a mediocre coach.  But given what Baylor has accomplished on the hardwood since he implemented the two-three zone several years ago, I think he's proving to be a really good coach as well.
• Thank goodness BU has a good basketball team because Mizzou and SLU are awful.  They should schedule each other so that at least one of them can get a win!

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading!