October 31, 2009
Biographies
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Back in the day he was the “authority” figure in High School. He was smooth, sharp, and always rooting for the team. He gave time, effort, and great sincerity to all those in reach. Don gave all to Nashua and made student, teacher, parent, visiting politician feel important. Always diplomatic, yet never wavering, Don Marquis knew the score, the game, played hard, played fair and unflinchingly worked to build concensus. I also knew him later in life when I still had shades of student in me. A husky handshake and a hearty hello…that was the Marquis greeting.
He’s beyond mortal reach now. Another member of the “earlier” generation gone. Don made good his life. Family, Work, Community…all were important. Thanks for your being there at Spring Rat and the High School.
October 25, 2009
Sports
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Out of the mist, amidst rain and darkness, Dartmouth struck back. I got the game online, downpours plagued the playing field. Interceptions and a solid relentless running game drove Dartmouth forward. Columbia choked and struggled and fell before Dartmouth. Dartmouth got off to a rousing and invincible start 14-0 in the first quarter. Everyone was stunned. Dartmouth ahead, solidly ahead. The amazement grew as the D’s defense kept Columbia at bay. Oh Columbia went up and down the field gaining yardage, but failing to score. Apparently Columbia is afraid of its own kicking potential (Columbia football may want to see a shrink about this–odd and a bit freaky). That’s ok, Dartmouth had its own ghost to exorcise. And when Columbia did put 6 points on the board Dartmouth hardly noticed. In the fourth Dartmouth put up another 14. Nothing was stopping Dartmouth this day. Dartmouth did get a penalty for excessive celebrating–but again Dartmouth was unstoppable. The Green tasted victory. And Teevens probably slept soundly for the first time in two years.
Cheers to you Green, for getting your defense in shape, for running the ball, for turning a perfectly miserable weather day to a Homecoming Hootenanny.
You made the break–clean and beautiful. Watchout Harvard.
October 23, 2009
Environment, Outdoors
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For the last five years I have tested a theory: That the weather on October 23rd of any given year will reflect the winter ahead. For instance and warm (60’s) and dry day will mean a mild low precip winter. Why O 23, well its my birthday and that time of year assures a degree of uncertainty that January or July would not provide. The results have been mixed–spot on for two years, mixed on two, and way off on one.
Today O 23 has coolish temps (50’s), but very sunny and dry, with little wind. Come mid-April 2010, check back to see the results.
October 20, 2009
Outdoors
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Not one to embrace the chill and drear of winter, I can’t be much happy with the days ahead. However there is a cheap enjoyment to be found where foliage blooms. I speak of walking through piles of dry leaves. The swish, swish, swishas leaves are plowed through on foot or bicycle. As a kid I had block after block of these foliage flotsam. Leaves would fly into the air, catching wind as might be. Or the leaves would fall on either side SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, truly a joy of short duration. This was best had when a student at Mount Pleasant or Spring Street, but less so with Nashua High School. Winter is going to be a downer, but at least with fleeting memories of fallen leaves.
October 20, 2009
Commentary, Current Affairs, Media
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In the late 1990s I was involved in Human Services. I sat on a committee of NHAAMR headed by a very bright, engaging, and thoughtful woman Debbie Gaudette- LaRochelle of ran a local Residential Resources office. We were working on some project, but spoke more or less these prophetic words: “My husband works in the construction business and they have a term that is soon to become mainstream”. She went on to describe “partner” as a precise relationship (business not pleasure, certainally not romantic) where expectations are exact and upon that hinges soley the definition.
Fast forward to 2009. The words “partner” and “partners” get tossed around and used blindly. Yes the word has gone mainstream and has drowned in floods of misuse.
Who cares? Not that many. I am persoannly tired of its overuse. If partnerships were as they are stated then the world be as sweet as a Watchtower watercolor. But as we all know, things are pretty ugly in the Real World.
October 20, 2009
Food, Mature ADULTS ONLY
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Back in the early 1980s when I was just getting used to being “of age” for drinking adult beverages, I had just discovered Guinness Stout and felt pretty worldly. My Mom came back from England (vacation) with a bottle of Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. I was so impressed with the classy Olde English style label. The taste, heartier than the Guinness. Now, nearly 30 years later, I brought s bottle recently. The taste and flavor seemed flat. Might have been my age and maybe Sam Smith has changed, been awhile I guess. At a pint, the bottle has immaculate British credentials.
October 20, 2009
Sports
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Yeah it hurts, hurts bad. Take the pain. We, the fans and followers, get the pain. But the gain is still pretty trifling. What I and a good number of frustrated folks are looking for is a win. Just one. Don’t stress for two. Just break the cycle of endless losses. Yes you nabbed 14 points in the 4th quarter against Holy Cross. A nice comeback, except Holy Cross had 34 points at the end of the 3rd quarter. Nope you will have to do better and I mean better. Saturday comes Columbia, at Memorial Field.
Columbia is the kind of opponent Dartmouth football should be happy about. Columbia is known for hitting the books not hitting the backfield.
But Dartmouth is fighting against a terrible record and a worse reputation. Despite home field advantage (homecoming no less), the weather (as of Tuesday) looks to be cold and wet. Of course foul weather may be the wild card to swing the numbers one way or the other and perhaps be the great nullifier.
Even a nailbiter game would be a solid step forward. But time and the appropriate media outlet will tell the story as the weather seems to preclude a trip to the Upper Valley this Saturday.
October 17, 2009
Sports
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Please, please, please pull out a win Dartmouth Football. I write this after your last routing (outing does not seem to capture your road games) with Yale. Against UNH, you were doomed. But Yale? No matter. As we speak you are crunching it out with Holy Cross—UNH with a prayer wheel. How I shudder with anticipation. Another beautiful fall day. But Holy Cross has not the cross to bear on the field. They are 4-1 and the 1 was a close one.
Please turn a win, another downer before Homecoming will make many an alum mournful of the rest of the season. Again go man to man defense and do the running game with a short and quick tossing game IF the Holy Cross defense seems shaky.
October 11, 2009
Geography, Lists, Travel
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Traveling overseas in spurts, I have seen some of the world’s sites. This list is my biased opinion on places that left some memories.
Blue Bunny Tiffin Stall
Chinna Waltair Andhra Padesh India
Food stalls in India are often called Tiffin Stalls. They vary from stick covered huts to tiled, a/ced place with electricity and running water. In Vizag, there was and may still be a place made of hammered shipping crates, siting a mere dozen where cooking was done over a fire and washing of steel plates was done by hand. It became the am hangout for University of Wisconsin students in 1986-1987. The owner wore a lungi that had dancing psychedelic blue bunnies on it (hence the name). It was also where the Muslim motorized rickshaw drivers got their tiffin (and a great view of downtown Chinna Waltair).
Great Wall of China
Beijing China
You can’t miss it or mistake it. It is superlative on so many levels. I only saw a small length of it and that was enough to get my approval. Well worth going to–where awesome engineering and boundless history cubby up.
Taj Mahal
Agra India
Another masterpiece of Asia, though more sublime and delicate than the Great Wall, Up close or at a distance, it is art and architecture in perfect harmony and perfection. Hell of a tombstone, a wonder of the world, and again worth going to see, feel, and be a part of.
Stonehenge
Salisbury Plain England
I was there shortly before it was closed off by fencing. You can still see it. But I was able to touch it and be up close. Druids or not, the place has appeal for the ones who sweated the boulders into place and built perhaps one of the earliest tourists traps in history.
Tianamen Square
Beijing China
Another score for China. They do things big, more like supersize. Although a “square” it is no rinky-dink Boston Common. It is the definition of the word HUGE. The Hall of the People’s Assembly is on one part of one side and that again is a case of size matters.
Forbidden City
Beijing China
Royalty can be very royal in this case. A near neighbor to Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City is a vast spectacle of columns, buildings, and gardens, a “housing perk” for the divine to live among the mortal. Tour groups from all over the country and world overrun the place. It is literally follow the flag as getting lost can be a major hassle.
Muslim Quarter
Xian China
Another place where getting lost is easy is the city of Xian. It was a booming metropolis when I visited it in 2000. I can’t imagine how big it is now (ditto for Beijing). The Muslim Quarter is the old part of town, and I don’t mean Chaing Kai-Chek. This was the “eastern terminus” for the Silk Road, the superhighway to the late B.C. era. Here was where history began and Xian was where faint echos of far away lands were heard. Trade has changed and yet remained the same. Lamb skewers cook on fiery grills like for thousands of years. Smoke and spice, heat and dust mingle in the air. This is the edge of Central Asia. Come see brave explorer, breathe the incense and the opiate wind, hear the bells and the hawkers cry, watch for the shadows, for those that watch you, do so with one eye.
Benares
Uttar Pradesh India
Benares or Varanasi, it is a city of the living dead. Thousands of Hindu temples, plus innumerable other holy sites, including Buddhist Saranath on its outskirts. Built along the sacred Ganges River, Benares sweats, sticky, humid, rotting yet filled with bright flowers and clothes, chai with coriander and chapati and beggars. It appeared briefly in Octopussy (James Bond), but is best experienced first hand. The city makes the rest of India look modern. But what of a city that was 1000 years old when Jesus did his study abroad? Count Benares as one of the world’s holy cities.
Bahia
Uvita Costa Rica
I did my Peace Corps service here. It was a beach resort without the “resort”. No electricity, no running water, no paved roads or bridges. It was primitive, the jungle was not that distant in time or place. Yet it was peaceful and beautiful, a luxury of healthy living without the carcinogenic accouterments of today. Of course sharks, crocs, poisonous and dangerous plants and animals were a constant–but so were earthquakes and a long, long monsoon season. Today it is all high tech and modern. Such is progress,
October 6, 2009
Sports
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Big Green football took to the field again on Saturday, October 3rd in Hanover. The rain fell in buckets equally on both struggling teams. Dartmouth, after last week’s beating from UNH, had higher hopes against Penn. Penn, more of an equal match against Dartmouth brought the great equalizer rain with it as well as Versus network for some televised coverage.
Green got off to a pitiful start, blowing a punt into a full scale conversion for Penn. But Dartmouth, despite foul weather and a feisty opponent, fought hard, very hard. Dartmouth offense was showing spirit and spunk. The defense has remained anemic and only added to Penn’s injured list. There was some questionable (game changing) officiating including a helmeting call that smelled of a simple accident. Happily Dartmouth seemed charged by the game. Offensively, Dartmouth had its air game played with greater precision—and that despite wet, uncooperative footballs and slippery fields.
Penn pulled a win, a close win. Dartmouth could have won, but still has too many hexes in its closet. Short passes and a reliable running offense are needed. And defensively, Dartmouth needs a firmer squad.
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