Everything that's Wrong with the NFL

I can sum up everything that is wrong with the NFL in two words: Video Replay!

On Sunday, during the Ravens-Chargers game I was subjected to some of the worst officiating that I have ever witnessed.

Aside from the pass interference and leading-with-the helmet calls that weren't, the highlight of the game was the three-ring circus surrounding the Ray Rice pass reception for 30 yards on a 4th and 29 late during the 4th quarter.

Even with the assistance of video replay, the officials were hard pressed to make the right call. After determining that they spotted the end of the play wrong, they were then confronted with the problem that the first down chains had been moved and it was difficult to determine their correct placement in order to do a check for the first down. After a 15 minute, or more, delay in the game,  the end result of all of the video review and play changing was that the ball was repositioned about 12 inches and the Ravens still had a first down and the game continued. It was more likely that a truly correct reassessment of the ball position and first down markers would have resulted in a change of possession and the game being essentially over with the Chargers winning, 13-10.

Instead the Ravens scored the tying field goal and won the game in overtime, 16-13.

Please do not bring video replay to baseball. We don't need the delay and continued bad calls.

I continue to be amazed that even with video replay and the stoppage in play, officials still get the calls wrong. The TV announcers and even the coaches, apparently upon the orders of the league, cannot comment on the erroneous calls--but too many of them are too obvious to ignore. This is hurting the quality of the product being put on the field week-to-week.

Football, the king of American sports, has lost its competitive spirit. Video replay is not better than when officials were allowed to make the calls without the benefit of video replay. I think it is more fair and the games move faster.

BTW, when is CBS going to figure out that Sixty Minutes is not going to start on time when they are televising a 4pm game? The games have grown longer, it seems, from 3 to almost 4 hours.

And they are painful to watch, even when the my favorite team wins.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - November 26, 2012

1. The holiday sprint has begun. Check out the parking lot at your favorite mall if you want to have a frustrating experience. 29 days to go until the big day!

2. I went to a movie at a mall on Saturday evening--big mistake both for parking and the choice of movie. Review to follow.

3. Eleven boxes of holiday decorations and one weekend equals one tired puppy.

4. I enjoyed a bottle of the first northern hemisphere wine of 2012 Saturday night--Beaujolais Nouveau from France. It was young but had a very nice color.

5. I wrote down a couple of ideas during Sunday's church message about giving:

    a. Relationship is the basis of gifting, without a relationship between the giver and receiver gifts are just things.

    b. When I am giving a gift, it is not me doing the giving, but God giving through me.

    c. God's generosity to me causes me to be.

6. At 5:30 pm, when it is dark outside and day has passed into night I remember the summertime and how our outside activities are just beginning around the pool with a glass of wine.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Christmafication--A House Transformed

Yesterday was the day to finish, mostly, decorating the house by completing the changeover from Thanksgiving to the Christmas/Holiday season.

Christmas Jeeps

It makes for a busy day and includes such strange traditions as putting wreaths on the boy's Jeeps. This year, we found a way to put Christmas lights on the wreath on the yellow Jeep. That should be interesting. Patrick and Corey posed with their Jeeps for this picture shortly after we finished the project. It was pretty cold but we were happy in a devious kind of way. I have heard that the orange Jeep is coming over today to be Christmafied, too.

We use a seasonal word to describe this day of decorating. We call it Christmafication, which is a derivation of the word Christmafied. Take a moment to Google Christmafication--it is used a lot even though it has not beed accepted as a formal word, yet.

Garage Staging for Christmafication

Christmafication Day begins in the garage by collecting the boxes of decorations from the attic.

These boxes, containing their treasures, provide the tools necessary to transform the house into a Christmas ready paradise. I lost count at how many boxes of decorations we store from year to year. But they make a nice pile in the middle of the garage staging area.

Warm Glow of Christmas Lights

By the end of the day, these boxes will be empty and the house will be Christmafied. I realize later that two boxes were missing from this image--those of the two Christmas trees. Only one tree actually was set up during the day.

The 2012 Edition of the Doan House

Christmafication is a process. Although everything is mostly complete by the end of the day--there are a few activities that need to be completed on subsequent days. The second tree and associated decorations for the basement Family Room comprise most of them.


But the main living room looks--fabulous!

And so does the outside, for that matter.

Welcome to the Holiday Season--let's rock!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Snow Village 2012

It is ready to help celebrate the Christmas season. Here is the 2012 Doan Family Snow Village--just completed!

On to decorating the rest of the house.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Conquering the World, or not

The Thanksgiving tradition continued. Another year and another failed attempt to conquer the world!  The Black Friday family Axis and Allies game ended with another defeat for the Axis--just like history. That's good--but Patrick and I were playing the Axis, so I lost again.

It goes with the territory, I guess. Just like last year  I just couldn't get the global war plan going with my Japanese ally. Maybe the German push into the Caucasus Region was a bit too far and stretched my logistics lines too much. Or the crushing naval strategy executed in the Pacific by the British and U.S. navies.

Crushed! My strategy was completely crushed by the Allies. Again! Ugh!

Face it--I don't make a good world conqueror, despotic dictator, or Napoleonic-style emperor. My Waterloo always seems to happen somewhere on the Steppes of Russia. I have that in common with a lot of would be world conquerors.

Maybe next year (or after Christmas) I will do better.  I need a do over.

On a positive note, the Thanksgiving left-overs were awesome. Cold turkey, cold stuffing, cold fruit salad (oh yeah, the salad is served cold anyway). Sometimes I think Thanksgiving dinner tastes better the day after.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Season of the Turkey

It is over. Maybe today is just beginning for many people, but one of my favorite seasons of the year has just ended.

The season of the turkey is one of the shortest season's on the calendar beginning on November 1st and ending on Thanksgiving. It marks the time between rational thought and the insane sprint through the holiday season.

I have a small collection of turkeys which decorate our house during this all-to-short season. I enjoy replacing the garish Halloween decorations with their bright and happy faces and I am always a bit sad when I have to pack them away for another year.

Turkeys are inherently happy and are a great prelude to the day of thanks when we remember everything that we are blessed with--and I mean more than just good wine and mediocre football.

As Chris left the house this morning to sojourn into the Black Friday chaos, she reminded me that the season of the turkey is past and now is the time for snowmen, Santa's, and holiday cheer. I prefer the holiday spirits, but I guess that is becoming a bit more socially unacceptable these days.

For the next over 30 days, I will be listening to "Haul out the Holly" and other tunes on the radio many of them overdone so to the point of excruciating. But the memory of the unassuming turkey will get me through.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Happy Thanksgiving - 2012

Today is one of my favorite holidays. A truly American tradition of giving thanks to God for prosperity even during the hard times and for the hope of better times to come.

Turkey on the Mantle

"What are you thankful for this year?" It is a question that millions of Americans will ask around their Thanksgiving table today.

It is good to take a moment to think about our blessings.

I am saddened that some unscrupulous retailers (K-mart, Walmart, Macy's, and Target to name a few) have decided that the pursuit of the dollar is more important that pausing to give thanks. I'd propose a boycott, but they never amount to much in a practical sense.

So what is Thanksgiving?

I was remarking that it is turkey and dessert!  But, I know that it is so much more than that. 

I give thanks for everything and everyone in my life--my family, my friends, my coworkers, my job, and every blessing that God has blessed me with. 

As the hymn goes:

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing; 

 he chastens and hastens his will to make known. 

 The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing. 

 Sing praises to his name, he forgets not his own. 

Let us gather and sing praise.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Phone Booths

Coming back from upstate NY on Sunday I saw something that I just don't see too often anymore.

It was there on a corner--right where it was supposed to be and it was a telephone booth.

This one was in the town of Marathon, NY. Chris and I noted that we hadn't seen a real, full phone booth in a long time.

A 2007 article from the Washington Post writes about the demise of the once ubiquitous phone booth.

I wonder where Superman is changing these days?

And how many high school seniors can really fit into a telephone booth?

It seemed lonely, standing there.

A throw back to an earlier time before cell phones and instantaneous communications around the world.

I'll bet there wasn't a phone book inside. Remember the phone books inside of phone booths? They always had ripped pages and were fat because of the moisture.

Phone booths always smelled bad, too.

I remember looking for dimes (yup, dimes) to make a call. And having people ask me if I had a dime. What do we use dimes for these days anyway? I remember collect calls! Especially from phone booths.

Maybe I don't miss them. Just the nostalgia of having them around.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Eric Scott and Naked Blue: Review

Saturday evening I attended a Cellar Music concert featuring Naked Blue and Eric Scott. In short it was  another home run from Cellar Music. A thoroughly enjoyable evening of friends, food, wine and fantastic music.

Naked Blue

Naked Blue led off the show with tightly crafted vocals and guitar riffs that were fun to listen to and accompanied by easy to understand lyrics. Having been performing for 20 years, the duo has everything, including great stories which punctuate the performance and provide a perfect backdrop to the music. It is clear that Jen and Scott know each other's music very well. The folk qualty to the music is enjoyable and the lyrics are very deep.

One of the highlights of the set was when Jen and Scott did their song We Will Fly, which has been recorded by Evangeline.

Scott Smith, Bryan Ewald, Jen Smith, Eric Scott Jamming

The second highlight occurred when they invited Eric Scott and Bryan Ewald joined the duo for some impromptu music. I have to admit, it has been a longtime since I have seen music made and not just performed--but Saturday night I was lucky to experience the thrill of watching music being made again and it was truly special.

Following Naked Blue, and an intermission, Eric Scott accompanied by Bryan Ewald took the stage and the crowd of about 60 were treated to Eric's smooth and accomplished voice and lyrics. Eric is not a small guy, but he has a special voice which is smooth and does not show the wear and tear of too many shows and too late nights. Eric's best song of the night was his song Victim.

The night ended too soon--even though it went late. The music was magical and the gathered people were into the songs--most of which were very singable.

Way to go Cellar Music--keep them coming.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - November 19, 2012

Blow-up Turkey

1. The turkeys are warming up--ready for the upcoming holiday. I think I want to buy a big blow-up turkey! Just because.

2. "Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build monuments of nothingness. Those who use them seldom amount to anything" -- actor Stephen Grayhm

3. Retirements are not endings--but rather they are new beginnings, much like changing chapters in a compelling book. I was happy to be at church with my family as my Dad retired (again) on Sunday. I wonder if I will be retiring (again) when I am 84? I wonder what he is going to do for his encore?

4. Driving long distances on weekends really puts a crimp in the time available for activity.

5. I am always amazed at how much colder it is in NY. When we left there yesterday afternoon, it was 37 degrees. When we arrived home near Baltimore, it was 50 degrees.

6. I noticed yesterday evening that the main runway at Baltimore Washington International Airport had reopened after months of upgrading. I noticed this because it was finally quiet over the house and I saw an arriving flight flying the approach to the main runway--finally!

7. Football is an exciting sport--but there just aren't enough games. Baseball is an everyday sport for everyday people.

8. We live in the information age, yet, it seems that when I really need information I can't figure out where it is on the web.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD