Champions!

From the March 25, 2010 Issue of the County Journal...

When you are a kid, you hear things, most notably “Life isn’t fair.” But for this past weekend in Murfreesboro…

Life WAS fair: This time, it was. The hardest work, the most dedication and the best fans got the prize this time. There were more Bolivar Central fans in the stands for any team in the finals, including three schools much closer in travel time. Senior Jay Murphy won the tournament MVP, and earned it with both his play and his leadership.

Good things come to those who wait: Head Coach Rick Rudesill said last year would stick in his mind for a long time. Maybe somewhere in his psyche, it still does. But I’m sure it hurts less now. Murphy and fellow senior Ricky Tisdale started for four seasons and finally ended their great careers with a championship. Senior Kegan Fuller’s enthusiasm and the embodiment of “TDQ” (Tigers Don’t Quit) was rewarded with the gold ball. And that leads us to the next one.

Good things happen to good people: “Good kids and good students,” said Coach Rudesill, “I can’t say that for all the teams, but I can this year.” The good kids went from the starters to the last player on the bench.

There IS justice in the world: When you beat a team three times in a row, and twice in the playoffs, you would think that is enough to settle the issue of who is the better team. But it wasn’t. Bolivar had to beat Liberty once more to win the state title. Our worry was that all those past wins over Liberty would be for nothing (and they would have been) if the Tigers were to have an off day in the final. It was annoying to think beating someone twice in the playoffs wasn’t enough and worse still, that saying so after a loss would just sound terrible. The thought of Liberty with the golden ball after Bolivar’s fantastic season was enough to make us queasy. But we shouldn’t have worried. The Tigers knew who was better. “We heard them saying they wanted us,” explained Fuller, “So we thought we’d give them what they wanted.”
Which brings us to one more - Be careful what you wish for. You may get it: Bolivar’s dominant performance on championship Saturday proved all of the above. It didn’t matter that Liberty’s players were more celebrated by people outside Hardeman County. It didn’t matter what people thought of Bolivar’s “talent.”

“I’m learning to redefine it,” said Rudesill during the Saturday press conference after the game. “It’s heart.”

Darrell Teubner, Editor

So there...

From the March 18 Issue of The County Journal...

It has been pointed out to us that we have a “lack of crime” on the front page of the County Journal. So here you go:

The Chicago Police Department has issued a warrant for the arrest of Leroy Brown of the South Side of Chicago. Chicago Police consider Mr. Brown the most dangerous man in the entirety of the city, would give King Kong a run for his money were he to travel to New York City, and is considered more vicious (or perhaps meaner) than a junkyard dog.

Mr. Brown was allegedly involved in an altercation a week ago Friday in a south side bar. Mr. Brown and an unknown man were seen rolling on the floor after Mr. Brown allegedly made romantic advances toward the unknown man’s girlfriend, reportedly a nice-looking girl named Doris.

It is known that Mr. Brown emerged from the fight bruised and bloody. The other man’s condition was not known.

Mr. Brown has been under suspicion by the Chicago Police stemming from allegations of illegal gambling (dice games) and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit (a .32 caliber pistol). Also, Mr. Brown is alleged to have a razor in his shoe.
A description of Mr. Brown lists him as 6 feet 4 and is gives two known aliases: “Treetop Lover” and “Sir.”

Mr. Brown is known to like to wear fancy clothes to flaunt his many diamond rings.
The Department of Motor Vehicles lists Mr. Brown the owner of both a Custom-built Lincoln Continental and a Cadillac El Dorado.
***
The police also wish you to be on the lookout for Jim Walker. He has been known to frequent pool halls on 42nd Street, where he is considered quite proficient at hustling, according to Willie “Slim” McCoy of Alabama.

While not academically gifted, Jim is described as “stronger than a country hoss” and is called “boss” by his acquaintances, who are also considered dangerous.

If spotted, it has been estimated that attempting to apprehend him alone may be as dangerous as “tugging on Superman’s Cape,” “spitting into the wind,” or “pulling the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger.” Use caution.
***
Finally, there is a report of a shooting in Rosa’s Cantina in El Paso, but the details are unknown, except that a reported love triangle ended in the violent death of a “handsome young stranger.” The alleged shooter is wanted for murder and horse-theft, but is thought to have perished at the hands of 17 or more cowboys while returning to the scene of the crime.

How’s that?

Darrell Teubner, Editor

Still Crazy After All These Issues...

From the March 11 Issue of the County Journal...

While I listening to a local broadcaster describe a poorly officiated basketball game the other night, I happened to come upon the AFI’s (American Film Institute) Best 100 Movies of All-Time.

After I got over the disappointment that Point Break or The Muppet Movie didn’t make the list, I noticed Casablanca, (the tale of a statistically impossible reunion of two lovers) was #2. Having seen it five or so times, I can say I like the movie (I think it is better than Citizen Kane, although I now understand why he went crazy) but it requires a certain amount of suspension of belief.

The premise that Ilsa would just happen to come by a bar (on another continent) run by Rick, who she was in love with in Paris right before she found out her husband hadn’t been murdered by the Nazis after all, is just silly. It’s too much of a coincidence that they would ever see each again.

I once lived in a town while an ex-girlfriend was there at the same time. The town had about six thousand people and you could drive across it in 15 minutes (as opposed to two continents) and I never saw her by accident on any ocassion, except one night in the gym when she was kissing another guy.

The guy was a short, skinny geek that hadn’t had a girlfriend before (not that I knew of) and here he was kissing my cheerleader girlfriend near where (the location in the gym) I used to sit on the bench for the basketball team.

But it wasn’t that he was kissing her that bothered me the most, although, as I recall, that was a large part of the problem.

No, the thing that bothered me most was that it occurred to me his type (skinny geek) was the kind of guy she liked…now, either I wasn’t geek enough, or...never mind.

Anyway, the idea that after all those years Ilsa would walk into Rick’s American Cafe was just a little out of my believable zone.

But, that’s why the story was made into a movie, I suppose.

Darrell Teubner, Editor

It was sunny, with a high of 96...

From the March 5, 2010 issue of the County Journal

With Poor Richard’s Almanac, my ESV (English Standard Version) Bible, the New England Journal of Medicine, Bartlett’s Quotations, a World Atlas, and Robert’s Rules of Order at the ready, I put the kids in the truck and headed out for our 20-minute ride to church.

As is their habit, the kids began firing questions as soon as we left the driveway. They led off with a simple one: How do you get to China? I explained that China was a long way from us and you needed to fly over the ocean and I wasn’t sure which way I would go, either east or west. I assured them you couldn’t “dig for China” and that I didn’t know if the kids over there were told to “dig for America” or not.

Then we heard question #2: When is summer going to be here? June 21. The forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 87.

As we turned right from Lake Hardeman Road onto Highway 125, I was asked about junkyard dogs. Why are they in the junkyard, where do they sleep at the junkyard, will they let you go up and pet them, and why would a dog want to be at the junkyard in the first place?

Question #4 was about why you had to get shots at the doctor, when the shots hurt more than getting sick in the first place...

Number five came up because our new reader in the family (now when we spell words to each other so they won’t know what we are talking about, we have to use words so big that I usually don’t understand either) wondered what a “thru truck” was and why you couldn’t have any of them and should we tell on our neighbor for having a big truck. My explanation raised more questions than it retired, although I assured them the neighbor was not in violation of county law.

There were others, such as the designated hitter rule, why cats have whiskers, the biggest pine cone I have ever seen and if dogs had a language or are they barking to just bark, which was a sidelight to the junkyard dog volley of questions.

Someday, they will decide I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’ll only get silence from the back seat. But in the meantime, I hope it’s nice on June 21. I’d like to have gotten one right.

Darrell Teubner, Editor

All the world's a stage...

From the February 26, 2010 Issue of the County Journal...

It’s fun to laugh with your friends. And your best friends will let you laugh with them and, sometimes, at them.

Almost ten years ago, a group set out to let us do just that, and so a few times a year we get to dress up and go to see the fruits of countless hours of planning, both on the stage and behind the scenes.

You watch people you work with, work for and work alongside at times, put on a show, an original or perhaps an old favorite. And they do it for nothing, well not for money. You know they do it because they love it.

You laugh at their jokes, sometimes because you know them. But you also marvel at their ability to make us laugh, even more so because you’ve seen them during the not so funny times too.

You sit at tables and meet new people or hang out with old friends. You’re there because you have things in common…maybe a relative or friend is part of the production. Or maybe you just like being a patron of the arts in a community that values the arts.

You watch the show. During the intermission, you realize (if you hadn’t already) you’re part of an event, an event in your county, put on by your county for your county.

Afterward, you get to go through the receiving line and congratulate those who entertained you. You tell them they were great and you can see it in their eyes that it matters to them, because we count each other as friends. These aren’t jaded performers for hire, they’re businessmen and women, housewives, teachers and students who live amongst us. You realize they are us. You’re a little jealous. You want to be part of it. You wished you had auditioned.

Some people give money to causes. Some give time. Some just show up and enjoy it. But the most fun is getting to do all three.

May it never stop.

Darrell Teubner, Editor

The Circle of Career...

From the February 19, 2010 Issue of the County Journal...

When I was 18 years old and was in-between colleges (waiting for another semester to start), I got a job as the Sports Editor of a bi-weekly newspaper in Morehead, Kentucky. My job, they told me, was to report on all the local sports, both college and high school. Perfect. Right up my alley.

And then they dropped the bomb.

I had to do a Man on the Street interview for each week. I would take a picture of five local citizens and ask them a question, such as, “Do you think Ronald Reagan will push the button?” Their photo and their answer would appear in the next issue of the paper.

My first few weeks featured mostly people I knew. My boss then made a rule I couldn’t use anyone under 25 years old. Then another rule that I couldn’t be related to them. And then he said that I couldn’t give them $10 or offer to wash their car.

So I hung out at the post office, a solitary figure with a notepad and camera stalking people as they came to get their mail. It was pathetic.

For a while I was IN the Post Office, until people complained. Then I was on the front steps of the Post Office until later I moved (involuntarily) to the sidewalk in front of the Post Office, where Federal Laws didn’t apply. A week later, I moved to the Trademore Shopping Center out near Interstate 64, where I stood in front of the Goody’s (or maybe it was Payless Shoes, I can’t remember) and tried not to look desperate.

This was not much better although I didn’t have to bear the threats of the Postmaster, which I suppose was an improvement.

The problem was, normal people didn’t want to talk to me. No one wanted to tell an 18-year old kid if they thought, for example, “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The people that would share, well, their answers weren’t all that newsworthy.

Question: Where do you see yourself in five years?
Answer: Well, unless they move this bench, I’ll be right here. That banana on the ground is mine, you understand?

So when a local radio station offered me a job a few months later, I quickly gave up my dreams of working at a newspaper.

Well, until now.

Darrell Teubner, Editor