The Neanderthal Football League

Ines Sainz is a sports reporter for Azteca TV, a Mexican television network with several affiliates in the US, including Austin, Texas where I would occasionally watch. This weekend she was the center of controversy because she was the subject of catcalls and other unwanted behavior in the New York Jets locker room.

Some have said that Ms. Sainz dresses provocatively. I would be one of the first to agree. She's a former Miss Spain and Miss Universe contestant who dresses like someone who knows how to accent what she hopes to accent. And if you have ever seen Azteca TV you would know that this is the style of the network. In fact I have never seen a Mexican or Hispanic TV broadcast that did not include an overabundance of cleavage, and that includes the news! She was dressed in her normal workplace attire, just like the men were in the locker room after the game.

The sideline shenanigans are another story.

This has caused a new storm of sexual harassment in the workplace/NFL Locker room talk. Let's begin here: Nobody deserves to receive cat calls or leering glares or sneering remarks about their appearance in the workplace. Nobody deserves that, regardless of whether they are a woman who dresses to accent her appearance (which Ms. Sainz does) or naked in the locker room (which the players in varying stages are).

But I want to make one thing clear too. Professional athletics in America are the last bastion of the great adolescent male. The great majority of these guys have been made to feel special, they have been catered to all their lives. They have gifts that are the product of testosterone and the training that only fuels primary urges and hormonal drives.

Can they help it? Of course they can. Are they expected to? Often no.

Folks, the genie is in and out of the bottle. They are expected to act like Neanderthals one moment and gentlemen the next. I'm not saying to cut them slack when they cross the line, just don't be shocked when they do.

In America...

This weekend, Marie and I were in Texas to do some work with our move to Marshall. We had some business with the Presbytery, we had some business with the Realtor, and (best of all) we had dinner with the congregation in Marshall. It was a delightful weekend with people who are very important to us.

On Friday night after the Presbytery meeting we met up with Rick and Teri Brooks. Rick is the pastor of St. Mark Presbyterian in West Dallas and Teri works at UT Dallas. Well, on Saturday, we went to lunch with Rick and Teri and Rick's folks Dick and Dot, while there, we ran into this guy:

If you know the story or watched the video, you would know Igor got his own 7-Eleven franchise. His store is in Richardson, Texas, right next door to where we ate lunch on Saturday afternoon. When we got there, he was running around all over the store making sure everything was as neat as a pin. He was cleaning glass and he even held the door for us greeting us as we came though his door.

Let me tell you, his store was the cleanest convenience store on the face of the earth, having worked at a gas station and a convenience store, I know how hard it is to keep clean and his store was clean enough to eat off the floors.

Igor, my wife Marie and I give you our best (and about eight bucks) and I hope you have a wonderful life. You're living the American dream. You come from Kazakhstan with $50 in your pocket, a driving work ethic, and a dream. Congratulations on your dream coming true.

I say "coming" because Igor knows his dream has just begun, he also knows about the hard work it takes to keep it going. If he didn't, he wouldn't be cleaning glass on a Saturday afternoon in the sun and heat of North Dallas. God bless.

Adventures in Moving

That was once UHaul's slogan, "Adventures in Moving." Frankly, Marie and I have had more than one of their lovely adventures since we met. The "best" was having a water pump blow in the middle of Illinois on the first day of deer season. Getting help was as hard as getting a twelve-point buck.

So, Marie and I are getting ready to move. We're moving to Marshall, Texas as soon as Grace Presbytery, real estate hurdles, and UHaul can get us there. And we couldn't be happier. We also couldn't be more amazed.

Please prepare to nod your head as you read: You wouldn't believe all of the crap we've found! It has been a sheer multitude of stuff we didn't know we had, didn't know where it had gone, and wondered how we ever lived with it in the first place.

Honestly, it is our fault. We haven't had a real honest pitch-fest since we moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas about twelve years ago. At least it has been a windfall to some of the absolutely fabulous charities here in Berryville. As such, it has also been a windfall for the landfill, but after twelve years or so, a trip or two to the dump is not out of line.

So things are rolling here, we are blessed and happy, we are glad to be on our way to Marshall and God's people at First Presbyterian in Marshall. All we need now is a dolly and some Advil, but that's just another part of the "Adventure in Moving."

Working Yourself Out of Business

The First Presbyterian Church in Berryville is one of the four founding churches of the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank of the Ozarks in Berryville. The food bank distributes not only donated food, but also government commodities. They also provide a space for the Salvation Army and the State or Arkansas Office of Local Concerns. These folks provide money and services to help people over the bumps of life.

They offer classes to help people become self sufficient. They offer advice on budgets, job search, and resume writing just to name a few. They offer help with interview skills and other help for people to find jobs and better jobs. Loaves and Fishes is also the distribution point for First Presbyterian's school supply project which this year packed over $8,000.00 worth school supplies for 436 school kids grades K-8. Truly it has been my pleasure being associated with the food bank as Pastor of the Presbyterian Church.

And for the past six months as a client. In February, when we took a pay cut, we became eligible for their services.

Earlier this month, I have been called to serve the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas. With this change, We will be moving from the area and moving from needing the wonderfully gracious and generous services the food bank provides.

Today, a wonderful lady from one of the local churches who has heard of my new call came into the office and congratulated me. Then with joy in her voice she said, "So we won't see you anymore." After about a minute she said, "That came out all wrong."

I understand and I told her so. She is happy that I have received a new call. She is happy that I will not need the services she provides anymore. She is happy that prayers have been answered. I told her I knew what she meant and in the same vein we are joyful too.

This would be the greatest joy of all, that the good folks of Loaves and Fishes help people with enough food and services that they are able to find the work they need so that they no longer need the commodities. It would be the greatest joy of all that the good folks of Loaves and Fishes help people with enough job finding skills that they can move into doing more about job enhancement skills.

May they be blessed and may the people of Carroll County be so blessed that Loaves and Fishes works itself out of business, or at least into a new business. In a sin soaked world, that may not be possible, but wouldn't it be nice. Thanks to Loaves and Fishes and praise be to God.

Pete Rose on Roger Clemens

I once blogged (or at least I thought I did, but I can't find the link) that Roger Clemens, with his responses to Congress, Baseball, and anyone who will listen, is doing what comes naturally, throwing heat.

As a pitcher, he was great because he never backed down from anyone at any time. He was always in your face. This will not serve him as well as he is indicted for perjury by Congress, but you can't get Roger out of uniform and once he puts on his spikes...

What is amazing is who understands him better than anyone else, Pete Rose. This article on ESPN.com goes a long way to showing that whether Pete is sincere or not in his confessions and apologies, he at least now understands the gravity of his actions and more his denial. Written by Johnette Howard, it's great reading.

Fight! Fight!

I do wish I had pics or video on this, but Major League Baseball is tighter with images than a Submarine is with water.

On August 9, the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals faced off in an important three game series for leadership in the National League's Central Division. Before the game, Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips shared some "unflattering remarks" about the Cardinals. Quickly, Phillips words incited the Cards to think bad thoughts.

So when Phillips came to the plate to take his first at-bat in the first inning, he tapped the Cardinal's catcher Yadier Molina on the shin guards. It was sort of his way of saying, "Hey, just busting your chops, no hard feelings." Molina said, "Au contraire."

This is when the best brawl in the MLB this year broke out.

I have enjoyed watching the Sport Caster's comments on this. The conventional wisdom is that Phillips should have stood in the batter's box in the first inning, taken the long expected 88 mph ball in the numbers, and taken his base. Then it would have been over. Instead, he gives off the "just kidding" vibe and all hell breaks loose.

The commentators also noted that it didn't appear that the Reds were in such a hurry to defend Brandon's honor. "Let him take a couple of punches from a guy who is wearing pads and a mask and then go out to break it up."

One of the things I love about baseball is that there is a zen to busting chops, taking breaking balls to the back, fights, and even when to let the umpire take one off the mask, but that's a story for another blog. Ah, the unwritten laws that are enforced unlike any written law can.

Naomi Campbell Testifies on 'Blood Diamonds' Link in Charles Taylor War Crimes Trial

Testifying at the War Crimes Trial of Charles Taylor, Naomi Campbell says "I didn't really want to be here... I just want to get this over with and get on with my life."

Gee, I wonder if a quarter million dead from the ten year civil war in Sierra Leone would feel the same way if given the opportunity.

Naomi Campbell Testifies on 'Blood Diamonds' Link in Charles Taylor War Crimes Trial