Monthly Archives: December 2017

Topsail in December

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It is cold in on the shore of southern North Carolina.  I mean cold.  There is no snow.  There could be.  It is 32 degrees at nearly 5 o’clock this evening.  The wind is strong.  It is howling down from the North.  It is cold.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I have never been here in December before.  We have visited here many for many years now, but never in December.  What is good about that?  The place is desolate.  There are not many folks here.  It is peaceful, but then again it is always peaceful.  The air is clean and clean.  You can see for miles up and down the coast North and South.  There is still fresh seafood to partake in.  We bought some shrimp and some flounder for preparation later tonight.  There are bargains to be found if you are shopping.  We have not done much of that.  What is not so good about being here this time of year?  It is cold.  But it is still good.

Last night looking to the South.

It only looks like summer.  It is cold.

The fish market.

I hope all of you had a great Christmas.

It is almost New Year’s and we will continue to speak the rights!

Danny Johnson

 

COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL PREDICTIONS 2017/18 and a few other notes…

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Wow.  I still say it…wow.  That was my reaction when I heard that the North Harrison Cougars Boys Basketball team had taken care of business against Brownstown Central at Braveville last night.  52-51 in OT.  Wow. Fantastic. Great job!

As many of you know, on Wednesday it was announced that The Moody Blues will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14th.  Better late than never, I say.  I appreciate the emails and text messages I have received from folks I don’t hear from often telling me they heard the news.  Now, go listen to The Moody Blues.

Tis the season.  Time for the speaktherights.com College Football Bowl Prediction Extravaganza!  It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

The overall record for the season is a respectable 120 winners and 47 losers.  The bowl picks are what I usually really screw up.  We’ll see what happens.

New Orleans Bowl: North Texas beats Troy…The Mean Green have had a tough plight in Texas and they will shine.

Cure Bowl: Western Kentucky beats Georgia State and it is ugly.

Las Vegas: Oregon beats Boise State…New coach for Oregon might help team rise up.

New Mexico: Marshall beats Colorado State…The Herd farted at the end of the year.  7-5…they win if they show up.

Camellia: Arkansas State beats Middle Tenn. State U.  Camellia, Pansy, whatever bowl.

Boca: FAU beats Akron…and to think I will actually watch this.

Frisco: La. Tech beats SMU and I am saved by a Christmas Party!

St. Petersburg: Temple beats FIU

Bahamas: Ohio beats UAB and they all get a tan.

Idaho Potato:  Wyoming beats Central Mich.  and I hope it snows.

Birmingham: South Florida beats Texas Tech…Charlie Strong has done a good job with the Bulls.

Armed Forces:  San Diego State beats Army as SDS finds the Army runners and tackles them early.

Dollar General:  Bargain Bowl Baby…Toledo beats App. State.  Bet the Pop is more than a dollar at the concession stand.

Hawaii:  Houston beats Fresno State and will be glad to be there to eat Pineapples.

Heart of Dallas Bowl:  Opposed to Kidney of Dallas Bowl but give them time…WVU beats Utah and Rodeway Inn couches better beware of becoming flammable.

Quick Lane:  Duke beats Northern Illinois. I called the ticket office to ask about kickoff time and the lady asked what time we could be there.

Cactus Bowl:  Kansas State beats UCLA and it hurts me.

Independence Bowl:  Southern Miss beats Florida State like Brett Favre was there again.

Pinstripe Bowl:  Iowa beats Boston College and it will be one of the best bowl games to watch.

Foster Farms:  Purdue beats Arizona.  Boilers act like Minnie Pearl before the game then turn on the heat with a passing game that will wrinkle and dazzle.

Texas:  Texas beats Mizzou.  Texas Bowl, Texas, I see a pattern here.

Military Bowl:  Navy beats Virginia. I originally had UVA. We’ll see.

Camping World:  VA Tech beats Oklahoma State and I have been called nuts for calling this one.

Alamo:  Stanford beats TCU in a very entertaining game as the Alamo Bowl usually is.

Holiday:  Washington State beats Michigan State…great match-up and WSU passing will confuse Sparty a bit.  Traditional favorite to watch.

Belk:  Reminds me of Burp…Texas A&M beats Wake and has more fans in Charlotte than the Demons do.

Sun:  A bowl I would like to attend one day with the right match-up and this ain’t it…NC State beats Arizona State…Go Pack!

Music City:  Kentucky beats Northwestern…don’t ask me how…they just will.

Arizona:  Mew Mexico State in their first bowl game since 1960 and only their 4th bowl ever beats Utah State…Aggie Bowl.

Cotton:  Now we are getting somewhere…USC beats Ohio State and Sam Darnold looks great.

Gator:  Louisville beats Mississippi State…No cowbell can stop Lamar Jackson.

Liberty:  Memphis beats Iowa State in another home game.

Fiesta:  Washington beats Penn State in a close one…just changed my pick.

Orange:  Miami beats Swissconsin…Shred that cheese!

Outback:  Michigan beats South Carolina…and Harbaugh will find something else yet to complain about. When he decides to coach more and complain less, look out for the Wolverines.  Until then, he won’t be acting like a Michigan man we expect.

Peach:  UCF beats Auburn in a Scott Frost farewell party.

Citrus:  LSU beats Notre Dame…talk about a good one on New Year’s Day.  Classic.

Rose Bowl Playoff Semifinal: Georgia beats Oklahoma…not a Big Ten or Pac 12 team in sight.  Tragedy.

Sugar Bowl Playoff Semifinal:  Alabama beats Clemson…Tide Rolls.

CFP Champs:  Alabama beats UGA.  The Master outlasts the pupil.

Have a Merry Christmas Everyone.

I have been working on some other writing and I hope to get back to speakingtherights.com a little more often in the New Year!

Love one another.

Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson

 

 

Rudolph From The Archives…2014

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Rudolph turns 50 and I’m still a kid…and other observations

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In front of me as I type these words is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  I never miss it.  It has been playing on CBS as long as I can remember.   I never tire of watching it.  There are so many elements of Rudolph we can relate to.  Misfits…we know them.  Some of us are them.  Friends…we know them.  Some of us are them.  Heroes…we know them.  We are all a hero to some one at some time.  I believe that.  Weather…we all know it.  Some of us love snow and some of us don’t.

Every year for many years and in some cases, recently, there are a few other Christmas shows I try to get around to looking at when they come through my living room.

Frosty the Snowman is my second favorite.  The fastest thirty minutes on television.  I still get upset when Frosty melts in the hot-house.  That is just plain sad…pitiful…not right.   Thank God he comes back to life in good time.  Had he not come back the first time I saw it I would have needed therapy I am sure.  I took my babysitter killing over on me when I was five better than watching Frosty melt!

The Little Drummer Boy is another show I try to watch every year.

In recent years there is a movie my family and I have been watching on the Hallmark Channel when it shows up.  The Christmas Card is a movie about an Army fellow that gets a card in the mail while he is deployed to the Middle East.  He takes his card and tracks down its origins and we are entertained by the twists and turns of a predictable story that is still pretty cool…not unlike Rudolph and Frosty.

We can’t forget A Christmas Carol.  I like the Reginald Owen 1938 version the best.  I have a copy of it.  I try to find it on TV.  God Bless Us…Everyone.

There are others….many others.

Along with television there are songs.  I enjoy listening to the Christmas Songs on the radio.  One station in Louisville plays them constantly right now.  I tune for a while every day.

Carrie, my dear wife,  and I have a simple wooden Nativity…a great manger scene… on display in our living room 365 days a year.  I never tire of looking at that either…especially that.  God Bless Us…Everyone.

Songs…one of my favorite seasonal tunes is The Christmas Song…you know…the one that talks about chestnuts roasting on an open fire and all.

 

Enjoy the holiday season.  Tell someone why you love them. God Bless Us…Everyone.

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson

From the Archives..Walking Away

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Editorial note:  I told Carrie, my dear wife, that the Moody Blues concert she and I saw at the Ryman Auditorium this past July 2017 was a great one to end it on; The Moodies played their landmark Days of Future Passed in its entirety.  Some of you are laughing.

The Moody Blues did record one of the shows from this past July with a symphony in Toronto. It is fantastic.  Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas did not participate. Next Wednesday morning we will find out if The Moody Blues get voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Walking Away…

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I took this photo a couple of weekends ago.  David Van Winkle and the other great Americans at the Van Winkle Service Center, you should go there, in Ramsey were tending to the oil changing my 1999 Dodge Stratus needed very badly.  The aforementioned establishment is a primary reason the car is still in as good of shape as it is.  When I came back around to pick it up, David Van Winkle made a comment that the car just keeps on going.   Yes, thanks to him.  The vehicle has 240,000-plus miles on it.  It still drives quite well.  The stereo is great and the gas mileage is acceptable.  Tunes and miles?  I drive alone in this car.  When I am not talking to God or my mother, I crank up The Moody Blues and the others on my iPod as I drive to and from work everyday.  That would be either 108 miles or 130 mile, depending on whether or not the East Fork of the White River is rolling over Highway 235.

When I took the picture above I was walking.  From the Van Winkle Service Center to the parking lot of North Harrison Elementary School (the Whiskey Run Road side), it is 1.25 miles if you take the gravel road on the South side of Hwy. 64 to the East entrance of the school system’s high school.  This is where I took the picture of the rail road tracks.  The direction the camera is looking is East.

If anyone else is scratching their head’s about the sensibility of a school being located on Whiskey Run Road, know you are not alone.

I walked 5 miles on this day.  I like to walk.  It is good exercise for the body and the mind.  Many of us have occupations that make us process information faster than we can comprehend as we are walking along a lonely gravel road with a cool Western breeze at our backs and, in my case, with ear buds snugly placed so that all the music stays between the ears.  I listen to slow songs and fast songs…rocking songs and sacred songs…country songs and mostly rock and roll songs.  I indicated what is on my iPod  many posts ago.

The Moody Blues claim the most songs on my iPod.  That is no shock to anyone who knows me.

Though I have yet to mention it yet, My dear wife, Carrie, and I  saw The Moody Blues sing last weekend.  I know. I know.  Some of you in the know just wondered aloud, “Again?”

Yes, again.  Another town and another venue.  This time at Merrillville, Indiana’s  Star Plaza Theatre.

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The regular camera was not working.  I took this picture with my antiquated phone.  This phone does great when you have great light…the railroad tracks pic was taken by the same instrument, as have many other speaktherights.com pictures.

Maybe this was a good thing.  Maybe this is a good last shot, just in case this was the final Moody Blues concert we get to see.  I first saw them in 1986.  I was 18.  You do the math.

I do know the band has a few dates set for 2016.  You just never know.

Personally, I hope they hang in until 2017 and do a 50 year anniversary of Days of Future Passed at London’s Royal Albert Hall.  That would certainly be recorded.  Perhaps they could get the other two members from that day, Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas, back in the fray for a one-off performance.  I am probably dreaming here.  Pinder last played with the boys in 1974 at San Francisco’s “Cow Palace”.  Thomas retired from the group after 2002.

Know this…the concert we took in last weekend was one of the best Moodies performances I have ever seen.  Justin Hayward is still an impeccable guitar player and his voice is a marvel.  John Lodge still shows off as he is playing the bass and rocks with a purpose.  Graeme Edge, at 74, can still keep time with the sticks and incite a crowd with his antics.  I don’t think we could have asked for a better show.

Maybe I am the one who should walk away.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

EDITORIAL NOTE….Happy December…Week #14 College Football Predictions

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It is December 1st and I will be taking most of the month off from speakingtherights….here anyway.  I will dig up some of my favorite archived speaks and put them back on here.  I look back once in a great while and find something I like to reflect on.

I have some other writing to work on this month…that is all I can say.

speaktherights.com has over 380 entries and I still enjoy it.  I don’t plan on giving it up anytime soon.  Now…I will chime in on the College Football Bowl Picks for sure.

Happy December everyone…make it a great Holiday Season. God Bless all of you.

College Football Predictions Week #14

USC beats Stanford…PAC 12 Championship

UCF beats Memphis…in a good one for AAC kingship.

FAU beats North Texas….Lane Kiffin does it.

Toledo beats Akron…I think they will in MAC day.

Oklahoma beats TCU…Big 12 snoozer.

UGA beats Auburn…Tigers can’t keep this up.

South Alabama beats New Mexico State…if they can quit sightseeing long enough.  Long way from Mobile.

Boise State beats Fresno State…One I could get bad wrong.

Miami beats Clem(p)son…With a spelling nod to Lewis Grizzard.

Ohio State beats Wisconsin…Would lover to be in Indy for this game again…but not if Swissconsin is anywhere close to Lucas Oil.

Southern Utah beats Weber State…No idea why?

Troy beats Arkansas State…Should be a good game.

For the season the record is 111 winners and 44 losers.

Last week was good with bonus games….11-4.

The real question is what loser goes to coach Tennessee?  Wow.  What an Orange heap of whooey.  A job once considered a plum can’t get a date.  Mike Leach?  That would be awesome…but it won’t happen.  I don’t think so.

Eli Manning gets sent to the bench and I hope the Giants get their butts handed to them.

The Colts could use another Manning at QB.

Now that is speaking the rights!

Danny Johnson