This is post number 542 on speaktherights.com.

This past week’s college football picks saw 10 winners and 4 losers.  I thought I would do better.  Season record is 68 winners and 30 losers.  Not very good at all.

This beautiful fall evening the sun is going down to the slightest of breezes.  No leaves falling right now.  Many have already fallen.

I have long enjoyed the fall.  Football season?  That may have something to do with it.  Really I love everything about the fall.  The weather.  Knowing that winter is on the way and how you enjoy a beautiful day that comes along that you don’t really expect.  Seeing a change in the trees and how the environment changes drastically around us as the leaves fall and the time changes and the sun goes down earlier and earlier as December approaches.  Kids enjoying Halloween as they dress up in trick or treat.  I loved that as a kid.  It was fun.  We all had a chance to be something else for a few minutes.  I remember a time or two, when the weather was not so kind at Halloween, being ready for November 1st to get here cos my mask was warm and made me sweat.  That is what happens where you are full of hot air, someone once told me.  They looked like they meant it.

On these speaktherights.com pages I have enjoyed sharing tales and spinning yarns and holding forth on things that matter to me.  Family, faith, music, laughs, wonderful friends and memories, travelling to here and there, and just sounding off a little bit.  I have enjoyed it all.

But there comes a time when it is time to interject a caesura.  A pause from speaktherights.com is needed right now.  No, I didn’t see it coming.  But, as my dear wife, Carrie, and I spent a little time on Topsail Island last week I saw a few things a little bit clearer I think.  I asked what it would feel like to give speaktherights.com a little time off and a silly little smile came to my face I think.

And guess what?  Tomorrow may bring a new day and I will be bringing another tale to these very pages.  I don’t feel that way tonight.  I don’t expect that to change either.

There is a bit of responsibility that goes along with doing this.  I started in July 2014.  My catalog of pictures on this webpage is mind boggling.  I have been blessed and I have been to and seen so many wonderful places. The best were when my dear wife, Carrie, was within arm’s length.  I am blessed that way.  I don’t know why.

Talk about irony that is in place right now.  As I type these words I am listening to John Lodge’s just released greatest hits CD that features some new work as well.  Yes, that is Roger Dean artwork on the cover.

I shook John’s hand in Huntsville, Alabama in 1994.  We actually had a conversation during a pre-show meet-up.  Thanks to Ivy Stewart, he knew I was coaching football at the time and players called me Coach Moody.  It was all too cool.

Of course I was standing next to him in 2012 when Carrie and I had our picture taken with The Moodies.

The irony here is that I feature John Lodge on this post.  Y’all know my affinity for the music of his fellow Moody Blue, Justin Hayward.  Double irony.  Justin’s 73rd birthday is today.  In sixteen days Carrie and I will be seeing and hearing Justin in Nashville.  The last time we saw him was last August in Kent, Ohio.  I am 51 years-old.  The first time I saw Justin and The Moodies in 1986 I was 18.  Like I have said time and again, I was blessed to pick the right group. What a great story.

So I need to leave you with some great pictures that were taken this past week.

I wrote about it before…but it was in a patch of rocks and shells like this that I looked down last week and found this…

This stone will go everywhere with me.

Wanna talk about a beautiful sun rise?

Wanna talk about being blessed?  Taken before the early service at Faith Harbor UMC.

The guys at Thomas’ Market.  The best place to buy fresh seafood on the planet.

Be still my flounder eating heart!

Carrie and I met Pat Conroy in 2013.  He is gone but not forgotten.  Too many great words to live on and remind us of who we are and who we need to be.  He was so kind to me.  I think in audible terms.  It is the songwriter in me.  When Pat Conroy introduced himself to me I thought I needed to turn around.  Who me?  Yes. Me.  He loved educators.  I told him he never stopped teaching.

On Saturday I paid a solo visit to The Joan.  Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, WV.  Home of the Marshall Thundering Herd.  The Herd won over Old Dominion.  They needed a victory.

Kickoff, of course.

It was a beautiful day for college football.  But, aren’t they all?

So that is that.

Regrets?   Not really.

My mother knows nothing of this.  Each day she fires up her computer and looks to see if I have posted something.  That may qualify as a regret.  I don’t want to disappoint her.  She won’t be.  She will tell me she understands.  She may not like it but she will understand.  That comes with her trusting my judgement.  I am blessed that way too.

At the Moody Blues concert in 2016 at the Louisville Palace.  After the show, my Dad said “That was the best show I have ever seen.”  He has seen some concerts over the years for sure.

I have to wrap this up.

Am I melancholy? Not at all.  I think I am relieved.

I have some other literary pursuits to tend to.  I am not writing songs actively.  I am just listening and trying to write what I need to.

I could be back here next week.  I doubt it.  If you have been here with any regularity I thank you.  I plan on being back.  After all, there will always be a need for someone to …

Speak the rights!

Danny Johnson

There was a shrimp boat hauling in a catch this morning off Topsail Island.  The shrimp are there to be found.  So is the flounder.  How do I know?

We had a fish fry two nights ago, Carrie, me, and my sister did.  It was something to behold.  Flounder, shrimp, hush puppies, and brussel sprouts.  Amazing.  Thanks to the folks at Thomas’ Fish Market for never letting us down.  Thanks to Carrie for preparing the vittles like only she can.

A helicopter from Camp Lejeune gets in some hours.  There were many air craft to be seen flying up and down the coast.  There is a secure feeling there for sure.

As I type these words I am listening to Harv Brown and Richard Berry call the Brownstown Central-Silver Creek game.  Both teams are 7-0.  The game is on 96.3 WJAA, the empire of one Robert Becker.  He is the best radio man alive. No score yet.

We move on to the 7th week of College Football.  After a sluggish couple of weeks, I picked 11 winners and 3 losers last week.  58-26 is the record so far this year.  Not very good at all.

Tomorrow I will be in the Joan C. Edwards Stadium to watch the Marshall Thundering Herd take on Old Dominion.  I have never seen ODU.  Add another one to the list.

Who wins this week?

Memphis beats Temple…The Tigers should win this and it will be entertaining.

Michigan beats Illinois…The Wolverines are not having a banner year.

Oklahoma beats Texas…What a classic contest.

Indiana beats Rutgers…The Hooisers needed a week off.  Let’s hope they don’t need two.

Duke beats Georgia Tech…The Dukies let one slip by against Pitt last week.

Marshall beats Old Dominion…The Herd has struggled a bit this year.   Look for a big offensive show for the boys in green.

Clemson beats Florida State…Tigers will score and score and score.

Ole Miss beats Mizzou…And yes, I am a Rebel homer.

Kentucky beats Arkansas…The Hogs are making Porky sad.  Cats need this one.

Louisville beats Wake Forest…Why not?  This is an upset but one of those games a pesky Louisville team can win with a turnover or two.

Iowa beats Penn State…Hawkeyes are at home and this will be fun.

Notre Dame beats USC…Shouldn’t we be playing this one in late November?

LSU beats Florida…A night game at LSU!

Washington beats Arizona…Gotta pick a west coast game too.

Score update Brownstown Central 14 Silver Creek 7 close to halftime.

My sincere regrets that the North Harrison Cougars are not playing a game tonight.  Crawford County did not have enough players to participate.  I am quite certain this is a first for North, having to win via forfeit due to the other team not showing up.  I hate it.  The players deserve to play games.  Good luck to Crawford on getting things straightened out and taken care of.

That is that.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Any person who doubts God’s existence has led a bland life for sure.  I feel sorry for them and I hope and pray they eventually see what Hank Williams eventually saw…”The Light”.

As I type these words I hear a natural symphony that comes to a crashing crescendo  whilst being filled with tempered music that waits on yet the next crash of might and power and grace.

If I had a stiff wind behind me right now and enough solid saliva with which to project, I am quite certain I could spit in the ocean.  High tide is in front of us.  Where my dear wife, Carrie, and I sit right now is on the barrier island that got so much attention last October as Hurricane Florence was working the place over: Topsail Island, NC.

We found this place by accident many years ago.  I have told that story over and over again.  Thank you, Tim Krekel.

Getting back to God’s existence for a minute.  I will grant you that things seem pretty mixed up right now if you are an American and a Christian.  I suppose that old adage about we all get to the cross our own way has never been so truly played out than the last few years.  Things have to get better, don’t they?  Of course they do, if we are going to prosper.  Seems so many nuggets of truth I learned in Sunday School are not so fashionable these days in the politics of our nation.  I still believe in goodness, grace, helping others, and trying to bring people together and not relishing in dividing the people of the land we live in.  There’s always been enough division.  No need in creating more, unless that is your strategy. If it is, shame on you.

There are more shells and stones and pebbles and grains of sand on this beach than there are people in my native home state of Indiana and our adopted home state of North Carolina.  If you have been fortunate enough to stroll a beach anywhere in the world, you know what I mean.  The little pieces of creation, whipping along the shore in and out as the tide rises and the tide falls know no mathematical equation.  It is the random act of nature and its splendor.  I think God sees to that.  Who else put this together?  Good luck with that, if you don’t believe.

Psalm 143 :8

Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.

Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.

I try to put a few steps in each morning.  I walk and listen to music and pray and listen for God’s voice when I am calm enough and obedient enough to do it.  I have heard some things I rejoiced in.  I have heard some things I wanted to turn from.  I have heard laughter.  I have been directed on occasion.  Things always turn out for the best when I have listened and said yes.

Among the millions, if not billions of individual pieces of earth on this beach in North Carolina, I found this stone this morning as I was walking and listening and one with the water.  There was a message on this stone in front of my feet.

I have picked up thousands of shells and stones out here.  Only today did I find one that told me to go and check out Psalm 143 : 8.

Thanks be to God.

Danny Johnson

This is what happens.  You so look forward to a college football season and you look the thermometer in Southern Indiana and it has read 90 degrees or more all week this week.  It is October for goodness sake!  This is nuts.I sweat as I type these words on an October 3rd evening.  I am sad that we are in Week 6 of the college football season already.

Last weekend in Tuscaloosa I had the time of my life.  It was 100 degrees.  Had it been 75 degrees I would probably still be there trying to get into the next game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.  To say we will be back is an understatement. That slogan the SEC used about it “Means more in the SEC” is all too true.  It may mean too much.

True story.  The first thing I hear from Bama fans after their team just won 59-31 and their quarterback just threw a school record 6 touchdown passes is that Tua (the QB) left a few yards on the field and missed some receivers that will cost them during LSU.  I had a silent scream on my face.  Did y’all just watch the same game I did?  No wonder Nick Saban look constipated all the time.  It is a different world in Tuscaloosa.  But it is a good one.  And…Lord help these folks when Saban turns in his key.  It will be Bear is gone all over again.  And only then will they truly appreciate what I saw on Saturday.  I said it before and I will say it again to Brother Tim Petty, thank you for delivering Carrie and me to T-Town in style.  You’re a good man.

In earnest, I have had a very busy week.  I couldn’t tell you who plays college football this weekend.  So…let me take a time-out.  And pick a few games.

After starting the season 31-11 after three weeks, I have stunk it it up the last two week.  8-6 and 8-6 the last two weeks.  Easily the poorest showing for two consecutive weeks on speaktherights.com.  I hang my head.

Let’s see how things shake out this week.  I have picked a challengers for sure along with a couple cupcakes.  The good thing is Indiana does not play this week and I don’t have to pick against them!  Bless their hearts.  That Michigan State debacle was something.  You would be hard pressed to find the Elias Bureau to come up with stats that said a quarterback who complete 20 straight passes, as IU’s Michael Penix did last week, played for the team that lost the game.  I can’t imagine.

On to the picks:

Duke beats Pitt…Coach Cut just wins.

Ohio State beats Michigan State…Mad that Sparty beat IU last week.

Washington beats Stanford…Will be a fun game to watch.

Iowa beats Michigan…Big one for the Hawkeyes.  I root for Iowa too.

Oklahoma beats Kansas….And everyone else till they play Alabama.

Penn State beats Purdue…Purdue…aka MASH Unit.

Louisville beats Boston College…I saw these two play in 1990 the year U of L whipped Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl.  I was in the press box at Louisville for that one and got to talk to Gerard Phelan, the guy who caught THE PASS from Doug Flutie that beat Miami on the last play of the game. He was the color commentator for NESN (New England Sports Network) I shook the hand that caught THE PASS.  In my football life, nothing impressed me more until I kicked footballs in The Rose Bowl.

LSU beats Utah State…Play the freshman!

Florida beats Auburn…Hope I get to see a little of this one after a little travel on Saturday.

Notre Dame beats Bowling Green…And the Bowling Green players will get to tell their grandchildren they played at Notre Dame Stadium.

Northwestern beats Nebraska…I have been called foolish for this pick.

Georgia beats Tennessee…And folks on both sides lament the fact that this game is supposed to mean some thing.

Ole Miss beats Vandy…Hotty Toddy!

SMU beats Tulsa…The Mustangs are finally back.  They deserve some love.

Have a good weekend.  Take care of one another.

And when you can….speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

If I am going to see my beloved Ole Miss Rebels go down in defeat, it is easier to take against the best team in college football.

Thanks to Clemson’s fart against North Carolina and Tua’s 6 TD passes against a suspect Ole Miss secondary, the Tide is now the number one team in the country.  I doubt they will be supplanted, even in January.  This is a great team.

I have been to some great college football venues.  But Saturday was different.  Walking into Bryant-Denny Stadium on the campus of the University of Alabama, there was a nervous tension inside me that I was not expecting.  I knew it would be special.  I did not expect to be as overwhelmed as I was.  Maybe it was seeing the Crimson Tide in their Crimson jerseys for the first time.  I had seen the Tide play two times before in their whites.  I thought is was cool to see the Tide in the past.  Saturday was different.  It meant something.  Is it because I am older?  Is it because I never thought I would get to Bryant-Denny Stadium before Saturday?  I truly do not know.  But I sure thank my friend Tim Petty, the Roll Tide aficionado, for making it all it was.  Tailgating with with specter of the Stadium to the west.  It was all so special.  It reminded me of a line from a movie I first saw in 1988.  One character looked at another and ask, “What do you do when real life exceeds your dreams?”  The other character answered, “You keep it to yourself.”

I can’t do that.  Yes, the Rebs got beat 59-31.  Yes, it was hottest I have ever been in my life.  Yes, Carrie and I did not stay for all the game.  Yes, it was more than I ever dreamed it would be.

The following photos chronicle what I speak the rights about:

I would be remiss if I did not include the Cracker Barrel gang.  Carrie and me with Tim and Michelle Petty and Mr. and Mrs. Petty.  They are such a joy to hang with.  Great stories and just wonderful folk.  I am proud to know them.

Two weeks ago I got my picture taken with one football legend at Indiana, Anthony Thompson and this weekend outside the Bear Bryant Museum I got my picture take with Brother Tim Petty.  I must be living right.

Tailgating in style.

Carrie and I with Tim and Michelle and David and Jessica.  The two on the right brought a little culture to campus, even though our team got beat.

Denny Chimes on game day.  Wow.

Carrie and me outside the stadium.  Yes, it was hot.  Mom said the heat index was 101 at kickoff.  I thought it was more.

What a sight.  This was wonderful.  Sitting in the Ole Miss section, of course.

The Rebels before the game.

Bama about to score.

You didn’t think I could post about this game and not include a picture of the kicker did you?

I made a second trip to The Rose Bowl Stadium last year and saw a game at Bama this year.  Both made me appreciate and thank what this game has meant to me over the years.  It is amazing how I feel at home at these iconic stadiums.  That’s when you know it is right.  This past Saturday was one of those.  I am a blessed man.  I will keep saying that.  Thank you, Bother Tim.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson