And so it goes.  The last weekend of October is upon us and I have to say this may be my favorite weekend of the year.  Football season is in full flower.  The trees in Southern Indiana are looking beautiful.  The weather is cool but not cold.  The World Series is being played.  Do I need to go on?

It is indeed a special time in my neck of the woods.

Tomorrow I will meet up with Mick Rutherford, Kelly Samons, and Gus Stephenson for the 19th Annual Corner King Golf Classic.  Played in memory of our friend Malcolm “Corner King” Lincoln, the classic is a great deal of fun.  The golf is awful.  The fun is priceless.

Corner King Lincoln was a dear friend of mine.  He died in 1997.  I have written about it many times on these pages.  One of those things you don’t get over.  You just get through.  I still miss Corner King.  I think of him very often.  Twenty-one years have gone fast.  Too fast.

The Corner King and I look into the distance on my wedding day.  I loved this picture when I first saw it.  It soon meant more.

My annual golf competitors.

On to this week’s College Football Picks.

Heading into this week the season tally is 77 winners and 25 losers.  It could be worse.  I think it has been.

Clemson beats Florida State…Clemson impressed last week for sure.

Purdue beats Michigan State…PU has an incredible offense and a credible defense.

Wake Forest beats Louisville…When I made this pick I thought they were at Wake.  Sticking by it.

UVA beats UNC…Wahoos have impressed of late.

Colorado beats Oregon State…Buffs are looking good.

USC beats Arizona State…Trojans are improving as the season goes.

Maryland beats Illinois…This is going to be a tussle.

Kentucky beats Mizzou…UK will get the offense in gear.

Texas A&M beats Mississippi State…I never pick the Cowbell Ringers.

Notre Dame beats Navy….They usually do.

Georgia beats Florida…It should be a good one.

Texas beats Oklahoma State…Horns are improving.

Stanford beats Washington State…Hope I am bad wrong.  Go Cougars.

Have a good last October Weekend and when you get the chance, Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Sad.  That is what I say… sad.  I mean it.  Sometimes we hear politicians say “sad” and they don’t know what the heck they are talking about.  I say sad and I do indeed know what I am talking about.

I am sad because we are this ALREADY this far into the college football season.  I can’t believe it.  It is sad.  I don’t want to see the college football season to go this fast!  College Football is so much better than pro, in my eyes.

I digress…on to this week’s picks.  I was 9-4 last week.  I did pick a few with my heart last week and I will do so again this week!  I don’t care.

Ole Miss beats Auburn….Hotty Toddy!

Iowa beats Maryland…Go Hawkeyes.

Michigan State beats Michigan…I’ll take D’Antonio any day.

Northwestern beats Rutgers…Not close.

Duke beats Virginia…Go Dukies.

Alabama beats Tennessee…One day this game will matter again.  Had fun there two years ago.

Washington beats Colorado….Huskies are tough.

Nebraska beats Minnesota…Finally, Coach Frost gets a Big Red W.

NC State beats Clemson…I am a Ryan Finley believer!

IU beats Penn State…My dear wife, Carrie, and I are going to this one.  The last time I saw Penn State, Joe Pa was the coach.  We were there in 1994 when Penn State came calling to IU the first time and Indiana ruined the Nittany Lions National Championship hopes.  Penn State finished 12-0 that year with Kerry Collins and KiJana Carter leading the offense.  But…they only beat IU 35-29.  That cost them and that is why we have the playoff we have now.  Well, partly.  That 1994 Penn State team was the best college football team I ever saw.  I have seen a few.  Am I partial with this pick?  Yes. The heart leads here.

LSU beats Mississippi State…Hail Tigers!

Kentucky beats  Vanderbilt…UK needs this one.  They will get it after a week to prepare.

UCLA beats Arizona…The Bruins picked up a W last week.  They need this one too.

I don’t know how time gets away.  It has been over a week since my last post.  Lat week my dear wife, Carrie and I were spent most of the time in Pompano Beach, Florida.  That is a long way from Harrison County.  We drove to Key West.  That is over 1200 miles from our home.

One night at Pompano Beach we went to a nice restaurant.

We had a great time!

I am a blessed man.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

This is my view as I speak the rights.  The pond ahead was once a par 3 golf course.  Apartment buildings are all around.  Pompano Beach, Florida, some four miles from “the beach” where the Atlantic Ocean can be seen.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I saw it and it is a beautiful sight.  There is a peace that one finds next to the water that I can’t begin to describe.

This week’s College Football picks and then some more sight-seeing.

Last week saw nine winners and four losers.  The worst week of the season until this week perhaps.  I got some iffy ones for sure.  In week seven, you can’t ignore your heart.  The season is too deep.  For the year the record stands at 59 winners and 19 losers.  We’ll see how things go.

Indiana beats Iowa…I wish I could be there.  Finally some football weather in Bloomington and the Hoosiers will respond.

Duke beats Georgia Tech…I know my love for Duke has little limitation.  They are the IU of the south during football season.

Auburn beats Tennessee…War Eagle and all that crap.

Northwestern beats Nebraska…I know folks are saying the Huskers gotta win sooner or later.  And yes, I do feel badly for Coach Frost.  But, he asked for it.

Boston College beats Louisville…I witnessed the game that put Louisville into the Fiesta Bowl in 1990 when BC came calling to Louisville in November.  BC wins this one.  The Card team is a mess.

Notre Dame beats Pitt…Health is on the side of the Irish.  A soft schedule can do that for you.  Then come playoff time, they get blown out.

Penn State beats Michigan State…Oh my.  This could get ticklish.

Miami beats Virginia…How can I not pick the Canes when I drove past their stadium yesterday?

Ole Miss beats Arkansas…I sure hope the hotel I stay in Saturday night gets the SEC Network.  It might be worth a call just to make sure!

Marshall beats Old Dominion…No offense, but am the only one that thinks that is a corny name for a school full of kids?

Bama beats Mizzou…I heard in Tuscaloosa they polished up a new spot in the trophy case already, despite Nick Saban’s poor-mouthing about how weak the 10th string punter is.

Purdue beats Illinois…The Boilers are not a bad bunch to look at.

USC beats Colorado…The Buffs are better.  But beating USC?  C’mon man!

My dear Carrie and I drove down to Key West yesterday.  185 miles from where I type these words right now is how far the drive was.  Was it ever worth it.  Carl enjoyed the trip too.

Carrie and I are fortunate in that we have been a place or two.  Had our second home in North Carolina not been blown up by Florence so, we would be there now.  But we aren’t.  We are here in Pompano Beach with Cody and Jarrett and Jarrett’s lady friend Sarah.  We are all having a great time.

Yesterday was special in that Carrie and I got to discover and visit places we had never been.  To hang out at Sloppy Joe’s was a treat.  You hear about the place.  You read about it.  Being there was even better.  We all know it doesn’t always turn out that way.

Chickens are everywhere in Key West.  They run the place.

At Sloppy Joe’s our new friend, Brian, played a Moodies song for us.  He sang “Your Wildest Dreams”.  He did a fine job.  Justin would approve.

We did not go in, but I snagged a photo of Ernest Hemingway’s house.  We will tour that when we get back one day.

Along the way, we took a few photos.

The place was beautiful.

We got our photo taken by a nice man.  As south as you can go.

Today, Cody took us to a place south of where we are staying called Tree Tops Park.  You can climb this tower for a good look from the tree tops.

There were some great sights here as well.

This was one of them.

Back home starts tomorrow.

Say a few prayers for the folks in the Florida panhandle.  That was some unreal devastation they were handed.  They got what I feared for my beloved North Carolina shore…so I have a sense of how much hurt is there.  It is heartbreaking.  God Bless them and their resolve.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Pompano Beach, Florida

On the way to Florida we made a stop at Moreland, Georgia.  It was an unscheduled stop.  It was a good stop.

Here is what happened.  Took a look at the map and saw the letters arranged together

A-T-L-A-N-T-A

I read T-R-A-F-F-I-C J-A-M.

We went around Atlanta to the west and along the way we found Newnan and Moreland again.  Many years ago I was on the local television station in Newnan singing a song i wrote called The Lewis Grizzard Highway.  Lewis Grizzard died in 1994.  I never met him.  I have read every word he published in book form.  He was a human interest columnist for the Atlanta paper for a number of years.  His column was syndicated to some 600 papers at the heighth of its popularity.  It did not run in the Courier-Journal.  The Bingham’s, I would say, had something to do with that.  Lewis spoke his mind.  He was a bit on the conservative side when conservatives had more sense than they do today.  Many of us whom were considered conservative back then have been left behind by a progressive movement we don’t recognize as being conservative.  Conservatives think for themselves I believe.  That is in short supply since State Television a.k.a Fox News has seemingly high-jacked so many minds with fear speech and division.  When this Republican deems Fox News worse than CNN, the country is in trouble.

I think Lewis Grizzard would still be hanging with me and others like me in the minority as we sit, watch, and wait (there are not enough of us to make a difference), and hope to live long enough to see America rally in the name of  Republic goodness instead of hearing about rallies where a president is making fun of people.  What good does that do?  Who does that help?  Hard to take for a guy who spent a dozen years telling elementary kids to “Be Nice!” And why are gas prices so high?

I digress.

Lewis Grizzard was 47 years old when he passed away.  He had heart trouble for a long time that caused multiple surgeries.  He did not survive the last one.

Moreland, Georgia was Lewis’ hometown.  In Moreland there is the Lewis Grizzard Bar-B-Cue Pavilion.

It is a nice little place.

I think Lewis would be proud.

In Newnan you will find Sprayberry’s, a fine bar-b-cue joint.  I ordered what I always ordered:

The Lewis Grizzard Special.  That and a glass of unsweetened tea and you got it made.

Lewis is remembered on the side of the Sprayberrymobile.

On the wall in Sprayberry’s.

Before we left for our trip, I grabbed a book not knowing we would be heading to the land of Grizzard.  It was a gift from Paula Lincoln when I graduated from college.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Had a good week picking the games last week with 12 winners and 1 loser.

The season picks so far are 50 winners and 15 losers after 5 weeks.

Don’t have much time here.  Will check in with a good story about a Great American tomorrow.

Ole Miss beats NLU….I still call them NLU

Iowa beats Minnesota…The Hawkeyes come to Bloomington next week.

Auburn beats Mississippi State….Should be a good one.

Bama beats Arkansas…And everyone else.

Michigan beats Maryland…But it may be close.  The Wolverines play more like squirrels.

Northwester beats Michigan State…like IU should have.

NC State beats BC…Wolkpack is tough.

Clemson beats Wake Forest…But Wake will give them some resistance

LSU beats Florida…And Coach O will be spitting joy at the post game presser

UK beats Texas A&M…I am a believer

Notre Dame beats VA Tech…Wake up the echoes

Georgia beats Vandy…Do the Dawgs still wear silver britches?

Stanford beats Utah…in a good one.

Lastly…Sadly…

Jessica Cobb died this morning.  She is the daughter of Vicki Dean.  Vicki and I worked at Medora together.  Jessica worked there on occasion as well.  Vicki is a good friend.  Jessica leaves behind nine young’uns.  God Bless them all.  Jessica had cancer.  She suffers no more.  We are sad.  She would want us to press onward and be the best we can be.  Which means being more like her.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson