Too emotionally involved to be unbiased

To most of you, it made no difference that the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. You don’t watch hockey, and probably have no interest in attempting to watch it.
But I watched nearly every game of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I even went to a Hurricanes game earlier this year. I paid for the tickets and everything. I never thought I would be doing that when the team came to North Carolina nine years ago.
I remember being at a meeting of North Carolina sports writers sponsored by the state’s AP bureau shortly after the Hurricanes defected from Hartford, Connecticut. Jim Rutherford, the team’s general manager, addressed the group about what he expected with his team’s new neighbors, and spoke of how the whole region would embrace hockey. I thought he was nuts. Why would anyone bring a hockey team to a region that knows nothing about hockey?
Well, I was very wrong. Rutherford and owner Peter Karmanos knew exactly what they were doing, and have carved out a niche of fans for their lovable little sport.
Compared to other sporting avenues, hockey is a relative bargain. When I went, I spent about $15 a seat, sat in the upper section and had a great view of the action. Try to get into a Carolina Panthers game for 15 bucks. Forget getting a peek at a NASCAR race for those prices. And as far as UNC, N.C. State or Duke basketball, well, most of those tickets can’t be had at any price.
The brain trust behind the ‘Canes need to take a well-earned bow for doing what many — even me — thought was impossible.

My appreciation for the ’Canes makes me glad I am not still in the position of having to cover their games for a newspaper. I am too emotionally involved to be unbiased.
That probably stops me from ever being able to take my dream job — San Diego Padres beat writer. I have been a Padres fan since my dad took us to a game in their first season, back in 1969.
That reminds me of another writer who battled conflict between his sporting loyalties and his duty as a journalist. Lewis Grizzard, the esteemed southern humorist, was a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was a lifelong adoring fan of the University of Georgia. On one of his many sports-related assignments, Grizzard attended the annual Georgia-Georgia Tech football game. When it was all said and done, the Yellow Jackets had beaten Grizzard’s beloved ‘Dawgs.
The best I can remember, this is what Grizzard wrote in his column: “Frankly, I don’t want to talk about it.” The rest of the column was blank.
I don’t know if Grizzard ever got in trouble for that. I know his talent often got him out of spots like that. I also know that it was that kind of passion for his subject that made him one of the most readable authors of his generation.

I have discovered a strain of reader reaction that I did not know existed until recently.
We at the News Leader try very hard to be receptive to our readers, and we care very much how they feel about the things we are doing.
I heard a reader who had stopped by the new office talking to one of our employees, and he mentioned that he did not care for our tabloid-look front page.
“I don’t like it much,” he said. “But if everybody else is O.K. with it, I reckon I can stand it.”
That’s an interesting take on the yes-or-no mentality of most queries. Instead of being entrenched in his own ideals, he decided that if the paper is acceptable to most of the readers as it was, he would adjust to it, even if he did not particularly care for it.
His willingness to bend to the majority opinion was refreshing, even if it was on a seemingly insignificant matter (the front page is certainly not insignificant to us, but I am betting that your lives do not turn on which direction our cover shot is pointed).
What a world this could be if we took the same approach to more serious social disagreements.
Imagine if U.S. Senate minority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, came to the microphone in the Senate and said, “You know, I just hate how the President is handling the problem of poverty in this country. But poverty seems to be getting a little better, and the American people have no real problem with how it’s getting done, so I guess it isn’t the end of the world if he doesn’t do it the way I would like.”
A baseball manager comes out of the dugout after his player is called on a called third strike and tells the umpire, “Hey Augie, I really think you blew that call. But you were standing right back here, and I was way over in the dugout, so I could be wrong. It’s not like we are going to lose on that one call. I’ll go along with it, but just so you know, O.K.?”
A motorist pulls up to the gas station and fills up his SUV at $3.79 a gallon. He goes into the store and says to the clerk, “I am sure that all that high cost of gas is not just to offset the high price of crude oil. In fact, I believe someone at this company is grossly profiting at the expense of the motoring public. But you’re making $6 an hour, so why should I grouse to you? And there are six guys behind me waiting to pay after filling up, as well. I guess we get what we deserve.”
Hey, it could happen.

By the way, Rosewood native and Cincinnati Reds manager Jerry Narron has added to his resume. Already able to call himself a major league player, coach and manager, he can now add All-Star coach.
Houston manager Phil Garner picked Narron as one of two current managers on his all-star coaching roster for the July Classic. It’s quite an accolade for Jerry. His son Connor will also go to the All-Star game with his dad. Jerry will be honored to represent the National League in Pittsburgh.
Jerry has not been getting the press he deserves for the Reds’ improved start this season, although he would be the last one to take credit. A new owner has brought a new aggressiveness to the team, and a new general manager has already made shrewd trades that have improved the club. But it has been Narron who has made the moves on the field and in the dugout, balancing a lot of talent and egos with a deft touch to keep the Reds in contention all season long.
By season’s end, no matter where the Reds end up, the new owner and GM will decide on Jerry’s fate as manager. He’s earned another contract, but Jerry has been around baseball long enough to know nothing is guaranteed. He will go on doing what he does, and face the off-season — and whatever comes with it — when it arrives.
Here’s hoping the Reds hold onto him. But if not, Jerry’s reputation and experience will certainly land him another job. If Bobby Cox decides to give up managing the Braves after Atlanta’s slumping season, perhaps we could see Jerry on TBS in the future.

Do you ever get a good idea?

I mean, an idea so good you practically jump up from your chair, beam a smile and nearly break your arm trying to pat yourself on the back?
The creations that benefit society most usually come from the most humble beginnings. The automobile, the computer, the telephone and the light bulb — all these great creations came from an idea, a notion thought up through a lark or a creative flight of fancy.
By and large, these inventive notions do not come from the deep thinkers and noted scholars of our day. They come from the average Joe, the regular guy, the mom-and-pop everyman who see how something is, and imagine how it could be better.
I recently watched a television series — yes, reality TV strikes again — called “American Inventor.” The show was about a nationwide search for the next great inventor, and they saw thousands of applicants, each of whom had an idea so strong that they devoted enormous amounts of time, energy and money into developing it.
These were creative people. Some of their ideas were fascinating, from newly designed child safety seats to bicycles with pedals and a seat on the handlebars to ride kids double.
The push of the show came from these inventors and their willingness to risk everything in their lives to see their dreams come to reality.
Good ideas spring from anywhere. Here are a few good ideas I have thought of or heard about over the years, but have not seen developed.
• The Department of Defense can save billions if they could develop a technology for their fighter aircraft that allows them to fly like moths do, all willy-nilly and random. Ever try to swat a moth? The innovation would render anti-aircraft artillery useless.
• Let’s save our precious natural resources by developing a bathing and cleaning system that uses compressed air instead of water. Imaging stepping into the shower each morning and getting a cleansing blast of 120 PSI, blasting off all the funky stuff. Think of the savings in towels and electricity from hair dryer use, not to mention the dent in the water bill. Wash clothes? Why? All you’d have to do is hang them up on the line and blast away with the compression hose. Let the kids do it — it would be fun. Let’s set up dishwashers with a swirling 200 PSI for those stuck-on food problems.
• How many times have you burned your lips, your tongue or the roof of your mouth on hot coffee or piping hot food? Well, let’s create a thin, plastic mouth and lip lining that keeps your sensitive features from being scalded. Can’t taste your food? That may be a plus. Little Jimmy might eat those Brussels sprouts if he can’t taste them.
• Let’s get the agricultural community working on a new strain of potatoes that already has the butter, sour cream, cheese and whatever else already grown in. This eliminates the need for those messy potato bars in restaurants. The money they save not having to hire people to stock and clean those bars could show up in reduced bills. Well, maybe.
• A lot of good ideas can be found in science fiction. When the “Star Trek” movies came out (I am not a Trekkie, but did watch the movies), there was an imaginary device on Klingon spaceships that “cloaked” the ship from its enemies. It was an interesting notion that I forgot about until a few months ago, when I read that some think-tank out west is working on just such a cloaking device. It won’t have practical applications for decades, but I guarantee some lab-coat wearing guy somewhere watched the same movie I did and said, “hey, if we just…”
And a notion was born.
Are those communications devices they wore on their blouses really that much different from cell phones? That funky earpiece Lt. Uhura wore when getting messages on the bridge likely gave birth to those Bluetooth devices a lot of people wear in their ears right now.
A lot of innovative notions come from simply solving routine problems. Wouldn’t you like to have been the guy that invented Post-It Notes? Or Liquid Paper? Toilet paper holders came about when someone thought of a new way to keep the roll of paper available, functional and hands-free.
Great creations are out there waiting to be discovered. They are all around. It has been said that the current generation is just too lazy to be creative, or lacks the motivation to do something as magnificent as invent the automobile or the telephone. I disagree. The problem comes from no one having any way to put those thoughts into action. They lack the finds and the technical expertise to move the idea along.
There were thousands of hopeful contestants on “American Inventor,” and while the show made a lot of them look foolish for the sake of good TV, I have to take my hat off to all of them. They all believed in their idea and their creation. They all put time, money and effort into their ideas that backed up that belief — and that takes real guts.
Some of those people quit their jobs and spent every dime they ever earned, only to be told their idea would never get off the ground. Well, at least they gave the effort to get it that far. Good for them.
A lot of people would see that as foolhardy, and I can’t completely disagree. But in that short-sighted risk of future security, they took a bold and brave step based off their belief in something with so much fervor and passion that they would take the gamble. They risked their way of life as a way of confirming their devotion to their notion. Their bravery and devotion should be noted and saluted before they are discarded.
So having the idea isn’t the tough part. Having the guts to see it through is what tests you. It’s not like I am sinking any of my money into one of my ideas.
That’s safe. But it’s also kind of sad.
I have two friends who are in business together, and the going has been slow for them. They frequently get discouraged, but they pick each other up and go on. They have a lot of guts and a lot of faith, and most of all, they have the courage to fail. That is why they are going to do very well someday, and why I am proud to count them as friends.
Inventors are hard to find. So are brave people who believe in the power of their dreams.

David Williams

Culture Shock

I am taken recently with the concept of culture shock. Perhaps this subject intrigues me because I am getting older and have not really noticed it until recently.
I have noticed a few facial changes lately. As I shave or brush my teeth, I see more gray and silver in my hair than I last recall being intertwined through my auburn locks; the slow slide of toned facial area that now seems to be crawling down my cheeks and gathering below my chin; the slow folds of eyelid that are gradually weighing down on my eyes like snow on a tree bough.
There are physical activities that are passing out of my life, like riding a bike or playing pickup basketball for the fun of it.
These days, as I wheeze and gasp through a mile and a half of running — or what I do that passes for running — I can remember the days when a younger Air Force veteran would knock out a mile and a half in under nine minutes and stand at the finish line, jogging in place and yelling encouragement at my squadron mates as they finished.
Who was that skinny kid, anyway? Yes, it was me, but that was a different me, at least physically.
Back then, I really didn’t think of myself as a prime physical specimen, and I really wasn’t. But that guy was miles better off than the slightly overweight, slightly graying, slightly balding man that now stands before you, wrapped up in the throes of middle age.
Some of my body parts hurt now, and for no reason — and that is only going to get worse.
I find myself getting up to go do something, and forgetting what it was before I arrive to do it. I just hope I was not on my way to the bathroom.
And speaking of that room, I have discovered that middle age gives you a whole new appreciation for the room of rest – and the odd times of the night you now go in there to avail yourself of its functions.
My dog usually wakes me up about 5 a.m. or so to go out. I used to think she was just being cruel, and committing a perverse reversal of the old canine adage about letting sleeping people lie. But it just could be that her love and loyalty for her master is so deep that she wakes me up to ensure I won’t do something while asleep that I haven’t done since the diaper days.
If she is that smart, she should be writing the columns.
But the disconnect with the coming generations is what strikes me as disturbing. This is the same phenomenon that occurred when as a young person, I used to look at my parents’ generation, as well as generations before, and wondered what we had in common.
Now, however, the shoe is on the other foot.
Just for the value of culture shock, I thought I might toss out some people, places and things that the generation after mine probably cannot relate to, knows nothing about, or considers an event of history.
• That Sir Paul McCartney was in two bands — Wings and the Beatles.
• Skylab.
• The AFL.
• Cable TV with channel selection boxes that had long cords on them.
• CB radios in your cars.
• Brown paper bags for groceries.
• Taking a paddling at school.
• The fun of a Rubik’s Cube.
• Listening to radio meant listening to AM radio — FM was a new genre, filled with unheard-of bands.
• A McDonald’s ad campaign that featured the phrase “Change back for your dollar.”
• Going to the movies with popcorn, candy and a drink for around four dollars — for two.
• Playing youth baseball with wooden bats — and playing ball in the street.
• Watching wrestling on Saturdays when it was broadcast live from the TV station near home.
• TBS was called “Superstation channel 17.”
• Satellites were used in science fiction stories and James Bond movies, not for weather forecasts.
• The Challenger disaster.
• American hostages being held in Iran for 444 days.
• Ronald Reagan running for president — twice.
These things and many others were ingrained in our generation, but they have slipped past the Gen-X’ers and gone on to the pages of history.
And just like we scratched our heads and looked on with puzzlement as our parents fixated on Ed Sullivan, Vietnam and nuclear war, our kids and their kids look at us and wonder what we get out of TV Land, look on with fascination at our attachment to disco music and southern rock, and fail to get the jokes on reruns of All In The Family.
Society groups us by age — from Baby Boomers to me-generation folks to Gen-Xers. And each age has their icons and their cultures and their unique fingerprint. Just like we want the younger set to appreciate what we have contributed and understand what we respect, so too must we Geezers-to-be demonstrate our willingness to understand what the current generation holds so dear.
If understanding is going to work, we don’t need to like rap music, but we do need to know why the kids do. Extreme sports like jumping off ramps with bicycles and skateboards isn’t something I want to try, but I can appreciate the adrenaline junkies that are into it.
But I gotta draw the line at piercing. Sorry, but that’s where the soon-to-be old man in me begins to bud. I don’t want one, and I do not understand why you kids do. Maybe someone can explain it to me before my hearing goes away, or before I forget why I asked for an explanation.