Posted on by Patrick

Oregon State Should Be Asking The “Big” Questions

I have three boys who go to Oregon State. They’re hardcore football fans in every way. It’s totally genetic. They could care less about Beavers Football, have no interest in going to the games. It’s not only about wins and losses. The games aren’t any fun, the offense isn’t any fun. There’s no identity, no player or ideal or concept to identify with. There’s no high-level direction, there doesn’t seem to be a master plan. So OSU needs to be shopping for a lot more than a new head coach, it needs to be shopping for a vision, a football philosophy, a reason for being. And that will require starting from scratch – absolute ground zero – and asking the big questions.

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Posted on by Patrick

The Car Judge

I believe we should judge the people, places and things around us at every turn. Life is funner if you judge everything, if you rank and categorize and assemble top ten lists at the drop of a hat. Who knows, maybe a fairly serious fight will break out? I’m not talking about good-person, bad-person judgment; not heaven or hell judgment, that’s above my pay grade. I’m talking about totally superficial, spur-of-the-moment, painting-people-with-a-broad-brush judgment. In this nation we need to stop making assumptions about people based on race, creed and color and start speculating on what people are like based solely on the type of car they drive.

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Posted on by Patrick

Living With Snoopy

Well, I don’t actually live with him, I mean, I would, but I don’t think he has room … What I mean to say is that I kinda have a lot of Snoopy stuff around, in every room, and I’ve read lots of comics and some books and there are calendars and lunch pails and rubber soap dishes from fifty years ago that cost five bucks and while we don’t technically live together I think we understand each other and so we sorta live in the same metaphysical space.

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