Big Move for Benny

Big News Peeps!!!!
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You remember Mega-Super Peep, Ben Martin, who is the offensive line coordinator of the Official NCAA Football Team of Nanepashemet, Merrimack College???
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Ben just accepted a job as the Offensive Line Coach at Texas A&M in Houston.
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Way to go Benny!!!!
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This is a trip to the big time and Ben really deserves it.   Not only are the Aggies of national caliber in football, they also are at the apex of NCAA Division 1 Track and Field.
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This is just another example of the power of the Nanepashemet Blog.  As soon as we designated Merrimack as an official endorsement, great things happened to Ben.
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But now we probably will be leaving Merrimack and giving the endorsement to Texas A&M.  I have to think about the implications of this for awhile.

Great Grandkids

The Grandkids are coming over this weekend.  Their visits have become the highlight of our life.  I know that most of you think that I live for this pathetic Blog.... and I'll admit that the Blog has its place.... but since we are the proud grandparents of the best Grandkids in the World, that takes the priority.
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We'll get them out to see their Dad at FreshAyer, and Kate and Mike will be dropping over to hang out with them.  Since Will has only just turned three and Ethan is 1 1/2, it is hard to see how that have gained centerstage in such a short time, but they have  great personalities and are really fun to be around.
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Will is proficient in Latin and Greek, and Ethan likes to solve polynomial algebraic equations.  And they both love to chase tennis balls.
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Just kidding.... except for the tennis balls.
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I'd like to teach them how to build boats, and play the guitar, and a whole bunch of other stuff.   But in the end, they are on their own path, and will move to a destiny of contribution and fulfillment that meets the unique requirements of their time in this life.  I'm just happy that we are in the mix.

TommyO said...
Looks Great

Corporate Shelter

BP is screwed up. 
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A huge, international corporation with nobody who can speak on their feet.  Their Swedish President comes in and says he is concerned for the "small people".  Then they send their Chief Executive, Tony Hayward, who testifies in Congress that he is significantly without the facts.
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Guys... .this is the fight of your lives.  You really should come to the game ready to play.  Even if you are doing a good job at this clean up project, your communication skills negate anything.
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I think of the years that I spent in a Fortune 500 corporation, and the clueless, corporate-speak phonies that I had to endure.... You could almost transpose their faces onto these BP losers.  In a corporate shelter and just incompetent on their feet.

Finals Outcome.

Celtics lost in a hard fought game 7 against the Lakers.  This was a classic series between the most storied franchises in professional basketball.  It was worth staying up late to watch.

Leak Before Links

President Obama has played 6 rounds of golf since the oil leak broke - less that 60 days ago.   I haven't had the time to get a single round in, but then again, I've been pretty busy at Nanepashemet Telecom.   Does this seem petty on my part????  I guess maybe it does.
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When you get to be President, you get the perks.  Case in point - I asked Paul McCartney to drop by the house last weekend for some beer and barbeque.   Absolute no show.  Yet Obama had both Paul and Bono over recently for a meal that I bet he totally expensed.
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BO - you've got to get serious.   Kids are still being shipped back from the Middle East in body bags, Pelicans and Shrimp Boat fishermen are in for some serious shit.   If I were you, I'd give the links a rest until you at least take care of the leak.

Cessation of Hostilities.

Sometimes I think I overdo it with the "Mountain of a Man" stuff.
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But then I have days like today when I realize just what a Mountain of a Man that I really am!
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I had left the house in the F-150 around 7:00AM and headed south through Boston and Providence to the City of Groton, Connecticut...... A trip I have made far too many times over the last year and a half.
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The drama unfolded about 10 o'clock this morning as I advanced into the sanctorum of the enemy.  After a quick stop in the Men's Room, I was fully prepared to engage in mortal combat and win what was legally and rightfully mine.

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When the Building Department Counterclerk saw me, she slowly rose from her chair, picked up some plans and documents that were bound in elastics, handed them to me, and said..... "Here you go."

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Thus ended the epic confrontation after months of struggle.

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I'm sure the trauma and the bad dreams will fade with time.

Glorious Quest

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." [Psalm 23:4]
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Yes Peeps....
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I'm facing my Demons and heading back to the City of Groton, Connecticut tomorrow morning.
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If I were a Norseman, they would probably be writing a Saga about it right now.   Don Quixote has nothing on me.
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Once again, I will be boldly striding into the City Hall, seeking relief for my beleaguered telecom customer.  Whether I emerge victorious, or again be sent in shame with my tail between my legs.... only time will tell.
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But a Mountain of a Man doesn't back down.... no shying away from adversity.... no avoiding conflict or controversy.   Tomorrow, we will again make the Glorious Quest.

Rubber, Road, and Oil

This is where the rubber meets the road for President Barack Obama.  The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is not a hazy 10,000 page piece of legislation like the Health Care Bill.  You can see and touch the oil slicks, and it will take the management and marshalling of specific physical resources to effect the cleanup.

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If he has the management ability, the cleanup will solidify his Presidentcy.....or expose an unfortunate shortcoming.
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A big part of project management is communication of the plan progress to stakeholders.  Not only does the Federal Government need to effectively plan and implement.... it also has to communicate the results effectively.

Making Sense

Thank God that the Celtics are playing tonight.   Between the Obama address and other bullshit that is going on, I really need to focus on something that makes sense.... like a Basketball game.

Stupid and Ackward

If you believe the reports of ABC News, people on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico are being told that they can't work in the cleanup unless they are part of the official BP cleanup effort.  That's great.  Take individual initiative right out of the mix.  Don't allow people to help themselves.  Have people stand around and let the federal government direct BP what to do.
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Does this sound like liberal ideology to you???  We're from the government.  We know better.  We will take care of you...... deteriorating into regulation, bureaucracy and incompetence.
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I'm officially frustrated. 
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This is a low tech clean up effort that Americans could handle with a little competent action and leadership.  Governor Jindal of Louisiana likes it when President Obama flies down there because he says that is when the pace of the federal effort is picked up.  Nice plan.  Have the President of the United States babysit the federal workers.
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I've been to Louisiana numerous times.  Been in the Bayous and salt marshes of the vast Mississippi River Delta.   It is a beautiful area, and I'm not worried for a second that it will be ruined forever.  The mess will be cleaned, and the oil, which is a natural substance will break down and be absorbed.  Too bad it has to be this stupid and ackward.

Brutal Blog Background

For some psychological or perhaps metaphysical reason, I remain fascinated by the history of this Blog's namesake... the Great Sachem Nanepashemet of the Naumkeag band and ruling over the Massachusetts and Pawtucket native people of New England.
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It is a little known fact that throughout the 1600's, Massachsetts was the scene of war and pestilence, the likes of which this nation has never experienced again.... not in the Civil War, WWI or WWII.
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The Tarratine war, which occurred between 1607 and 1630 and the concurrent plague and smallpox epidemics took a thriving Native American population of thirty thousand Massachusetts coastal inhabitants and reduced it by 90%.... or three thousand survivors.  This paved the way for the English settlers to move into the highly cultivated agricultural lands of the Massachusetts tribes with minimal cost and resistance.
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The Tarratines of Nova Scotia and Northern Maine established contact with the French and became emissaries of a emerging industry of providing North American furs to a European fashion market.  Disagreements in trade negotiations between tribes caused violence and indignities which were escalated into invasion and war raids by the Tarratines into Massachusetts tribal lands.  They were aided by a technological advantage.... gunpowder and firearms supplied by their French benefactors.
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The invaders indisciminiately killed women, children, and even infants.  Prisoners were rarely taken and if they were, they were tortured and usually burned at the stake.  Most raids were conducted at night. It was a terrifying and horrific period.  There frequently were not enough tribespeople left alive to bury the dead.
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Nanepashemet had sent a war party to aid the Penobscots of Maine and they had success in their skirmishes with the Tarratines in mid-Coast Maine.  But the vengeful Tarratines sent wave after wave of raiders against Nanepashemet in Salem, Marblehead, and Ipswich and he moved to a fortified position in a stockade fort located in a hill in Medford, MA north of the Mystic River.
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There the Tarratines laid siege to him and he was killed in battle in 1619.  Hostilities lessened after that but still continued as two of Nanepashemet's sons were wounded in a raid on the Agawam village in present day Ipswich a few years later.   His daughter-in-law was captured and brought back to Maine, but she was returned by an English settler on the Pemaquid peninsula who paid a ransom and brought her back to the Naumkeags.
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Before the century ended, King Phillips War again decimated the New England Indians as well as the Puritan settlers in a war that had the highest percentage of casualties that this nation has ever experienced.  I would tell you more, but I'm kind of running out of gas on this post.   Plus you are probably so bored that you are contemplating opening your veins and bleeding to death.
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Sorry.....I told you at the beginning that my fascination with this was a bit over the top.  But I bet you never realized that our quaint little New England region was the site of such anquish and carnage within the armreach of our modern historical record.

To find out more, see Remembering the Tarratines and Nanepashemet  by John V.Goff

Thrills and Angst

Celtics are up 3 games to 2 over the Lakers with the final two games to be played in Los Angeles.  It's been a hard fought series and any doubt that Kobe Bryant is the best player in the game has got to be dispelled.  His ability to make contested shots is incredible.
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But the Celtics counter with a team of solid professionals, each of whom have the ability to break open the game.

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Its been a great series to watch.  The only downside is when the camera pans to shots of John Havlicek in the stands.  He really looks older and it seems like yesterday when he, Dave Cowens, and a different Celtics team was providing the same thrills, hope and angst.
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Tempus Fugit.