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Word that we’re worth a study
Last week we learned from CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth that a Minnesota hotel developer he’s been working with was making a pitch in Arizona to the good people at the Choice Hotels group about potentially building a 50-room hotel in Crookston. Hoiseth said the other day he hadn’t had a chance to talk to the developer since his presentation. Here’s hoping that this week Hoiseth is able to touch base with the developer and that he hears that the Choice people – whose umbrella includes hotels like the Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, Clarion, etc. – liked what they heard enough to undertake a study of the Crookston lodging market.
Nip nickname bans in the bud
It was bound to happen. With the NCAA holding its heavy hand over college sports teams by disallowing Native American nicknames and high schools doing the same over the last several years, it seems political correctness with nicknaming has gone berserk. The case of the new high school in Utah whose students voted to adopt the Cougars as their mascot is the ultimate example of this. The cougar is a popular mascot used in hundreds, perhaps thousands of high schools and colleges all over the States. While you certainly would not want to meet one face to face in the wild, a cougar is a magnificent big cat that represents power and fierceness, things that are desirable in sports teams. But because of a certain hit TV show and double meaning the word has taken on – describing an older woman going after a considerably younger man – the school board decided that the Chargers would be a less offensive and derogatory term for the team. We can't offend the human "cougars," after all. Someone should tell the board that, for one, the majority of women who are tagged "cougars" actually take pride in the name and, secondly, no one in their right mind would correlate a team with that meaning of the word.
Realization that, yes, defense wins championships
The NFL Pro Bowl will be played next weekend, one week before the Super Bowl. Unless Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers come up with some pseudo-injuries that let them bow out of the game, the few fans who give a rip about the game will see them throw to wide-open receivers, and the final score will probably be around 48-45. These two quarterbacks, you see, lit up the league all season, but they’re playing in the Pro Bowl next weekend because they lost in the playoffs and won’t be playing in the game that matters, the Super Bowl. Why? Because the cliché is true: Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Look at the scores of most of the NFL playoff games this month, and Sunday’s AFC and NFC championship games. Defense matters, despite the NFL’s reality-almost-becomes-fantasy offensive explosion this season.
Word that we’re worth a study
Last week we learned from CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth that a Minnesota hotel developer he’s been working with was making a pitch in Arizona to the good people at the Choice Hotels group about potentially building a 50-room hotel in Crookston. Hoiseth said the other day he hadn’t had a chance to talk to the developer since his presentation. Here’s hoping that this week Hoiseth is able to touch base with the developer and that he hears that the Choice people – whose umbrella includes hotels like the Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, Clarion, etc. – liked what they heard enough to undertake a study of the Crookston lodging market.
Nip nickname bans in the bud
It was bound to happen. With the NCAA holding its heavy hand over college sports teams by disallowing Native American nicknames and high schools doing the same over the last several years, it seems political correctness with nicknaming has gone berserk. The case of the new high school in Utah whose students voted to adopt the Cougars as their mascot is the ultimate example of this. The cougar is a popular mascot used in hundreds, perhaps thousands of high schools and colleges all over the States. While you certainly would not want to meet one face to face in the wild, a cougar is a magnificent big cat that represents power and fierceness, things that are desirable in sports teams. But because of a certain hit TV show and double meaning the word has taken on – describing an older woman going after a considerably younger man – the school board decided that the Chargers would be a less offensive and derogatory term for the team. We can't offend the human "cougars," after all. Someone should tell the board that, for one, the majority of women who are tagged "cougars" actually take pride in the name and, secondly, no one in their right mind would correlate a team with that meaning of the word.
Realization that, yes, defense wins championships
The NFL Pro Bowl will be played next weekend, one week before the Super Bowl. Unless Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers come up with some pseudo-injuries that let them bow out of the game, the few fans who give a rip about the game will see them throw to wide-open receivers, and the final score will probably be around 48-45. These two quarterbacks, you see, lit up the league all season, but they’re playing in the Pro Bowl next weekend because they lost in the playoffs and won’t be playing in the game that matters, the Super Bowl. Why? Because the cliché is true: Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Look at the scores of most of the NFL playoff games this month, and Sunday’s AFC and NFC championship games. Defense matters, despite the NFL’s reality-almost-becomes-fantasy offensive explosion this season.
Pirates heat up for the home-stretch
We are approaching the final stretch of many of the Pirate winter sports seasons and while no team dominating the competition all the teams are competitive. The wrestling squad has just five events left before the section team tournament gets underway on Feb. 18. The boys' basketball squad has a ways to go with ten games remaining but they seem to have found a groove in 2012, winning five of their seven games so far. Girls' basketball has also found a rhythm since the holidays, winning seven of its last nine games. Girls' hockey has climbed above the .500 mark and has just four games remaining until the Section 8A Tournament kicks off Feb. 9. Boys' hockey has struggled but they are improving as the season goes on and with six games left before the section tournament on Feb. 21 it is all about preparing for the postseason. We are hoping all the Pirate teams peak at the right time and play their best in the fast-approaching postseasons near.
A new Poe tradition
The mysterious "Poe Toaster" is, apparently, nevermore, being a no-show at the famed writer's grave on his birthday for the third year in a row. The anonymous man in black with a white scarf and wide-brimmed hat, who has left three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe's original grave in Baltimore every year since at least the 1940s has not made his appearance, even though crowds have gathered to anxiously await his appearance. No one knows who the man was, or if it was even one person or several. The thinking here is that the toaster is either no longer among the living or can no longer make the annual trek. Whatever the reason for his absence, it may be time to come up with a new ritual, which Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome aims to do with a reading of tributes by Poe fans at the gravesite. While it may not be nearly as mesmerizing as the mysterious stranger's visit, it is a tribute that would certainly receive Poe's stamp of approval.
