CougarDolphin

Friends of mine may know that there is a song I cherish, borne of my days as a child in Miami during the early heyday of Dan Marino's tenure as a Miami Dolphin. We were taught this song in our elementary school music class:

Miami Dolphins,
Miami Dolphins,
Miami Dolphins Number One,
Hey! Hey! Hey!

Repeat

The years since Dan the Man retired have been tough on the team, but I see hope in the form of a Cougar- John Beck. His selection with the 9th pick in the second round was part of a Miami master plan calculated to get them the players they wanted most. From Dave Hyde in the Sun-Sentinel:

Only four people had an idea. That was part of the stealth plan. As it began to unveil with the pick of Ted Ginn Jr., coach Cam Cameron was famously booed, ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr., called the Dolphins, "in a word, ridiculous," and Mueller alternated between text-messaging the next target in quarterback John Beck, trying furiously to trade up to get Beck and receiving a text message from his teenage daughter."Dad, I love Ginn," it read. "But you're going to need a bulletproof vest to get home."
By Monday afternoon, as he sat at the Dolphins' facility in a team sweatshirt, chuckling about that message, Mueller still sat in the epicenter of a national football debate over this Dolphins draft."We expected that," he said. "Cam and I knew exactly what the reaction would be [to passing on Quinn]."The booing? The name-calling? The coast-to-coast furor?"All of it," he said. "But that's how it had to be. We wouldn't encourage, discourage, lead or mislead anyone leading up to the draft. We could just stay mum about our plans."I would cringe whenever I turned on a TV and saw Beck being mentioned. I didn't want anyone talking about him at all. I didn't want any team to know what we thought of him and another team maybe taking him."

The article provides more information about the logic behind their picks. As a BYU fan, my biases may outweigh my ability to analyze this more clearly, but I am nothing but optimistic. Beck can throw the long ball and Ginn can run. Seems like a good marrriage.

The Phuture of the Phins?

The Miami Herald has a nice opinion piece advocating the ascension of former BYU quarterback John Beck to the starting spot on the Miami Dolphins. He makes a good case:

Beck did pretty well in the preseason if you'll recall, throwing for more August yards (300) than any Dolphin rookie since Marino pitched for 354 in '83. Don Shula then waited half a season to give Marino his chance and later wished he hadn't.
Marino went on to throw 296 passes as a rookie. Bob Griese threw 331. The idea that rookie QBs need to be treated like porcelain -- lest they shatter irreversibly if deployed a minute too soon -- doesn't stand up.

There is a very good chance that Beck will get more playing time. That is reason to be optimistic.

Bet on Beck

John Beck is one of my all-time favorite BYU quarterbacks. His last-second win over Utah in his final season will forever be a treasured memory.

He is fighting for the starting quarterback slot on the Washington Redskins. From an effort standpoint, he would win it. But there is more involved. Washington is a tough market, with a difficult owner and little patience. We'll see what happens. If he gets a chance, he will have better tools at his disposal than he did during his abysmal season playing for the Dolphins.

Missionary Football

This is a good article from the Miami Herald about the LDS missionary service of 4 current Miami Dolphins. The most notable of the four is John Beck, 2nd year quarterback. Beck had a bad year last year, but sums up how his missionary experience had prepared him:

I always say when you're on the mission, you have to face a lot of rejection. A lot of people don't want to talk to you. When you walk down the streets, people throw stuff at you, they cuss at you. Where I was at in Portugal, some people liked to swerve their cars in front of us, kind of joke around like, `I'm going to hit you.' Ridicule, all that kind of stuff, it was just normal, you just had to work through it.
Let's take that into last year where a lot of things were going bad for us. It was tough, but we had to just keep on working kind of with the goal in mind that even though it's tough, we're going to keep working and things will be good. That's kind of how it is on a mission.
You'll sometimes work, work, work, work, day after day after day, tons of rejection, tons of rejection, then you find one person who really does want to talk to you, who it really does matter to, that makes it all worth it. For me, last year was a tough year, but I'm still working, I've still got my nose to the grinder, because this year could be good, and it'll all be worth it.
This year will be good, and it'll all be worth it.

I hope so.

Gators Win!

Allow me to feel a bit of pride in my predictive ability, although I never expected the Gators to be SO dominant. Yesterday I mentioned that Florida did indeed have a strong running game, albeit an unconventional one.

I found the coverage by FOX to be inferior in many respects, and thought that the commentators were guilty of drinking the media Kool-Aid of Ohio State's dominance. So much for the talk of a Michigan-Ohio State rematch. So much for the talk of USC being the best team in the country. Florida absolutely manhandled this team, this much-praised Buckeye squad, and I loved every minute of it. I still haven't forgotten Miami-Ohio State 2003.

A few conclusions from this college season:

• Neither Troy Smith or Brady Quinn are the best player or Quarterback in the country. John Beck of BYU deserves some mention in the QB category, as does LSU's Jemarcus Russell.
• The Big 10 continues to be an overrated conference.
• Urban Meyer is one heck of a coach. Spurrier who?
• The Sports media doesn't know any more than the rest of us.
• College Football is the best, most exciting sport in the land!

SPOTD #152

Coming at you from sunny, and increasingly warm, Florida.

Today's phrase:
An excellent phrase, inspired by one of the items below.

Actual:
Más tocino, por favor.

Phonetic with emphasis on bold syllable:
Mahs toe-see-no, pore fah-vore.

Translation:
More bacon, please.

We've Come a Long Way
Since Joseph's aunt and uncle gave him this little gem at Christmas my love of Nerf weapons has been reborn. I happened upon this retrospective of Nerf's finest creations.

Movies
Disturbia: A pretty good thriller. Not a bad rental. Not all that surprising, and a little grisly, but fun.
Run, Fatboy Run: Very funny british movie that had me a little misty at the end. It's the little boy. Not too Hollywoody, with some wacky, but not totally outrageous characters.
Bolt: The introductory sequence to this movie was great. I would watch a show like that. The kids loved it- "Zoom zoom."
Duplicity: First movie I've seen in the theater since Benjamin Button in December. Not bad, but not great. Slick and well-acted, but insubstantial.

Good Sport
This was a great story from the Miami Herald of a local kid getting an unlikely shot at the NFL. I'm not sure if he got drafted, its a good story.
In less happy news, former BYU quarterback John Beck was cut from the Dolphins. His only legacy is the classy way that he played, but I guess that's better than nothing.

Keep on Shrugging
I've written about Atlas Shrugged 5 Times on the blog. One of my favorite books ever, and it may (MAY) finally be made into a movie.

World's Oldest Lady loves...Bacon
And who can blame her? At 115 years she can do whatever she wants.

Idiot Watch
A German woman jumped into the polar bear exhibit at the Berlin Zoo, and then was attacked. I think she got exactly what she deserved.
Honorable mention? Whoever engineered the flyover of the 747 in New York City on Monday.

Link of the Day
Speaking of biting animals, how many piranhas does it take to eat a person? Click the link and find out.

SPOTD E-mail on the Web (#118)

All is well in Lowryland. We are looking forward to moving into a new house in a short while. Son of SPOTD is doing well. SPOTDaughter is moving like crazy, preparing for her April arrival. The name is a secret until the birth. If anyone happens to guess the name (and you get one try and only for the first name) I will reward you with a healthy dose of respect and a bubble gum cigar.

Lots of good stuff to read. Check out Right Wing Pundit for more and check the SPOTD blog every few days for more cool stuff.


Today's phrase:
From Aristóteles (Aristotle)

Actual:
El castigo del embustero es no ser creído aún cuando diga la verdad.

Phonetic with emphasis on bold syllable:
Ell cass-tee-go dale aim-boo-stair-oh ess no sare cray-eeh-doe ah-oon cwan-do dee-gah lah vair-dahd.

Translation:
The punishment of the liar is to not be believed even when telling the truth.


Cougarfan
Thanks to Justino Palmer for the link. Former BYU quarterback John Beck made a strong showing at the NFL combine. Hopefully he will have a good draft and have a chance to show his stuff in the pros.

Celebrity
I thought this was interesting. It is 12 minute clip of the opening monologue of late-night talkshow host Craig Ferguson. He takes a really honest look at celebrity. I thought it was very well said and funny as well.

Mystery Guitarist
My friend Lisa Chau sent me this story. It talks about a young man whose guitar rendition of Pachabel's Canon is supposed to be quite impressive. You can review the story.
The video in question can be found here:
Would any of this be possible without the Internet? Without sites like YouTube? I don't think so. The kid would have wowed his family and friends, but now millions have seen this. It just seems to be a small part of the larger trend toward user-directed entertainment. If I want to see a laughing baby, I enter a search. You can find almost anything. This is the way of the future. My videos of Joseph have been seen hundreds of times.

AIDS News
Circumcision may drasticly reduce the risk of AIDS transmission. When I first heard about these studies, conducted in Africa, I assumed that circumcision had an impact for cultural or social reasons, but there is an actual biological reason. Read the story for more details.

Glamour of Flight
Recent troubles in the Airline industry can make you nostalgic for the old days. Some of us never saw days like the ones in these photos.

Link of the Day
Ever seen an exploding whale? Tried to blow one up? It isn't as easy as it seems. Thanks to Joey Miller for the link.

BYU!

What an awesome game. BYU was absolutely dominant on both sides of the ball, a performance like I don't think we've seen in a long time from the Cougs.

This season, despite the earlier troubles, is one for the record books, seeing how John Beck, Curtis Brown, and other seniors finished their time at the Y.

SPOTD E-mail #124

Life is hectic in my house, but I can't really complain. We are having fun with our new arrival. Besides what I've included on the blog, you can visit http://www.spotd.net/ to see more pictures and read more about the kids. I will update it soon.

The blog continues to be eclectic and updated frequently.

Today's phrase:
From an unknown author

Actual:
El humor es el resplandor de la mente.

Phonetic with emphasis on bold syllable:
Ell oo-morr ess ell rays-plahn-dorr day lah main-tay.

Translation:
Humor is the brilliance of the mind.

Blog Recap
Scroll down the blog for these recent entries:
-Standout BYU quarterback John Beck was drafted by the Miami Dolphins.
-Liberal law professors are helping change precedent on gun ownership.
-Gainesville may be the best place to live, IN THE WORLD!
-Al Sharpton makes a mistake. No surprise.
-More on Global Warming
-I recommended music from Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie, and The Killers.
-Mother's Day.
-Our close relationship with an improving Colombia may be in peril.
-Read an entertaining Disneyworld travelogue.

Movies
Spider-Man 3: Saw it. Enjoyed it quite a bit. It has received mixed reviews, but as a fan of the genre and the series, I was very pleased.
The Queen: A mesmerizing film. It covers the death of Princess Diana and it aftermath for the Royal Family and Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Monster-in-Law: Amusing, but not necessarily worth your time. Wanda Sykes is the only real reason to watch this movie.

Tough One
Ever heard of a "baby hatch?" This article introduced the concept to me. I don't like the idea of people anonymously leaving their unwanted babies in a hospital. It makes it wasy for people to abandon responsibility for their actions. BUT, if it leads to fewer abortions or completely abandoned babies I can't completely reject it. I just don't think people should be able to ignore the outcome of their decisions and the hatch seems too easy.

Major Coin
Canada has broken the record for the largest pure gold coin. They've minted one that weighs 224 lbs and is worth $1 million:
It takes about six weeks to make and has a face value of 1 million Canadian dollars ($903,628), though it sells for approximately $2.7 million depending on the market value of gold.The coins will give the mint a higher international profile.“We wanted to raise the bar so that we could say the government of Canada, or the Royal Canadian Mint, produced the purest gold coins in the world,” said David Madge, the mint’s director of bullion and refinery services.
Those crazy Canucks!

Funny Google Trick
1. go to http://www.google.com/
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type "London" in the second box (the "to" box) (hit get directions)
6. scroll down to step #23

Link of the Day
Bruce Campbell is fairly well-known, though not many know him by name. He has starred in various B-movies, most notably the Evil Dead series, and has amusing cameos in each of the Spider-Man films. Both of those franchises have been directed by Sam Raimi. Now Campbell is in an Old Spice ad that I find very amusing. Enjoy.