Identified: King Richard III

The Ravens won the Super Bowl last night, and Joe Flacco, the Ravens' quarterback, received the Most Valuable Player award for throwing three touchdown passes. I was saddened that most of the big-name commercials had been shown prior to the game, but two of the three ads I liked best, I hadn't seen before... For tenderness and caring, I pick the Budweiser Clydesdale foal-to-team-leader ad; for sheer laughter, I liked the Doritos "Goat 4 Sale" ad; but the one that really moved me was the Dodge Ram ad with Paul Harvey reading his "... The Farmer..." minute piece. It was wonderful to hear Mr. Harvey's voice again - even though, at the end of the ad, when the Dodge Ram truck image appeared, I wished it had been voiced by Sam Elliott (but that would have given away the sponsor, wouldn't it?). And, I guess my mind is so fixated on the ex-Gator Tim Tebow that it wasn't strange that, once I fell asleep after the Super Bowl, I kept having dreams in which Tim Tebow would just walk in a door, or up to me outside, or wherever I was in the dream, and just talk to me... I really hope that Tim will be allowed to succeed in the NFL!
  I am still coughing up gunk like there's no tomorrow - my lymph nodes are all swollen, I've blown my nose raw (even though I'm using tissues with lotion and vitamins), and I am just so tired of coughing. I have a humidifier running constantly, a large iron kettle simmering on the stove, I take steamy showers, I breathe in from steaming pots of eucalyptus and mint oils, I gargle 4 times a day with salt water; I drink so much green and chamomile tea that I constantly have to run to the bathroom.... I am staying at home and resting, reading, and researching. I am taking all the MD's medicines. I have been ill since Christmas. Why the heck isn't this clearing up? Dr. Little just had me sit out in the sun and "bake it out" of my chest when I lived in Florida, but that's not possible in Colorado.
  It was announced today, by the University of Leicestershire, that the skeleton found buried beneath the city parking lot in Leicester, is the skeleton of King Richard III. Since I became a history reader, I have always known that whoever wins a war, tilts the written past toward their view. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, seems to have always been maligned. References to him, during his brother's, King Edward IV, reign almost always paint Richard in a good light, unlike their brother, George, Duke of Clarence. George was born with a thirst for power, and had no qualms about changing sides and betrayals of those closest to him. Richard, the youngest brother, with his small stature due to his bent back, however, led his men in battle for his brother the King many times. People tend to forget that the two Princes in the Tower were declared Bastards by the Archbishop and the Parliament, and that Richard was begged to become King, so that the kingdom would not fall apart, or come under the rule of the Tudors. No one, in current letters, ever referred to a "withered arm" on Richard, although quite a few do mention his "crouch back" that made one shoulder (and that, his sword arm) appear higher than the other. Ah, well... The question now is, where shall he be properly buried? There is a monument in the floor of the Leicester Cathedral awaiting the placement of his remains; some people want him buried in Westminster Abbey. But, before his death, he and his queen were having a Memorial Chapel built in the city of York - where Richard spent a great deal of time. Should he be buried where he had hoped to be? Should he be buried in Leicester, where his naked corpse was displayed for 3 days to prove he was dead? Or should he be in London? - All I know is that I hope he is buried with honor.  For more information, visit:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21063882  and check out the Interactive part...

Good Luck, Eli, and the Giants

It's bright and sunny here; and it's 19 degrees outside.  I have the patio door open about 12 inches, and I'm sitting here in jeans, socks, and a T-shirt.  The kits seem to be disgusted by the fact that there is still more than 20 inches of snow in the back yard - at least the sun's heat on the patios has created small melts where our patio walls jut out, so the kits can run up and down the apartment block.  Both kits have jumped out into the snow, sunk, and have come blasting back inside for me to towel them (mostly) dry. Nedi is still out on the patio, soaking up sunshine; Lovey is sitting on the corner of my desk, making comments.  (I have Meet the Press on, and every time Newt Gingrich pauses for breath, Lovey meows at him.) Oh, and we officially had 24.5 inches of snow from Thursday night through Saturday noon.  A couple of miles above Nederland, our closest ski resort, Eldora, received over 31 inches of snow - and yesterday they ran out of parking, and had to turn people away.
  Last night I was trying to follow a set of sisters and brothers who married in the late 1800s in Missouri.  The sisters were Barbara Allen Snow and Oddie Pauline Snow; they married brothers John S. Colley and Elijah Walker Colley.  The brothers were sons of a man also named Elijah Walker Colley.  Ancestry.com has Oddie Pauline Snow marrying her father-in-law (who died when she was 2 years old) and having seven children.  Most of the LDS records show Barbara marrying John in 1887, and then John marrying Oddie in 1895 - they are wrong.  I had to pour over the US Census for 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 , and local county records, to finally get all the wrinkles ironed out....   You know I collect certain names that just "stick" in my memory; I think I'll be adding Oddie Snow Colley to Hepzibah Starbuck Hussey and Eliphalet Pease.
  I am looking forward to the Super Bowl this afternoon (kick off is at 4:30 here), and I'm looking forward to the new ads.  I hope that my cheering for the New York Giants and Eli Manning doesn't adversely affect them.  It'd be cool for Eli to win a Super Bowl on his brother's home field!

Sunday's Super Stuff

It's the second of February; the groundhog has seen his shadow, predicting another 6 weeks of winter, and yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. It's 25 degrees outside (and -11 in Gunnison), the sun is shining and there are light layers of cirrus clouds up in the sky. If I look west, the mountains closest to me are brown and green with patches of white snow; the crowns of the back range are a gleaming white today, as opposed to yesterday's brown. We did not receive any snow here in Boulder or Denver yesterday or last night, even though the weather folks predicted it. They are saying that we'll have wind gusts of 30 to 50 mph this afternoon...

I finished reading The Gate to Women's Country yesterday; and I began The Apostate's Tale. The first book is an extremely thought-provoking novel. I am still turning over in my mind all of the stones that the book over-turned - and once one is over-turned, it seems to over-turn yet another.... it is a very interesting book by Sheri S. Tepper. I recommend it highly! Lovey hadn't played with her favorite ball toys recently, so I spent 45 minutes doing nothing but playing with her and her favorite yellow ball yesterday afternoon. Then I played with Banichi and his strings for the same amount of time; after finishing, I gave both of them a large pinch of catnip, which both of them inhaled and ate immediately.

The football game turned out to be thrilling - and I cheered on the Steelers, because they have a couple of players from UF and because I like Troy Polamalu. I was excited when James Harrison, a defensive back, scored the 100-yard touchdown, after picking off a pass just before half-time. I was alarmed when the Cardinals came back, making up a 13 point deficient, and then pulling ahead. I was ecstatic when Santonio Holmes grabbed the winning touchdown pass.
I did laugh at the beginning of the game when I saw some of the players say, rather incredulously, that Jennifer Hudson had lip-synched the National Anthem. Of course, Faith Hill had also lip-synched her rendition of America the Beautiful. The local media had announced proudly that John Elway would perform the coin-toss at the beginning of the game, so I was rather surprised when General David Petreaus did so.

Ah, yes.... the commercials. I absolutely loathed the Career Builders ad with the repetitions of a woman screaming in her car, a man crying, etc. After the second repetition of the woman screaming, I said, "Enough already! " and turned off the sound. I also disliked the E*Trade commercial where the talking baby told the African-American baby he couldn't sing. My favorites? The Doritos crystal ball ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale great-grandfather ad; the Coca-Cola retro bugs and butterflies ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale-dancing horse love ad; the Budweiser Clydesdale "fetch" ad; the Bob Dylan/rapper Pepsi ad; and the MacGyver/PepSuber Pepsi ad. I wonder what would have happened if NBC had allowed the PETA commercials with their sensual "eat vegetarian" themes? Oh, well.... Have a good week!