Finally..."Geaux Tigers!"

Two years after I announced I'd do it, I got it done at last. Had to take care of two years' worth of life issues...but I got this project done, once and for all.

I'm talking about the 2019 edition of the "shoulda/coulda/woulda" NCAA Division 1-A football playoffs.

Using Dave Koch Sports' Action! PC Football, here's how the 24-team field fared:

FIRST ROUND (seeding in parentheses): Oregon (9) 37, Miami (OH) (24) 14/Alabama (17) 38, Air Force (16) 14/Penn State (13) 38, Cincinnati (20) 17/Wisconsin (21) 24, Notre Dame (12) 10/Florida (19) 39, SMU (14) 14/Utah (11) 35, Florida Atlantic (22) 6/Minnesota (18) 38, Navy (15) 17/Louisiana-Lafayette (23) 32, Baylor (10) 13

SECOND ROUND: Ohio State (1) 47, Oregon 14/Alabama 31, Georgia (8) 20/Memphis (5) 52, Penn State 48/Wisconsin 24, Boise State (4) 10/Florida 31, Oklahoma (6) 13/Clemson (3) 28, Utah 7/Minnesota 38, Appalachian State (7) 10/Louisiana State (2) 52, Louisiana-Lafayette 31

QUARTERFINAL ROUND: Ohio State 26, Alabama 14/Wisconsin 28, Memphis 17/Florida 30, Clemson 27 (1 OT)/Louisiana State 38, Minnesota 35

SEMIFINAL ROUND: Wisconsin 33, Ohio State 21/Louisiana State 31, Florida 28

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Louisiana State 41, Wisconsin 17

Playoff MVP: LSU quarterback Joe Burrow.

Strongest Division 1-A playoff field ever!

I guess it's more than fitting to write this on the eve of the so-called CFP championship game.

And I won't get to give you the results until at least this coming September, since the folks at Dave Koch Sports won't release the 2019 college football files for the company's Action! PC Football game until this coming September.

But the field for this season's "shoulda-coulda-woulda" NCAA Division 1-A football playoff is mind-blowing for this one reason:

All but one of the 24 teams won at least ten games apiece in 2019. 

And that's not counting the actual bowl games.

By contrast, last season's 1-A playoff field featured 18 ten-victory squads (not counting the bowl games).

Well, anyway, here's how the 2019 Division 1-A field shapes up:

1. Ohio State (13-0; Big Ten champ)/2. Louisiana State (13-0; SEC champ)/3. Clemson (13-0; ACC champ)/4. Boise State (12-1; Mountain West champ)/5. Memphis (12-1; AAC champ)/6. Oklahoma (12-1; Big 12 champ)/7. Appalachian State (12-1; Sun Belt champ)/8. Georgia (11-2; SEC at-large)

9. Oregon (11-2; Pac-12 champ)/10. Baylor (11-2; Big 12 at-large)/11. Utah (11-2; Pac-12 at-large)/12. Notre Dame (10-2; independent at-large)/13. Penn State (10-2; Big Ten at-large)/14. SMU (10-2; AAC at-large)/15. Navy (10-2; AAC at-large)/16. Air Force (10-2; Mountain West at-large)

17. Alabama (10-2; SEC at-large)/18. Minnesota (10-2; Big Ten at-large)/19. Florida (10-2; SEC at-large)/20. Cincinnati (10-3; AAC at-large)/21. Wisconsin (10-3; Big Ten at-large)/22. Florida Atlantic (10-3; C-USA champ)/23. Louisiana-Lafayette (10-3; Sun Belt at-large)/24. Miami (OH) (8-5; MAC champ)

Okay...how'd Ohio State slip in ahead of LSU?

All twelve of the Buckeyes' 2019 foes (Wisconsin and Ohio State tangled twice; the second time was at the Big Ten title game) were in Division 1-A; a club earns 50 quality points for defeating a winning D-1-A squad and 45 quality points after beating a Division 1-A team that had a .500 or worse campaign.

On the other hand, Louisiana State took on a Division 1-AA team, Northwestern State of the Southland Conference. The Tigers crushed the 3-9 Demons...and earned just 35 quality points for doing so. (Had the Demons enjoyed a winning season, LSU's victory would've meant 40 quality points.)

Now...about Boise State and Memphis skating ahead of the College Football Playoff committee's fourth choice, Oklahoma.

First of all, the MWC champion Broncos and AAC kingpin Tigers each saw their D-1-A opponents rack up 77 victories apiece...while all the Division 1-A teams that met the Sooners totaled 76 wins.

And so, the next tiebreaker kicked in: Conference records. 

That's how the team from Idaho won out. Boise State went 9-0 in Mountain West play...while Memphis turned in a American Athletic Conference mark of 8-1.

One interesting season, 2019.

Usually, nine wins would be enough to earn a 1-A squad an at-large berth. Instead, San Diego State, UAB, Central Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech, and Virginia- to say nothing of Auburn, Iowa, and Michigan- couldn't get in this time. (And the Blazers, the Rainbow Warriors, and the Cavaliers would've gotten automatic bids if they'd won their conference championship games.)  

And one of those nine teams would've been crying had the field been expanded to 32 contingents.

One interesting season, 2019.

Can't wait to play these playoffs. 

Who says House Democrats haven't done anything since retaking the House?

One of the biggest claims to come out of this rapidly-concluding 2019 is that, since becoming the majority party in the US House eleven months ago, the Democrats haven't done a cotton-picking thing.

Don't believe it.

For even one millisecond.

Besides turning Donald Trump into just the third chief executive to get impeached, the Nancy Pelosi-led House of Representatives has passed the following bills:

*HR 1 (the For the People Act of 2019)
*HR 5 (the Equality Act)
*HR 7 (the Paycheck Fairness Act)
*HR 8 (calling for background checks on gun sales)
*HR 9 (the Climate Action Now Act)
*HJ Resolution 37 and SJ Resolution 7 (both directing the removal of Uncle Sam's forces from unauthorized fighting in Yemen)
*House Congressional Resolution 24 (calling for the Mueller Report to be made public)
*House Resolution 183 (condemning anti-Semitism and condemning anti-Muslim intolerance and bigotry against non-Caucasian people)
*HR 259 (the Medicare Extenders Act of 2019)
*HR 271 (to condemn Trump's efforts to take health care away from rank-and-file Americans)
*HR 375 (amending the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 to reaffirm the Interior Department's green light to take land into trust for indigenous tribes)
*HR 986 (Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019)
*HR 987 (designed to strengthen health care and lower prescription drug costs)
*HR 1500 (Consumers First Act)
*HR 1585 (the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019)
*HR 1644 (made to save the Internet)
*HR 1994 (SECURE Act/Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act)
*HR 2480 (Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act)
*HR 2513 (Corporate Transparency Act)
*HR 2722 (the Securing America's Federal Elections Act)
*HR 4617 [the SHIELD Act...drafted to make sure what happened (namely, Russian interference) in the 2016 election doesn't take place again]
*On 12-19-2019, the House passed the USMCA agreement (the replacement for NAFTA), 385-41.

That's just the tip of the iceberg.

By 11-15-2019, the House had passed almost 400 bills (resolutions excluded)...but when you add this country's Senate to the equation, you find that in total, Congress had, by said date, passed just 70 bills.
 
Most of the bills still stalled in the Mitch McConnell-run chamber are common-sense ones. What's more, legislation such as background checks, 'Net neutrality, and a reauthorized Violence Against Women Act has gathered proven bipartisan support.

McConnell's Senate thinks nothing of confirming 150 of Trump's nominees to the federal judiciary.

It's all because Senate Republicans are unwilling to take the tough votes Pelosi's House has made...and laid out there for the upper chamber to take up.

And...yes...USMCA now awaits a Senate vote, too.

Much of the information you're reading came from Ella Nilsen's 11-29-2019 article on https://vox.com, "House Democrats have passed nearly 400 bills. Trump and Republicans are ignoring them." 

We'll see what happens with these bills in the months to come as vanloads of Senate Republicans (including Moscow Mitch himself)

fight to save their hides as they come up for reelection.
 
 

 

A tale of two ragtime festivals (Part 2)

Just going on how the Saturday session of this year's Ragtime to Riches Festival went, I had high hopes about the Sunday leg- the 7-14-2019 turn at Omaha's First Central Congregational United Church of Christ.

In a nutshell, we didn't get the kind of crowd that assembled at the Pink Poodle Steakhouse the day before.

But all four of those who paid to come to see the First Central leg of R to R 2019 still had fun.

At 2:00 PM (Central time), I was supposed to give a workshop. 

I gave it, all right...but it wasn't the one I hoped to conduct.

Ever since last year, I've been wanting to showcase some of the work of four ragtime composers: Sadie Koninsky (1879-1952), Charlotte Blake (1885-1979), Julia Niebergall (1886-1968), and May Aufderheide (1888-1972).

I brought notes with me.

Yours truly forgot to bring sheet music.

So...I went the autobiographical route instead. (Next year, I want to build my concert around works like Sadie's "Eli Green's Cakewalk," Julia's "Hoosier Rag," May's "Dusty," and Charlotte's "That Poker Rag." And leave the workshop to another performer.)

Speaking of concert...Faye Ballard was the first to give one at this year's R to R.

Hers was a workshop in itself; the Champaign, IL native started her concert with favorites "The Entertainer," "Puttin' on the Ritz," "Sailin' Away on the Henry Clay," and "It Had to Be You."

The former University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana office manager put her tribute to ragdom's Big Three smack dab in the middle: Scott Joplin's "Pineapple Rag," James Scott's "Frog Legs Rag," and Joseph Lamb's "Cleopatra Rag." 

Faye went ahead and did one of May's followups to "Dusty" ("The Thriller") and followed it up with Adaline Shepherd's "Pickles and Peppers." "Raggity Rag" and "12th Street Rag" closed Faye's sixth R to R concert out.

Faye's mom, Erma, gave me the inspiration for my own concert.

Last year, Erma wanted to hear "Angry," a 1925 hit for a singer-pianist named Art Gillham, from me. I didn't have the sheet music with me at the time.

Fixed that here in 2019.

Matter of fact, my version of "Angry" led off a concert consisting of tunes whose titles have just one word apiece: Fellow 1925 hits "Cecilia" and "Collegiate," two compositions from 1927 ("Chloe" and a tune that somebody should've had a hit record with, "Beautiful"), 1920's "Margie," and two rags- Nellie M. Stokes' 1906 "Snowball" and another piece Scott J. came up with in 1902, "Cleopha." 

I felt better about my concert than my workshop, I'll tell you that. I'm glad the concert worked out.

Marty Mincer accompanying Buster Keaton's 1920 short, "One Week," worked out great.

We were hoping Erma and Faye would come back for the 7:00 PM showing of "One Week," and Marty vamped for a while so that the Two Ballards could see the film in its entirety.

Oh, well...

But the audience enjoyed "One Week..." as well as Marty's handling of the music.

The apple farmer from Hamburg, IA had time left in his set to fire off his version of "The Entertainer" before he took R to R 15.0 out in style with "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

Well...now it's back to the drawing board to get the word out about Ragtime to Riches 2020.

Hope you can make it!

A tale of two ragtime festivals (Part 1)

Well...it seems as if two ragtime festivals took place here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area last weekend.

But one and the same got on the books: The 2019 Ragtime to Riches Festival.

This year's was the first two-day version since the 2010 edition...the fourth and last R to R held at the Strauss Performing Arts Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. (UNO priced the Strauss Center out of the Great Plains Ragtime Society's reach not long afterwards, so the local rag club had to find another place for the fest.)

Since 2011, R to R has taken place at Omaha's First Central Congregational United Church of Christ. 

This year, First Central got a Saturday partner: The Pink Poodle Steakhouse in Crescent, IA.

On 7-13-2019, at 5:00 PM (Central time), a "Tune-Ups Party" took place at the legendary Crescent restaurant...the eatery with some of the best prime rib in the Omaha Metro and three working antique upright player pianos.

And all three old uprights got a workout...especially the middle one, a 1913 Bellmann. (The others are a 1919 Gulbransen and a 1916 Ricca & Son.)

In the photo above, the Bellmann is on the left, the Ricca's on the right.

In the publicity for the "Tune-Ups Party," it was said that at least one of this year's featured R to R 15.0 performers would play at the Pink Poodle during an event modeled after a similar one...the Thursday night tune-ups that kick off the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival.

If it hadn't been for two little girls (Maddie and Brooke) and the mother of another little girl (a youngster named Echo; I wish I knew her mom's name) stepping up to tickle the keys, I would've played the entire length of the Pink Poodle tune-ups.

Three hours. 

I still had lots of fun at the Poodle, and- equally important- the restaurant's dining room was half full of customers.

 

When I come back, I'll tell you what R to R's 2019 Sunday session was like. 

 

Frozen retribution?

Every time I get up these days, I can't help thinking about this current winter...one of the worst and most severe we've had here in the United States in a long time.

This weekend, here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area, we're slated to receive more frozen precipitation. (Sorry...I don't feel like using the "S" word that rhymes with "crow.")

Through yesterday, according to WOWT (the local NBC affiliate),

the Omaha Metro has picked up 48.0" of the frozen stuff. (Last winter, through 2-27-2018, 14.6" had fallen around here...an area in which the average had been 21.0".)

The local record for frozen precip for one winter: 67.6", which took place around here in the winter of 1911-12. 

Lots of demoralized people around here right now. 

Let's face it: I'm one of them, too.

When it comes to why the winter of 2018-19 has been so brutal, with its frequent blizzards teaming up with long stretches of bitter cold, some people will tell you it's all cyclical (and that we were spoiled around here the previous two winters).

Others tell you that it's all because America is paying for its sins.

Still other folks chalk it up to climate change. 

After all, the fact that the world's average yearly temperature has risen- with most of the twenty warmest years in the world's history having taken place since 2000- has made storms (winter and nonwinter alike) more frequent and more violent.

With all that, and humanity's role in bringing about climate change, atmospheric forces (according to some folks) have told us that the bill is due.

What's your take on all this that's going on outdoors?