Thu, Feb 25, 2016

Birp, Birp
Faucet, faucet
Had a bunch of money once
Lost it, lost it

It's 10:54pm on Thursday of another radio week. Senator Dan Coats told us this week that he supports Marco Rubio, and attorney general Greg Zoeller joked with us. A guy from the banks of the Ohio River made Region Rats laugh. That's a first.

Also, a grieving lesbian mother of two achieved redemption... at the hands of the Munster Town council. Bobby Cox, who runs high school athletics in this state, told us that life is subjective. It doesn't seem like he plans on writing the rules down any time soon. A grandmother came on today to tell us about her little darling who's set to undergo a stem cell transplant. You could hear the pain in grandma's voice. We all got still for a moment. Dry throats. Hope, pray, hope some more.
 
Brush, brush
Onomatopoeia
Eureka, I'm in jail
A cop just caught me peein'

Qin pronounced chin
is a great word for Scrabble.
But if you're not a real wordsmith
then don't even dabble

Blah blah blah blah blah
Blahg blahg blahg blahg blahg
Blog blog blog blog blog.
STOP TALKING.

My American, Radio Life is set to turn to My American, Basketball Radio Life in a few days. As is tradition, I hunker down at the East Chicago sectional on Tuesday night and don't leave until about 9:30 on Saturday night. It's a lot of fun to talk basketball that many hours, but the one thing you can't do is go into the week tired. I've done that and at least once during the week Alexis and I will wind up in an argument. I'm a pretty agreeable guy most of the time, unless I'm really tired. Then I can be a jerk. 

To warm up for next week, I'm planning a trek to W. Lafayette for the Purdue vs. Maryland game. Maryland's fourth in the country and Purdue's like 16th. It's the featured game on ESPN, so if the ball goes into photographers row on the visitors baseline, then the three or four of you might see me sitting there. I'll wear a black sweater.

We're pretty ingrained into the basketball world. We have things like two press passes for every Purdue home game and one of the 15 votes in the statewide AP poll. These are perks associated with being part of a 93-year-old radio station in Indiana. Hoosier hysteria, Boiler pride. Tonight I watched Yogi Ferrell in one of his final games for Indiana. To me, he's the best point guard in the country. But that's not a sentiment shared by all, especially not Vic, who emailed me. 

"You need to quit smoking that Yogi weed !  He has regressed since meeting Frat Boy Tom Crean. He had All American potential stolen from him !"

Vic sent me that email when IU was in a skid. Now they're atop the Big Ten, with Yogi leading the charge. I was right. Vic was wrong. I like when that happens. 

The first time I saw Yogi Ferrell play was in the state finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. I announced the game from front row center, but for the life of me I can't remember who from the Region that Yogi played against. Maybe it was Bishop Noll, maybe Wheeler. I remember that Yogi was an underclassman playing for Park Tudor, and he was the best high school point guard I've ever seen play. One day he'll get the respect that he deserves.

Hoops, hoops
Digestion, digestion
Dribble, jump, shoot
The best that you can

It's now 11:24pm and Alexis has fallen asleep next to me typing to the three or four of you. You'd think she might wake up from the pitter patter, but probably not. I've been writing to no one for like 38 years and now there's the three or four of you. Alexis is used to the type type type. It's comforting for her... like the hum and rumble of the Borman Expressway... late at night in the Fall with the bedroom windows open. It'll put you to sleep, secure, sweet dreams.

Sweet dreams are overrated. 
You have all this pleasure 
​in some sort of make-believe 
fantasy world.

And then you wake up
and still gotta go to work
and worry all freaking day about 
how to pay the mortgage.

The mortgage monster kills.
Cigarette smoking kills.
Automobile accidents kill.
Sitting is the new smoking. 

That's all I know on the way
to bed in the middle of winter.
There's snow on the ground and
a howl in the wind. 

Through it all, I just hope to find
some really sweet dreams.