more rant about this penn state ordeal

my last blog came about an hour before the story dropped that joe paterno got the ax from penn state university.
at that time, i thought it was sad that he was going to be out at the end of the year for such a reason.
an hour later, i thought it was incredibly ridiculous that he got fired on the spot.
today, i am still utterly confused and have a secnd best song i could dedicate to the entire debacle.
really? the facts as they have been presented:
his former assistant coach sandusky allegedly molested eight different young boys between 1994-2009. some of these abuses took place at penn state athletic facilities. assistant coach mcqueary admitted that he witnessed sexual abuse taking place in the locker room. his version of the story has been changing over the week, but it basically is that he went to paterno and other school officials about it. he is now saying that he also went to police, though this has been denied by police.
as this has come to light, former coach sandusky is under investigation and awaiting trial. penn state university has fired coach paterno, university president spanier and the senior vp for business and finance has resigned. the athletic director is on administrative leave. the university is going to great lengths to protect mcqueary, who, honestly, i find to be the most questionable character in all of this. further ramifications have included paterno's name stripped from the championship trophy and other such places of honor. people are asking about whether his statue should be removed from in front of the stadium.
on the other side of the coin, there are students at penn state starting riots, tipping news vans, breaking out windows and stuff like that. though i think it is a bit extreme, i must say i am more on the side of the protesters than the critics and university officials. because i think what they are doing is more extreme than the rioters. consider:

1. joe paterno coached at penn state for 66 years. he is the all time winningest coach in college football history. his presence in various rings of honor can never be disputed in terms of gridiron accomplishments.
2. he was fired for not doing enough to bring this injustice to light. he did say he wished he had done more, which is ultimately what the board went on when they fired him. however, he did go to university officials and they did nothing. while it is true that some of those guilty parties have also been fired, why was his responsibility greater than that. hindsight will say, yes, he should've gone to the police. but then hindsight may say he had good reason not to.
3. if these university officials did not go to police, what's to say they didn't convince him that they would take care of things? or, most likely that there is more to this complex part of the story. just to think about it simply, if you are at work and see someone doing something illegal, who do you go to? you go to your boss, they go to their boss, appropriate action is taken through a chain of command. if you go straight to the cops and in turns out to be an extreme reaction, your reputation is on the line for putting your employer in a poor light. so, why would paterno go to the police?
4. most crucially, sandusky has not even been convicted! what if it turns out, as he says, that he is completely innocent? then after the witch hunt and everyone's been burned at the stake, penn state finds out that nothing happened, then what? while it is quite apparent that some sketchy things went on, it also stands to reason that sandusky might not have broken any law. if that's the case, everyone in the university followed the proper course of action in simply barring him from bringing children to the university. as we have found out, he was exonerated by the d.a. for accusations of such activity in 1998.
if paterno took such information into account, it would seem to be appropriate to question the validity of any later claim that sandusky had done something wrong. on the other hand, if he believed that mcqueary or others had already gone to the police, why would he feel the need to go also?

seeing evidence that the d.a. didn't buy into the allegations in 1998, seeing the shifty story that mcqueary is telling, seeing the questionable position that higher people within the university took, it is enough to warrant more solid information before such reactions as firing a legendary coach and stripping his name from everything. for all we know at this point, the police were involved and officials higher than even the university were involved in covering things up to prevent a scandal. the point is that we don't know a damn thing about what happened yet, but many consequences have already paid. i would riot too!



seriously. in the worst case scenario, i think that what jim tressel did at ohio state was worse. heck, i even think that gary pinkel getting busted for a dwi is worse, although i am questioning the extreme fines he has to pay. i think that what pete carroll did at usc was worse. if paterno did things along those lines, that would be much worse than going to police when he had plenty of reason to give pause. he did enough to alert his superiors.
if there is someone who is not seeing this my way, please help me understand what joe paterno did wrong.

incompetent and immoral university officials

just when the so-called “game of the century” is over, bigger and better things in store this week. two major games of note, and as always incompetent university officials at the center.

out of nowhere, JoePa is going to be coaching his last home game for penn state? after 46 years, the all-time leader in victories suddenly bids adieu this saturday and it comes down to a scandal? listening to the media, i really have to feel for the guy. apparently, support for paterno has “eroded” within the university following a scandal involving former assistant sandusky who is being investigated for alleged inappropriate relationships with teen boys over about a 15 year period. it was said that paterno had known something, but “turned a blind eye.” the police investigation released him from responsibility, but critized him for only telling university officials and not reporting it to the police. they say he has a moral responsibility to tell police. in principle, i would agree that would have been prudent to tell police, but the part i don’t understand is that the police let him off the hook for no wrongdoing while university officials are bloodthirsty because he didn’t go to the police? the catch 22 of it is that he went to university officials in the first place when he learned of the incidents. they could have gone to the police. why was it paterno’s sole responsibility? so, the university wants him out for something that they are equally, if not more, responsible for? i can see why the penn state vice president and others are also being targeted, but man i feel sorry for JoePa.

then, just when you thought 'bama-lsu was a good matchup, the pac-12 north will more or less be determined when oregon plays at stanford. third-ranked stanford is a 4 point favorite against sixth-ranked oregon, but this could be a blowout in either direction. too hard to predict. the entertaining part for me is the story that broke in the oregonian on sunday. i won’t say i told you so, but talk about incompetent university officials, i challenge any school in the country to beat the university of oregon in a game of immorality.

the following is an outlined version of facts presented in steve duin’s article referring to the subsisdies the university of oregon athletic department receives.

the university has always maintained that the sports programs, specifically the football team, are self funded. that is, they are independent of the university general fund for support and as such, student fees do not cover any expenses. i am sure that as much as most of the students down in eugene love their ducks, none of them particularly want to fund it. however, the athletic department funding itself has always sounded suspicious. even when they make about $50 million playing in the national championship game, most of that must be dispersed to the other programs in the pac-10 (now pac-12) and a lot of the rest is spent getting to such an event. not a lot left to bring back to eugene.

duin’s article proposed that “hidden subsidies drive the myth that the UO athletic department is self-sustaining” with it’s $78 million annual budget. it gets tricky to prove because the university is quite adept at covering its tracks. but, consider these factors:

1. “overhead assessment”
each “revenue generator” on campus must pay a percentage of it’s budget to compensate the university for services provided. for example, groups like university housing, the health center and even associated students must give back 6% per year (going to 7% next year) to use buildings and other accommodations. the athletic department also pays an overhead assessment, however, in 2009, just two weeks before president frohnmayer left office, he signed a memo with then-athletic director kilkenny that allows the athletic department to pay only 3% through 2013. so, for the $1.378 million the athletic department spent in overhead costs last year, the 3% cap saved them $920,000. in 2013, that same subsidy will save them $1.84 million. that is money not going back to the university. who makes up for those losses?

2. “academic support”
from 2002-2010, the university funneled $8.5 million from the general fund to pay for academic support of athletes. it may be argued that athletes are students and need support like all others, but $1 million per year seems rather steep considering that most of the student body are not athletes while a large percentage of student support services are being given to people that aren’t necessarily accepted into the school based on their academic successes to begin with. why shouldn’t the athletic department fund the support of their own requirements for things like gpa, or at least a fair portion?

3. parking revenues
the athletic department banks the revenue from parking during sporting events. no figures were given, but try to use your imagination. if it only costs say $2 per hour to park during a basketball game and that game lasts three hours, each car pays $5. the arena holds 14500. if as many as half of the fans are students that don’t drive and four people carpool in each car that does drive there, a full arena would still pull in $8750 for one basketball game! and be sure that $2 per hour is a low-ball figure. why does the atheltic department get this break? when there is a linguistics symposium, does the liguistics department get to bank street parking revenue and, if so, is that revenue maximized because the university used general funds to promote that symposium to no end?

4. seating at autzen
the administration must pay the athletic department for use of 800 club seats and the presidential suite at autzen stadium. this comes to $375, 000 per year. where does that money come from? probably would get a convoluted answer if you were to ask the university.

5. seating at autzen (part 2)
prior to 2002, autzen stadium capacity was 42,000 and 5,800 seats were reserved for students. after the expansion, autzen now holds 54,000 (though it exceeds capacity by several thousand per week) and only 5,500 seats are reserved for students. students may not be paying directly, but they are definitely losing out and the athletic department is banking buckets of cash off seats that should be given to students for free. does any part of that money go back into the general fund or even offset the cost of the presidential suite?

6. court costs
currently, the university is under investigation for possible ncaa recruiting violations. the university general fund is paying 50% of the legal fees. exact numbers would be hard to guess, and the oregonian didn’t give an estimate, but trust that number is in the millions.

just eyeballing it, i see around $20 million the athletic department gets in “favors” from the university that student fees are paying for. that’s not even considering lots of other sources that we don’t even know about. i may be $58,000 in the hole for a degree i wasn’t allowed to finish, but at least i got to attend 4 football games and one basketball game to cheer for a team i don’t even like. yeah it was probably worth it. i’m not bitter. thankfully for that awesome university, not everybody sees this the way i do.

go stanford!

east oregon film festival 2011 recap & this weekend’s rabble rouser show!

by every measure the 2011 eastern oregon film festival was a rousing success. here’s a little recap of the films, with links (and kid yoshida's rating for each).

thursday 10/20.
resurrect dead. engaging documentary about the 20-30 year search for the “toynbee tiler” of the east coast, who was found(?) but never seen. the story weaves nicely through the life of the mystery person as well as the detective, both of whom lived beyond the fringes of society. the director flew in from philadelphia for this west coast premier of a film he spent close to 10 years making. (rating: 8)
friday 10/21.
green. probably my least favorite, i give props to a debut director for creating a cozy feel and good production. it was a fairly weird love triangle story. the plot was interesting, although predictable. the dialog was pretty thin. some cheesy love scenes and queasy moments, but i suppose it is good when a film moves you in your seat? (rating: 3)
cirkus columbia. bosnian film that was nearly shortlisted for the academy awards last year. director tanovic had already won an academy award and a golden globe for “no man’s land” in 2001. this one takes place in 1991 amidst a serb uprising just after the fall of yugoslavia. it was a tale of two sides struggling for control and some bizarre family dynamics caught in the middle. (rating: 8)
last mountain. the most engaging documentary since “gasland” showing how big business continues to dominate government. last mountain gives a convincing argument for clean energy with hefty support from robert kennedy, jr. this left me so mad that i became determined to buy the documentary and make a 100 copies and leave them around like toynbee tiles or something. this one was followed by a panel discussion from oregon rural action. in a push for energy conservation, brian kelly provided a hilarious example about his neighbor using a leaf blower to vacuum up individual leaves. pathetic. combat obesity and save the planet at the same time! (rating: 10)
dragonslayer. documentary of skate culture in southern california. a sweet glimpse into a life few people are daring enough to try. a fun treatise of a man drifting through life with all he knows and without much concern, until some type of success finds him. cinematography is excellent. but the truly great part are the lines and natural acting of people in their true environment. i will re-watch this several times just for the quotes. hilarious stuff. (rating: 9)
saturday 10/22
country story. on the heels of dragonslayer, this movie kept righteous dialog coming. it was a very thin plot about a guy forgetting his mom’s birthday, but it didn’t need plot. it was a drift through daily life kind of story. dialog and cinematography take this film a long way. filmed locally, there were many familiar scenes and faces for theatre-goers here in la grande, but i don’t think it is bias to say this was one of the best films in the line-up. i nearly voted for it as best, but it lost on a coin flip with my other favorite. i really thought it would win the audience choice awards. the director added the unseen dimension to the film when asked prior to the film if he had anything to say, he said, “not really. i slept on a concrete floor last night. but i found a yoga mat to curl up with.” (rating: 10)
bad fever. the film i was most excited about leading up to the festival was he one feature film i did not see. trailer had a “buffalo 66” feel to it. honestly, though, i needed to rest my eyes a bit. panda and i did a short radio show furious about “last mountain” and then took a break to books n brew (inside lookinglass books). count on seeing me there more often!
nobody cares. i voted this film best of the fest. filmed in boise with an slr camera that anyone could pick up at an electronics store for about $2000, but the end result is a hollywood level production. not only should that make a local viewer proud, but how awesome is a movie experience when you find yourself standing in line at the concession stand chatting with the lead actor? beyond that, though, it had a first rate script and was super hilarious. storyline evoked memories of “what about bob?” to top it off, the music was done by travis ward of hillfolk noir. (rating: 10)
press pause play. this screening had an issue getting the dvd lost in the mail and it turned out that the substitute version soundtrack didn’t match the video, which made the end tough to watch. this was a documentary that felt a bit disjointed with many different viewpoints about the death of the music industry, or the new age of it. there were some good points, but many that seemed obvious. maybe it would be good for someone that isn’t constantly immersed in the music world. it did have a nice bit of nostalgia concerning media changes, but that was a minimal part of the film and, overall, it got sleepy in places. (rating: 5)
bellflower. another youth gone wild flim, this one definitely pushed buttons. like most films at the fest, it made me glad that the filmmaking industry is more accessible than ever to hollywood outsiders. many of the scenes were shot on a camera the director made specifically for this film. it communicated the dirty feel of the phenomenal plot. just when things started to seem predictable, a shocker would rocket you out of your seat. afterwards, the director joined q & a via skype from ireland, where it was 6am and he still hadn’t been to bed. yeah, rock on, this film spoke volumes to us afterparty people. the 2011 east oregon film fest went out with a serious bang! (rating: 9)

music & after parties
mike surber busked it outside the granada on thursday night, then it was auburn isaak on friday and someone i’d never seen before on saturday. then the after parties rolled hot all weekend! mt. emily ale house hosted the thursday night funk. hillfolk noir, always a crowd pleaser, had the downstairs stomping. james dean kindle & the eastern oregon playboys played to one of the bigger audiences upstairs. he’s a ham, but for the crowd it was like a sweet honey ham on thanksgiving. people screamed for encores, and were treated nicely. friday night’s after party at benchies featured local superstars elidila and sons of guns, followed by boise heavyweights finn riggins. all three of these bands are always tight. as elidila warmed the crowd, i saw travis ward trying to push through to the bar. since the cd he had sold me the night before was worth more than $7, i felt i owed him a drink. so, i bought him and eric gilbert a drink. then a round for sons of guns, then a round for finn riggings (except lisa who doesn’t drink), then a few more rounds for pretty much anyone that was thirsty. as can be imagined, the night quickly got away! finn riggins had benchies jumping until nearly 2am. never ever miss a concert with a line up like that! saturday night’s after party was at ten depot street. gregory rawlins played several new songs, plus a version of good fence, great war that was maybe even better than the one on oregon slogan. then, jared mees & the grown children flew in from las vegas just to play the closing night! you know the event is big when that happens. finn riggins even played the last song with them. and since the grown children had not been to la grande in so long, they gave away all their merch for free and announced it was their last show of 2011. atomic mama closed out the night. maybe cuz they played last…maybe cuz they are the newest…maybe cuz this was their first time in la grande…maybe cuz they drive a rad school bus, but, whatever, they were my favorite act of the after parties. certainly, i’ve not seen a two piece that good since digger & the pussycats. likewise, the audience reaction seemed the most intense for atomic mama. thankfully, we were not allowed to vote audience choice awards for the bands! every act was superior. and the fabulous weekend ended with atomic mama and finn riggings coming into the studio for about half an hour on sunday morning before they all headed back to boise.
you know how some people count down to their birthday, to xmas, to new year and such? i am couting down to next year’s film fest!!!

how can kid yoshida make halloween weekend half as good as what film fest weekend was? tune into to the rabble rouser show to find out!!!
original time & then some! saturday from 5pm to 9pm. then, i will also host the first congregational church of audio inspiration from 9pm to midnight!
i am thinking of starting with an album in its entirety, if any man in black fans give a shout out. as usual, i got tributes. a couple fabulous musicians have passed away in the past couple of weeks.
plus, saturday is the 40th anniversary of the death of one of the very best guitarists of all time … expect a good long set for that! naturally, there will be quite a bag full of halloween treats. drop by the studio with some candy for me, or just tune in for some spooky fun songs. at 10:30 will be the cage match. pink floyd’s another brick in the wall part 2 is the reigning champion, of course kid yoshida will come up with something to beat it. you just gotta tune in and vote!!! if there is time late in the night…there may be a tribute to the ufo show…which was a staple of community radio kkfi in kansas city back in the 90s, so you know that means far out 90s underground space jams.

give the kid your halloween requests and ye shall be mortified!
the grooveyard is rocking this saturday on keol!!!

what's in a name?

panda never seems to accept calling me yoshida. she says yoshida is not my real name. i wonder what is real?

it could be debated why we even have last names. this has a lot to do with the particular culture one comes from. many cultures do not give last names, just as many do not have middle names, just as many cultures use several middle names or hyphenated last names. the earliest families that used last names, did so to keep ties to royal families. otherwise, there really was no need for a commoner to have more than one name. it seems to me that we have so many names just to distinguish ourselves from each other. however, the idea of starting off with one given name and then maybe letting the child choose their own identity later in life never seems to be considered. so here i am stuck in a society that deems it important to give me three names from birth.

the first thing i question, why do wives take the husband’s last name?
among the cultures that use last names, it appears to be universal that the patrilineal line is the one that continues. since christian societies seem to use the bible as a guiding force, i decided to check what it had to say. the best i could find was that ephesians chapter 5 says a wife should put her husband’s needs first and a husband should serve his wife. honestly, that is just a load of crap. sure, partners should be one for all and all for one and all, but respecting or serving someone has nothing to do with taking their name. that does nothing to mention that one person should be more represented than the other? so, really, why can’t the husband take the wife’s name or they just keep their own names?

following from that, why do kids get named after their father? if a husband were to take his wife’s name, for instance, then shouldn’t that mean that the child would take the mother’s name as well? in some societies it works that girls take the mother’s name and the boys take the father’s name. that’s better, but not good enough for me. my father and i have many things in common, but it seems due more to dna than life experience. liking the guy as much as i do, i didn’t hardly know him until i was about 12 years old. considering i grew up with my mother, that experience provided much more of my identity. in all fairness, her last name would have been a better representation.

but then, why stop there? maybe my mother would wonder about her own last name. certainly my mother’s mother was my most important grandparent and that’s where i feel most of my familial identity. if i had my druthers, i would’ve been named after her. in that case, i must insist, if i must have a family name, then it shall be myrick.

yet, i would have to continue to question whether my grandmother would’ve wanted the name myrick. she directly descended from the all powerful myrick clan of old wales. but the story as i recall was that her part of the family was sent to america to live in poverty out of sight out of mind. if that were your family story, would you want to be reminded of it every time you signed your name?

therefore, it is not out of disrespect to anyone that i don’t use a family name. i have my own identity that is not very much welsh nor of a father that i didn’t know as a youngster. besides, if i pick one side to be named after, doesn’t it somewhat insult the other? therefore, in blazing my own trails, it’s not that i don’t want a family name, i just prefer the most representative.

several times over the course of life, any person will find themselves despondent and directionless. roses can’t even survive in the spring if there is not someone to help cultivate them. of the handful of people that helped me immensely, one was hiromi yoshida. the first six or eight months of life in japan were among the most miserable of my life. in contrast, the last couple years were some of the best times of my life. a lot of the reason things i survived the cold dark rainy winter was thanks to wonderfulness of the yoshidas. i really feel grateful for that and identify with that time of my life as one of the most significant.

was that time period more crucial than other time periods in my life? did the yoshidas do more for me than any other of my bestest friends? not necessarily. could the same argument from above apply to hiromi also? maybe. i don’t even remember what her maiden name was. but at some point, you just have to pick what feels most inspirational. and that was the situation at that time, regardless of anything else that has happened. i don’t mind recalling that part of my life every time i sign my name.

the answer to what’s in a name is identity.
the answer to mine…
first name: daniel
middle name: tsahaus
last name: yoshida
nickname: kid

hermiston hotel pot bust

this article (five arrested on pot charges) appeared in the hermiston herald two days ago. this was one of those articles that makes me think that even the dumbest criminals can be worth more than both cops and newspaper columnists.

after being caught smoking marijuana in a hotel room, these five were then arrested. makes sense, right? but what the article doesn't explain is what they did wrong. i mean, i get it, it's not exactly right to smoke weed in a hotel room. if they had been charged with breaking the fire code, that would be one thing. but the problem is that there weren't arrested for smoking weed in the hotel room. between the five of them, the article lists the offenses as: "frequenting a place where controlled substances are used, possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, a Hermiston Municipal Court drug warrant and two outstanding warrants."

so, since when is it illegal to "frequent a place where controlled substances are used"? i understand that it is not necessairly a prudent idea if one wishes to maintain proper social decorum, but how is it something illegal to be charged for? to consider, i once had a neighbor across the hall who sold/produced/used drugs. does that mean that i broke the law by going to watch tv at his place because that was "frequenting" a place where where drugs were used? you can't just make an assumption that someone uses drugs just because they go there often. and even if so, the mere state of being high isn't illegal. ultimately, if cops can charge people with shit like that, they can get away with damn near anything. if employees at my favorite restuarant are spooning coke lines in the walk-in, does that mean everyone in the place is frequenting a place where controlled substances are used? if my mom works in a hospital, does that mean she frequents a place where controlled substances are used? if allowed to stretch the law far enough, just breathing air could be a capitol offense.

as for possession of less than one ounce...is that illegal in this ganja friendly state? well, if so, then i guess the lesson to learn here is to move somewhere like denver. there the cops wouldn't even be allowed to take it away, much less charge one with a crime. that's so trivial, there have got to be more important things for the cops to do.

drug paraphernalia? if it's not illegal for a head shop, even in a podunk place like eastern oregon to sell that crap, why would it be illegal to own it?

and then there was the issue of the warrants. more description would be nice because all i am left with is the assumption that they were wanted for previous drug offenses. the problem there is that prior drug offenses could/are likely to be the same worthless "crimes" they got charged with the other day. seriously, someone needs to keeps authorities more in check by asking realistic questions. that would be nice if the newspaper would be worthy to keep such a balance in place.

ok, done living in idealistic, properly functioning dream land. now back to the real backwards, i mean backwoods, world i live in.

Chip Kelly in "big marble" games

Click here for John Canzano's article in last Friday's Oregonian.

Dear Mr. Canzano,

This would probably be the only time I have ever defended Chip Kelly.
And for how much you always claim to love Chip, you sure have a way of making him look bad. For example, “The head coach is funny, particularly when he’s not trying to be.” If “president” were substituted for “head coach,” that could’ve easily been written about George Bush. . I have never trusted Kelly to be Oregon’s highest paid state employee or even trusted his integrity as he makes himself look bad trying to cover up the same crooked activity all the other “successful” programs have done. But with all that said, I really can’t agree with the statement that Kelly, “Must deliver on the field.”

Last Friday, the day before the Oregon Ducks learned more from Les Miles than they ever have from Chip Kelly, your article asked, “Can he win the big one?” Going into Saturday, Kelly had won 22 games and lost 4. Now he has lost 5 and I assume you still think he hasn’t won the “big one.”

According to you, Kelly was 0-3 in “big marble games.” That sounds especially strange to say after going on to mention beating USC (twice) and Stanford. Let’s consider this a little more realistically… True, Oregon lost a Rose Bowl to Ohio State and a national title to Auburn. But how ugly is it when the only loss of a season comes by 3 points in the last game? If that entire season is not big marbles, I don’t know what is. Don’t forget that the Ducks didn’t just luckily slip into the title game, they thrashed every team (except California, squeaking out by two). And if LSU in a neutral site is a “big marble game” why isn’t playing Tennessee at Knoxville? The Ducks opened last season by thrashing the Vols, 48-13, in a game they weren’t even supposed to win, completely derailing Tennessee’s season in the process the way the Oregonian now talks about this season for the Ducks. Then, there was a 21 point victory at USC. I don’t care what USC is going through right now, that was totally unprecedented in Ducks history. And, oh, the Ducks beat Andrew Luck’s Stanford team by 21 points! That was probably the only thing keeping Stanford from winning the championship. Why isn’t that a “big marble game?”

As for 2009, just making the Rose Bowl was big marbles for the Ducks. Never mind that they didn’t win that or the national championship yet. Baby steps, you gotta be 17 before you can turn 18. What they did to get there was big marbles, mostly that Halloween night in which the Ducks completely embarrassed the Trojans by 27 points with ESPN Gameday in the house! That was the biggest deal in Oregon football history up to that point.

And as for your third “big marble” loss to Boise State to open the 2009 season… In hindsight, it might seem like it was a big marble game. The Broncos have won 56 of 57 home games dating back to 1999. They’ve lost 2 regular season games in the last 3 years. They’re particularly unbeatable on opening day. Given that the Broncos had already won in Eugene the year before, who could expect a guy coaching his first game to walk away with a victory on the blue turf? In context of pre season expectations, no one expected the Ducks to win that game, much less knew what to expect from the season. Except for probably you yourself, no one predicted the Ducks to wind up in the Rose Bowl. Sure, it would’ve been legendary to win at Boise State, but since the team wasn’t yet playing for the big marbles, how can it be a big marble game?

What’s more, it is about as premature to call an opening day game “big marbles” as it is to consider BCS standings in the first half of the season (or at all for that matter). If the Ducks end up 12-1 and win the Pac-12 this season and the Tigers end up 8-4, would last Saturday’s loss still be “big marbles?” No, it would be small change. So, if the Oregonian considers Boise State and LSU games “big marbles” then the other games that were just as big or bigger need to be considered (both USC games, both Stanford games and the Tennessee game). That would make Kelly 4-5 in big marble games. But, it is the poorly structured college system that makes even opening week games seem big stage. It ain’t right to go into the first game thinking, as Darron Thomas did, that the season is over if you lose one game.

Likewise, it’s complete crap when the Ducks win out the Pac 10 and get more credit than the Badgers did for losing only one game in the Big 10. Nationally, it is pretty widely thought that there was no better team in college football than Wisconsin last year. You want a “big marble” game? That will only ever happen when there is a playoff system. It becomes a big stage only if a team can create it for themselves. A big stage is getting to play a team like Wisconsin after having beaten Auburn and Boise State in back to back to weeks. Until that happens, there will be no true champions, thus no big marble games. But if you wanna waste time dreaming up these various big marble scenarios then I will take away credit for losses to Ohio State and Auburn, but Chip Kelly deserves credit for two USC victories and another for thrashing Stanford while being under serious pressure to do so. As much as I loathe the guy, I’d say Chip Kelly is 3-2 in the biggest games he’s coached.

daniel “kid” yoshida
La Grande


matching game:
a. les miles
b. george bush
c. chip kelly

the "Portland Oregonian"

I read the “Oregonian” pretty much everyday, primarily because of the easy availability. Although the “Oregonian” is available all over Oregon, I don’t find it to represent all of Oregon very well. The more I read, the less I seem to see places outside the Portland area mentioned. For the month of August, I derived a bit of data to see just how well the entire state was represented. I did not consider the weekly arts and entertainment section, since it is relevant only to Portland, or the sports page because its Oregon inclusions were limited to Portland, Corvallis and Eugene, save minute entries on things such as river fish counts.

Last month the “Oregonian” had roughly 1861 articles. Most of these were of national or international interest, 39.4% and 18% respectively. Another 3% concerned Washington state beyond the Vancouver area, which left 39.6% ostensibly as “Oregon” articles. Concerning those 737 “Oregon” articles, the Portland-area constituted 61% (an area I chose as the highlighted area on the state map: north of Wilsonville, east of Forest Grove, west of Troutdale as well as Vancouver and Camas, Washington). The state capital of Salem had 51 articles (7%). Even heavily populated Eugene had only 7 articles pertaining to them (less than 1%), Springfield had zero. The central Oregon area, including Bend and the Dalles, had just 38 articles (5%). And my own region of eastern Oregon was represented only 17 times (2%).

Luckily, there were a few entries on the last two days of the month that allowed eastern Oregon that 2%. More troubling, of those 17 articles, 2 were the same blotter about Hermiston’s police chief, 2 more about the prison shooting in Ontario, 3 about the police shooting in Elgin and one about the Wallowa marijuana raid. After the Oregonian had given eastern Oregon’s police and crime rate about as positive an image as Portland’s, that left 9 articles. And one of those was reprinted from the NY Times!

I tried to give a benefit of the doubt in counting 69 articles of general statewide interest, although a deeper look would show that most of those dealt with Mark Hatfield, David Wu, Hood to Coast and a few other things mostly relevant to the west side of the state. Of those “statewide” articles, only two even acknowledged the existence of places in eastern Oregon; a reference to a National Guard woman from Milton-Freewater and one-line mentioning a Greg Walden townhall meeting in Heppner. Not only were the articles mainly relevant to Portland, but only Portland area businesses seem to find it useful to advertise and community calendars only feature local Portland events. I venture to guess that a good part of the reason Portlanders don’t realize things such as the fact that it doesn’t rain in eastern Oregon can be attributed somewhat to the “Oregonian” never writing about eastern Oregon.

In principle, the focus on Portland doesn’t bother me. I do love Portland and am happy it is such a nice place and that the paper has so much to report on. What bothers me is the illusion presented by calling the paper the "Oregonian” and the heavy distribution around the state. In other parts of the state, we have only so much interest in Portland events, restaurants, shops and such that we can’t go to. Other parts of Oregon do, of course, have their own newspapers, such as The Observer in La Grande and The East Oregonian in Pendleton, which publish few articles related to the west side. However, these other papers with such a specifically focused area are only available in the relevant areas. In my home state of Missouri, we don’t have a “Missourian” which pretends to serve the needs of the entire state. Instead, we have more appropriately named papers like the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. So, in considering how little the “Oregonian” considers non-Portlanders, do you think it would be possible to change the name of your paper to the West Oregonian, or perhaps even more appropriately, the Portlandian?

daniel “kid” yoshida
La Grande


Oregonian articles in the month of August, 2011 = (1861)

National (735)
International (334)

Washington state (55)
Seattle (14), Vashon Island, Ballard, Tacoma (3), Oly (8), Lewis-McChord, Neah Bay, Port Angeles, Olympic NP, Bremerton, Shelton, Omak, Tualip, Cape Horn, Longview (2), Long Beach (2), Hubbard, Carson, Eatonville, Battle Ground (2), Goldendale, Skamania Co., Crystal Mountain, Yakima, Richland, Maryhill, Spokane (3), Pullman

Oregon (737)
“statewide” interest (69)

Portland area (450)
Vancouver (20), Camas (2), Portland (340), Beaverton (9), Aloha (3), Hillsboro (15), Cornelius (3), Forest Grove (2), Washington Co. (7), Wilsonville (10), Tigard (3), Tualatin (2), Milwaukee (7), Oregon City (8), Gladstone, Sherwood, West Linn (6), Lake Oswego (2), Fairview, Gresham (7), Troutdale

Outskirts of Portland-area (26)
Newberg, Estacada, Eagle Creek, Molalla (3), Clackamas Co. (4), Clatskanie Co., Westport, St. Helens (2), Banks, Vernonia (2), Warren (2), Gaston, McMinville, Yamhill (3), Willamette River (2)

Coast (34)
Astoria (3), Wheeler, Cannon Beach, Tillamook (2), Lincoln City, Glenden Beach, Yaquina, Newport (5), Seal Rock, Yachats, Florence, Coos Bay, Reedsport (2), Myrtle Point (2), Waldport, Coquille (5), Bandon, Port Orford, Rogue Co., Brookings (2)

West-Central (79)
Salem (51), Monmouth, Silverton (2), Scotts Mills, Mill City, Lebanon, Sweet Home, Albany (5), Corvallis (5), Shedd, Eugene (7), Coburg, Oakridge (2)

Southwest (24)
Klamath Falls (3), Roseburg (3), Tenmile, Medford (6), Jacksonville, Jackson Co., Grants Pass (2), Ashland (2), Selma/Cave Junction, Mrytle Creek, Chiloquin, Douglas Co. (2)

North-Central (14)
Bonneville/Cascade Locks, Mt Hood (5), Hood River (3), The Dalles (5)

Central (24)
Sisters, Bend (8), Warm Springs (4), Wheeler County (2), Madras (3), Terrebonne, Redmond, Prineville, Pelton-Round Butte, Goat Lake/Mt Jefferson, Fossil

East (15)
Morrow Co., Hermiston (2), Pendleton, Elgin (4), Wallowa (2), Canyon City, Imnaha, Ontario (3)

Southeast (2)
Owhyhee basin (from New York Times), Malheur Lake