Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Context




Last week I made my biennial trek out to South Bend for the greatest intersectional rivalry in sports.  Thanks to a number of ill-timed holding calls, my hopes for an upset were dashed.  But, as always, I had a wonderful visit to the Golden Dome and a walk along the lakes with golden leaves overhead.  As per usual, I bought a bratwurst from a student group grilling in the quad (this time, the MBA student association).  It was one of the best tasting brats I have ever had!  Crunchy, savory, and hot, my mouth was flooded with umami as my brain was flooded with all the positive associations of autumn. 

Was it really the best brat ever made?  Of course not.  It was a cheap, mass-produced Costco brat charred beyond recognition on an open flame by a drunk, overworked, distracted student.  Yet it tasted amazing because of the context.  A recent report on NPR described an experiment at Oxford that showed changing the environment of a tasting experience changed the flavor of the whisky the subjects were drinking.  We all know this phenomenon: margaritas on a beach in the Yucatan sunshine taste better than one served in a dive bar in Iowa City in the winter. 



Context is significant for changing perceptions beyond whisky and bratwurst (by the way, that’s not a great pairing; trust me, I’ve tried it).  Take for example the recent travesty of the NCAA sanctions for the University of Miami.  As the NCAA bungled its way through the investigation, Miami self-imposed a bowl ban.  Despite uncovering clear evidence of a decade of recruiting abuses that involved a booster with the full knowledge of the coaching staff and the college President, the NCAA found that Miami’s self-imposed sanctions were mostly sufficient.  While suffering constant criticism for inconsistency and the embarrassment of witness tampering during their investigation, the NCAA saw that Miami’s violations were not a major concern.  Yet 5 years ago when they slogged through an investigation of USC, finally finding that a coach “should have known” about Reggie Bush’s inappropriate gifts, they hammered the Trojans with a 30-scholarship reduction plus post season ban.

Miami = 120 players and the admitted knowledge of the coach and president. 
USC = 1 player and an assistant coach who “should have known”

Not equivalent.  Regardless of context. 

Fight on,

Hans

Sunday, October 13, 2013

How to Become a Movie Star




I am in Seattle this week for the annual American College of Emergency Physicians meeting along with about 10,000 other ER docs.  This is that week that you shouldn’t get into an accident!

It’s also a great sports weekend for Seattle.  Washington hosted (and lost to) Oregon at Husky Stadium with College Game Day in attendance.  And the Seahawks played a home game against Tennessee at CenturyLink Field, where they have sold out 87 consecutive games. 

I was lucky enough to have a few minutes free and got together for dinner with two friends from high school whom I had not seen in about 10 years.  As we watched the hometown Dodgers lose to St Louis, we shared stories from our childhood.  We all grew up in the Pasadena area in the 70’s, idolizing Pat Haden as he played with the Rams.  Flash forward to today and Haden is in the news for pulling his coach off a bus at the airport and firing him on the spot at 4 in morning. 

My most enduring memory of Pat Haden was when I met him while I as a junior at USC.  I was inducted into the Mortar Board honor society, and got to have lunch with the Board of Trustees of the school.  Haden was a member (and later the chair of the board) and I was as giddy as a schoolgirl as I sat down next to him at lunch.  A female classmate of mine was also at the table and had no clue who he was.  She asked him about his profession and background and I was surprised and impressed by his response.  He identified himself as a lawyer who had graduated from USC and “spent some time in Oxford*”.  He made no mention of his football career with the Trojans and Rams, so I piped up and said, “and I believe you played a little football too, right?”  He admitted to his athletic experience, but it was clear that he identified himself first and foremost as a *Rhodes scholar.   That’s pretty sweet.


Pat Haden lives in Pasadena, and was there when we were children.  His kids, in fact, attended my school a few years behind me.  Another LA Ram, Merlin Olsen, also lived in Pasadena at the time and his son was in my brother’s class.  But we didn’t know him as Merlin Olsen, 14 time All-Pro defensive lineman and member of the Ram’s Fearsome Foursome from 1962 – 1978.  We all knew him as Father Murphy.



Olsen played a frontiersman impersonating a priest in the short lived two-season series, after appearing in Little House on the Prairie for four years.  Two other members of Olsen’s Fearsome Foursome also turned actors.  Deacon Jones appeared on several TV shows and a few movies, including the 1978 Heaven Can Wait, a story about a LA Rams quarterback who was taken to Heaven too early by a sympathetic angel.  Rosey Grier parlayed his football experience into the biggest acting career of them all, going on to be a fixture in 1970’s TV movies, with 35 credits to his name.  (Lamar Lundy, the fourth member, was not as successful as his colleagues in Hollywood.  But 3 out of 4 aint bad)



This got me thinking; how many NFL players from the 60’s and 70’s do we know today as actors?  Here’s a partial list with their IMDB counts:

Alex Karras, 38 credits (including Mongo from Blazing Saddles and Webster’s dad), played for Iowa in college (YAY!), winning the Outland Trophy and taking the Hawkeyes to the Rose Bowl and played for the Lions 1958 – 1971. 

Terry Bradsaw, 15 credits (excluding his very successful career as an analyst), spent part of his childhood in Clinton, IA, but most of his life in Louisiana, led the Steelers 1970 – 1983.

Bubba Smith, 50 credits (most notably every Police Academy film), a star at Michigan State, played 1967 – 1976, mostly with the Baltimore (not Indianapolis) Colts (not Ravens).
Dick Butkus, 47 credits (including co-starring with Bubba Smith on the helicopter-police TV show Blue Thunder), a Chicago native who played for his hometown Bears 1965 – 1973

Fred Williamson, 117 credits (especially Blaxploitation films of the 1970’s), played in the NFL for one year in 1960 then switched to the AFL (Raiders and Chiefs) from 1961 – 1967

Fred Dryer, 39 credits (most known for the title role of the TV series Hunter), played 13 years in NFL and was a teammate of Pat Haden, Merlin Olsen, Deacon Jones, and Rosie Grier during his years with the Rams (1972 – 1981)

Joe Namath, 15 credits (nothing memorable), played for the New York Jets 1965 – 1976.  Trivia note: he was signed by the Rams in 1976 but only played 4 games before going down with an injury.  His replacement that year?  Pat Haden!

John Matuszak, 33 credits (everyone my generation revers him for playing Sloth in The Goonies), played 1973 – 1982, mostly with the Oakland Raiders.

OJ Simpson, 31 credits (such as the lovable Nordberg in Naked Gun), the second Heisman Trophy winner from USC, played 1969 – 1979, mostly with the Buffalo Bills.  He is also reportedly handy with a knife.

Ed Mariano, 56 credits (especially Officer Joe Coffey on Hill Street Blues), played 1972 – 1977, mostly for the Vikings

Jim Brown, 53 credits (also a big name in Blaxploitation films, but has carried his career through to the new millennium, including memorable roles in The Running Man and Mars Attacks), is in the NFL Hall of Fame for his remarkable career from 1957 – 1965 in Cleveland

Bernie Casey, 77 credits (one of the 8 actors to have portrayed James Bond’s CIA ally Felix Leiter), played 1961 – 1968 including the aforementioned Rams (he was teammates with Merlin Olsen and the rest of the Foursome).

Ben Davidson, 27 credits (played High Priest Rexor in the original Conan the Barbarian), played from 1961 – 1971, mostly with the Raiders.

Honorable Mention: Carl Weathers, 62 credits (Apollo Creed in Rocky 1 – 3 plus Predator), played only part of one season with the Raiders in 1970.

I was quite surprised by this list; it just kept growing.  Bottom line,  if you wanted to become an actor, your best bet was to play football for the LA Rams in the 1970’s.

Fight On,

Hans

PS: Congrats to the Penn State Nitany Lions for their stunning 4 OT heavyweight epic-match victory over the Michigan Wolverines.  My brother, Chris, and his wife Chloe were in attendance on a date to celebrate their 11th anniversary.  What a treat that turned out to be!!

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Get Your Kicks




Last weekend found me in Springfield, IL for a medical conference.   It conveniently happened to be scheduled the same weekend as their Route 66 Festival so Sophie came along for a fun daddy- daughter road trip.  


If you get hip to this kind of trip, I strongly recommend it.  The otherwise unremarkable small downtown area was transformed into a classic car show.   We were both enamored with the hundreds of antique cars laid out row upon row upon row.  There was classic rock throughout the air.  And there was food, glorious fair food!  

Sophie was intensely curious about this road; what is all this fuss about?   I explained it the only way a 6 year old can relate to: with Disney.  As I finished presenting at my conference, Sophie watched Cars on my iPad, finally appreciating the backstory of the decline of Radiator Springs. (click to see the clip from Cars)

Route 66 was created in 1926 and in 1938 became the first US highway to be paved from end to end.  But it was not the first highway and was never trans-continental.  That honor
belongs to the Lincoln Highway, first established in 1913 and stretched from New York to San Francisco (roughly following the route of Interstate 80 today). 

Yet it is Route 66 that remains the more famous of these early roads, carrying the moniker “The Mother Road” as penned by John Steinbeck.  Why has it captured our imagination so?  Because a hit song first recorded by Nat King Cole reminds of the cities is passes through?  Because there was a TV show about it?  Or because it holds an indelible place in American demography; migrants headed to California from the dust bowl traveled its path.  And, following World War II, the growth of industry in Southern California drew more families from Chicago and the Southeast. 

Mostly, I believe it is nostalgia that the road evokes for many of us.  Its path through the Southwest is mostly paralleled by Interstate 40.  This brings it along a multitude of classic summer vacation sights, including the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.  Everyone has a memory of some summer with the family driving the route dotted with jackalope statues and Indian Trading Posts

When we finally left Springfield, Sophie was hooked; she kept looking out the window at passing side roads and asking, "is that Route 66?"   So when we got near Chicago I made a detour to drive its path for a few miles.  By pure luck, we were passing a few miles east of Joliet, just south of Naperville when we hit this unassuming intersection:


Not impressed?

That’s ok.  It wouldn’t know it if you weren't looking for it, but this just happens to be the only place in the country where Route 66 and the Lincoln Highway cross!  See, they put a marker nearby:


I thought it was pretty cool.  So did Sophie!

Fight On,

Hans