Uncommon

Give Me a Break, Will Ya?

Electoral College results 2016 (on this map, blue = GOP)

One of the most tiresome talking points in the wake of the 2016 presidential election is that "Hillary won the popular vote."






Since we're in football season, the best analogy to this "argument" is the claim by
a losing team's fans that it out-gained its opponent even though that didn't translate into victory. (In the Panthers-Chiefs game I write about below, for instance, the Panthers "won" in yardage gained 341-256.) To know who won a football game, we look at the scoreboard, not the stat sheet.

For some reason, though, sore losers can't seem to accept that the Electoral College is the governing structure for our presidential elections, and that BOTH candidates campaign accordingly. If that were NOT the case, campaigns would be run VERY differently, and we cannot simply assume that the popular vote would have turned out the same if the Electoral College didn't exist.

Besides...

Seeing black-eyed skank Hillary Clinton get beat on November 8 was gratifying,
but seeing the "blue wall" boasting get debunked was pretty sweet also...

"And you're not above a little gloating about that, are you?"

No, no I am not...

Streaky

My beloved Kansas City Chiefs won their fifth straight game yesterday, beating the defending NFC Champion Carolina Panthers 20-17 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. It was an odd game, with the Panthers scoring 17 straight points followed by the Chiefs scoring 20 straight, 17 of them in a wild 4th quarter.

It was not a great day for the Chiefs offense, which did not produce
a touchdown and gained only 256 yards. Just 91 of those yards came on the ground.

Offensively, the star of the game for the Chiefs was K Cairo Santos, whose field goals of 47, 36, 33, and 37 yards provided the victory margin. The last of those field goals came as time expired, the only time the Chiefs led the entire game, and Santos's first career walk-off.

The Chiefs defense struggled in the first half, allowing the Panthers to claim a 17-3 lead at halftime, but held them scoreless after that.

In the 4th quarter S Eric Berry returned an interception 42 yards for the Chiefs only TD, and CB Marcus Peters stripped the ball from a Panthers receiver to set up the game-winning FG.

"Is that what they call 'winning ugly'?"

Yes, but the key word in that phrase is "winning"...

Super Supermoon

The visual phenomenon we call a "supermoon" is hardly uncommon, but the one the world experienced last night certainly was.





Last night's occurrence was the biggest and brightest since 1948 (five years before I was born), and there will not be another similarly impressive supermoon until 2034, 18 years from now.

I might have 18 more years left in me, but it sure doesn't feel like I do most days...

"Last night was a 'once in a lifetime' thing, then?"

Can't say that for sure, of course, but the odds are good that it was...even if it wasn't, though, it was still pretty cool to see...

What Might Have Been

From the indispensable comic strip Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller, which you should read every day, as I do (even though Wiley is a squishy liberal).

Until Next Time...

On November 14, 1900 Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York. The son of working class Russian immigrants, Copland showed an interest in music at a young age, writing songs when he was just a little over eight years old.

Although his father wished a conventional education for his son, Copland's mother encouraged him to pursue his musical ambitions. This led to spending time in Paris studying and taking piano instruction. When Aaron returned to the United States in 1925 he chose to become a composer as his full-time occupation, though this required some imaginative financial arrangements.

Within a decade Copland had firmly established himself, and began composing the signature works that would become his legacy.

Sheet music for brass ensemble

One of these was his stirring 1942 piece Fanfare for the Common Man, which he composed at the behest of conductor Eugene Goossens, who at the time was working with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

It is arguably Copland's best-known and most frequently performed composition, and versions of it have been used often in movies and TV shows. Live performances of the piece on ceremonial occasions are also common.

Originally written for a brass ensemble with percussion, the fanfare has been arranged for everything from single instruments like guitar and piano all the way to full orchestras.





Today's send-off is a live performance of the famous fanfare by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band, filmed at the Salt Lake Tabernacle on September 21, 2014. Enjoy...