Jo Anne, my mother-in-law of forty-four years would not have wanted me to do this. But I’m going to anyway. For me.
About six weeks ago we didn’t know if she would make it to Christmas. Now it would appear she won’t. But where she’s going is a place pretty glorious. She’s going home… to Indiana and beyond.
Wife of a career U.S. Air Force bird Colonel. Mother of three. Grandmother of three. Great grandmother of four. Friend of many. An incurable dog lover. A world class cook. Traveler of the world. Antique guru. A young woman from Indiana. But most importantly… someone who always looked for the best in others.
A mother who would do anything for her three children or her three grandchildren or four great grandchildren.
A woman who will leave behind a legacy of life long friends from the Air Force as she and her late husband Richard were integral members of the U.S Air Force during the glory years of SAC (Strategic Air Command) during the era of the Soviet Union being America’s No. 1 adversary.
Obviously…this makes me sad. But at the same time she won’t be struggling any more. She’s going to a better place for certain.
It took me a awhile to assimilate being married into an Air Force family. But as I look back now I wouldn’t trade any of the memories.
The fact of the matter is I never would have even met my wife if her father hadn’t been stationed at Tinker Air Force Base her senior year of high school. Life can be funny that way. It can.
Not too much in the Indiana-Notre Dame or SMU-Penn State games which have been very interesting or surprising for me. I would think Texas will easily dispense of Clemson as well later this evening. Big is big, fast is fast. More NIL cash is more NIL cash.
Hopefully…the wisdom of the Big Ten Selection Committee will give us one watchable first round game in the Ohio State-Tennessee game later tonight.
I haven’t even needed to have the sound on either game as I’ve been reading and watching Aaron Rodger’s Netflix series entitled ‘Enigma’. I liked it. Of course being a lifetime Packer fan….one would think I’d like the series. I believe my 10-4 Packers host the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football. With all the injuries the Detroit Lions have sustained of late I’m becoming much more bullish on the Packers’ chances in the NFC Playoffs.
I’m reading two books right now…1 An American Idea by Peggy Noonan, and 2 Paddling the Pacific by Paul Therox. Plus, with all this sudden Arctic air which has suddenly engulfed godforsaken Oklahoma….I’m drinking copious amounts of my beloved pecan praline coffee.
Life is good…even in the chemo quarantine bubble.
I’m going to post this non-Christmas Straight No Chaser song because its my favorite song by SNC. No racial or societal message intended. Like I’ve wriiten on here before…I’m probably the least lit-woke, non-ideological person I know.
If some of you Trump crazies want to construe me playing this song as a sign of my obvious Communist Marxist Sandinista beliefs…then I would have to say..Bless your heart. Seriously….bless your heart.
Just hanging out chilling at the Deer Creek ranch on a cold Friday-December 20th. Definitely a hot coffee and soup type of day. Five days to Christmas.
This video is for my two grandchildren…Robert (5) and Aubrey (4) who I both love very much. I consider myself one of the luckiest grandfathers in America. I do.
I won’t be able to hang out with them in person this Christmas because of my current chemo quarantine status.. so I wanted to put a Christmas song on here today specifically for them.
You guys have a great Christmas and I look forward to doing a zoom with you on Christmas day.
First Johnny Mateer with an assist from Baker Mayfield picks the Sooners over Bill Belichik and Tom Brady, then just a few hours later National Freshman of the Year Jeremiah Fears slays ranked Michigan with one of the most incredible four point plays I’ve ever witnessed in basketball.
I’m not even sure I can remember Steph pulling off one like Jeremiah did last night. In all candor…other than the Thunder’s brutal performance in the NBA Cup Final…it’s been an amazing week.
Add to the fact… it appears to me my emotional nemisis Donald Trump won’t in fact be inaugurated as POTUS 47 because it woud appear new president-elect Elon Musk is going to rightfully push Donald Trump into a gutter where he belongs and assume the White House as our first real billonaire POTUS.
I wonder if this means Markwayne Mullin will soon be witnessed rubbing himself against President Musk?
Anyway…I’m in a great state of mind and I’m thinking to myself…if Jimmy Fallon and Michael Buble can have their own XMas special…then why can’t MJ?
So….here it is–MJ’s First Christmas Special. Let’s go.
Six days to Christmas, baby!!!
***
What a lovely Friday — December 20th it is from the Christmas studio of okcthunderground.com.
Life is serene and peaceful. Life is good. I am one within the universe. Much more so than President Elect Musk is five days before Christmas. His first day in office… one he somehow acheived without receiving a single vote in the November election didn’t go so well. But que sera. What else can I say? I’m drifting in the clouds like JL Seagull on my back as I blog. To be blunt…at this point I could care less about President Musk and his sidekick Captain Chaos.
That’s not where I am….nor where I want to be.
My Christmas song today comes from Bloomington, Indiana. From the group my wife and I have seen in concert four times during out marriage.
Straight No Chaser singing their classic rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Porter Moser’s OU Sooners once again stunned the college basketball world with a stunning one-point improbable comeback victory over the Michigan Wolverines in the Jumpman Classic in Charlotte.
The 11-0 start marks the Sooners’ best non-conference opening since the Buddy Hield Final Four season under Coach Lon Kruger.
The good thing for OU this season is they don’t have to deal with the Kansas Jayhawks’ ‘owned” zebras out of Kansas City in SEC league play. We don’t have to beat Bill Self and Little Dougie Sermon in Big 12 play any longer.
F–k that shit. Michael Jordan couldn’t have beat those dudes.
My ‘source’ tells me the paper work and details are being smoothed over. Don’t be shocked if an WSU wide receiver or two comes with the package. This is a big deal for OU. You cannot be average in the SEC at the quarterback position.
Here’s what I’m talking about from 2016 to the present…Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, Caleb Williams, and Dillion Gabriel preceding Jackson Arnold. Even Spencer Rattler won a Big 12 Championship.
That’s three Heisman winners and two other Heisman finalists. Baker, Kyler, and Jalen all have their three respective NFL teams currently positioned to make the NFL Playoffs.
I love the grit of Jackson Arnold. I want him to massively succeed as the Auburn QB next season. My wife went to Auburn before she ‘hopelessly’ (sigh) fell in love with me and came back to Oklahoma.
I hope Auburn wins every game minus one next season, that being when they visit Norman.
But here’s the thing, Brent Venables is not a seasoned head coach. He’s a wonderful defensive mind. An awesome communicator and recruiter. But most importantly… a good man who represents the OU football program the right way.
But 6-6 won’t cut it for Brent Venables next season. That’s not the football standard in Norman…SEC, Big 12, or Big 8.
This needs to happen for OU in the next two days to start filling the roster where a few holes need to be plugged.
No. 10 Sooner womens’ team beat Michigan last night in the Jumpman Classic to improve to 10-1. If you haven’t seen Coach Jennie’s team yet…you need to take the time. They’re better than last year’s Big 12 Championship team.
No. 15 Sooner mens’ team play Michigan tonight in the Jumpman as well.
Plus…we’ve got the first ever 12 Team CFP starting Friday. My Packers are 10-4 and the Denver Broncos for the first time since my son’s family moved to Denver seem headed for a wild card berth. MJ’s sport cup runneth over.
Life is good.
MJ
*** Wait…my source is back on the line. It just happened? Johhny Mateer is the next Sooner QB legend. There’s Only One Oklahoma, Baby!!!!
I’ll say this about Shai, JDub, and Coach Mark’s comments in the postgame presser:
‘Honest, direct, spot on, and what I knew I would hear from these three guys. It’s why I respect them.’
All of the questions asked were what I would describe as good questions minus the obligatory Pre-K nonsense Little Nick Gallo is paid to ask by Sam Presti and Clay Bennett.
Why the Thunder organization after sixteen years still suscribe to this mode of self fluffery is beyond me? It’s even worse than the fathead Robert Allen roaming Mike Gundy’s sideline. These are actually two of the things Jim Traber and I would agree upon.
You know, basketball is like life, man. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way. It can knock your ass down…sometimes hard. But this is where you as a group find out about yourselves. Discover as a collective group how to get better each time you take the floor.
But from an objective, extremely knowledgeable, confidant NBA blogger like myself who can take the step back unlike the Little Nick Gallos of the NBA landscape please consider the following.
If I were coaching this team…these are the things I would emphasis to my team moving forward:
1 Chet didn’t play.
2 Despite the fact we were horrid our defense still held the Bucks to 97 points.
3 I as your coach have to do a better job implementing an offensive scheme on nights when we’re not creating live ball turnovers and shooting the three very well. What I’m saying here is that on these rare nights… we need to learn how to beat the other five best teams in the league playing at a slower pace and not jacking threes when they’re not falling.
4 Run back faster. Play harder. Nah, man. That was just for Little Nick Gallo and Royce Young. I’m just shitting with you there.
Keep your head up, Thunder. Just learn from this and GET BETTER!
It’s late at night for old an timer like me…so indulge me with the Billy Mack video.
The rumor that the OKC Thunder might show up for their NBA Cup final was a false one and that’s on me for trying to be so nice to these guys on Tuesday morning.
First off to the champion Milwaukee Bucks. You owned the Thunder for pretty much the final forty minutes of play. You never once trailed in the second half. You came together as a team in this tournament. In these last four weeks or so you’ve been the best team in the NBA…East or West. For the first time since you made the Damian Lillard acquisition…you made it look like it should have looked like last season.
Giannis made Hartenstein and JDub look like little girly bitch ragdogs out there on a night he trip-dubbed for 29/19/10 and five blocks… and easily claimed the tournament MVP hardware. I have no idea whatsoever what Giannis actually said during his MVP acceptance speech…hence the Bill Mack video. It’s late.
These aren’t last season’s Milwaukee Bucks. Khris Middleton didn’t even play and no one noticed because Gary Trent Jr, JD Green, and that spunky Jackson kid from UConn were all more than able to absorb the minutes.
Doc Rivers even tried helping the Thunder by playing Connaughton some minutes in both the first and second halves—and yet the no show under the bright lights Thunder couldn’t take advantage of this Buck defensive lineup liability.
Bobby Portis sucked as well, but again it didn’t matter because basically Giannis, Brook Lopez, Gary Trent Jr., and Dame could have beaten this Thunder team 4 on 5 on this night given they could not throw a basketball into the Pacific Ocean standing five feet from the tide-line.
I will not suggest a Thunder player of the game because they all collectively sucked. And yet this question nags at me…on a night like this why is it Aaron Wiggins still struggles to find a consistent role on this team?
Why…what am I missing?
Sam Presti, Coach Mark… put away your Mike Gundy Sippy Cups and do this for me, my Denver Nuggets need some more players. Not star players, but three two-way role players. Nicola is having a historic NBA season as he and Giannis now clearly stand atop the MVP race moving forward. It would be a shame for Denver to waste this historic season Nicola is having.
Since Denver GM Calvin Booth seems to be sitting on his ass..let’s do this trade. Denver gives you Michael Porter Jr. to alleviate your 19th in the NBA three point shooting woes…and in return the Nuggets get Aaron Wiggins, Kenrich Williams, and Isaiah Joe.. Think about it. Please.
This was not a good night fo the Thunder. They’re a great group of guys. I’d love to live next door to any of these dudes. But they basically wilted under the bright lights with the entire NBA world watching.
Beyond the Bucks claiming this championship–this thought accompanies me as we move back to NBA regular season play… the Eastern Conference 1-5…Boston, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Atlanta, and a healthy Orlando team is currently better than the top five teams in the West.
To me…Atlanta and Orlando are very interesting teams moving towards the trade deadline.
Anyway…Shai, Lu, and Kenrich–I still love you guys. Kenrich–hope to see you on my next stroll wearing my crimson OU hoops shirt in Washington Park. Thank god you hit that last three to get the team off that 78 spot at the end.
As a passionate NBA fan who lives just inside the northern border of Oklahoma County… I care who wins tonight’s NBA Cup Finals between OKC and Milwaukee. I want the Thunder to win and the following is why.
The primary reason is that despite my angst over the Thunder’s kindegarten level of local media coverage, despite their pathetic OPM 5% investment in the new arena, and despite their completely over the top third year of tanking…. I have three reasons I want this Thunder team to succeed even though my ardor for Thunder Nation has never really returned from the tanking.
My three reasons are Shai, Lu Dort, and Kenrich Williams. I love and respect these three young men and how they’ve each individually taken a stake in their team. They never wavered their inner core principles to rebuild the Thunder franchise and bridge the Durant-Westbrook era into this next generation of NBA ball in Oklahoma City.
Does winning tonight really matter?
Of course it does.
If you’re a competitor who competes at a high internal level…winning matters if you do it the right way.
And these three dudes have all done it the right way since they became core building blocks of Sam Presti’s rebuild in Oklahoma City.
I can’t wait to watch the human factor in tonight’s game because I can assure you Giannis, Damian, and the rest of the Bucks want to win this game just as much as Oklahoma City.
Love Actually is probably my favorite Christmas movie with White Christmas and Christmas Vacation folowing behind. We watched it tonight eating spaghetti and crying at the same scenes… which you know, tug at your heart.
The Colin Firth proposal scene is my favorite scene.
I was hoping Santa might drop Johnny Mateer in our Sooner Xmas stockings today, but still keeping my fingers crossed.
Happy to see Jackson Arnold land on his feet at Auburn. I would have taken Georgia, but Auburn usually has quite a bit of NFL talent on its roster. Hope he does well.