Manny Diaz NOT on C-SPAN; Jimmy Smits filming CANE

Well, after I mentioned it in this space yesterday -as well as in FYI emails to some media folks who are less frequent visitors to this site- that City of Miami mayor Manny Diaz was a likely guest on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning, as their series on American cities made its way to Miami, guess who was a no-show?
This, after I had the VCR nice and warmed up with a new videotape, ready to record what I was sure would prove to be some lively TV, as national callers asked the sort of odd and probing questions that would likely prove to be either insightful or evidence of regional bias.

Whether this was because of prior commitments on the part of the mayor -perhaps prepping for the joint meeting with Miami-Dade County mayor Carlos Alvarez and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig- or because C-SPAN simply wanted to spend more time dealing with viewer comments on AG Gonzales's resignation, I can't say.

Instead of the the multiple hours that Dallas received on Sunday morning and Detroit received Monday, Miami was short-changed, though represented -quite thoughtfully I thought- by Andy Gomez, a Senior Fellow at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies, http://www6.miami.edu/iccas/ and by Gepsie M. Metellus of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, http://www.santla.org/

They were given a grand total of 48 minutes to discuss their personal perspective of the Cuban and Haitian experience in South Florida and answer caller questions, many of which were quite hostile. http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dprogram&record=556586599

Actor Jimmy Smits films scenes for his upcoming CBS-TV show CANE at Dolphin Stadium
August 12, 2007 photo by SouthBeachHoosier

I've been meaning to post this for a bit: One of the ways that people amused themselves on a sweltering Saturday night at the Dolphins-Jaguars preseason game two Saturdays ago at Dolphin Stadium -aka the former Joe Robbie Stadium- was gawking and squealing at actor Jimmy Smits as he went through his paces taping some segments for his upcoming CBS-TV show, CANE, set to air Tuesday nights at 10 p.m., and premiering on Sept. 25th
(See official CBS-TV website http://www.cbs.com/primetime/cane/ or IMDb.com's entry at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0955250/ ).

The show has looked great in the trailers I've seen so far, one of which was run on the giant screens above the end zones before taping began, which is where the above photo was snapped. There were two segments that were taped. The first was of Jimmy's character, Alex Duque -and actor Samuel Carman, who plays his young son Artie- being escorted by City of Miami mayor Manny Diaz towards mid-field to deliver a pre-game speech regarding "Hispanic Heritage Week" or something similar-sounding.

Frankly, his character's speech seemed a bit longwinded to me, suggesting -to me at least- the possibility that the producers were consciously going against the audience's preconceptions for this particular character, by showing that his character is someone who, while a smooth operator behind the scenes, is, perhaps, like many successful people, somewhat awkward in public settings or afraid of public speaking.
This would be a nice counterpoint to the usual suave and articulate characters Jimmy has long played in the past, who never lose their cool and who always say just the right thing.

A later sequence filmed was of him and TV son Samuel Carman and Mayor Diaz walking out towards the middle of the field for the pre-game coin-toss, with a few well-known Dolphin alumni in their Dolphin jackets standing nearby, at least one of whom I believe was Dick Anderson. (Dick's horrific injury during the 1975 Pro Bowl game at the Orange Bowl happened right in front of me, producing a very sick feeling in yours truly since it was SO clearly a bad injury!)

Among the better combination of stories and photos I've found about the new show are:
Cane" Is Anything But Sweet
http://content.meevee.com/?q=node/fullstory/7056

For those of you who want a better photo of the stadium itself, as well as the Orange Bowl, see this North Carolina State Wolf Pack sports site, in a series of posts regarding the Hurricanes leaving the Orange Bowl for Chez Huizenga.
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=491076&page=1

Miami to be focus of C-SPAN's Washington Journal Tuesday morning

C-SPAN's look at American cities and their unique set of problems and prospects will extend south to Miami on Tuesday morning, with Miami mayor Manny Diaz slated to be on for at least a half-hour or so, and taking call-in questions from around the nation if the first two shows in this series -on Dallas and Detroit- are any guide.

As of Monday night at 6:30 p.m., the C-SPAN website is still not showing who the other two likely guests will be to give the country a nuanced look at the Magic City.
Get your VCRs, TiVos and DVRs warmed-up!

Coach Shannon's secrecy concerns

Carolyn Braff has the story on U-M head football coach Randy Shannon's stealthy approach to injuries, like tailback Charlie Jones, and the reporting of same, in her post titled, Not A Word Or A Picture: While some pros are busy faking injuries, Miami is trying to keep theirs as quiet as possible.
http://slog.cstv.com/tapeitup/2007/08/miami_not_a_word_or_a_picture.html

A.J. Ratliff's eligibility; Hoosiers in The Bahamas

HoosierScoop http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/ has the latest news about the rumor that's been floating out there all summer regarding the eligibility of senior guard A.J. Ratliff.
It's not good.
Coach Sampson makes it official that the Hoosier from Indy will be out for the first 8 games of the season, including two early key TV home games, both of which will go a long way towards shaping what the country thinks early on of Coach Sampson's efforts with the Hoosiers, against Ga. Tech on Tuesday Nov. 27th in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and the UK game on Saturday December 8th.

As to his multiple wrist injuries, they also report, "Sampson said Ratliff is healthy and has been working out with the team. He will continue to practice and arrived at Assembly Hall shortly before 2 today to join the team for the first of 10 practices as it prepares to play four exhibition games in the Bahamas over Labor Day weekend." HoosierScoop will be continually updating this story as more info becomes available.

La fin: the Ben Allen era is over http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/uwire/082407aae.html

Now, of course, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I think that if I had planned things properly, I'd have managed to have some time set aside so that I could catch a short flight over to The Bahamas and watch the Hoosiers go thru their paces in those four games they're slated to play starting on the 31st. But, Mike Pegram will be accompanying the Hoosiers on their trip to our neighbors to the east http://indiana.rivals.com/ and will be close enough to likely have some scoops of his own before returning to Bloomington.

HoosierScoop also reports on the latest in the BIG TEN NETWORK vs. COMCAST fight. Shocker: so far, the only guaranteed losers are Hoosier fans, as corporate weasels show themselves for what they are. Why expect something different?

Sale of Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa

Just read the front page story in the Daily Business Review the news about the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa -along with the Diplomat Landing retail center and the eponymous golf course and country club across the Intercoastal- being shopped around for some number probably north of $650 million if the expansion across AIA to the proposed Diplomat West is included.
Ace real estate journalist Terry Sheridan, as always, paints a very clear picture of what's what and who's who in the drama being played behind-the-scenes in flipping this premier Hollywood beach property, which I can see everyday on the beach two miles from where I live, so large is its shadow.
She quotes some knowledgeable folks who think that the expansion would likely justify the price being floated out there in the ether, given the great location and its self-evident star quality.
And as you know, the Super Bowl will be back here in early 2009 after being out in Arizona this year, and the Westin will likely once again be one of the NFL's key host hotels, given the high quality of service they provide. The front desk and concierge staff there is top notch!
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=44615

U-M President Donna Shalala on move from Orange Bowl

My nephew Mario, who starts his Junior year at the U-M today, thoughtfully sent me this copy of the email that everyone in Hurricane Nation received yesterday about the decision to leave the Orange Bowl for Dolphin Stadium starting next year.
Obviously the U-M letterhead was on the top of the letter, but otherwise it's exactly as it appears in the original letter.
___________________________________
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:09:12 -0400
From: umcommunications@MIAMI.EDU
Subject: A Message from President Shalala

If you have problems reading this, visit http://www.miami.edu/president/dialogue/dialogue_08_21_07.html.

August 21, 2007
To the University Community:
We have an extraordinary history and tradition at the Orange Bowl: The players running through the smoke tunnel. “Touchdown Tommy” and his cannon. The Ring of Honor. An incredible winning streak of 58 consecutive home wins. And three of our five national championships were won on that field. I love the Orange Bowl—we all do!
As many of you are aware, the University has been working closely with the City of Miami to assess the feasibility of making much-needed renovations to the Orange Bowl. It has long been our goal to have a first-class football stadium.The City of Miami has been a wonderful partner with us at the Orange Bowl for many years, and they understand how hard we have wrestled with a very difficult decision. Mayor Manny Diaz has been heroic in his efforts to meet our future needs. After much thought, analysis, and discussions with many, many of our trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and fans, we have concluded that we must move our football games to a better facility. The more than $200 million in renovations that the city has proposed would only provide basic and mostly infrastructural upgrades. A part of those funds are not in hand and may or may not be determined until after the proposed construction would be well underway. Overall, the renovations clearly would not address the long-term needs of our athletes and our fans.
The Orange Bowl chapter of our history—in which we can all take great pride—will never close, and we are confident that the legacy of Miami Hurricanes football will live on and thrive as we move to a new location. After an assessment of all options available to us, we have decided reluctantly and painfully to move to Dolphin Stadium for the 2008 season.
Dolphin Stadium is one of the premier football stadiums in the country. At our new home, our student-athletes will have the opportunity to compete in a first-class facility that plays host to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, the FedEx Orange Bowl, BCS National Championship Game, and that has been the site of recent and upcoming Super Bowls.
Our fans will experience outstanding amenities including one of the world’s largest plasma TV displays, high-definition video boards, club seating and suites, chairbacks on every stadium seat, approximately 14,000 parking spaces, and a large variety of concessions and restaurants.The end zones will be redone so that our shared home will reflect both Miami teams’ pride. The Dolphins are actively pursuing a corporate sponsor so that by 2010 the stadium will have a neutral name.
I want to assure all members of our University community—students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, donors, friends—and the tens of thousands of fans who regularly cheer us on, that we looked exhaustively into every aspect of the choices in front of us, and that your needs figured prominently in our final decision. The quality of your experience at our games is of the utmost importance to us.
As always, we would like to hear from you. Please contact us at an e-mail address we have established for your comments: umfootball@miami.edu. If you have any further questions, please go to the Official Athletic Department Web site at hurricanesports.com or call
1-800-GO-CANES.

Thank you, and Go ’Canes!
Sincerely,
Donna E. Shalala

Office of the President
P.O. Box 248006 Coral Gables, Florida 33124-4600
305-284-5155
Fax 305-284-3768

Odds and ends for Hoosier and Hurricane fans

Received an email this afternoon via my Hoosier mail announcing that the new football coach's radio show has found a permamnent venue with a schedule to boot.
Inside IU Football with Bill Lynch can be heard Monday evening at 7 p.m. throughout the football season.
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/082007aaa.html
If you haven't already seen it yet, there's a good profile on Head Coach Bill Lynch at
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/lynch_bill00.html

Quite by accident, while looking for some info on early 1970's 'Canes football teams, I came across http://www.answers.com/topic/miami-hurricanes-football

Interesting at first glance but I will endeavor to check it out completely for any obvious factual mistakes -there's always a few I find in anything about the U-M- or dangling explanations that beg and demand more helpful context, and suggest you check it out before the season and see how it looks.

SouthBeachHoosier Time Machine: Reviewing the Battle of the Orange Bowl

Continuing with the decision by U-M President Donna Shalala and the U-M Board of Trustees to do what's right for the school, the team and the vast majority of South Florida's Hurricane fans by leaving the Orange Bowl in the rear-view mirror, what follows is the March 16, 1979 Miami Herald story by Bill Rose, which ran about two months before the Bill Braucher column that was the basis for my last post.

It traces the history of how Dolphins owner Joe Robbie got the better of Dade County Mayor Steve Clark and Commissioner J.L Plummer by publicly embarrassing them, simply by telling the truth to the gathered NFL owners in Hawaii, which, unhappily for Clark and Plummer, was a history replete with broken promises to Robbie and the Dolphins and real threats for them to move out of Miami if they didn't like it.

Joe Robbie, who'll be the future subject of a South Beach Hoosier post dealing with his role as the Dade County Democratic Party chair, lived long enough to call their bluff and have the last laugh!

Yes, the fights over beer sales, and the fights in court when the Dolphins prevailed and the govt. didn't like it and appealed and lost again, the threat to prevent the Dolphins from actually playing a preseason game in the Orange Bowl, et al.

This as the NFL owners convened to decide among other things, the site of the 1981 Super Bowl, which turned out to be Detroit, even as Miami officials took it for granted that they were in the driver's seat.
(That was Super Bowl XVI, where the 49ers beat the Bengals 26-21, the first of their Super Bowl meetings, with the second coming in SB XXIII in Miami, with the 49ers winning 20-16.)
Just as was the case with the Braucher column post, I'll try to write out the story in the future here in case you can't read it completely.



Reviewing the Battle of the Orange Bowl, Bill Rose, March 16, 1979, Miami Herald

SouthBeachHoosier Time Machine: The Orange Bowl Isn't Worth Drive to Dade

Well, given both the inevitability and the finality of the news coming out of Coral Gables today regarding the future of the Hurricanes playing at the Orange Bowl, I've been waiting to share the following 1979 archive with you for months, keeping it in my blogging holster, ready to fire when the time was right. That's today.
Miami Herald: UM says so long to the Orange Bowl http://www.miamiherald.com/598/story/210237.html

South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Hurricanes leaving Orange Bowl for Dolphin Stadium
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college/hurricanes/sfl-canesmove082107,0,5652498.story?coll=sofla_tab01_layout

Let me share a piece of SBH trivia so that you have some historical context for understanding my context regarding the Orange Bowl as an institution and the U-M, so you where I'm coming from.
The first time I was ever in the Orange Bowl was the last game of the Dolphins 1970 season, a 45-7 victory over the Buffalo Bills that propelled the Dolphins to their first playoff game, a loss to the Oakland Raiders in the muddy slop that was the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum.
My very first U-M football game in the Orange Bowl was in 1972, when I saw the famous
U-M vs. Tulane "Fifth Down" game, which U-M won in Coach Fran Curci's last year.
(This was back in the day when North Miami Beach had lots of Tulane and Newcomb alums, many of whom were parents of my friends.)

I'd gone to the game because Mrs. Wharton, the beloved libararian at Fulford Elementary School in North Miami Beach, where I was an eleven-year old 6th grader, told me one day that as the school sponsor for the Fulford safety patrol, she'd gotten word from the U-M that all South Florida kids in the safety patrol wearing their orange/red safety sashes would get into the game for free. (That's how desperate the U-M was for fans back in the day!)

I knew Mrs. wharton pretty well since I was one of the 4-5 boys at Fulford who had A/V privileges, essentially kids who did well enough in school that if it was okay with my other teachers, if Mrs. Wharton needed help, we'd get out of class and rig up the film projector for her and run it for the younger kids.
She knew I was a devout football fan in general, from my always talking about the Dolphin games -I was a Dolphin season ticket holder for the first time in '72, the Perfect Season, and still recall getting the package in the mail from the Dolphins' then-HQ at 330 Biscayne Blvd., opening it carefully and and staring at all the interconnected, colorful football tickets like they were treasure, too nervous to actually separate them until the day of the game- she thought I'd probably be interested in seeing the Hurricanes.
Mrs. Wharton was 100% right, of course, so I suspect it was a rhetorical question, since she was always joking about my listening and re-listening to an NFL Films record in the library -with huge elementary school-type headphones- that featured all sorts of great play-by-play material, including a snippet of the Don Meredith-led Dallas Cowboys calling a play in the huddle, which I still recall. Since you asked it went exactly like this: "Brown right up, 13 take left, on one, ready, break!"

She said she'd dig up an extra safety patrol sash for me to wear, and about two hours before the game, I and a few other interested prospective U-M fans met her and her husband next to Fulford, giddy about going to the Orange Bowl.
I don't recall all the particulars in great detail, but I do recall that she told us that she and her husband were both U-M alums.
She'd even gone to the trouble of making us a copy of the lyrics to the U-M alma mater song for us to practice in the car drive down to the Orange Bowl, because she said that at some point, the crowd would stand up and sing and she wanted us to be prepared.
Believe me, by the time we got there, we knew the first verse!
Oddly enough, a friend of my father had gone to a U-M vs. Alabama game in 1968, the first year we lived here, and bought a game program for me -the first of my collection- so I actually had looked at the lyrics a few times before as I had perused the program over and over again.

It was the first of dozens and dozens of U-M games I'd see over the years before leaving for IU in August of 1979, whether by myself or with friends, often via the Dade County buses that ran from the Levitz furniture parking lot west of the Golden Glades interchange, straight down I-95
to the ballgame, the same ones that I usually used to get to Dolphin games.
I saw teams that were both known and unknown, ranked and unranked, from UNLV and College of the Pacific, and thanks to Woody Thompson, to the huge upset over Texas the week Sports Illustrated picked them first in their annual college football issue in 1975.
I saw many games against Notre Dame over the years, from the fight-marred game in 1974,
Ara Parseghian's last year at ND, when they really got the huge OB crowd into a frenzy by calling a timeout with just seconds left, so they could score another meaningless touchdown to impress the AP football writers who voted in the AP Poll.
(This was back in the day when the syndicated Notre Dame football program with veteran broadcaster Lindsey Nelson was telecast locally every Sunday morning, right before the NFL pregame shows, so I knew the ND players as well as I knew the U-M players, if not better.
"We pick up the action later in the third quarter at the Purdue 20-yaard line...")
On a trip back from Evanston, I even was able to see the shutout shellacking administered to the ND team led by Heisman trophy winner Tim Brown.
the highlight of all those games was being at the 1984 Orange Bowl Classic victory over Nebraska, when I was literally touching the railing behind the team bench seconds before running out onto the field with thousands of other delirious U-M fans as the gun sounded, giving them their first national championship.

This Bill Braucher story is an insightful piece of South Florida history which, to me at least, speaks volumes for all manner of current and past public policy problems/govt. projects that have beset South Florida for the past forty years: inertia, apathy, incompetency and finances.
I've been keeping it at the ready since first having it printed out at the Miami-Dade County Main Library downtown, and seeing the downtown's myraid problems "up close and personal" for the first time in months.
I knew something was askew when all the library restrooms were closed and patrons were instructed to use a public facilty in the plaza that was the haunt of the homeless and the inebriated.
Lets' just say that you could smell it a block away.
(I'd stopped at the library on my way back up from attending a fascinating immigration forum at the U-M in May, itself a microcosm of the South Florida that wants to cling to the comfortable past and those who want a future built on logic and reason.
Using my power of persuasion, mastery of facts and a general willingness to really grill some of the forum participants, I was able to get some people at the table, one in particular, to admit that perhaps -definitely!- their own personal and professional immigration policy prescriptions have created painful costs for the country as a whole, ones they seem to consciously prefer to ignore.
The result of that kind of thinking was the public's overwhelming rejection of, hate for and the defeat of President Bush's comprehensive immigration package in Congress, despite how the skids were greased, even while the public was kept in the dark about its various provisions .
Okay, since you asked, the one in particular I refer to was Cheryl Little, Executive Director of the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center, http://www.fiacfla.org/index.php who since then has been on TV as much as ever calling for immigration policies that rely too much on the heart and not enough on the head.
Convenient for her but not so much for the rest of the country who want policies that aren't completely ad hoc but which are based on the law, reason, logic and predictbility.
Which reminds me, I'll finally get around to describing that whole morning there at the U-M's BankUnited Center in an upcoming post, months overdue, complete with a copy of the program, so you know who all the players were.)

This March 18, 1979 Bill Braucher column below, which ran on the front page of the Sunday Broward news section, serves as a painful reminder that even when or IF you were to eliminate all the current incompetent people in the City of Miami responsible for the disgraceful current condition of the Orange Bowl -and have you seen the city's website for the OB, which seems like something a junior high school kid did over a weekend, with none of the sorts of historical photos that you'd expect to give it context, http://www.orangebowlstadium.com/pages/- it's important to keep in mind that, just like cholesterol, it's not just environment, it's genetics which determines a patient's health. The City of Miami has very recessive genes.
Logical result: The Orange Bowl has been sick for decades!

To read this column from those pre-cable, pre-internet days is to be reminded all over again of the sorts of half-assed things that were commonplace back in 1979, when Dolphins owner Joe Robbie was getting screwed over once again by the kangaroo court that was Miami's powers-that-be, principally Dade County mayor Steve Clark.
To date myself, yours truly was then a senior at North Miami Beach Senior High School, a true-blue fan who never missed a Dolphins or Hurricanes home game.

Titled Orange Bowl Isn't Worth Drive to Dade, Braucher, the Herald's former Dolphin beat writer -who later became their Broward editor- when I was growing up as a kid in the '70's , mentions some very telling anecdotes that perfectly illustrates that the City of Miami's bad attitude isn't just a recent phenomena, rather it's a living, breathing entity that's been around for decades, regardless of its core competency to solve the problem either intelligently or in a financially prudent fashion.

At a future date, I'll try to write it out for those who can't read it completely when you capture it with your computer mouse.






Orange Bowl Isn't Worth Drive to Dade, Bill Braucher, Miami Herald, March 18, 1979

InsidetheU.com

There was an unexpected surprise waiting for me on the car in the Dolphin Stadium parking lot after last Saturday night's Dolphin-Jaguars preseason game.

No, not some flyer telling me about some great new multi-level marketing scheme that would result in quick riches, an upcoming special car wash deal at some nearby service station or even news about some new Chinese restaurant opening up, but rather some news I could actually use.

There under the windshield wiper was a glossy card, above, informing me about a new website geared to University of Miami fans http://www.insidetheu.com/
It's the brainchild of three guys who were formerly associated with CanesTime.com and CanesTime Magazine: Christopher Stock, Rudy Rodriguez-Chomat and David Lake.

Haven't had much of a chance to check it out for myself, but the more competition for information the better for Canes fans!

Coming Soon: Mistakes of The NY Times

I have news for you today about a new award-winning South Beach Hoosier feature to come, one that you can do your own variation of on your own blog if you so choose, depending upon your particular interests or longstanding bête noire.

You might recall that I hinted at something like this the other day, when telling you about the New York Times finally letting us know via their Corrections box on page 2A -but NOT in their online edition- that the name of the college campus in Coral Gables was the University of Miami and not Miami University.
(You know, the one in the state of Ohio!)

Well, I'm seriously thinking of having a regular review of NYT Corrections on my blog here, one where I can talk and ruminate about what those kind of chronic, deep-seated and engrained misunderstandings of the country, as well as its history, people and pop culture, necessarily portends for the country they're attempting to describe to its millions of readers around the world. (Definitely not good news, that's for sure.)

I say this as someone who had more than a few friends working in the Washington bureau of the New York Times on Eye Street, just two blocks from The White House.

They toiled as reporters, editors and administrators, many of whom I stood up for when necessary, when they were publicly criticized by some for what I saw as overtly political or ideological reasons that lacked a solid foundation in facts.

These were very smart and professional people, folks whom I had meals with, went to ballgames or movies with, and in some cases, I even got to know the names of their kids and spouses -and accompanying family drama.

These were the very people who often told me all sorts of crazy Times insider/bureaucracy dope that I found alternately hilarious or cringe-worthy, and also shared well-founded journalism rumors that I often wished I hadn't known in many cases. Some of them you've no doubt heard of, but most you haven't.

A select few even beat me in the NYT's NCAA tourney pool, which I participated in every year, while still others simply watched as my prescient picks like Valpo sailed thru their brackets.

But it doesn't, of course, make them or their colleagues at the paper immune to reasonable criticism, which is why over the years I've sent more than my share of letters to the Times old ombudsman, Byron Calame, for lapses that should've gotten the reporter sent down to the minors for seasoning and exiled to a small town like, well, to use a Florida reference, Appalachicola.

My first one concerned a beautifully written article regarding a very contentious court case in New York and the rulings issued by the judge. The problem was that the reporter never mentioned the actual name of the judge.

I will take a momentary pass here on the opportunity to get off on a tangent about the desperate need for the Miami Herald to join the 21st century and have a reader ombudsman, though I will mention that I found it very, very curious that in last week's Herald wire coverage of the U.S. National Swimming Championships in Indianapolis, at the beginning of the month, that the Herald sports editor let run at least two stories that NEVER mentioned the name of the venue where the championships was actually held at:
PHELPS WINS; RIVAL IS DQ'D from August 3rd and 'ANOTHER MICHAEL MOMENT' FOR PHELPS from August 2nd.
Hmmm...

South Beach Hoosier, do you mean the national championships at the Indiana University Natatorium, on the campus of IUPUI? Why yes, that one!
Does that make me parochial?
No, just protective of slights to Hoosier Nation, and disappointed that in the year 2007, such a basic aspect of the story doesn't even get mentioned and the Herald sports editor, among many others, is either too stupid or oblivious to notice it
Not that this is a new trend or anything in the Herald's sports section!

Why just today, in their sports TV listings, which as I've detailed here before, is MORE noteworthy for what they often don't include -U-M, FIU and FAU games- as for what they do include, had a Barclay's English Premier League game listed, but listed the league as "Premiere." http://www.miamiherald.com/671/story/203495.html

It was listed as 3 p.m.: English Premiere League, Reading-Chelsea, FOXESP (Spanish).

Hmmm.. that's funny, the league itself doesn't and never has spelled their name with an "e" at the end, much less on their own website, http://www.premierleague.com/page/Home/0,,12306,00.html so I guess that's just another classic case of the Herald being the Herald, facts be damned.

By the way, given the huge mistake described below regarding the ongoing case in Newark, confusing actual numbers with percentages, don't hold your breath waiting for the TV networks to make this correction about the horrendous Newark college kids murder case, as at least two of them I watched reported the wrong info last week also.
Even their mistakes are repeated!

Below: Their words, my highlighted italics.
___________________________
CORRECTIONS: FOR THE RECORD
New York Times
August 13, 2007

Correction: An article in Science Times on July 17 about the widespread distribution of "Atlas of Creation," a book with an Islamic creationist point of view, not only incorrectly identified a company involved in shipping some of the books but misstated its role and its responsiveness to questions. The company, SBS Worldwide Ltd. (not SDS Worldwide, as the article had it, and corrected in this space on July 21), says it cleared a shipment of the books through customs but had nothing to do with their further distribution in the United States. SBS Worldwide Ltd. did not return calls and e-mail messages asking about its role before the article was published because it never got any; The Times had sent the questions to the wrong company. This correction was delayed in the confusion.
___________________
Correction: For the Record
New York Times
August 11, 2007

Correction: An article on Tuesday about the challenges faced by Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark as he struggles to bring down the city's homicide rate referred incorrectly to the drop in shootings in the city over the past year. Before last weekend, when five people were shot -- four fatally -- there were 80 fewer shootings from January through July compared with the same period in 2006 -- not 80 percent fewer.
___________________
Correction: For the Record
New York Times
August 7, 2007

Correction: Because of an editing error, the "Most Popular" listing in the Most Wanted chart in Business Day yesterday, listing top sellers among re-released music CDs, misspelled the name of a singing duo. It is Simon and Garfunkel, not Simon and Garfunkle.
____________________
Corrections: For the Record
New York Times
July 26, 2007

Correction: A "What's On Tonight" television listing on Tuesday about "Into Alaska With Jeff Corwin," on the Travel Channel, referred incorrectly to Alaska. It was the 49th state admitted to the union -- not the 50th, which was Hawaii.

Correction of the NY Times: Geography Not Our Strong Suit

I've waited patiently since it first ran July 25th in the hard copy of the New York Times, biding my time and thinking every day when I woke up, "Well, perhaps today will be the day that they make that correction to the NYT website.'
Initially, when I first saw it and saw no mention of it anywhere else, I thought that maybe I had imagined it. But there it was in the paper I had set aside in my bedroom, in that pile of stuff to follow-up on.
Then I thought of mentioning this to various media friends, especially as U-M president Donna Shalala seemed to be on TV everywhere for a bit, not just local TV Miami stations but also making headlining appearances on This Week with George Stepohanolpolous, as part of her explaining the findings of her presidential investigation with her co-chair, former Senator Bob Dole, on the deficient health care practices and policies at VA facilities that injured troops have been forced to deal with since returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
But three weeks later, the New York Times has yet to put this correction on their website or the various databases that have access to The Times, so consider it a community service, a personal privilage if you will, for me to be the first one to share the breaking news: the location of the University of Miami.

July 25, 2007 Corrections: For The Record
An article in the special Education Life section on Sunday about the popularity of Southern colleges misstated the name of one in Coral Gables, Fla. It is the University of Miami, not Miami University.

You'd think the national championships and all the press, both pro and con, might've made an impression, eh?

Besides all the other ways of checking the Times site, I even checked their Education webpage and noticed that, perhaps out of fear of embarrassment, they neglected to mention it there as well. C'est la vie.
As you'll see in future posts, geography, as well as the pop culture they pretend to cover, is NOT the strong suit of the New York Times.

University of Miami
News about the University of Miami, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_miami/index.html

Rutgers to Big Ten?

While I was looking for info on the Big Ten TV network and their problems with Comcast, I came across this very provocative and smartly written article by Evan Weiner of The New York Sun which posits Rutgers joining The Big Ten, setting up the reality of two divisions and a very lucrative payout to the conference for a championship game.

Well, that would certainly make all the Hoosiers in NJ happy.

Check it out for yourself at http://www.nysun.com/article/60078 "Big East Must Consider Reorganizing for TV".

The first paragraph hints at the premise:

"Take a good look right now at how the college conferences are currently configured, because chances are pretty good that there will be a shuffling of schools within the next two years for one single reason: The ability to make more money off of college football from cable television. Inviting another school to the conference could mean two six-team divisions and a Big Ten championship game, which would mean more revenue into the conference."

Mike Pegram gives needed context to Big Ten net fight with Comcast

I'm only now getting caught up to speed on all the minutiae of this nasty television dispute, but Mike Pegram of Peegs.com & Inside Indiana does an excellent job of providing some much needed context into understanding the heart of the fight between Comcast and the Big Ten network.

Network president Mark Silverman gives his side on how Indiana and other Big Ten team's fans and alumni will be directly (adversely) effected by the new policies in this transcript of his July 22nd interview, wherein he hints that Hoosier fans might just be able to see the football team on the net seven times. That interview also includes this important remark by Mr. Silverman:

"Every Indiana game, every basketball or football game will be nationally televised with the one caveat being a regionalization early in the season when there are several games going on at once. It might not be full coverage across the country for football. It is a significant amount of more games. I know in the past there have been many Indiana football games that were not even televised and now not only are they televised, but they are going out. They are going to be to a large extent across the country.

Basketball games I know for the most part have been on, at least locally, but now we are able to take all those games and they are on across the country."

For the complete Q&A with Silverman see http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=693414

Personally, over the past three years, I've watched a tremendous number of IU games on the ESPN Plus package that's televised on CSS, Comcast Sports Southeast, even as the Miami Herald did their customary half-assed job of actually listing them in their daily sports section on daily whims, frequently neglecting to list games CSS televised involving the U-M, FIU and FAU, much less the Big Ten games I was interested in.

When I was living up in Washington, D.C. from 1988-2003, I was able to watch the IU games -though not as many- on one of the rare non-PBS public TV stations. They showed the ESPN Plus Big Ten package of basketball & football games on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays to get money into the station, running pledge breaks at halftime.

Last year, this past winter actually, it seemed like I was able to watch about about 70% of their games, watching 4 out of every 6 IU games this way, plus the nationally televised U-Conn game that CBS carried, which left me with little to complain about coverage-wise.

Anyway, Mike follows up that interview by giving Comcast -NOT one of my favorite companies for myriad reasons that would take too long long to get into here, suffice to say that I loathe them!- the opportunity to explain their side of the debate with a transcript of his interview Monday with Comcast Midwest Division President Bill Connors. See that Q&A at http://indiana.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=698376

Since the Big Ten net is scheduled to debut on August 30th, you owe it to yourself to find out what's really going on.

A Big Ten Network FAQ page exists at http://www.bigtennetwork.com/managex/index.asp?ArticleSource=418 and hopefully will be updated as necessary, since this info is from May 21st, so you might want to check it every few days and see how you'll be affected in whatever part of Hoosier Nation you're living in.
For Hoosiers living in the Keystone State of PA, see http://live.psu.edu/story/25277

I finally got Direct TV three weeks ago, so I'm going to have to spend some time investigating what I'll need to do in order to get the Big Ten Network package, as opposed to the ESPN Gameday package that's constantly advertised.

The Big Ten net FAQ tells me: More $

Q: Will I be able to get the Big Ten Network from my current cable system or satellite provider?

A: All cable and satellite systems throughout the U.S. have the opportunity to place the Big Ten Network on their most widely available level of service. We already have signed deals with DirecTV and AT&T that ensure the Big Ten Network is on their basic level of service (Total Choice for DirecTV). If you subscribe to either of these services, the network is already part of your basic package, and you'll be able to turn it on the minute we launch. In addition to DirecTV and AT&T, we have over 40 deals with local cable operators, all of which call for the network to be carried on their basic cable package at no extra cost to consumers. Once these deals are signed, we will announce them publicly. The fact that we are able to complete these cable deals shows that our terms are reasonable and fair. It also gives us confidence that other agreements will be forthcoming.
We have had productive conversations with larger cable operators. Getting those deals done is more complicated because we're talking about several different kinds of services in several different markets. These deals take longer to complete due to their complexity, but the fact that DirecTV, AT&T and others have agreed to carry the Big Ten Network is a good sign that all cable and satellite operators – both big and small nationwide – understand the value of our programming.

Great minds thinking alike for Beijing 08082008

For months I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog that would take advantage of my having so many friends who live abroad or who are constantly moving around the globe one hotel at a time for business reasons, as well as my own longtime fascination with China, and examine how China chooses to deal with the social and political ramifications of hosting tens of thousands of visitors for next year's Olympics, both in theory, and the messy reality which will likely be very different from their plans.
I think Bob Costas will have a lot to talk about that is not particular pleasant or pleasing to the Chinese Communist party and their govt. functionaries.

Just as I came up with the blog name SouthBeachHoosier for reasons that should strike you as perfectly self-evident if you've read any of my my past entries, and know that I grew-up in South Florida and went to college at Indiana University during one of the great eras of IU history, by looking at some of my foreign policy and advertising blog links, you'll also have a hint of an idea that I've long been fascinated by the intersection of commerce, sports and politics, which will be Beijing writ large starting this fall, as we become evermore aware of advertising campaigns that have both official corporate sponsorships and those that try to hug the line for next summers two-week Olympics in Beijing, which, if you hadn't thought about it yet, will be the lead in to the two national political conventions:

August 25th-28th, 2008: Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO
September 1st-4th, 2008: Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN

I had planned on creating a site called Beijing08082008, the starting date of the Games.

But as it got closer and closer to August 8th, and my, in hindsight, very stupid idea for inaugurating it exactly one year prior, naturally, someone beat me to the punch.
Fortunately, it's not one of those godawful siteholder sites, full of ads or junk that makes you think what a great waste of a name.
Instead, the person at http://beijing08082008.blogspot.com/ has at least some ideas similar to mine, with a focus on covering aspects of the architecture of the stadia.

Haven't read enough of their posts so far to be sure how serious it will be in terms of the specific issues I'm interested in, per se, as it affects the Games, but for now at least, it's a building block for you to be aware of -and has some great photos!
When I come up with my second-best name for a Beijing 2008 blog name, I'll let you know here.
The official English language website for the Beijing Olympics is located at
http://en.beijing2008.cn/

I've been receiving the email newsletters from the London 2012 Olympic organizers for a few months now, so if you'd like to see some of the really fascinating things they're doing -soon to be redoing their website- go to http://main.london2012.com/

I definitely plan on being in London for that, perhaps, even to watch my very talented nieces compete.

On "heroes" in Minneapolis

SBH reminder: On 9/11, I was living in Arlington, VA and working on Pennsylvania Ave. in D.C., across the street from the FBI and the DOJ.

In the aftermath of 9/11, lots of thoughtful people wrote about how the disaster and the behavior of many responders in NYC and Arlington really encapsulated the true definition of "hero," and not the MSM's promiscuous overuse of that term whenever it was handy to hype a particular story.
(To cite but one egregious example, Tom Cruise's behavior being termed "heroic" by some in the "press" a few years ago, for his actions near a rope line of admirers, when some pushing and shoving got out of hand and someone was knocked over.)

My question: am I the only one who cringed when the cablenet talking-heads forgot that valuable lesson this morning, and start calling the chaperon on the school bus in Minneapolis who opened the emergency door, a "hero?"
Wasn't that one of the principal reasons for their being a chaperon on the bus in the first place?
To have a responsible adult on board so that the bus driver alone wasn't responsible for keeping 60-something ten and eleven-year old kids in line and under control, esp. in the event of an emergency?
Just wondering

Come for the HB Pay Raise Grab, But Stay for the Fireworks!

Hallandale Beach's iconic Water Tower, off of AIA and Hallandale Beach Blvd.,
Hallandale Beach, FL January 2007

Below is a link to a posting I enjoyed making on my HallandaleBeachBlog site earlier today before I headed off to the Hallandale Beach city commission meeting, where the aftermath of the much-publicized, behind-the-scenes pay raise grab of a few weeks ago finally got a public airing. I'll have some details on the meeting soon.

I also added a photo to the of the city's iconic mult-colored water tower -above- along with a description of how the city's small beach area has deteriorated, due largely to city negligience, incompetency and indifference, especially North Beach.
Read my comments below to get a sense of how truly irritated I am.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/