John R. Phythyon Jr.'s Blog, page 37

Weis's Early Moves Looking Good for KU

It's possible I was wrong.

Last month in this space, I wrote that Kansas hiring Charlie Weis as its new head football coach was more about getting attention than winning football games. I argued that Weis gave the Jayhawks some big-name legitimacy that will not translate into conference titles and noted that Weis's record with the players he recruited at Notre Dame (16-21) was far worse than his record with the ones he inherited from his predecessor (19-6). It looked to me like Charlie Weis can coach, but he can't recruit.

Weis hasn't coached a single practice at KU, let alone a game, but the early outlook suggests I might need to grab for the bottle of hot sauce for the crow I promised to eat if I was wrong.

Since taking over, Weis has put together an incredible staff. He hired Pro Bowl center Tim Grunhard to coach the offensive line. He got former Jayhawks DB and defensive coordinator Clint Bowen to be his special teams coordinator. He lured Dave Campo away from the Dallas Cowboys to be the defensive coordinator. That's an impressive group of good coaches. He's also convinced marquee players to transfer to Kansas — notably Notre Dame's Dayne Crist and BYU's Jake Heaps.

It certainly doesn't look like he is having any trouble recruiting winners.

, Weis announced he'd dismissed 10 players from the team. Some were for academic reasons, some for disciplinary ones, and some wanted to transfer out of the program.  Some of the players were significant contributors to the 2011 squad.

"I don't care if they were all starters; it doesn't make a difference," Weis said in a news conference. "There's a right and a wrong way of doing things, and we're gonna do it the right way. That's all there is to it."

For a program that crashed with frightening speed after a 2008 Orange Bowl victory, this can only be viewed as welcome news. Guys who weren't getting it done either on the field, in the locker room, or in the classroom are gone. People who want to buy into the new program are coming in.

None of this matters if Weis wins as many games in five years as he won at Notre Dame, and, with annual games against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and TCU even that might be hard. But on paper, at least, Weis looks like he has the Jayhawks flying in the right direction.

If he does, I can't wait for a big plate of crow. I've got plenty of hot sauce.

Leonard Pitts offers free book on War on Drugs

Writers need to promote other writers. It's a tough game, this writing thing. You labor over each piece, trying to get the phrasing, meaning, and tone right. You seclude yourself from others, so you'll have the time and space to create. And then you throw your hard work out there and ask people to judge it, hoping a) they'll find it worthy and b) that it'll be read in the first place.

Like other artists, writers are masochists of a sort. So we need to stick together and help each other out wherever possible.

Which brings me to Leonard Pitts. To be sure, Pitts doesn't need my help getting his material over. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Miami Herald, who is syndicated nationally.

But I've admired his work for a long time, and it's not just because he's a liberal columnist. It's true that I agree with about 90% of what Pitts writes. But his politics are not the only reason I read him.

Leonard Pitts is one of the most skilled columnists writing today. His pieces are extremely well crafted. He sets up his argument (often employing Swiftian absurdism), develops it carefully, and is a master of the final-sentence zinger — that literary tactic of summing the whole essay up in a single sentence that hits the reader in the gut and forces him or her to ponder what's just been read. If you have any aspirations of writing essays or columns, you should be reading Leonard Pitts.

(You should also be reading George Will. I agree with only about 15% of Will's subject matter, but there are few writers today who can construct as cogent and as erudite an argument as Will.)

Sunday, Pitts veered away from his usual construction, though. Rather than offering his unique insight into the subjects of racism, politics, and American culture, he offered someone else's. Michelle Alexander's 2010 book, The New Jim Crow, which argues that the so-called War on Drugs unfairly targets blacks over whites, is being released in paperback. Pitts finds the book, in his words, "troubling and profoundly necessary." He believes Alexander's assertions are correct, and he believes we all need to consider them.

So he's giving her book away for free. Pitts has bought 50 copies of The New Jim Crow in paperback, and he's giving them away to readers who request them and promise to read them. To participate, send him an email at lpitts@miamiherald.com with the subject line, "I want it. I'll read it." You have to include your mailing address in the body of the email, so he can get it to you. At the end of this month, he'll draw 50 names and mail them the book.

If you'd rather read the book on your e-reader, you can get it for Kindle here and for the Nook here.

I haven't read Alexander's book, nor do I know enough about the material to comment on how accurate her claims are. But Leonard Pitts is an excellent author I admire. He's trying to get someone else's book over, so we can have a deeper conversation about racism in 21st-Century America. So I'm doing my bit to publicize the opportunity he's offering.

I encourage to you read Pitts' column I linked above and decide for yourself if you want to know more. My thought is this: when a writer feels strongly enough to promote another writer's work, it's worth paying attention.

How Reading Improves Social Skills

I'd like to say I knew this all along. Just about any reading geek would.

But it was news to me too, even though, perhaps it shouldn't be. The Harvard Business Review Blog has a feature on an article in Scientific American Mind regarding the importance of reading novels. Evidently, people who read a lot of novels have better social skills.

You probably think that sounds counterintuitive. Afterall, the cliche image of a bookworm is some kid or adult walking around with his or her nose stuck in a book. The book goes everywhere the person does, and he or she is more comfortable reading about imaginary people than dealing with real ones.

It seems, though, that reading about the lives of fictional characters and their problems and solutions offers insight into real people. According to the study, reading fiction activates neuronal pathways in the brain that help the person better understand real human emotions. Read about Yossarian's fear of flying bombing missions, and you may better understand fear in your friends. Camus's The Stranger may give you some insight into different means of expressing grief.

The better we are at recognizing others' emotions, the better we can interact with them. That translates to more effective social skills.

Naturally, HBR sees a real business application to this phenomenon. By being able to recognize and understand emotions in others, one can get along better and work more effectively in a team environment. It also figures that being an avid reader and developing better social skills would make one a more effective employee and negotiator, thereby leading to a higher salary.

And here you thought reading was only for pleasure.

If all this is true, it probably doesn't matter what type of literature you are reading. Whether it's the classics, romance, fantasy, or thrillers, what really matters are complex characters. People who are more than cutout stereotypes will hone the mind and allow you operate more effectively in the real world.

I encourage you to click on the links above and read both the original article and the HBR blog. Both are a fascinating look at how fiction is a tool we should all be using to be more effective in our interpersonal relationships.

And, of course, I'd be happy to help by having you read my book. Afterall, there are lots of complex characters interacting with each other and a hostile world. Surely reading STATE OF GRACE has some redeeming social value. I've provided links below to order it.

Cuz I'm helpful like that.

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Birthday Wishes

Today is my birthday. I love birthdays. It's not the presents or the special dinner or the cake. I think it's really because it's a day where the honoree gets to be singled out and declared special for 24 hours for no other reason than being born. How cool is that?

To the best of my memory, I've never had a bad birthday. They're not all awesome, but my birthday makes me happy, and something good has always happened.

Birthdays are one of those occasions that compel reflection. It's always good to assess your life and your goals and see where you stand.

I'm liking the view this year. I've moved in with my girlfriend and her kids and dog. They let me bring my cat.

And we all get along. The GF and I have been doing a lot of smiling since I moved in. We're making each other really happy. The kids are enjoying me making them breakfast before school and packing their lunches. The Boy is watching sports with me, The Girl is having me teach her piano, and we're all playing games together. Of course, The Girl is nonplussed with having to eat vegetables for dinner now, but no road is ever completely smooth.

And the cat enjoys having a dog to torment.

This is the first birthday I am spending as an Officially Published Author. I'm liking that too, although I wish my sales were stronger. Still, I'm an unknown author with my first book. I recognize this is a process, and building a following is going to take some time. I'm working on my next book, I've got a free short story already available, and I'll have another short story available for sale later this month.

So as I reflect on where I am on this anniversary of my birth, I have two wishes. The first is for a better relationship with my own daughter. It's never going to be easy with her, but, until the last few weeks, things were improving. Now they've taken a turn for the worse again.

It's unfortunate. Despite all the pain we've caused each other, I love her dearly, and I want her in my life. I have never regretted adopting her, and she is important to me. I keep hoping one day she'll feel the love I have for her and let some of her anger melt away. Until then, I just keep trying.

Second, of course, I'm wishing for more sales of State of Grace. If you're reading this, and you want to give me a present for my birthday, I'd be very pleased to have you buy the book or gift it to a friend. It's available from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Smashwords.com. Just click on the site of your choice in the last sentence to purchase it. Best of all, it's on sale for just 99 cents right now.

And, if you like it, please take a moment to write a review. Reviews are the lifeblood of books in the Brave New World of e-publishing. A couple of five- and four-star reviews on a book's Amazon or B&N page can really make a difference in sales numbers.

So that's where I'm at on this birthday. I'm happy with my accomplishments, and I wish I were closer to my daughter and had stronger sales. It feels like a good place to be — satisfied with what I've achieved while striving for better things.

Thanks for reading "Pleading the Phyth" and for your support and friendship. I hope when your birthday rolls around, you are even happier than I am today.

Bengals Season Wrapup

As the curtain falls on the Cincinnati Bengals 2011 season, it's hard to know quite how to feel.

To be sure, the Bengals exceeded expectations. Even an optimist like I am, didn't expect nine wins and a playoffs appearance. You had to like the development of AJ Green and Andy Dalton as a dynamic passing duo. Other young players like Carlos Dunlap, Geno Atkins, Andre Smith, and Rey Maualuga appeared to grow into the types of guys who make the future look promising. And, of course, there is the fleecing of the Oakland Raiders in the Carson Palmer trade that will net the Bengals two first-round picks in April's draft and at least another second-rounder in 2013.

Given the way such a young team won and the large number of draft picks in the next two seasons, the future certainly looks bright.

And yet . . .

These Bengals lost the same way the old Bengals did — they wilted in big games. Cincinnati's final record was 9-8, and every one of those eight losses was to a team with a winning record. The Bengals played seven of the NFL's top-10 defenses, and the only one they beat was Cleveland, which finished 4-12 overall. They didn't beat a team that went to the playoffs. They lost twice to three playoffs teams — Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Houston.

To be sure, these Bengals didn't have Carson Palmer throwing game-changing interceptions or Chad Ochocinco pouting on the sidelines or Shayne Graham missing game-winning field goals and game-tying extra points as time expired. (Mike Nugent did miss a field goal against the Texans, but it ended up not really mattering.)

But Cedric Benson nearly fumbled away the Cardinals game. The defense let Baltimore's Ray Rice rush for 121 yards and two touchdowns on just two carries. And, with Cincinnati trailing 17-10, Chris Crocker first dropped an interception, then missed a sack, and then took a bad angle, allowing Andre Johnson to score a touchdown for the knockout punch.

That's not championship football. The Texans advanced because they made plays when it mattered, and the Bengals didn't.

It is good that the Bengals have hope for the future and that they have faith in themselves. But after they were knocked out of the 2005 playoffs, they said many of the same things I read on the Bengals' website following Saturday's loss. They were so certain they had arrived and that they were going to be contenders for years. Instead, they underachieved three seasons in a row, posting records of 8-8, 7-9, and 4-11-1.

What the Bengals need going forward is poise. Prior to this year, I wasn't sure that was something you could draft. But Dalton and Green both proved me wrong. Dalton has been largely unflappable in both victory and defeat, and Green is so humble you'd think he was picked in the seventh round, not the fourth overall selection. Both put up numbers all season and look to have bright futures.

The Bengals need more. They need a couple more guys who just don't flinch no matter what the situation and can inspire their teammates to do the same. As much as they grew this year, they need to mature a little more.

If they can do that, the future is definitely bright in Cincinnati. Many of the pieces are falling into place.

That hasn't been their modus operandi, though. For the past nine years under Marvin Lewis they have been talented but mentally weak. When it really matters, they find ways to lose. I'd like to expect something different from them, but, like I wrote here a few weeks ago, I need to see it to believe it.

Then again, I didn't expect them to make the playoffs this year. So there is a glimmer of hope they can exceed my expectations again.

Playoffs Bring Hope

You don't need to tell a Bengals fan the playoffs are special and rare. We know firsthand. From 1991 through 2004, Cincinnati didn't make the playoffs. Three U.S. presidents served between Bengals postseason appearances. The internet was invented. Then Web 2.0. Cell phones became commonplace. When the Bengals made the playoffs in 1990, Saddam Hussein had just gone from being our friend in the battle against Iran to becoming Public Enemy Number 1. The next time Cincinnati made the postseason in 2005, Hussein was dead, and Osama bin Laden was the new bad guy.

In other words, a lot has happened between playoffs appearances.

I've always been envious of fans of really successful teams. Fans of the New England Patriots have forgotten what it's like not to always be good. Same with Colts fans and Packers fans.

But it can be taken away just like that. When Peyton Manning had neck surgery before this season, the Colts went from being the class of the league to having the number-one draft pick. Suddenly, Indianapolis is back in the wasteland between Manning and Bert Jones. 49ers fans are only now recovering from the retirements of Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, and Ronnie Lott.

But being a fan is about hope. It is believing that just maybe this year things will be different. Afterall, the Lions made the playoffs without Barry Sanders, and both the Buccaneers and Saints have won a Super Bowl. Annually, the NFL provides evidence that miracles do occur.

Sure, the Bengals' last two playoffs appearances ended in losses — ignominous ends to promising seasons. Yeah, Cincinnati has never won a road playoffs game in its 44-season history. And it is true the Bengals have found ways to lose just about every important game they've played this season.

But it's the playoffs. They don't come around very often, especially in the Queen City. So I plan to enjoy it. This year, my team got an invitation to the NFL's annual postseason party. We'll probably have to leave early, but we're there. I'll savor it.

And who knows? Maybe we'll win a game. Or four. Afterall, miracles do occur in the NFL.

Just ask last season's improbable champions, the Green Bay Packers.

Moving and Christmas Do not Go Together

Remind me never to do that again.

Moving during Christmas season is one of the dumbest things I've ever done. Both projects take entirely too much time.

There aren't a lot of people on my Christmas shopping list, but it still takes time to get out to the stores and find them exactly the treasures they desire from Claus. And once you have the gifts, they have to be wrapped. Then, of course, is the whole ritual of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with their feasts and movie specials and present opening.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, but I never realized how time-consuming it all is until I tried to pack up my life and get out of my apartment and into a new domicile by New Year. I dedicated a little time each day to this endeavor, packing incrementally so it would not be such a huge undertaking. I started moving from one place to the other three days before I had to be out, so it wouldn't be a huge, last-minute ordeal.

I still just barely got out before 5.00pm on the 31st. No matter how much I got packed or moved, there was always more. And, by trying to accomplish both of these huge time-sucks at the same time, there was no time left for anything else.

Like working on my writing career.

I went almost completely dark on both the blog and my regular tweets. I had to stop writing my next book altogether despite budgeting time to get it done. I am still working on formatting State of Grace for print and "The Darkline Protocol" for mass e-distribution. I need to do some advertising, finish building a new website, and get back to writing to the next novel.

And I suppose I should also unpack.

This week is the closest thing to normal I've experienced in almost a month, and even that didn't start until Wednesday when my girlfriend's kids went back to school. I'm exhausted from this so-called "vacation time."

So never again. I'm not giving up Christmas, and I'm sure I'll move again before I'm dead, but I am NOT doing them at the same time. They are both too complicated all by themselves.

Hopefully, I'll be back on a regular schedule by next week. Cuz it's a brand new year, and I've got resolutions to fulfill.

 

Annual Playoffs Rant

It's that time of the year again. Time for me to make my regular tilt against one of my more irritating windmills: the NFL Playoffs.

Don't get me wrong; I love the playoffs, even in normal years (unlike this one) when the Bengals don't qualify. What I don't understand is how the most successful sports league in the country, perhaps the world, can't devise a fair playoffs system. Sure, it's not the BCS, but the NFL annually screws at least one of its most successful teams.

The league's system of automatically granting a home game to division winners regularly rewards mediocrity at the expense of greatness. This season, the 8-8 Denver Broncos have the worst record of the 12 teams that qualified for the postseason. But, because they won the AFC West, they will get to host the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers, who are being punished for the crime of being randomly assigned to the same division as the 12-4 Baltimore Ravens.

You can say the best team will win, but that ignores the very real advantage of homefield in the NFL. Just ask the New Orleans Saints, who had to go on the road to 7-9 Seattle last year and lost in the NFL's loudest stadium. This year, Steelers safety Ryan Clark may not be able to travel with the team to Denver, because a medical condition may prevent him from playing in the high altitude. It's quite a homefield advantage when your stadium is located in a place that prevents another team from playing one of its best players.

And what did Denver do to earn this advantage? They won half their games, which was just good enough to be better than the 8-8 Raiders and 7-9 Chargers and Chiefs. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh went 12-4 in a division that included the 12-4 Ravens and 9-7 Bengals. In fact, the AFC North had a record of 25-15 against non-divisional opponents, the best in the league.

All this results from the NFL's insistence on holding on to its two-conference structure that harkens back to the days of the NFL-AFL rivalry. The two leagues merged over 40 years ago. Moreover, three NFL teams — Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Baltimore (now Indianapolis) — switched from the NFL to the AFL to balance the two conferences. And, in 2002 when the league realigned, Seattle (added to the league in 1976, six years after the merger), switched from the AFC to the NFC.

So why do we care about whether the NFC or AFC wins the Super Bowl? All this does is artificially prevent the best two teams from meeting in the big game. For instance, the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints may be playing the best football right now, but the two can never ever meet in the Super Bowl, because they both play in the NFC. That's foolish! That's how you get boring, blow-out Super Bowls where the game is less interesting than the commercials.

So here's my sensible suggestion for fixing the NFL playoffs to make them fair and allow for the best two teams to end up in the big game. First, strip division winners of an automatic home game. Winning your division should still allow you to qualify for the playoffs, but if a wildcard team is better than you, you don't get to have a home game.

Second, dissolve the conferences. Take the eight division winners and the four best also-rans and seed them one through 12 in a traditional tournament format. Then go play.

Here's what the NFL playoffs would look like this year under this system:

Seeds

1  Green Bay Packers (14-2)

2  New England Patriots (13-3)

3  San Francisco 49ers (13-3)

4  New Orleans Saints (13-3)

5  Baltimore Ravens (12-4)

6  Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4)

7  Atlanta Falcons (10-6)

8  Detroit Lions (10-6)

9  Houston Texans (10-6)

10 Cincinnati Bengals (9-7)

11 New York Giants (9-7)

12 Denver Broncos (8-8)

Note that makes some changes at the top of the list. In the current system, the 12-4 Ravens get a first-round bye, because they are the second seed in the AFC, while the 13-3 New Orleans Saints have to play in the first round, because they are the three-seed in the NFC. Without conferences, New Orleans' superior record gets them a weekend off instead of the Ravens.

That would make for a first round that looks like this:

12 Denver at 5 Baltimore

11 New York at 6 Pittsburgh

10 Cincinnati at 7 Atlanta

 9 Houston at 8 Detroit

Note that three wildcard teams (Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Detroit) now have home games, removing the punishment of just happening to be in the same division as three of the top five teams in the league (Baltimore, New Orleans, and Green Bay respectively). Denver, Houston, and the Giants are not unfairly rewarded for playing in divisions where no other team could manage to win more than nine games.

Assuming no upsets in the first round, the second round looks like this:

8 Detroit at 1 Green Bay

5 Baltimore at 4 New Orleans

6 Pittsburgh at 3 San Francisco

7 Atlanta at 2 New England

All this is fairer than the Steelers having to go to Denver or Atlanta (a dome team from a warm-weather city) visiting New York in January. The Ravens, who were 8-0 at home but only 4-4 on the road, would have their homefield advantage reduced as punishment for winning a game less than the Saints, 49ers, and Patriots.

Naturally, this is way too sensical for a league that has three teams in one state (Florida), none of which are in the same division, and two teams in the same city (New York) that aren't even in the same conference. But every year I yearn for an NFL that rewards teams for their play on the field rather than their arbitrary divisional alignment.

Ah, well. As I say each January, "Maybe next year."

Free Short Story

It took longer than I wanted, but the free Wolf Dasher short story is available. (I'll be blogging next week about the foolishness of trying to get anything else done when trying to move during the holidays.)

"The Darkline Protocol" is set a couple years before the events of State of Grace. Wolf is sent to Mensch, East Bretelstein, to determine who is leaking top secret information to the Phrygians from the Urlish consulate. The answer is surprising and forces Wolf to attempt a daring rescue.

"Darkline" clocks in at just under 4000 words and is a quick read. It serves as a nice introduction to the world in which Wolf works and to his basic personality. You can download the whole story for free by clicking on the cover image below.

An Open Letter to Congress

Dear United States Congress:

Please stop screwing around. Please.

Stop playing political brinksmanship with the lives of ordinary Americans. This is really simple: we need to extend the payroll tax cut set to expire at the end of the year, and we need to extend long-term unemployment benefits. Over nine percent of us are unemployed. A great many more are struggling to make ends meet despite having a job. We need help.

It doesn't matter whose fault it is. It doesn't matter if Republican deregulation of business caused the financial meltdown or if the Obama stimulus program was a bad idea or a failure. What matters is Americans of every political stripe are hurting and need your help. They need to keep their payroll taxes low, so they have enough money to get themselves back on firm financial footing. They need unemployment insurance while they look for work in a rough economy that is recovering at a sluggish pace.

So quiit screwing around and just pass it. Stop attaching things to the bill you know the other guy won't like. Drop the provisions on the Keystone Pipeline. Quit talking about taxing the rich. Just write a quick bill that ONLY extends the payroll tax cut and unemployment. No partisan wedge issues attached. Then vote for it and send it to the president for his signature.

Real people's lives are at stake. Your gamesmanship is not only unethical, it is destestable and inhuman. Is it any wonder your approval ratings are at all-time lows?

For God's sake, it's Christmastime. Go down to Walmart, buy yourself some basic human compassion, and use it. This is the time of the year we're supposed to put aside our differences and embrace our fellow human beings for the simple reason that it's the right thing to do.

So, please, stop screwing around. Just pass a bill that extends benefits millions of Americans desperately need. Then go home and see your families for the holidays. You can go back to fighting next year.

Sincerely,

John R. Phythyon, Jr.

Taxpayer, Voter, Proud American