Cherokee Chronicle Times: Columns: Dan Whitney

Basic Biittner : Cross one off the 'Bucket List' (05/15/13)
'The Bucket List' is one of my favorite movies. For the few of you who may not have seen the film, it deals with two men who are both terminally ill (played wonderfully by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) and each makes a "bucket list" of things they would like to do before they die (i.e., "kick the bucket"), and they proceed to do these things...

BASIC BIITTNER: Selective Memory (04/22/13)
I once possessed a steel-trap mind for remembering important historical events- those events which happened during my lifetime, of course, but also dates and events which occurred long before I came on the scene. For the most part, I still retain that ability, which I know is sometimes annoying to others (unless they're on my Trivial Pursuit team, of course). ...

Basic Biittner : February short, but sweet (02/18/13)
It has been February for a couple of weeks now, so allow me to get this off my chest - I don't have many 'pet peeves,' but one about which I've ranted on many occasions and will do so again here is the pronunciation of the second month of the calendar year...

Basic Biittner: Saluting the newbies (01/14/13)
In my most recent column, I did what many other news outlets typically do at the close of a year, I saluted celebrities who died in 2012. Well, thanks to a suggestion from my brother, I'm going to take a little different approach in this column. Now that we've said 'goodbye' to the famous celebrities who left us in 2012, I feel it's time to say 'Hello' to the future celebrities who will be born in 2013...

Basic Biittner : Lest We Forget (01/04/13)
Well, another year has come and gone, and among other annual year-end traditions are a plethora of lists - lists of the year's top movies, songs, stories, et al. One of the lists that is often posted is the list of well-known people who "shuffled off this mortal coil" (i.e., they died) during the year just ended...

Basic Biittner: Another voice heard in the Hall debate (12/24/12)
The Baseball Hall of Fame was opened in Cooperstown, New York in 1939, and for all of the ensuing 73 years since that time, baseball fans have been debating about who "belongs" in the Hall - and who doesn't. With the names of all-time greats Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa - all of whom have been suspected of using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) during their stellar careers - on the ballot for the first time this year, the "who's in, who's out" debate is raging hotter than ever. ...

Basic Biittner: What the 12 Days of Christmas are NOT (12/13/12)
The following story circulated around in recent years, and just in case it still is, please be advised, according to the snopes.com website, that it is not true. The story went something like this: The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in writing indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered.. ...

Basic Biittner: Giving Thanks for the 'Forgotten Holiday' (11/19/12)
Every year at this time I get on my soapbox and bemoan the fact that the Thanksgiving holiday seems to get overlooked, falling as it does on the calendar between the increasingly over-hyped Hallowe'en celebration and the Christmas season, which - as far as the business community is concerned - seems to run for an 8 week period, starting on the day after Hallowe'en...

Basic Biittner: Ready for 2016? (11/12/12)
About five minutes after the concession and acceptance speeches on Election Night 201, the political pundits began speculating on the 2016 race. To those people I say, "Are you kidding? That's four freaking years away!" I mean, come on. We've just begun answering our phones again, on the thought that maybe - just maybe - something other than a recorded message from a politician or their supporters would be on the other end of the line...

Basic Biittner : Another 'Unofficial' World Series this year (10/22/12)
After watching a couple of exciting American League post-season series involving my beloved New York Yankees, I have come to the conclusion that the time has come for the Yankees to regroup or rebuild, before they sink to the level of that horrible 1965 -1974 decade, when they were nowhere to be found in the post-season picture...

Basic Biittner : Enjoying 'Baseball' (08/31/12)
As regular readers of this column know, I am a lifelong fan of Major League Baseball. I started collecting Topps bubble-gum baseball cards and watching the "Game of the Week" with Dizzy Dean on our black-and-white television set when I was just five years old...

Basic Biittner : A gold for the Brits (08/16/12)
A while back, I "warned" all of my readers (all five of you) that the British were coming this spring and summer, and I feel it is now my duty to advise you that the coast is clear. The Queen's official anniversary celebration has passed, and the Olympics are over...

Basic Biittner : Going, going ... (07/05/12)
Every generation sees new products and items introduced, just as each generation sees products and items seem to vanish. The latter is sometimes a gradual process - in fact, it seems that one day the realization hits you -"Hey, whatever happened to ...?"...

Basic Biittner : O.J.'s Legacy (06/18/12)
Once upon a time in the Land of Fruit and Nuts, aka California, there lived a young man with the unlikely name of Orenthal James Simpson. He went by his initials - O.J. - and the story goes that the young man didn't even know that "Orenthal" was his given name until his name was called for roll one day in grammar school, and he didn't answer...

Basic Biittner : London Calling (06/04/12)
Basic Biittner : London Calling For the second consecutive summer, in the immortal words of Paul Revere, "the British are coming, the British are coming!" Every so often, the Brits remind the United States and the rest of the world that, though they are small in size, there's an awful lot of tradition and talent in the British Isles...

Basic Biittner : More anniversary dates (05/25/12)
... and here's another historic anniversary you don't hear much about ... The year 2012, if my math skills haven't completely deserted me, marks the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. From an historic perspective, the War of 1812 is not considered "one of the biggies" among the many wars in which the United States has been involved. ...

Basic Biittner : Historic anniversaries (05/11/12)
In the multi-media era in which we live today, it seems that one media outlet or another is always reminding all of us that "this (year/month/day) marks the (100th/75th/ 50th/25th/10th) anniversary of (fill in the blank). For example, last year, 2011, marked the 10th anniversary of "9/11," as it's come to be known, and we were reminded of this many times throughout the year, and especially in the days surrounding the actual anniversary date. ...

Basic Biittner : Fun and Games? (04/30/12)
It kind of pains me to write this column, because I feel I've always been an optimistic, "glass half full"-type of guy, choosing to look at the bright side of things. Like many of you, I first became interested in sports as a youngster, initially participating actively, then, as the years went by, becoming more of a spectator...

Basic Biittner : An obsessed fan ... every other decade (04/23/12)
"The Coolest Game on Earth!" is one of the National Hockey League's advertising slogans. My daughter and son-in-law have access to season tickets to the Washington Capitals games, and they would agree with that assessment, as they have become dedicated Capitals fans...

Basic Biittner: Pop Music in 2012 (04/16/12)
"Pop" music, in case you forgot, stands for "popular." The term was created to distinguish it from "Classical" music such as opera and symphonic music (Tschaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, et al). Classical music has been around for centuries, and, though popular music has probably been around just as long, much of it was informal, unwritten and passed down from generation to generation...

Basic Biittner: What Men Like (04/05/12)
Keeping in mind that there are exceptions to every rule, and that we are all individuals with our own minds, I nevertheless state here and now that, in my experience, there seem to be three types of entertainment (in addition to strip clubs, that is) which seem to appeal almost exclusively to members of the male gender. Guys seem to be major fans of all these things, and gals - for the most part - cannot understand what the heck guys "see in that stuff."...

Basic Biittner : Play Ball! (03/26/12)
Forget about March Madness, Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow. The real professional sports begin in just a few short days. The 2012 Major League Baseball season will open then with the christening of one ballpark, a 20th-anniversary celebration of the ballpark that changed everything and the hope of another World Series that will end no later than October...

Basic Biittner: Old Rockers (02/16/12)
These days, those of us in the 'Baby Boomer' generation are experiencing something we've never encountered before. No, not that ... No, not THAT either. Okay, we're probably experiencing a lot of things we've never encountered before. The thing to which I am referring, however is this. ...

Basic Biittner : The Super Bowl (02/02/12)
Rumor has it there is a BIG pro football game in Indianapolis this Sunday. I think it's the 'New Commercials Bowl.' What's that you say - That's not the official name of the game? Back when it started 46 years ago, it was called the AFC-NFC Championship Game or something like that, but along about the third year of the game, when the "brash Joe Willie Namath" (I think that was actually his full name, but I'm not sure of that) led his upstart AFC New York Jets to a victory over the then-Baltimore Colts, people started calling the game the Super Bowl, and that soon became the official name of the championship game, which has been gradually moving on the calendar from mid-January to late January and now early February.. ...

Basic Biittner : A memorable end to the year (another travelogue) (01/12/12)
Basic Biittner : A memorable end to the year (another travelogue) Dan Whitney I hope you all had a memorable 2011 and are off to a good start in 2012. Personally, my last half of December was full of both ups and downs. Starting with the bad news (which, thankfully, was far outdone by the good), on December 19th, I was leaving Cherokee in my new car, which I'd had all of 2 1/2 months, when a deer decided to walk into the car. ...

Basic Biittner : My Hall ballot (01/04/12)
Voting members of the Baseball Writers of America received their ballots for the 2012 election for the Hall of Fame in mid-November. There are 27 candidates - 14 "holdovers" and 13 new candidates. The writers must postmark their ballots by New Year's Eve, and the results will be announced on January 9, 2012. ...

Basic Biittner : The joy of sports ??? (12/23/11)
Remember when sports was a fun thing ? Get out in the fresh air, get some exercise, enjoy some competitive camaraderie ... as Len Berman says, "sports is supposed to be the toy department" of life. Well, basically, that's still true ... or it can be. On a true amateur level, with responsible supervision... Okay, well, maybe I'm dreaming .....

Basic Biittner : Merry CHRISTmas (12/12/11)
(To those of you who think this column seems familiar, congratulations! This is a "re-run" of a 'Basic Biittner' column from last year) The origins of the Christmas holiday, like Thanksgiving, I fear, seem to be neglected by many people. Certainly not all people, mind you, but many...

Basic Biittner (11/30/11)
The U.S. has done a marvelous job at creating "unofficial" holidays in recent years, hyping and marketing them to death in a massive commercial overkill. Exhibit A is Hallowe'en, which used to be a one-day event when kids went out in (mostly) homemade costumes to a few relatives or friends' homes to sweetly say "Trick or Treat." and get one piece of candy, for which they would say "Thank you" and be on their way to their next stop. ...

Basic Biittner (11/14/11)
Every year at this time I get on my soapbox and bemoan the fact that the Thanksgiving holiday seems to get overlooked, falling as it does on the calendar between the increasingly over-hyped Hallowe'en season and the Christmas season, which - as far as the business community is concerned - seems to run for an 8 week period,starting on the day after Hallowe'en...

Basic Biittner (10/31/11)
I think it's time again to show the world just what "trivial" thoughts have been knocking around in my noggin recently. For many years, my friends and relatives have considered me a "Trivial Pursuit" genius of sorts, and want to be on my team if we are playing that game. ...

Basic Biittner (10/17/11)
Saturday morning (Sept.3) we headed 90 miles east to Lubbock, Texas, birthplace of Buddy Holly (and Mac Davis) and home of Texas Tech University. On the way we made a brief stop in the small town of Littlefield, which is - as a sign outside of town states - "The hometown of Waylon Jennings." Since Jennings was always a favorite of ours, we headed into town to see where he came from. ...

Basic Biittner : Travelin' Man, part 2 (10/10/11)
Just three days after we returned from our trip to D.C., I headed out again. I flew in to Albuquerque, New Mexico late on September 8 and met my brother Doug for another of our "Musical History Tours." Our previous musical trips have been to New Orleans and Memphis, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and this time we were on a Buddy Holly trip to Clovis, New Mexico and Lubbock, Texas...

Basic Biittner (09/22/11)
Sometimes I hesitate about sharing news of my vacation experiences with readers, feeling perhaps that no one else is interested. But every once in a while, people tell me that they really enjoy reading about this stuff. So for the benefit of those people, I will enlighten you on my travels in August and September 2011. For the rest of you, don't read my column for the next couple of weeks...

Basic Biittner : Being a 'Fan' (08/26/11)
People who follow sports with a passion have been referred to as "fans" of that sport, or perhaps a particular team, for decades. The term 'fan' has also been applied to people who follow any object or person passionately. Yes, this use of word "fan" has come to be accepted as part of the language for a long time. ...

Basic Biittner : A Woman President - How are we doing? (08/24/11)
In 1984 - nearly 30 years ago - the Democratic party had a woman, then- Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, on the ballot as their Vice Presidential candidate, running with Walter Mondale as their Presidential candidate. The duo were defeated soundly by the incumbent Republican President, Ronald Reagan. ...

Basic Biittner : More Hall Talk (08/12/11)
Yes, it's me again, and yes, I am going to talk again about my obsession, the Baseball Hall of Fame. In my last two articles, I discussed several possible candidates for future election to the Hall and most of the names I mentioned were men who have received a good deal of support from the baseball writers in past elections, or those who I believe will receive support in future elections...

Basic Biittner : Who's Next? (part 2) (08/05/11)
... in which the author continues to look at possible future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame: The Class of 2014 includes two pitchers who were long-time teammates on some good Atlanta Braves teams. One is Greg Maddux, who won 355 games, four Cy Young Awards and 19 time Gold Gloves, and has had his number retired by two different teams - the Braves, of course, but also by the Cubs, with whom he began his career and won his first Cy Young. ...

Basic Biittner : Who's next? (part one) (08/01/11)
The Baseball Hall of Fame features 295 members, including 2011 BBWAA electees Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven and 2011 Expansion Era Committee electee Pat Gillick, all of whom were inducted into the Hall on July 24, 2011. The voting among the Baseball Writers of America takes place every winter after they are sent their ballots. ...

Basic Biittner : "Circle me Bert, and be home 'Bly 'leven" (07/21/11)
The year was 1970, and my young bride and I were at a Minnesota Twins baseball game at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington with my parents. Two things from that day stand out in my memory : first, I lost a pin from my prescription sunglasses,which I replaced that day with the metal from a bread wrapper and it stayed that way until I lost the glasses in the Colorado River 20 years later, and more imortantly, I got to watch a game pitched by a starting pitcher who was my age (19 at the time). ...

Basic Biittner : What's in a (nick) name? (06/30/11)
Congratulations to the University of South Carolina, which won their second straight College World Series in Omaha on Tuesday night. South Carolina, like most schools, has a team nickname/mascot, which in their case is the Gamecocks. What is a gamecock, you might ask? No, it's not that thing that one bats back and forth in a badminton match - that's a shuttlecock. ...

Basic Biittner : You can't make this stuff up (06/13/11)
It's been a while since I graced these pages with my enlightened observations, and I finally figured out why. Before I explain,here are some reasons I eliminated : 1) It's not because I've been far too busy (though I have, of course) 2) It's not because I don't have any opinion on things . I don't - but I stated a long time ago that this is NOT an opinion column, because I don't have any opinions...

Basic Biittner: Maybe it's time to reconsider ... (05/20/11)
I'm generally not a fan of revisionist history, but a few recent events (that is, over the last few years) in major league baseball have gotten me to thinking (I know, a dangerous precedent). After the 1919 World Series, several players on the Chicago White Sox, including ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte and leading hitter "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, were accused of "throwing" that World Series to the winning Cincinnati Redlegs...

Basic Biittner : Being Someone Else (05/06/11)
My wife and I recently attended two very entertaining performances with a common thread : both shows featured performers portraying other real-life entertainers. The first show, "The Rat Pack Is Back," is basically a re-creation of a 1960's night club performance by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis jr. ...

Basic Biittner : Haven't We Been Here Before? (04/14/11)
For much of its history, AT&T and its Bell System functioned as a legally sanctioned, regulated monopoly. The changes in telecommunications during the 1960s and 1970s eventually led to an antitrust suit by the U.S. government against AT&T. The suit began in 1974, and was settled in January 1982, when AT&T agreed to divest itself of the wholly - owned Bell operating companies that provided local exchange service. ...

Basic Biittner: The New (Im)morality (03/25/11)
I am one of those "Baby Boomers," a generic term which is often used to describe those of us who were born in the years 1946 - 1956. Rock and Roll was "born" during our era, and when I was a teenager, pop music went through its second major period of the era - the so-called British Invasion, led by the Beatles, Stones, Animals, Kinks and The Who, with the "late addition" of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd...

Basic Biittner : The funny side of getting older (02/18/11)
Some people are getting older, they tell me. And some of these people are are quite disturbed by this fact of life. As for me, as with most things, I prefer to look at the light side of getting older - and there are plenty of humorous writings out there which give one pause...

Basic Biittner : My Oscar picks (02/03/11)
The Academy Awards (aka The Oscars) presentation will be on Sunday February 27, and I know you all have been just dying to hear what I think were the Best films of 2010. What? You weren't? Oh ... there goes my idea for a column, I guess. Nah, what the heck, I'll tell you my thoughts whether you want to read them or not. So stay tuned ... or not...

Basic Biittner : February short, but sweet (01/28/11)
Well it will soon be February, so let's get this out of the way at the top: I don't have many 'pet peeves,' but one about which I've ranted on previous occasions and will do again here is the pronunciation of the second month of the calendar year. While I'd be the first to admit that some words (like 'colonel,' for example) are not spelled like they sound, "February" is not one of those. ...

Basic Biittner : Chance encounters (01/13/11)
You know how sometimes you meet someone of some degree of fame or importance totally by chance? Nah, me either. But such a circumstance does happen to some people. In my experience, that person seems to be my brother Doug. One example - last year, when he and his wife Nancy were on a cruise, one of their crisemates was Angela Cartwright. ...

Basic Biittner: Things I don't want to read about in 2011 (01/05/11)
There are several people and/or events that I read quite enough about in 2010. I promise that, after today, I will not write about the following items in 2011, and I hope that other writers throughout the world will follow suit. In 2011 (and beyond) :...

Basic Biittner: Let's hear it for the Rust Belt (12/20/10)
Cleveland, situated on one of the Great Lakes (Erie) in northeast Ohio, has had its share of public relations problems over the years. It is part of the so-called "Rust Belt"(an unfortunate moniker, in my opinion) of blue-collar manufacturing towns that stretch from Buffalo to Duluth. ...

Basic Biittner : Merry CHRISTmas (12/13/10)
The origins of the Christmas holiday, like Thanksgiving, I fear, seem to be neglected by many people. Certainly not all people, mind you, but many. Let me refresh your memory. More than 2000 years ago, in a stable in the town of Bethlehem (that's in "The Middle East" for you kids), a baby named Jesus was born, and, since many people believed him to be Christ, the son of God, with him was born an entire religion, called Christianity. ...

Basic Biittner : This is football? (12/01/10)
I guess I must be getting old. I guess I should have suspected as much when it first dawned on me that the only time I listen to "new" music these days is when an old favorite artist of mine, like Van Morrison, Bob Dylan or Neil Young, releases a CD of new material (although, come to think of it, I haven't really listened much to their last 2-3 releases, either)...

Basic Biittner: Don't blink or you'll miss it ... and that's too bad (11/18/10)
Come close and I'll tell you a secret ... On Thursday November 25, our nation will be celebrating something called Thanksgiving Day. Last I heard it was some kind of national holiday or something. Never hear much about it anymore, though. It seems like the tv shows, theatres and stores start whooping it up for the non-holiday called Hallowe'en about mid-September, and as soon as it passes, they go full-bore for Christmas...

Basic Biittner : Conference Call (11/04/10)
In the old days (i.e., when I was a lad), Iowa high school athletic conferences had eight teams, and the longest road trip the teams and their fans had to make was probably 60 miles, with most trips shorter than that. For example, the old Sioux Valley Conference teams were Alta, Aurelia, Hartley, Milford, Paullina, Primghar, Sanborn and Sutherland, with the trip to Milford the "long trip" for the Cherokee and Buena Vista County schools...

Basic Biittner: Blast from the Past (09/13/10)
This weekend we went to the Clay County Fair to attend a performance by a classic rock group from the late 60s - early 70s, Three Dog Night. 3DN is a bit of an unsung group - you never hear them mentioned as a candidate for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for example - but for a few years, they were as popular as any act, with 21 hit singles over a four year period. ...

Basic Biittner : How about the Hall for these guys? (08/27/10)
One of my favorite things about the various Halls-of-Fame, be it the Rock and Roll Hall, the Pro Football Hall, College Football Hall, Basketball Hall, et al., is the ongoing debate among fans and writers about who "belongs" in that Hall; i.e.., who is "deserving" of such an honor. ...

Basic Biittner: My Summer, part 3 (08/19/10)
I'm not about to rate the three separate parts of my 2010 "summer vacation," but I CAN tell you this - the "shortest distance traveled" award definitely goes to this, the third leg of my vacation. On the first leg, I traveled to New York, Canada and Cleveland with my siblings . Two countries, ten days, and several hundred miles. The second leg again involved two countries (the same two, actually), seven days, and several hundred more miles...

Basic Biittner: How I Spent My Summer Vacation, part 2 (08/13/10)
Just ten days after returning from my first trip of the summer, my wife and I headed on trip #2 with ten dear friends. Unlike my previous trip, which came together very quickly, this trip had been in the works for approximately seven years. Several members of our "supper club-" a group of former high school classmates and their spouses which has been getting together for 30+ years - traveled to New York City together in 2001 and had such a good time, we started putting away money towards our next "big adventure" several years ago. ...

Basic Biittner: How I Spent My Summer Vacation (part one) (08/05/10)
Remember when you were in elementary school and one of your first assignments each fall was to tell the class how you spent your summer vacation? No, I don't either, but they tell me that's the way it used to be done - and maybe still is. At any rate, I was able to enjoy three fantastic experiences myself this summer, and that seemed like as good a "lead" as any to introduce the sharing of my experiences with you, my faithful readers...

Basic Biittner : More groans (07/15/10)
They say the ability to make and understand puns is considered to be the highest level of language development. Here are the ten first place winners in the International Pun Contest: 1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per...

Basic Biittner : 52 College Pick-Up (06/14/10)
Most of you are probably familiar with the "card game" (to use the term loosely) called 52 Card Pick Up. where a deck of cards is scattered on the floor and one proceeds to pick up the 52 cards. College (University, actually) sports is going through a phase right now that I like to call "52 College Pick Up," though it is more commonly referred to as "Conference Re-alignment."...

Basic Biittner: Home remedies (06/07/10)
The latest "home remedy" which some people have claimed they use to effectively ward off nasty mosquitoes and other varmints of that type is Absorbine Jr. Reports of its effectiveness have spread (pardon the pun) so much that there are numerous reports of stores selling out of the time-honored rub-on liniment...

Basic Biittner : Summertime (05/27/10)
Well, as of last weekend, summer has arrived in Northwest Iowa. Yes, I know it's only May and the "official" start of summer is still three weeks away. But, I ask you - Were you here last weekend? 90 degrees with a hot, overpowering wind, high humidity and lots of flying pests spells summer to me, pal...

Basic Biittner : First Inductees (05/14/10)
The NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, will open for business this month, and - in addition to all the up-to-date, interactive, high definition technology that will be on display and various and sundry artifacts of NACAR history - the Hall's first class of Hall of Fame inductees will be enshrined. ...

Basic Biittner : M is for ... (05/07/10)
Mother's Day is Sunday. For all of you kids (of all ages) who are fortunate enough to still have your mom, I've gathered a few pearls of appreciation for motherhood that have been generated through the ages. To wit: "A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." ~Tenneva Jordan...

Basic Biittner : Power Outages, NFL Quarterbacks, and the return of "The Mayor" (04/30/10)
Here are a few of my recent random thoughts on a couple of subjects, which I am sure you are thrilled to have revealed now in black and white for your perusal ... The town of Aurelia, where I live, recently experienced a total blackout one night, starting at about 10 p.m. No street lights, no house lights, no TV, no computer, et al. Whenever that happens - which isn't very often, mind you - it makes me very appreciative of this modern world in which we live...

Basic Biittner: 'Tis the season (04/19/10)
Dan Whitney I do believe spring has actually sprung. And, as we all know, "in the spring, a young man's fancy turns to..." Wait a minute. That's irrelevant to me. Hard as it may be for me to admit it, I am NOT a "young man" anymore. However, my "fancy" is still turning to the same thing it did when I WAS a young man, even when I was a young boy...

Basic Biittner: NCAA Hoops (04/12/10)
During the recent NCAA Final Four, we were listening to one of the semi-final games on the radio. The game happened to be between Butler and Michigan State, but that's irrelevant to the topic about which I'm going to rant. It was an exciting, fast-paced game, which IS relevant...

Basic Biittner: Punny You Should Ask ... (04/05/10)
A friend, who shall remain nameless , sent me these "groaner" puns the other day, and I thought I'd share them with you. Puns For Educated Minds (authors unknown , and probably wouldn't admit to it, anyway) − I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian ...

Basic Biittner: Why George is George (03/17/10)
It's no secret that I am a life-long, die hard fan of the World Champion New York Yankees. And when I say "life-long," I'm not exaggerating by much. I will be 60 years old in a few months, and I've been a Yankee fan since I was five years old. The reasons that I became I Yankee fan, even though I grew up far from the Bronx, are quite simple...

Basic Biittner: O Canada, O My! (03/11/10)
Like many people, I spent some time watching the 2010 Winter Olympic Games on television recently, and I agree with the 41.7% of the respondents in a recent Chronicle Times poll who felt the Games were fantastic from start to finish. After starting out with the tragic death of the Russian luger and the failure to successfully light one of the legs of the Olympic torch at the Opening Ceremony, I was afraid that the 2010 Winter Olympics were going to be re-run of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, where everything seemed to go wrong, from the killing of the athletes and their captors on down to several unfortunate (though much less serious, in retrospect) events for the U.S. ...

Basic Biittner: Over the hill at 30 (03/04/10)
While many of us enjoy watching professional athletes do their thing on the playing field, those athletes also elicit another response from many fans . That response is one of the so-called 'seven deadly sins' - envy. Many people envy the athlete's considerable skills, many envy their lifestyle, and MANY envy the money they make...

Basic Biittner : from H to Z (02/26/10)
By Dan Whitney Here is my third (and final - I promise) list of eponyms, which, if you recall, are items which are named after a person : the H a m m o n d O r g a n - L a u r e n s H a m m o n d the H e i m l i c h M a n e u v e r - H e n r y H e i m l i c h...

Basic Biittner : Sunday afternoon television (02/19/10)
It's a good thing they invented DVDS, cable and satellite t.v., books, magazines and the internet, because I think otherwise I would have to struggle to find a way to fill my Sunday afternoons. You see, watching sporting events on t.v. will no longer be one of my options. ...

Basic Biittner : The Oscars (02/05/10)
They announced the nominations for the 2010 Academy Awards on Tuesday. Years ago, I tried to see all the nominated films before the big night, so I could watch the show and applaud or denounce the winners. That would be kind of tough this year. for a couple of reasons. ...

Basic Biittner : Whatever happened to the 10 Commandments? (01/29/10)
A long, long time ago, the Bible says, God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush and laid down the law to the Israelites, in the form of ten commandments. These commandments listed all the behaviors that believers (not yet called Christians, because Christ hadn't arrived yet) should NOT exhibit...

Basic Biittner : solving some of the world's problems (01/25/10)
Many of you, particularly those of you who watch late-night television, are aware of what is being called "the mess" at NBC-TV, in regard to the Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien shows. I'm not going to go into the situation any further because it would take up my whole column, and I'm not here to re-hash the whole situation between the selfish, spoiled Jay and the wounded Conan. ...

Basic Biittner : How to deal with history (01/14/10)
Mark McGwire "came out" on Monday - no, not that way. No, the former major league home run champ admitted publicly that he has used steroids off and on for 10 years or more - including during his the record-breaking season of 1998, when "Big Mac" sent 70 balls out of the park in a season-long duel with the Cubs' Sammy Sosa - probably the most exciting individual duel in baseball since the similar 1961 Mantle-Maris home run race...

Basic Biittner: Tracking the "Bowl" Games (01/08/10)
I don't care what you say - there are only four college football Bowl games - the Sugar, Cotton, Rose and Orange - played on New Year's Day in that order. No other bowl games count (sorry, Iowa State fans and the winning teams in the other 30+ "unofficial" bowl games)...

Basic Biittner: The year in review (01/04/10)
One thing you can always count on in late December - the media will be full of "Best Of the Year" lists - The year's top movies, the top news stories, top music, etc., etc. And this year is even worse, because, by many people's figuring, 2009 marks the end of the decade. So, in addition to the usual "Best of the Year" lists, we also inundated with "Best of the Decade" lists...

Basic Biittner : The No Fun League (12/11/09)

Basic Biittner : my Eponymous ways (part two) (11/27/09)
Due to the overwhelming response to my first column on the subject, I continue herein with a list of more eponyms, which are persons after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named - or thought to be named. Mulligan, in its golf sense, is a relatively new word, but was in common use on golf courses by at least the 1940s. A mulligan is, of course, a "do-over." There are many, many stories about the birth of the golf term "mulligan" ... and it's quite possible that none of them are true...

Basic Biittner : Watching Sports (11/13/09)
There are basically two ways in which sports enthusiasts can watch their favorite sporting activities. For most of you other than my colleague Mike, one of the ways is watching the contest on television. There are many sizes of television screens on which you can choose to watch these days. ...

Basic Biittner : It's here at last! (10/29/09)

Basic Biittner: the Hawtbed of American Humah (10/22/09)
What do Americans find funny these days? While some people go for the redneck humor of the Blue Collar Comedy Group of Larry the Cable Guy (real name: Dan Whitney), Jeff Foxworthy and company, others dig the 'Real Kings of Comedy '(Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, etc.), another group follows like the old 'In Living Color' group of actors (Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier and the Wayans Brothers), and, of course, the various members and ex-members of the 'Saturday Night Live' troupe all have their fans as well.. ...

Basic Biittner : The Greatest, without a Doubt (10/19/09)
Dan Whitney Thanks largely to my having a brother who is seven years older than I, I became an avid follower of pop music from the time I was 6 , which was basically at the "Dawn of Rock and Roll." And so it was that I literally grew up on the music of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis...

Basic Biittner : 'A No- Brainer?' Depends who you ask (10/08/09)
I attended the special School Board meeting in Aurelia Monday night, and throughout the meeting, a certain phrase kept reverberating throughout the Aurelia gymnasium - scene of many exciting basketball, volleyball and wrestling moments through the last 50 years. No, it wasn't a traditional gymnasium phrase, such as "Go Dogs!", "Are you kidding, stripes?" or even "It's hot in here!"...

Basic Biittner : In case you forgot ... (09/28/09)
In this world of "All-NFL, All-the-Time," where everybody and his brother (and sometimes sister) are in an NFL pool, a Fantasy League, placing bets (friendly or otherwise), or just plain glued to the tube on Sunday afternoons and nights, Monday nights, and (sometimes) Thursday nights, etc., etc., etc., I'm here to report from the "old school."...

Basic Biittner: That Was the Week That Was (09/21/09)
I attended two important meetings which were held in Cherokee County last week as a reporter for this newspaper. The two meetings had a combined participation of about 500 - 600 participants, considered an excellent turnout in both cases. Both meetings had to do with the future direction of venerable institutions which are more than 100 years old, so the amount of interest shown really shouldn't have come as a surprise. ...

Basic Biittner : Reincarnation (09/03/09)
I have never been a believer in reincarnation, nor in anything else mystical, magical.To me, "Reincarnation" was just a cute song by the late Roger Miller: "If I was a bird and you was a fish, What would I do? I guess I'd wish for Re - incarnation, re - incarnation,...

Basic Biittner : One Last Visit to the Dome (08/20/09)
I took a trip north with family and friends last weekend. We were making our (almost) annual trip to see a major league baseball game in Minneapolis. The Twins' opponents this time out were the Cleveland Indians. The Indians are having a 'down' year, and the Twins also have not caused any sportswriters or fans to wax eloquently about the team and liken them to the '27 or '61 Yankees, or even the Twins of 1965, 1987 or 1991. ...

Basic Biittner : Dog Days of Summer (08/13/09)
Most of you have probably heard the phrase "Dog Days of Summer," and perhaps - if you have absolutely nothing more important to think about - you have wondered when and where that phrase came about. No? Too bad. In the interest of my lifelong pursuit of useless information, and the subsequent disseminating of same, I'm going to enlighten you on that very subject...

Basic Biittner: Getting in touch with Our Past (08/06/09)
I recently undertook a three-day "educational road trip" with my brother and sister, to explore our family roots in Clayton County, Iowa. For those of you who don't know, Clayton County is located on the far eastern border of the state. The county seat is Elkader, which strangely enough is named after an Algerian emir, Abdel Kader, and the most famous landmarks are the Effigy Mounds, which I vaguely recall from my 6th grade Iowa History class. ...

Basic Biittner : In my Opinion ... (07/30/09)
Yes, you read correctly. Despite my recent declaration that I have no strong opinions about anything, and that this column should not be thought of as an "opinion" column, there are a couple of news items recently about which I feel the need to express an opinion...

Basic Biittner: Learn from Our Successes (07/16/09)
Many of the projects proposed under the recent economic stimulus government grants have been criticized as unnecessary, frivolous, and so on. Maybe it's time to look back on a similar period of time in American history, and a similar proposed solution...

Basic Biittner : It was 40 Years Ago today ... (07/09/09)
Forty years ago this month - 40, can you believe it? - A very historic event occurred. One which we young punks thought would forever change our lives. Quick, can you tell me what it was? I say, quick, because if I gave you any time, you could look it up on google, or in one of those, what do you call them? Oh, yeah - books...

Basic Biittner : What a week! (07/02/09)
Last week was one in which I became a little hesitant to read the latest news. It seemed as if reports of the death of someone famous were coming in at a record pace. The first, the death of Ed McMahon, was not a total shock. McMahon was 86 years old and had been in poor health. ...

Basic Biittner : Book Review (06/25/09)
"Lesser-known Giants of the 20th Century" is a non-fiction work whose subject is summed up very well in its title. It was written by Charles M. Aulino, who is an attorney with a 30-year background in estate, trust, tax, and financial planning and practice, A New Jersey native and resident, Aulino is described as "a serious amateur pianist and private pilot" in a press release for the book.This may be his first book, though I am not certain about that...

Dan Whitney
Basic Biittner

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