In any case…Myra Kraft was an extraordinary woman and I can’t help but think of my mother who passed away around the same time after a struggle with health problems.  Clearly Myra was an “away mother” for many players.  My own mother, for her part, was a bit of a sports sage, in the way that is peculiar to old school Boston fans.  Some memories:

-She was an unreconstructed Red Sox fan who never could really get comfortable with the fact that they won the World Series.  I mentioned this in my eulogy.  Last summer, when they were winning like crazy before the epic collapse, I would go to the hospital and tell her they won, and she would say “they are doing TOO well” meaning it was bound to fall apart – a true veteran Sox fan.

-She was so into the games that when Vinatieri trotted out to kick the field goal in the first Pats Super Bowl win she ran and hid in another room – she could not bear to watch it out of nervousness!

-My mother – Carol – was a huge, huge Bruins fan.  She could probably dress for a week in nothing but Bruins clothing – she had that much stuff.  She even had special Boston Bruins bowling balls for her weekly bowling with the church seniors.

-She was a devout Orthodox Christian but would talk about how she “hated” Roger Clemens, or Ulf Samuelsson, or some other such sports figure.  I asked her about this once and she said “it is sports hate, not regular hate.  It is different”.  As a sports fan I totally understand what she meant – she didn’t wish bad upon these people in real life but only in the arena of sports.

I miss her so much.

People think we are crazy for going because it is so cold and the mountain is covered in ice usually, but that is part of the attraction.  Making the summit and then returning safely gives us quite a feeling of accomplishment, and the social part – breakfast beforehand, the climb and the after party – is super fun.  The temperature at the base was about 18 degrees, which I would normally say is very cold.  However, the main challenge on the mountain is not overheating from the exertion, so in addition to our ice axes and crampons we all had many layers that were shed as we ascended, and even then everyone was pretty warm.  It was a beautiful day and we made great time – up and down, with a stop for lunch and periodic brief rests, in under four hours.

At the after party, graciously hosted by Stephen, we celebrated with the traditional toast of Harvey’s Bristol Cream sherry and ate cheese and Sophie’s famous keftedes.  No one really likes the Harvey’s, but we toasted the group and George’s retirement, and memorialized Randy, and all presented downed half a finger of Harvey’s.  With much relief we then switched to refreshing beer.  This year George enlightened us to the origins of the toast.  That first trek up the mountain George and Randy came back soaked and Randy’s wife made them go in the basement and sit by the furnace.  The only provisions down there were a bottle of Harvey’s and a block (or ball, depending on the source) of cheese, so they indulged accordingly.  Hence our yearly tradition.

This year we added a few rookies and welcomed them to the fraternity.  There is a big European bent to the group, with members of Norwegian, British, German, Swiss, and Greek (guess who) extraction.  Conversation was all over the place but stories were shared of the Brenner Pass, the White Mountians of Crete, Chamonix and other places.  We also went to a new breakfast place, Joseph’s in Westminster, which was awesome.  Breakfast is a big part of the event – we all catch up, the new guys get a chance to meet everyone and vice versa, chops are busted and we fuel up for the hike.  Here are a few pictures:

This is me at the summit.  Note the beard, which I grew specifically for the trip but am keeping as a “playoff beard” for the Pats.

Chris, a new member of the group and the other Greek on the trip, took this cool picture, which looks black and white but is in color and untouched up:

And yet…just when you form an opinion about something, your worldview is turned upside down.  While catching up on sports news I read this post (warning – very grim language) which has a reference to a watch fob (or watch and fob – a pocket watch with a chain).  The article got me thinking – a watch fob is one of those things that is very outdated.  Most people wear wristwatches – how silly to have a whole get-up where you pull something out of your pocket to check the time.  But…we are now, and have been for a while,  in the cell phone era.  And I (a person who never wears a watch and doesn’t even own one, as a point of pride) pull my cell out a dozen times a day or so to check the time.  For me, and I imagine for others with a similar bent, the cell phone has become a watch fob without the chain.  Funny how things come around again…

-I definitely prefer the Roth era of VH to the Van Hagar era.  Early Van Halen was fun party music, while the Sammy stuff is VH for grownups.  There are some great moments with Sammy and he is technically a better singer but Dave is an awesome frontman and I like his stuff best.

-Dave’s leaving of the band in the mid-80s was shattering to us little VH fans.  People forget this now but initially Dave had a very successful solo career although within a few years he slid into irrelevance.  But there was always the pull of him coming back to Van Halen, as the Sammy Years became a time of soap opera – like drama.

-It is hard to believe that Sammy last recorded an album with VH in 1995 – 17 years ago!   (There was a touring reunion and the recording of a few new songs in 2004).  I was an avid reader of various guitar geek magazines at that time and the back and forth between Eddie and Sammy in interviews was dizzying.  It really seemed then that fifty years on we would still be talking about the Dave vs. Sammy argument.

-I mentioned above that I loved the new song Tattoo.  It is catchy in a way that new material from heritage bands (and I don’t mind calling VH that – it is a good thing) often isn’t.  The lyrics are clever Dave-speak and it is good to see the guys bouncing around on stage.  The song is way better than the two they recorded during their initial reunion in 1996.  It is sad that Michael Anthony is no longer welcome in the band.  To me the sound of Van Halen was four special parts combined – the guitar prowess (and keys) of Eddie, Alex’s drumming, which is the most easily identifiable drum sound this side of John Bonham, Dave’s unique voice and phrasing, and the distinctive backing vocals of Michael Anthony.  We will see how much his vocals are missed on the album.

Born Under A Bad Sign

Yellow Ledbetter

Hoochie Coochie Man

Mustang Sally

Gotta Serve Somebody

Sympathy

Dirty Dishes

The Thrill Is Gone

Willie The Wimp

Run Run Rudolph

Pride & Joy

-Smile has always been considered the greatest lost album of all time, partly due to the fact that Brian destroyed some of the tapes.  However, it has been possible to put together a decent facsimile of what may have been intended as the final release due to the abundance of bonus CD tracks that have been released as well as the fact that many of the songs have been put out in various forms – singles, album tracks with modifications, etc. – through the years.  I actually put together a mix earlier this year based on my calculations for what Smile would have sounded like.

-Brian put out a newly-recorded version of Smile a few years back which was pretty well received.  This has become the model for how Smile would have been structured.

-Brian and the Beatles were, in a friendly fashion, inspired by each other and in friendly competition in the mid-sixties.  Brian’s work has been a huge, huge influence on many indie, Americana and other alternative acts these days; the Beatles of course are in their own category for this sort of thing.

-I am, admittedly, a huge Beatles fan, so take the following with a grain of salt: I give the crown to the Beatles hands down.  Smile is great but it does indeed sound very much a product of its time, as do many moments of Pet Sounds.  The Beatles recordings from that period – Revolver especially and Sgt. Pepper – do not sound dated in the least, whether due to lack of reverb, less daring explorations, whatever.

And whatever.  Smile is worth seeking out as a good listening experience and a huge piece of classic rock history.

I held this view until recently.  Last year I talked about how it seems that Thanksgiving has turned into an excuse for gluttony.  This is actually an acceptable part of the culture of Thanksgiving; if you watch the news or read news websites there are features on how to deal with eating too much turkey or whatever on the holiday.  I am not trying to be a wet blanket here, and yes, I will probably overdo it a bit today – in our case there are tons of appetizers where we go – but by the time dinner rolls around I am full and usually eat almost nothing at the formal sit-down part of the day.  Gluttony is the only one of the seven deadly sins that we always dance around – you have to eat, after all – so every meal is a potential opportunity for gluttony.  Thanksgiving almost sanctions it.

This year’s rant is more about the holiday’s place in our culture and how it is has lost much of its bite.  Thanksgiving has been secularized just like other holidays (and keep in mind I am a defender of Santa and the Easter bunny, so I am not a no-fun, super strict person).  I have heard the phrase “give thanks” many, many times in the lead up to today.  Give thanks to whom?  This key part is missing, as is any acknowledgment of the Almighty in reference to the day.  So, in addition to my suggestion that we don’t overdo it on the food front, I have to add – please remember to whom we are giving thanks, and be sure to think about this and give voice to it.  Happy Thanksgiving to all, and more later…