Mea Culpa

I was informed this morning that I made a mistake in listing the second coach for Freeport High School's Speech Team for several of their championship years. I was thinking of George Enstrom, a local attorney, who is the son of the actual coach, Ralph Enstrom. The error has been corrected on the posting "Don't Know Much About Speech History" which was appropriate considering that I saw the correct name in the IHSA State Speech program and still typed in the name in my head instead of the correct name. Apologies to those who knew Ralph, whom a patient told me today, was an excellent teacher.

The Big Awards

Helen Mirren was the surest bet among all nominees. She won. Now up is the Best Actor category and Reese is looking lovely as she presents the award, which goes to...Forest Whitaker, who just recently completed a compelling story line as the conflicted, vengeful, and ultimately tragic character on "ER". He is a fine character actor, who falls easily (at least it seems so) into his roles.

Stephen, Francis, and George are together to present the Best Director Oscar, most likely to Martin Scorcese, but my sentimental favorite is Paul Greengrass, who directed United 93, but the Oscar goes to the one who has suffered the longest drought without winning, though he should have at least twice in the past (Raging Bull and Goodfellas). He finally has won for a movie that supposedly wasn't as good as the other two, but it was his year this year. Much like when Spielberg won for "Saving Private Ryan" there is a good chance that his film will not win the Best Picture Award. A lighter comedy that captured some hearts, like "Shakespeare in Love" did, "Little Miss Sunshine" has a very good chance of winning.

Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson are together for the presentation of Best Picture. The most popular film is "The Departed", but Marty just received his award, so let's see who takes home the Big Prize...

And the Oscar goes to "The Departed" which just happened to star Jack Nicholson. So the cast of stars, Leo, Matt, Jack, Mark, Alec and gang took a Boston crime lord and the police department and some switcheroos and turned it into Oscar gold.

That's all for tonight, folks. How did you do on your Oscar scorecard? Better than I did, I hope.

The Al Gore Love Fest

More than 90% of Hollywood is said to vote Democrat. Based on the tribute by Leo to Al Gore, his appearance, the win for "An Inconvenient Truth" and the win for Melissa Etheridge and her song, "I Need to Wake Up" from Gore's documentary, it looks like it has been Al's night. If Hollywood can swing the vote for the next President, perhaps, David Geffen and the gang may have to bring up Barack Obama at next year's Academy Awards to help him garner some votes before the 2008 elections.

Ennio Morricone

I once sat through four of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns in one day. Almost eight hours of watching Clint light stogie after stogie, squinting, and always getting the villain. Whether it was being saved from a hanging, wearing protective steel under his poncho or dowing another shot of whiskey before firing off another round to save the town, the movies' scores stuck with me. I walked out into the evening sky with one of my best friends, Tony. We were blinded by the setting sun after spending the entire day in the movie theater. "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," "For a Few Dollars More," "A Fistful of Dollars," and "Hang 'Em High."

Clint just finished announcing the honorary Oscar to Ennio Morricone for his years of contributing haunting and memorable scores to many films, including the ones with Clint riding off into the sunset or running through a cemetery to find the hidden money.

Segio Leone is smiling somewhere as his movies once made a star of the guy from "Rawhide" and now the music that has been inspirational since the 1960's is being honored. He continues to write and perform the music that has lead to some strange and interesting takes on his scores.

A Surprise Winner... To Some

Best Adapted Screenplay wasn't too difficult to pick out, William Monahan for "The Departed" was pretty much a sure bet, but then again so was "Cars" at least according to the critics. The surprise winner to all who thought "Pan's Labryinth" would win best Foreign Language Film...welcome to Germany's "The Lives of Others." Even a squirrel finds an acorn in the winter once in a while. Jerry Seinfeld is trying to make funny right now. Ellen has been a little too earnest in her attempt to please so far. Funniest bit, for me at least, was the song and dance routine by Jack Black, Will Ferrell, and John C. Reilly.

Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth" conveniently just won the Best Documentary Oscar. No hanging chads for this one. I understand that somewhere in Dade County people are cheering and they've decided to go completely green for Al's sake and that of our country.

Wide Open Races to Wide Open Spaces

Another one bites the dust. I thought for sure that "Cars" would take the Animated Feature Oscar, but then it isn't wise for a podiatrist to vote against a movie with the name, "Happy Feet!" "Happy Feet" was funny, sad and had great animated action sequences, but I thought that the characters in "Cars" were more fully developed. I'm glad I didn't bet on the Awards this year. I never have before, so I guess that this would definitely not have been a good year to start.

One Wrong, More to Go?

Okay, so I picked against Eddie Murphy for Best Supporting Actor. In that respect I was right, but I picked the wrong actor. Alan Arkin, who starred in one of my favorite comedies, the original, "The In-Laws" and also in "Catch-22" among others, was a sentimental favorite as the foul-mouthed, coke-addicted, grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine." Kind of a lifetime achievement award. Perhaps this bodes well for Peter O'Toole, though Forrest Whitaker will be tough to beat. This may also be a prelude to "Little Miss Sunshine" and a victory for Best Picture. Stay tuned.

Not Much Time

Usually, I write this prior to the start of the Academy Awards. Anyways, here goes my predictions for this year, just under the wire...

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker
Best Actress: Helen Mirren
Best Director: Martin Scorcese
Best Animated Movie: Cars
Foreign Language Film: The Lives of Others
Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan
Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt
Best Song: Love You I Do
Best Documentary; An Inconvenient Truth
Best Movie: Little Miss Sunshine

Okay, it has started, so these were my quick picks, even though I failed to see a single nominated movie this year. Quite a feat, eh?

Hope your predictions work out for you.

Don't Know Much About Speech History

Freeport High School recently sent seven individuals in eight events to the Illinois High School Association State Speech Tournament at Rock Island High School. Unfortunately, we did not place any duo or individual in the finals, but the team performed very well. Whenever the judging is subjective certain "favorites" tend to emerge. That seemed to be the case this year, as it was last year, when the Northwest Illinois Sectional failed to produce a single champion and very few representatives in the finals. DeKalb with 11 events for state had three finalists, who placed in 5th, 6th and 7th places. Rock Island had one individual with two 4th place finishes. Pearl City's "Performance in the Round" wound up 6th (though no points were awarded as this is an exhibition event). There is a definite pattern with the suburban schools ending up in the finals, whether their performances are the best ones or not. Much of the "downstate" area has difficulty reaching the finals, not just our neck of the (back)woods.

As stated in the FTLOC column of February 26, 2007, here are the years of Freeport's team champions and individual state winners:


Team/ Place/Year Coach(es)
FHS 1941 1st Jeanette Lloyd
FHS 1942 2nd Jeanette Lloyd
FHS 1949 1st Jeanette Lloyd and Ralph Enstrom
FHS 1950 1st Jeanette Lloyd and Ralph Enstrom
FHS 1951 1st Jeanette Lloyd and Ralph Enstrom

FREEPORT HIGH SCHOOL INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS:

Event Champion Year
After Dinner Speaking John Voigt 1955
Extempore Speaking Roger Kasten 1951
Oratorical Declamation Harold Horstmeyer 1950
Original Oratory Jack Sellke 1943
Original Oratory Clarence Norman 1971
Serious Reading Louise Ousley 1945
Serious Reading Donna Smith 1949
Radio Speaking Scott Smith 2000
Verse Reading Lorraine Saunders 1941
Verse Reading J. Robert Beddow 1942
Verse Reading Gerald Kline 1950
Verse Reading Jean Bloomquist 1954
Verse Reading Clarence Norman 1972

Clearly Speaking Photo Montage FHS State Speech Team 2007

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Proud Papa

I'm feeling rather proud of my daughter, Veronica, this week. She is the first female from her high school to qualify for the Illinois State Speech Tournament in the Humorous Duet Acting event. She and her partner, Jake, who has qualified the previous two years with a male duet partner, have had good success this year winning several tournaments. The Freeport team has once again done the school proud. Two years ago they sent six individuals or duets to state. Last year they were in nine events at state. This year there are seven individuals in eight events. Three of the team members are in two events each.

This is quite an accomplishment as they are currently ranked ninth in the state based on team strength. They join traditional powerhouse teams such as Wheaton North, Downers Grove South, DeKalb, and others. They are one of nine teams to have participants in at least eight events for the state tournament.

It has been a fascinating year to watch and attend the tournaments. These young men and women have shown tremendous growth not only in their presentations, but in their leadership skills and their personal demeanor. They carry themselves with a sense of self-confidence, knowing that they have excellent communication skills. This is a necessity in today's economic climate. It is imperative to be able to communicate well to succeed in college, grad schools, and in business. These students will have a distinct advantage.

We are looking forward to attending the state tournament in Rock Island, Illinois this weekend. Our daughter, who is competing in the dichotomous events, Humorous Duet Acting and Dramatic Duet Acting, will be one of the participants, but we will be there to root for our home team, as well as members of other teams in Northwest Illinois, including Eastland-Pearl City.

It is difficult not to cheer on all of these students, approximately eighteen individuals or duos, for each event. Some sectional events had ties, so that one or two additional students may be in an event. They have been honing their skills throughout the past several months and now it is their turn to shine.

To follow the tournament results, go to espeech.net. Best of luck to all of the students that qualified for state, but we'll be cheering on our home team of Freeport. Go Pretzels!

Ouch! That Hurts

Much like Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl for the BCS Championship game, the Bears started out great. Hester worked his magic on his way to another kick-off return for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the Bears looked quite ordinary after that. They forced fumbles and even had an interception, but in the end, Rex is no Peyton.

The Bears had a great season, but in the overall scheme of the game, the NFC once again cannot stand up to the AFC when it comes to the big game. We should have been able to see this coming by the way the Bears lost to both New England and Miami during the regular season. These are teams that Indy beat during the regular season and playoffs. It was too easy to get blinded by loyalty and the way they played two weeks ago against the Saints.

The Bears may one day win another Super Bowl, but I don't think it will be with Rex Grossman as quarterback. He is a nice guy, but seems to get "happy feet" whenever he is being pursued; keeps throwing off of his back foot, which leads to many of his underthrows (interceptions); and can't seem to get a grip on the ball (fumbled snaps). They desperately need a Tom Brady/Peyton Manning type of quarterback, who is confident in the huddle, on the field, and in the pocket, which would then help his teammates develop confidence in him. Rex just doesn't have that going for him and it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon. As Simon and Garfunkel sang years ago, "You're shaking my confidence, baby."

Is it time for baseball season, yet?

Today is Super

Has it really been 21 years since the Bears beat the Patriots in New Orleans? Once again the Bears are playing a team from the original AFC East, though the Colts were moved to the AFC South (I thought that Indy was in the Midwest, but what do I know?). Anyways, everyone outside of Chicago is saying that it is Peyton Manning's year. Time to finally win the big one for the best quarterback not to win a Super Bowl in the current group of the better quarterbacks. Maybe it is his time, but if it hadn't been for the porous New England defense in the final quarter of the AFC Championship game, Tom Brady would be back in the big game.

I look for the Bears defense and special teams to stand up very well against the Colts. The two coaches, who know each other well, will be evenly matched, and if Rex Grossman can have even a decent game, the Bears will win. Peyton is good, no doubt. I saw him shred the Chicago defense for four touchdowns a couple of years ago at Soldier Field. I think it was during Lovie's first year in 2004. The Bears defenders looked like the proverbial "deer in the headlights," but there is something different about this team so far in the playoffs.

The pre-game is already going on the local radio stations and most likely on TV, though my son is spending the morning watching the Disney Channel, so I wouldn't know. I'll be getting the Buffalo Wings ready for the game and waiting for the new commercials to go along with what I hope will be a great game.

Contrary to my prediction if the Patriots and the Bears were playing, I am going to stick with the hometown team... Bears 27 Colts 24. Good as Gould in the last minute of the game.