Daily Short #186, May 29th, 2018: Hudson Card Confession
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A Confession:
I'm not looking forward to the day I finally see Hudson Card report to campus as a Texas Longhorn and it has nothing to do with him. I've actually been sort of dreading the day we first hear about a 2020 Longhorns commitment for years now. Hudson Card just happens to be the first.
The reason? It has nothing to do with football or the Longhorns or Card as a player or anything else remotely reasonable. You see, I've always had the 2020 recruiting class circled in my mind with bright-red marker as the one that will report to the San Jacinto dormitories at the same time I am 40 years old.
"Finally a man!" as Mike Gundy -- who will all of the sudden be 53 himself at that point -- might slap me on the back and exclaim jovially in the gruff but somehow fatherly way that only a football coach can.
Folks generally think I'm a little younger than I really am, especially in the sportswriting and radio space as I got such a late start. I didn't earn a cent talking about football until I was 29 in an industry where many hop in right out of college -- or even during in the cases of most of today's traditional journalists.
As a proud member of the "Oregon Trail" generation (which finds itself sandwiched somewhere between GenX's flannelspace and the various, much 'safer' spaces of the millennials), we were the mini-generation that lived only our formative years without the internet. I didn't have my first email address until I was in college and spent summers as a child gigging frogs in the creek or flipping over rocks with friends in hopes of spying a colorful coral snake.
"Remember, dude," we'd say to each other with the most serious expressions 8-year-olds could possibly muster, "red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black: friend of Jack." We'd cook crawfish in Coke cans by the creek (which I would never allow my own children to do for fear of some sort of poisoning), we'd play football in the street and yell "car!" when we had to allow one to pass. We'd ride our bikes until long after the sun went down without fear of anything nefarious.
In my own family's recent move to the Lake Travis ISD area, it isn't lost on me that it was made (in what is likely a futile attempt) by me to enable my own kids to have some semblance of similarity to the upbringing I benefitted so greatly from. Same sort of trees, hills, stones. Rivers and creeks, lots of cool birds.
The realist in me knows that is likely impossible. And "lots of cool birds?" Dear Lord, I'm turning into my parents. We can have the snakes under the rocks to pester and (presumably) the crawfish in the nearby creeks to pillage and consume like hobos -- but I'm not sure that society will ever go back to the days pre-dating the internet. It's just another sign of my own age creeping up on me faster than I ever imagined.
The good news about where all this intersects: I live super close to Lake Travis High School now and will have plenty of opportunities to figure out just what Hudson Card (the player who needs to be the bellcow recruiting figure of the 2020 class) is all about beginning soon, and then over the next two years.
For now, though, I've got nothing outside of the related, personal existential crisis broken down and expanded upon above.
. . .
Book Review: Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
Boy was this one a winner. Just a slap your knee when you're done and say "damn! I'm glad I took the time to read that!" Fantastic. I'm now much more interested in the history of the Native American conflicts with the early settlers, most notably the Texans of the 1700s and 1800s. The stories of battles, the history that took place in our very neighborhoods all over Texas are insane. I heard about it here on the boards. I actually believe it was @drunk randoke who had the suggestion. FIVE STARS. Read it or download it for an audiobook listen. (note: some subjects inappropriate for young children).
From the publisher:
S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moonspans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
. . .
Alex's Daily Short Reading List
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since the Daily Short has been in existence (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading start at 3.5 stars).
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
Woolly (3.25 stars)
Cathedral of the Wild (3.25 stars)
The North Water (3.25 stars)
A Beautiful, Terrible Thing (3 stars)
Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting (2 stars)
American Gods (2 stars)
The Graveyard Book (2 stars)
Stay Interesting (1 star)
presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Support the Short by supporting our sponsor - Give Wendy a call today!
A Confession:
I'm not looking forward to the day I finally see Hudson Card report to campus as a Texas Longhorn and it has nothing to do with him. I've actually been sort of dreading the day we first hear about a 2020 Longhorns commitment for years now. Hudson Card just happens to be the first.
The reason? It has nothing to do with football or the Longhorns or Card as a player or anything else remotely reasonable. You see, I've always had the 2020 recruiting class circled in my mind with bright-red marker as the one that will report to the San Jacinto dormitories at the same time I am 40 years old.
"Finally a man!" as Mike Gundy -- who will all of the sudden be 53 himself at that point -- might slap me on the back and exclaim jovially in the gruff but somehow fatherly way that only a football coach can.
Folks generally think I'm a little younger than I really am, especially in the sportswriting and radio space as I got such a late start. I didn't earn a cent talking about football until I was 29 in an industry where many hop in right out of college -- or even during in the cases of most of today's traditional journalists.
As a proud member of the "Oregon Trail" generation (which finds itself sandwiched somewhere between GenX's flannelspace and the various, much 'safer' spaces of the millennials), we were the mini-generation that lived only our formative years without the internet. I didn't have my first email address until I was in college and spent summers as a child gigging frogs in the creek or flipping over rocks with friends in hopes of spying a colorful coral snake.
"Remember, dude," we'd say to each other with the most serious expressions 8-year-olds could possibly muster, "red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black: friend of Jack." We'd cook crawfish in Coke cans by the creek (which I would never allow my own children to do for fear of some sort of poisoning), we'd play football in the street and yell "car!" when we had to allow one to pass. We'd ride our bikes until long after the sun went down without fear of anything nefarious.
In my own family's recent move to the Lake Travis ISD area, it isn't lost on me that it was made (in what is likely a futile attempt) by me to enable my own kids to have some semblance of similarity to the upbringing I benefitted so greatly from. Same sort of trees, hills, stones. Rivers and creeks, lots of cool birds.
The realist in me knows that is likely impossible. And "lots of cool birds?" Dear Lord, I'm turning into my parents. We can have the snakes under the rocks to pester and (presumably) the crawfish in the nearby creeks to pillage and consume like hobos -- but I'm not sure that society will ever go back to the days pre-dating the internet. It's just another sign of my own age creeping up on me faster than I ever imagined.
The good news about where all this intersects: I live super close to Lake Travis High School now and will have plenty of opportunities to figure out just what Hudson Card (the player who needs to be the bellcow recruiting figure of the 2020 class) is all about beginning soon, and then over the next two years.
For now, though, I've got nothing outside of the related, personal existential crisis broken down and expanded upon above.
. . .
Book Review: Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
Boy was this one a winner. Just a slap your knee when you're done and say "damn! I'm glad I took the time to read that!" Fantastic. I'm now much more interested in the history of the Native American conflicts with the early settlers, most notably the Texans of the 1700s and 1800s. The stories of battles, the history that took place in our very neighborhoods all over Texas are insane. I heard about it here on the boards. I actually believe it was @drunk randoke who had the suggestion. FIVE STARS. Read it or download it for an audiobook listen. (note: some subjects inappropriate for young children).
From the publisher:
S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moonspans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
. . .
Alex's Daily Short Reading List
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since the Daily Short has been in existence (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading start at 3.5 stars).
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
Woolly (3.25 stars)
Cathedral of the Wild (3.25 stars)
The North Water (3.25 stars)
A Beautiful, Terrible Thing (3 stars)
Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting (2 stars)
American Gods (2 stars)
The Graveyard Book (2 stars)
Stay Interesting (1 star)
