The FIRST Rule of Editing

In promulgating your esoteric cogitations or articulating your superficial sentimentalities and amicable, philosophical or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversational communications demonstrate a clarified conciseness, a compact comprehensibleness, no coalescent conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune bafflement and asinine affectations. Let your extemporaneous verbal evaporations and expatriations have lucidity, intelligibility and veracious vivacity without rodomontade or Thespian bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous propensity, psittaceous vacuity, ventriloquial verbosity and vaniloquent vapidity. Shun double-entendres, obnoxious jocosity and pestiferous profanity, observable or apparent.

In other words:

Say what you mean and DON'T USE BIG WORDS!

This is the first-ever rule of editing I got, from my father, years ago, before I knew I would be a writer.

It actually comes from the pages of his little black book. In the days before smart phones and such, heck, before transistor radios, men had little black books. Most used them to keep phone numbers for the gals they knew.

Not my dad.

He had jokes, lots of them. An occasional photo of an Air Force bud. Things like that.

And the above rule of editing.

Throughout my career, it has been a problem with most of the writers with whom I have worked.

Shared credit

In his latest column, which is carried by the Morning News of Florence, Michael Reagan, adopted son of the former president, tries to make the point that it is President Barack Obama's self-aggrandizing style and share-no-credit attitude that has kept him from, in his words, failing to accomplish anything in his entire life, not just his first term.

He asks;

Did you hear how many times the president said “I” or “me” during the last debate? Did anyone hear a single “we”?

Yes. I heard President Obama say the word “we” in the debate. So I checked a transcript. He used the word we.

19 times, actually. 

In answering the FIRST question. 

Some were the “royal” we, but all Presidential candidates do that. In fact, Gov. Romney did the same thing in his response to the President. Some were the collective we. Some it could truly function as an I or an us.

But there was one definitive, non-royal use of the word We by the president in that first response.

We stand with them, he said. The Libyan people are the “them.” The We? Not him.

The American people.

It is safe to say the president believes in sharing credit.

Mr. Reagan, too, is someone who definitely believes in the concept of shared credit. He’s built a career on it. That is, on him sharing credit with his father for the things his father did and he had no part in.

Football front

Waiting for Dabo

My work schedule is not conducive to being a Gamecock football fan. When I drove up, I lost the radio signal for the broadcast at about kickoff time, and had another 30 or so minutes to go. Couldn't watch much.
But a slight benefit is a Spartanburg station carries Clemson and it comes in the whole way, almost.
Nice on a night like tonight.
Was also listening after week one, when Will Merritt said, after beating the mighty Auburn Tigers, "I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but we are maybe looking at a team that can go 15-0."
After week one. After Auburn.
Anyway, tonight, the game ended, and it took me like 20 minutes at least to get to the car and put it on.
And Yanity said they were waiting for Dabo.
So they chit chat, said despite the result, there were still some good things to talk about.  Talk about some. Will says there so many good things, probably 50 plays to talk about. Then says, unfortunately FSU had 60 plays to brag about. Nice.
So Yanity says they are still waiting for Dabo.
Chit chat some more.
Merritt says the good things were so good that if you took away a couple of stalled drives and a couple of mistakes, Clemson "certainly" could have won this game. But, he says, unfortunately that is all "locked in time."
So, I think, Clemson would have won if they had only had a time machine. Poor Clemson.
Yanity says again that they are waiting for Dabo.
There is so much to report on what they said, but, unlike Godot, Dabo finally shows.
Don't know if this was during the interview or not, but another GREAT point they made was that, let's not forget FSU is a great team. They have threats at every position. Just like Clemson, they have awesome threats at EVERY position.
Will and Pete say hat Clemson actually got a taste of what they have been handing out (against Furman, Ball State and suck-ass Auburn) to others. And I think about that for a second and realize what they are REALLY saying. They are saying it is almost like Clemson played itself. And what a shame the other Clemson was SO good that it beat the real Clemson.
It is worth the listen. I recommend buying one, if you have the means. so choice.
So Dabo is devastated, and says he has told the team the "season starts next week." Can they win the ACC only playing seven games?
A big key is to put the loss behind them and "not let the loss beat you twice."
Dabo leaves, they pivot to player interviews and Tajh and the senior lineman they interviewed both talk, one at length, about not letting the loss beat you twice.
So guys. ...
If Clemson loses again, I'm waiting for Dabo.

DNC: IL delegate enjoys experience

http://www.carolinagatewayonline.com/content/il-delegate-enjoys-experience

This one might be the last I put up, but I might get just one more, if I can get through.

USC Sports: Calling out Coach Spurrier

I'm going to start this by saying that I believe, unequivocally, that Steve Spurrier is the best thing to happen to USC football since Joe Morrison laconically stalked the sidelines of Williams-Brice Stadium.
He has, to use a cliche, forgotten more about good football than I will even learn, and he has reshaped USC football into something that is feared by opposing teams at present, and perhaps will be feared for years to come. All things to be desiered, and he has delivered beyond the epectations of many.
But he said something that I cannot, in good conscience, let lie unchallenged.
A lot of fans bailed on the Gamecocks when they were up 21-0 at the half against East Carolina on Saturday.
He thought the fans should have stayed to the end, because there was a lot of football yet to be played.
I am generally one to stay to the last tick of the clock, and being a Gamecock, it has usually been a very bitter tick of the clock. I would tend to agree, though I have no idea how hot it was in Williams-Brice, nor if there was indeed a shortage of bottled water by the half.
But the way Spurrier said it bears challenging. He said he hoped Gamecock fans were not going to "return" to being one of those fan bases that shows up for a half and no matter what, heads off to party sometime around the beginning of the second half.
My USC experience began in 1984. I went with fellow students to the very first game of that storied year of Black Magic. So I was in the game when, USC trailing, told a friend, we need a "trick play, perhaps a halfback option pass," to get a quick score.
On the very next play, we had a trick play. A halfback option pass. For a quick score. We went up and went on to beat the Citadel. But that was in the fourth quarter of a packed Williams-Brice.
I didn't know much about football at the time, and to be honest, I was just trying to sound more informed than I was. I admit it was a lucky guess. But there was a lot of luck involved with USC that year.
In 1986, I remember sitting there, watching as time was almost near off the clock, in a game against Georgia, in which Coach Morrison was disputing a call that pretty much gave the game to the Bulldogs. It was odd, just standing there, for a LONG time, with an almost packed house, waiting for a reversal that never came. Coach Morrison kept the players on the field when Georgia guys were headed to the locker room.
I was there on a different night, in 1987, when we beat Clemson 20-7, the crowd just hazing Clemson QB Rodney Williams without mercy. I was doing that myself. Packed house. All night.
I was there under very different circumstances. In 1988, USC played Florida State, and the Seminoles must have been pissed about something. They shut us down completely on offense and roared over us on their offense. I think the final score was 59-0.
That was the first time I saw something: Fans leaving early. The performance on the field was pitiful, and I couldn't blame those who left, but I also couldn't join them.
We knew what ws going to happen and we had a little fun chanting, Jimmy Crack Corn.
"Jimmy Crack Corn, and I don't care, Jimmy Crack Corn, and I don't care, Jimmy Crack Corn, and I don't care .... We ain't gonna score tonight."
FSU was a perennial national powerhouse and we were breaking in a new quarterback. We weren't taunting our players, though they might have thought so. Just a grim acknowledgement that we weren't where we wanted to be.
But it was a first time. And it was a first of a few rare times. USC fans had a reputation for being among the best in the nation. Students caused the upper deck on the east side of the stadium to sway, and it became a catch phrase, instituted by our head coach. "If it ain't swaying, we ain't playing."
While Spurrier and Morrison have to my mind been the best things to happen to USC football since I have been a fan, the absolute worst thing, in the entire history of the program, was Brad Scott's tenure. It came to a head with me when I attended a game in 1998 where Mississippi State beat us 33-0 or 39-0.
And that's the second time I really saw it. USC fans left en masse, starting in the middle of the third quarter.
I was sitting in the new South Upper stands. I had binoculars and I trained them on the sidelines. The players were laughing it up, having a grand old time. They did not care. In that instance, I almost bolted myself. If the players don't care, why should I?
But I had my own reasons for caring. I was a graduate of USC and loved the Gamecocks.
I thought then that Brad Scott had to go. Depsite winning our first bowl under him, I never much cared for him.
That was the second time in following the Gamecocks in 14 years where I had seen a mass exodus of fans, early. While I agreed not with those who did it, both times, I could understand.
Lou Holtz was hired and gave us some initial success. He was then followed by Coach Spurrier, who turned us around. I pray that, whenever he leaves, the success he has brought has been institutionalized.
Both Spurrier, to some small extent, and Holtz, to a much greater extent, thought they had to teach the fans how oto be fans. While I think they were right to beat out and kill any "traditions' inside the locker room that might have cost us over the years, USC is a program rich in tradition and history.
The only thing it has lacked over the years has been winning, which can be laid at the foot of the many, many coaches we have had over the years. When we had a small moment of success, it was not sustained.
Through it all, we have had an extremely loyal fan base who have been with the team through thick and a lot of thin over the years, almost always, to the very bitter end. Only in extreme provocation have fans bailed out early on the team. That is NOT something in our history. Not never, but not often. Just once or twice. I believe fans bailed on the Gamecocks when Clemson beat us 63-17. We honestly weren't trying for some reason, that year under Coach Holtz.
The one thing USC has been known for, forever, Coach Spurrier, is a fanatical and absolutely loyal fan base. On occasion, we have bailed on our team. But it has been so rare an occurence to my mind that it just isn't in us.
I don't know why the fans bailed Saturday. I wouldn't have, had I been there.
But don't sell us short. It's not in our nature.
Lastly, I haven't been to many home games in a while. Tickets are too expensive for my family's tight budget. But I have heard some reports of fans leaving early since a certain fellow from Tennessee took over. Not a lot of fans. But a noticeable amount of fans.
Some of the fans have been eager for success so we can be like all those other big time programs.
But real USC fans are like the ones who were there for you when you beat No. 1 Alabama. They were there from the opening kickoff to the happy end. They were loud and raucous and helped the team  be at the Crimson Tide.
Those are the same fans who were there in a raucous game against Alabama when Coach Holtz stalked the sidelines. I was in the west upper for that game, and I could swear the stands were swaying, just a little. The score kept trading back and forth, but QB Phil Petty prevailed. Being up there for THAT Alabama game made me recall all the games I went to as a student at USC, when the upper deck swayed to the beat of "Louie, Louie."
Saturday, coach, was not the true USC fan base.
I appreciate your time, hope you reach the 200-win mark on Saturday and add at least 11 more this season, if not more. But whatever mark you and the Gamecocks reach, I am proud of you all.

A bunch of overachievers: More reflections on 1984 (and 1969)

Starting offensive linemen for the 1984 Black Magic squad -- a bunch of overachievers.

The Chief raised his arms to a sparse pregame crowd, ran away from the circle of his fellow teammates, and shouted.

Wildly pumping his left arm, punching it twice as if he was celebrating another many bone-crushing tackle, he yelled to the crowd, “Get UP.” Some did.

But it’s a new Carolina, one different from the days when a wild man, a butt-kicker named Kevin “The Chief” Hendrix prowled the field at Williams-Brice Stadium and made opposing offenses pay.

He was in black, wearing his old No. 98. Even though the hair was gray, he’s a still a giant. How much bigger would he be if he suited up in full pads and helmet?

He was one of about 40 members of the 1984 Black Magic squad, the team with the best-ever record in USC history, to take the field before kickoff on the 25^th anniversary of the epochal season.

His on the field antics Saturday night begged the question: Is the defensive end with a reputation for hitting hard might still a wild man?

“No,” he said. “I’ve got a ballcap that says, ‘Ex Wildman,’ on it.”

But he obviously thought somebody needed to be shown a thing or two.

He wasn’t the only one.

Members of the 1969 championship Gamecocks, including quarterback Tommy Suggs (12) and Tommy Simmons (34).

Tommy Simmons stood on the sidelines in a plain garnet jersey, with only No. 34 written on it. He was watching Spencer Lanning, bedecked in all-garnet uniform, with a fancy, striped  jersey that said “Carolina” on the front, “Lanning” on the back, also wearing No. 34

Lanning was practicing punts.

“Don’t be giving this number a bad name,” he shouted.

Simmons, of Buffalo, S.C., was a fullback on the 1969 Gamecock squad. The team went 7-4 that year, but was a perfect 6-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It remains to this day the only conference title in the football team’s history.

Not quite the wildman that Hendrix was, Simmons went and stood by the kid who now bore his number, smiling widely.

There have been many changes at Williams-Brice Stadium since Simmons was in the backfield.

Two upper decks have been added to the east and west stands. There are significant changes even since when Hendrix played. The South “Zone” has been added, upping the capacity. But the pregame crowd in the stands was probably the smallest crowd he’d ever seen at Williams-Brice.

It was probably the biggest crowd the 1969 crowd ever saw in the stadium too.

They were supposed to move to their seats after the ceremony, but most stayed around. The 1984 guys wanted to see it again. The 1969 guys prepared to see, and hear, something they never had back then.

2001.

Ken Wheat stood by old friend Dickie Harris, still in the USC record books as one of the most prolific return men to field a punt or a kickoff.

The listened, looked up, and at the appropriate place, threw their arms up.

“Unbelievable,” said Harris. “If you can’t get fired up by that, than nothing will. It’s something to behold.”

Former USC defensive back Dickie Harris listens as 2001 is played over the Williams-Brice Stadium loudspeakers and phones it on his cell to family. He is still a record-holder for returns at USC.

The guy who brought 2001 to the USC loudspeakers and made it the most exciting 2:31 minutes of  “awesome,”  n college football, the 1984 head coach, Joe Morrison, wasn’t there.

He died in 1989 of a heart attack. But he was represented.

His daughter Lisa was among those joining the players. She was flocked by the 1984 offensive line on the field.

“Your Dad loved us best,” one said.

They still have camaraderie, as if they see each other and drill each week.

“You’re always freaking late,” one said to another as they lined up for a picture at Gate 12 before taking the field.

USC shifted the guards and tackles a bit back when coach Frank Sadler was running the veer here.

“Is it a left formation or a right formation?” one asked.

“It’s a wide formation,” another joked.

Del Wilkes (62), Bill Barnhill (67), Jim Walsh (77), Carl Womble (57) and Tommy Garner (55) surrounded Lisa as if she was a quarterback calling a play.

Walsh, now a football coach in Hinesville, Ga. says he wouldn’t trade his experience at USC for anything.

“This was a great place to play football,” he said.

There were no stars on the 1984 he said.

“Just a bunch of over-achievers,” he said.  They tend to avoid taking much individual credit. They played like a team throughout the year.

Actually, just a few days earlier, one of the quarterbacks he and his linemates had protected, gave guys like him credit for the season.

Most of them were seniors, and they gave leadership to the team, former USC quarterback Mike Hold said.

Walsh got to see some great things. His career ended with 1984, but he played under not just Morrison, but Coach Jim Carlen.  He got to help George Rogers win the Heisman Trophy in 1980.

“It was a great time, a great period,” he said.

When asked for his personal best achievement in 1984, he couldn’t even do that.

He laid a trap block, but it was part of a double team effort to contain Clemson’s star defensive end, William “The Fridge” Perry. The effort helped the Gamecocks cut Clemson’s lead and eventually win the season ender to go 10-1 in the regular season.

Frank Sadler, the wizard of the veer, offensive coordinator in 1984.

They players were special, said Frank Sadler, the offensive coordinator in 1984. He’s still known as the wizard of the veer. He had a visit from Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson at Sadler’s Troy, Ala., home, where they shared offensive philosophy.

Johnson is running it more as a three-back set, “where we ran a two-back set,” but it’s that same veer.

“We lost just that one game,” Sadler said. “I wish we hadn’t, because we would have played for the national championship. But sometimes, it isn’t in the cards.”

The players said they appreciated the ceremony and the efforts of the Athletics Department to remember the teams.

One of the reasons the university hasn’t excelled over the years, they said, was the lack of tradition.

Even they mistake USC’s history on the field. There isn’t much history of winning, but there is also not a complete lack of such traditions.

Ira Hillary, who wore the No. 1 jersey for USC for years, a star receiver for both USC and later in the pros for the Cincinnati Bengals, who has a nephew on the USC squad right now, said USC honored the 1984 squad five years ago, and that was special. But this was different. This was better.

This time, they brought both winning teams together at the same time. Putting both squads on the field at the same time was significant.

“It was great to see those champions,” Hillary said.

In the center, in garnet sport coat, Paul Dietzel, head coach of the 1969 ACC champion Gamecock squad.

Almost a hundred men who wore the garnet and black took the field together, the only ones in the football programs who can make a claim. They were the first. They did something special, something no one else had ever done before.

The ones in garnet won a conference title.

They got ACC championship rings as well as a Peach Bowl ring, though few wore them Saturday.

“Most of us have a hard time getting into the rings any more, “ said Dave Lucas, a defensive end on the ’69 squad. “The jerseys too.”

The ones in black won the most games ever won by Gamecocks. They were the best winners ever on field.

There’s not much tradition at USC — no one can deny that. But a lack of tradition?

These guys prove it. This program has its history. More than one group has done things no one else had done.

The problem is, no one has done it since.