Conference 7.286::sports_90

    While we're at it...how bout remembering some ex-sports_noters.
    
    e.g.
    
    CRUNCH::CATALANO
    TURBO::CONTROL
    BTO::ARSENAULT (a.k.a. Mr. Boston)
    CASO
    
    And of course....The Bible of Boxing
    
    JoJ
    
    ps: and all the read only noter Jets fans.

    Nice touch, Dinz.
    
    Got me thinking of both my folks, who've been gone for over 15 years
    now.
    
    Not all heroes are vets, not all vets are heroes.  So, here's to
    all our deceased heroes, be they Moms, Dads, Sons, Daughters, friends,
    neighbors, acquaintances, classmates, someone we knew vaguely, or
    total strangers.  Thanks for all you did, and if you knew you were
    making the supreme sacrifice and still chose to do so, then a thank
    you certainly isn't adequate.  But, that's about all I can offer.
    
    And here's hoping that the holiday will go by without reading that
    somewhere in this land of ours someone desecrated/vandalized a cemetery.
    
    Lee
    

    re. JoJ thanking all the read only noter Jets fans.....
    
    *HE* said to tell you thanks....:-)
    
    ClayBroon

    On a sad note, I read an article concering the black market for
    Vietnam MIA bones.  Seems that there were (alledgedly, I think)
    pamphlets dropped after the war (or doing) saying that a Million
    Dollar reward would be given to those who found and turned in the
    bones of a MIA.  Seems that in Vietnam, a black market developed,
    where people have actually bought and sold real bones, where black
    marketeers have vandalized cemetaries in order to try to get bones
    to pass off as MIA bones, and in some cases dog bones and other
    bones have been used.  A large market in counterfeit dog tags exists
    also.  
    
    To have soldiers who are still listed as MIA's is a tough thing
    to deal with, especially for their families, but to think their
    bones may be being bought and traded is disturbing, at least to
    me.
    
    JD

A long time ago this country was founded on the principals of Life, 
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  Throughout the course of
our history, very often those freedoms have been challenged.

When that happened, men and women were called upon to defend those
freedoms, and our way of life.  You all know that there is no freedom
without a price.  Sometimes the debt must be paid with blood.

They came from all over, much like we do here in SPORTS.  Some came
from New England dairy farms, others came from the vast flat plains
where corn and wheat are grown.  Still others came from steamy Southern
bayous, and from the far flung west coast.   To each other, perhaps
they sounded like they talked funny.  Southern drawls, and thick
Maine accents mingled with the flatter speech of the mid-westerners.
Some came from the city, some came from places with buildings that
weren't over two stories....but they all came.

They fought in places like Okinawa, the Phillipines, Guadalcanal,
Normandy, the Ardennes, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sahn, Da Nang and
Hue.  The wars were different, the weapons may have been different,
but the common denominator was that freedom was at stake, there was
fighting, and dying, to be done.

When I think of Memorial Day, I think of a day last year when I stood
on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach.  I think of the nearly ten thousand
white marble crosses and Stars of David stretching out behind me on
a deep green, manicured lawn.  I think of the men who'd never come
home, return to work, or hug their loved ones.

I also think of standing before a black marble monument in Washington
DC, reading name, after name, after name, after name.  I remember finding
names that friends asked me to look for, and I remember one, Lt Col Russell
P Hunter, shot down 10 February 1966, who hailed from my home town, and
is Missing in Action.

I'm sitting here writing this today because of men and women like those
I've mentioned.  That I can write, and say openly what I feel is tribute
to those who paid the price for that freedom with the Supreme Sacrifice.

Lest we not forget....

>    ps: and all the read only noter Jets fans.
    
    yeah happy holiday to BOTH of you!

    I'd also like to add my respect to those veterans that payed the
    ultimate price for our country.
    
    Also to those loved ones we've all lost somewhere along the line.  
    And as I've mentioned in this file before, my deepest sympathies go 
    to parents that have had the unfortunate disaster of losing a child. 
    Strength of the highest magnitude, is required to carry on after such 
    a loss. 
    
    					Steve

    .5
    
    AMEN.
    
    mp

Re: .5

Great note, 'Saw.  You've got my vote for NOTY

Mike

>They came from all over, much like we do here in SPORTS.  Some came
>from New England dairy farms, others came from the vast flat plains
>where corn and wheat are grown.  Still others came from steamy Southern
>bayous, and from the far flung west coast.   To each other, perhaps
>they sounded like they talked funny.  Southern drawls, and thick
>Maine accents mingled with the flatter speech of the mid-westerners.
>Some came from the city, some came from places with buildings that
>weren't over two stories....but they all came.
    
    For some reason, this reminded me of Biloxi Blues.  A movie worth
    seeing (IMHO) on or before Mem Day.  
    
    Best line: "It's hard to believe these guys had mothers who were
    worried about them."
    
    	--dan'l
    

    'Saw -
    
    Every once in a while, when the chips are down and it's really
    important, what you say has power and grace and beauty.
    
    Thanks.
    
    A&W

    And to think that 'Saw, one of the most excellent egriwhateverious and
    righteous junk noters that this file has ever seen, was almost chased
    away by the anti-junks several hundred notes ago.  What a shame it'd
    been had stuff like .5 and 30.91(?) never been written.......
    
    Chainsaw, I'm damn BLAM glad you work for DEC, but what the hell are
    you doing here?
    
    H�wk

    H'a'w'k
    
    Wifout a cdoubt, S'aw is the strangest engineer I've ever run across.
    
    JD

    JD, your joke in the Baseball note about Hoover really sucked.
    
    Mark.

    hey Lufay, I got just the joke for you.  Wait a couple minutes, and
    I'll post it in another note.....
    
    H.

    I think there IS some truth to that rumor that ChainSaw really is KO's
    son.  He monitors how many notes the rest of us enter per day and how
    much time we spend in SPORTS.  He replies with these bard-like,
    emotion-tapping notes that force our hands to write as I'm doing now.
    
    At the end of the month, he delivers a compilation report to his dad. 
    It details who we are, how much time we spent in notes, how many phone
    calls we made to the SkyDome reservation desk, etc.
    
    My other theory is that Saw IS Uncle Ken and he shares the same passion
    for SPORTS and 'shroom induced prose as the rest of us.  He just
    doesn't think it becoming of a CEO to sit around all day and junk note.  
    
    If you are KO, Saw, how'd you like that matching gift I sent to 
    the "Bald-Headed Corporate Presidents of Companies that Begin with 'D'
    and Employ the Most Talented Junk Noters in the World Fund?"
    
    	--dan'l
    
    	--dan'l

Well, getting serious for a moment, I'm not KO, or even his 10 year
old son....

I don't keep stats on who's in here how much because a) others have
done that before and b) I'm probably in here more than anyone else, 
mainly because it's my form of therapy, in a way.

Because I am a pretty private person, a lot of the time what people
see on the outside is the comic, the clown, the sarcastic side of
me.  Very few people know what's beyond that on the inside.

I do my fair share of junk noting (don't I ever) but when I feel seriously
about something, I take it seriously.  

Memorial Day is something I've always held sacred.  One of my favorite
things was playing TAPS at the ceremony held on the Town green in
Glastonbury, during the 4 years I was in the HS band.

My dad and uncle both served in WWII, and I have friends who were in
'Nam.  For all the joking around that I do, one of the things that
has always struck me dead seriously is the fact that because of 
others who served, I have never had the necessity of finding out if I could
die with as much courage as the people who we remember on Memorial
Day.

So, being serious and solemn about it, I wrote a serious note.

I'm glad it touched so many of you.  That makes me feel good.

thanks,
frank

    "Saw, that note wasn't plagiarized from "The BESTED NOTES OF RCASO"
    now, was it?
    
    NAZZ

� When I think of Memorial Day, I think of a day last year when I stood
� on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach.  I think of the nearly ten thousand
� white marble crosses and Stars of David stretching out behind me on
� a deep green, manicured lawn.  I think of the men who'd never come
� home, return to work, or hug their loved ones.

   	In Flanders Field the poppies grow
   	between the crosses, row on row.

   Waytago, Frank
   You got soul, my man!

   Mike JN

    'Saw, thanks for your touching comments.  I am not an American but
    share the sorrow and admiration that you feel for those who made
    the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
    
    I am only 27 years old, yet have been through four wars.  My father
    works for the United Nations so we were usually stationed in the
    world's troublespots.  The reality of war is so different than the
    movies that it is impossible to decsribe the feeling of devastation
    and loss of life.  To the victor go the spoils, but the price is
    very often someone's father, brother, or husband.
    
    I remember being in Israel during the invasion of Lebanon and seeing
    kids my age riding off to fight for their country. They did not
    agree with what they were doing, but it was their country so off
    they went.  Most came back but some paid the ultimate price leaving
    friends and families behind.
    
    In summary, be thankful for what you have because someone thaught
    it was worth dying for.

    Yeah, thanks, Frank,
    I think you have a clue.  I will be carrying our American Legion Post's
    colors in our parade on Memorial Day, 30 May.  Here in New Hampshire,
    the day has been perpetuated by our Governor's veto of a bill to make
    New Hampshire follow the Federal Holiday(three-day weekend).  He
    received a letter from the American Legion's National Commander
    congratulating him for his stand.  Memorial Day was instituted as
    either the last mustering-out of a Union soldier or as a day that was
    sure to guarantee that flowers would be in bloom all across this Great
    land of ours.  I like either story.  I served in the USAF from 1962 to
    1965, the Vietnam Era, so declared by Congress.
    
    		Again, thanks, Frank.
    
    			   Tom