Throwing out the HIP

A seven-year old who knows me pretty well asked me if Santa brought me just one present this Christmas, what would it be.

I thought about the usual politically correct answers like world peace and ending hunger. But I knew he was looking for a real answer. I told him what I really wanted. 

"A Rose Bowl win for the Ducks," I said. He smiled and nodded.

This is the third time in as many years that we in Oregon can walk into most any store and find Duck shirts showing off the BCS Bowl game they are ATTENDING, PARTICIPATING in. It's that Certificate of Attendance that you get when that was about all you accomplished.

One of the latest Rose Bowl shirts. This reminds me of what happens
 when I mess with the margins and tabs too much in MS Word.

Last year, shirts and hats everywhere told the story that Oregon was in the National Championship. And after Auburn won, that same Natty gear was marked down half price. You could still own something saying the Ducks participated in the National Championship.

I remember staring at those shirts thinking that right now, an Auburn fan is in Louisiana looking at a shirt that reads 'National Champions'.  Ours say 'National Championship'. I stared at those last three letters . . . 'ChampionsHIP'.

Maybe I can take a felt marker and cross out the 'HIP'. After a few years, no one remembers who won. I could get away with it.

I know. Pathetic.



This one is cute.
But someone didn't get the memo that
 the Ducks haven't huddled in three years.

Every Duck fan I've talked to this year feels the same way. It's time to win one. It's time to put a better ending on one of these fantastic seasons.
You know what it's like?  It's like the Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" -- my all time favorite movie next to "Starship Troopers".

The most frequent criticism of it was that in the end, Old Man Potter got away with his crime of taking and hiding the $8000. There was no vindication or retribution. Bailey didn't get any justice over Potter. 

So it goes, the thought of watching the Ducks face another tough opponent in a third consecutive BCS game is like watching Wonderful Life every December and thinking, "Just once I would like to see Bailey kick the crap out of Potter."

So I leave you with this, Duck fans. Here's to changing the ending and making it right. . . . . 


I wish you the happiest of holidays. May all of your wishes (and especially one of them) come true.

Oh, and by the way, it's always good to wish for world peace and ending hunger any time.
--KB