flightless hag

A chronicle of the adventures of birdwoman: a lonely, talentless freak who wanders the internet in search of entertainment.

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Location: Philly

I'm a 40-something married white female, survivor of weight watchers, avid reader of pulp. Dogs (not cats), extreme right (handed, not politics), ENTJ, alto, wanna-be knitter.

January 27, 2012

waaay too early...

Was yesterday a holiday, and I missed it? I mean, I'm generally pretty clueless, but...

The lady at the train stop reeked of old beer and cigs, evidence of heavy celebration last e'en
The boys at the next train were all effusing eau de Mary Jane, if you gather my meaning. But again, it was old...
And the dude on the last train was sippin from a 40 - hair of the tail of the dog that bit him, I suppose.

And here I am, recovering from my full evening of sleep. Crashed at 7:30 last night. And I'm not sick. Physically, that is. I remember my mom and kids listening to wheel of morons (see below), and that's it. 4:30 came, as it usually does, and with the rain, I stayed in until 5.

So, these partiers must have been celebrating the fact that I got sleep. After all, the world is hag-o-centric, if you didn't know.


My mom has been having a hard time with this Joe Paterno thing. She doesn't believe that the Jerry guy did anything, but if he did, it was certainly with teenage, almost adult, young men, who probably were in agreement to do whatever he wanted them to do.

Evil like what that dude did does not compute in her mind. She simply cannot believe it happened.

She believes with her whole mind and heart that JoePa did not do anything wrong - that he was utterly blameless in the whole debacle, and was hounded to his death. She is absolutely grieving for this man, this football coach, this "hero."

Don't get me wrong. I don't have a horse in this race. As a Temple alumnus, I have very little understanding of the whole JoePa phenomenon, though I acknowledge that he seems to have been a good man and a great coach. He almost certainly made a bad decision with the pedophile-in-his-ranks thing. He almost certainly was a victim of scapegoat syndrome.

I do find it rather hypocritical that the press villified Paterno for weeks - practically calling for his head when the scandal came out, and gloating when he got fired. Now, they're suffering from a kind of buyers remorse. I don't think the people of Pennsylvania will forget that these reporters who are lionizing Paterno during the week of his funeral were the same ones to lambast the man for not turning over a third-hand report of possible (probable) evil-doings.

Meanwhile, my mother is going through grief for this man she never met, but who somehow seems to have meant the world to her. So if you know her, give her a call. She's feeling pretty down this week.

And now, I have to grade papers. Joy! Happy friday!

(*)>

6 Comments:

Anonymous kid#6 said...

Mom was recovering from her surgery when this all went down. She got pretty upset over it then (and did not believe anything happened.) She got VERY upset with me when I agreed with JoePa's firing and that I said that I not only believed the accusations, I told her that the whole PSU thing probably encouraged it. As you know, I am a grad of Penn State and other than the 'degree' providing me with the 'in' to a fairly successful vocation, the pro-GBLT, pro-diversity, pro-this, pro-that, except "don't you dare be pro-USA or you might offend someone" garbage has allowed the 'anything goes' crowd to infiltrate not just the academia, but the BOT as well. They reaped what they had sown (or whatever the saying is.)

Therefore (and apologies for the rant and the structure which would make Ms. Boote(sp?) cringe) I probably would not be a good candidate to call her (but will still make the usual Sunday call.)

January 27, 2012 8:44 AM  
Blogger junewilliams7 said...

If wishes were horses, I wish that JoePa had accompanied his assistant coach to the police, let the police deal with things. Had it been JoePa's own child or grandchild who had been raped in the shower, would JoePa have sacrificed his own child for the football team?

January 27, 2012 9:10 PM  
Blogger birdwoman said...

Well, Johnny, she's got blinders about this, like other things. She simply can't see it any other way, and it is what it is.

I did manage to get her to church today, because Mary Perfect told her she should go (lol just kidding mary), and now she's saying she should go more often. Maybe because she wants me to go. I don't know. But I guess we're going back next week! Man, and I was used to sleeping in.

(*)>

January 29, 2012 1:21 PM  
Blogger birdwoman said...

June, I'm totally with you on that. I can't understand why NO ONE is talking about those poor kids. But that is the way of it. He's got a cult of personality going on - it reminds me of when Michael Jackson died. And it's funny, Mom was IRATE about how people called MJ a hero when he was dead. Granted, Joe Pa was a great coach and wasn't the weirdo that MJ was, but he was still a man. Not a god.

(*)>

January 29, 2012 1:22 PM  
Anonymous bigsis said...

Well, I must be one of the far-from-perfect crazies who respected and admired Joe Paterno, appreciated all that he and his wife have done for Penn State, and was truly inspired by the wonderful stories of the way he lived his life that have been circulating these last few weeks.
Of course I find the crimes against these children completely heinous, and the villains absolutely deserve punishment. I don’t believe, however, that Joe Paterno was the villain. Maybe naïve, but I don’t think he would knowingly have covered up such an atrocity – not that I knew him personally, but it just doesn’t fit with everything else we know about him.
I don’t mean to argue – I learned long ago that I am no match for any of the other 7. Just my 2 cents.

February 03, 2012 9:19 AM  
Blogger birdwoman said...

Mary, you're welcome to think the guy was great. Like I said, I know next to nothing about him, except he wore the same winning pants a lot.

I find it strange that the Philly papers, who crucified the guy back in October, spent two weeks making him into a god. And they really did - I haven't seen such positive press since they were pushing for Obama to be elected.

I still think they're trying to pacify the Paterno fans because they feel guilty that they got Paterno drummed out on a rail.

(*)>

February 05, 2012 7:08 PM  

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