Celebrate Wisconsin's 164th Year as a State!

Cheesehead Lighthouse

Today I want to fill you in on some stuff about one of my favorite places in the Lower 48 - America's Dairyland,Wisconsin.

I spent a couple of months in Wisconsin about 25 years ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday. What a beautiful place with some great people. Great people including my very good friend Kevin who lives near the Mississippi River not far from La Crosse. Wisconsin is also home to my favorite NFL team, the 13-Time World Champions, Green Bay Packers! No, I am not a fair weather fan. I have been a Cheesehead for over fifty years, so I don't want to hear any guff from you guys, OK?  :)

Continued here...

Texas Tidbits: NFL Playoffs and a Dodger

Champion

Today in the NFL, two teams will be going to the Super Bowl, while the losing teams start planning for next season. On the schedule for today are Green Bay and Chicago playing at Soldier Field in Chi-town for the NFC Title while in the AFC, the New York Jets, fresh off a big win on the road at New England will be playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, lucky that the Baltimore Ravens folded like a cheap suit in the second half last week, in the Steel City. My picks: Green Bay's offense is hitting on all cylinders heading into Chicago, so I am going with the Pack in this one. The Jets beat up the Patriots, specifically Tom Brady, and came up big when they needed it. The Steelers are the better team, but I'm picking the J-E-T-S to pull off a big upset here. Book it. The Packers and Jets will square off in Dallas for the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl  XLV, with Green Bay winning its 13th World Championship.

Because Toby said so.

Since we are talking about the NFL, the Super Bowl and the fact that the game will be played in Cowboys' Stadium, I want to remind you of a man who was a Heisman Trophy Winner and a Super Bowl Champion. This man took the Dallas Cowboys to five Super Bowls, winning two of them and was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States Naval Academy, Number 12, Roger "The Dodger" Staubach! In spite of the fact that I grew up in a suburb of Dallas, I have never been a Cowboys fan, but I have long-admired the excellence they took to field of play. I can think of no one that better epitomizes commitment to excellence and the drive and determination that it takes to be a Champion than Roger Staubach. Want to know what makes a winner? Staubach led his team to 23 game-winning drives (15 comebacks) in the fourth quarter, with 17 of these coming in the last two minutes.(from Wikipedia) That is what makes a winner. Winners make plays in the Big Game  that will forever live in the minds of fans and players. Plays so miraculous that they are labeled with Holy names. Hail Mary, anyone? All the accolades and awards staubach won during his football career are mere knick knacks when compared to praise like this: ""Roger Staubach might be the best combination of a passer, an athlete and a leader ever to play in the NFL".The source of that quote? A man who should know about such things. Thomas Wade Landry. Who could argue with that?

Texas Tidbits : Thomas Wade Landry

Any football fan worth his salt knows the name of the first coach of the Dallas Cowboys. The word "legend" is over-used on most occasions, but Tom Landry is a Legend, with a capital "L". He is the third winningest coach in NFL history with 270 lifetime wins, 2 Super Bowl Titles, 13 Division Titles, 20 consecutive winning seasons, an NFL record that may never be broken, a record 20 playoff wins and two Coach of the Year Awards. The man was a star player for the New York Giants and before that was a defensive stand out for the University of Texas. To bestow
"Legend" status on Tom Landry simply because of his achievements in football would be insulting to a great man off the field as well. Landry joined the Army Air Forces in World War II and as wikipedia.com tells us,"Landry earned his wings and a commission as a Second Lieutenant at Lubbock Army Air Field, and was assigned to the 493d Bombardment Group at RAF Debach, England, as a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber co-pilot in the 860th Bomb Squadron. From November 1944 to April 1945, he completed a combat tour of 30 missions, and survived a crash landing in Belgium after his bomber ran out of fuel." Thomas Wade Landry was a True Texan, a man forged of a hotter fire. He was also a devout Christian and was a not ashamed to say so when asked about it, but he was not one to push his religious beliefs on others. Coach Landry demanded excellence and dedication from his players and coaching staff, but he also demanded the same, if not more, of himself. The stoic man you see in the photo above is of a Coach who not only set records in the NFL, but left a lasting impression on many of the men who played for him as well as just plain old folks who came into contact with him in daily life. Quick story : my sister wanted to give her then-husband a special gift for his birthday one year, an autographed football from the Dallas Cowboys. She called the Cowboys' office in Dallas and set up an appointment. When she got there, she was invited into Coach Landry's office, where he talked to her for a few minutes then handed her an NFL football signed by the Dallas Cowboy players and Coach Tom Landry. That's the Tom Landry I know about. And before you get the idea that I am a fanboi  of the Cowboys, stop right there. I am 54 years old and have been a Green Bay Packers fan for almost 50 years.I salute Tom Landry not as a Coach, but as a Man. A good, decent man of Faith. Football is secondary considering the Man.

It's the Sabbath Edition (Or Toby is a Lazy MoFo)

• It's Sunday! That means it's the Sabbath and "thou shalt keep the Sabbath holy" That's means go to Church and pray the Priest, Preacher, whatever guy, keeps the sermon short so you can make it home to watch the NFL. Amen. Today is the first full weekend of the NFL's 2010 season!  In Texas, that's means the Dallas Cowboys. The Pokes open on the road in Washington, D.C.and will commence to stomp a mud hole in the Redskins. Here in New England, Tom Terrific (I think I threw up in my mouth a little for saying that) and the Boys of Boston play host and will beat the bejeezus out of the Cincinnati Bengals featuring that whirling dervish, Chad Ocho Cinco (which means eight five, not eighty-five, 85 would be ochenta y cinco). As for the third member of our Three States Plus One Triumvirate, Colorado, the Denver Broncos travel southeast to Jacksonville to tackle the Jaguars. On the subject of jaguars, the word is pronounced "jag wahrs, NOT "jag wires". It's chaps my ass when some goofball calls them the "jag wires". For God's sake, get some Hooked on Phonics or some shit and learn to talk! For the remainder of the NFL schedule click here. Have fun, be safe and don't drink and drive (you might hit a bump and spill some).

Here are some of the most popular posts from the last few weeks. After all, you can't get too much of a good thing. Right Right? 

• This post about Buddy Holly was a big hit (pun intended) with readers from all around the world.
• The undisputed most popular Maine Minutiae post was the one about my wife is beating me. 
• I turned a bit philosophical when I wrote about fishing in the Rockies.

 Thanks to all of you again as this tiny blog continues to grow like a weed. According to blog-ranking service Alexa, here's the latest :

• Alexa Traffic Rank: 2,590,028
   
• Traffic Rank in US
   
  : 123,870

A few weeks ago we were at #17,9xx,xxx. As of yesterday, Three States Plus One was ranked 2,590,028 in the world! And in the USA  we ranked 123,870 ! Sure, I'd love those numbers to be much better, but considering what has happened here in less than three months, is nothing short of phenomenal. We are also approaching our 4000th page impression. For comparison's sake, it was only three weeks ago that we hit #2500, and that took two and a half months. God has blessed me with a great group of readers from, literally all over the world. This blog has been read in thirty-eight states in the US and twenty-one foreign countries, our latest being India (must be some AOL phone support people) and Denmark. If such a thing interests you as it does me, click on the "Flag Counter" display about half way down the page on the right. It will give you a few facts and figures about our readership. You guys keep me going and trying to get better at this blogging thing every day. For that, I thank you. God bless you all and Adios, y'all!

Toby

Texas Tidbits : Are You Ready? NFL Edition

Here It Comes !*

Are you ready for some footbaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllll?  (in my best Howard Cosell voice) "There's only eleven days until the kickoff of the two... thousand ten... season of  the...National....Football....League!" Yup, it's that time of year when we fondly remember our summer vacations, curse the Dog Days of August, lament the annual rite that is the Texas Rangers as cellar-dwelling has beens in the American League West....Wait!...The Rangers are in first place with a comfortable lead over Oakland? Pardon me a minute while I   have "The Big One" a la Fred G. Sanford. (time passes) The kind folks at the Maine General ER, Red Sox fans all (eat the Rangers' dust Sawx fans everywhere!), said that I had a case of "What-the-hell-are-the-Rangers-doing in-1st-place-going into-September-itis" and "It's-football-season-atosis", a very rare disorder - rare simply because the Rangers are in first place heading into September. They told me to take one season opener and call them next week. Speaking of season openers...(they don't call me the Swami of Segue for nothing) The season kicks off on Thursday, September 9, with the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints (I already had a Big One for that) hosting (insert more Howard Cosell voice here) "Numba Fo-wa, "The Brilliant One" from Kiln, Mississippi, Brett Fahve and the Vikings of Minnesota at the Supah Dome in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Big Easy, New...Or...leans...Louisiana!" The Saints are currently at 10-1 odds to win the Super Bowl again, according to the Las Vegas Hilton. Minnesota, along with Dallas and my team, Green Bay, are listed at 12-1, while Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts sit at 6-1. We'll see how all that prognostication holds up throughout the season, say late November or so. The Dallas Cowboys open on the road in D.C. against their hated rivals, the Redskins, on the 12th and that game will be in prime time on NBC. Here's the entire regular season schedule from NFL.com . The crisp autumn air is slowly but surely making it's way southward and not soon enough for me because I am ready for some footbaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllll !

Photo from fanpop.com