Rainy Days and Mondays
Musings on a Rainy Monday
First things first, you don’t want to piss this guy off:

Hobby Lobby got caught dealing in the fraudulent buying of religious antiquities. Of course, this being Hobby Lobby, the Christian Dominionist company based in Tulsa, they got away with it because they’re Hobby Lobby and we’re not.
Just last week, the retail chain settled a $3-million dollar civil suit, as well as agreeing to forfeit 5,500 artifacts the company purchased through the years, many procured from figures and shipped under false document.
Steve Green, the son of the founder, said the company was “new to the world of acquiring these items, and did not fully appreciate the complexities of the acquisitions process.” He added that “regrettable mistakes” were made and that he should have “exercised more oversight.”
“Regrettable mistakes.” Must be nice to pay off a regrettable mistake with a $3 million check to the Justice Department. Heck the time I made a “regrettable mistake,” I ended up homeless and bankrupt. Must be nice to have low friends in high office.
In their overly avaricious pursuit of Biblical antiquities, Hobby Lobby might have been dealing with a few less-than-reputable folks in Iraq. The artifacts, 5,500 in all, had a fraudulent Turkish address and, in an ironic twist, might have funded Daesh, aka ISIL/ISIS.
It is unknown how much the Green family paid for these Biblical artifacts, but if they can fend off the Feds with a check for three million, then Fitzgerald was right, the rich are different then you and me.
OK, so, as many of you know, or should by now, I was a sportswriter of some note back in the day. Mostly, I covered the woebegone Detroit Lions semi-pro football team here in Detroit. They haven’t won a championship since 1957, the year before I was born and have won one playoff game since then.
They’ve had some great players in my lifetime. Joe Schmidt, Alex Karras, Mike Lucci, Chris Spielman, Charlie Sanders, Mel Farr, Wayne Walker, Herman Moore, Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford. But the three best all wore uniform number 20.
The first was Lem Barney. Outside of being a great player, he is a great person as well. As a rookie, the first pass ever thrown in his direction, by Bart Starr, he picked off and returned for a touchdown. He played nine seasons in Detroit and made seven pro bowls. He returned punts and amassed over 5,000 yards. As a defensive back. Hall of Fame.
The second was Billy Simms, who, had he played a full career, might have been right up there among the greats. Blowing his knee out in his fourth season, in 1984, ended his career prematurely, but still got him in the team’s Hall of Fame, if not Canton.
The third, of course, is this guy:

He is simply the greatest running back I ever saw. Keep in mind, I was too young to remember Jim Brown, but I remember Gayle Sayers and the rest who are mentioned in the “experts” list of the greatest running backs. Here’s the link: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2017/07/10/experts-rank-lions-barry-sanders-second-greatest-nfl-running-back/103574062/
Funny, they never asked me. My list probably would have had him third, behind Brown and Walter Payton, but kudos to the “experts,” to put him second. Here, for your enjoyment, is a highlight reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3WUcO-Jrbo
