And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that I have admitted here before that I am a fair weather fan. When the team for which I am rooting falls far behind, I am likely to find something else to hold my interest.

Some folks are just the opposite.

A classic example is Pat Hughes, who does the radio play-by-play of Chicago Cubs games. Thanks to the AM radio station in Elkader, I am able to listen to Pat for most games, and even when they are televised, I will mute the TV feed and listen to Pat. He is the ultimate Cub fan, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the team, past and present.

When the Cubs are losing by a lopsided score, Pat will suggest “there is lots of baseball yet to play,” which always causes me to snort. So I did when the Cubs fell behind 9 to 1 after two and a half innings in a recent game, and still trailed 10-2 after six innings.

This time, I did not turn the radio off, but went into the kitchen to do something a couple innings later. And from there I could hear Pat’s voice changing, but could not hear what he was saying. And sure enough, the Cubs scored nine runs in one inning, and went on to win that game!

I think I was happier for Pat than for the team!

I have thought I was good at multi-tasking.

While I was listening to that game on the radio, I was watching golf on TV with the sound off, and finishing a book.

Would the following phrase sound familiar to those who were trying to decide who to vote for in the last presidential election? “What the country needs is a stable, sober, rational, calm and unexcitable leader.”

Democrats talking against Trump, right?

Well, according to that book I was reading, it was British officials talking against Winston Churchill.

The book is Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten.

Churchill, in his pre-war days, was the subject of a lot of bad press, some of it well-deserved, according to history.

But he later was given considerable credit for keeping England and the British Empire out of Hitler’s hands.

Churchill lost the race for a seat in parliament from Oldham on first try.

It is sort of ironic that the Oscar-winning star of the hit movie based on McCarten’s book has the last name almost the same, Oldman.

It’s an interesting read, even for someone old enough to have lived during part of Churchill’s successes and failures.