"Picture yourself in a boat on a river..."

Quick--name that tune/lyric.

Need more? Here you go...

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Is it any wonder that The Beatles' classic "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" was considered a song about LSD?

In case you missed it, the childhood friend of John Lennon's son, who inspired "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds," died today at age 46.

Lucy Vodden was a classmate of Julian Lennon. According to John Lennon's later recounting of the origins of the song, Julian came home from school one day carrying a drawing of a four-year old girl in his class. "That's Lucy in the sky with diamonds," Julian told his father.

John took the line and added on to it with phrasing like "newspaper taxis" and "plasticine porters with looking glass eyes." The song's lyrics and the title caused the BBC to ban the tune for its supposed drug reference to LSD. Lennon was resolute in claiming that the title, and the song, were not about acid but about the story of his child's friend at school.

"Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" appeared on the band's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of many albums from The Beatles' catalog which has recently been remastered and re-released.

Early-season grades: Kansas football

Head of the class –

Maxwell Onyegbule. Big Max is finally putting it all together in his senior season. He was chosen Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against Duke, which included an interception return for a touchdown.

Dezmon Briscoe. Dez is a stud and against Iowa State should break Kansas receiving records both for number of receptions as well as receiving yards. Yes, he’s dropped a couple of catchable balls, including a sure TD pass against Duke, but he also is a guy who will go up and catch basically anything thrown up for grabs in his direction.

Chris Harris. After a puzzling sophomore season, this kid has turned it around and regained his swagger. He is perhaps the surest tackler on the defense.

Kerry Meier. What else can you say about Meier? He has great hands, runs good routes, and consistently gets open. He’s a threat to throw from his receiver slot and is an accomplished blocker. But, perhaps his play of the non-conference season was chasing down a Duke defender who had blocked and scooped up a blocked PAT.

Todd Reesing. Touchdown Todd passed Vince Young in the Southern Miss game for seventh all-time on the Big 12 total offense list. He is the heart and soul of this team. Nuf sed…

Honor roll –

Toben Opurum. The true frosh has filled in admirably for the injured Jake Sharp. He’s a punishing runner who will only get better as he learns to run lower. For a big man, he also has outstanding hands.

Jake Sharp. Jake had started out with two 100+ yard games before being injured and sitting out most of the Duke game and all of the Southern Miss game. The open week will allow Sharp time to heal in time for October 10 and Iowa State.

Jake Laptad. Leads the team in sacks.

Darrell Stuckey. Stuckey injured his elbow on a late hit in the first game but the defensive captain has a huge motor, and loves to hit. He's the leader of the defense.

Justin Thornton. JT has one pick thus far and, with Stuckey, provides senior leadership to a secondary which is still maturing.

Arist Wright. Wright is smallish for a linebacker but seems to always be all over the field.

Passing grades –

Daymond Patterson. Patterson’s getting better each week in a position he’s still learning. His size is a detriment against tall receivers.

Justin Springer. Springer has been solid at LB after returning from injury.

Jeff Wheeler. Wheeler came off a one-game suspension and promptly had a good game against UTEP.

Alonso Rojas. Rojas has perfected the rugby style kick and is doing a good job of getting the ball inside the 20.

Offensive line. This unit admittedly is still gelling. And, they did not have a good game against Southern Mississippi. But, for now, we’re giving them a passing grade headed into Big 12 play.

Jonathan Wilson. The receiver of whom much has been expected, after his terrific end to last season and a very solid spring, has disappointed with too many dropped passes. This grade turned into a passing one, though, after his performance against Southern Miss—he didn’t drop a ball and made two catches which kept drives alive.

Rising stars –

Huldan Tharp. Mark Mangino bragged on this kid early and with good reason—he does not miss tackles.

Bradley McDougald. Sure hands, big, and hard to bring down after the catch. He will take over Briscoe’s spot as the “go to guy” next season.

Kale Pick. We haven’t seen Pick pass much, but his running, oh my…

Stay after class –

Jacob Branstetter. Jacob has not had been called upon much for FGs. That’s good—he’s only 1 for 3 beyond 30 yards. His kickoffs are not high enough or deep enough on a consistent basis.

Anthony Davis. Davis was the starting corner in game one but promptly received three pass interference penalties, leading the coaches to move Chris Harris back to corner, Justin Thornton to the nickel back and Phillip Strozier to safety. Davis was also very involved in the drama between the Kansas football and basketball teams last week.

Coaching –

Mark Mangino – A. The Jayhawks are 4-0. They’ve taken care of business thus far and, while not sharp, withstood their toughest test against Southern Mississippi by doing the things they needed to do to win. Mangino always has his teams ready to play.

Ed Wariner/Offense – A-. It’s hard to argue with the offensive numbers being posted by Kansas. Wariner has adjusted to what defenses are doing to KU by amping up the run game. The only question is whether he has a tendency to rely upon gadget plays too often.

Clint Bowen/Defense – C+. Give Bowen credit for making adjustments in the secondary after the week one meltdown at one corner position. And, his defense made the plays at the end of the game, when necessary, against Southern Miss. Yet, the Golden Eagles sliced up Kansas’ secondary for 331 yards and three TDs and pressure on the QB was inconsistent. Will this defense stand up to the offenses of upcoming conference foes Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech?

Special Teams – B-. The kick coverage allowed too many yards against Southern Miss but Kansas’ returners Bradley McDougald and Darrell Stuckey broke off long gainers versus the Golden Eagles. Punting and punt coverage have been a strength. Jacob Branstetter has been disappointing and has had a PAT blocked. Mangino has always stressed special teams play so I expect this will be a focus area in the bye week.

Abbey Road

Happy birthday this week to The Beatles album, Abbey Road. There has been plenty of publicity around The Beatles over the past few weeks given the re-release of their collection via remastered recordings plus the release of The Beatles edition of Guitar Hero.

Abbey Road was the final album recorded by the band although Let It Be became the last album published by The Beatles. Rolling Stone magazine voted Abbey Road the 14th best album of all time.

The album featured some of The Beatles best work, including "Something" and "Come Together" coupled with side two's tightly woven suite of songs. Perhaps the component of the album which received the most scrutiny, though, was the cover photograph which shows white-suited John Lennon, Ringo Starr, barefooted Paul McCartney and George Harrison walking across Abbey Road. In the photo, McCartney is walking out of step with the others. That, coupled with his lack of shoes, gave credence to the "Paul is dead" rumor of the late 1960's, which suggested that Paul died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike in the band.

Jm Patterson

I was visiting with a friend who's in the advertising business and he was recounting an early career experience working with Jim Patterson. Patterson was a creative director and copywriter who worked at J. Walter Thompson in New York--a major advertising firm founded in 1864 and thus one of the oldest such agencies in the world.

My friend worked for Patterson early in his career but it was several months into his stint at Thompson before he found out that Patterson wrote fiction as a side hobby when not writing advertising copy. In visiting with Patterson, he discovered that Jim would come into the office each day at 6:00 a.m. and, from then until 9:00 a.m., would work on his fiction.

Pattterson, it turns out, would parlay that devotion to writing into quite the career. Jim Patterson decided to use his more formal name, James Patterson, as his away-from-the-office, published name. He created a character, Alex Cross, who became the hero of Patterson's first novel, Along Came a Spider. And, with the success of this first novel, Patterson retired from advertising and devoted himself to writing books.

Fifty-two novels later the rest, as they say, is history...

College football wrap-up: week four

Prediction performance: 11-3
Season to date: 34-14

OK, let's give me props for correctly predicting that Oregon would topple California and that Georgia Tech would take out North Carolina. Yeah, I know--I missed South Florida's upset of Florida State and predicted that Penn State would beat up on Iowa at home but 11-3 for the week's not bad, right?

So, what did we learn after week four and the traditional end of the non-conference season?

- The state of Kansas' teams are pretty much where we thought they would be after four games--Kansas is a solid 4-0, has an explosive offense and a defense which is a work in progress while Kansas State is rebuilding, yet seeming to improve each week at 2-2. Missouri, on the other hand, is better than most expected with its 4-0 record. Yet, the Tigers have shown moments of inexperience, e.g., the Bowling Green game and the second quarter on Friday night versus Nevada, but in both cases found ways to make the needed plays to win. Blaine Gabbert is the real deal.

- The Heisman Trophy race was, from the beginning, set up as a shoot-out between Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy. Yet, after four games, Bradford is injured, McCoy has been anything but stellar (five picks thus far) and Tebow was knocked out of yesterday's game in a scary hit to the head and neck. Jahvid Best might have been in the mix but was held to 55 yards yesterday in Cal's loss to Oregon. So, even though I still believe that one of the big three will ultimately win, let's say that the Heisman contest is wide open right now.

- The Pac 10 was making noise about beng the best conference in the U.S. However, if you're good, then your best team (Cal) doesn't lose 42-3 to an unranked foe and Washington doesn't lay an egg against Stanford. Look for USC to once again win this conference.

- Alabama is distancing itself from the competition in the SEC West. Ole Miss couldn't live up to the hype and LSU struggled to beat Mississippi State.

- The Big Ten is...bad. Penn State (#5 last week) loses at home to Iowa, Michigan has to come back against Indiana and Ohio State once again will show up in the Rose Bowl...and lose again to USC.

- What's it all mean? Florida and Texas, as predicted, are the class of the BCS schools. Look for these two to play for the National Championship in Pasadena on Thursday, January 7.

College football preview - week four

This is the last week before conference play heats up and two of the local schools have important, and difficult, match-ups.

Missouri at Nevada (Friday night): Line – MU by 7. Prediction – MU by 14. Yeah, this game’s on the road and on national TV but don’t expect a Missouri flop. Bowling Green’s upset bid two weeks ago woke up this Missouri team and I don’t expect Gabbert and crew to lay an egg in Reno.

Southern Mississippi at Kansas: Line – KU by 14. Prediction – Kansas by 14. This game is the toughest non-conference opponent for the Jayhawks this season--Southern Miss came back to beat Virginia last week and is 3-0. And now Kansas has had to deal with the distraction of this week's rumbles between the football and basketball teams. This game could be close before KU pulls away.

Tennessee Tech at Kansas State: No line. Prediction – Kansas State by 20. This opponent is the right one for KSU at this point in the season. The Cats had some decent moments last week on the road at UCLA. Let’s see if they can build on the positives.

Texas Tech at Houston: Line – Houston by 1. Prediction – Texas Tech by 10. Okay, the Cougars beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater. But, I can’t see them beating two Big 12 South opponents, even playing Tech at home.

Army at Iowa State: Line – Iowa State by 9. Prediction – ISU by 14.

Louisiana-Lafayette at Nebraska: Line – Nebraska by 28. Prediction – NU by 27. The Huskers lost a heartbreaker last week in Blacksburg, VA—a game where the Black Shirts could not contain Virginia Tech QB Tyrod Taylor’s late game scramble for the winning TD pass. NU will rebound big this week in Lincoln.

UTEP at Texas: Line – UT by 35.5. Prediction – Texas by 40. This was supposed to be a pretty good UTEP team. Thus far, they haven’t shown it.

UAB at Texas A&M: Line - A&M by 14.5. Prediction – A&M by 17.

Arkansas at Alabama: Line – Alabama by 17.5. Prediction – Bama by 17. Arkansas gave up a ton of points last week against Georgia. It won’t be that type of offensive blitz this week but Alabama should win handily and claim the status of best team in the SEC West.

California at Oregon: Line – Cal by 5.5 Prediction – Oregon by 3. This is perhaps the most intriguing match-up of the weekend. Oregon, after a first game meltdown, seems to have found itself and is playing at home. In the unpredictable Pac 10, I see this as an upset.

South Florida at Florida State: Line – FSU by 14. Prediction – FSU by 20. It’s sad that South Florida senior QB Matt Grothe’s career is over after last week’s injury.

North Carolina at Georgia Tech: Line – Georgia Tech by 2.5. Prediction – GT by 3.

Notre Dame at Purdue: Line – Notre Dame by 7. Prediction – ND by 10.

Iowa at Penn State: Line – Penn State by 9.5. Prediction – Penn State by 14.

"You're in the...second cabin"

This is a great commercial from the 1970's for Southern Airways which demonstrates the feeling I had yesterday as I trekked through first class, on the United Airlines 767 from Chicago O'Hare to San Francisco, back to my seat in the fully-packed "second cabin."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bTO2iJJjbU

Idle musings and quick hits

- Is there a weirder use of celebrity talent than the current Sony Bravia commercials which feature Peyton Manning, Justin Timberlake and Jim Nantz doing the voice-over? Huh!?

- The Emmy Awards pulled their highest ratings number in three years. However, it seemed like a re-run of last year's program given the usual suspects winning--Mad Men, 30 Rock, et al.

- By the way, the NBC telecast of the New York Giants versus the Dallas Cowboys beat the Emmys and won the night in the ratings race.

- A guy actually said this to me today. On the fully-packed 767 United flight from O'Hare to San Francisco, I struggled to get my rollerbag in the overhead compartment. A guy across the aisle remarked, "it might fit if you took something out of that outer compartment." I just looked at him but my initial reaction was, "Really!? No kiddin'? And, what do I do with my underwear and toiletries which I take out of that compartment--just carry them under my arm?"

- This season's bizarre star on ABC's Dancing With the Stars is Macy Gray, who replaces Cloris Leachman as this lineup's most eccentric presence.

Booze in advertising

Maybe it's the Mad Men effect, i.e., main characters having a shot of this or that during the day from prominently displayed bars in their offices. Or, perhaps it's a sign of the times and the adage that liquor consumption goes up during down economic times.

Whatever it may be, booze advertising is making a comeback by targeting males and attacking those brands considered more feminine.

Ketel One advertised last night on Mad Men by showing a group of young males slinging back straight vodka while an attractive young lady looks on. The voice-over said, "there was a time when men didn't drink their vodka from delicately-painted perfume bottles...there was a time when men were men."

The brand 1800 Tequila enlisted Michael Imperioli, best known for his turn in The Sopranos, to take on category leader Patron. In one TV spot, Imperioli says "These days, it's all about the velvet ropes and posturing. I don't know about you, but when I drink it, I really like to kick back and be myself." He then places his feet on the table in front of him, sending a bottle of Patron flying to the floor.

So, why this shift in strategy? Why dial up the testosterone level of the advertising? According to Advertising Age, it's probably these "man laws" for spirits marketers:

- Consumers are going out less and staying in more. Advertisers want to position themselves with the times versus showcasing bar and club-hopping.

- Masculinity is comforting during unstable times.

- Amid a recession caused, in part, by greed, brands want to be seen as selfless and workmanlike--not flashy.

- Challenger brands see opportunity. The boom times which occurred earlier in the decade were the impetus for launching pricier brands like Grey Goose and Patron. Brands now see an opportunity to portray those premium brands as irrelevant during a tight economy.

Dive of the week

I was introduced to Dempsey’s in Lawrence, KS after the Kansas-Duke football game on Saturday. And, the self-proclaimed Irish bar did not disappoint—the burger and fries were fantastic. I am a bit hesitant to call any establishment which uses “truffle butter” as a “dive of the week,” but Dempsey’s succeeds because it offers a great variety of beer, including some local micro-brews, has pool plus free foosball and darts, and provides ample televisions for viewing Saturday afternoon football. But, it’s the burgers which shine here. There is the classic burger, cooked medium with prime meat plus greens and cheddar, coupled with your choice of basic or sweet potato fries. Dempsey’s also offers a premium Kobe burger for $2 more. If you’re vegetarian (perish the thought), there is the Falafel burger. A Pancetta burger also dots the menu. These burgers are gourmet in style but are offered up in a place which has a long bar, two pool tables, classic rock music and the atmosphere that one expects in a classic college town, including only urinals in the Men’s restroom.

There was a good post-game crowd but it’s not the crazed scene of The Wheel after a Jayhawk game.

Dempsey’s is located just south of the intersection of Sixth and Vermont, one block west of the main street of Massachusetts. Check it out--Dempsey’s in Lawrence, KS, our dive of the week.