Yuletide wonderings

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." (Matthew 2:1-2)

When you look at those two verses, you will see that they are contained within what is really just one sentence -- a sentence that evokes some of the largest and most important mysteries in all of history.

We are accustomed to nativity scenes showing the Magi as three wise men positioned near Mary and Joseph, gazing down upon the infant Jesus. A famous carol describes them in the first person: "We three kings of Orient are / bearing gifts we traverse afar / field and fountain, moor and mountain / following yonder star."

But nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three of them. What it says is that when the Magi arrived where Jesus was, they "presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh." This mention of three gifts apparently gave rise to the notion that they must have been three men.

The image of the Magi seeing Jesus as an infant is almost certainly wrong, for the Bible says "the star went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was." (emphasis mine)

A fair reading of the biblical text is that the Star of Bethlehem, whatever is was, appeared in the sky when Mary gave birth to Jesus; that some men in "the east" saw it and were aware of what it signified; that they then traveled a great distance, using the star as a kind of celestial guidepost; and they finally arrived to see Jesus after so much time had passed that the word "baby" no longer applied.

However, the specific number of Magi and specific age of the young Jesus are but piddling curiosities compared to the larger mysteries.

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Who were the Magi and where did they come from?

They were obviously wise, for they knew the meaning of the star. But how did they know it?

They were evidently not Jewish, so why did they grasp the meaning of the star and actual Jews did not?

Was the star even visible to anyone else, or was it revealed only to the eyes of the Magi? And if it was revealed only to the Magi, we are back to asking: Why them?

And where exactly in "the east" were the Magi's homes, for it seems like they came not from just on the other side of the Dead Sea, but from way to the east. Many scholars believe the Magi hailed from Persia (approximately 850 miles away) and many believe that at least one of them hailed from Piravom, India (more than 4,000 miles away). Doesn't this make the question loom even larger: How did they know what the Star of Bethlehem was, and why were they looking for it?

And by the way, what exactly was the Star of Bethlehem? Was it a comet? A supernova? An alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, like the one that will occur next Monday for the first time in eight centuries? Was it an alignment of Jupiter and Venus?  None of the above?

I get the impression that most people think it was some sort of heavenly body whose position in the sky shifted somewhat from night to night -- as is the case with all heavenly bodies other than the North Star -- however my take is different. To my ears, a "star" appearing at an appointed time and going "ahead" of the Magi to guide them sounds like a carbon copy (if not an outright recurrence) of the pillar of fire from Exodus 13:21, which had previously led the Hebrews by night during their long journey from Egypt 1,300 years before. I am shocked that I never hear this speculated about, but surely I'm not the only person to notice the parallel.

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Judaism and Christianity both hold that the god of the Bible, aka the god of Israel, is the one true god. His name was revealed to Moses as four ancient Hebrew consonants, YHWH, and its pronunciation/spelling in English has been handed down as Yahweh.

Belief in a Messiah flows from multiple Old Testament verses. Intriguingly, a similar belief is also visible if you glimpse through the lenses of Hinduism (which talks of a final avatar descending to the material world) and Buddhism (which talks of various bodhisattvahs opting to reincarnate in the material world until they have accomplished their goal of helping others attain nirvana).

Christianity holds that Yahweh is a trinity, meaning he is one deity who acts through three distinct personas: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son is manifested by Yahweh entering the material world in human form, which he did 2,000 years ago when he took the name Jesus and presented himself as the promised Messiah.

Christianity further claims that Jesus's appearance as the Messiah cemented God's offer of salvation to all of humankind, as had always been God's plan, and that Jesus will return again at some point in the future.

Christianity affirms that Jesus's divinity was proved by him accepting the most excruciating punishment imaginable, that of death by scourging and crucifixion -- the very word "excruciating" is derived from "cruc," which is Latin for cross -- and coming back to life in the same human body three days later.

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Based on reason combined with historical evidence, I believe that the resurrection of Jesus did take place. But opining about that specific topic is not the purpose of this post, and could obviously take several books' worth of space. For right now, I am simply going to toss out the name Dennis Prager and then turn to some interesting passages from the Bible.

Prager is a devout Jew. Although he does not believe in the divinity of Jesus, he is a big fan of Christianity and describes it as "a divinely inspired religion to lead people to the god of Israel." I am an American mutt who does believe in the divinity of Jesus, and I wholeheartedly agree with Prager's assessment of my faith.

It is true that, in Deuteronomy, God tells the Hebrews they are "chosen" by him from among "all the peoples on the face of the earth." 

It is also true that in Genesis, when speaking to Noah, God refers to "the covenant I have established between me and all life on earth." Also in Genesis, he tells Abraham that "all peoples on earth will be blessed." (emphasis mine)

Much later in history, in Isaiah, God tells the Hebrews that they are to be "a light for the Gentiles" and that "my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

Although the Egyptians enslave the Hebrews, that does not stop God from assisting the Egyptians by warning Pharaoh of the coming famine, so that they can prepare for it during the preceding years of plenty. Nor does it stop God, in Isaiah, from calling the Egyptians "my people" and vowing to "bless" them.

God refers to Cyrus II, the pagan king of Persia, as his "anointed."

The Assyrians of Nineveh were behaving wickedly, and God was so concerned for them that he ordered Jonah to travel there and minister to them.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the disciples: "I am the good shepherd...I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen."

And that passage about different sheep from different pens seems all the more tantalizing when you consider another account, one which appears in the gospels of both Mark and Luke. In that account, the disciples are troubled to see a stranger performing exorcisms in Jesus's name. That must have seemed sacrilegious to them, so they attempted to stop him; but when they reported this to Jesus himself, they were surprised to hear him respond by saying "do not stop him." Jesus proceeded to explain that "whoever is not against us is for us," and "anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will surely not lose their reward."

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No, God is not an ethnocentrist. He is not some petty bureaucrat dispensing benefits based on demographic bean-counting. He does not bestow favors on any group(s) of humans at the expense of any other group(s) of humans.

God's hand is always outstretched to all, waiting for us to accept it by extending our own and putting our fears aside.

Many twenty-first century ears automatically and unthinkingly misinterpret such terms as "chosen," "saved," and "damned." They misinterpret them by filtering them though the cracked prism of contemporary Western culture. That prism is blemished by suffocating self-focus and superficial identity politics. It fails to place words in the proper contexts of when they were written and spoken, and to whom they were immediately addressed. Filtering everything through this cracked prism is, shall we say, not always a positive.

Every Christmas is a season of hope and promise for all. This Christmas marks the end of a year that has been one of the most tumultuous in generations. My prayer is that this Christmas will also mark a beginning, that it will be the start of a period where we look beyond ourselves and our own selfish desires, where we accept and embrace the old eternal truths that were written on our hearts the moment we were conceived.

And I am optimistic that that will happen.

Merry Christmas.

Note: All of the biblical quotes in this post are from my NIV. They strike me as pieces of a puzzle, and I am indebted to Mathew P. John's recent book The Unknown God: A Journey with Jesus from East to West for beginning to put the puzzle together. John's book is also where I gleaned the things I said briefly about Hinduism and Buddhism... Coincidentally, around the same time I started reading that book I also happened upon some lectures by Michael Heiser. My brain has now fused some of the things Heiser talked about to some of the things John wrote about -- which means I intend to pen some follow-ups to this post that will probably spring in directions that are different, but not inconsistent. In the meantime, take care.

The Real Saint Nick

History provides many examples of actual people who have, over time, become so melded into the popular imagination that we tend to forget they were real. Saint Nicholas is one of them.

Born sometime around 280 A.D. in the town of Patara, in what was then part of Greece but is now part of Turkey, Nicholas was the son of wealthy parents who died when he was young. Having been raised as a devoted Christian, he spent his life using his inheritance to help those in need, and in addition to his charity he became known for harboring great concern for children and sailors.

Down through history, one particular story about his generosity has persisted. In those days, women whose families could not pay a dowry were more likely to die as spinsters than to get married. It is said that when Nicholas learned of a poor man who was worried about his daughters’ fate because he lacked money for their dowries, Nicholas surreptitiously tossed gold into the man’s home through an open window, and the gold landed in stockings that were drying by the fire. Much later, this 1,700-year-old story inspired the modern tradition of hanging stockings by the chimney to receive gifts from Santa on Christmas Eve.

Nicholas became Bishop of Myra and was imprisoned during the anti-Christian persecutions carried out by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Based on the stories of his life, Catholic tradition considers him a patron saint of children, orphans, sailors, travelers, the wrongly imprisoned, and many other categories of people. Churches were constructed in his honor as early as the sixth century A.D. Today, his remains are buried in Bari, Italy.

For generations now, kids and adults alike have used the names Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Saint Nick interchangeably, without giving it a second thought. But there was an actual Saint Nicholas, a decent man who is obscured by commercial renderings of Christmas. We should not allow that fact to be forgotten, regardless of whether or not we are Catholic (and for the record, I am not).

Never Forget

Pearl Harbor Day is upon us, so let us recall what happened 79 years ago today. The day after the bombing, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress on December 8, 1941, to request a formal declaration of war. His speech was simulcast to the country at large via the radio. In it, he said:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our secretary of state a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack…

Yesterday the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.

And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island…

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves…

Always will be remembered the character of this onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory…

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.

Pearl Harbor was attacked because it was where the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet was headquartered. The bombing, which killed more than 2,400 people, began shortly before 8:00 on a Sunday morning.

Five of our eight battleships were sunk, the other three were badly damaged, and multiple other naval vessels were destroyed.

The majority of the American war planes based in Hawaii were destroyed as they sat on the ground.

In addition, most of the American air forces based in the Philippines were destroyed during the nighttime attack on that nation, which FDR also mentioned in his speech.

By crippling our Pacific defenses, the December 7th attack left us extremely vulnerable in the face of an aggressive enemy to our West – an enemy that had signaled its intent to rule the entire Pacific basin by subjugating other nations to its will.

This came at a time when we had not responded to the fact that Nazi Germany to our East had already declared war against us, had already brought most of Europe under its thumb, and had signaled its own intention to rule the world by way of an Aryan resurrection of the old Roman Empire.

Such circumstances would have spelled doom for the vast majority of countries throughout the course of history. With their foundations based on the accidents of ethnicity and geography, most countries would have simply surrendered; or, in a distinction without a difference, entered into “peace” negotiations under which they would have to accept the aggressor’s terms and after which the lives of their citizens would most certainly change for the worst.

But the United States is a nation based on ideals. Our foundation springs from the knowledge that there are things greater than us, things which are greater than the transient circumstances which exist on any given day. We have always found strength in the conviction that our nation exists to support and advance those greater things, to the benefit of people all over the world, and this sets the United States apart from all other nations in all other times.

Taking heed from FDR’s appeal to “righteous might,” reflecting what Abraham Lincoln earlier referred to as the “faith that right makes might,” the American people of 1941 summoned the invincible courage to rebuild and fight at the same time they were under fearsome siege. They did this despite the fact they were still suffering through an unprecedented economic depression that had started more than a decade before.

Let us pray that those qualities – that will to power and that unwavering belief in the sanctity of human freedom – have not been lost as new generations of Americans take the baton from the great ones which came before. For as has been said, those who forget the past will be forced to repeat it.

It would be shameful if history were to record that we squandered what was handed down to us by people like Larry Perry, and as a result we failed to transfer freedom’s blessings to our descendants... And since you probably don't know who Larry Perry is, I recommend you look here and find out. 

Autumn Equinox

 

Some thoughts about autumn on this, its first day:

I love stepping outside on that first morning that fall’s nip is in the air.

I love how changing leaves turn Appalachian mountainsides into fiery palettes of orange, red, and gold.

I love driving winding roads through those mountains, catching glimpse after glimpse of falling leaves as they twirl their way to the ground.

I love cold nights marked by the scent of campfire and the sound of wind in the trees.

I love watching my kids skip through the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect one to bring home.

I love walking behind them as they trick-or-treat on Halloween night.

I love pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day, and how it sets the ideal tone to start the Christmas season.

I love watching flocks of birds land in Florida at the end of their migration, while others keep flying to points further south.

And last but not least, I love football, especially college games at which the fans are loud and the bands are blaring...and most of all, college games in which Auburn is winning and the song you keep hearing begins with the line: War Eagle, fly down the field / ever to conquer, never to yield!

Third one won and done

With this mucky, greasy goal by Anthony Cirelli in overtime of Game Six -- which was partly a reward from the hockey gods for his persistent hard work -- my Tampa Bay Lightning dispatched the New York Islanders to win the NHL's Eastern Conference Championship and earn a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.

It feels so good to type that sentence after they came so close in 2016 and 2018, dropping Game Seven of the conference finals each time, and of course after their shocking first-round exit in 2019.

This marks the franchise's second trip to the SCF in the last five calendar years and third in the last sixteen. The Lightning won the Cup in 2004 by defeating Calgary in seven, but came up short in 2015 when they fell to Chicago in six. My blog did not exist in 2004 but did in 2015, and if you're interested you can go here and here to read what I had to say after that year's run ended.

The Bolts have now made six trips to the Eastern Conference Finals in their 27-year history, and five of those trips have been in the past decade. Interestingly, this year's ECF was the first one for the Bolts that did not go the full seven games.

Obviously they've won half of the ECF's in which they have appeared. As of this moment they have also won half of their SCF's -- but with this season's SCF set to begin this evening, here's hoping they find a way to up their percentage from .500 to .667!

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I really want to spend a lot of time writing about the Lightning's win over the Islanders, and how they have performed overall through the first three rounds. But I also want to publish this today, and I have a life to live, so time doesn't really allow me to write "a lot" (and I'm sure you're not disappointed about that, seeing as how I tend to drone on and on).

I am very pleased by how this team has shown the character to march this far through through the post-season gauntlet in the face of serious challenges and injuries. Steven Stamkos has not played a single contest, and Jan Rutta has played just one. Ryan McDonagh and Brayden Point have both missed games and so has Erik Cernak. Nikita Kucherov missed the final two-thirds of the decisive gave against Boston in the second round. And in a league where goaltender platooning has for several years been the modus du jour for playoff success, Tampa Bay is the only club that has not given its starter a single second off throughout this entire unprecedented post-season in the bubble(s).

The gauntlet through which the Lightning has fought consists of three opponents who play absolutely stellar defense, namely the Columbus Blue Jackets, Boston Bruins, and of course the New York Isladers. The Bruins had the best record in the NHL during the regular season, and made it all the way to Game Seven of the SCF last season, and were picked by many to win it all this year. But the Lightning defeated them in five games, after also defeating Columbus in five and before taking care of business against the Isles.

The Lightning have played six overtime games during this run, and won five of them.

In each series, they have been the noticeably better team at even strength and have managed to prevail despite being shockingly unproductive on the power play.

Their penalty kill has been damn good, especially in the clutchest of situations.

They are getting key contributions from all four forward lines and from every single defenseman.

Victor Hedman has been near-perfect and has scored nine goals, putting him within reach of the all-time record for most goals by a defenseman in one post-season. That record is twelve, set by Paul Coffey in 1985, while Brain Leetch holds second place with eleven playoff goals in 1994; Hedman's tally of nine ties him for third place with none other than Bobby Friggin' Orr (1969).

Hedman, Point, and Andrei Vasilevskiy (.931 save percentage, 1.82 goals-against average) have played well enough to take home the Conn Smythe. 

Nikita Kucherov Himself has rung up a gaudy stat line with 26 points in the team's 19 post-season contests (including the play-in round) and yet nobody is even talking about it! How insane is that?

Kuch has rung that number up while playing sound defense and bringing the salt and vinegar. He has mixed it up physically and refused to take crap from opposing players who take cheap shots and dole out gratuitous slashes intended to injure his hands (yes, I'm taking about you Jean-Gabriel Pageau). 

This is all very good.

As far as the specific ECF win over the Isles is concerned, I won't recap it all here but I will say how awesome it was to see the Bolts win in so many ways when the pressure was boiling: They won big (8-2 in Game One)... and they won by making it look big when the game was actually played about even (4-1 in Game Four)... and they won with the timeliest of scoring (Kuch netting the winner with less that nine seconds remaining in Game Two)... and they won with the second-and-third-most-timely scoring (Blake Coleman tied Game Four just 15 seconds after the Isles got the opening goal, then Ondrej Palat scored to put the Bolts ahead a mere 12 seconds after Coleman's marker)... and they won in overtime in an elimination game (see the opening paragraph of this post)... and they won games that were heavy on defense, as well as games that were heavy on offense, as well as games in which the goaltending seemed impregnable... and they prevailed in the series despite scoring the first goal in only one of the six tilts.

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But of course, not everything is sunshine and puppy dogs. That just ain't possible in hockey, or in sports in general, or in life itself. There are always warning signs and things to be concerned about, no matter who you are.

After each of the first two rounds I inveighed about how bad the Bolts have been at face-offs, and unfortunately it did not get any better in the ECF. Part of the reason they went 0-for-5 on the power play in Game Six was that they couldn't win a draw, so they kept having to start off going in the wrong direction before they could even gain possession of the puck. Obviously, you need to have possession before you can even think about entering the neutral zone, much less the offensive zone, so losing power play face-offs means precious time drains off the clock and gets wasted.

Of the eleven Lightning players to have taken draws this post-season, only two are above 50 percent while one (Coleman) is at exactly 50. Meanwhile, three are below 34 percent while the other five are hovering between 43 and 49. The team has gotten this far with these poor numbers, but I have a hard time believing it can climb the final peak without improving in this metric -- not because face-offs are always important, but because their importance elevates in the kind of situations that tend to make all the difference in the world when the grail is in sight (i.e., on special teams, in your defensize zone with the game tied, late in games, etc.)

Also, although the Bolts' penalty kill has been very effective, they still find themselves having to kill far too many penalties. More to the point, they commit penalties at the worst possible times, and there has been one insanely stupid one (see Killorn, Alex) which resulted in an ejection and forced the team to play an entire game down to just nine forwards when somebody else got injured. This must stop or it will be their undoing.

And lastly, we must pray that Andrei Vasilevskiy does not get injured. Because if he does, it means that 37-year-old Curtis McElhinney will take over in net after having played not one second of hockey these playoffs and after having been exceedingly average (.906, 2.89) during the regular season that got corona-stopped more than six months ago.

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And last but not least, there are the Dallas Stars. They have been unbelievably impressive this post-season and I am hard-pressed to think of too many reasons they don't deserve to win it all.

From their outstanding team D, to their daunting top line, to their newfound depth in scoring, to the blueline wizardry of Miro Heiskanen, to their mix of veterans and youth, to the feel-good story of Anton Khudobin performing like he's on the same level as Patrick Roy... they are exactly where they belong right now.

To say nothing of the fact that their head coach, Rick Bowness, was an assistant for the Lightning from 2013 through 2018 -- which means he knows an awful lot about many of the Lightning players' tendencies, and just how to counteract them and get under their skin. This gives the Stars something of an edge; I simply don't know how much of an edge it is.

But both teams are capable of winning in this first-ever Stanley Cup Final to feature two teams from the geographical Deep South.

Here's hoping that the team that winds up triumphant is the Tampa Bay Lightning. Go Bolts!

Halfway There

In the second round of this year's ensconced-in-the-bubble NHL playoffs, all four series stood at 3-1 entering Game Five. Had you told me then that three of those four series would go all the way to Game Seven, I wouldn't have believed you, but go the distance they did. Now that the conference finals are upon us, here are some thoughts about what has happened.

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First I have to tip my hat to the person or persons, apparently from the Dallas Stars' fan base, who crashed Wikipedia on Friday and provided me with comic relief when I really needed some.

Game Seven of the Dallas-Colorado series started in the afternoon while I was still working. I did not watch any of the game but kept glancing at the updates on my phone as the goals kept coming and the score kept changing. Eventually it went to overtime before the Stars came out victorious by a score of 5-4.

As soon as I saw the final I clicked on the game summary, mostly to see who potted the winning goal but also to see who else scored. That's when I saw that somebody I had never heard of, Joel Kiviranta, recorded a hat trick that included the game-winner in overtime. In addition to his name being unfamiliar, it struck me as unusual because "Kiviranta" sounded positively Finnish while "Joel," despite its Hebrew origins, is a run-of-the-mill North American moniker rarely associated with Europe.

But I digress. Wondering who this Joel Kiviranta dude might be, I typed his name into the search window of my iPhone, which shimmied me over to Wikipedia... and at that moment, this is what the opening sentence to his brief Wikipedia page read: Joel Kiviranta (born March 23, 1996) is a Finnish professional ice hockey player and is widely considered to be the best NHL player of all-time.

Some 10 or 15 minutes later, the "best ever" statement was gone but the following sentence had been added to close out the introductory paragraph: Owner of the Colorado Avalanche and the GOAT of the year.

Not long after seeing that update I returned to the Wikipedia page yet again, just see if there were any further revisions. This time the entire introductory paragraph was gone, but underneath Kiviranta's photograph was the following caption: Joel Kiviranta, daddy of the Avalanche.

As you probably know by now, Kiviranta was never drafted by any NHL team despite being draft-eligible for the last six years. However, former Stars player Jere Lehtinen -- who played his entire career with the organization, won three Selkes, assisted on the Stanley Cup-winning goal in 1999, and had his jersey number retired in 2017 -- is now the GM of Finalnd's national team, and he gave the Stars a call and told them that Kiviranta would be worth taking a flyer on. So they inked him to a piddling two-way contract in June 2019 and assigned him to their AHL affiliate on the outskirts of Austin.

As is often the case with AHL'ers, Kiviranta received a few call-ups to the big club for quick look-sees, or when roster players got hurt and needed a short break. But prior to Friday he had appeared in only 11 NHL games and scored just one goal, and he was inserted into the lineup for Game Seven solely because of an injury sustained by Andrew Cogliano in Game Six. It was his first-ever NHL playoff game, and boy did he deliver as he scored thrice, forced overtime with this, and then won the series with this wicked one-timer.

What a great story, and what great Wikipedia entries as well!

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Joel Kiviranta wasn't the only newish 24-year-old to make a mark in the Western Conference during the second round.

The Vancouver Canucks trailed the Las Vegas Golden Knights three games to one when when they learned that Jacob Markstrom, their starting goaltender and best player this season, was unable to play due to injury. So up stepped San Diego native Thatcher Demko, with only 37 NHL appearances to his name and a salary less than one-third that of Markstrom's. 

And how did Demko respond? Although the Knights dominated the Canucks and outshot them 43-17, he valiantly denied them time and again by stopping 42 of those 43 shots and allowing Vancouver to escape with a 2-1 win thanks to opportunistic goals by Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson.

Next came Game Six, in which Vegas dominated again and bombarded Demko with 48 shots on goal. And this time he denied every single one of 'em, pitching a shutout and allowing Vancouver to skate away with a victory and force a seventh game despite getting more than doubled up on the shot clock.

Game Seven didn't get any easier, as he was forced to fend off 34 Vegas bullets while his teammates managed to put only 14 shots on net at the other end. Nevertheless, Demko kept the Knights off the scoreboard all the way through the first and second periods and for almost three-quarters of the third, up until Shea Theodore managed to thread the puck through a screen of bodies that was so thick no goalie on Earth could have seen it. That was the only one that got by Demko, but it was all that was needed since he had no run support.

Across those starts his save percentage was .984 against what looks like the best team in the NHL, and he carried the Canucks all the way to Game Seven of a series they should have lost in five. That certainly makes things interesting for their front office because the 30-year-old Markstrom, coming off a career year, is heading into unrestricted free agency where his value is assumed to be north of $5 million per annum on a contract of 5+ years -- compared to the $3.67 million he made this year. Demko, on the other hand, is six years younger and has a year remaining at just $1.05 million; and because Demko will only be a restricted free agent after next season, he can almost certainly be re-signed then for less than Markstrom may command several weeks from now.

Prior to the week that just ended, it was universally believed that the Canucks would make a significant offer to Markstrom before the NHL's off-season officially begins; i.e., that they would keep him in the fold with a hefty raise without him ever having to go to market. But now the wheels have to be turning in their heads, seeing as how the salary cap is going to be flat (and might even go down a year from now) due to revenue losses brought on by Coronavirus -- and seeing as how they have a slew of other big names who will also be needing new contracts next year and the year after that.

Maybe three games is a small sample size to go on where Thatcher Demko is concerned, but maybe it's not. Those three games were in a four-night span, under pressure, against an elite opponent who was playing at its peak and was not taking anything for granted. And as a youth, he did backstop Team USA to the silver medal at the 2012 Under-17 World Championships. And at Boston College, he did win the 2016 Mike Richter Award as the NCAA's top goaltender. And Vancouver did, after all, draft him in the second round.

In other words, it's not as if the Canucks would be taking a shot in the dark if they decide to go with Demko instead of Markstrom.

Markstrom has been on record saying he wants to remain in Vancouver, and I can't help but think that while he certainly didn't want the team to lose when he got injured a week ago, he must be sitting there today wondering what the hell to expect now. He is not the only well-known goalie heading into free agency this off-season -- Braden Holtby, Robin Lehner, Corey Crawford, Anton Khudobin, and Cam Talbot are all in that same boat -- so this figures to be a buyer's market rather than a seller's market, especially when you consider that the pool of restricted free agens includes the likes of Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry, and Alexander Georgiev. Things sure have become interesting, if not comfortable, in British Columbia.

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Since we are now halfway through the post-season, it's time to talk about which players are making a case for the Conn Smythe. In my unassailable opinion, of course, and limited to one player for each team still standing!

Dallas Stars: Miro Heiskanen. Including the play-in bouts, Heiskanen has 21 points in 16 games, tops on his team and tied for second-most of anybody in the league this post-season. And did I mention that he's a defenseman, and that he has pulled off this insane stat line without shortchanging any of his defensive responsibilities? This one is easy to pick.

Las Vegas Golden Knights: Shea Theodore. Yes, 'twas Theodore who finally solved the Riddle of Thatcher Demko and sent Vegas to the Western Conference Final. And that was far from the first time he's made a difference in the offensive zone since the NHL resumed play, for he has put the puck in the back of the net six times and also dished out ten assists. This puts him in the team lead for points, and, like Heiskanen, he is doing this as a defenseman.

New York Islanders: Jean-Gabriel Pageau. It is true that Mathew Barzal is skating silky smooth at sonic speed and making things happen, and it is true that Anthony Beauvillier leads the Isles in playoff points. But for my money, Pageau deserves their nod for playoff MVP because of his impeccable two-way play. The 27-year-old centerman routinely gets sent out against the opposition's top offensive threats, and he routinely neutralizes them. And he has remained an offensive threat himself with a 20.0 shooting percentage and 9 points contributed (7 goals, 2 assists).

Tampa Bay Lightning: Victor Hedman. I'll just cut-and-past what I wrote in my previous post and repeat it here: "...if I had to pick the top Conn Smythe candidate for this team it would be defenseman extraordinaire Victor Hedman. The 29-year-old from Ornskoldsvik, Sweden has eaten monster minutes and performed near-perfectly in all three zones, on both sides of the puck, in both series."

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Now how about two dream scenarios, one per conference, that would make for a great storybook ending to this weird season?

Western Conference: Dallas hangs with heavily favored Las Vegas, and forces the WCF to a seventh game after chasing Robin Lehner from the net in Games Five and Six by scoring a half-dozen times in each... Peter DeBoer benches Lehner for Game Seven and sends out Marc-Andre Fleury, who avenges himself for his agent's tweet by stopping all 38 Dallas shots in regulation; however, it goes to overtime tied at zero and then Joel Kiviranta (who else?) scores top-shelf to send Dallas to the SCF for the first time in 20 years... Then the SCF also goes to a 0-0 Game Seven overtime, and this time Jamie Benn, the captain, scores the decider to finally win that elusive Cup after all these years... After taking his spin around the rink with the Cup, Benn hands it off to 34-year-old Anton Khudobin in recognition of his outstanding work after assuming the starting goaltender role when Ben Bishop got injured. Khudobin then hands the Cup off to fellow 34-year-old Alexander Radulov... Khudobin becomes the first person from Kazakhstan to get his name engraved on the silver pedestal, and Raduolv lives out the dream of many who came before him by sending a mocking text to Marc Bergevin after indulging in multiple shots of post-game vodka.

Eastern Conference: The Lightning and Islanders engage in a seven-game defensive slugfest to see which team gets to represent the East in the SCF. Trailing three games to two, the Bolts find themselves facing elimination for the first time all post-season and Andrei Vasilevskiy delivers for them by shutting the Isles out in Game Six... Game Seven enters the final 30 seconds tied at one with the Bolts in the offensive zone. Nikita Kucherov has the puck on his stick high in the right circle, looks to Brayden Point curling into the slot, and starts to slip one of his patented assists to him -- but just as the NY defense along with G Semyon Varlomov follow Kuch's body language and shift their gaze to Point, Kuch fools everyone by rifling a no-look, fast-as-Lightning wrister inside the near post to win the series... Then the SCF begins with Steven Stamkos returning Lazarus-like from injury and playing like he hasn't missed a beat. Tampa Bay battles Las Vegas to see which team will make history, and that team turns out to be the Bolts. Hedman and Stamkos score the goals in a 2-1 Game Seven triumph, with the latter's being the Cup-winner... One week into the off-season, Stamkos makes like Mike Bossy and retires young because he does not want his injury problems to rob him of his long-term health. His salary thus comes off the books, opening up precious cap space which the team uses to re-sign several core players, and then he takes a front office role with the organization and cements his legacy as the undisputed Best Bolt Ever.

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Hey, a man can dream, can't he? With that, I'd better stop writing now.

Enjoy the next two rounds everyone!

Second one won and done

How good it feels to say these words: The Tampa Bay Lightning have eliminated the Boston Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoffs and are advancing to the Eastern Conference Final. 

This marks the fourth time in the past six seasons -- and fifth in the past ten -- that the Lightning have made it this deep into the most arduous post-season in all of sports.

And for the second time in the past three seasons, they have made it this far by eliminating Boston 4-1 in the second round.

I honestly don't know what feels better, the fact that they advanced or the fact that they did so at the expense of those dastardly Bruins from Beantown. Probably the latter, since the Bruins are the defending conference champs, and had the NHL's best record this corona-abbreviated regular season, and, let's face it, everybody not from New England enjoys watching any championship-aspiring Boston franchise get denied.

Anyhoo, now it's time for a few looks both back and forward.

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Tampa Bay dropped Game One by a single goal, then ran the table the next four games to eliminate the Bruins while outscoring them 19-10 for the series. Sounds like a pretty good drubbing, doesn't it?

In some ways, it actually was. The Lightning surrendered just one five-on-five goal across the final three contests, and they consistently looked like the better and deeper team through most of the series. They turned Boston's second through fourth lines pretty much into non-factors, forcing the Bruins to rely too heavily on their top line of Bergeron-Pastrnak-Marchand. 

But this is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so of course it wasn't as easy as it might look on paper. Two of the games went to overtime before the Bolts pulled them out, including a pivotal Game Two -- had the result gone the other way that night, the Bolts would have been down 2-0 in the series entering Game Three rather than tied 1-1. And that, moi druz'ya, is a big deal.

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Brayden Point was the most visible offensive hero in the first round, scoring overtime goals against Columbus in Games One and Five to secure Tampa Bay's trip to the second round.  Once in the second round, however, Ondrej Palat took over that role by tallying five goals against the Bruins; among those five were the OT winner in Game Two and a splendid redirect to open the scoring in Game Five.

Still, if I had to pick the top Conn Smythe candidate for this team it would be defenseman extraordinaire Victor Hedman. The 29-year-old from Ornskoldsvik, Sweden has eaten monster minutes and performed near-perfectly in all three zones, on both sides of the puck, in both series. It's only fitting that it was he who scored the series-winning goal against the Bruins, on a laser 14:10 into the second overtime Monday night.

Nikita Kucherov is right up there too, with 16 points (4,12) in the 13 games Tampa Bay has played in the bubble since the NHL returned from hiatus. He is doing it while playing sound defense as well.

Meanwhile, trade deadline acquisition Blake Coleman, born and raised in that hockey hotbed of Plano, Texas, scored a pair of goals in the pivotal Game Two victory nine days ago.

And the 30-year-old recent castoff from Buffalo, Zach Bogosian, continued to play like a man possessed in the second round after surprising everyone with his stellar performance in the opening round. His late-season signing by GM Julien BriesBois could prove to be the best under-the-radar move ever made by this franchise.

And inevitably in this sport, there is the all-important man between the pipes. Andrei Vasilevskiy was dialed in big-time against the Bruins, turning in a series-long .936 save percentage overall and .960 at even-strength. Before the series was over he had become the all-time franchise leader in playoff wins -- which is saying something when you consider that three netminders who spent major portions of their careers playing for the Lightning (Daren Puppa, Nikolai Khabibulin, and Ben Bishop) were named to the Top 100 NHL Goalies of All-Time list by The Hockey News two years ago. 

You gotta love all of the above.

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There are reasons to believe this Lightning club has what it takes to win it all this spring summer/fall. One of those reasons is their depth both up front and on the blue line.

Bogosian wasn't even on the roster until near the end of the season, and he was thought to be depleted and over the hill, yet he is playing alongside the mighty Hedman and not even missing a beat. He even made the offensive highlight reels with his sprint and assist on Coleman's opening goal in Game Two.

Ryan McDonagh went down for three games, so Braydon Coburn and Luke Schenn stepped right up and got things done when Coach Cooper responded by switching to an 11-7 lineup.

After becoming the talk of the league against Columbus, the Lightning's third line of Coleman, Yanni Gourde, and Barclay Goodrow kept it up against Boston by bringing energy, spunk, defensive acumen, and timely scoring.

It says something that the Bolts have made it so deep into the playoffs despite Steven Stamkos being sidelined the whole time, and despite McDonagh missing three games versus Boston, and despite having to play most of the final game against Boston without Kucherov (they were actually down to 10 forwards after Kuch took a high stick to the head).

It certainly helps when you have two-way pivot Anthony Cirelli, who is able to play productive hockey no matter who you put him up against... and smart, tough, redirect maestro Alex Killorn, who always delivers in the post-season... and big man Pat Maroon, bringing his Cup experience to the top of the crease on the fourth line... and feisty Cedric Pacquette, ever eager to get under an opponent's skin... and Kucherov, playing hard-nosed and belying the rap that he is only a "skills guy"... and Mikhail Sergachev, playing spot-on playoff hockey and growing by leaps and bounds... and Kevin Shattenkirk, distributing pucks and getting shots on net from the point like nobody's business.

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But there are also reasons to doubt that the Lightning has what it takes to win it all.

Right now, Kucherov's injury status is unknown. He has skated since that high stick to the head, but his availability to play is up in the air. If the Bolts have to play without him and Stamkos it could be very damaging to their Cup chances.

Speaking of which, they need Stammer back. He is one of the premier players on Planet Earth, and while they have advanced without him thus far in this tournament, his production and leadership are simply too much to be without over the long haul.

Oh, and another reason they need Stammer is that they continue to be deficient at face-offs. Yes, Point is good at the dot and Goodrow played really well there against the Bruins, winning 63.3 percent of the time overall and 64.3 percent while short-handed. But Goodrow is below 50 percent for the playoffs as a whole, as is every other Bolt not named Point or Coleman. And Coleman very rarely takes face-offs, so the fact that his percentage is above water almost shouldn't count.

Sometimes it is easy to forget about face-offs, but they are crucial in key situations and late in games. If a team is bad at them, it will usually catch up to them at the worst of times. The Lightning need The Captain back for face-offs just as much as they would love to have him back for his one-timer.

Also, it has been years since a team won the Stanley Cup without getting several clutch performances by their back-up goalie during the playoff run. So far these playoffs, the Lightning have not let Curtis McElhinney even sniff the ice. Yes, they haven't needed to because Vasy has not been injured, but other teams have given their back-ups important reps, including on back-to-backs.

Are the Lightning keeping McElhinney on the pine because they don't need him on the ice, or are they keeping him there because they don't think he has what it takes? I don't know, and I hope I don't have to find out the hard way.

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On that note, I guess I have written long enough. Bring on the ECF, regardless of whether the opponent is the Flyers or Islanders!

I will soon write more about these playoffs in general as opposed to writing just about my team, but be that as it may: Go Bolts!

First one done and won

I haven't been able to write a headline like that since 2018, due to the fact that my Tampa Bay Lightning failed to advance past the first round of the 2019 NHL playoffs.

However, last night they prevailed in their first round series of these belated 2020 playoffs, so now I get to write something victory-tinged!

It would be easy to make too big a deal about the fact that the team they vanquished in five games this year is the same one that eliminated them last year. I refuse to do that largely because the rosters aren't identical to the ones last spring, but also because the true objective -- winning Lord Stanley's Cup -- requires prevailing in four consecutive playoffs series, not just one.

But I will say that it felt particularly good to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, not only because of what they did to my team in 2019, but because they play the precise kind of punishing, defensive game that tends to succeed in the post-season and often trips up higher-seeded squads like the Bolts.

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To win in the playoffs, you must have the gumption and mental strength to come through in adversity, when every little thing is tightly battled and the deck seems stacked and the margin for error is practically nil. These Bolts proved they have that gumption and mental strength by winning both contests that went to overtime -- including that Michenerian epic of a Game One that lasted five overtimes and ended up being the fourth-longest game in NHL history.

The Bolts took the series four games to one, with each of their victories being by one goal whereas Columbus's lone win was by two goals. The combined goal count for the series was in Tampa Bay's favor by just 14-12, and that, mes amis, is tight as can be. It says something good about the Bolts' character that they were able to forge through such a battle and come out on top by a margin that will look more comfortable in the history books that it was in reality.

It was Brayden Point who buried the Game One winner at 10:27 of the fifth overtime, and then it was Brayden Point who scored the series-winner 5:12 into overtime in Game Five. Therefore, I hereby dub him Mr. OT and declare that this shall be his nickname forevermore. 

What most impressed me about the series, however, was the Lightning's third line, consisting of Yanni Gourde at center flanked by late season acquisitions Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. They are fast, scrappy, happy to hit and willing to be hit. They are able to play against the best the competition has to offer. And each of them put the puck in the net against the Blue Jackets, never mind that neither Coleman nor Goodrow had scored in a Tampa Bay uniform until this week! I dub them the Lunch Pail Line, and declare that they are the kind of unit a team must have if it is going to have a chance to sip from the grail.

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When talking about the Lightning's chances going forward, there were other encouraging things about this round that just ended.

From a character standpoint, I love the resilience they showed by bouncing back to win Game Five after a putrid second period in which they lost a two-goal lead and watched Columbus score a go-ahead goal with less than 16 seconds remaining before the buzzer.

I love that Victor Hedman was a beast at every spot on the ice, on both sides of the puck, while logging monster minutes. He is arguably the best defenseman in the world and has been for several years, and for him to play like it when it matters most means a hell of a lot.

I love that Zach Bogosian, who was thought by many to be over the hill and a likely liability when the team signed him in February, has instead surprised everyone by moving seamlessly into the defense corps and making almost no mistakes even on the top pairing.

I loved Kevin Shattenkirk's even-keel presence and offensive zone quarterbacking throughout the series.

I love that despite Columbus having managed to keep the puck away from Nikita Kucherov for most of Game Five, as soon as he and the Bolts finally succeeded at getting it on his stick, he responded by assisting on all three of the goals that transformed a 4-2 third period deficit into a 5-4 overtime triumph.

And I love that despite Steven Stamkos being sidelined by injury(ies) the team still managed to defeat a defensive juggernaut over the course of a full playoff round.

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But there were troubling signs in this series as well. Things that must change in order for this team to win the Cup.

They kept committing bad penalties at bad times and putting themselves down a man. You simply can't keep doing that without it eventually catching up to you, especially when your likely opponent in the next round can throw snipers like Pastrnak and Marchand against you when you're on the PK.

And speaking of special teams, the Lightning were zero-for-ten on the power play against Columbus. That is unacceptable, especially for a team as talent-laden as them. If you go a whole series against Boston without scoring on the power play, you will lose the series and lose it badly. Period. End of story. No question about it.

The face-offs need to improve. Since the Coronasuspension ended, only two Lightning players who have taken more than a single draw (Point and Cedric Paquette) are above 50 percent, while every other player is below 45 percent. If you continue to perform like that in the dot night-in and night-out, you will ultimately be, in the words of C3PO, doomed.

Which brings me to: The Captain. I appreciate that the team is being enigmatic about Steven Stamkos's injury and his prognosis for return, but I do not like there is an injury and prognosis for them to be enigmatic about. The Lightning desperately need him back in the lineup for the juice he would bring to the power play and boost he would bring to the face-off dot.

Let us hope that Stamkos returns soon, and that he returns at full strength and at full speed.

Go Bolts!

And finally...

...hockey has returned. 

Lots of things have not returned since Coronapanic swept the world in March, but at least hockey has.

Granted, it did not feel like hockey at first, not with the stands empty and so many clubs sequestered in a particular city, all playing in the same arena with no real home team or visiting team.

But it was hockey nevertheless, and remains hockey nevertheless -- and is even playoff hockey since the NHL decided to nix the remainder of the regular season after that four-month delay. And I have glady adapted to it.

Thank God for that, because I have missed the diversion that this splendid game provides. So while I wait for other, more important facets of life to return, here are some thoughts about this long-interrupted 2019-20 NHL campaign.

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When the regular season got aborted at 85 percent of term, Alexander Ovechkin had 48 goals and was tied with David Pastrnak for tops in the league. That is a remarkable achievement, seeing as how it made 2019-20 the eleventh time in his career that he finished a season with 40 or more goals. The only other player in history to have pulled that off was Wayne Gretzky; and if Ovechkin hits the mark again next year, he will equal Gretzky's record of twelve 40-goal campaigns.

By finishing atop the board for 2019-20 (albeit in a tie) he pulled off another remarkable feat by securing his ninth Rocket Richard Trophy. Which is even more remarkable when you consider that he did it at the age of 34.

But what's even more remarkable than that is the fact that he's done it the last three seasons in a row, i.e. at the ages of 32, 33, and 34. And what's even more remarkable than that is the fact that he has also did it at the age of 30, meaning that with the lone exception of 2016-17, Ovechkin has so far led the NHL in goals in four out of the five seasons which have taken place since he's been "on the wrong side of 30."

Then again, he's topped the league in goals seven of the last eight seasons and nine of the last thirteen, so why, really, should anyone be surprised?

But what bugs me to no end, and drives me to write this segment, is that the early termination of this season denied Alexander Ovechkin the opportunity to finish with 50+ goals. The Caps had thirteen games left on the docket and he only needed two more markers, so it's almost certain he would have gotten them. That would have been his ninth time attaining that summit, which would have pulled him into a tie with Gretzky and Mike Bossy for the most 50-goal seasons in history.

I feel like he as a hockey player got robbed, and we as hockey fans got robbed as well. Damn.

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It sure feels like an era has ended in the Big Apple.

The dapper and unflappable Swede, Henrik Lundqvist, is Mr. New York Ranger Himself and ranks as one of the better goaltenders in NHL history. But he is 38, and his numbers have declined for a few years now, and he has a year left on his contract at a cap hit of $8.5 million. Plus, the team has two much cheaper goalies who outplayed him this year in Aleksandar Georgiev and Igor Shesterkin, both of whom are 24.

Oh, and there's this: Team president John Davidson said he spoke with Lundqvist at the end of the flight from Toronto after the Rangers' season ended, and said, "We will talk and see where we go. We made it clear that we aren't carrying three goalies next year. We gotta figure out what we are going to do."

It is almost impossible to picture Lundqvist wearing another organization's sweater, but it sure feels like the writing is on the wall. We shouldn't forget that Earl Campbell finished his career with the Saints, Joe Montana wound up in Kansas City, Michael Jordan suited up for the Washington Wizards, and Red Sox legend Wade Boggs donned a Yankees cap before everything was said and done. This stuff happens.

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Toronto somewhat rightly thinks of itself as the center of the hockey universe (though I disagree) and Pittsburgh somewhat rightly considers itself responsible for the creation of the NHL. 'Tis going to be interesting to see what those cities' franchises do in the offseason, for both are at a crossroads.

The Maple Leafs' core consists of John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander, whose combined cap hit equals a whopping $40.489 million. That means almost half of Toronto's salary cap (49.68 percent) is tied up in just four players, none of whom is a defenseman.

Meanwhile, the Penguins' core consists of 33-year-old Sidney Crosby, 34-year-old Evgeni Malkin, and 33-year-old Kris Letang, each of whom has significant history of injury. This means that, incomprehensible though it might seem, Father Time could be pouncing at this very instant and aging this championship club out of its contender status, right as it rubs up against the salary cap and enters an off-season in which both of its goalies become free agents and are due big raises.

Toronto GM Kyle Dubas and Pittsburgh GM Jim Rutherford have each said they have no plans to tamper with their core. I think they should rethink that stance, though of course it's easy for me to say that from my armchair.

The Leafs are four years into their project, and what do they have to show for it? Sure they've made it to the post-season four straight times, but on all four of those occasions they've failed to advance past the first round. Offense is not the problem and goaltending is not the problem. Defense, however, most certainly is the problem, and has been the problem this whole time, yet the Leafs have not shown any progress in that area despite having four years to work on it. Something's gotta give.

Matthews and Tavares aren't going anywhere and it's hard to imagine the Leafs dealing away Marner, but what about Nylander? Surely there is a willing trade partner out there, some team that has plenty of D but needs offense and would be very enticed by Nylander's manageable contract. At less than $7 million per annum, his salary is not only significantly less than the rest of Toronto's core, but is also reasonable for his skill set and he is locked up at that figure for four more seasons. I think Dubas has to shop him... and call me crazy, but I think he should do the unspeakable and also listen to offers on Marner, seeing as how he would bring a bigger return than Nylander, and seeing as how trading him would have the added benefit of clearing his almost $11 million cap hit off the books.

As far as the Penguins are concerned, I would be actively shopping Letang if I was Jim Rutherford. Letang has been one of the most overrated blueliners on Earth ever since he first stepped on NHL ice, yet everybody talks about him like he should get Hall of Fame consideration. Whoever Rutherford trades him to is guaranteed to overpay because Letang's reputation is bigger than his game, so Rutherford might as well accept an overpayment and bring some new and improved and younger blood into Western PA.

Also, count me among the many observers who believe Rutherford should re-sign Tristan Jarry to man the Penguins' net while allowing Matt Murray to move on to other pastures.

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News broke earlier today that Hall of Fame pivot Dale Hawerchuk has passed away at the age of 57. It was stomach cancer that took him out way too soon. Pardon my French, but fuck cancer. I hate it.

Hawerchuk was the first true legend of the Winnipeg Jets after they joined the NHL. He tallied 103 points (45, 58) in his rookie season of 1981-82, making him the first player in NHL history to pass the century mark as a rookie. And the only person to do that since him is Sidney Crosby.

In 1987 he won a late-third-period, defensive-zone faceoff that sprung Wayne Gretzky, Larry Murphy, and Mario Lemieux up the ice on a jailbreak that resulted in Lemieux scoring the goal that broke a 5-5 tie between Team Canada and Team USSR, thus winning the hallowed Canada Cup for his home and native land (I'm hoping you don't mind me using this occasion to quote our northern neighbor's national anthem).

Hawerchuk was traded to Buffalo in a blockbuster trade in 1990. There he had another excellent stint, averaging more than a point per game during his five years with the Sabres.

He will be missed.

Mankind's Greatest Hour

I first published this 12 years ago. It was the second post I ever wrote on this blog. With historical ignorance seeming to be at an all-time high as Independence Day 2020 dawns, it is worth ruminating on the facts mentioned after the second paragraph below (and whether it matters to anybody or not, my thoughts on some of the emotions that are running wild in our nation in this year of our discontent will be published here before too long):

Today, as we fire up our grills and crack open our beers, let us remember why we even have a July 4th holiday: to commemorate the greatest act of shared, selfless courage the world has ever seen.

Everybody should know that Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence. Most people know the names of a handful of the 56 men who signed it, such as John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, and of course Jefferson himself. But few people seem to realize that when those men signed their names, they were committing what was considered an act of treason against the British crown, punishable by death. Those men were property owners who were successful in their lives and businesses. Their lives were comfortable and they stood to lose everything by signing the Declaration -- yet they chose to sign it anyway, because they knew that casting off the crown and forming a new government based on individual liberty was the right thing to do, not only for their own descendants but for all of humanity. And here is what happened to some of those men after they signed the Declaration:

Five of them became prisoners of war.

Nearly one-sixth of them died before the war ended.

British forces burned, and/or looted, the homes and properties of nearly one-third of them.

When the British did that to the property of William Floyd, he and his family fled and spent the next seven years living as refugees without income. His wife died two years before the war ended.

After being forced into the wilderness by British forces, John Hart struggled to make his way home. When he finally got there, he found that his wife was dead and his 13 children were missing. He died without ever seeing them again.

Richard Stockton was dragged from his bed and sent to prison while his property was ravaged. From the day of his release from prison until the day he died, he had to rely on charity from others to feed his family.

Francis Lewis’s wife was imprisoned and beaten. Meanwhile, his wealth was plundered. His last years were spent as a widower living in poverty.

Thomas Nelson Jr.’s home was captured and occupied by British General Cornwallis, who used it as what we would now call an operations center. Therefore, Nelson ordered his troops to destroy his own home with cannon fire during the Battle of Yorktown. To assist in funding the war, he used his own credit to borrow 2 million dollars, which today would equal more than 25 billion dollars. Repaying that debt bankrupted him, and when he died he was buried in an unmarked grave.

It is a safe bet that fewer than one percent of our citizens have ever heard of these people, much less know anything about the devastating sacrifices they made so that future generations could have the freedom necessary to build the kind of upwardly-mobile, always-progressing society we would come to take for granted.

The Founding Fathers bequeathed to us a wonderful gift called America, and we owe it to our children to make sure we don’t allow that gift to be destroyed. We should never hear the words “Fourth of July” without feeling a skip in our heart and a tear in our eye.

Much thanks to Jeff Jacoby, the late Paul Harvey, and all the others who have written and spoken about the fates of the signers, to keep their story alive.

A Birthday Homage

I posted the below tribute eleven years ago, when Thomas Sowell turned 79, and now I am re-posting it because today is his 90th birthday. Although Sowell hung up his pen and retired from writing his syndicated column in December 2016, he remains a productive intellectual titan who just published this new book and appeared on Mark Levin's radio show this very morning. America could certainly use more people like him. Happy Birthday, Mr. Sowell. You are appreciated.

In 1930, an age when the South was ruled by Jim Crow and the country was about to get plunged into the Great Depression, Thomas Sowell was born fatherless and black in rural North Carolina.

His aunt relocated him to Harlem and raised him as her own. In his teenage years, economic hardship compelled him to drop out of high school and join the workforce. Four years later, he was drafted by the Marines at the height of the Korean War.

After his military service was done, Sowell got his GED and used it as a springboard to a remarkable career as a scholar and researcher. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, master’s from Columbia, and doctorate from the University of Chicago, then went on to teach at Howard, Cornell, Brandeis, Amherst, and UCLA. He has been associated with four major research centers over the years, most notably the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

A true thinker, as opposed to one of the touchy-feely sorts who have taken over academia, Sowell has mastered the rare art of pursuing truth above all else. Unlike most people, he follows the facts and honestly reports them, no matter where they lead; he meticulously sets aside emotions and pre-conceived notions, in order to analyze evidence thoroughly and objectively; and he is far more concerned about being right than he is about being liked. These qualities led him to become a staunch and unapologetic defender of capitalism, after having started out as a Marxist.

Over the years he has penned numerous essays, dozens of books, and thousands of editorial columns. His essays have been published in magazines, and his editorials, which still average more than two per week, are syndicated in newspapers and on web sites across the land. And no matter how complex or unconventional his topic, he always makes his point in clear, unambiguous language because he understands what too many writers do not -- that the whole point of writing is for your audience to understand you.

Thomas Sowell’s writings pack a philosophical punch like no one else’s. When I read one of his works, I can sense myself thinking faster and clearer than before and it feels like I have a buzz. During the pre-Internet days, I felt let down every morning the Tampa Tribune failed to feature Sowell on its editorial page.

Though he is known mostly for his championing of judicial restraint and laissez-faire economics, he deals with all kinds of subjects and many of his writings are sociological. In one series of books he explores the phenomenon of children who begin talking late in childhood and are often misdiagnosed as being autistic.

Today is Thomas Sowell’s 79^th birthday. If you have never read any of his works before, I encourage you to do so. His web site is here, and you can read his takes on a particularly timely topic here and here. And finally, here are some of his “pearls of wisdom” that I have collected over the years:

A gullible people cannot indefinitely remain a free people.

Do not expect common sense to return to the criminal justice system by itself. The commonness of common sense makes it unattractive to those whose whole sense of themselves depends on their feeling wiser and nobler than the common herd.

All human beings are so imperfect, no matter what color wrapping they come in, that to exempt any group from the standards of performance and behavior expected of others is not a blessing but a curse.

Nature lovers marvel that newly hatched turtles instinctively head for the sea. But that is no more remarkable than the fact that people on the political left head for occupations in which their ideas do not have to meet the test of facts or results.

For gun control laws to be effective, criminals must respect those laws. But if criminals respected laws, they wouldn’t be criminals.

All across this country, the school curriculum has been invaded by psychological-conditioning programs which not only take up time sorely needed for intellectual development, but also present an emotionalized and anti-intellectual way of responding to the challenges facing every individual and every society.

Are we afraid to face a little spin to protect what others before us have faced death for?

What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?

We do not live in the past, but the past in us.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer’s money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse.

Now matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: “But what would you replace it with?” When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?

Nobody is equal to anybody. Even the same man is not equal to himself on different days.

For evidence that private property rather than democracy is the key to prosperity and freedom, I point to India and Hong Kong. In India the electoral franchise is wide and elections have long been regular, but property rights are weak. For most of the post-World War II era, in contrast, Hong Kong had no democracy, but property rights there have been among the strongest the world has ever seen. Indians are poor and shackled by a massively corrupt state; the people of Hong Kong are wealthy and free. Private property, not democracy, is the great guarantor of prosperity and liberty. And because it decentralizes power, it safeguards us from madmen with utopian hallucinations.

One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.

Sometimes it seems as if love songs are being replaced by sex songs.

Those who say that all cultures are equal never explain why the results of those cultures are so grossly unequal. When some cultures have achieved much greater prosperity, better health, longer life, more advanced technology, more stable government, and greater personal safety than others, has all this been just coincidence?

The scariest thing about politics today is not any particular policy or leaders, but the utter gullibility with which the public accepts notions for which there is not a speck of evidence, such as the benefits of “diversity,” the dangers of “overpopulation,” and innumerable other fashionable dogmas.

What is far more of a threat than the little dictators who are puffed up with their own importance is the willingness of so many others to surrender their freedom and their money in exchange for phrases like “crisis” and “compassion.”

People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not have one-tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together. In this situation, for the intelligentsia to impose their notions on ordinary people is essentially to impose ignorance on knowledge.

Liberals seem to assume that, if you don’t believe in their particular political solutions, that you don’t really care about the people that they claim to want to help.

In Washington, the clearer a statement is, the more certain it is to be followed by a “clarification” when people realize what was said.