Titans bring out dart board again
by Bryce Martin

The Titans dart-chunkers are at it again.

Chris Johnson? Why pick an injury prone running back when it is not necessary? The Titans recently rid themselves of Chris Brown, a running back who could not stay healthy no matter what. Just show him some grid marks and he gets gimpy.

I realize by looking at past years that what looks like safe picks for teams sometimes turns instead to be disastrous picks. Still, if someone has not proven themselves in college why would you expect them to do so at the pro level? Wouldn't you want to pick someone based on what they have done, not what they might do?

And Vince Young needs some weapons, huh? Sure, let's steer away from the bigger problem. He needs an arsenal to overcome his inefficiencies. So, Titans talent stratego Mike Reinfeldt was asked (in a Tennessean article) if Young had any input regarding the draft:

“Obviously he is concerned with the process and its impacts and he may share his thoughts,” Reinfeldt said. “We listen to those thoughts, but at the same time we have guys that spend their whole lives out in the field going from school to school to school, watching endless hours of tape. This is their job; this is their profession.”

I guess this would explain why six of the seven picks last year are washouts, as easily predicted by this writer last year at this time. They quite obviously picked on potential last year instead of what was actually there. They're off to the same start this year.

Las Vegas would love these Titans pickers. You could build a town with them.

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A Ben Day artist on a lesser palette
by Bryce Martin


Our school newspaper was called the Bulldog Growl. I was somehow voted to assume duties as a class reporter for the Growl and our advisor, Mr. Paul Ferguson, designated me as the ben-day artist for the sheet.

On such occasions that my services were needed, a class runner would find me and I would be excused from whatever classroom I was partaking of knowledge to prepare me for life in the outside world some soon day, and I would join the crew in preparing a new issue. Mr. Ferguson would give me my art kit and tell me what holes he wanted me to fill with illustrations or cartoons. Other than specific details he ordered, such as doing a masthead overhaul, I was free to add my own cartoons or to design illustrations as I saw fit.

The ben-day tools included some small, square plastic plates. They had various sized, raised dot patterns on each. Once I made my drawing, I would decide what areas of it I wanted shaded. It was a technique to simulate the dot patterns used in the printing process for newspapers and magazines. If you looked at a printed photograph or even the artwork in a comic book, you would see it was all composed of tiny dots. The ben-day technique merely simulated that process. I would slide the chosen plate with the preferred dot pattern under the stencil carbon and reach for my burnisher. The burnisher looked like a probing tool a dentist might use. It had a rounded end that I rubbed over the drawing to get the dots to appear where I wanted them. I did the actual drawings with other similar tools.

My artwork was added in holes purposely left to help aid or illustrate a particular news or feature story or, as I mentioned, to fill up space, such as the use of a cartoon. The stories were typed with the ribbon removed so the bare keys could strike the stencil. With a typist doing that and me using my art tools it amounted to "cutting a stencil." I was a staff writer also, but all our typing for the stencil was done by a special typist. We turned our stories in for that typist. It took a special touch because, to offer just one example, if you typed too hard an o would not be an o but a solid circle. After the stencil was ready, someone ran copies from the mimeograph machine and others helped in assembling and stapling together the pages.

This "benday" word was so foreign to me and Mr. Ferguson spoke it so casually. I thought of India ink and of Egyptian words and contexts. After mind groping for clues and quickly exhausting those, I asked Mr. Ferguson what the name of the technique referred to. He said it was named for the man who invented it, a man named Ben Day. I thought he was kidding, of course, though I didn't know why. Some years later, I came to find out that indeed a Benjamin Day and his skill with dot patterns was the single driving force behind a popular new art movement.

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News Flash: Catholics Still Facing Sex Abuse
by Bryce Martin

A headline worth examining:

Pope Prays for Healing in Sex Abuse Scandal

The current visit by the current pope has brought the expected. But to refer to the years and years of sexual predator priests plying their lewd and cruel vices on young boys as the "sex abuse scandal" is grossly misleading. The term connotes an actual event took place and we are now moving beyond it.

Does anyone actually think it's over? The causes and conveniences that created the situations are still in place. All that's changed is that the perpetrators know now to be more careful in not getting caught and catholic officials are now better armed in ways of concealing and covering up such offenses. The situation is worse now than ever for rising victims.

As crimes go, this case is long from being closed.

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Steve McNair easily not a hall of famer
by Bryce Martin

I have nothing against Steve McNair, although as a Titans fan I was always painfully aware of his production numbers and embarrassed by them in comparison to other, better quarterbacks.

The Sports Zone, 104.5 radio in Nashville, brought up the question today on the wave of McNair's announced retirement. I understand such questions are the topic of call-in radio sports shows.

This particular item shouldn't be on that topic list. McNair is not even on the table for discussion on whether he is a future NFL Hall of Fame candidate. Of course he's not. Two recent Titans retirees, Frank Wycheck and Eddie George, both borderline, make for a much better and legitimate debate.

I know of at least 18 or 20 quarterbacks with better numbers who will never make the hall. Simple. Like McNair, they don't have the numbers.

Those who bring up talk of Super Bowls are showing their ignorance on such matters. Sure, how you rate on such things as major awards among your peers, and post-season contributions, can play a factor in assessing a career, but that counts in instances where regular season totals are a little light and need some extra weight to ballast a career.

McNair's best season would rank as Peyton Manning's worst. Look it up. An unfair comparison, I realize, but still embarrassing.

It is not just my opinion that McNair is not a hall of famer. It's plain to see, and it's not a topic that should just now be coming to light. Any real sports fan, especially one who follows a certain team such as the Titans, ought to already know such things.

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C'est Magnifique Bardot
by Bryce Martin

Some recent Yahoo headlines have done their intended job in getting a reaction.

Brigitte Bardot May Go To Prison For Anti-Muslim Remarks

In France, where the government holds up its hands in surrender to anything I guess you can expect this.

If you can't say something bad about Muslims, who can you say something bad about?

Please don't tell me that most Muslims are good people and not like the ones who consider all non-Muslims as infidels who need their throats slit. I don't hear this so-called majority speaking out against their brethren.

France. What a joke. Here's a country that for the past 30 years or so has fought to keep American culture out of its society (not necessarily a bad idea) and only recently was complaining about our slang words creeping into their vocabularies. But, it's fine if Muslims want to come in and take over their country (which is obviously happening) and erase all its past and traditions for a new Franceistan.

Some Gays Having Trouble Getting a Divorce

They're not married. Think that could be the problem?

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Yes, wars are costly
by Bryce Martin

I love these national wire stories, comments and emails from people on how much the war in Iraq is costing, and hinting in saying so how we just need to pull our tent as if the money could be better spent elsewhere. It could, but it never is and so why would this be any different?

If we had never went to Iraq, no single American would have one single penny gained from us not going. And don't say, yeah, but we could have made better use of it. We could have, yes, but (see above) since when has our federal government taken that stance? Whatever amount of money is spent through waste and corruption would not begin to equal what has been spent in Iraq. It's clear that no one elected to any of our higher offices will stop the moneygrabbers and wastrels.

I don't understand completely why these people don't just come out and say they are democrats and against anything republican.

Wars cost money. It's a known fact. So, what's your point?
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