An Earthly Hero Dies — Wayman Tisdale

 

A great jazz musician and basketball player is gone.  I did not know Wayman Tisdale for his basketball.  But he had one of the most unique bass sounds I have ever heard.  The style of jazz he played was so soothing to the soul.  Almost every arrangement was like that to me. 

His bass will be missed by me.  Though I used to play piano, I love bass.  When the bass is just right, no matter what the music style, the song/arrangement can “stand.”  That’s basic but so important. 

Wayman’s uniqueness though was that his bass was the  lead much of the time.  That’s what made his sound unique.  Bass is usually a background sound but he heard it and played it in a lead role.

Here is what they are saying about Wayman:

NBA Fan House:

Wayman Tisdale has spent the past several years fighting bone cancer. He broke his leg twice within one year after a 20-year college and pro basketball career in which he’d never suffered worse than a sprained ankle. When doctors discovered cancerous cells in his leg and a mass program of chemotherapy didn’t work, Tisdale’s leg was amputated.

ESPN:

Tisdale played 12 seasons in the NBA, averaging 15.3 points and 6.1 rebounds in 840 games. His best season came in the 1989-90 season with Sacramento when he averaged 22.3 ppg and 7.5 rpg. Tisdale was a collegiate star at Oklahoma, where he averaged 25.6 ppg and 10.1 rpg during his three-year career.

Yahoo News:

Tisdale averaged 25.6 points and 10.1 rebounds during his three seasons with the Sooners, earning Big Eight Conference player of the year each season.

He still holds Oklahoma’s career records for points and rebounds. Tisdale also owns the school’s single-game scoring mark—61 points against Texas-San Antonio as a sophomore—and career marks for points per game, field goals and free throws made and attempts.

In 1997, Tisdale became the first Oklahoma player in any sport to have his jersey number retired.

Go buy some Tizzy music for Wayman.

Did you hear this about our President?

The Scripps News Service carried this as the US President attended the G-20 summit in London.  Please Mr. Obama, you are supposed to be the President of all of us.  And, we are trying to trim the budget for 2010.  I think the British media found some fat that could be trimmed greatly.

Enjoy and react!

The heads of government in London for the G-20 summit are discussing serious and weighty issues, which in time will be duly reported on, but right now the British press is entranced by the sheer size of President Obama’s traveling entourage. And no wonder.

Obama arrived with 500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president’s own food and water.

And, according to the Evening Standard, he also came with “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters.” For sure, our president is not going to be at a loss for words.

The press duly reported on Air Force One and all its bells and whistles but also on the presence of the presidential helicopter, Marine One, and a fleet of identical decoys to ferry him from Stansted airport to central London.

Among all those vehicles is the presidential limousine, which one local paper mistakenly called Cadillac One, but is universally referred to as the Beast. The limo, reinforced with ceramic and titanium armor, carries tear gas cannon, night vision devices, its own oxygen and is resistant to chemical and radiation attack. It is, marveled one reporter, a sort of mobile panic room. The Guardian called it “the ultimate in heavily armored transport.”

The president is entitled to all the security, communications and support he feels necessary to do his job but surely, when we’re trying to project a more restrained, humble image to the world, the president’s huge retinue could be scaled back to something less than the triumphal march from “Aida.”

Confessions of Unbelievers: Diderot

The French philosopher and infidel, Denis Diderot,  said:

No better lessons can I teach my child than those of the bible.

May we all learn to teach our children well.  Let us not forget these words of Mr. Diderot who knew the value of the impression of the teachings of the Bible upon a child’s heart.