ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC - Aristotle Johnson won the Sea Colony Turkey Trot 5K Sunday, Nov. 25, in Bethany Beach in 16:33. Aristotle is a junior at Dover High School where he runs cross country and track. I asked him after the race how many times he has been asked about the name Aristotle and he replied with a smile, “None.”
I watched this talented young man run last spring and I deduced he was named after the Greek philosopher Aristotle because that is a logical thing to conclude. Aristotle is the father of modern-day logic - not Spock - but Sunday I talked to Teresa Johnson, Aristotle’s grandmother, who named her son Aristotle after Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping magnate who picked Jackie Kennedy off the pile and married her. We are truly living in the global village where most things are totally illogical.
PRETTY WOMAN - Delaware State senior and former Cape cheerleader Jessica Tyler is a pretty woman. I don’t want to say I coached her father when he was a 9th-grade Lewes Junior High running back 24 years ago, but it appears I just said it.
Jessica is a broadcast journalism major who has done work with Comcast and interned with CBS last summer. She was doing some background work for ESPN last Saturday when I spotted her on the sideline, and you just get the feeling that Jessica is destined for prime time.
POINTLESS - When it comes to little sports vignettes during games, men prefer pointless anecdotes that we don’t have to pay attention to. And that is what is wrong with the latest barrage of sideline babes providing insights during games - they are cutesy stories with introductions followed by supportive points and wrap-around conclusions.
That’s why I hear so many men watching the television and screaming, “Shut up! This isn’t Masterpiece Theater.” Actually, there are other suggestions which are downright crude because football is a rude game dude!
WEST VIRGINIA - Back in the early summer of 1975, Susan and I looked at some rental houses in Milton. Bill Mulheisen, the Cape football coach at that time, was the only person I knew locally and he joked, “Milton? Only people from West Virginia move to Milton.”
The joke was funny because Milton and West Virginia in the same joke seemed congruous at that time, except for the West Virginia transplants I met who lived in Lewes, like Lee Sterling and Gary Wray.
And now the Mountaineers have a chance to play in the national championship game. All they have to do is beat Pittsburgh to punch their ticket which leads into another joke.
WAYNE’S WORLD - Wayne Kursh of Marathon Sports, who has been promoting road races in Delaware for 30 years, ran in the Seashore Strider Run for the Rose 5K last Saturday in Rehoboth.
Wayne, a former high school football player who played in the Blue-Gold All-Star game, is a Delaware and Eagles fan. When commenting about last Friday’s Delaware win over Delaware State and the 288-yard performance of Omar Cuff, Wayne said, “Did you see the size of the holes? I could have run through there.”
And then Wayne paused, “Heck you could have run through there.”
Ex-squeeze me?
SNIPPETS - Former Cape distance runner and pole-vaulter Paul Ecker is a freshman at DeSalles University just south of Allentown, Pa., where he plans to run cross country, indoor and outdoor track. Paul broke 4:30 in the mile and 2:00 in the open 800 last year and the kid is a natural and not afraid to work hard. Jane Wagner Murphy was one of the first women to run track at Cape, graduating in 1981. She’s one of seven Wagner children to graduate from Cape and was at the UD-Delaware State game Saturday watching her son Brendon, who is a member of the drum corps in the University of Delaware marching band. Coaches K.C. Keeler and Al Lavan spent an easy moment in each other’s company before the football game. Both men look relaxed and happy and so would you if you made close to a half million dollars a year coaching a IAA football team.
Call the Cloud 9 Restaurant at 229-1999 to make reservations for the Nov. 30 dinner to benefit Beebe Medical Center and fight breast cancer in memory of Patricia L Brimm. There is jazz and art and great food and, most importantly, no race or walk, just dinner to benefit the cause. The dinner cost is $40, which you can deduct from your wallet. But seriously, it would be nice to see a community show of support because we have all been affected, so its time to play back.
The Cape basketball team is announcing Midnight Madness beginning at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30 because Six Night Madness doesn’t sound like as much fun. The first game will feature the two middle schools and then the freshmen and junior varsity players get after each other. Finally, the varsity plays and intra-squad game. The cost for admission is $2 for students and $3 for adults and dropouts who may be one and the same person.
