The Frontierado holiday is coming up fast – on Friday, August 3rd, in fact, so the frequency of my Frontierado posts is going to increase. Today we’ll revisit the rules of Frontierado Poker for newbies to the holiday.
Here are the rules for Frontierado Poker, the game that is strictly my own invention to go along with my holiday Frontierado.
1. Remove all face cards from the deck. The game is played with a 40-card deck.
2. Every player Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
Balladeer’s Blog has examined 24 ancient Greek comedies so far in terms of their continuing relevance over 2,400 years later. This will be the fourth time I will focus on one of the ancient Greek comedians whose entire corpus is very, very fragmentary, touching briefly on all of their known works. For background info on ancient Greek comedy plus my previous reviews click here: https://glitternight.com/ancient-greek-comedies/
ALCAEUS – This comic playwright came along for the tail end of Attic Old Comedy. Alcaeus’ career ranged from approximately 405 BCE to the 380s BCE and we have fragmentary remains of eight comedies from an unknown total body of work.
1. TRAGI-COMEDY – This play gave comedic treatment to the traditional rivalry between comedy and tragedy on the ancient Athenian stage. The comedy had fun with the Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy
Bear River Tom Smith
The Frontierado holiday is coming up on Friday, August 3rd and Balladeer’s Blog continues presenting holiday- themed articles. I know that in reality the gunfighters of the old west were thugs and worse but Frontierado is about the myth of the American west, not the grinding reality.
As the glorious day approaches and we are all making our holiday preparations enjoy a sampling of this group of colorful characters who don’t get the attention – or movies – they deserve.
1. BEAR RIVER TOM – That’s our top-ranked figure in the photo to your left. One of the few actual gunmen to wear a fancy two-gun holster, Bear River Tom Smith’s myth begins with his birth in 1838 in New York City. He either did or did not serve in the Union Army in 1861 (accounts vary) but was definitely part of the NYC police force by 1862. In 1867 he headed west, working as a laborer laying track for the Union Pacific Railroad in Nebraska.
By 1868 the crew he was with had reached Wyoming, where the Hell On Wheels town of Bear River sprang up around their work camp. Bear River was to wild, lawless railroad towns what Dodge City, Kansas was to wild, lawless cattletowns. Bear River Tom put his guns, fists and law enforcement experience to work protecting the Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
As a public service to all of us college football fans eagerly awaiting the start of the 2012 season Balladeer’s Blog presents another look at some of the coolest helmets in the divisions covered here.
Last week I covered the coolest helmets in NAIA college football. This time around I’ll feature the coolest helmets in the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association). Each year the NCCAA’s premier gridiron event is the Victory Bowl and Balladeer’s Blog brings you coverage right here.
6. SOUTHERN NAZARENE UNIVERSITY CRIMSON STORM
Location: Bethany, OK
Comment: Southern Nazarene University just moved back to the Continue reading
Filed under college football, Cool Helmets
We all know that in real life the celebrated “heroes” of the old west were a pack of corrupt and/or outrightly criminal thugs who would have had a pretty redneckish worldview. And let’s face it, by our standards their personal hygiene habits would have been pretty disgusting. But since the Frontierado holiday is all about celebrating the myth of the West and not the grinding reality of it here’s my list of the Top Four Westerns Based On Real-Life Figures. Coming up with lists like this is one of the perks of being the international commissioner of Frontierado (along with the seven-figure income and a staff of three hundred people).
1. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) – Redford and Newman set the standard for the “buddy western” with this magnificent movie. Newman once described this flick by saying “It’s a Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
Two terrible presidents who destroyed the American economy
Welcome back to Balladeer’s Blog, the only Independent Voter site on the web that is truly nonpartisan in its criticism of the walking caricatures called Liberals and Conservatives.
Let me treat you to a breakdown of some of the reasons why American Liberals and Conservatives are equally despised.
In these posts I generally start with what’s wrong with American Liberals first and examine what’s wrong with American Conservatives second. That’s because, let’s face it, Conservatives are slapped in the face plenty of times a day with the fact that the rest of us don’t agree with most of their ridiculous positions. Fox News Channel and talk radio are really the only major outlets they can turn to without seeing their views and values viciously trashed.
American Liberals on the other hand seem oblivious to the fact that the rest of us disagree with most of their positions, too, not just Conservative positions. American Liberals are so pompously complacent that they actually think their opinions aren’t JUST opinions. They’ve Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES
Recently the College of Idaho Coyotes, or “Yotes” for short, announced they are relaunching football for the first time since the 1970’s! At left you see the preview of the new helmets the Coyotes will be sporting.
And NAIA college football continues to grow and grow! This coming season the following teams will be playing their first intercollegiate football games: Point University Skyhawks, Belleville Lynx, Bluefield College Ramblin’ Rams and the Wayland Baptist University Pioneers.
Balladeer’s Blog presents its look at the coolest football helmets in NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) football. Feel free to let me know whose helmets you feel I left out or who should have been rated higher or lower.
8. BETHANY COLLEGE SWEDES
Location: Lindsborg, KS
Comment: Like the Florida Gators the Bethany Swedes have one of those iconic helmets with stylish lettering and an overall eye-catching appeal. This Continue reading
Filed under college football, Cool Helmets
With Frontierado rapidly approaching this August 3rd you’re running out of shopping days!
What is Frontierado? Frontierado is a holiday my Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
The Washington Mystics (logo at right) notched a 3rd win, making their record 3-11 now and leaving the Tulsa Shock as the only WNBA team with just 2 wins so far this season. The Connecticut Sun retain their lead in the Eastern Conference standings and in the Western Conference the defending champion Minnesota Lynx retain the top spot, followed by the San Antonio Silver Stars.
For updated scores and the latest standings keep checking back here at Balladeer’s Blog.
JULY 8TH – San Antonio Silver Stars (11-5) win their 7th in a row, defeating the (H) New York Liberty (6-10) by a score of 94-81 *** Tulsa Shock (3-13) over the Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
Balladeer’s Blog wishes a happy birthday to the USA! What happened in early July of 1776 certainly needs no rehashing (the Green Bay Packers won the very first Superbowl) so in keeping with my blog’s theme of addressing more out of the way subjects this post will examine various events that took place on other July 4th’s throughout American history.
JULY 4TH, 1778 – George Rogers Clark led his rebel forces in taking the British stronghold of Kaskaskia, near the 
confluence of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia Rivers. Clark and his Rangers were on a mission for then-Virginia Governor Patrick Henry.
JULY 4TH, 1783 – The Massachusetts Supreme Court is finalizing its written decision holding that slavery has been illegal in the state since adoption of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights in 1780.
JULY 4TH, 1788 – The Constitution of the United States is finally in full effect this calendar year, instituting the government we are still officially ruled by. First elections are scheduled for later in the year.
JULY 4TH, 1789 – Back in the days before the Continue reading
Filed under Revolutionary War
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