Picture of Muhammad not available due to superstitious savagery
Welcome back to Balladeer’s Blog, where ALL religions are treated as mythology, including Islam. Last night I had a dream in which Allah (in her pre- Islamic female form of Alliyat) and Muhammad (who was much shorter than he looks in those drawings that Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES
* NJCAA1 DAY 3 *
VAQUEROS RIDE! – Both NCAA Divisions 2 and 3 had off days yesterday for their respective tournaments. NJCAA Divisions One and Two saw action, however. In Division One the 6th seeded CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE VAQUEROS battled the 11th seeded SALT LAKE COLLEGE BRUINS for the right to advance to the Elite Eight. The Vaqueros moved on with an action- filled 87-82 victory in an undeniable Instant Classic!
ALL DEFENSE, ALL THE TIME – The 2nd seeded SPARTANBURG METHODIST COLLEGE PIONEERS are the ONLY undefeated team in the NJCAA1 tournament. Yesterday they had all they could handle from the 15 seeds, the KILGORE COLLEGE RANGERS. In a game that took defense to new heights the Pioneers actually trailed their double-digit seed opponents at halftime by a Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball, college hockey
As promised, here is the second part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the top six apocryphal gospels, meaning the rejected and obscure gospels outside of the four accepted by mainstream Christianity as “authentic” (snicker).
Those four are, of course, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There were dozens of others and I’ve selected the six that provide the best opportunities for comparative mythology.
3. THE GOSPEL OF THE SAVIOR – The narrative of this gospel centers around dialogues between Jesus and his apostles in the last few days before his arrest and crucifixion. Some of the material is similar to the Gospels of John and Matthew, but some is Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
* NAIA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME *
Georgetown Tigers
COMING FROM BEHIND IS STILL NO PROBLEM FOR GEORGETOWN COLLEGE – Last night wrapped up the 2013 National Championship Tournament in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics). The 13th seeded GEORGETOWN COLLEGE (KY) TIGERS proved they had one more comeback victory over a higher seed in them.
The Tigers ultimately got the better of the 6th seeded SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY LIONS to take the title in the country’s oldest college basketball tourney (yes, older than the NCAA tournament). The Lions got off to an early lead and held a 5 point advantage less than two minutes into the game. Georgetown College would be playing catchup for a little while but once they snatched the lead they would never give it back. At halftime the Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball, college hockey
Everyone but the most sheltered Christians have known for centuries about the alternate, or apocryphal gospels. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were the four canonical or “official” gospels that were accepted by the mainstream church but there were dozens of other gospels with wildly varying versions of the story of Jesus.
With my love of mythology I first got into those other gospels when I was 18 and that was long before Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code fouled the territory by attracting countless conspiracy kooks to the subject of these obscure writings. It complicates conversations now because when many people hear you discussing the apocryphal gospels they think you’re a paranoid crackpot looking for the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene around every corner.
At any rate it’s fun to wonder what form Easter celebrations would have taken if the following rejected gospels had been accepted as “official.”
6. THE ACTS OF THECLA – Since the Gospel of Mary has gotten so much attention following the success of Dan Brown’s writings and their screen adaptations I decided to throw a spotlight on the neglected woman named Thecla instead. Thecla supposedly Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
* NAIA FINAL FOUR *
THE BIG SAGU – The 6th seeded SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY (SAGU) LIONS advanced to their first ever appearance in the National Championship Game with last night’s upset of the 2nd seeded LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS. The Lions had the Blue Raiders fans nervous from the start and led throughout most of the 1st half.
With just a few minutes left before the break Lindsey Wilson retook the lead and it was SAGU’s turn to play catchup and by half-time the Lions had tied the score up at 31-31. In the 2nd half SAGU started to get some separation and the Blue Raiders could only watch helplessly as the Lions bounced them from the tournament just one game short of the title clash. The final score in the night’s first semifinal was Lions 80 Blue Raiders 64.
Georgetown Tigers
MAYBE THIRTEEN IS LUCKY AFTER ALL – The 13th seeded GEORGETOWN COLLEGE (KY) TIGERS have been stunning opponent after opponent in the NAIA Division One tournament. That storied tourney, which I will point out again – IS OLDER THAN THE NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT – saw the Tigers pull off another come from behind win last night on their way to the title game.
The LSU- SHREVEPORT PILOTS (riverboat pilots) led by Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog are familiar with my fondness for Movie Host shows of the past and my EXCLUSIVE interview with Randy Clower of the mid-1980’s program The Texas 27 Film Vault has proven to be a very popular item on this blog.
Randy and his cohost Richard Malmos, playing machine gun- packing Film Vault Technicians First Class, would show and mock bad and campy films from decades ago and were a huge hit when they were on the air. I feel they Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
* NCCAA CHAMPIONSHIP *
Shorter U Hawks
SHORTER PEOPLE GOT PLENTY OF REASONS TO LIVE – The National Christian College Athletic Association tournament has provided us with plenty of exciting basketball since its Wednesday tipoff. True to form the NCCAA Championship Game boasted a wealth of drama as well, with the SHORTER UNIVERSITY HAWKS and the OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY EAGLES going into Overtime before the new champs were crowned.
OCU was going for its second title in the past three years but the Hawks would have none of it. When the dust had settled in the extra session Shorter University emerged with a 90-87 victory in this Instant Classic. Enroute to the title game SU defeated Mid- America Christian University and top- seeded Fresno Pacific University. Congratulations to the Hawks!
* NJCAA3 CHAMPIONSHIP *
Brookdale College
PARTYING IN THE GARDEN STATE – The National Championship game in NJCAA Division Three was played yesterday between New Jersey’s BROOKDALE COLLEGE JERSEY BLUES and the state of Texas’ EASTFIELD COLLEGE HARVESTERS. The first half of the game was a Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball, college hockey
In the tradition of Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at neglected epic myths from the Navajo, Vietnamese and Chinese pantheons I will examine the saga of the Iroquois god of magic Hodadeion. This will be done in the same style as my examinations of the Navajo war god’s battle with the Anaye, the war between the Vietnamese jungle and monsoon gods and the Chinese Divine Archer Yi’s adventures.
1. Hodadeion was the son of the creator god Tharonhiawakon and a mortal woman, the same mortal woman who bore him Hodadeion’s siblings. Those siblings were Otgoe, the wampum god who loved chestnuts and Yeyenthwus, the future goddess of chestnut trees.
Tharonhiawakon was gone for years at a time attending to other matters in the world and while Otgoe was a toddler and Hodadeion and Yeyenthwus in their teens an entire village full of cannibalistic humans led by a powerful but evil medicine man was preying on Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
* NAIA SWEET SIXTEEN *
NUMBER THREE TAKES A FALL – Perennial basketball powers the (3) LEE UNIVERSITY FLAMES were upset yesterday by the (14) MONTANA WESTERN BULLDOGS. The Bulldogs are the only Frontier Conference team left in the tournament and did the league proud with their 83-73 shocker over the Flames. Montana Western came back from a 34-31 halftime deficit to stun the nation.
CRUSADE OF THE RIVERBOAT PILOTS – The LSU- SHREVEPORT PILOTS put together an upset of their own last night. Their opponents, the (9) EVANGEL UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS, only gave up an average of 65 points during the 2012-2013 campaign but the Pilots boast the highest- scoring offense in NAIA Division One. The game saw a series of runs, with Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
