October 18, 2011 · 9:27 pm

COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLLS WEEK OF OCTOBER 17TH

 The Blinn College Buccaneers (helmet at left), the team for which Cam Newton played before transferring to Auburn, are still ranked number 1 in the NJCAA Poll after holding on to win a 30-27 nail- biter with Trinity Valley this past Saturday. As expected the Delta State Statesmen are the new number 1 in D2 after they took down the previously top-ranked North Alabama Lions (coached by THE Terry Bowden) in last Thursday night’s overtime classic. No change to the number one teams in the other divisions covered by Balladeer’s Blog.

NAIA – 1. ST XAVIER UNIVERSITY COUGARS   …   2. MARIAN KNIGHTS   …   3. CC FIGHTING SAINTS (defending champs)   …   4. GEORGETOWN (KY) TIGERS   …   5. MIDAMERICA NAZARENE PIONEERS   …   6. MORNINGSIDE MUSTANGS   …   7. BENEDICTINE RAVENS   …   8. AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS   …   T9. MISSOURI VALLEY VIKINGS   …   T9. WILLIAM PENN STATESMEN   …   11. ST FRANCIS (IL) FIGHTING SAINTS   …   12. ST FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS   …   13. ST AMBROSE FIGHTING BEES (love that name)   …   14. BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS   …   15. OTTAWA (KS) BRAVES   …   16. VCS VIKINGS   …   17. CUMBERLAND BULLDOGS   …   18. DOANE TIGERS   …   19. DAKOTA WESLEYAN TIGERS   …   20. BETHANY  SWEDES   …   21. SOUTHERN NAZARENE CRIMSON STORM   …   22. EASTERN OREGON MOUNTAINEERS   …   23. NORTHWESTERN (IA) RED RAIDERS   …   24. LANGSTON Continue reading →

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October 17, 2011 · 10:04 pm

BAD MOVIE PAGE: HOMEBODIES (1974) – THE INFAMOUS “OLD FOLKS ON A KILLING SPREE” MOVIE

 HOMEBODIES (1974) – Category: Enjoyably bad movie with a weird premise        This is the film that is always known to me and my fellow bad movie geeks as “the killer fogies movie”. When a group of elderly citizens in their 70’s and 80’s face eviction from their decrepit neighborhood to make way for high- rises they strike back under the leadership of feisty and frightening Mattie, played by Paula Trueman, seen at left.

Homebodies has that nice blend of badness and tastelessness that I love in a horror film. I’m not trying to sound hostile to the elderly, since we will all end up facing the same problems some day, but the Continue reading →

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October 16, 2011 · 3:12 pm

NOTEWORTHY COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 15TH

AZUSA PACIFIC RULES THE WORLD YET AGAIN – The NAIA’s AZUSA  PACIFIC COUGARS went on the road and  eviscerated NCAA Division 2’s DIXIE STATE RED STORM by a score of 48-19. Over the years Azusa Pacific has wracked up an impressive number of wins against upper division teams, even taking down Division 1’s San Diego Toreros in their own house in the 2010 season. And so far this season every Saturday has found at least 1 NAIA team upsetting a D2 team. Add to that the sheer number of D3 teams who have had their butts kicked by NAIA teams this year and you can easily say the NAIA has owned the NCAA this season.

WAYNE STATE’S WORLD – Both D2 teams called Wayne State were ranked and both were upset yesterday. The 4th ranked WARRIORS fell to the ASHLAND EAGLES 20-17 and the 25th ranked WILDCATS were knocked out of the rankings by the CONCORDIA-ST PAUL GOLDEN BEARS 27-24.

TOP 25 UPSETS – NAIA – Yesterday I had put the 4th ranked MISSOURI VALLEY VIKINGS on upset alert as they took it on the road against the number 9 BENEDICTINE RAVENS. For the 2nd week in a row number 4 took a fall as the Ravens handed MVC a 35-19 smackdown   …   The unranked BACONE WARRIORS knocked the number 23 NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA STATE RANGERS out of the rankings with a 35-28 victory, just one week after the Rangers upset the then- number 10 SOUTHERN NAZARENE CRIMSON STORM.    

TOP 25 UPSETS – D3 – The Continue reading →

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October 15, 2011 · 1:59 pm

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCOREBOARDS FOR OCTOBER 15TH

 Close games were an unknown concept in last night’s matchups. Starting off with Centennial Conference action, the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays (helmet at left) decimated the Dickinson Red Devils 47-6. D3’s top ranked defending champs, the Whitewater Warhawks, doubled up on the Stout Blue Devils 42-21. The Assumption Greyhounds crushed the Merrimack Warriors by a score of 44-24 and the only road team to win last night, the Bowie State Bulldogs, beat up on the Lincoln (PA) Lions 22-10. Thursday night brought us a new number 1 ranked team in D2 as the 2nd ranked Delta State Statesmen won in overtime 30-24 at the top ranked North Alabama Lions.

Looking ahead to today’s action the NAIA has no less than five clashes between Top 25 teams on the menu. The 2nd ranked and 7-0 Marian University Knights (insert my usual self-congratulatory remark about my predicting the explosion for MU football in my 2010 – yes, 2010 – preseason assessments) are on the road against the 6th ranked St Francis (IN) Cougars. The 3rd ranked CC Fighting Saints, who are also the defending champs of NAIA college football, host the number 21 Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears. The Missouri Valley College Vikings, ranked at number 4, are visiting the 9th ranked yet perennially underrated Benedictine Ravens. The number 15 Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm (love that name) take on the 7th ranked MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers and the 8th ranked Morningside Mustangs are at the number 13 Dakota Wesleyan Tigers. Meanwhile the 11th ranked William Penn University Statesmen try to avoid 2 losses in a row, this week at the hands of the visiting St Mary Spires, the road warriors who stunned the 14th ranked Bethany Swedes last Saturday. And Continue reading →

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October 14, 2011 · 12:29 am

ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY: DEMOI (C 417 BCE)

FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION IF YOU MISSED MY FIRST POST ON ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/2011/09/22/at-long-last-my-ancient-greek-comedy-posts-begin/

As promised this time around I’ll depart from the works of Aristophanes to examine the fragmentary remains of a work by another genius of Ancient Greek Comedy, in this case Eupolis. Eupolis was part of the Big Three of Ancient Greek Comedy (henceforth AGC) along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. Some people confuse Eupolis with the later Greek comedian Eubulus but manage to lead fairly normal lives just the same. (rimshot)

THE PREMISE

Demoi is considered to be Eupolis’ greatest political satire. The premise is simplicity itself. An Athenian named Pyronides, like many of his fellow citizens, is disgusted with the pettiness, corruption and incompetence of the current crop of political and military leaders in the great city-state. Thus motivated, Pyronides retrieves four of the greatest figures of Athens’ storied past from the Netherworld and brings them back with him so they may set things right.

THE PLAY

In my introductory post about AGC (see above) I illustrated the similar problems faced by the Athenians’ ancient experiment in popular rule and our own often teetering enterprise. Corruption, partisanship and a tendency to subordinate the general good in the name of personal gain  were as rampant then as now.

As all Continue reading →

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October 13, 2011 · 8:53 pm

ONE VERSUS TWO IN D2 TONIGHT: DELTA STATE AT NORTH ALABAMA

What is it with this college football season? Tonight will be the THIRD regular season clash between the number 1 and number 2 teams in the divisions covered by Balladeer’s Blog. A few weeks ago we had two such matchups in one afternoon as the NAIA’s Top 2 teams and the NJCAA’s Top 2 teams collided. This latest gridiron Armageddon takes place in Florence, AL as the Delta State Statesmen travel to face the North Alabama Lions. The Statesmen played in last December’s D2 Title game but lost to UMD and the Lions are coached by THE Terry Bowden, the Continue reading →

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October 13, 2011 · 8:24 pm

PASSION’S FINE

Let’s try this again. I understand strong feelings regarding my statements about religion and violence in my review of the 1991 bad movie Ghost Busting, but I’m not going to okay comments that are either threatening or that consist of nothing but obscenities. I’ll give nutjobs one final chance to express articulate, civil disagreement. Here again is that controversial review. Play nicely and we can all have fun arguing.

GHOST BUSTING (1991) – Category – More weird than bad, but butt-kickingly weird        I first saw this little honey more than a decade ago, but it’s pretty much timeless. It comes to us from Hong Kong, the land of killer fetus movies plus films with such Continue reading →

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October 12, 2011 · 12:04 am

COOL HELMET: HASKELL INDIAN NATIONS UNIVERSITY INDIANS

 Location: Lawrence, KS

Site: http://www.haskell.edu/index.html

Comment: Haskell plays college football in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) and regular readers of my blog have seen the institution’s name in plenty of my sports reports. HINU is the premier institution of higher education for Native Americans throughout the CONUS and Continue reading →

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October 11, 2011 · 12:08 am

MYTHOLOGY: INTER-CULTURAL INFLUENCE

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Recently one of my favorite bloggers, Sara from Midaeval Maiden and Life With 4 Cats, asked me a question about Egyptian mythology being influenced by other cultures. I provided an answer where the words just flowed along nicely and so, since I get occassional e-mails asking me similar questions I figured I would post my answer to Sara in the spirit of a FAQ. All in all, it saves me from coming up with a totally new post today     …     I think you’ll agree.

My Answer:  This sort of inter-cultural influence is pretty standard in mythology. No belief system springs from a vacuum. It springs from previous belief systems in the region and also from appropriating elements of belief systems of other cultures they come into contact with. The process is called syncretism.

Even the big three religions have done it. Zoroastrianism predates Christianity, Islam and Judaism and all three of those Continue reading →

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October 10, 2011 · 8:38 pm

COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLLS: WEEK OF OCTOBER 10TH

The Saint Xavier University Cougars remain at number 1 in the NAIA football poll for the 5th straight week, but to get some helmet variety in here I went with a pic of the 2nd ranked Marian University Knights. The Knights are enjoying another week at their highest ranking in team history and continue to make me look like a gridiron Nostradamus. Back in 2010 during the preseason I predicted that the Knights were about to take off in a big way. Marian then had a stellar season and won their first round playoff game, then this season came out blazing since Week 1 just to show last year was no fluke. The Menlo Oaks, meanwhile, move back into the Top 25 one week after falling out. The Chabot College Gladiators (love that name!) moved up to 10th in the NCFA Poll. And now the rankings in the divisions of college football covered by Balladeer’s Blog.  

NAIA – 1. SXU COUGARS   …   2. MARIAN KNIGHTS   …   3. CC FIGHTING SAINTS (defending champs)   …   4. MISSOURI VALLEY COLLEGE VIKINGS   …   5. GEORGETOWN (KY) TIGERS   …   6. ST FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS   …   7. MIDAMERICA NAZARENE PIONEERS   …   8. MORNINGSIDE MUSTANGS   …   9. BENEDICTINE RAVENS   …   10. AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS (1st Top Ten ranking since 2006)   …   11. WILLIAM PENN STATESMEN   …   12. ST FRANCIS (IL) FIGHTING SAINTS (Upset former #4 William Penn)   …   13. DAKOTA WESLEYAN TIGERS   …   14. ST AMBROSE UNIVERSITY FIGHTING BEES   …   15. SOUTHERN NAZARENE UNIVERSITY CRIMSON STORM (Love that name!)   …   16. OTTAWA (KS) BRAVES   …   17. BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS   …   18. VCS VIKINGS   …   19. DOANE TIGERS   …   20. CUMBERLAND BULLDOGS (Up 5 spots from last week)   …   21. ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BATTLIN’ BEARS   …   22. BETHANY SWEDES (Down 8 spots from last week)   …   T23. EASTERN OREGON MOUNTAINEERS   …   T23. NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA STATE RANGERS   …   25. MENLO OAKS

NCAA D3- 1. WHITEWATER WARHAWKS (defending champs)  …   2. MT UNION PURPLE RAIDERS (Warhawks and Purple Raiders have played each other in the last 6 D3 title games in a row, splitting 3 each)   …   3. ST THOMAS TOMMIES   …   4. MHBU CRUSADERS Continue reading →

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