The wild madness of Christmas

 

Presents galore between the branches of The Beast, our beloved Christmas tree.

The in-between time

Squeals of childish laughter no longer echo through the halls of Gunnels Manse on this Christmas Day evening. Marice and I are in the in-between time – our children grown up and moved out and no grandchildren yet to take their noisy, messy place.

Photos of friends enjoying Christmas with their children fill Facebook, and it makes me a little melancholy for the days when my kids were small and the lights of Christmas filled their eyes and swelled their hearts with joy. I miss the scattered toys, half-eaten Christmas cookies and shredded wrapping paper in every corner.

God help me, but I even miss the desperate, last-minute assembly of toys in a drafty garage on Christmas Eve. It was a dreaded task that couldn’t begin until after midnight because Rachel and Ethan had to be in bed and pretending to be asleep in order to guarantee the arrival of Santa Claus on time and loaded with loot.

I remember in particular the frigid Christmas Eve I assembled a Barbie Dream House – all 12 million pieces of it – in 30-degree weather while seated on an ice-cold concrete floor.

 As I gradually lost feeling in my frostbitten extremities, I started hallucinating that my night-owl daughter, investigating the wild swearing that had awakened her, had interrupted my labors and discovered – horror of horrors – the true identity of Santa Claus. Even now, I get a little sweaty just thinking about it.

Luckily, Rachel remained asleep that night, one hopes with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head. And Barbie’s Dream House? It was a monster hit. We discovered stray pieces of that toy from hell in nooks and crannies of Gunnels Manse for years afterward

Those days are gone, but not forgotten. The house at the top of Mad Bird Hill is quiet today, the stillness of a chilly Christmas night broken only by the occasional barking of our Westie in her eternal vigilance against invaders of hallowed Gunnels ground.

If you have kids – or grandkids – young enough to be mystified, captivated and rendered mad by the magic of Christmas, I hope you realize how blessed you are. Embrace the chaos, glory in the wild happiness of it all and remember every single second.

Ask me – if I had it to do all over again, would I do it? Oh, hell, yes!

Michael Lindenberger: Taken too soon

 

Michael Lindenberger, everything a journalist should be.

Michael Lindenberger’s legion of good friends and admiring colleagues mourn his loss. At 51, he is dead too soon, felled by a mysterious illness that his doctors couldn’t identify.

Given time, Michael would have become, I am confident, one of America’s best-known and best-loved writers. He was that good and he worked at it that hard. Time was all he needed, time that has been denied him – and all the people who loved and admired him.

During the time we worked together at The Dallas Morning News, Michael was everything I believe a good journalist should be: a compelling writer, effective interviewer and diligent researcher.

But he was more than that. He was tough-minded but kind-hearted, suspicious of power but tolerant of human frailty, courageous without being foolhardy, thoughtful but no egghead, confident but not egocentric.

His untimely death cuts short a career that was beginning to soar. Earlier this year, he was a part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories in the Houston Chronicle about “The Big Lie,” the myth of stolen ballots, rigged elections and fake voters.

He only recently had moved to the Kansas City Star to become the editorial page editor and vice president.

He spent 14 years as a reporter at The News, where he had few peers. There were no holes in a Lindenberger story. It was thoroughly reported, carefully organized and skillfully written. He was an editor’s dream.

We sat at adjacent desks, and I would get a running commentary about the progress of his stories. Michael liked to talk things through. I suppose it helped him organize the story before he sat down to write. His telephone interviews, which I couldn’t help but overhear, were like a master’s class in the art of interviewing.

He was among the first reporters at The News to use the internet to engage his readers. He was a devoted blogger and would write long, fact-filled posts about the news of the day, inviting his sources to participate in an online discussion. Often, he would mine his blog for his print stories.

Such things are common today. Back then, not so much.

Aside from journalism, Michael loved to cook – and was good at it. An invitation to one of his dinner parties promised mouth-watering cuisine, good liquor and sensational dinner conversation, over a wide range of topics and presided over with gusto by the host himself. On such occasions, he reminded me a bit of Winston Churchill – all the charm and intellect without the insults and suffocating egotism.

He showed his judgment and good taste by being a lover of good bourbon. Kentucky bourbon, thank you very much.

A proud native of Louisville, he believed devoutly that the best bourbon was distilled within its environs. He wouldn’t gargle with that Tennessee mash crap.

If fate had been kinder, Michael would have had time to finish his biography of fellow Kentuckian Robert Penn Warren, the only writer to have won a Pulitzer Prize for both prose and poetry.  His most famous work is All the King’s Men, a novel loosely based on the career of Louisiana Gov. Huey Long.

I consider All the King’s Men as the best American novel of the 20^th century, and Michael and I had long conversations about the book and about Warren’s creative process. I had read somewhere that Warren originally conceived the book as a long, epic poem, but had abandoned that idea and rewritten it as a novel, leaving much of the poetic imagery intact. The idea captivated me, but Michael’s research gave lie to the myth. I remember his discreet amusement at my disappointment.

Michael’s other literary hero dwelled at the other end of the spectrum. He was an enthusiastic fan of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, like Michael a Louisville native. Michael saw beyond Thompson’s flamboyant personality and detected the serious writer often overlooked by critics.

The last year had been an up-and-down ride for Michael. Along with his career accomplishments came personal tragedy when his partner of many years, Phil Clore, died after a lengthy battle with cancer. Clore’s death rocked Michael, who dealt with his anguish in typical fashion – by writing about it.

In a Facebook post at Thanksgiving, he wrote about living with grief and finding a path beyond the pain.

“I’ve been a writer all my life. And one thing I have learned is that writing is thinking. We writers often don’t know what we think, or even what we feel, until we put our brains through the process of spelling it out on the page.”

A season's end: Southlake Carroll 21, Denton Guyer 45

 

Carroll had no answer for Jackson Arnold, Guyer's five-star quarterback. He's headed to OU.

Not this year

JUSTIN – Not many folks gave the Southlake Carroll Dragons much of a chance in yesterday’s fourth-round playoff match against the fearsome Denton Guyer Wildcats.

Even the homiest of homers, after examining the evidence and hardening their green-tinted heart, would have been compelled to peer into the earnest, shining faces of their children and say – with infinite sadness – “Sorry, my darlings, but not this year.

“Not. This. Year.”

And so it came to pass on a brisk fall Saturday in December that the 14-0 Wildcats dismantled the Dragons with brutal efficiency, ending Carroll’s undefeated season,  and sailed alone into the semi-final round of the Division II playoffs.

Guyer will face the always dangerous 12-2 DeSoto Eagles in Frisco next Saturday at the Ford Center at the Star. That game has “automatic classic” written all over it. It’ll certainly be the hottest playoff ticket in the Metroplex. Count on it.

Punch their ticket

To punch their ticket to the Big Show – the Division II state championship game – the Eagles will have to get past Jackson Arnold, Guyer’s five-star quarterback who has committed to Oklahoma. After his performance this season, Arnold has convinced a lot of OU fans that he could just be the guy to turn things around in Norman.

One thing’s for certain: Arnold almost single-handedly turned Carroll upside down and inside out. The Dragons simply had no answer for him either in the air or on the ground.

He was sacked four times and spent a brief spell on the sideline to recover from the last one. But Arnold wasn’t distracted by the pressure. He had a hand in all six Wildcat touchdowns against the Dragons, rushing for four and throwing for another two.

By all rights, he should have been a holder on the Wildcats’ second-quarter field goal, one of the few times Arnold and his receivers were denied the end zone by the beleaguered Dragon D. Then he could have attained a clean sweep.

Yes, I almost feel sorry for DeSoto fans, the poor dears. The Eagles – as always, athletic, well-coached and focused – are on a mission this year. But they haven’t faced a threat like Arnold, and if anybody can derail the Eagle train roaring to a state title, it could be him.

Greg Riddle of The Dallas Morning News devoted his entire game story to a recitation of Arnold’s heroics. I call your attention to this paragraph, which focuses on his playoff output:

‘Unstoppable runner’

“Arnold has suddenly become an unstoppable runner, going over 100 yards on the ground for the third straight game after his season high during the regular season was 86 yards. He scored on runs of 49, 16, 2 and 10 yards (against Carroll) and has run for a team-high 22 touchdowns — averaging a touchdown run every six carries.”

According to Riddle, Arnold’s 303 passing yards against Carroll was the fifth time this season he’s surpassed the 300-yard mark. Arnold guided Guyer in converting nine of its first 11 first downs, five on QB keepers and three on passes.

Jacob Jordan fights for yardage as he's swarmed by the Wildcat defense.

On the sixth play of the game, Arnold gave a preview of the afternoon’s playbill, careening around the right side and speeding 49 yards to put Guyer on the board.

The Dragons responded immediately to the threat when supremo runner Owen Allen roared 34 yards to score on the second play of the next Carroll drive.

But the euphoria among Dragon fans was short-lived. Arnold then led the Wildcats in scoring 21 unanswered points, making TD runs of 16 and 2 yards and zipping a 38-yard TD pass to Landon Sides (8 catches for 137 yards).

Now trailing 28-7, the Dragons were forced to play catch-up for the remainder of the game. The die had been cast, however. When you allow a team like Guyer to seize a 21-point lead, your chances of success sink to zero.

By far the least

Guyer gained 537 total yards – for which Arnold was responsible for 449 – while limiting the Dragons to a modest 294, by far the least they have gained all season.

Allen, who ends his high school career with 7,488 rushing yards, earned every inch he gained yesterday, a total of 149 hard-won yards on 24 carries, including two TDs.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Brian Gosset, Allen finishes with 120 rushing TDs and 42 games with at least 100 yards. He ends his senior year with 2,200 yards – his third straight 2,000-yard season – and 37 TDs.

 His exploits, which began when he joined the varsity as a 14-year-old freshman, will be remembered in Southlake for a long time. Where he goes from here still is uncertain, but whichever school snatches him up will be damned lucky to get him. So says me.

Quarterback Graham Knowles had a difficult day, juggling two snaps and throwing two interceptions. He had trouble connecting with his receivers – sailing several passes over their heads and never getting into a rhythm. Credit the industrious Guyer secondary for much of the mayhem.

Knowles was limited to 9 of 18 passes for 132 yards. His only TD pass was a 48-yard beauty to Clayton Wayland (2 for 63) that narrowed the Wildcat lead to 38-21 late in the 3^rd period.

Get no closer

But Carroll would get no closer, and Guyer added the coup de grace four minutes later with an 18-yard TD pass from Arnold to Josiah Martin.

At the harsh rattle of the final buzzer, the Dragon season was over, two games short of the ultimate goal – a ninth state championship.

That dream must wait. The rules of the playoffs are fixed and unforgiving. You keep playing only as long as you keep winning. Falter and it’s all over.

Owen Allen earned every one of the 149 yards he gained against a stingy Guyer defense.

Tears flowed yesterday at Northwest ISD Stadium. How could they not? When you leave everything out on the field – as these young Dragons did – you have earned an emotional release. And sometimes, there’s nothing more therapeutic than a good cry. (I’ve been told that, you understand. I have no real knowledge of such things. Ahem.)

These Dragons have nothing to be ashamed of. They played with spirit and heart to the limit of their abilities, and they lost to a better team. It’s as simple – and as heartbreaking – as that.

I hope they’re comforted by the knowledge that they are part of a great and continuing tradition of excellence and achievement. This is the sixth straight year that Carroll has reached at least as far as the regional finals. It is an eight-time state champion. That’s a record most programs can only dream about.

That said, a season’s end always is a sad affair. For these Dragons, it is especially hard. Their sense of brotherhood and family – common in almost any high school team sport – was particularly strong.

Their next step

Life goes on, however, and there’s always next season to consider. The seniors must now focus on their next step. College, career, the Future. Best of luck to them all.

Meanwhile, the prospects for next year are bright.

Lots can happen in the off-season, of course. But from where we stand now, here’s an inkling of what could be in store.

Knowles will be back at quarterback, along with most of his receiving corps – Jacob Jordan, Clayton Wayland, Trey Ferri and Caden Jackson. Runner/WR James Lehman, whose absence because of injury was sorely felt, will be back. Backup quarterback Parker Thompson also will be on hand, perhaps in an offensive role that takes advantage of his explosive and elusive running style. On defense, linebacker Aaron Scherp returns, as does lineman Dustan Mark, both stalwarts of this year’s D and sturdy building blocks for next year.

I’m sure I’ve left out some important names. Apologies for that oversight. We will all get to know them better as times goes on.

For now, it’s time to put another Dragon season in the book. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Joyous New Year.

Go Dragons!

Guyer receiver Landon Sides pulls in a pass despite the best efforts of Logan Lewandowski.