Kudos to Duke's Men's Lacrosse Team and Remembering Our Fallen Soldiers

Duke University (16-5) upset Syracuse (16-4) to win a second NCAA men's lacrosse championship for the Blue Devils. The team was helped by Brendan Fowler, who won 20 of 28 face-offs, Jordan Wolf, who scored four goals in the title game that was played in Philadelphia, Josh Offit, who scored the go-ahead goal and Jake Tripucka, who was a member of the all-NCAA tournament squad.

Tripucka is the son of former Notre Dame men's basketball star and NBA player Kelly Tripucka. The Blue Devils had lost the ACC championship to their rivals_ the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

SIDEBAR: Since my late stepfather Donald Sullivan (1918-2003) was a World War II veteran, we thought we would recognize those who lost their lives while serving in the American military. Though Donald was fortunate enough to come home, many were not and that was especially true for troops from Bedford, Va., where the National D-Day Memorial is located. Donald was fortunate to visit the memorial before his passing.

Here was a tweet from the D-Day Memorial today which talked about those who came to Bedford today: "Over 1,000 came to honor and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to our nation."

It is interesting that the D-Day Memorial has the flags of all the countries that were allies in World War-2, this happens to include not only familiar friends like France, both also countries such as Norway and Greece.

http://www.goduke.com

http://www.durham-nc.com

http://www.dday.org

http://www.visitbedford.com

Quote of the Day- Henrik Ibsen

Today's quote of the day comes from the great, classic Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. A production of his famous play "A Doll House" will be performed by L.A. Theatre Works from Sept. 22-25 on the UCLA campus with Calista Flockhart (from tv's "Ally Macbeal) and JoBeth Williams in the cast.

Here is his quip:

"A minority may be a right, but a majority is always wrong."

SIDEBAR: Wow, as a former journalist, the rapid decline of the print medium is quite a chilling and depressing one. The Raleigh, NC, alt weekly "Independent Weekly" reported that Durham, NC's daily newspaper "The Herald-Sun" laid off seven newsroom employees, a third of the paper's staff, which also leaves fewer than 20 people in the editorial department.

The paper which was drawn into the Duke University lacrosse scandal in 2006 (acording to Wikipedia) has seen its circulation dwindle from 50,000 to 25,000 (according to "Indy Weekly"). Additionally Wikipedia disclosed that "The Herald-Sun" laid off 81 employees during its first round of lay-offs in 2005. All the staff that was laid off in Durham, NC, as well as reporters from around the country who have lost their jobs due to these seismic changes in the industry have my deepest sympathies.

Quote of the Week- Angela Davis

Today, we conclude our quotes from radical left-wingers for the month of May with a quip from Angela Davis, who is alive and well in Oakland, Calif., at age 67. Though today she makes the rounds in speaking engagements, she was a headline-maker from 1969-1972 as she became a controversial figure involved with both The Black Panthers movement and Communist Party, USA.

Davis spent time in jail from 1971-1972 because (according to Wikipedia) guns registered in her name were used in the infamous Marin County Courthouse Incident on Aug. 7, 1970. The sensational event involved guns being brought into a courtroom, hostage-taking, and an exchange of gunfire which alas lead to the killing of a judge.

Her quote comes to us us by way of the interesting graphic novel-inspired book "Self-Defense for Radicals" which I purchased on a whim from The Internationalist Bookstore in Chapel Hill, NC, several weeks ago.

Though I'm not a radical or a socialist myself (nor am I a Tea Partier or a Republican), I found Mickey Z's book, which features quotes from Davis and Malcolm X, to be quite fascinating. The author uses both expressions of his left-wing political views alongside boxing tips from pro boxing trainer Joe Goosen. The book was released by PM Press, which also has the ever-radical illustrated manifesto "Abolish Restaurants" by the writer/artist Prote.

On June 25, The Internationalist has a unique event as they host Duckmandu (Aaron Seeman), a self-described punk accordianist who plays everything from klezmer to Broadway to The Dead Kennedys (?!)

Here is the quote from Davis:

"Radical simply means grasping things at the root."

SIDEBAR: We want to take a moment to congratulate the University of Virginia men's lacrosse team on winning their fifth NCAA title. The Cavaliers beat the University of Maryland in a title game that was played in the Terps' home state in Baltimore. Colin Briggs scored five goals for the Cavs in the 9-7 victory. But, we loved the Terps' team motto which was "Fear the Turtle."

Kudos to Duke University (Again?!)- This Time for Men's Lacross Title

First they did it men's basketball, now the Duke BlueDevils bring another NCAA championship back to Durham, NC, as they won the men's lacrosse championship by defeating Notre Dame in Baltimore by a score of 6-5.

The game-winning goal was scored by sophomore C.J. Catabile with :05 remaining in overtime. Freshman goalie Dan Wigrizer made five crucial saves to help Coach K's squad (ooops! Sorry, we got our sports mixed up!).

This was the first NCAA Championship in men's lacrosse for Duke University.

The team made national headlines off-the-field back in 2006 for an incident with a local stripper which proved to be based on false accusations and lead to the resignation of Durham Country Attorney General Mike Nifong.

You can apparently follow the team on Facebook and Twitter, but we can't verify that and since we are not a professional news organization we will skip the verification process as we need to buy a mouse from the pet store on Williamson Road in Roanoke, Va., before it closes to feed our pet boa Larry (that is a joke! In fact, I can't stand snakes.....)