Over the last day an avalanche of inquiries (thank you, Brad, you’re quite prolific), were fielded as to this author’s disposition, wondering if he’d “fallen off” Earth’s face (again, thank you, Brad) or, alternatively, expressing concern for Ol’ DC’s health (you’re a helluva guy, Brad).
The answers: “yes,” “no,” “maybe,” “yep,” “uh-huh,” “nuh-uh,” “you’re so funny,” “go suck an egg” and “You never call me anymore, Wayne” (not necessarily in order, respectively, to the above inquiries and, indeed, the answers may not have anything at all to do with any of the above).
FEELING ALRIGHT?
I’m Not Feeling Too Good Myself (thank you, Dave Mason)(uh, for the lyrics, man, not the “upset”)
Considering an ensuing reaction, longtime Grand-Am engine builder RoushYates Engines’ sports car program manager John Maddox was likely feeling a little shell shocked in the days and weeks after the company’s Aug. 6 announcement of its 2011 American Le Mans Series venture.
Misery loving company and all, Mason likely felt far better late last week when ALMS president Scott Atherton offered a “. . . traditional State of the Series address with an exciting crescendo announcement on Friday as he made public the plans for Riley Technologies to deliver an all-new design for the LMP2 category starting in 2011,” according to the series’ media department (an “exciting crescendo announcement?” Oh, well, I guess it’s kind of like “Mr. Whipple” – the Charmin-squeezing “grocer” most everyone disliked. Whether intended by the marketers, the advertisement made an indelible mark on those who repeatedly suffered through it).
Nevertheless, one easily read (rhymes with “red”) between the series’ lines, “. . . with the help, Atherton took sheer delight in sticking and twisting a couple of knives in former (1998-2000) employer International Speedway Corporation and, consequently, cousin-company NASCAR’s Grand-Am . . .”
An original Grand-Am constructor, Riley Technologies, a division of Sea Star Group, Inc., designed and built the Rolex Series’ dominant MkXI Daytona Prototype chassis – the winning numbers of which are unlikely to be broached anytime in the near or, perhaps, far future.
Playing in two especially acrimonious sandboxes will, at best, be politically difficult because principals in each series will at the least seek information concerning the other series. To deny such or even think otherwise goes against Human Operations Manual rule nos. 09 and 10.
Such a road – where one can be nailed coming and going – is fraught with awaiting “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” political landmines.
On one hand, RoushYates and Riley Technologies’ move is at least superficially understandable when seen through Mason’s eyes, who noted that keeping his RoushYates employees employed meant having to explore every available business opportunity.
The other side: unquestionable is that either entity would today exist absent a certain family’s early, frequent and timely efforts, whether beginning 8-years or 20-some-odd-years ago.
SHAFT, CAN YOU DIG IT? (thanks, Isaac Hayes; post Tina Turner)
RoushYates’ early August announcement admittedly left this writer confused; last weekend’s Riley announcement positively, assuredly dumbfounding.
This author and a near-lifelong buddy – a well-respected jurist clearly possessing a professional and personal stature well beyond my own – as youths at times became so agitated with the other that blows were exchanged more than once.
Still another friend has in recent years repeatedly reached deep to provide this too-often grating, sometimes bumbling fellow a reason to press on in life – despite needing to at times seriously chew on this writer’s posterior.
This fortunate soul and his spouse have been married since 1979. Over that time we’ve had our fair share of disagreements and faced relatively difficult times. Indeed, probably like others, our union today is under one of its greatest strains, given her nearly nonexistent income production and the resultant trial by fire.
(By the way, the “little woman” is one of those “greedy corporate” types, a business-owner who for at least two years has taken all but no pay so that loyal employees may continue to bank paychecks. Not alone, there are many others personally known to this writer doing the same.)
For the sake of debate: would not bigamy or divorce – for whatever reason – conceptually be the same as joining with a detractor who has all but sworn the destruction of that which brung one to the dance?
Even though time and again we – that is, all of the above – have respectively been driven to the abyss by the other, never has the point been reached of casually dismissing as inconsequential that which brought us to the present, deciding as “unimportant” the very considerable contributions made to the other.
Besides, my Momma never promised me a rose garden.
Later,
DC
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