LSU Football . . .

Football season has begun.  LSU started with Wisconsin, fairly even match on neutral grounds in Houston, TX.  First half of the game went to Wisconsin, the second half went to LSU.  And LSU won by coming from behind.  Coming from behind is not a trait of LSU, usually when they get a couple touch downs behind, it is all over but the shouting.  Perhaps this come from behind win shows some character in the team.

The next two games gave the Tigers a warm up, a fine tuning of the defense, an exercise for the offense.  Since the second half of the Wisconsin game, the whole team's character has changed from an also ran to a winner.  Both teams were not of the caliber that the SEC teams are but they were good teams in their classification, very capable and had good stats before running into LSU.  Things changed when those two teams played in Tiger Stadium.  The two teams had moved into the big leagues when the played in Baton Rouge.  Over a hundred thousand fans looked down upon them, a hundred thousand roaring LSU fans.  There is meaning to "Tiger Bait."

Tune time is over, LSU faces Mississippi State this weekend.  The first SEC game for the Tigers.  South Carolina has already faced Texas A&M (and lost).  South Carolina comes out the box and faced Georgia and won.  That was a great game and come back for the Game Cocks.  And once again the opening premier game for Georgia resulted in a loss.

So now it is not time for LSU to stumble.  They have what is referred to by Coach Miles as a "quality opponent" Saturday in Baton Rouge.  Both teams are unbeaten so far but only LSU has faced a tough Big Ten team while Miss State has been chewing up lower class teams.  So both of them are in for the tough ride of facing their first SEC team.

It is ironic but all the top rated SEC teams this week are from the SEC West division.  A division some say is a conference to itself.  Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, LSU and yes, even Miss State are contenders, not so in the SEC East.  Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee are all weak sisters in their division.  Florida is so so, Georgia and South Carolina already have been discussed.  Missouri has not been discussed and is a dark horse in the SEC East, over shadowed by Georgia and South Carolina but they are coming on strong.  Auburn and Ole Miss are power houses in West division.

Its gonna be a good week for football.  Beginning to cool off a little bit.  A lot of attention will be drawn to Baton Rouge to see who moves up and who moves down.  Miss State has not beaten LSU since 1999 - that is a long stretch.  And their coach now knows LSU well and will be really prepared even though he has to face the Tigers before 102,321 screaming spectators.  Some will be from Mississippi but the vast overwhelming majority will be Tigers and the noise will reflect it.

Geaux Tigers!

American Legion . . .

I am a current member of the American Legion but do not belong to a local post.  So the American Legion assigned me to the state chapter in Austin, TX.  That is okay with me.  It means I am a member in good standing with the American Legion.

I was a member in Redlands, CA in the early 1990s and they had a very active chapter and chapter operation.  It was sort of a private club, membership only kind of place and could serve alcohol beverages when it want to.  They also put on a nice lunch every day.  Having said that, I never attended anything there, I was just a member so to speak.

The American Legion was after me to renew my membership, I had let it lapse when I left California and moved to New Mexico.  Every year they would send me an application.  I decided we were not going to move ever again, so I signed up again.  I have been an active member, that is a dues paying member, for a couple of years now.

The local post called me and asked if I would move my membership to their chapter.  More members meant a good thing to them.  So I said, "Okay, sign me up."  But that was not enough, I had to come down and sign up.  Okay, I figured they needed a signature to make the membership transfer to work.  No big deal.

I went down to the post and it was locked up tighter than drum.  Strictly after 5 PM operation.  That's okay.  I let them know I had come around and they were closed.

Today I got a telephone call saying my membership had been submitted to the local chapter poo-bahs and approved pending I prove I am eligible to join.  Whoa, I said to myself, :"Hey, self if I am already a member of the American Legion and have been a member in good standing, why do I have to prove I am eligible to join?  I mean I am already a member."

So, no I am not going to go down and prove I am eligible.  I will just stay with the state wide general membership and let the locals stew.  I was given the line that they had to approve my eligibility by law.  That is a crock.  I mean, if I have been a member in another state, and I am now a member in this state, why would the law require me to prove anything about eligibility - again?  That smells to me.  Something is just not right.

So I will not be joining the local chapter or post.  They pressed the issue a little to far for me.  Such explanations that it is the law does not make sense to me as a long standing member.  Just a bit fishy.  So I am not transferring to the local chapter.  Perhaps a membership in the local Veterans of Foreign Wars is more appropriate.

Perhaps I am testy.  But as I get older, I sense more and more that there is no free lunch and that someone is always after what you have especially in the way of money.  So it is not a mandatory thing for me to do in joining the local American Legion post, just sort of a civic thing to do.  I am already a life member of Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and a life member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).