Spring on my street

Ah, springtime! That season of the year when you can shake off your cabin fever and finally get outdoors into the fresh air! On my street, it usually means that all the college students come out to play a game called "cornhole" in their front yards. There are two boards with holes cut in them, and it is the object of each team to try to throw a bean bag into the hole. Apparently, from what these kids tell me, you can score points as well depending on where the bean bag lands on the board. It's a really big trend here and on a warm spring afternoon at the end of the school day, teams of college students can be seen all up and down my street playing this game into the warm early evening, music playing, beer flowing. I truly enjoy watching these teams of kids playing this really fun looking game (I've never tried it myself, but at last year's annual church picnic, someone brought a cornhole set and rival teams played against each other into the afternoon). I don't know if this is just another one of those passing trends, but I do remember the days when a game callled "hacky-sack" was really big on my street and you could see people all up and down my street playing it, so this may just be another one of those passing things that is big now, but won't be down the road. But when the cornhole boards start appearing in front yards, some of them really elaborately decorated with professional sports team colors, or college colors, or other interesting designs, you know that spring has arrived. At local bars, they even sponsor "cornhole" tournaments where teams can go and play for big winnings, so it's no wonder that all up and down my street, people are daily practicing their cornhole techniques. It's good harmless fun and I am more than glad that this game is such a big hit on my street on warm spring days as the school year wanes to a close. Pretty soon, school will be out, the kids will disappear for the summer and my street will go oddly quiet for several months. Part of me likes this because it means far less traffic to cope with, but part of me misses the warm evenings of watching cornhole games on front lawns. When the students return in the fall, such things will resume on my street, but it tends to get far rowdier in the early fall when people reunite after a summer hiatus. Things always seem to mellow in the spring and the rowdiness of fall wanes into a more quiet and reflective tone all up and down the street here. I think that's part of why this is my favorite time of year. Of course, the final weekend of school tends to get really crazy as "May Day" parties ensue and the kids celebrate the end of the long school year, but that's probably the only time things get really rowdy at this time of year on this street. Other than that, on any average warm spring evening, you can walk up and down this street and quiet games of cornhole are all going on in front lawns, testing people's skills at throwing small bean bags into the hole on a board several feet away. It's what makes living here mostly an enjoyable experience on spring days.

A BROKERED CONVENTION?

With Hillary's victory in Pennsylvania and the staunch loyalty to her among whites, blue collar workers and women, it's going to get harder and harder for either her or Obama to gain enough delegates to firmly win the Democratic nomination at the convention in August. Obama has the youth and African-American voter loyalty and the Democrats badly need their constituency as well as Hillary's loyalists, and both sides aren't willing to vote for the opposing candidate if they win the nomination. Hillary also seems to have the so-called "Reagan Democrats" who are threatening to vote for McCain if Obama wins the nomination. So what's to become of this increasingly divisive race? Both Obama's and Hillary's constituencies are needed by Dems, but with the party so deeply divided right now, it almost looks like the Democrats are willing to throw away their golden chances at recapturing the White House. Anymore, it almost looks to me like the convention is going to have to be brokered by the so-called "Super Delegates", many of whom are holding out until the end of the primary season. The big problem here is this: Hillary has firmly won the big states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, New York and California that the Democrats desperately need to win the White House. Obama's won mostly caucus states and has so far won more states, albeit smaller ones, than Hillary. So what's more important, to win more states or to win the big delegate rich states? And what happens if, at the convention, a "compromise candidate" is chosen and Hillary and Obama are sent packing? Will the Democrats be able to rally around someone who didn't run in the primaries, or maybe did and dropped out early due to lack of support? I'm very dismayed at all of this divisiveness and I wonder what's going to happen next. As it looks now, the Democrats are determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and hand the White House over to McCain. They're squandering an ideal chance to choose a nominee and get to the business of fighting the Republican opposition and instead are too busy bickering among themselves over who's going to get the Democratic nomination, and this really upsets me when so much is at stake. Right now, the easiest answer is for someone to drop out of the race and/or join forces for either an Obama-Clinton ticket or a Clinton-Obama ticket. Both sides want the top spot and I am not sure that either one of their constituencies would be willing to settle for second banana. Either way, something is going to have to happen and soon before the Democratic Party becomes so divided that a successful run at the White House becomes impossible this fall.