There has to be a good use for these.

I just know that in the right hands these could do some good other than sheer showing off.

Some Brit once harrassed me for bidding on his driving club’s repp stripe tie. I not only bid, I bought, and now I wear.

But I don’t think I could bring myself to have Piedmont Driving Club buttons sewn on my blazer.

I don’t live close to Oxford, England, so I don’t mind wearing that guy’s club’s tie, but I do live close to Atlanta, and there’s just no way I could put these buttons on my coat. Someone would ask about them.

If you live there, it’s lying. If you don’t, it’s just a pretty design.

I guess.

DCI is not The Hot Place

I took the family to the DCI Southeastern Championship at the Georgia Dome yesterday.

I called the top three corps while the Blue Devils (I know, I know, but I can’t help it: you’ve got to give it to them that they’re based on the opposite side of the country from Durham) were still on the field. (What is the football team doing on the marching field?)

I called it thus, and thus it was: #3 Phantom Regiment, who were just great, without a doubt the crowd favorite, doing an ultra cool show based on Spartacus; #2 the Cavaliers who would have won if they were as precise as the Blue Devils and as difficult as either the Phantom Regiment or the Blue Devils; #1, the Blue Devils, who were not very entertaining but, as anyone who knows DCI would expect, did an ungodly difficult show that made everything hard for themselves, and executed it with unearthly precision. They were just unbelievable, and I am willing to bet the farm they will win their 13th DCI championship next month. It’s truly mind-boggling to see so much going on at once on the field, with such precision and exactness.

You may not love them, but you are a fool if you underestimate the Concord Blue Devils. They are the Kentucky Wildcats of Drum Corps.

The biggest dissapointment for me was that the Madison Scouts came fifth in the prelims and didn’t march in the evening.

The second biggest disappointment was to see how poor Santa Clara Vanguard is this year. In my mind, they ought to come no lower than third (after the Blue Devils and Madison) and rarely lower than second (after the Blue Devils). They got a huge reception from the crowd, but didn’t live up to their tradition.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, my daughter got a perfect T shirt for the occasion. It says this: “Drum Corps: for those who know, no explanation is necessary. For those who don’t know, no explanation is possible.”

The closest anyone has come to an explanation for those who don’t know is “marching band on steroids.”

What I Said to a PC(USA) Student

“You are right that the whole Constitution [of the PC(USA)] is optional now. All one has to do is state a provision by which you do not wish to abide, tell the presbytery you think it is inessential and have a scruple about it, and the presbytery will put it to a vote. If they agree with you, you do not have to abide by that provision, whatever it is. There is no provision of the Constitution for which this cannot be done. What the Constitution provides or requires for any officer is at the discretion of the session or presbytery ordaining or installing that officer.”