News notes

I might as well eat crow now rather than later.

I began a blog post eight months ago by noting that I rarely make predictions. I should have taken my own advice.

I didn’t though, going on to predict that none of the leading six candidates in June of 2007 would eventually be elected president in 2007.

My reasoning was that all six - Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and John Edwards and Republicans John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Guliani - were critically flawed in some way that would eventually derail their campaigns.

Okay, now we’re approaching Super Tuesday in February of 2008 and there appear to be only four candidates left with a chance of winning the election - Clinton, Obama, McCain and Romney.

I still have a hard time imagining the American electorate choosing Clinton (because of Bill), Obama (because of his race and experience), McCain (because of Iraq) or Romney (because of religion). But even though each is dragging an iron weight behind them, it now appears that one of them will make it to the White House.

Of course, there’s still Michael Bloomberg. But he’s a very long shot as an independent candidate even if he tries - and he maintains he will not.

So I’m ready to admit I was wrong. While several tried in both parties, no shining knight candidates have emerged from the fringes.

One thing is tantalizing about the four candidates that remain. Whether it’s Obama against McCain, or Romney vs. Clinton, or some other combination, the presidential race will be historic.

In his column this week, Tom Treece talked about vivid memories from a moment years ago that are sometimes triggered by simple daily occurrences.

In Tom’s case, he referred to hearing on the radio that the Paris Peace Accord was signed, ending the Vietnam War. As a veteran of the jungles of ‘Nam, that moment was significant to him; it only takes a steaming cup of coffee to prompt the memories.

We all have those recollections. Whether of momentous times, like the death of a president or the explosion of a space shuttle, or small, private moments, they’re there, just below our conscious selves, ready to surface when stimulated.

That’s why Tom’s column resonated with me. Coffee brings back some of my own memories, and some of them also involve the Vietnam War.

Not that I was there on the front line. Far from it. Like Tom, I was in the generation that was called to fight another war on the far side of the globe that made no more sense than the current war in Iraq. But unlike Tom, I had a college deferment and then a high lottery number.

I’m neither proud nor ashamed that I stayed home while some of my friends fought and died, or fought and returned home changed forever. That’s just the way it was.

So what are my Vietnam coffee memories?

I started drinking coffee the summer during college when I worked driving trucks filled with peppermint from the farm fields to the processing plant. I had the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift - hence the need for coffee.

One night the trucks, about four of them, were lined up along the edge of a dark field. It was well past midnight, and we were waiting for the next truck to be filled by the harvester. One of the drivers, who was a couple years older than me and a distant acquaintance - he had been a star athlete in a nearby high school - had just returned from Vietnam.

I was in that dim state of consciousness just short of sleep when a man landed, as if dropped from the night sky, on the hood of my truck. I think I screamed, or nearly so, as he fired imaginary shots at me through the windshield from an imaginary gun in his hands. Then he leapt to the next truck, dispatched that driver the same way, and jumped again to the next.

It only took a few moments to realize that our athletic Vietnam veteran was having a terrible flashback, reliving the horrors of war at our expense. After finishing us off, he ran into the nearby woods and disappeared. I finished my cup of coffee.

No one was hurt. He never returned to the job. The memory should have dimmed to the far reaches of my mind, hardly a memory any more at all.

But sometimes when I drink a cup of coffee, when it’s particular refreshing or rewarding, I remember that first summer of Java, when I picked up a lifelong habit I don’t regret, whatever the latest study says about the evils of caffeine.

And that inevitably leads to that dark recollection of a Vietnam veteran caught up in his own haunted memories.

It’s not far from there to begin thinking about how many other young boys are returning from war today with their own tragic moments to relive.

I analyzed the year-end stats from our Web sites today.

The amazing growth of traffic to MonroeTalks.com was the highlight, although there were other contenders.

We launched MonroeTalks to give residents of Monroe County a chance to engage in a community conversation - or many small conversations. It also provided a place to share photos, showplace our bloggers and host a comprehensive and interactive calendar.

It was an experiment - I don’t know of any Web site quite like it in the country. We didn’t know whether Monroe County would embrace the new site or ignore it.

In our marketing, we used the tagline, “Join the Conversation.” As it turned out, thousands of people took us up on the invitation.

In July, the first full month, the site had nearly a half-million page views. It grew to 800,000 in August, and topped 1 million by October. To provide some perspective, our news Web site, monroenews.com, topped 1 million page views for the first time in August.

In October, MonroeTalks.com not only topped 1 million page views, it also passed monroenews.com. By December, it had reached nearly 1.2 million page views.

That’s a lot of time spent by thousands of Monroe County residents, engaging in a fascinating variety of conversations.

Another candidate for highlight of the year - besides monroenews.com topping 1 million page views - is the steady growth of the traffic to the blogs on Blogsmonroe.com.

Traffic to the blogs increased during 11 of the 12 months of 2007, nearly reaching 200,000 page views in December. Three of the 38 blogs topped 10,000 page views on their own.

The thing that amazes me the most: The variety of topics that are discussed every day between the forums on MonroeTalks.com and the blogs on Blogsmonroe.com.  Pick a topic - it’s there somewhere. And if it isn’t, wait a few minutes. There’s a new post on a blog or forum just about every minute.

I’ve watched too many football games in the last few days, including four today.

One reason is that I’ve allowed the hype about which conference is better to get under my skin. In my 20 years or so in the Midwest, I’ve become a fan of the Big 10, as well as of Michigan and Ohio State.

Michigan AND Ohio State? What’s that all about, you ask.

Well, I spent 10 years in Central Ohio, the heart of Buckeye Country. During that time, my wife, Kathy, earned a master’s degree from OSU. I became a Buckeye fan.

Then we moved to Michigan, partly to be closer to our daughter, who got an MBA from Michigan and stayed in the Ann Arbor area. Her family is totally into Big Blue. So I’m becoming a Wolverine fan.

And that means rooting for the Big 10 against the hated SEC. I don’t ever remember cheering for Wisconsin. But there I was, on the edge of my chair, trying to will the Badgers to victory over Tennessee. They didn’t win, but they did play well enough to win.

Then Michigan dominated Florida. The score was close, but not because Florida ever stopped the Michigan offense.

So it’s one-t0-one in games between the SEC and the Big 10. I guess that’s just one more reason to root against LSU in next Monday’s championship game.