Paterno

BIRTH DATE AND PLACE

In Brooklyn, New York on 21st of December 1926, Joseph Vincent Paterno was born.

FAMILY MEMBERS

His mother Florence and father Angelo were of deep Italian descent and wanted Joe and his younger brother George to excel in academics.

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE

Football at Brooklyn Prep

Joe and George attended highly rated private schools, as a request of their parents. They went to Brooklyn Prep for high school and played football together. Joe was always a star athlete, but succeeded in football. As a senior, his team lost one game the entire season. He was recognized by many colleges, not only for football but academics as well. Although he was scouted, he chose the army instead. Joe served in the final year of World War II before attending Brown University. He originally decided on a major of engineering but soon changed to English Literature. Although his father had dreams of him becoming a lawyer or even president, Joe had other plans in mind.

HOBBIES, INTERESTS, ACTIVITIES

Joe loved poetry; his favorite poet was Virgil and he could read and recite his poetry all day. Joe lived a simple life. He hated not being focused on football. He would leave events early to go create a play or write down a thought he had during the day. His job became his life; his one and only hobby; his love.

ANECDOTES

In 1994, Paterno started the coke break. He believed that the players need to be hydrated and full of energy to play football. Unlike most coaches, Joe let his players take a break in the middle of practice to drink water. One day, his players were surprised to see the assistant coaches walking onto the field with glass coke bottles on ice. When Coach blew his whistle, the upperclassman ran and chugged the cokes. The freshman slowly walked over, grabbed a coke, and took their time to drink the bubbly soda. When two and a half minutes passed, Joe blew his whistle and told the players to get back out on the field. The freshman never walked to the coke break again, and everyone belched the rest of practice.

CAREER

His 10th year as assistant coach at Penn State.

Angelo Paterno’s dream for his son was to become a lawyer or president, but when Joe took the assistant coaching job after graduating from Brown University, his dad wasn’t too thrilled. Joe’s father never lived to see Joe’s fame as Head coach. He started at Penn state right after college and was not promoted for sixteen years. Many coaches tried to convince him to leave or to get a contract, but Joe was not interested and had other plans in mind. His first year as head coach was a losing season. People were not sure of the college’s decision to promote Paterno, but the following season, he proved that he was worth that promotion.

On the off season, Joe worked day and night, often neglecting his family. His wife Sue, who he met in the library of State College, new that Joe was going through a phase and that he loved his children. They had five children, although Sue had three miscarriages in between. Diana was the oldest, next Mary Kay, David, Joseph Jr. or Jay, and Scott. The kids supported their father, but most of the time refused to discuss football with him. Joe was always busy trying to redesign the defense. He created many plays before finally coming up with slogan “Go to the ball”. He wanted his players to go with their gut and take chances. “Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves,” Joe always said to his family, players, and anyone willing to hear his opinion. While he yearned for perfection on the field, Joe refused to let his players play if they were not excelling in academics. He was strict about his classroom first rule and had to bench and even kick players off the team due to failure to meet academic requirements.

Joe was offered many jobs throughout his career, and even accepted one including a house, two cars, and a bank account full of money, but after little sleep the following night, Joe rejected the offer and decided that the small town of Happy Valley was perfect for his family. Paterno’s confident personality drove him to challenging President Nixon. Nixon presented Paterno with a plaque for winning a bowl game and having an exceptional graduation rate, but Paterno did not believe that the president should be giving a plaque to a college football coach. He also did not believe that he should be receiving one either.

REASONS FOR FAME

My trip to Penn State in 2008.

Paterno’s winning record and academic standards made him famous. His determination to win and his unwillingness to accept failing grades pushed his teams to Bowl games and fame across the East Coast. Paterno loved to recruit players from their living rooms or his dining room table. Magic happened at that table: meetings, debates, conferences, million dollar donations, etc. He made an impression on his players and his values made being on his team even more desirable. Paterno’s unwillingness to leave his position for money or a pro team caused more talk about his as well. He was always in the Pennsylvania papers and always the buzz about one thing or another. He and Sue wanted to live simple lives and they did not want the fame or the fortune; they donated millions to the college. His ego was big but Paterno tried to keep it under control. He wanted Bear Bryant’s winning record and refused to stop until he surpassed it. Although it took almost twice as long, Paterno still beat Bear’s record with almost ten years still left in his career.

LATER LIFE AND OLD AGE

In 2001, Joe was informed by Mike McQueary of an incident on school property between a young boy and former coach Jerry Sandusky. The information reported was vague and left Paterno in a very uncomfortable position. Within a week, Paterno reported the incident to Athletic Director Tim Curley, who then reported it to the President Graham Spanier. Tim reported to Joe that the situation was being dealt with. Joe, already not fond of Sandusky, did not want to know more about the situation and therefore did not ask about it again. His lack of curiosity would later bite him in the butt.

In 2011 when the Sandusky scandal broke to the media, Joe was shocked. Reporters claimed that Paterno and Curley had covered up over thirty child sexual abuse cases for over ten years. Because of the country’s out lash, the media continued to eat at the situation, exaggerating every detail that they could. The board of directors at Penn State fired Joe, Curley, and Spanier soon after the story broke on November 10, 2011.

DEATH

In memory of JoePa.

Eight days after Joe was fired, he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. The cancer had eaten away at his body and he found himself spending much of his last months in the hospital. Joe loved telling stories and listening to his grandson talk about football. Sue was convinced that the cancer was treatable and even told the media that Joe would make it through, but his children knew that he didn’t have much time left. On February 22, 2012, Joe died with loved ones and former players by his side. He lived a full life and enjoyed every moment that he could.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig

     “If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky?” Saint Patrick’s Day or Feast of Saint Patrick was founded after the death of the Romano-British Christian missionary Saint Patrick passed away in 460 A.D. Officially known as Lá Fhéile Pádraig in Irish, “The Day of the Festival of Patrick” is now commonly celebrated around the world, but not as a real holiday. Although Saint Patrick’s Day is known for leprechauns and pots of gold, the Shamrock, the flower of Ireland, is the traditional symbol because of its importance in explaining the Holy Trinity. The festive day is celebrated with the wearing of green or orange and eating traditional Irish foods. In common days, people will pinch others if they are not wearing green to honor Saint Patrick. In Ireland, the Irish will give their respects to “Apostle of Ireland” with parades, church services, the drinking of Irish beer and whiskey, and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on eating meat. The most common meals include shepherd's pie and corned beef with cabbage.

       Saint Patrick, born in 385 A.D., was raised in a Romano-British home with a deacon father. Because religion was so strong in his family, he was raised religious. At the age of 16, Patrick was taken captive but was able to escape and attend school in hopes of becoming a priest. His Christian beliefs were pretty widely known throughout Ireland, including his comparison of the three-leaf clover to the trinity. He continued to evangelize for thirty years in Ireland and even described himself as the "most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshiped idols and unclean things had become the people of God." He later died at the age of 85 on March 17, 460 A.D.  After his death, Irish natives began to celebrate March 17th in honor of Saint Patrick.

Palm Cafe Menu

 

The Twisted Reality of Coraline Jones

Coraline Book Cover

“How can you walk away from something and then come towards it?” When Coraline Jones’ reality is suddenly twisted, this little 11 year old, played by Dakota Fanning, must separate reality from acceptable fiction and truth from sinister lies in this fantasy thriller children’s movie. Coraline’s parents, played by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman, help her figure out which reality best suits her. The 2009 film Coraline was shot in stereoscopic 3D stop-motion animation and directed by Henry Selick, also the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Coraline travels to the "other" world.

          Similarly based on Neil Gaiman’s book, Coraline is about a girl with bright blue hair and sparkling eyes. Although she was forced to leave her friends and move from Pontiac, Michigan to the Pink Palace of Ashland, Oregon, Coraline tried to make the best of her new life. In search of something to do on a cold and rainy day, Coraline explores the woods outside her home, making friends with the neighbor boy Wybie, played by Robert Bailey Jr.. When he gets called inside by his grandmother, owner of the Pink Palace, Coraline decides to explore this new home and finds a door which had been locked and covered in wallpaper. Although she finds the other side of the door to be a brick wall, later that night she finds the bricks replaced by a magical gateway to a parallel universe. Coraline enjoys what this new world has to offer, but she is skeptical of its appearing consequences. Her very talkative friend, Wybie, is fixed by her “other” Mother in order to make the new world more appealing to Coraline.  In this so called “other” life, Coraline’s “other” Mother and “other” Father are the complete opposite of her real mom and dad. Her “other” Mother is a fabulous cook and her “other” Father writes music for her. Although she loves the new perks of this parallel universe, Coraline is soon faced with the decision of her life. She can either live in this world made for her with the consequences of having her eyes removed and replaced with little black buttons, or she can try to leave with the consequence of having to save the people already trapped in the other world. Coraline’s journey through a hardship in a delicate time of her life proves her perseverance and dedication to find who she is and the life she wants. 

Coraline Puppet

Unlike most movies, Coraline was filmed in stop-motion using creatively designed, handmade puppets. Each puppet has everything a human actor would have: the luxurious wardrobe and thousands of facial expressions. The wardrobe for a puppet has to consist of duplicates of each item in order to film a scene that involves dirt or any added effect. Coraline had 6,300 facial replacement pieces and 207,000 total facial expression combinations. Similarly, 28 Coraline dolls were created by 10 people in 4 months. The extent of work that went into these puppets shows the dedication of the design crew in creating this film.

Filming of Coraline

The technique behind the 3D stop-motion animations makes the movie exceptional to watch. Stop-motion is the combining of many still pictures to create motion. For every one second of film in Coraline, 30+ still pictures were taken. Every time the animator takes a picture, they move objects in the scene a fraction of a millimeter in order to create a moving effect. This movie was also shot in 3D. To give the illusion of 3D, every time a picture was taken the camera moved left to take another picture. The distance between the pictures is the width between Coraline’s eyes. They used that as a measuring tool because the puppets are so small that using the width between human eyes would be unproportional. The 3D stop-motion animators brought the puppets to life with camera technique.

Due to my lack of animated film watching, I was surprised when the movie was over. I had never watched a “puppet movie”. I did, however, love the movie. Because of the strange idea behind Coraline, I would not recommend this movie to children under the age of 10.

Bones Season Premier: M.I.A. - Missing In Action

Emily Deschanel

Boogeyman’s Emily Deschanel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s David Boreanaz are back at it again with season 8 of the hit TV series Bones on Fox.  After an arduous season 7, consisting of a pregnancy, murder, and a supposed framing, Temperance Brennan – aka Bones – goes into hiding for three months. With ex-convict Max Keenan – Temperance’s dad – and baby Christine by her side, Bones tries to prove herself not only to the FBI, but her friends and loved ones as well.

The Cast of Bones

Although her cast mates know she is innocent, the pang of knowing the truth is in their stomachs every second of everyday. The Lincoln Lawyer’s Michaela Conlin, who plays Bones’ best friend and coworker Angela Montenegro, uses the supposed evidence to help find the truth, so Bones can come home. While in hiding, Bones uncovers a corpse for her team which pushes the man that she knows did it over the edge.

The Jeffersonian Forensic Anthropology team believes that a man named Christopher Pelant is responsible for multiple murders and the framing of Temperance Brennan. Due to his computer background, he has the capability of hacking into the FBI database to change and/or steal information, which he uses to remove himself and place Bones in a security video.

David Boreanaz

David Boreanaz, who plays Seeley Booth, randomly decides to take a trip to Atlantic City for the weekend. Although his intentions are unknown to the viewer, predicting what happens next is easy. Why would a married man take a trip to Atlantic City in the middle of the night when his wife and daughter are missing?

To create a suspenseful climax for the show, executive producers Barry Josephson and Hart Hanson use Booth’s mysterious trip to Atlantic City as a cliffhanger. Although he cannot inform his team of his actions, they show their support by making it their mission to find out the truth, even if it means the end of the road for one of their own.

The cast sitting around the autopsy table.

Although the premiere was not what I had expected, it left me gripping the edge of my seat, wanting more, and determined to finish the season. Because this episode laid a strong foundation for the rest of season 8, Bones will continue to be climatic and jaw dropping.

My First Post

This is my first post on my Writing for the World blog!