When the Saints of New Orleans won their first-ever NFC Championship in overtime last week — propelling them to the Super Bowl and a contest with former Saints’ great Archie Manning’s eldest son, Peyton — it’s worth a read to ponder what might have been had the Vikings won.
Two “kids” from Mississippi would have sparred, each QB-ing teams from cities the names of which end in “apolis,” with both cities (Minne- and Indian-) and a so-southern state having Native American origins. Story goes that such would have been an NFL first. I wonder if “WhoDat” is an Indian expression. They call it a “Nation.”
From what might have been to what is, economic challenges remain at the top of our grand nation’s agenda. With jobs in jeopardy on the Space Coast — furloughs or layoffs estimated in the thousands (though other new jobs should be added by High Speed Rail developments), the Rolex 24 and D-500, along with a plethora of Mardi Gras parades, the “Florida” Super Bowl and, oh yes, Spring Breakers and Bikers, should serve as a welcome diversion, keeping spirits high and ticket pricing low — well, at least in East Central Sunshine venues. For sure, there’ll be lots of illuminated, mega-sized scoreboards to watch and top-talent for whom to root.
Still another scoreboard of sorts is constantly changing as cadres of local Floridians traipse in and out of Haiti. Last weekend, the horror of Haiti dropped off the front pages, but the real work to save the nation has just begun. Firsthand testimony to the tragedy to our south is streaming in from folks we know personally.
NSB Rotary president Bill Biedenbach is somewhere in the hinterland 20+ miles out of Port au Prince, accompanied by Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, who chartered a Boeing 707 from Pittsburgh in order to deliver Florida and Pennsylvania medical responders and supplies now two weekends past. At this writing, we’ve heard little about their exact whereabouts (apart from a 2 a.m. landing back in Pennsylvania that allowed the gov to appear on “Face The Nation”). Nor have we heard anything from Auburn U’s Dr. Val Ade regarding the condition of tilapia fish ponds, which his Haitian associates constructed as a pilot “food” farm project — funded by a decade-back grant from Rotary .
Meanwhile, here on the Intracoastal, a nature-postponed kayakers’ sunset “Christmas” adventure found a near-perfect January window between a fast-moving cold front and a Spring-like weekend.
When the skinny-boat entourage arrived for its annual stopover at the Mayer’s river dock, an inbound tidal current gave tour leader Marilyn Sullivan and parade marshal “Cleopatra of the Nile” Diane Yeaton and her trusty Geenoe-canoe a vessel-corralling adventure like few others. Expert roping and line tossing by Sea Scouts Capt. Richard Sturge and Rotary’s Rich Child lifted some 25+ kayakers up the coquina seawall to a warm reception and oh so comforting potty break.
A couple hours later, all were back aboard their glistening watercraft for the return trip “home” under a brilliant moon — as advertised. BTW, so Sullivan assured us, there’s no extra charge for rock climbing and seawall scaling.
Ah, capping off the evening was a discreet presentation by MDC’s kayakers’ touring chief to hosts Kathy M and crumbs-catcher Pup Paradise: a T-shirt that read “The Mayer’s 3rd Annual Christmas Kayak Bash.” Hum, that suggests that there’ll be a 4th! Hopefully, during the month prior to Jan. 29, 2011.
On the other hand, given the past decade’s weather patterns, we could next have a Nawlins-style Mardi Gras “Christmas” kayaking bash on the eve of a Pro Bowl, the Daytona 500 or Valentines’ Day. Only in Florida.

Paul Mayer’s columns started  as excerpts from  “Letters to Seven Children” in the former Observer Smyrna Breeze.