HinesSight

Streaming shows I've liked recently

This is the third, and last, installment of my hit blog post series (in my own mind, at least) about streaming shows I've liked in 2023. First two posts are here and here.

Billions -- Various streaming services
Yeah, I know. This series, which had seven seasons, kicked off in 2016 and concluded this year. But I came late to the Billions party. I started watching it in 2023, can't remember exactly when. Once I started, I was completely and utterly hooked on Billions. I couldn't watch anything else during my Me Time for streaming. (My wife and I watch some shows separately, then together late at night.)

I loved the theme of greedy financial types jousting for power and money, with a federal attorney in the Southern District of New York battling not only his own demons but the financial guys/gals. Note: Laurel, my wife, has a strange distaste for Paul Giamatti's face. When we'd fire up Apple TV for our together TV watching time, usually an image of Giamatti would be on the screen, left over from my viewing of Billions. I had to rush to switch to a different screen before my wife had a nervous breakdown. 

A Murder at the End of the World -- Hulu
Very creative and unique take on the rather familiar plot of a brilliant "detective" straining to discover who the murderer is among a group of people in an isolated setting where all the suspects are known and can't escape the premises. Great acting with a pleasing didn't-see-that-coming ending. The stark snowy scenery is gorgeous. Show is set in Iceland, though I don't know if that's where it was filmed.

The Buccaneers -- Apple TV+
An engrossing period piece set in the 1870s. However, the music and general vibe is contemporary, at least when it comes to the five female friends who embark from the United States to find good times, and husbands, in Britain. It was easy to get hooked on this show. Lots of opportunities to think stuff like "Oh, no, he isn't right for her" and "Why can't the two of them get together?" Thankfully, there apparently will be another season -- though this seemed pretty obvious from the ending of the first season.

Lessons in Chemistry -- Apple TV+
This is a show about a strong independent woman held down by the mores of 1950's America. And, of course, her own hangups. There were times when I felt like giving up on the series when her plight seemed hopeless. Of course, that was just the bottom of a narrative arc, so I was glad when I kept watching and saw her triumph over adversity. It's a love story with unpredictable twists. And quite a bit of science.

Reacher -- Amazon
I'm enjoying Season 2 of Reacher just as much as Season 1. The best thing about the show for me is that Reacher isn't played by Tom Cruise, which he was in the movie version. That was so wrong, so out of touch with the Reacher I came to know through the books featuring this character by Lee Child, I could barely watch little Tom Cruise trying to act like a 6' 2" 250 pound muscular Jack Reacher.

Who, we learn in Season 2, can set off an air bag in a car by delivering a powerful kick to the front of the vehicle. (Don't try this at home; at least, if you don't want a broken foot.) Reacher is a nice guy who, believe me, you don't want to get on the wrong side of, because then he's not nice at all.

A message for those having a hard time during the Christmas season

Many people, well, most people I'm sure, enjoy the Christmas season. Vacation. Gifts. Relatives. Eating. Drinking. Football. And for Christians, the birth of Jesus.

But for others, and I'm largely in your camp, all of these festivities, well-wishing, and positivity grate on their nerves, because for reasons unique to each person, the Christmas season isn't a time for celebration.

After all, as the Buddha pointed out, life is suffering. Or at least, full of disappointment. Sure, it's possible to put on a happy face and ignore this truth, but ignore it or not, that truth remains. 

Many people are lonely. Many people are in pain -- physical, emotional, or both. Many people struggle for a lack of money. Many people deeply feel the sorrow of those beset by war, starvation, oppression, discrimination. There's a myriad of reasons why merry-making feels wrong around Christmas.

So I just want to say to anyone who feels that way, know that you're not alone. Since I'm one of you, by and large, here's a couple of things that made me feel better on this Christmas Eve.

First, someone shared this video by Michael Shermer in a comment on my Church of the Churchless blog. It's just a few minutes long. I liked what Shermer had to say. Basically, be here now. Enjoy the small things of life to the extent that you can.

This morning I picked up my copy of a book by a Buddhist monk, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English. These passages from the first chapter resonated with me. I'd read them several times before, but I needed a reminder of the Buddhist message.

The essence of our experience is change. Chance is incessant. Moment by moment life flows by, and it is never the same. Perpetual fluctuation is the essence of the perceptual universe. A thought springs up in your head and half a second later, it is gone. In comes another one, and then that is gone too.

A sound strikes your ears, and then silence. Open your eyes and the world pours in, blink and it is gone. People come into your life and go. Friends leave, relatives die. Your fortunes go up, and they go down. Sometimes you win, and just as often, you lose. 

It is incessant: change, change, change, no two moments ever the same.

..."Suffering" is a big word in Buddhist thought. It is a key term and should be thoroughly understood. The Pali word is dukkah, and it does not just mean the agony of the body. It means that deep, subtle sense of dissatisfaction that is a part of every mind moment and that results directly from the mental treadmill.

...Sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? Luckily, it's not -- not at all. It only sounds bleak when you view it from the ordinary mental perspective, the very perspective at which the treadmill mechanism operates. Underneath lies another perspective, a completely different way to look at the universe.

It is a level of functioning in which the mind does not try to freeze time, does not grasp onto our experience as it flows by, and does not try to block things out and ignore them. It is a level of experience beyond good and bad, beyond pleasure and pain.

It is a lovely way to perceive the world, and it is a learnable skill. It is not easy, but it can be learned.

I'm still a beginner at learning mindfulness.

But I get glimpses of what this Buddhist monk is talking about. Accept your feelings, whatever they are. Embrace your suffering, however it appears. Flow with life as best you can, even when this is difficult. Don't expect perfection of yourself, or of others, or of life. Be grateful for small pleasures.

Oregon State and Washington State get a $255 million Pac-2 settlement

Santa Claus came early for the two remaining members of the Pac-12 conference, Oregon State and Washington State. For yesterday there was an announcement that $255 million will be under their metaphorical Christmas trees, courtesy of a settlement agreement with the ten departing members of the conference.

Sports writer John Canzano described the agreement in his Bald Faced Truth substack column that I subscribe to.

Jayathi Murthy called me at 6:30 a.m. PT on a Saturday in Week 2 of the college football season. The Oregon State president was ticked off about what happened to the Pac-12 and the attempts by the departing members to blow up the 108-year-old conference on their way out the door.

“We’re ready for the fight,” she told me.

Oregon State and Washington State announced that they have reached a settlement with the 10 departing schools. The financial piece of the agreement gives the two schools protection against liabilities involving ongoing lawsuits, $190 million in future conference revenue and $65 million from the departing schools that will be spread out over the next two years.

The total war chest: $255 million.

Said one source: “We have a term sheet. We still don’t have a definitive final agreement. It will be a month or two before this thing gets papered, but we’re close enough that everyone feels comfortable.”

The departing schools get closure and an assurance that OSU and WSU won’t try to withhold all the revenue this year. But it also amounts to a victory in the fight Murthy spoke about in September. At the time, she expressed disappointment that TV market size was driving college football realignment.

“The presumption of it gets me,” Murthy told me. “We are a land-grant university. It was this amazing, visionary thing that happened 150 years ago. It was amazing and deliberate. It put universities in small towns. Now, everything is tied entirely to eyeballs and TV ratings? To do that is to disenfranchise students.

“It’s not the way it should be.”

This is great news for Oregon State and Washington State.

They were treated badly by Oregon, Washington, and the other Pac-12 schools who left them in the lurch in a self-centered effort to get more money out of media deals, even if this meant heading off to distant conferences like the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten.

So now I view OSU and WSU as underdogs. Since I usually root for the underdog in sporting events, the news that the Pac-2 have a $255 million war chest to ease their way into either rebuilding the Pac-12 or finding ways to cobble together agreements with other conferences made me smile. 

Canzano reports that things are coming along fairly well on this front.

Washington State and Oregon State’s football teams will play a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West Conference in football in 2024. Men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s golf, cross country, volleyball, women’s rowing and softball will be affiliate members with the West Coast Conference. And Oregon State announced that gymnastics, wrestling, indoor/outdoor track and field and men’s rowing will continue competing as members of the Pac-12.

The departing schools will be off to their new conferences in August. Oregon State and Washington State now have control of the Pac-12 and $250 million in assets. They have a plan for 2024. Beyond that, things remain uncertain.

I appreciated the Oregon State University president reminding me through her quote in Canzano's column that her school and Washington State are land grant universities, which were designed to be in small towns. Somehow that had escaped me until now.

That makes the media rights greed of the ten departing members of the Pac-12 even more obnoxious. Corvallis, Oregon only has about 60,000 people. Pullman, Washington only has about 33,000 people.

Obviously their fan base is much larger, but still, there's no way these land grant schools can compete in a bidding war for media rights with universities in much larger markets: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco area, Los Angeles area, and such.

I'm still going to be an Oregon Ducks fan. However, it's going to be a while before I get over my irritation at how the University of Oregon jumped ship for the Big Ten just because they expected to rake in more money from media rights in that conference.

I suspect that in coming years, there's going to be some regret expressed by the ten departing members of the Pac-12  when they realize that things aren't so rosy halfway, or all the way, across the country. Hopefully OSU and WSU will prosper and be able to say, "Hey, you're getting what you deserve."

Why I prefer Chroma Coffee drops to other acid reducers

I like coffee. But the acidic aspect of coffee causes me problems. As noted below, I've tried several acid reducing products. After learning about the Chroma Coffee drops, they've become my favorite.

Yesterday I received another order from the Chroma Coffee owner, Jack. As with my initial order, a handwritten note was included with the drops. Hey, you won't get that with any acid-reducing product you order from Amazon. 

Jack referred to a review I left on his web site. 

Pleased to find these drops

I'd been using acid reducing drops from another source, which went out of business. That led to a search on Amazon and elsewhere to find something similar: simple ingredients, easy to use, good customer service. Eventually I discovered these drops. They arrived very promptly with a nice handwritten note from Jack, the Chroma Drops owner. Great value, compared to my previous source of acid reducing drops. They're working well for me.

Here's what I tried before I discovered Chroma Coffee Drops.

The Caffeo drops were fine. However, when I ran out and tried to order more, I found that Caffeo had gone out of business.

That led me to try Coffee Tamer. I used it for a while, but I didn't like the ingredients and having to stir the packets for 30 seconds after adding them to coffee. Plus, Coffee Tamer says the granules are not designed to totally dissolve.

I find the Chroma Coffee drops much more convenient. The Chroma Coffee web site says only two drops will reduce acidity over 30%. Since I'm so sensitive to acidity, I've been putting eight drops in a 16 ounce cup. That's how many Caffeo recommended. 

The Caffeo drops came in a 15ml bottle, while the Chroma Coffee drops are a 60ml bottle. Given that there are 1,200 drops in 60ml, at eight drops per 16 ounce cup of coffee, I'm getting 150 cups of acid-reduced coffee for the $11.99 cost of the drops -- 8 cents per cup. 

So if someone uses only two drops per cup, that's 2 cents per cup. (Kind of cool that the Chroma Coffee drops cost almost exactly one cent per drop.) This is what led me to say in my review that the Chroma Coffee drops are a great value.

I keep a bottle in my car so they're available when I buy coffee when I'm out and about. The bottle fits easily in a coat pocket. After adding the drops, I just stir the coffee for a few seconds, since drops dissolve so rapidly compared to granules.

Our 2023 Christmas letter is about cars that act like old bodies

Here's our 2023 Christmas letter, hot off the press of my mind this afternoon after I decided that I really wanted to write it, notwithstanding my wife having said that we shouldn't send one out this year, because there's nothing interesting to report on in our lives.

To which I thought, What?! How could that be, given all that happened with us in 2023? What she meant, I think, is that we haven't gone on any exciting trips or done anything noteworthy. That may be true, but exciting and noteworthy is in the eye of the beholder.

Plus, that's not the point of a Christmas letter. Or Holiday Letter, as we prefer to call it.

The point is to give people a glimpse into our lives that they wouldn't have otherwise. Also, because I've written a Christmas letter since 1995, as documented in my regularly updated Collected Christmas Letters post, and I didn't feel like breaking that string this year.

Here's the 2023 letter, in PDF and JPEG formats.
Download 2023 Christmas Letter PDF

Hearing "Hey, Old Man!" got me thinking about people treated as an object

Above is the short version of what happened to me yesterday in downtown Salem (Oregon). But since I'm a wordy Old Man, I'm going to share a longer version. 

As background, I am indeed old, 75. And a man. 

So it doesn't bother me when my Tai Chi instructor, whom I've known for about 22 years, beginning with his instruction in a hard style martial art, refers to me in class as Old Man. For I'm the oldest man in the class, though my instructor is 70, just five years behind me.

But it did bother me when I was crossing Court Street at the mid-block crosswalk, heading for the Pacific Martial Arts studio where my Tai Chi class was about to begin, and a young guy who was part of a small group of teenagers yelled at me from the sidewalk.

"Hey, Old Man!" 

My instant reaction was irritation, because his attitude wasn't friendly, even though I'd never met the guy. I felt like saying something back at him. But within a second or two I decided to ignore him and keep on walking.

That spurred the guy to say something else. I can't remember what it was. Something along the lines of "I'm talking to you!" Which I also ignored.

I then spent the first part of the Tai Chi class conjuring up things I could have said, but didn't. Not that I had any doubts that I did the right thing by walking away. That's the first rule of traditional martial arts training: walk away from a fight if at all possible.

However, I enjoyed coming up with alternative scenarios. Like, "Sorry, man, I'm on my way to where I earned my karate black belt quite a few years ago. No time to talk. Just want to point out that while it may be fun to insult old men, keep in mind that some of them might be able to kick your butt. Have a good day."

Later I thought more calmly about what had happened to me. This was the first time in my life that I'd been treated negatively as an Old Man Object by a stranger. Driving home, I realized how common it is for other people to have the same thing happen to them.

Meaning, being treated negatively as a Woman Object, a Person of Color Object, a LGBTQ Object, a Muslim/Jewish/Other Religion Object. Or Whatever Object. Being a white male, I wasn't used to being insulted by someone I didn't know just because I had a characteristic they didn't like.

Now I know how it feels. Not good. For as I first learned from my reading of Sartre way back in my college days, we are subjects to ourselves and objects to other people, since no one else has direct access to our feeling of what it's like to be us.

That's what makes ageism, or sexism, or racism, or any other sort of prejudicial "ism" so disturbing. It strikes at the heart of a person's humanity, that which they have in common with every other person, by reducing them to a caricature of who they truly are.

So I guess I should feel sorry for the guy who yelled "Hey, Old Man!" at me. I don't know why he said this. Maybe he'd had too much to drink. Or was inebriated by something other than alcohol. Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he was simply a teenager acting like a jerk (something I remember doing, for sure).

Anyway, the lesson I'm taking away from this little episode is to be more considerate myself both toward people I don't know, and those I do. Life is difficult enough without me getting irritated at someone whose turn signal has been on for blocks, or who is taking forever with a banking transaction as I wait in line. 

I did the right thing by not reacting to the guy who yelled at me. If it happens again, perhaps I won't even get irritated. Perhaps.

CASA of Marion County helps children in an inspiring way

Last Thursday CASA of Marion County had their annual luncheon in downtown Salem's Reed Ballroom. Vanessa Nordyke, CASA Executive Director, invited my wife and me to the event, which is both a fundraiser and an opportunity to showcase what CASA does.

I was somewhat familiar with CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates) because my daughter, Celeste, had served as one in Orange County, California. But I didn't even know what CASA stood for until the luncheon.

I came away highly impressed. A page in the event handout describes how CASA of Marion County helps foster children.

A You Tube video I found on the CASA of Marion County web site shows how important a CASA volunteer can be in the life of a foster child.

At the luncheon, I was deeply moved -- almost to tears -- when a girl who had been helped by CASA of Marion County spoke. She started off by saying that this was the first time she had spoken to a group outside of school. 

That got a big round of applause from the luncheon attendees, which was followed by more applause during her talk, and then a standing ovation at the end. Pretty cool response for the girl's first public speaking experience. 

I can't remember all of the details of her lousy upbringing by a dysfunctional mother, so I won't attempt to describe them. What stuck in my mind was when she said that her mother didn't believe it was important for her to go to school, so her mother would pull her out of school for months at a time.

Eventually she was adopted, something that scared the girl at first. However, her foster parents treated her well for the first time in her life, and the CASA volunteer helped make her foster experience even more positive.

Even with all the problems she faced prior to being adopted, the girl said she ended up with a 3.96 high school GPA, I think it was, and because the first person in her family to go to college. What really got to me, and the other luncheon attendees, I'm sure, was the girl's statement that her tribulations ended up making her stronger and more resilient.

Listening to her talk, I couldn't help but think of my own struggles as an adolescent caused in large part by my divorced mother's alcoholism. It was just me and her facing her demons, and I didn't know how to deal with that. A supportive girlfriend with a normal family helped me through some tough times.

So while my situation in high school wasn't nearly as bad as the girl's, I could relate to her struggles caused by a mother who wasn't capable of being the parent the girl deserved. Growing up is tough enough without parental dysfunction making it much more difficult.

It was wonderful to learn how CASA of Marion County is helping foster children in our area. My wife and I, along with so many others at the luncheon, were pleased to make a donation to the organization. Consider doing so also.

A kitchen faucet problem reminds me of the wisdom in "I could be wrong"

I don't like to be wrong. But I dislike problems that defy fixing even more, whether these be personal, political, or any other sort.

And what I've learned from painful experience is that when I believe I'm absolutely right, yet that rightness isn't resulting in progress at resolving a problem, the best thing I could do is tell myself, "I could be wrong."

This morning, when I emerged from a separate bedroom where I sleep, my wife told me that our kitchen faucet that we'd gotten earlier this year had stopped working. It's a Delta faucet with Touch2O technology. Meaning it can turn off and on with a touch once the water is running.

Pretty handy when I'm washing dishes and don't want the water running all the time. I scrub a pan with soap, touch the faucet, and rinse the pan. Another touch, the water is off. One more touch, and the water runs again at the same temperature and strength.

But today not only didn't Touch2O work, the faucet wasn't working at all. Laurel, my wife, had bought the faucet. She also was home when a plumber installed it. I asked her if she was sure that the plumber had connected the faucet to our home's electrical system rather than using a battery pack to power the faucet.

Yes, Laurel said, I'm quite sure.

So when I looked under the cramped area under the kitchen sink (we've got reverse osmosis equipment that takes up most of the space) I focused on troubleshooting tips other than replacing batteries that I'd found on a Delta Kitchen Faucet with Touch2O Technology support web page.

Those tips didn't get the faucet working. I then watched several YouTube videos about getting a Touch2O faucet working again, each of which said that if the light at the base of the faucet is blinking red three times (ours was), by far the most likely reason was that batteries needed to be changed.

But Laurel was sure we didn't have a battery pack. Since my wife is usually right, I also was sure about this. Until Laurel started moving things around under the sink in preparation for a visit from a plumber we'd contacted, who was going to bring a replacement faucet, which revealed a hidden...

Battery pack. We changed the batteries. The faucet worked fine. Happy ending. 

Except I wasn't so happy about how both of us had gotten locked into an erroneous assumption about what could be wrong with the faucet. With all the stuff under our sink, I couldn't tell what was at the other end of the faucet's power supply cord. So why didn't I move things around right away? That would have led to a discovery of the battery pack.

Because I never thought, "I could be wrong." Admittedly, that's hard to do when you feel like you're right. Not that I knew what was wrong with the faucet. I just figured that whatever it was, it couldn't be the battery pack, since we didn't have one. 

But we did. 

On the plus side, though at the moment I don't take a lot of comfort in this, after the faucet was working again I recalled a piece that I wrote in 2013 for my Strange Up Salem column in Salem Weekly, our city's alternative newspaper at the time. Here's an excerpt from "Keep Fighting, Good Citizens of Salem."

One determined person can make a difference. I tear up from the Man of La Mancha lyrics:

“This is my quest, to follow that star... No matter how hopeless, no matter how far... To fight for the right, without question or pause... To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause.”

Keep fighting, good citizens of Salem. Remember: your opponents aren’t evil.

Often they suffer from Groupthink, a malady diagnosed by someone who testified at a recent City Council meeting. It is exacerbated by an isolation from outside influences.

The treatment? Opening up flows of information, discussion, collaboration, decision-making. Transparency. Listening to both sides. Considering creative alternative options. Doing this sincerely, not with lip service.

Huston Smith quotes a Zen friend. “I have a new koan: I could be wrong.” Beautiful. The best revolutions happen when people in power revolt against their own dogmatic attitudes and actions.

Often, though, they need the aid of a citizen activist pin to help puncture the Groupthink balloon in which they have encased themselves. City leaders, don’t fear this.

Well, I guess I should do better at practicing what I preach, since today I fell prey to my own dogmatic attitude about what was wrong with our kitchen faucet. If I'd listened to an inner voice saying, "I could be wrong," I would have saved myself a lot of time and trouble.

Live and learn.

Next time I have a problem that is resisting being solved, hopefully that voice will be louder and more insistent. While I'm at it, I might as well also hope that our nation's political and religious leaders hear the same voice of I could be wrong because we sure could use more humble cooperating and less vitriolic competing.

2023 Oregon football: so close, yet so far

After Oregon lost to Washington by three points earlier in the football season, with Coach Lanning inexplicably choosing to not attempt several short field goals on fourth down, followed by a field goal miss in the closing seconds that would have tied the game, I was super excited when Oregon earned a rematch with Washington in the Pac-12 championship game.

After all, Oregon had been winning by large margins since the Washington loss, while Washington looked beatable in most of its games, winning by just a few points while still remaining undefeated. Oregon was favored by about ten points.

Plus, there was a lot at stake in the championship game.

The winner likely would be in the four-team national playoff since Oregon was ranked #5 and Washington #3. And a Heisman Trophy could be had by either Oregon quarterback Bo Nix or Washington quarterback Michael Penix depending on how well they played in a high stakes game in front of a national audience.

So I settled in to my television-watching chair at 5 pm yesterday with a reasonable hope that in a few hours I and other Ducks fans would be celebrating a victory that would be remembered over the years as one of the most important and memorable in the history of Oregon football.

Sadly, it was not to be. The image that sticks most in my mind was Nix sitting hunched over on the sideline with a towel draped over his head after Oregon had lost to Washington 34-31.

So close, yet so far. That's been a theme for Oregon football. Teams have enjoyed a lot of success in recent years, yet just when you think they're ready to hit the next level needed to win a national championship, something happens.

Quite a few somethings happened in yesterday's Washington game. What stands out is a horrible first quarter that put Oregon in a hole that they struggled to dig themselves out of for the rest of the game. Sports writer John Canzano spoke about this in a Bald Faced Truth column (I'm a subscriber.)

UW dominated the opening period, taking a 10-0 lead. The Huskies ran 27 plays and had 118 yards of offense. Oregon’s offense ran six plays and had only nine yards.

Think about that.

In the biggest game of its season, Oregon’s prolific offense moved the ball only 27 feet in the entire first quarter. A week earlier, the Ducks did better than that on the first two plays of the game — getting 11 yards against Oregon State’s defense.

Canzano noted the pregame difference in intensity between Washington and Oregon.

During pre-game warm-ups, I watched Oregon’s players on the field. The Ducks came out more than 90 minutes before kickoff (much earlier than Washington). Oregon’s players stretched. They got loose. It felt like a business trip. But I immediately noted to others on the sideline that the Ducks were far less emotionally charged than they were in Week 7 at Husky Stadium.

I was there in person for that pre-game scene, too. Oregon’s players shouted and whooped it up that day. UO center Jackson Powers-Johnson, pulled together a group of teammates about to take the field in Week 7 and shouted, “When we step on the f**king field, it’s ours! Wherever we roll, it’s ours!!”

Were the Ducks flat on Friday? More focused? Distracted by the glare of the big stage and the College Football Playoff pressure? Something else?

Oregon was oddly quiet in the warm-up. Almost muted, compared to their earlier matchup with their Pacific Northwest rival. Across the way, the Huskies were barking, and getting ready to play. At one point, JaMarcus Shephard, UW’s receivers coach, turned toward the Oregon sideline in defiance and shouted: “We ALL want it! We ALL want it!”

How is it that Oregon could be so flat in the first quarter given how important this game was? Maybe it was the fault of the players, but seemingly the coaching staff deserves some blame also. Regardless, when I turned off the television after this disappointing loss, the most reassuring thing I could say to myself was, "The better team won."

There weren't glaring mistakes as occurred in the first loss to Washington. It just seemed that Washington had more of a will to win, and its players were more tuned in to the game that Oregon's players. Washington made more key plays at key times than Oregon did, leading to another three point loss that could easily have been an Oregon win.

After Oregon's bowl game, which will be a prestigious one given their high national ranking, the team will either be 12-2 or 13-3. That's a really good season, the last for Oregon in the Pac-12 before they and Washington head to the Big Ten.

It's just frustrating that a really good season wasn't an insanely great season, because of the two three-point losses to Washington. As Canzano said:

Experience isn’t everything. Nor is it an excuse. Oregon has to play better and make the opportunities count. It just didn’t do enough to win the title. But Friday was game No. 114 for DeBoer as a head coach. It was game No. 26 for Lanning.

In league play, Lanning’s record is 15-4.

0-3 vs. Washington and 15-1 vs. everyone else.

What I’m saying is, there’s a growth curve at work here and the most important thing now — the only thing Lanning can actually control — is whether he wants to do a deep self examination and figure out where it went wrong. Great leaders make difficult decisions. Lousy ones ignore them.

Does Lanning need to examine his coaching staff and make changes? His team’s pre-game preparation? Does he need better defensive backs and pass rushers? Or was Friday’s loss simply part of the progression of an eventual champion, sniffing around big-time success before a breakthrough?