The New York Times today published a Page One story about Kenny Stabler, the great quarterback of the Oakland Raiders who died last year. It was disclosed this week that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease provoked by repeated blows to the head. Stabler died of colon cancer, but the results of an autopsy were just released.

The story quoted a doctor who described Stabler’s affliction thusly:

“He had moderately severe disease …Pretty classic. It may be surprising since he was a quarterback, but certainly the lesions were widespread, and they were quite severe, affecting many regions of the brain.”

I do not know which planet this doctor was from, but it is not possible on this Earth to have a malady that is “moderately severe.” We are not part of a galaxy that mixes moderation with severity. In this universe, the terms are mutually exclusive. One could even say they were contradictory.

Perhaps the explanation is this is simply medical parlance, and there are terms such as “benignly severe” or even “severely moderate” that have meaning for physicians. If so, God help us.

I cannot remember when the Rillito has flowed so long. It seems like a week. I would never have guessed that snow melt could have lasted so long. Moreover, it runs clear. This year seems to destined to be very different, confusingly so. My roses, before I pruned them, seemed particularly disoriented. One or two delivered blooms. A blooming rose in January. That El Niño is special.

What hath China wrought?

Copper prices have fallen 25 percent.

Oil companies have laid off a quarter million workers as prices imitate the skydiver whose parachute doesn’t open. Oil is $30 a barrel.

China created this mess. It created the demand. Now it’s going bust with the cosmic belch felt around the world.

Chairman Mao would not, we suspect, approve. It was in the time of Mao, after all, when the phrase “CAPITALIST RUNNING DOGS” was coined by the crazy commie denizens of what used to be known as Peking.

Pitifully ironic, ain’t it. So we pause amid the oil, copper, nickel, iron ore, palladium and platinum gluts to tip our hat to George Orwell: “Four legs good. Two legs better.”

I am not alone in my disgust with the weather. It was a beautiful day yesterday (Sunday). And now this. We are in the Wet. Surely snow is inevitable. This is ABnormal. It is currently 48 degrees. the rain is unrelenting. This is not my desert.

El Niño schmeaño.

Dear Mr. Krutch: What makes you fume?

An easy answer, my lad, Desert Broom.

Why is that, sir?

There’s no proper place here for broom.

It is a rotten unrepentant renegade.

It has cotton mouth and spits it into the desert like a spittoon.

The broom sucks water and takes all the room.

It sweeps up its quietly vegetating neighbors makes them weep for water.

It is oppressive, anarchical and an annoying mutant.

If it were a person, it would be Vladimir Putant.

Is it not odd how the people of this country have been content to observe the panorama of murder? Perhaps we all are Madame Defarges, just knitting and cackling with delight with the death of every American who succumbs to a crazy man’s bullet. Perhaps it is just our unspoken entertainment, secretly enjoying the cascade of blood. Whatever the reason, mass murder is uniquely American and apparently destined to be part of our national character.

California’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks a state initiative to require anyone buying ammunition be required to undergo background checks. The fact that the National Rifle Association will spend millions to defeat it leaves one cynical at the prospect of passage. Besides, ammunition buyers will avoid the issue by buying in other states.

But the focus on bullets is correct. What if the federal government imposed a tax $20 per 9-millimeter bullet and larger handgun cartridges? Police and competitive shooters could be exempted and the police, obviously. For the rich who would pay at least there would be a fund to finance aid for the victims of crazy people with guns. Thus a doc of 50 9-millimeter shells, which sells for around $14, would cost $1,014. This proposal is based on the tobacco model. A pack of smokes that used to cost 22 cents today costs about $7.50, most of it in taxes used to finance anti-smoking programs.

In one of his standup routines, Chris Rock argued to increase the price of bullets to $5,000 each. That fine too, as long as the profits do not reach the retailer or manufacturer.

The best plan is for the federal government to acquire all manufacturers of bullets in the country and to make it illegal to import foreign-made bullets. There would be a great smuggling and black market operation, but this would give the ATF people more to do.

Focus on bullets at least makes the Second Amendment argument irrelevant. But the NRA is of such a nature as to argue that all of us have a right to stand by and watch fellow citizens kill each other en mass. There may be no such right writ anywhere, but it is what we do.

And it is despicable.

The UA loss to Washington State was a heartbreaker. The Cats weren’t on the same page. Some guys were on page 2 and others were on page 301. What is there to say? It’s a confusing game. In football, three doesn’t always follow two. You have to score 6 points at a time. Or three. Once in a while two. You can score one but only as a bonus. This is how you get one player on the fly leaf and the other on the inside cover. Never mind about the dedication.

It’s time for the Wildcats to put the past and this loss behind them. (We’ll definitely let you know if they manage to put the past and this loss in front of them; that would be a good sports story, )

The bottom line is the ‘Cats need a win “for a real shot at bowl eligibility.” The top line is the Cats need a win for a real shot. Oddly enough, the middle line also says the Cats need a win for a real shot. One wonders what it would take for the Cats to obtain an UNreal shot at bowl eligibility. Perhaps this is where fantasy football comes in. We all know that you have to take your best shot.

“For the Huskies, it’s all about defense.” For many teams it’s also about offense. Sometimes it’s about offense and defense, which is how teams win. It’s also how they lose.

UA receiver Caleb Jones told the Star: “We always want to score aggressively,  so it doesn’t matter who we play.” We’d like to explore the possibility of scoring passively. Might be some potential there, passive-aggressive could be a new strategy.

Star reporter Zack Rosenblatt concluded in his story today in the Star, “For both Arizona and Washington, this game might just show who’s good enough for this year’s postseason.

Then again, it just might not. It would show the players not only were on different pages, but on different wave lengths.

But it is what it is.  It’s time to separate the men from the boys.

As Rosenblatt said: “Arizona faces the gauntlet of USC, Utah and Arizona State to finish the season.”

And while they face that gauntlet, they should put on rubber gloves.The Cats might even have to run the gauntlet. Better to look at it than run it. Guess that depends on passive-aggressive approaches. 

Whoever said winning wasn’t everything, that it was the only thing really ought to reconsider.

Because as the immortal Grantland Rice once said, “If you don’t win, you lose.”