Dallas is down 3 games to nothing in the best of a seven game series. The winner of the series goes to the NHL championship finals - to play for the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, the Detroit Redwings are hosing down the Dallas Stars who appear completely outmatched. Dallas now must muster up the courage, determination and tenacity necessary to keep moving forward - and they must fight the temptation to quit, give up and call it a season.

Why not go down swinging? Embrace the moment, enjoy the challenge and fight your way through the darkness of defeating thoughts. Enduring that challenge can pay off big. If not this season, then next.

Some argue, “Why fight when there is no hope of victory?” Winners have to resist the temptation of such logic. Competitive people ignore the odds and the logic of the challenge. They press forward without regard and struggle for the sake of struggling. Sometimes, we need to fight simply for the sake of fighting. Giving up isn’t a habit desired by any competitive person.

In game 4 the Dallas Stars will continue to battle. Here are just a few reasons why the Stars will be saying, “Why not?”

1. Pride. This team is too proud to just hand Detroit an easy victory.

2. Hope. The hope that momentum will change and a single game can be won (at home) can drive most of us, but it really can inspire competitive professional athletes. One game. That’s the hope right now.

3. Making your opponent pay. Competitive people - in every area of life - relish making their opponent pay the price. If Detroit wins, they’ll earn it. If Dallas wins, they’ll earn it.

4. If it must end, end it on your own terms. Dallas may well lose game 4 and be swept by Detroit. And if they do the Dallas Stars will fight to the bitter end knowing that how they finish this season can carry over into the early fall when the next season begins.

Dallas now has nothing to lose so they can go for broke. Detroit won’t force Dallas to surrender. Detroit will have to battle the Stars until there’s no time left on the clock.

It’s not over, but it feels like it. That feeling is what must be fought - the feeling of “what’s-the-use?”

There is still one game worth fighting for. The young players are gaining priceless playoff experience. The entire roster is learning (some of them, again) how much work - both mentally and physically - is required to keep advancing in the playoffs. The Dallas Stars will be a much better team next season because of this year’s playoff run.

I’m proud fan of this team. They’ve played better than any of us expected. They’ve gone further than any of us thought possible. They’ve simply met a team that has superior skill and talent. Detroit is vastly better than this year. Detroit is better than anybody in the league this season - and that includes Sid and the Penguins, Detroit’s likely opponent in the finals.

If it ends Wednesday night in game 4 - it’ll end with Dallas battling to the buzzer - even though giving up would be far easier!

“I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.”

–Eleanor Roosevelt

Here’s what the White House website says about one of America’s most quotable first ladies:

A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved–and for some years one of the most revered–women of her generation.

She was born in New York City on October 11, 1884, daughter of lovely Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt, younger brother of Theodore. When her mother died in 1892, the children went to live with Grandmother Hall; her adored father died only two years later. Attending a distinguished school in England gave her, at 15, her first chance to develop self-confidence among other girls.

Tall, slender, graceful of figure but apprehensive at the thought of being a wallflower, she returned for a debut that she dreaded. In her circle of friends was a distant cousin, handsome young Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They became engaged in 1903 and were married in 1905, with her uncle the President giving the bride away. Within eleven years Eleanor bore six children; one son died in infancy. “I suppose I was fitting pretty well into the pattern of a fairly conventional, quiet, young society matron,” she wrote later in her autobiography.

In Albany, where Franklin served in the state Senate from 1910 to 1913, Eleanor started her long career as political helpmate. She gained a knowledge of Washington and its ways while he served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. When he was stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921, she tended him devotedly. She became active in the women’s division of the State Democratic Committee to keep his interest in politics alive. From his successful campaign for governor in 1928 to the day of his death, she dedicated her life to his purposes. She became eyes and ears for him, a trusted and tireless reporter.

When Mrs. Roosevelt came to the White House in 1933, she understood social conditions better than any of her predecessors and she transformed the role of First Lady accordingly. She never shirked official entertaining; she greeted thousands with charming friendliness. She also broke precedent to hold press conferences, travel to all parts of the country, give lectures and radio broadcasts, and express her opinions candidly in a daily syndicated newspaper column, “My Day.”

This made her a tempting target for political enemies but her integrity, her graciousness, and her sincerity of purpose endeared her personally to many–from heads of state to servicemen she visited abroad during World War II. As she had written wistfully at 14: “…no matter how plain a woman may be if truth & loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her….”

After the President’s death in 1945 she returned to a cottage at his Hyde Park estate; she told reporters: “the story is over.” Within a year, however, she began her service as American spokesman in the United Nations. She continued a vigorous career until her strength began to wane in 1962. She died in New York City that November, and was buried at Hyde Park beside her husband.

Among her more notable quotes are these…

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

“Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.”

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

“Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.”

“I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.”

“I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me ‘understand’ something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.”

“If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”

“In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.”

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.”

“Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.”

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

“Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.”

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Homely. Determined. Wise. I love reading about her and would have greatly enjoyed talking with her.

I often wonder how some historical figures - like Eleanor - would have blogged. I suspect her posts would garner many comments and much attention.

Meaning

Keep quiet - say nothing.

Origin

Mum; not mother but ‘mmmmm’, the humming sound made with a closed mouth. Used by Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part 2:

“Seal up your lips and give no words but mum.

Many different ways to say it, but all of them make the point.

Good advice. I’m trying to live by it more.

Go big or go home! I guess that goes for lying, too. Just ask Carrollton, Texas Mayor Becky Miller. She’s doing an excellent job of lying big. And why not. If you’re gonna lie - you might as well make it compelling. She has done that.

Here are just three of the doosies she’s telling. She lost a brother in the Vietnam War. Her father says that’s not true. She sang backup for Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. Both deny knowing her. She was engaged to Eagles member, Don Henley. He denies even knowing her.

She’s a politician. It’s difficult for any of us to understand these lies given her occupation.

Who needs or wants the truth when we can make it up as we go along - making life so much more exciting? I’m just thrilled at the thought of such an exciting past culminating into a political office in a Dallas suburb. Just just never know what greatness lurks among us.

Read what the Dallas Morning News writes about her.

Mike Babcock coaches the Detroit Red Wings - the opponent of the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Finals of the NHL, remarked about what it will take to win this series: “We’ll be prepared, but in the end it’s going to be will and determination and being relentless.”

Is that always the case?

No. But when you get down to the final 4 teams it may be true. Talented players make the difference. Barry Switzer always said that better players win games, not coaches. Arrogant coaches will tell you different, but having coached a bit at the amateur level - I can tell you Barry has it right. Good talent can be poorly coached, and the talent can win (I’m proof). Good talent with average coaching will beat average talent with good coaching most of the time.

Babcock is right I think. Four teams are left in the NHL playoffs: Pittsburg Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars. Any one of them can win the Stanley Cup. Each of them are at the half-way point of the journey having defeated two teams each. Sixteen teams started the quest. Four remain. It almost always boils down to a test of wills. Grit, determination, tenacity and relentless pursuit will all play a major role in whoever hoists the Cup.

Living in Dallas - I’m hoping the tenacity of the Stars runs deep.

“Capitalism without failure is like Christianity without hell,” said Warren Buffett at yesterday’s annual press conference with partner Charlie Munger. This news conference took place one day after the annual report for Berkshire Hathaway was released. Buffett was referring to his belief that not all financial institutions are worth saving. Some deserve failure based on their past and current practices.

At 77 Buffett is as quotable, and blunt, as ever. I suspect he’ll become even more so given his age, and the current state of Wall Street.

Speaking of the sub-prime fiasco - and other idiotic acts of the banking industry - Mr. Buffett said, “You’ve got a lot of leeway in running a bank to not tell the truth for quite a while.”

Among the more humorous interchanges are this one, as reported by The Financial Post. The topic was the succession plan at Berkshire Hathaway.

Charlie Munger, Mr. Buffett’s business partner who is seven years his elder, humourously added to the applause of the audience: “We still have a rising young man here named Warren Buffett, and I think we must encourage this rising young man to reach his full potential.”

Mr. Buffett joked that because he and Mr. Munger average 80 years of age (Buffett is currently 77 and Munger is 84), they are getting only 1.25% older per year, while a 50-year old executive is getting 2% older each year. That means Berkshire’s top executives are ageing more slowly than the top executives at nearly every other company.