Bill Hudson's response to what his son did on Father's Day

This photo of Bill Hudson and his son Oliver, and daughter Kate; was posted to Oliver's Instagram account on Father's Day with the caption "Happy Abandonment Day."  It was harsh and now Bill Hudson has responded in an even harsher fashion.  He said the following in an interview with The Daily Mail:  ‘I would ask them to stop using the Hudson name. They are no longer a part of my life. Oliver’s Instagram post was a malicious, vicious, premeditated attack. He is dead to me now. As is Kate. I am mourning their loss even though they are still walking this earth.’

Let me offer this disclaimer before I go any further.  I'm privileged to have known Oliver and Kate, and their incredible mom, Goldie Hawn.  While I didn't get to know them well, from what I know and observed, I happen to believe Goldie Hawn to be one of the best parents of children raised by famous parents, ever.  

I didn't like what Oliver posted but he has every right to do so.  I do not believe that a father has the right to respond to anything a child of theirs does by saying "they are dead to me."  I speak from personal experience.  My father once told me I was dead to him and that we'd never speak again.  We didn't, for years.

No matter the transgression of a child, with perhaps a few exceptions involving criminal acts committed against another family member, no parent should tell a child they are dead to them.  Disinherit them if you wish.  If they are of age, make them leave the family home.  Choose to not speak to them again.  But telling a child they are dead to you goes just too far.

What Neil Diamond and the late great Sir Laurence Olivier do in this scene captures this kind of thing perfectly.  By tearing his lapel Olivier's character is saying that he has no son in a religious way.  Jews rend their clothing when a loved one has died.  My father wasn't that melodramatic when he told me that I was dead to him, which didn't lessen the pain of hearing those words.

Maybe Bill Hudson and his kids will remain forever estranged.  Kurt Russell has done an amazing job of being a father figure to them.  My father and I managed to end our estrangement before he passed away.  I'm happy we were able to do that.

BTW, Bill Hudson has no right to ask that Oliver and Kate stop using the Hudson name.  You can disown your children.  You can't take back your last name.  It ended being yours when you gave it to them.

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The name James Miles probably doesn't jog your memory of anyone famous.  Nor should it.  The money and the spotlight of becoming a professional football player eluded James "Boobie" Miles, one of the players on the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team.  Their story as a group and for some as individuals, is chronicled in the best-selling non-fiction book Friday Night Lights:  A Town, a Team and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger.

The film shows Boobie's injury happening this way.

In reality it was a pre-season scrimmage.  In the film he didn't have surgery immediately.  In reality he did.  Arthroscopic surgery.  It revealed a severe ACL tear as well as torn cartilage in the knee.  Reconstructive surgery was recommended, but when offered a chance at rehabilitation first, so that he might be able to play in a brace, the surgery was postponed.  He finally had the reconstructive surgery a few weeks after playing in a game and not doing well.  After the rehab from that surgery, most of the speed that made him a superstar was gone.

We will never know if it might have turned out differently had the surgery taken place immediately, with better facilities and rehabilitation.  When Baron Davis was playing basketball at UCLA and suffered a similar ACL tear, he came back a year later and seemed to have lost none of his speed and leaping ability.  Bobbie wasn't playing for a major university with a vested interest in healing their athletes.  

When I first saw the film version of Friday Night Lights I was so intrigued that I stopped on my way home to buy the book.  I read it completely once I was home.  There's so much to that story that's not on the screen.  Now I've just finished reading After Friday Night Lights, a 40 some-odd page story available on Amazon's Kindle reader that is all about the relationship between Boobie Miles and author Buzz Bissinger.  Published in 2012 it reveals details about Boobie's high school experience that were not in the first tome.  Like the envelopes filled with cash that appeared in his high school locker on Monday mornings after games.  Cash in an amount equal to the number of yards he had gained in the game the previous Friday.

In Texas, football is king.  Schools ensure that football players don't flunk so they will be eligible to suit up and play on those special Fridays when the lights of a night game illuminate a stadium. Why else would a stadium that seats over 19,000 spectators be needed for high school football in a town with a population of less than 85,000 when it was built in 1982?  Why else would a school spend $5.6 million for such a stadium?  I guess we should give them credit for deciding that the elevator from ground level to the stadium's two-story press-box was "too ostentatious."

Boobie Miles is a victim.  A victim of high school athletics where there was and is a win at any cost mentality.  Did he have a future as a professional athlete?  Given what we know about his temper and lack of self-discipline, it wasn't a certainty.  But he had the talent.  Talent wasted by a system that sucks.

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Random Ponderings:

The only reason Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are doing as well as they are in current polling is because they're candidates that don't represent "politics as usual" and we Americans are sick to death of politics as usual.

Maybe now that David Sweat has been captured, prison escape news will fade back into obscurity.  At least until the next juicy incident occurs.  I'm also certain that 1,100 or so law enforcement personnel are en route home, or to the nearest cop bar to relax.

I feel bad for the folks at Lululemon Athletica, having another product recall to deal with.  At least this isn't about see-through clothing.  It's about tops where the hard-tipped drawstrings of the hoodie can strike the wearer in the face causing severe injury. Did someone at corporate smash a mirror or cross the path of a black cat?

Note to Jennifer Lawrence:  The Snidley Whiplash mustache isn't a good look for you.

The homophobes in certain counties in certain states who are refusing to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples despite the ruling of the U. S. Supreme Court that no state law can prohibit these marriages are reminiscent of the tiny field mouse flipping the bird to a giant eagle swooping down to catch and eat them.  More on this in another blog.

I penned a blog entry recently about the dangers of tax-identity theft and this past Sunday's edition of 60 Minutes on CBS did a big piece on the same thing.  They cited an estimate that this specific type of fraud may cost government more than $20 billion in 2016.  Do something, IRS!

Given how many lies he's told lately I'm wondering if Donald Trump's hairline recedes with each falsehood.

Jessica Biel took her husband Justin Timberlake to the wedding of her college roommate.  He wound up bursting out in song and performed.  The wedding was a same-sex wedding and I was thinking how cool it would be when the day comes that this footnote wouldn't be mentioned by the media.

Is Uber really losing lots and lots of money?  The recent decision that an Uber driver is an employee and not an independent contractor isn't helping.