LEARNING TO WIN. Every so often, there is a home basketball game. (It seems as if all the games have been somewhere else, whether that's Cancun or Iowa City or Green Bay or Chicago.) The Sycamore high school choir sang the first stanza of the Star Spangled Banner.


(I know, everybody calls it the National Anthem, but the National Anthem includes that verse about "their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.")

At halftime, some rather enthusiastic first graders from the YMCA conducted a sort of a scrimmage. Nobody paid much attention to the rules called "traveling" or "discontinued dribble."


Am I too cynical to suggest that there's a pizza giveaway in the second half because the concession doesn't want to be caught short at halftime? The cheerleaders award the pizza to the zaniest fans. These Sycamore players give it their best.



With success.


The expression "feeding frenzy" comes to mind.


There was a basketball game. Northern Iowa were even more banged up than Northern Illinois.


And so into Christmas they go.