❄️Merry Christmas 🎄🎅🏻⛄️I hope yours is a splendid one 😘
Note: this one is a bit sloppy as someone (not Someone) had a bit too much Christmas spirit in his breakfast Bloody Mary this morning.
Ho ho ho I hope everyone is having a happy Christmas. Last night Urs Truly overdosed on cookies while arguing via text with his various relations over the various versions of ‘A Christmas carol’ as to which one was best. Some were in the Alister Sims camp while others were George C. Scott devotees. Brother #4 thinks the Patrick Stewart version rules as he was the meanest. There is nothing like a good family row at Christmas over nothing important. I ended the night watching the end of “It’s a wonderful life” which got me blubbering. Oh the embarrassment.
This morning I made a very good breakfast casserole thank you very much which we ate with relish along with a couple of kringles Someone ordered from his home town in Wisconsin. Tonight we have a honey baked ham, Kung Pao Brussel Sprouts, and cheesy potatoes left over from last night’s meal. There is too much food for two. We are going to eat off of leftovers for a fortnight.
As for prizes exchanged under the tree, we mostly gave each other things we wanted for the house, like new bed sheets (flannels) and much needed/wanted kitchen gadgets. Someone gave me a box of FRANGO mints, which I haven’t had since I lived in Chicago. He is a dear, and not just for that. I gave him socks and he gave me two dress shirts, thus thwarting The Yule Cat for another year.
After we have a post-prandial go-back-to-bed midmorning nap, we may go see ‘Wicked 2’. Then perhaps we may not. Someone has worked nonstop since Thanksgiving and he could sleep the day away which is fine. I might indulge in FRANGOs and watch another version of A Christmas Carol and fire back at the relations. After all that is what the day is all about: sugar and booze and family fights.
What’s top of my mind: Christmas Eve. I am taking the day off to stay at home and do some last minute decoration and tidy-up. On Monday night we decorated the tree, although with a minimal amount of ornaments. It’s enough. Tonight I will broil a sockeye salmon (no rubbish type), which is the traditional Christmas Eve dinner at La Casa de Spo. For small chocolate cone, we usually have a birthday cake for Baby Jesus but this year it will be Gingerbread and S cookies. Before going to bed I will hang our stockings and put out a bowl of porridge with a pat of butter on top for the Nisse lest they take umbrage.
Where I’ve been: The Nutcracker. Last night I saw the local production; Someone ushered and earned a freebie. I had mixed feelings about going. The AZ Ballet production hasn’t changed an iota over the decades and this evokes mixed feelings of wanting to see something new and a warm comfort at seeing something familiar. I wore my top hat and it got a handful of compliments.
Where I’m going: Wicked. Someone likes to go to the movies on Christmas Day, so off we go to see Wicked Part 2. We saw Wicked Part 1 last Christmas. It was a sing-a-long. I hope #2 isn’t so.
What I’m watching: The history of Santa Claus. Mr. Modern-day Santa is the summary of years of many cultures adding bits of things to create the man we have today. I am curious to see where he goes next in our collective consciousness. If the memes I am getting nowadays are any indication, he’s evolving from a overweight jelly belly towards being a muscle-stud. ho ho ho
What I’m reading: Christmas children’s books. For whimsy’s sake on Christmas Eve I get out some books from my youth that my mother used to read to me at Christmas time. There are the “Santa Mouse” stories, and one with Babar who goes looking for Father Christmas. Of course there is ‘The Grinch that stole Christmas’. That one is a tad difficult to read as the TV version is so embedded in my mind when I come across a slight variation in the book there is a pause of confusion.
Do you reread certain stories at this time of year?
What I’m listening to: Unique Christmas carols. Along the familiar and favorites are a few fancy types. Here is one of them:
What I’m eating: Christmas treats. There is no lack thereof and what is there doesn’t lack variety. There are cookies and Christmas tins of three-way popcorn. Folks at work brought in homemade goodies like Rice Krispie bars and shortbread cookies. Every year a patient of mine gives me a bag of popcorn and cashews covered in caramel. I have one week to eat my share before Austere January commences.
Who needs a good slap: Overly Sarcastic Productions. Normally they are dears, but not this season. Last October I ordered a pin for a Christmas prize for a friend. Yesterday I got word they are finally shipping it. Boo. I texted the recipient she is getting it for Epiphany rather.
On my 1-5 scale, OSP gets only one slap as it is Christmas.
Who gets a fist-bump:The Boss Lady. She came down from Sho Lo, AZ to give the staff at the PHX and MESA offices lunch and bags of Christmas prizes. I work in both offices so I got two lunches, lucky me. Everyone was hesitant to recommend a place for lunch, so it was up to Urs Truly, the man and the physician, to put his foot down with a specific recommendation (Tokyo Joes), which is what we do.
What I’m planning: Gift wrapping. This morning I wrap Someone’s prizes. We have a large collection of Christmas tins and shopping bags and they come in handy for those difficult-to-wrap prizes. Another advantage of the tins and bags is they can be used again; some of them seem to be used every year. It’s a trick I learned back in the Midwest from the Lutherans.
What’s making me smile: A sense of accomplishment. Every Christmas season there is a gummy panic of not getting everything done in time for Christmas and every year by Christmas Eve enough gets done. Not everything gets done as hoped but enough to make the season bright.
Each December I write a letter to the jolly old elf at The North Pole. This is done mostly out of habit than results. St. Nick hasn’t been down my chimney in ages, worse luck. Maybe oone of these letters might evoke a surprise visit. No harm trying. Spo.
Dear Santa,
Once again I take mouse in hand to write to you. I hope your year has been a pleasant one. My year has been sad, what with the loss of my father, godfather, friend, and my dog. I am not writing this to evoke pity, it just to let you know my Christmas spirit isn’t so good this year and I hope you will help. Here is a hypothetical list of Christmas prizes you might provide. I give the same list to Someone but I will risk the situation of receiving two of the thing. Unlike yours, I can return his gifts to Amazon. By the way, are you feeling anxious and threatened by Mr. Bezos? He sort of acts like a Santa Claus viz. you ask him for things and he gets his elves to provide them. Unlike yourself, he puts out all year round and I don’t have wait for Christmas. But this is not a critique! You are my main merry man and will stay so ho ho ho.
I am always glad to receive imperial tidbits such as fancy olive oils and delectable nibbles and proper this that or the other. You could stuff my stocking with all sorts of tinned goodies and rare jars of foodstuffs. I try to avoid curried snacks and please don’t feed me buns and things thank you.
Spo-fans seem happy with their air-fryers; is it possible to get one? I remember Father suggested one Christmas Eve putting out beer and pretzels instead of the usual milk and cookies on the grounds you are a grown up and you would appreciate the change. It seemed to work as you gave us a really cool electronic popcorn machine, remember? If you bring an air-fryer I will leave out a really good bourbon no rubbish type. Just say the word; it will keep you warm and toasty as you fly about this Christmas Eve.
Upon your arrival I hope you won’t take offense of the Tomtes on the shelf, or of the Yule lads hanging from the kitchen chandelier. Not to be worrying! They are supplements, not substitutes, for your benevolence. You are much nicer than those guys who can be quite ugly if they don’t get things. Oh the horror. Worse you do is a lump of coal and with heating costs this isn’t too bad a consolation prize.
There is no need to bring my clothes thank you very much. Someone already took care of that, lest we are carried off by the Yule Cat.
What I really want for Christmas is new car, but I suppose that is asking too much. Rather, a new bread machine would be lovely. Mine is quite old and no longer doing a good job. Come to think of it, the crockpot from the 70s is on its last legs too. A new one and not avocado green either there’s a good fellow.
I hope your flight is a good one and I look forward on Christmas morning to see evidence you visited. Even if you don’t provide any prizes you are welcome to take the bottle. I have heaps.
59. How do you feel about X (i.e., a current trend, a popular political issue, a new invention)?
Question fifty-nine strikes me as not in the mode of this meme. Up until now all questions have been about past matters, things a hypothetical grandchild might want to know about gran or gramps before they die and take their secrets with them. This one is about what the think of things in the here-and-now. One would assume (or hope) the grandparent-grandchild relationship is a close-enough one the child knows what they feel about X, Y, and Z, and maybe they wish they didn’t. In general, current trends and new inventions are not positively looked upon by the elderly i.e. new and different things often evoke anxiety/resistance rather than curiosity.
I’ve been scribbling a blog for nearly twenty years (can you imagine?); I have written how I feel about everything, or nearly. Spo-fans can probably guess what Urs Truly thinks about things. All the same I will give this question a try.
A current trend: cryptocurrency. Lunacy! Sooner I’d eat rats in Tewkesbury than buy bit-coin. The fervor for this resembles Tulip-mania, The South sea company, and Beanie Babies. Whenever someone tries to sell me bitcoin, I ask them to explain what is bit-coin good for other than dubious and criminal transactions?
If there is a Spo-fan who can answer this for me, I would be blithe to learn.
A popular political issue: Artificial Intelligence. I don’t have an opinion, as I don’t have the facts, what it is or what it is supposed to do. Certainly I hear a lot of hot emotions about the stuff. Some of it is along the line A.I. will save us and some is along the line of the opposite viz. A.I. will destroy us. The amount of money going into it is beyond obscene and it too looks like another bubble industry. I don’t feel a need of such. Someone says I interact with A.I. all the time I just don’t know it. So far A.I. hasn’t entered my work. There is talk how A.I. will revolutionize Medicine and simultaneous talk it will eliminate jobs including mine. I doubt anyone really knows what will happen.
A new invention: Air Fryer. I don’t have one but I am open to the idea, provided I figure out what it is. At times Someone has voiced getting one. Since I don’t know how they work, I can’t judge if it would be indispensable like the microwave or sit on the shelf unused with the fondue set and the rice cooker for twenty. At least I don’t fear it will cause the downfall of La Casa de Spo or make cooking obsolete. Again if Spo-fans are familiar with such devices, please tell me what you use it for, how often, and do you recommend a certain brand, and can you buy it with bit-coin.
The javelina limped, trembling through the frozen saguaros
And silent was the flock in wooly fold.
No it isn’t. It’s 20C (68F) outside and I was in Spo-shirt and shorts with sandals, putting up some outside lights. It’s hard to get into the solstice spirit when it’s still possible to keep the doors and windows open. But solstice isn’t so much about the temperature but the light, or the lack thereof. It’s the darkest day of the year, at least in the northern hemisphere, and my Nordic blood bubbles up to observe the day and situation. I look forward every year to composing a solstice entry. There is nothing like sitting in the gloom with only a candle to evoke Spo-reflections.
My ancestors, some of them well over four week, didn’t sit in the dark and think about Life as they thought about Death. Do we have enough food to make it until spring time? The Sun had stopped low on the horizon, and there was worry will it return? They felt the need to help it return through ceremony. As a child I thought it haughty to imagine one can influence the Sun so. As an adult I see the value, nay necessity of ritual and how everything is connected to everything else. We may not actually command the Sun to return but it means more than just the rotation of the planet.**
These are dark times indeed, not just from the lack of daylight but lack of Light in my nation’s minds and actions. The Light in the Collective Conscious is at a very low point and it seems stuck, like the actual Sun. Like my Norse relations, I wonder what can I do to bring back the Light. Outside it is cold and dark and I am only one person, sitting in darkness.
The solstice candle before me emits a small light but it is enough to make the Darkness not total. It’s flame evokes Hope, Hope for the return of the Sun, both in the sky and here on earth.
One of the best approaches to dark and anxious times is to focus on what you can control rather than what you cannot. What I can control is my inner Light, The Sun that is within my psyche. I can always do something to spark Light in all my deeds towards others. Despite the darkness let us bring Light back into the world.
**In Terry Prachett’s ‘Hogfather’, Death’s granddaughter Susan saves The Discworld’s Santa Claus figure, who long time ago evolved from a hog that was slaughtered on the morning of the solstice to bring back the sun. She asks Death what would have happened if she hadn’t saved him. He tells her the sun would not have risen. Then would have happened? He replies a mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world. This is brilliant. Yes, the sun goes on without ritual and belief, but what’s the point?
It is official !! Urs Truly has his first work ID badge! The Overlords have decreed all minions must wear their ID badges while working so patients (some I have known for decades) will be able to identify me. Someone, who has always worked in corporations, is familiar with ID badges but they are new for me. I started wearing it around my neck but now it is clamped at my waist, starboard side. No one can see it there probably, but it fulfils the letter of the law.
The Overlords also announced their many consent forms are being compacted into one. It is not clear to me if eight single pages are being put into one eight page form. If so it will rival the length of a CVS receipt. Rumor has it all patients must resign the form(s) come January. That isn’t new; before The Overlords my previous employers obliged all patients to redo their paperwork each year. It took months. There were complaints of course, along the line nothing has changed so why do I have to fill them out again? I think The Overlords will be severe on this matter viz. patients must sign their form(s) or they can’t be seen. Oh the pain.
Christmas show 2024
But let’s talk about something pleasant. After work today we are going downtown to see a Christmas show. I shall wear my top hat. We went last year to this holiday spectacle and Someone arranged that the ‘volunteer from the audience’ would be me. The actors got me on stage and I was bedecked as a living Christmas tree. Oh the embarrassment. I won’t mind this happening again, if that ‘elf’ is the same actor, a burly redhead who is all I want for Christmas.
Last night I erected the tree. It was some job. It now needs lights and decorations. I hope Someone has some time this weekend, for it’s no fun ho-ho-hoing this by myself. On the positive, the tree will be decorated properly. Someone carries on the Spo tradition of my brothers putting up things without thought where things hang. After all is done I have to discreetly go around and rehang things. Oh the pain. I feel there ought to be a bit of whimsy hanging on the tree among all the fancy proper ornaments. I saved some of the defunct car fresheners shaped like spruce trees and plan to hang as well. Jolly good fun.
Yesterday’s day off from work was quite productive; I got a lot accomplished. I went to the grocery store, Costco, the car wash, and the hardware store. I got to the gym and I did some in-store shopping. Best of all, I got up some of the Christmas trimmings and I put luminarias outside onto the sidewalk. It was hard work, and I often felt rawther exhausted, but by day’s end I had a quiet sense of accomplishment. It was quite satisfying.
Satisfaction is one of the key elements of Happiness. Proper satisfaction (no rubbish types) comes through effort and struggle; there is no real satisfaction without discomfort or pain. The classic example is somebody studying for an exam. He could cheat and easily get an A this way but there would be no satisfaction for it. Or he could study hard and spend lots of time doing so, giving up other past times, and get that A and he would feel a satisfaction.
We are wired to seek out quickly obtained payoffs. We are the only species (so far as I know) that will struggle and spend time learning how to play an instrument or training for a marathon or spending years to obtain a degree. Mr. Jaggar (who is well over four feet) sings “I can’t get no satisfaction’ but this is not accurate. From a neurological point of view it ought to be “I can’t keep no satisfaction”.* Our trouble is we chase after matters that give short-term satisfaction but not provide long-term Satisfaction. I am wholly satisfied in my career and with my hobbies, but that doesn’t mean life is knee-deep in buttercups and daisies. Quite the contrary. There are continual challenges and upsets. If I were to get through my workday today without any challenges that would be OK but it would feel dull. Give me a few cases where I have to think and actually do something and by day’s end I will be tired and ready to go home but there will be Satisfaction of having done a good job.
With quicker and easier payoffs these days to write papers or make a meal etc. I worry people will have less Satisfaction in their lives, despite their ease at accomplishments.
This weekend I plan to make gingerbread cookies. It will be a three day effort. Come Christmas Eve when I leave a few out for Santa (or someone like him) I will have the satisfaction of that.
*Prescriptive types argue this should be “I can’t get any satisfaction” but that’s another story.
What’s top of my mind: Today’s activities. Patience above! I have today off for Christmas catch up meaning I haven’t done anything yet and today is the day to do it or as much as I can. I will haul out the holly and put candles in the windows etc. etc. tra la la. There will be no Christmas here unless I do it. I might even put up the tree although this is usually Someone’s job as he does it better. If there is time and energy I might put some lights up outside. We are the only ‘dark’ house on the block, so the neighbors think the godless homosexual democrats who hate Christmas. Oh the horror.
Where I’ve been: Bloodbath and body works. Someone likes a soak in the bathtub which gives me the idea of bath salts and such for stocking stuffers. I try to do some local shopping so it is off to Bloodbath and body works at the Desert Ridge mall. It will be my third attempt to go. I couldn’t get near the mall on try #1 and during try #2 I found out I discovered the don’t open until 11AM – during Christmas the season, can you imagine? I will go around noon and hope to get in. Upon entering the store one is overwhelmed by the aroma of a thousand bath products and one is also overwhelmed by the oh-so-helpful B&B handmaidens, which is nice really. It’s often a challenge to find bath salts and bubbly-lotions suitable us manly-types; most of what they sell have seems steered for les dames. Hopefully they will have something that suits him.
Where I’m going: Ace Hardware. The lightbulbs over my vanity all blew at the same time, worse luck, so it is off to Ace Hardware (or someplace like it) to get new ones, preferably with less wattage or voltage or luminosity whatever the right term is. While there I will get The Knife Man to sharpen the kitchen knives, which is done ‘while you wait’. What a great service! I prefer this to sharpening them myself. I no longer carry them into the store wrapped in towels in a Whole Foods canvas as this looks me to be a psycho-killer. Nowadays I use the official Ace Hardware sharp knife carry-on bag. How jolly.
What I’m watching: The front porch. Various prizes are due via the good folks at UPS, FedEx, an Amazon. The front porch as two alcoves, one on each side of the door, which allow for discreet delivery drop-offs. We have never had a porch pirate issue this way.
What I’m reading: Eloise at Christmas time. I have been reading this book since childhood. For thems unfamiliar with the “Eloise” series, it is the story of a six-year-old girl who lives at The Plaza in NYC, which she makes her personal playground. She runs around on Christmas Eve spreading high-energy cheer throughout the hotel. Over the years I see the book less jolly and more sad. Her actions are an example of a defense mechanism called ‘manic defense’. In it, one takes a sad situation and tries to cover it over with fanfare and fabulousness to thwart the underlying melancholy. She lives in an adult world with no other children. Her mother (who is never seen or named ) calls her from ‘the Mediterranean’ to wish her Merry Christmas. There is no mention of a father. This is what happens when psychiatrists reads children’s books.
Have you ever read the “Eloise” books?
What I’m listening to: Dylan Thomas. It is also that time of year to for Dylan Thomas’ ‘A child’s Christmas in Wales.; Nearly every night I fall asleep listening to Mr. Thomas reading this story:
One Christmas was so much like another in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.
It makes an excellent bed time story and I drop off right away that I never hear the ending.
What I’m eating: Key lime pie. Someone’s birthday was Monday and in lieu of a birthday cake we had key lime pie, his favorite. The pie seemed a bit pale and not as tart as he likes, but we ate it with relish. I recently learned there is debate to the pie’s origin; it may have been invented (in all places!) New York City. When I have key lime pie I think of my halcyon days of the 90s in Key West.
Who needs a good slap: Williams-Sonoma. These parcels have not arrived and I am starting to worry. I called their help line the other day and got a computerized mouse maze (no person) that told me some of the order is back-ordered and it may arrive on 24 December. I am taking this as not likely to happen. Perhaps it serves me right I should have ordered earlier or asked Mr. Bezos to provide things; he delivers faster.
On my 1-5 scale, I give Williams-Sonoma two slaps for ruining Christmas.
Who gets a fist-bump:The Brothers Spo. Brother #2 has some time off soon so he will travel to Michigan Land of Perpetual Snow and Ice to see the relations and stay with Brother #3. Brother #3 is planning a dinner consisting of roast beast* and Who hash. Brother #4 will attend. They decided to do the dinner via Zoom (or something like that) so I can partake virtually. I do have nice brothers, all well over four feet.
What I’m planning: Cookies. I shouldn’t be eating such things and Someone doesn’t give a tush but dammit it’s Christmas and a Christmas sans cookies (that means without) isn’t a proper Christmas is it? I will make some ‘S’ cookies (proper ones no rubbish types) and mother’s gingerbread. Yes this is a lot of work but I need some help this year.
Tell me what cookies are you baking this Christmas time.
What’s making me smile: A small act of random kindness I had forgotten about but made a difference. Last Sunday we went to the PHX art museum for a whimsical tour of the art, based on ‘A Christmas Carol’. I wore my top hat. I recognized one of the docents, Lulu, who gave a tour based on Dr. Seuss a year ago. At the end of that tour, she gave us ‘Horton’ flowers made of pipe cleaners. I stuck mine behind a framed photo at the MESA office and it has been there ever since. I told Lulu this and how every time I see it I think of her. She was gob smacked. I was gob smacked in return when she told me she still remembers the comment I made a year ago: that I learned museum has wonderful docents. She explained that compliment has stayed with her these twelve months. This is another example of how a little act or a few word of kindness that seem like nothing can be powerful, almost magical, that through time does a world of good.
*Roast beast is a feast I can’t stand in the least.
58. What do you wish people knew about life back when you were young?
I remember Grandmother telling me in the 1970s she had lived through the best of times and it was downhill now, indirectly conveying she pitied us growing up in these modern times. I smelled as rat as I had heard of The Great Depression, World War 2, The Cuban Missile Crisis, was well as smaller matters like racial discrimination and stores closed on Sundays. Now in my sixties, I have the terrible intuition I can say what she said as it feels true now, but then every generation thinks that. Older generations throughout time look down on the younger ones and shake their heads and says life was better back in my youth. We tend to remember the good parts and times of youth and forget it was often nasty and difficult. Mind! I grew up in the 60s-70s, which had a lot of awful things.
I would convey to today’s youngsters life back when I was young had the advantage of no cellphones and no internet. This state of being sounds abhorrent to small ears; how on earth did we entertain ourselves or be in touch with others? We did fine, thank you. Apart from the boob-tube we played games and made up stuff. It was called ‘let’s pretend’ and it gave us the gifts of imagination and negotiation. We were often obliged to do so as our parents shooed us out of the house and told us to stay out until sunset can you imagine? Being obliged to go over to others’ homes to talk to friends gave us face-to-face interactions, which we now learn is vital for developing social skills.
Instant access to others and entertainment online have their merits, but nobody I know my age feels deprived or mad-jealous of today’s youth who grow up with cellphones and iPads, sometimes getting theirs at ten years old. Indeed, I often hear the word ‘relieved’ they didn’t have these devices.
That’s the wish I would give to youth. You may not be able or want a life without iPhones, but there is a lot out there if you would turn it off from time to time. FOMO (fear of missing out) will become JOMO (joy of missing out) with practice. In lieu of Tik-tok you will have uncomfortable silence and boredom (oh the horror!) but you will have real connection to others and the world.
Last night was the annual Heorot Johnsons Yuletide party, a rumpus rawther infamous for ructions and guests xeroxing their body bits on the copier machine in the dungeon. One of the traditions is the Fussball game held in the back on Fiddle’s Green. It is The Board of Directors Here at Spo-reflections vs. Someone Else. The Someone Else team never repeats as by game’s end there aren’t enough living players to carry on for a repeat game or the survivors sensibly decline further invitations. Last night it was The Board vs. The Hecatoncheires, who usually win things but in Fussball one is not permitted to use your arms and hands, worse luck for them. Yes, it was (another) victory for The Board; the score was 4-0, which is good for Urs Truly that a loss wasn’t taken out on their main minion. For thems interested, here was the winning team:
Sven – He’s the fastest player on the field. Alas, Babylon! He frequently forgets to take the ball with him. On the positive, his vigor and speed confuses the opposing team who find it difficult to believe that the ball isn’t actually with him and they are head in the wrong direction.
Bjorn – Bjorn is our bad boy, the one who loses his temper the most that the others ask him to make less noise and that’s saying something. He sees his role to menace the opposition means he doesn’t have to always play by the rules.
Helga “Pippi” Long-stocking – When not on the field bellowing orders to teammates she leaves free tickets to The Board’s periodic pantomime productions on the opposing team’s bench in order to demoralize the opposition.
Snorri Sturlson the 23rd – His ability to swing from the hall rafters makes him a born goalie. Sven and Bjorn watch on him that he remembers to keep on his trousers and for Odin’s sake wear protection. Last time he got it in the yarbles the yowls echoed throughout The Time of Legends down to Tartarus itself. Oh the pain.
Slater-Wotan – An excellent striker, really, with a regrettable tendency to handle the ball when excited. Oh the embarrassment.
Oscar ‘Bunny’Jarl – He sits on the stands and is not allowed on the team due to his inability to grasp this is not a baseball game. Also, he is heavily armed.
Walter Cnut Fafner– Being a giant of a man, well over fourteen feet, he made all four goals, not so much due to his skill, but a fourteen foot berserker coming at you makes the goalie get out of way.
Herbert – mostly he runs around looking like he is doing something but generally he gets in the way of the opponents and his teammates. At one point he was almost thrown out of the game but as it is his ball he only got a warning.
Spo-Reflections 
