Charles Fischer

USS Enterprise (CVN-80), the third in a line of prominent Navy aircraft carriers to bear that name. The Gerald Ford-class nuclear-powered Leviathan is scheduled to enter service as early as 2028. But the origins of America's next Big E carrier actually began in 2012 with the decommissioning of CVN-65, the second Enterprise carrier. May history never forget the name....ENTERPRISE!

You end up getting a big portion of that stuff here for free. What they are really paying for is timing at the subscription sites. They hear it first, and then a day or two later--the free sites report it. Thanks for the feedback, as I enjoy all the voices in this community.

I got to say, that I’m still shaking my head at the number of people who visited the two sites last year. 368,000? Almost precisely in between a quarter and a half million people? Pretty amazing! We got something special here…

My FishDuck Friends, as a newly single man, I cannot help but wonder if I am big enough to impress? Does the size of my websites matter? I thought I would have some fun with looking at the metrics of last year, 2023, and pass them along to you. I know I am impressed with them, but you know beauty-and-the-beholder, thing. What I have below is the combination of both the FishDuck.com article site, and the Our Beloved Ducks forum. The number of users on both sites: 368,000 Wowsa. This was a surprise that so many came to the two different sites last year, and it shouts to what this fall will bring! Total page views: 3,078,000 Holy Toledo! Over three million pages viewed between the two sites? Whew! Total Visits by all: 1,200,000 People were on the sites a ton! Average duration of visit: 6:28 minutes Top Ten Countries of Readers: United States, (96%) Canada, Germany, Mexico, China, Guam, United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Costa Rica. Some Observations: 1) For a fun set of quiet sites...we were bigger than I thought. Now we are much smaller than the two huge subscription sites, but when you take into account the thousands of small mom-and-pop and retail sites--we compare pretty impressively. 2) Too bad I cannot leverage it into something beyond just paying-the-bills. But we would have to be 10 times bigger to be a commercial entity. 3) I like our size, as it is just-right. And I love this community!

I had SpongeBob on in the background once while my daughter was watching, as I was reading the paper. Then I heard him say something that was advanced vocabulary, along with a punchline kids would never understand. They were keeping us parents amused as well! My favorite SpongeBob scene...

No problem.... What could possibly go wrong?

My FishDuck Friends, The article above is a pay-article to help take care of the bills, but it actually has some good information in it. Dan Lanning is really improving our roster, and note the big drop-off from No. 4 on that list to the rest of the B1G! The location of the SEO company that created this article is in La Massana, Andorra (wow!) Now where is Andorra? It is a tiny country located between France and Spain...of course! (Wowsa, can you believe where all the backlink orders come from around the world?)

Omigosh! I just had a flashback to all the shows I had to watch so many years ago when my daughter was small. Do I want to watch them again?

We went 2-2 with Beavis this year in Baseball, and missed the conference championship by ONE game. (Won by Arizona) Not your sport anymore, Beavis.

4-2 USC at the end of eight innings.

4-1 USC after seven innings,

3-1, USC after six innings. Featherston in for relief.

0-0 after five innings!

0-0 after four innings. RJ Gordon has been studly thus far, and the team looks sharp on defense.

0-0 after three innings.

It could be a lot worse, as we could have a short week prior to playing at Wisconsin! Or at MICHIGAN.

Damn. 4-2 Utah after seven innings,

Good grief. She proves what I've said for years...."this OBD community knows more football than the vast majority of media pundits, present company included." Yep, she is the smart one at the bar...

2-2 after six innings, as Brock Moore went about 73 pitches to slowly build his arm, and perhaps be available for the final on Sunday? Logan Mercado is pitching now...

2-2 after five innings.

1-1 after four innings.

We will take a run on an error!

Tomorrow is win or go home vs. USC at 2:30 on the Pac-12 Channel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oregon leads 1-0 after three innings, and wowsa, as surprises all the way around. Utah saved their Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year to face us after losing to USC yesterday 7-6, and he is tough to hit! The Ducks have a surprise of their own, starting reliever Brock Moore today! Clearly Oregon is trying to save their best for later, and has confidence in Moore. Thus far he has all three of his pitches in control between his 97 mph fastball, a nasty slider, and just struck out a star hitter with a potent breaking ball that really drops. But wait! There is more! Stanford went 2-0 in their pod beating Oregon State today, 2-1 and thus advance to Friday's semifinal while the Beavers go home... There is a shot of Oregon hosting a Regional series if we can win the Pac-12 Tournament. Nasty is right!