Category Archives: Blog & Guest Posts

Fight On.

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Because true fans support their team even on the really, really bad days: Immediately after the Stanford loss in ’07, I wore my USC sweatshirt out, and took the expected abuse. Today — an even worse day, though that didn’t seem possible then — I’m flying our USC flag. Because whatever the football and basketball programs did wrong, and whatever… Read more »

NCAA reportedly brings hammer down on USC, forever tarnishing Carroll Era and imperiling program’s future

FriendFeed: ESPN: “The USC football program will receive a two-year postseason ban, a reduction in scholarships and a forfeiture of wins from at least the 2004 season when the NCAA releases it sanctions on Thursday.”

Weird analogy alert

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One of my favorite newspaper headlines of all time — because it took something extraordinarily stunning and world-changing, and made it sound utterly matter-of-fact — is from the front-page New York Times “news analysis” the day after Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation. The headline: “The Soviet State, Born of a Dream, Dies.” Obviously, nothing in the world of sports can match that…. Read more »

Nebraska to leave Big 12, triggering college sports armageddon

So say rumors on the Internets. (Hat tip on the LOTR reference: B. Minich.) P.S. To review why Nebraska’s departure will trigger the epic realignment apocalypse, click here. P.P.S. How about some other Lord of the Rings quotes to sum up various players’ positions in this whole mess? Big East: “Are you frightened?” Big 12: “Yes.” Big East: “Not nearly… Read more »

Did red tape doom the Louisiana marshlands?

For all the empty MSM chatter about the Gulf oil spill as “Obama’s Katrina,” the president’s failure to adequately emote, the potential political ramifications, etc. etc., one thing I haven’t really heard is much in the way of cogent, logical criticisms relating to specific, impactful, preventable errors or omissions in the response to the spill. Haven’t heard, that is, until… Read more »

Report: Notre Dame in talks with Big Ten

This morning, in response to some reporting by the New York Times — money quote: “Does Notre Dame become the 12th team in the Big Ten or does it risk being forced to later join the conference as the 16th team?” — and SportsByBrooks (which summarized things thusly, in a tweet: “Notre Dame AD: No current talks w/ Big 10…. Read more »

Will Mickey Kaus get 5% of the vote? How about 3%? Okay, 1%?

Say what you will about blogging pioneer / curmudgeonly Democratic gadfly / U.S. Senate candidate Mickey Kaus, but he sure knows how to set expectations low. Here’s his take, in Calbuzz, on his chances in today’s primary against Barbara Boxer: My friend Jill Stewart of L.A. Weekly bet a friend dinner that I wouldn’t top 5%. But I don’t want… Read more »

Mental health break, LOTR edition

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Apropos of nothing: I got to thinking, the other day, about my favorite consecutive movie scenes in all of cinema: the Gandalf/Witch-King confrontation at the gates of Minas Tirith, followed immediately by the very best scene in the Lord of the Rings trilogy: the charge of the Rohirrim. (The Gandalf/Witch-King scene was inexplicably cut from the theatrical edition of Return… Read more »

iPhone 4/HD unveiling open thread

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[UPDATE: Event over; iPhone 4 is here. And it’s awesome. Of course, the best part of the demo was when Steve Jobs had network connectivity issues while trying to demonstrate the new, super high definition screen: Yeah… somebody‘s getting fired. Heh. To make matters worse (and more hilarious), at one point, Jobs asked for suggestions from one of his techies,… Read more »