Guest dead soldier

Submitted by Sean "Northern Pike" Magoo. My guess would be he drank this Talisker to an early death after sending his Laphroaig to Gitmo for incarceration.

bourbon

I have always considered bourbon drinkers to be an odd lot. Sort of like they got lost on their way to find the scotch and bumped across a lesser drink, and swilled it down in impatience.

But the Fish Head received for his birthday a nice looking bottle from one of his fellow spawn, and shockingly, realized it was bourbon.

Now one might ask, why would fellow spawn brother gift the Fish Head a bottle of bourbon? Thoughtlessness? Hoping for a re-gifting?

No, because spawn brother was wandering about in the backwoods of Kentucky, and stumbled into the actual distillery where the pictured booze is brewed. Now let's not ask ourselves what said brother was doing in the backwoods of Kentucky, as we all know the sorts of things that go on there.

Being of magnanimous spirit, Fish Head set aside his scotch, grabbed a fresh glass, and steeled himself to make good of the questionable gift. Following his normal scotch habits, two fins over rocks it was. And amazingly...its pretty damn good!

Now you might notice that a full report is not possible, given that the bottle is still almost full (Fish Head has small fins!). So look for a further update when the Woodford achieves dead soldier status.

San Antonio

Great place. 'Nuff said.

Alamo Bowl

Its taken a few days to finish swallowing the bile before I could type a post about the 2008 Alamo Bowl.

The Cats came into the game 2-TD underdogs, with virtually no-0ne giving them a chance to win. And in the end, everyone was right as the Cats fell 30-23 in overtime.

Despite the loss, it was a terrific game, with flashy TD passes galore, a punt return for TD, and numerous stellar defensive plays.

The Cats gave themselves every opportunity to win, especially with the sparkling defensive effort, which put Mizzou's high-octane offense into a deep freezer. But in the end, a few plays where the Cats failed to take advantage, cost them the game. A missed PAT. Failure to pick up a third-and-three on the last drive in regulation. A missed assigment on the O-line in OT that led to a huge sack.

An exciting but disappointing ending to the 2008 season.

Round ball

Historically the Fish Head is not much of a basketball fan, but the post-football doldrums seem to have grown in intensity over the years.

So this year, the Fish head has strived to enjoy some college hoops. Aided by the generosity of other parties coughing up free tickets (thanks Pat!) the Fish Head has managed to see one game for each of his affiliated schools - UIC, DePaul, and Northwestern.

Unfortunately, all three games were embarrassing losses but were enjoyable nonetheless.

Highlights from the three outings:

• Enjoying the surprisingly nice UIC Pavilion with my nieces and nephews - the Dragon Den being an added bonus.
• Having the entire upper deck to myself at the Allstate Arena; apparently DePaul vs. Morgan State was not a big draw with attendance at about 2,500.
• Beers at UBAA before the NU vs. MSU game.

Notice the Fish Head did not discuss the actual games. Because....maybe its an acquired taste, but basketball is boring. But just like Schlitz, the Fish Head is going to keep pouring down the basketball until he acquires the taste!