Gotta love the Cornholers’ positivity

Lets hope this guy is spot on:

Five Reasons Nebraska will lose to Northwestern

And this guy (Who seems more rational) is also spot-on:

Northwestern beats Nebraska by a mere point

But all in all it comes down to these points:

1. Northwestern needs to get some yards on the ground
2. Clayton needs to have a big day
3. The defense needs to slow down Martinez

Go Cats, we all need another blame-game presser from Scott Frost to enjoy!

Green Wave

Fish Head and his fin mate bump into an old gent in the neighborhood occassionally, whom we refer to as "Mister Tulane” because he always wears a Tulane t-shirt.

Thusly the Fish Head recorded and is watching the Cincinatti-Tulane game.

Go Green Wave!

Post Action Report

The Fish Head missed all the live action as he swam upstream to visit his spawn in lovely Gainesville FL, but cloud DVR and ScoreMobile are the next best thing to being there.

If a fish head could blush blush, Fish Head would chuck blush, as the week predictions were nothing less than whack.

First, Fish Head called take Sparty and give the 10 points. Only the 10 points was accurate, as NU crushed Sparty by 10 points. Fish Head promises in future to be Cat-supportive despite any evidence to the contrary, as the Cats did do exactly as mentioned - Clayton won the game primarily on the strength of several beautiful downfield balls, making up for the total lack of a running game. The Cats are in sole possession of second place, and control their own fate over the next few weeks, including the opportunity to knock off Wiscy. Maintaining momentum will require Clayton to stay healthy and hot, along with progress in the running game.

Next, Fish Head missed the call on Nebraska's Scott Frost blame game. Scott's post-game presser was sort of vaguely positive despite the beat down, and you know the going is tough when people need th Google the date of your last win. Fish Head also missed on the Rutgers call, as the Scarlet Benighteds  lost to the hapless Illini. You have to believe at this point that Rutgers finishes 1-11, and the Illini have a vague chance to achieve a rare 4 win season.

Lastly, the predicted Maryland tsunami was more like a puddle as they lost to Michigan, despite showing vague signs of competitiveness.

Better luck next week to the Fish Head.

Week 6

Thank God that Week 5 is over and Mr. Khranky Pants has returned north of The Wall. The Cats looked delicious during a surprising first half blitzkrieg, then went somnambulant in the second half as the Wolverines put them away like a salted sardine.

Now the Cats face Sparty and the line is Sparty giving 10. Sparty has a tough defensive line, so the pressure will be on Clayton to win the game thru the air, of which there was little sign in the second half against Michigan.

Fish Head hates to say it, but take Sparty and give the points.

In other action, it will be a fun treat to see the post game presser from Scott Frost after Wiscy beats hell out of Nebraska. Who will he slop blame on this time? The Illini find themselves giving points ATS, an unusual position for their hapless squad. Can Rutgers break through for a win? The Fish Head says Yes.

The other game of note is Maryland visiting the Big House. The Fighting Turtles had 2 weeks to get ready and have film showing how NU pantsed the Wolverines in the first half last week. Add in key injuries on the Michigan side and the Fish Head sees a tsunami of upset headed to Ann Arbor.

Go Big or Go Home

Fish Head just watched Big Ten Tailgate on TV, and saw the bit about Nebraska’s game, which was drowned out by cheers of “Go Big Red”.

Yes Big Red, Go Home to whatever swampy cornfield you came from. Sorry but Pervy Purdue Pete is going to find his hammer and pound you like a nail!

Last minute week 5 ramblings

The Fish Head dreads the 4:30PM kick on Fox. This cannot end well for the Cats, and nobody likes to see Mr. Khaki Pants succeed. Let’s all pray for a tornado or lightning or a tsunami.

Around the conference, it’s more of the same mostly. Sparty has a cupcake in the Chippewas, whose signature win was over the mighty Maine Bears. The Hoosiers will beat hell out of Rutgers, same as everyone else has, and Scott Frost will continue his excuse tour by getting pummeled by Purdue.

Closing out the day, the Wife Beaters face the Pedo Guys in Happy Valley. This game should be a shoot out with two highly touted (over-rated?) qb’s and CFP implications. But firstly who cares and secondly the game will mostly go to show how weak the Big Ten is this year.

Hope to see you at the suicide prevention clinic at the end of the Cats game, unless we have to go there at half time.

Doom and Gloom

It was bad enough losing Justin Jackson to graduation, but now Jeremy Larkin is gone too.

Read the bad news here.

Answers for Week 4

We need to test if the Fish Head is Nostradamus or Nosmartsamus. Granted my predictions were vague, insulting, and non-binary but poetic license applies.

1. How droopy will the Lovie merkin masks be after the Penn State Pedos drop 60 points on the Illini?
1. Fish Head Scores! Penn State crushed the Illini 63-24, albeit the Illini hung tough till the 4Q. And yes, I saw an announcer doing an interview wearing a merkin. Embarrassing look for Illinois.
2. Which Maryland shows up to play Minnesota? The Texas Maryland or the Temple Maryland?
1. Fish Head Scores! It was the Texas version of Maryland as the Golden Goats showed their true colors in a 42-13 blowout loss. And no Maryland players died, so that's good too.
3. How soon does Scott Frost ask for his UCF job back?
1. Fish Head Scores! Its no longer about asking, its about begging as the Cornholers were walloped by Michigan 56-10 and dropped to 0-3. UCF on the other hand crushed FAU and moved to 3-0.
4. Will Purdue’s march to 0-4 be obvious in the first quarter against BC?
1. Fish Head Loses! Purdue pantsed BC 30-13, with BC looking hapless on offense with 4 picks thrown.
5. Is anyone dumb enough to take Rutgers and the points against Buffalo?
1. Fish Head Scores! The Buffalo Bulls thumped Rutgers 42-13, easily covering ATS of -5. Better to just put your paper money in the shredder than bet on Rutgers.
6. Green Wave, Red Wave, Blue Wave. Should Tulane just phone in a forfeit?
1. Fish Head Scores! The Green Wave got swamped 49-6 by the Bucknuts. Next time use the phone, Tulane.
7. Does anyone believe IU can start 4-0?
1. Fish Head Scores! Nobody believed it and that was spot on as the Hoosiers lost 35-21 to Sparty. But at least they looked vaguely competitive.
8. Can the State of Iowa survive an invasion of rabid Badgers?
1. Fish Head Scores! Iowa lost 28-17 to Wiscy, albeit Iowa had the game locked and collapsed at the end, and the Badgers were more dyspeptic than rabid.

Heading into week 5, the Fish Head does not look forward to NU's anemic offense facing Michigan's defense. Fish Head votes for another Bye week.

Questions for Week 4

1. How droopy will the Lovie merkin masks be after the Penn State Pedos drop 60 points on the Illini?
2. Which Maryland shows up to play Minnesota? The Texas Maryland or the Temple Maryland?
3. How soon does Scott Frost ask for his UCF job back?
4. Will Purdue’s march to 0-4 be obvious in the first quarter against BC?
5. Is anyone dumb enough to take Rutgers and the points against Buffalo?
6. Green Wave, Red Wave, Blue Wave. Should Tulane just phone in a forfeit?
7. Does anyone believe IU can start 4-0?
8. Can the State of Iowa survive an invasion of rabid Badgers?

Thank God.....

....for the Bye week. Our burnt and blackened souls need it after the Akron collapse.

Week 3

The Cats face the fearsome Akron Zips in a must-win game Saturday night.

The 21 point spread favoring the Cats gives the Fish Head trepidatious gills. The Cats looked very flat against Duke, and can not afford a slow start against the Zips, who pummeled the always tough Morgan State Bears in week 2, after battling Nebraska to a scoreless (and playless) tie in week 1.

Key matchups to watch are Kato Nelson versus Clayton Thorson, and Jeremy Larkin versus Van Edwards. Fish Head expects the Cats to come out hot looking for a high scoring first quarter, which will excite all the folks in the $2 cheap seats, before it settles into a defensive struggle the rest of the way.

Don’t make your bowl reservations quite yet.

Week 2 Funk

The Fish Head is in a deep funk, floating upside down on the surface.

The Cats got thoroughly beaten by Duke, the offense looked anemic, and worse, the Cats week 1 win was tarnished as Purdue fell to the Fighting Pelicans of Eastern Michigan. As the coup de grace, Coach Fitz blamed the loss on the players, despite the obvious lack of a coherent game plan on offense.

The Akron game looms large next week, and the Cats need to reboot and improve in all phases of the game.

In other exciting Big Ten action, Nebraska lost to Colorado 33-28. Scott Frost’s prayers for rain were not answered a second week. Josh Heupel continues to laugh in Orlando.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Maryland all beat their cupcakes. Sorry Rutgers, yes you are a tasty cupcake despite being a conference game.

Iowa’s defense beat Iowa State. Kirk Ferentz issued a BOLO to find his offense. The Illini stayed on track for their planned 2-10 season by beating Western Illinois, setting themselves up to run off the next 10 games as losses. Which actually seems likely as they have lost their starting QB and their star receiver.

The Fish Head is a proud Hoosier so it’s great to see IU start 2-0 after crushing Virginia 20-16. And yes that’s Virginia, not Va Tech and not West Virginia. In other words, a cupcake in disguise but still 2-0.

The Minnesota Gofers snuck by Fresno State to go 2-0. I am unconvinced by PJ Fleck’s enthusiastic yammering and expect a mid season implosion in Minneapolis.

Pedo State looked strong in taking down Pitt 51-6. Of course Pitt was so pathetic that they abandoned the field goal since they couldn’t handle snaps. The Fish Head stands by his prediction from last week that Happy Valley has seen better days.

Last but not least, Mark Dantonio pulled off a miracle by making Herm Edwards look good, as MSU choked one away losing to Arizona State 16-13. Can you say goodbye Top 25?

Next week the Cats face the Akron Zips in a night game, which the Fish Head will be surreptitiously watching via cell phone during the 93rd spawnaversary of his mother. Hard to judge the caliber of the Zips who beat Morgan State (FBS) handily, but given two weak Cats performances so far, trouble could be brewing.

Need a different cupcake

Duke beat the Cats 21-7, making two consecutive years of beat downs by the Dukies.

I suggest the Cats schedule a better cupcake, say NIU, EIU, or Texas State.

Observations from Week 1

I’m missing the in-person action due to health issues, but that doesn’t prevent me from commenting on action around the conference after week 1.

• Illinois snuck by the Kent State Molten Flashes. The only highlight of the game was the TV shots of Illini fans wearing Lovie Smith merkins on their faces.
• The Fighting Terps trashed Texas again. Maybe the Texas AD needs to pick tastier cupcakes.
• Go M Blue. Like, just go away and take Super Khaki Pants with you, and please do not wreck our bowl results again this year.
• MSU survived Utah State. Name one American who can find Utah on a map.
• The Buckeyes won. Who cares, we all still hate the Bucknuts. At least their coaches are not pedophiles.
• Speaking of pedo guys, Penn State snuck by Appalachian State, renowned giant killers whose sterling history is tarnished by recent Michigan performances. Look for a long and unhappy season in Happy Valley.
• Rutgers - seriously they are not in the Big Ten are they? We all know Texas is a State but who the hell is Texas State?
• Iowa beat hell out of NIU. Oh how far the Huskies have fallen.
• Scott Frost started the season with a bang at Nebraska, too bad it was the banging of thunder that caused the game to be cancelled. Josh Heupel had better results for the week.
• GO CATS as they took down Purdue. Must have been a great Fitz speech in the locker room at halftime as the Cats offense looked Uber flat in the second half.
• The Badgers beat Western Kentucky. And nobody cared.
• Lastly, Minnesota started a walk-on QB with a name like an Austrian city and beat NM State. I have Fleck’d boogers that had more football tradition than New Mexico State.

Go Cats beat the Dukies.

Big Cats win in the Pinstripe Bowl

Fitz trolls Kannell

This year....

I saved $600 and they gyp'd me out of parking entirely! So much for 20 years of faithful season ticket purchases!

Yes I am confident that I wasted $600 on parking.

Yes its 2 years since I posted....

And the 2013 football season is dead as a doornail. Yep, three pastings in a row, the Cats are 4-3 with reduced (no?) hopes of making a bowl. See you in 2015 when I post again.

What we have to look forward to now

Wait'll next year!

SOS - Save Our Season

Dear God, Yaweh, Allah, or Agnostic Deity of Last Choice,

Please save our season. I promise I'll go to church. Synagog. Pray on the Mat. Pretend I don't care if you exist. Whatever!

Please make Joe Pa have an aneurysm in the first quarter. But then make him all better after we win, I am not mean-spirited that way.

Please make their goofy QB rotation scheme work in favor of our leaky secondary. Make Matt McGloin throw like Rex Grossman - right into the hands of the CBs.

Please make some doofus season ticket holders actually show up in their seats - in purple.

Please make Zach remember that passing out drunk on the CTA is not a recipe for a long safe life. And that if someone is knifing him, I'm not helping I'm moving to the next car like the sign says.

Thank you already for taking care of that little SOB Moye. We appreciate you taking out their only true receiving threat for us. Was that little gem left-over good will from when I last went to church 17 years ago?

Lastly, please shine those rays from the Ark of the Covenant onto Dan our QB. Give him the power to lead your armies to a crushing victory over the forces of darkness.

Oh, and that stupid f-cking Nittany lion thing. Everyone knows there are no lions in Pennsylvania, and there is no such place as Happy Valley. So if you could....say...tsunami all of that right out of existence, I'd much appreciate it. Nobody really needs Pennsylvania anyway.

224 days to season opener at BC

The Cats finished the season in disappointing fashion, with blowout losses to Illinois and Wiscy, and a close but especially disappointing bowl loss to Texas Tech.

All you can say is....224 days to the season opener and hopefully Persa comes back in good health. See you all in Boston!

Cats crush Redbirds

The Cats crushed the Illinoise State Redbirds 37-3, blitzing them with 30 points in the first half.

Dan Persa continued his super-efficient passing attack, completing another 85% or so of his pass attempts, including several TD throws. More amazingly, the run game peeked out of its hidey hole and amassed a few yards on the ground.

The weather did not cooperate and portions of the West Lot (including our parking spot) were deep underwater. Its not often you get to see your brother bailing water from a pot hole with a beer cup. Good times!

Next up for the Cats is Rice. Rice played Texas close in week 1, but could only manage to sneak by North Texas "Mean Green" 32-31 in week 2. Considering the Mean Green's ratty record (5 wins in the previous four years), this bodes well for the Cats in week 3.

Long time no post!

The Cats opened at Vanderbilt in Nashville, and the Fish Head and Let's Go Somewhere and Get F-cked Up drove down to cheer on the team.

The Cats escaped with a sloppy 23-21 win over the Commodores, and the refs escaped with only a moderate amount of rubbish thrown on them by the angry Vandy fans. And, LGSAGFU got more wasted on the absinthe than the Fish Head did; tailgating at Morton's is highly recommended (skip the weird bleu cheese fries).

Next up for the Cats is Illinois State, victors over Central Missouri State (who?) by 55-54. The Redbirds might be a tougher challenge for the Cats defense than the hapless Commodores.

Spring Scrimmage

April 24. 8 AM. West Lot. Be there. Nuff said!

Let's take a little drive

End of Days....

Must be upon us. Religious wackos look for signs like plagues, pestilence, floods, Satan, that sort of crap.

Me? I look for the more prosaic but definitely more important signs. And all signs point to the Big End.

First, the Wildcats lost to Syracuse. Syracuse? Otto the Orange? What the Hell?

Second, in this losing effort, Mike "Demon Spawn" Kafka set a school record for consecutive completions and threw for 390 yards. What the Hell?

Lastly, Pax Americana and the greatest empire since Byzantium has come to an end with the tire tiff. Yes, that tire tiff where the US has imposed import tariffs on automobile tires produced in China. Whereupon the Chinese threatened retaliatory tariffs on imports of American....chicken feet! Yes, Chicken Feet. You know, those things upon which chickens walk? Apparently this is the ONLY DAMN THING this country produces of value. Chicken Feet. What the Hell?

Death to Otto

<- If you see this guy....stomp his face!

A win is a win...

To quote noted football prognosticator Clay Nurse of the Fighting Illini, "A win is a win". Yes indeedy and the Cats advanced to 2-0 by sneaking by the Eagles of EMU 27-24. The day was saved by Stefan Demos who nailed a monster 49-yard FG as the clock wound down; this was only Demos third career field goal and a clutch effort.

Let's take a quick look at how things are stacking up for the Cats. Looking back, the Cats pummelled Towson in the season opener. But Towson improved in week #2, avoiding another loss by having a bye week. They will face Coastal Carolina next week, who trashed Monmouth this week. Learn anything from that? Yea, if you didn't already know it, Towson was a cupcake that plays other cupcakes and we learned nothing from the Towson game other than we can beat a cupcake.

Eastern Michigan is now 0-2. In their season opener, they were beaten by Army 27-14. And Army in week #2? Crushed by Duke. Deep analysis? EMU is as much of a cupcake as Towson, thus NU's a-win-is-a-win over EMU is not promising.

Next up for the Cats is Syracuse. In week #1, Syracuse almost took down the Golden Gophers, and in week #2, they looked pretty good considering they were totally over-matched by a loaded Penn State squad. If the Cats go to Syracuse and play flat, it will not be a good result.

First up for the Cats are the Towson Tigers of Towson University. Never heard of Towson? Me either. The university is located in Towson, a suburb of Baltimore, and was founded in 1866, and is "one of the best regional public universities" in the US. Surprisingly, Towson is the second largest university in Maryland, an amazing statistic for a school no-one ever heard of.

Other amazing facts about Towson:

• The most famous alumnus appears to be a lady named Jennifer Hurt. She appears to be the main reason anyone would attend Towson.
• The Tigers play in Johnny Unitas Stadium. Gotta respect that.
• The Tigers finished 3-9 in the Colonial in 2008. Can you spell defense? The Tigers could not.
• First year coach Rob Ambrose most recently coached at UConn and has a good track record.

And that is about all there is to say about Towson. Unlike some famous universities, it seems that the students at Towson do not burn cars, stab each other, or generally do anything Google-worthy.

Check

Season tickets. Check
Media guides. Check.
Parking pass. Check.
Browse HTP. Check.
Browse LTP. Check.
Make fun of first opponent. Hmmm....I'll take a crack at that later today :-)

Everyone needs to see this at least once in their life

"The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" is indeed an amazing spectacle. The Fish Head is unclear on the un-announced attendance, but chit-chat placed it at perhaps 350,000 fans - an amazing number of people at an event.

While car racing may be the worlds most boring sport, consisting of many boring laps of loud cars whizzing by, the pageantry (and the crashes) make it worthwhile.

Like flybys? This year had a pair of vintage B-25 bombers.

Like parades? The race has a victory lap and a fan appreciation lap. Like odd rituals of celebration? The winner drinks a bottle of milk.

Like hot chicks in bikini tops? Hell yea, this race has it all.

The Fish Head and his spawn brothers (and an ex-neighbor) went to Wrigleyville to see the Cubbies. Rainy weather not withstanding, we sat in the center field bleachers and had a great time, including watching Ryan Theriot wack a grand slam.

Post-game beers were quaffed at Murphy's Bleachers....followed by a tour of the none-too-impressive CTA and Metra to get home.

I ate what??

<- I ate one of these. It was disguised as sushi - oh yes, look at that beastie and you can guess at the epic cleverness of said disguise. Whatever you do, don't look at this picture....

Spring time in Chicago

Thank god the dreary winter is over, Spring is sprung and the weather is getting warmer.

The picture to the left was taken on March 29. As best I can tell, that ice shelf in Antartica which broke off has floated up the Chicago River and down the Des Plaines and stopped right outside my door.

March Madness...

is nothing more than a signal that the long darkness is ending and the football season is right around the corner. Northwestern's spring practice season ends April 25 with the traditional Spring Game at Noon. We'll be there in our finest purple tailgating in the West Lot.

Just in time for Easter, The Holy Trinity

You can't make things like this up

Actual sign on a swimming beach in Hong Kong. Perhaps inconvenienced is a synonym for eaten?

Post-Super Bowl Party

Pre-Super Bowl Party

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!

Xmas Dinner was...

Turducken. Or, as the Fish Head's oldest daughter called it, Turdunken. While this may sound like a weird, cajun hillbilly food, its actually quite tasty except for the nasty sausage stuffing!

Annual Book

Once a year, never more nor less, the Fish Head reads a book. Today the Fish Head finished his 2008 selection, "A History of Scotland". And yes, if you saw Braveheart, William Wallace (and his compatriot, Andrew of Moray) merit a few pages during the description of the Wars of Independence.

Overall, this was an excellent book if somewhat dense and turgid. The ancient history of the Picts, the inter-twining of Scotland, Norway, Ireland, and England, all make for fascinating reading.

Why read a book about Scotland? Because scotch is made there!

Dead Soldier Reports

I haven't posted one for awhile, but pictures of the most recent "dead soldier" are a favorite of the Fish Head. In the spirit of equality, my buddy Mike "I have a crazy basement" Carp emailed me a copy of his most recent dead soldier.

Apparently the Carp liked the Balvenie as much as the Fish Head did.

Hello Mr. Bush

Dear Lame Duck President Mr. Bush,

It has come to our attention that it is an absolute certainty that WMDs can be found at the location below. This has been agreed to by the CIA, the NSA, the NIE, the intelligence agencies of all of the G7, and most importantly, Mickey Mouse and Boris Badinov; Condi has the powerpoint.

To help you with some simpleton strategy (we understand you excel at that variety), it is a hop skip and a jump from Whiteman to this location. Could you please vector in a couple B2's with appropriate payload to rid us of this menace?

X marks the spot

Signed,

The Citizens of Illinois

River walking

The Selection Committee met at Tracy's, drank some beer, and decided the Wildcats should go to the Alamo Bowl. Air tickets are bought, game tickets are ordered, and hotel rooms are reserved. All that remains is to get stinking drunk and make Mizzou fans look classy by comparison.

Go Cats!

BCS Bowl Selection Meeting

The BCS Bowl Selection Review Committee will be meeting here at 4PM CST today.

Football snob

I admit it, I am a college football snob. Pro sports? Screw those whiny rich guys. College soccer, golf, lacrosse, baseball? Boredom central.

However, I have come to the conclusion that my life can no longer consist of four months of joy, followed by 8 months of benighted, hidey-hole nothingness.

So I have resolved to follow (as best I can stomach it) another college sport, so I have been keeping at least one cloudy fish eye on basketball. And lo and behold, said cloudy eye watched a gem off the DVR Saturday, as Northwestern annihilated DePaul. The Fish Head felt bad seeing alma mater A cream alma mater B so badly, but then realized the beauty of the situation, as a pasting like that enables the Fish Head to endlessly taunt his DePaul alumni brothers.

Surprisingly, while reading the recap of the game, the Fish Head discovered that Northwestern's perennial patsy bball team is, well, maybe not a total patsy this year. In fact, the Cats roundball team is off to a great start and is highly ranked according to the RPI index.

Bad idea

History presents us with many examples of bad ideas. Sometimes ideas are simply stupid and poorly thought out, others are presented at the wrong time, and some ideas are so certain to enrage and offend the public trust that they are best buried in a deep dark vault and never, ever spoken of.

The latter category most certainly includes the moronic trial balloon floated by Dick Durbin, senior senator from Illinois. The esteemed Mr. Durbin has stated that he is considering asking lame duck President Bush to offer clemency to George Ryan, based on a heartfelt appeal from Ryan's wife.

You may remember George Ryan. Yes, the George Ryan whose corrupt administration of the Illinois Secretary of State office directly resulted in the deaths of six innocent children. Yes, the George Ryan who routinely steered state business to his cronies. Yes, the George Ryan who used his political campaign funds to illegally enrich himself and his family. Yes, the George Ryan who is a convicted felon, liar, and unrepentant criminal.

Don't even think it, Dick. We the people just elected Obama because we are sick of politicians who are stupid, corrupt, and ineffective. If you push to free Ryan, you will convince the public that you are all of those things too.

POTS - R.I.P. 2008

My first real full-time job was in 1978 at Illinois Bell (yes, Fish Head has out-lived the average alewife by a few years). At the time, IBT was one of the largest and best known corporations in Illinois, and made hundreds of millions of dollars each year selling POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service.

Flash forward to 2008. Illinois Bell is a distant memory, divorced from the Bell System, subsumed into Ameritech, which was subsumed into SBC, which subsumed AT&T. Get it, got it, its gone.

And how about POTS? It too is rapidly disappearing. Depending on whose numbers you believe, installed POTS lines are declining 5-10% per year. Why? In the recent past, its been wireless and broadband that have been cannibalizing the POTS business. Younger consumers, especially those who remain single longer, are comfortable relying on their cell phones and see no need for POTS; tech-savvy oldsters who like their stationary phones have been exploiting their broadband connections and using services like Vonage and Skype.

More recently, the economy has been the culprit in the decline. Empty houses require no POTS line, and families with financial pressures will ditch their POTS line before they ditch their mobile phones.

At a rate of decline of 10% per year, POTS service is likely to rapidly become un-economic, as it requires specialty equipment and infrastructure which will be hard to maintain in a rapid down draft, and consumers unwilling or unable to switch are likely to face difficulties as telecom companies react to the financial realities.

The Fish Head recently retired his trusty POTS line that served his home office. After many years of faithfully paying $18 per month to the local phone company, Fish Head has converted to a combination of cell and VOIP. For routine calls, Fish Head uses Skype, an ultra-low-cost VOIP provider which primarily runs on personal computers. Couple your PC with a bluetooth headset, and you have a high-tech if somewhat inconvenient phone system. For cell, Fish Head routes his cell calls thru a femtocell which in essence turns home cell calls into VOIP.

And so AT&T is out $18/month, the Polycom desk phone sits collecting dust on a shelf, and the Fish Head has made his little contribution to the decline of POTS.

Looking back

Its always interesting to watch the results achieved by teams that the Cats recently played. Buried in the back of today's Chicago Tribune was the game wrap-up of the first round FCS (1-AA) match between SIU and UNH.

The UNH Wildcats came to Evanston in 2006 and pummelled the Cats 34-17. Fans were shocked, but UNH has been a traditional powerhouse in 1-AA, and as the last couple of years have shown, a strong 1-AA team can knock off a 1-A team (google on Toledo and Appalachian State for more :-) ).

This year, the Cats played the SIU Salukis in Evanston, and the result was better, with the Cats the victor by a 33-7 margin.

Yesterday, UNH beat SIU 29-20 to advance to the second round of the FCS playoffs (Obama would love 1-AA). Good to see both our past victims, and our past conquerors, doing well.

Quote of The Day

"I liked Harvard, but it just didn't compare to Northwestern".

Bowling

The churn and speculation leading up to December 7 will be intense. Last night's epic battle between the Ducks and the Beavers (lol I am not making that up) should have a positive impact for the Cats as OSU gets another BCS game to embarrass itself at.

Watch for Cats fans to howl, and rightfully so, if Iowa jumps us as predicted.

Cornucopia

Saturday was a cornucopia of fandom, a veritable turducken of sports feasting.

First up was the traditional season-closing rivalry match between Northwestern and Illinois, with the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk trophy going to the winner. We arrived at the infamous West Lot close to an hour before it opened, which forced us to crack a kegger in the street to fortify us to withstand the brisk (20 degree) weather. After entering the lot and tailgating for several hours, we were treated to a frigid but tasty treat (full of creamy goodness, as that idiot on the Big Ten Network always says) as the Wildcats smothered the Illini and closed the regular season at 9-3 with a 27-10 victory. Thus, Cats fans face the pleasant dilemma of figuring out how to transport their grills, tents, coolers, and voluminous containers of assorted booze, to exotic Florida for the upcoming bowl game.

After a brief and even more frigid post-game tailgate beer, we loaded ourselves into the Tank and headed downtown for the UIC-DePaul basketball game, DePaul's first match against UIC at the Pavilion. The Fish Head was rewarded with another victory, as his alma mater by another mother cruised to a thrilling 67-63 victory over UIC. As is the case with all basketball games, the game was a snoozefest of tall guys with funny shorts rushing around, until the last 15 seconds when all the excitement was crammed in. Fortunately, the boredom was of the pleasant variety as we feasted on ale and buffet in the Dragon's Den during the game.

Lastly, after a late arrival home, the Fish Head watched a DVR loop of replays of the Wildcats victory, over and over, into the wee hours of the morning.

Go Cats!

Woeful-rines

The Cats pummelled the Woeful-rines, walking out of the Big House with an impressive 21-14 victory. Why was the victory impressive?

The Cats have suffered greatly from injuries. Arrington, Sutton, Conteh, etc. We started our third string running back against Michigan!

The weather was miserable, and the first half was a goof-fest of fumbles, blocked kicks, and muffed punts. But the Cats hung tough and went to the locker room down 14-7.

Not sure what Fitz told the team in the locker room, but the offense came out firing in the third quarter and Bacher threw two beautiful TD passes to put the Cats up 21-14.

And lastly, Michigan had the ball twice with good field position in the closing minutes, but the defense played tough and shut the Woeful-rines down to ensure the win.

Thus the Cats advance to 8-3 and ensure themselves of a good bowl pick....let the whining begin about the selection process and what's fair and which schools travel well.

Go Cats! Next week is the traditional season-ending game against arch-rival Illinois, in which we will fight for possession of the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk. A win will push the Cats to 9-3 and again improve our bowl position.

Damn those Bucknuts

The Buckeyes laid their annual smackdown on the Cats, routing the Purple 45-10. The defense was unable to catch Pryor in the backfield, and as best I could tell, he is the second coming of Joe Namath except he has good knees and can scramble like a mofo. And he performs best on third and long, on which he seemed to either scramble or throw for huge yards.

'Nuf said. Move on. The Bucknuts can come back here next year and beat the crap out of us. Or we'll go there, and they can beat the crap out of us. Whatever.

Next up for the Cats is the Michigan Woeful-rines. Except, the Woeful-rines showed some signs of life this past weekend, beating Minnesota 29-6. Either Minnesota is falling apart (2 losses in a row) and stinks, or, Michigan is beginning to gel as a team. Either way, this is a huge game for the Cats, as a win will improve their bowl selection immensely. Injuries have depleted the Cats, with the starting QB, RB, one DE, and one LB out; additionally the second-string RB is out or he's in, no-one seems to know. Fitzgerald will need to pull some coaching magic to get a reasonable team on the field against Michigan.

Since the Michigan game is at the Big House, the tail gate will morph to a deck gate to be held at the Skoper's mansion.

R.I.P.

Our pet hamster, Scouty, passed away yesterday in unpleasant fashion, gasping and spitting up blood as he died of old age.

Scouty was the family favorite, and in fact the Fish Head liked Scouty better than his own kids. He was a quiet, pleasant fellow who never caused a fuss and never demanded more than the occassional treat.

May he rest in peace in Hamster Heaven.

Zoiks!

The Cats upset #20 Minnesota 24-17, with safety Brendan Smith returning a twice-tipped interception 48 yards for a touchdown with 12 seconds on the clock.

Mike "Demon Spawn" Kafka, subbing for injured started CJ Bacher, had a big day, rushing for 217 (!) yards and throwing a pair of touchdowns (we'll choose not to discuss the 2 INTs he threw).

With the win, the Cats resurrected their bowl hopes, advancing to 7-2 and assuring a bowl bid. With perennial patsy Michigan coming up on the schedule, the Cats seem gauranteed of an 8-win season and a quality bowl.

AMF good season...

And so the season ends, not with a bang but a mid-season choke. All talk of good bowl versus better bowl, will now morph to anxious talk of any bowl. Yes, I love the potato pancakes at Jacoby's, but I would have preferred we not lose to the worst team in the Big Ten. And I would have preferred that our starting QB and RB not both get hurt. And I would have preferred that Mike "Demon Spawn" Kafka was a capable backup as opposed to a moron who thought "flushing" meant he should throw away the team's last chance.

Magic Number

22

We Boiled 'em

The Cats laid a major smack-down on the Boilermakers, routing them 48-26 to advance to 6-1 on the season. The bowl-eligibility question is now reduced to good bowl or great bowl.

Let's take a second to look both backward and forward.

First, MSU's performance after they tarnished our perfect season. The Spartans were completely demolished by Ohio State, losing 45-7 and losing their starting QB to a concussion. While MSU played well against the Cats, it was amateur hour against the Buckeyes as they gave up 6 TO's and their Heisman candidate did diddly. Net-net, MSU's performance against OSU diminishes the Cats and makes our upcoming date against OSU look scarier.

Second, looking forward to the Cats next game at Indiana. Indiana's season is completely wrecked, with a string of 5 consecutive losses coming into their date against the Cats. Indiana and NU have played two foes in common, Iowa and MSU. Indiana played MSU straight up, but mistakes and wacky plays doomed them, whereas in the Iowa game, Indiana was hopelessly outclassed and badly crushed. Net-net, Indiana should be an easy victory for the Cats, who beat Iowa earlier in the season.

Long time, No post

The Wildcats threw away the MSU game, with poor special teams play and turnovers giving MSU consistently easy field position which they exploited for cheap points.

The results can be seen in the Rivals.com rankings published today, which shows NU at #38 and and MSU at #16. NU's next opponent, Purdue, is at #49. Curtis Painter has had an uncharacteristic poor stretch, and combined with two tough opponents (OSU and PSU), Purdue is reeling.....but the Cats will have to watch out for a Painter rebound.

Dead dogs

The Wildcats stomped the Salukis, 33-7. Well...maybe not a total stomping. The Cats dominated on the defensive line, recording several sacks and TFLs. And special teams, kicking field goals and blocking punts, made a key difference. But time of possession and total yards do not support a stomping...the Salukis played a solid game considering the 1-A to 1-AA differential.

Hard to say how the weather impacted play...both teams played a relatively error-free game, un-like some wet weather games I have seen. But the non-stop rain sure impacted the fans, causing bizarre pruny palms and squishy sneakers.

A W is a W but...

The Wildcats snuck by Duke 24-20, with critical defensive stops in the red zone making the difference in the game. Click here for the HTP recap of the game, which as usual is better than the MSM version.

The offense had a poor day, failing to establish the running game and then struggling with the air game. Duke piled up yards and dominated the time of possession, putting the Cats defense in tough spots; but the D came up with the big stops when needed. Overall, the game was exciting at the end, albeit the WGN radio broadcast is a poor substitute for TV.

Next up is the Salukis....and the Duke results did not inspire confidence going into game #3.

I need mega-hits which yield mega-Adsense $'s

Sarah Palin nude bikini pics Sarah Palin eating naked moose men Sarah Palin sleazy lesbian sex pics

Even I cannot believe how low I have now sunk in the blind pursuit of page hits. May the Gipper have mercy on my soul...

Dukies

Next up for the Cats is the Hated Duke Blue Devils. Yes, that's a capital H. Why? Because Duke destroyed the Cats season last year, and Humiliated us by snapping their record-breaking losing streak at our expense. Thus we are filled with hatred, vitriol, and bile, and we expect the Cats to crush, stomp, and destroy the Blue Devils.

However, despite Duke's hapless reputation in football, there are some vague signs of life. Duke has lured a successful new coach to the program, and opened their season last week with a win over James Madison. Yes, JM is 1-AA (FCS), but was highly ranked in FCS to open the season (remember UNH, anyone?).

The Fish Head's brother will be hosting a deckgate...GPS coordinates will be posted.

Game On!

The Wildcats kicked off the season by smashing the Syracuse Orange(men) 30-10.

Grades and highlights of the day.

Tailgate: A-.

Sunny and about 85, the weather was perfect and we were well-stocked for our party in the West lot.

Punting: A.

Stefan Demos was unbelievable in the first half.

Offense: C+.

The offense looked off-kilter in the first half but picked up the pace in the second half. Despite almost 500 yards of offense, only 30 points (9 by the defense) resulted. The much-ballyhoo'd hurry-up did not show any signs of controlling the tempo of the game. Positive signs were Tyrell Sutton's performance running and catching, and Andrew Brewer's 6 catches.

Defense: B-.

A sack, a safety, and a TD on an interception return were signs that last year's bottom-feeding defense might be improved. On the other hand, this was Syracuse, so the jury's out till next week. Most startling sign: on the TV replay Sunday, I saw one pass play where the defensive back was in front of the receiver. I am confident that situation has not been seen at Dyche Stadium in many years.

Comic relief: C.

We forgot the Knob Creek and thus were not treated to any vomitous extrusions upon Mother Earth by the Fish Head's brother. But we did see some amusing sun burn patterns upon our lily white office worker skins. And, we got to watch my brother double-clutch while smoking a stogie, whereby he burned his nipple and flipped his $20 cuban puro into his beer cup.

Surprise of the Day: A.

We bumped into Shon Morris outside the stadium before the game. I almost fainted when I got to shake his hand.

Anger Management: B+.

I only punched the wall twice on Sunday when I saw Andy, the old guy who tailgated next to us, get featured on ESPN2's pre-game show. ESPN you suck for not showing MY tailgate. Don't ever stiff us again, or else.

Its single malt whisky, not Scotch

Yamazaki is distilled in Japan and thus cannot be called Scotch. But its really pretty good anyway!

Femto what?

Today I installed a femtocell in my house. Yes, my humble abode is now officially a mini-tower on Sprint's cell network, courtesy of a $99 Airave.

Now based on my previous diatribe, you might be wondering why the hell I would do this. And of course I did it for no reason other than its an very odd but interesting gizmo, and I am the only kid on the block who has one, nyeah nyeah nyeah.

The Airave is a small white unit, roughly the size of a standard residential wireless router, but with a vertical orientation, with a single stubby antenna. It has 4 LEDs on the front, to indicate power, system, GPS, and WAN status. Yes, it has an internal GPS which the documentation states is needed to provide 911 services; the blogosphere states the GPS is truly present to prevent usage of the unit outside the USA.

The Airave has an RJ45 jack, and is attached to your broadband router via an ethernet patch cable (supplied). The initial power-up is documented to require up to an hour, but in my case I surrendered after 90 minutes. The GPS indicator had stayed red (blue indicates active), so I powered the unit off and connected the "optional" GPS antenna, which is a standard puck style unit. After connecting the GPS antenna, the subsequent power cycle took about 15 minutes for the unit to fully activate.

After activation, your cell phones connect to the Airave instead of directly to the Sprint network, and the Airave routes the calls thru your broadband connection to....somewhere. My understanding of the network topology is vague, but a decent diagram can be found here.

In the 2 hours (lol) that I have been using the unit, I have found that it dramatically improves cell reception inside my house. My Sprint service has been close to unusable inside the house, whereas now my family's Sprint phones routinely have 4 or 5 bars in all areas of the house, and the voice quality is very good.

I do have some remaining questions. First, the antenna does not seem removable. I wonder if this is hackable to install a larger and more powerful antenna, thus further increasing the reception and range of the unit. Second, there is no built-in security for this unit. Any Sprint phone in range can connect in via the Airave, and thus your neighbors can get a free ride on your Sprint minutes. While the allowed phone numbers can apparently be controlled by calling Sprint's service center, this seems like a poor solution. Lastly, my Blackberry is provided by a corporate program and is not part of my Sprint plan, and I wonder how the minutes usage is counted, exactly.

In summary, the unit seems to perform its function well, and my original diatribe about the financial nonsense-icalness of the unit is balanced by the fact that it actually works.

Good news, bad news

Take a look at the Congrove 120 rankings.

Bad news? Wildcats are ranked 73rd out of 120 teams.

Good news? The Cats first 4 opponents are pitiful. Syracuse is #116, Duke is #114, SIU does not even make the list (FCS) and Ohio is the powerhouse of the 4 at #75.

Here's to the Cats starting strong and running the non-conference table.

Syracuse seems like a fine University. But...Otto the Orange? On August 30 Willy the Wildcat is going to squish this guy and we can use the juice to make a screwdriver at the tailgate!

Gogo a Nogo

American Airlines just announced inflight Internet access for $12.95 per flight. Yes, I'd buy this except for two reasons: One, I already spent all my cash on peanuts, a pillow and blanket, and a coke. Two, for some spastic reason, AA will be blocking Skype calls. WTF?

Everything you need to know about Scotch

Unless you are satisfied with simply pouring it down your throat (which I am doing as I type this), you could click here for the 5-minute lesson on Scotch.

I am outside on my deck because...

Its three A.M. Emergency at work. Need to make a call on my Blackberry. So I have to go out on my deck in the backyard, in the dark, where I could be eaten by a bear. Why am I doing this? Because I have crappy Sprint cell service, and I don't get any damn reception inside my house.

Now you might think that Sprint could I dunno, maybe add a cell tower or two? After all, I am not living in the uninhabited desert (hey no bears there tho), I am surrounded by 7 million inhabitants in the Chicago metro area. Yea, I don't like all 7 million of those people, but still you would think Mr. Sprint could spring for some more towers.

Instead, they are going to coerce me into buying an Airave. As best I can decipher, this $100 gizmo turns your house into a mini-cell tower, intercepts your cell phone signal, and routes it VOIP over your broadband connection.

Huh?

Let's do the math here. At an earlier time in my life, I decided to purchase Sprint phones and service. Maybe I was drunk at the time (see scotch entries on this blog), but I think I made that purchase with the intent to make phone calls. And when I purchase things, I expect them to work, yes I am crazy that way.

And Sprint does work. It just expects you to move yourself to a location where the phone works. Its called a mobile phone, and Sprint figures you should mobilize yourself to a spot where it works. Get it? Got it.

So its my math versus theirs. They could add a couple cell towers, which informed sources tell me might cost roughly $250K per. Or, I pay them $100 to turn my house into a mini-cell tower. Get it? Instead of them spending $500K to make their network do what they already claim it does, they get me to GIVE THEM $100 to make their network work. Are you sensing the sick evil genius at work here? Not yet? Let's keep going.

After I pay them the $100 to make their network work, I get to pay them an additional $30 per month to make calls over the now-working network. That's not $30 for cell service, its $30 per month OVER AND ABOVE the cell service you already pay for.

Still not sensing the evil genius? Let's keep going. The cell calls you make over the mini-tower you paid $100 for along with the $30 per month usage charge, DON'T EVEN TRAVERSE THE CELL NETWORK. Yep, they get routed over your broadband connection! Yes, that broadband connection which you paid Comcast $45 per month for.

So....I am guessing you now see the evil genius at work in Sprint's plan. Their service blows, so you pay them $100 upfront and $30 per month to make it work, and then it works only because you already paid Comcast $45 per month.

Why would anyone purchase this insane solution? Since the calls get routed by VOIP anyway, how about you get a Skype account for $30 per year, buy a cheap Skype phone for $50, and call it a day?

Comcast sucks less....

Now that they are doing this. Let's be honest. Everyone hates the cable company, but its all right to hate them a little less when you are watching your favorite team in hi-def after being deprived of the right for years (it has been years, hasn't it?).

Saved by the Shon!

Typhoon? Hurricane? Tsunami? Krakatoa? Yes, those were all major catastrophes but what the Fish Head is speaking of in this entry was the event that put the cat-astro in catastrophe.

Yes, an administrative snafu caused me to lose my parking pass for the West Lot at Dyche Stadium! Oh, the horror of it all. No more tailgating in the vast sea of tailgates. No more wacky balloon boy with the hot mom. No more brother gulping Knob Creek while he cooks the breakfast sandwiches before he drinks more Knob Creek and hurls. Yes, the Fish Head was going to be relegated to the proverbial dust heap of tailgating, also known as the Fish Center (no relation).

Worst of all, the snafu was actually caused by the gross negligence of...the Fish Head himself. A catastrophe is a catastrophe but its magnified to an insane disaster when you can't even blame it on some faceless bureaucrat!

And now on to the hero of the story. Yes, the Fish Head was rescued by Shon Morris. Yes, that Shon Morris (NU '88), four-year letterman, holder of countless collegiate scoring records, WGN radio star, ESPN TV anchor, and lastly apparently a smarter guy than most Big Ten athletes as he not only graduated but won all sorts of academic awards!

Despite being a life-long republican, the Fish Head confesses to a secret and somewhat embarrassing affection for Obama. But as of today, the Fish Head says Out with Obama and In with Shon. Should the Fish Head get the future opportunity to sperminate some eggs and spawn some fry, they shall all be named Shon.

Scapa

This was quite simply not a good scotch, no matter what any reviewer says. Not to be crass, but it could be re-named to Crapa. Even The Scotch Blog was mildly favorable which is baffling.

Next up for the Fish Head is an oddity, Suntory Yamazaki which cannot technically be called Scotch....

Dogs versus Cats in the national title game?

Go bears!

Go bears!

Time is NOT flying

Boinc me

I have been participating in the World Community Grid for a couple years, and I am currently ranked #4200 out of approximately 400,000 participants. Yes, I have a freakish addiction to my WCG standing, and it is the absolute first thing I check on the computer each morning.

I am constantly amazed by the lack of success of this form of grid computing. With the millions of dual-core PCs floating around, shouldn't all the ills of the world be computationally solved by now? Go download a copy of BOINC and see if you can catch me!

Not in stock

I was traveling on business this past week and myself and several colleagues went out for drinks and dinner after work. We chose a snazzy new restaurant, so new in fact that it was opening night.

When we arrived, I examined the drinks menu and decided on a Tecate, the second-best liquor from Mexico (after Monte Alban). Oops, not in stock yet, its opening night after all. So I settled for something called a Landshark. Cute name, bad beer as it turns out. After forcing down the Landcrap, I decided I should switch to Scotch and a colleague recommended Oban from the list. Oops, not in stock yet, its opening night after all. So I settled for a Macallan.

This horrible selection experience spurred me into action and upon arrival home, I promptly bought both Tecate and Oban. The Tecate is of course already drunk and gone back to nature, but I have not yet cracked the Oban, as three fingers of the BenRiach remain. The BenRiach was an interesting buy, being finished in tawny port hogsheads to add flavor. I did not actually detect the taste of any hogs heads, so that phrase-ology must mean something other than the obvious. It did have a very rich, powerful taste, although my un-educated palate was not able to break it out into the "Butterscotch, herbs, cinnamon, peaches and sultanas, infused with rich port and oak wood notes" which it was purported to exhibit.

The Oban should be a nice drink. Its hard not to be attracted to a scotch whose main draw is the fact that old dead Celts were found beneath the distillery.

In case it seems like all I do is drink....

There is like one tiny swig of the Caol Ila left. No offense to the distiller, but I didn''t like this scotch at all. I've noticed it recently popping up in bars...its like the GM fleet cars of whisky. So the bushes in my backyard might enjoy that last swig.

BenRiach is my next bottle. Supposedly finished in tawny port kegs with an amazing finish. Jury's out till I guzzle it down...

Oh I shed a tear as I sipped down the last of the Longmorn. This was quite simply a fantastic scotch, second (or third) only to JW Blue and Aberlour 18.

On a seperate but related note, Northwestern published an updated schedule for football and times are starting to fill in for the games. The best road trip of the year looks like Minnesota which is a blast of a party town (they have scotch there) and the stadium is walking distance from the downtown district.

I attended the annual Spring Game yesterday in Evanston. I was surprised by the crowd, which might have numbered around 3,000 in total for the scrimmage and pre-game festivities. While that doesn't compare to the 73,000 which Penn State drew, its impressive as we had expectations of being the only fans there. Instead, we found a lively tail gate crowd in the West lot, already partying when we arrived at 8:45 AM. Enthusiasm was somewhat dampened by the cold temperatures and gusty winds, but the Heineken mini-keg (the greatest invention of all-time) kept us warmed and by game time the sun was out and the temperatures reached 60 or so.

The post-game ritual of beer and brats was followed by a pit stop at UBAA, a nice little bar a few miles from the stadium which is known mostly for being next door to the parking lot where the Fish Head's brother lay prone vomiting up Knob Creek after a game last year.

Long morning till Longmorn

The Scotch Blog votes this the most under-rated whisky and adds "Most of the Longmorn produced is destined for blends such as Chivas Regal. Chivas Brothers do very little to promote this gem - which is a real shame, as aficionados consider this to be one of the very best Speyside single malts.
Complex, smooth and elegant - and surprisingly reasonably priced - when you can find it."

Well I found it and its pretty damn good.

Holy mackerel

A good friend from work was nice enough to coordinate a a side trip to Wrigley, including a beautiful box seat which he graciously funded. Good news: Cubs pummelled the Reds. Bad news: I was unable to attend.

The Cubs are off to a good start this year, and there is hope for October as the recent quake opened a hole in the earth and swallowed the curse goat.

Spring game

I always mean to drive up to Evanston to catch the Spring Game, but I have never once made it. This year, I can spare myself the recriminations as this glorified scrimmage-which-serves-no-purpose will be streamed live off BigTenNetwork.com. Yes, that same Big Ten Network which has been battling with Comcast for many months. Yes, that same Big Ten Network which I cannot see on my TV. Yes, that one, the one we love to hate.

old boring dead soldier

I bought this one a couple days ago but it didn't last long. Work has been pretty crappy lately, so I have been closing out my workdays with a couple stiff ones, and since I normally have a couple stiff ones during the workday, I am whizzing thru the bottles faster than normal.

This particular brand, Glen Garioch, had sort of a light, sweet taste, and I did not particularly care for it. I guess that is what Japanese (Suntory) ownership does for a scotch...come to think of it, it had a vaguely sake-like taste to it.