Tough call: which late-90s poorly-conceived attempt at welding together a collection of plainly-divergent interests was dumber?

The Euro or the Big 12?

Hey-ohhhhhhh.

It’s football season, at last, and I would probably be downright excited, if I weren’t so detached and unresponsive toward life, generally, of late. Still, football remains of some interest, and thank goodness for that, really. A few thoughts.

Things do not look good for my beloved Cyclones this season. I had some hopes for this Steele Jantz guy, some wary optimism based on that of others for him. But as the offseason dragged on with no announcement of a starter, those hopes were already dimming quite a bit; it doesn’t seem like anyone really good should be in a drawn-out quarterback competition with Jerome Tiller.

And now, well, Jantz’s last-minute heroics helped his team squeak past UNI, but 1) that’s going to be a much more difficult trick in conference games, and 2) throwing three picks sure won’t help the cause; meanwhile 3) this was UNI. The best consolation I can offer for myself right now, meanwhile, is that hey, UNI’s football team can bite you in the ass. They can challenge the Hawks even in seasons when our loathed rivals are ranked. So a close call vs the Panthers doesn’t guarantee futility, by itself.

But you sure don’t want to lose that game. I was very relieved by the comeback. I’ve been drawing this parallel between the near loss to UNI and the possible defeat of the president, for whatever that’s worth: (more…)

My word. Though the weather has been chilly and rainy, what an absolutely glorious weekend to be an Iowa State graduate living in Cleveland. The Cyclones and Browns both won?

It’s just astounding.

Granted, letting one’s opponent put up 38 points is generally a bad sign, but ISU notched a third win anyway last night, in what the Register calls a “52-38 slugfest” (and I call suspicious evidence that both teams’ defenses entirely neglected to take the field for lengthy portions of the game). And the Browns’ just-sufficient restraint of their usual reflex to surrender the game in the second half wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring, either.

But. Wins. Football wins. For my two teams. I’m really almost in shock, still. I want to express thanks, though, certainly, and celebrate this moment. It’s particularly satisfying as fellow ISU alumnus Seneca Wallace was once again Cleveland’s quarterback; that interception was unfortunate and his contribution in the second half consisted almost exclusively of handing the ball to Peyton Hillis, but I think the dude’s making a very respectable showing all in all. That is the Browns offense he’s working with out there, after all. It means nothing to 99.9% of Cleveland fans, but watching Wallace carry the flag for us is really helping keep this season interesting for me.

A win, though, for both his old team and one for his new team, is a real gift. Thus the compulsion to record it, somewhere. As Dan Ackroyd remarked in Tommy Boy, “savor the flavor kid ’cause it won’t happen again.” At least not soon, probably, given the schedules of both teams over the next three weeks. Good luck, men.

Is it just me, or is it starting to seem like significant floods are becoming something of a regular event in Iowa?

Seriously… if anyone back there has started building an ark, it might actually be less than 100% crazy. Times like these the unofficial Ohio motto, “boring but safe,” certainly seems appropriate.

On the other hand, this sure is awesome:

In this day and age I can't help immediately suspecting that this is a Photoshop job, but in this case who cares. Awesome.

(This photo seems like it bounced around a number of e-mails before reaching me, though I kind of think it may be the work of this gentleman, for what that’s worth.)