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When my wife first told me that Jerry Reed had passed, the name was familiar but I couldn't immediately place it. Then she started singing "Pretty Mary Sunshine" and I was like "Oh no, not the Scooby Doo guy!!!"

Thanks, its nice to be appreciated.

The Heisman ballot shouldn't even be a factor. I'm not naive enough to believe they're not thinking about it, but really, this is only week 2. Get him healthy so that he'll be able to help the team through the course of this long season and the Heisman thing will work itself out. Frankly, I'll be pissed if they play him vs. Ohio. Maybe give him a couple carries, at most, if he's up to it. But they should be plenty equipped to win that one without him. Let him rest, and hope he's ready to go for USC and beyond.

Check your inbox again. I'm pretty sure its in there.

Maybe. Haven't Obama detractors been arguing that experience is crucial? Isn't that their strongest attack against him? So the GOP went and selected a first-term governor from the least-densely populated state in America to be the VP to a guy who would be the oldest president to take office. Seems to me they just undercut their own best argument and will be relying strictly on the baby-killer stigma from here on out.

I'm curious to find out out how Palin is coming across now, after a few days to digest. (I suppose we'll know more after her convention speech) The morning after the announcement, I was watching the news with my sister-in-law, who isn't overly political or at least not tied to any party, and she was in a full swoon over Palin. I asked why and her response was that "She's a woman, and a mother". For that, she can relate to her. "But what else do you know about her?" I asked. And she replied, "Nothing, but the TV people describe her as a 'maverick', and I like that." First of all, the wo

I don't understand how Palin can claim to be both anti-abortion/sex-education and also be pro-gun, since enacting tougher gun laws clearly would have the added benefit of cutting down on the number of hunters wounding or killing the magical storks who carry those cute little babies down from heaven. And isn't that what its really all about?

Oh, I wasn't aware we had ever stopped burning things. I must tell my avatar. If it turns out to be serious, I feel awful for him--and the whole team. I don't think I have the energy to be angry about it--its football, stuff happens--but he's a hell of a player and clearly the heart and soul of the offense. Not sure what they'd do without him, long term. Mo Wells is a decent back, but he's not the one to carry the team down the stretch. Saine and Pryor in the backfield open up all sorts of crazy possibilities with their speed...but this is Ohio State and I can't imagine the offense w

I didn't get to see the OSU game over the weekend (actually, I haven't even seen the highlights yet), so as far as I'm concerned, Beanie's injury didn't really happen. Wishful thinking, I guess. What I'm really hoping is that, well, you know, he had nagging foot problems all last year--I'm hoping this isn't turning into a chronic thing for him. That would be a huge shame. I was hiking in Tennessee over the weekend and didn't have a cellphone signal. At one point Saturday afternoon, my brother in law and I convinced our group to "hike that way" because we thought we saw a cellphone

Pains me to say it as my second-favorite team, but I'm a little worried about Va Tech against East Carolina. They've struggled to find offense at times in recent years and this year they may not have the D to bail them out. In other news, I dig all this Chris Wells for Heisman stuff...but its getting a little too unanimous in the media lately.(every contributor to Yahoo! Sports picked Wells to win in) I hope I'm not smelling an jinx.

Anybody got any ballsy first-week upset picks?

Mr. Hooper, that's the U.S.S. Indianapolis...

I was at least partially kidding. The Sigma tools can definitely be useful if applied well, so I'm sure the blackbelt teams can get stuff done. I was making a joke of it because we have a company-wide initiative to train people, so we have people at various stages and it seems like whenever an idea comes up at a meeting, somebody will inevitably say "Oooh, this will make a great yellow/green/polka-dot/whatever belt project!" and then they go off to work on it and it may or may not ever actually get done, but in the meantime nobody else is allowed to make process changes because there is a Si

Heh. This cracked me up because I just got out of a meeting here at work where we were all complaining that none of our processes ever improve around here because whenever a new idea gets proposed, somebody has to go and turn it into a Six Sigma project--and then the process goes and takes 3 years to implement and usually gets abandoned midway. Its like the black hole where good ideas go to die. Actually, that sounds perfect for a government bureaucracy! As for the house, all I can say is definitely take into account the age of the house for many different reasons. Jersey probably isn

Blasphemy! I've seen the ABB a ton of times over the years but had never seen a "Mountain Jam" in person until the last time I saw them at the Beacon in '06 and it turned out to be the single most transcendent thing I have witnessed on a concert stage in an awful long time. Derek tore so many holes in the space-time continuum that night, its like he was playing slide-guitar with a flux capacitor.

By no means would I ever want my Buckeyes to be confused with a Directional-Michigan school!

Hey, at least you guys have the Red Wings. Beyond OSU, the sports landscape here is somewhat bleak unless you're enough of a glutton for punishment to be a Browns/Tribe/Bengals/Reds/Blue Jackets fan. And, yeah, LeBron is a superstar and all, but I don't think I have ever met a diehard Cavs fan. I'm not sure they exist. Or at least they didn't exist until a couple years ago.

That was true in the 90s, but I bet a losing streak has rekindled the rivalry up there. Being on the downside for a while will do that to you. When I was a student in the '90s and Coop found a way to lose every #!@^@ year, it was intense in Columbus. I can remember days that were utterly heartbreaking--Shawn Springs falling down in '96 and taking the championship hopes with him, the dreaded Biakabutuka massacre of '95--, but I'll tell you one thing--OSU beat UM my freshman year '94 and my senior year '98 and those are two of the most memorable days of my entire life. Sometimes those wins

Is that the HBO one that was done a few years ago? I haven't seen that one yet. But, yeah, the Michigan thing is big. It is easily the most important day of the year around here. Its like Christmas, except the elves are wearing riot gear. I didn't even grow up in OH--I'm a transplant. So even as an alum and a hardcore fan, I'm still able to occasionally step back and see the whole circus from an outsider's perspective. Its just amazing. For the people born and raised here, its in their blood. There was a statewide poll published recently about sports fans' team preferences and OSU f

Well, the above thing is kind of true if you're talking about the northeast, where basketball is king and football is something of an afterthought most places, but the midwest has no shortage of football-crazed idiocy. Whether or not that's something to brag about is another debate. There's a whole lot of crazies around here who wear scarlet and gray 365 days a year (many companies actually have it written into their corporate dress-code that t-shirts are only acceptable work attire if they have OSU logos on them). Even as a fan, the level of hysteria gets a bit overwhelming/ridiculous i

Rumor has it coach Tressel is calling out his old squad at Youngstown State, scandalously referring to them as merely a "Really good football team" rather than using more gracious terminology such as "Mighty tough" or "Super-Duper!" Needless to say, this was immediately posted in the YSU locker room, thus adding a whole new level of excitement to their Aug 30 meeting!

I'm not sure I have much to add to this thread, but this is a bummer. I used to see the DMB pretty frequently when they were just starting out and touring the mid-Atlantic area. I never dreamed they would actually hit the big time the way they did, but they were clearly talented guys (and Leroi was a big part of what I liked about them) so I talked them up a lot to everybody I knew. You'll be missed, Leroi.

Heh. No kidding. I can't say that I know much about the Florida Atlantic squad and their toughness. For all I know, they may be the baddest bunch of mofos around. And for their sake, I hope they are...because that's the kind of comment that can get your butt kicked.

Late to the party, as usual, but happy birthday, Jen!!!

Hey, thanks, guys! I spent the last couple days at the beach, so I just saw this now. Thanks, everybody. They say 32 is the new 23, so its all good.