Saturday, August 30, 2003

Wow. Northern Illinois University, my alma mater, rocked and shocked 15th ranked Maryland on Thursday night, beating the Terps 20-13 in overtime. Absolutely amazing.

This concludes all talk of college football here at the HoC for the rest of the year.

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In pro football news, my two fantasy teams have been drafted and are ready to take the field.

I'm running the Lost World Warriors in the league for which I'm commissioner, the Bot Bash Football League. It's me and five buddies in that one, so I expect the trash talk to be as much fun as the match-ups.

Meanwhile, in Yahoo Public League 467607 (those public leagues with the numbers always put me in mind of New York City public school designations) the Skyway Bandits are poised for a winning season. Or perhaps they're set for abject failure. Either way, I'm happy. The NFL is back!

I will do everything in my power to refrain from going on about this stuff too much, but I'm not making any promises.

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While football threatens to inexorably encroach upon this site as autumn falls, don't think that I'll neglect my other hobbyhorses, like politics and the ongoing war.

For example, I ran across two great pieces today that explode the fallacy about US soldiers being less likely to die in Iraq (third item) than to be murdered in California.

The first points out that our troops are 66 times more likely to lose their lives over there than if they were in the Golden State, while the second exposes the absurdity of tying death rates to acreage.

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If you direct your gaze to the right, you'll observe that section to be a bit sparser today than it has been in many months. The reason is a joyous one.

My buddy Sarge is back home in Georgia now, his mission in Iraq over. I am prouder of him than I can express in words, and relieved to the very depths of my soul that I've finally been able to take down the service flag I had been displaying in his honor.

Posted @ 11:10 AM

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