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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

I was listening to Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPNradio. They were talking about some team's schedule. They said "and that's a loss and then they play Jacksonville and that's a loss and someone important gets hurt."

We play LSU this Saturday. That's a loss and a lot of people get hurt.

I will be pleased with anything below 45-0. Honestly.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I am safe.

I was watching a show on UFOs tonight and solved the mystery of my crop circle. (Isn't it disappointing that the History Channel broadcasts so many of these occult and unscientific shows. But why am I watching them. That is probably disappointing, too.)

They showed some circles just like mine in Mexico. They were believed to be connected with UFOs but a soil biologist took samples and showed they were caused by a certain kind of fungus, fungal mycenium, or something like that.

She said that sometimes these things are called fairy circles.

I find the fungus just as interesting as UFOs.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

We won tonight. Great!

To tell the truth I am more glad for my friends and relatives than I am for myself. I have noticed that they have grown silent, football is not mentioned to me, and they look at me with sad eyes.

Sure, it was only UAB but it was a win. A win is a win.

I listened to the whole game on my computer. Anne and Beth gave me a subscription to Maroon to the Max last Christmas. It allows me to listen to all the broadcast MSU games. I have certainly gotten their money's worth just listening to baseball games last spring.

The UAB game did not start out well. Our offense was running but twice when we got deep into UAB territory we fumbled the ball and they recovered. Jack Crystal was talking very slowly.

The score was tied at the end of the game and we went into overtime. State won the toss and elected to go second. UAB threw an interception during their time on offense. State scored a touchdown.

Jay had been urging me to meet him in Birmingham for this game. I resisted. Maybe it was a mistake not to go because it would have been a great game to watch. Better than any of our other three games, and better than the Georgia Tech-Virginia game he went to on Thursday night.

So it was a win. Now you people can relax around me.

Note: I know I have a triple post below. At first it would not publish what I had written. I kept trying and finally it published all my tries. I will attempt sometime to erase the duplicates.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Short Book Reviews


Escape from Lucania; An Epic Story of Survival by David Roberts

Roberts is a mountain climber and that is what he writes about. This is the story of Brad Washburn and Bob Bates' first ascent in 1937 of Mount Lucania, located in the Canadian Yukon. It is a story of young men, their courage and foolhardiness, their foolishness and their ingenuity.

My rating: ***

Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins

Paul Collins and his family go to live in Hay in Great Britain. It is a town of 1500 people and 40 bookstores selling mainly used and remaindered books. This book shows that every time you live abroad you don't need to write a book.

My rating: *

Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter

This book is so funny. I laughed out loud at times. Ann Coulter in print is much better than Ann Coulter on TV.

My rating: ****

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz

There are too many choices in the marketplace and we would do better if we self limited. We should strive to buy things adequate to our needs rather than try to find the best. Thus, we will minimize regret.

This book has so many subplots. I learned so much. For example, he makes a strong argument that wealth doesn't buy happiness. I've always known that but realized that I have wanted it to be true. Wouldn't it be nice if happiness were on the shelf. It used to be. Clairol had a hair color product named Happiness. I have bought it. I mean, if Happiness is there on the shelf and you can afford it, why wouldn't you buy it.

My rating: *****

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Jay chided me about not updating my blog since the crop circle. All right, Jay, you should consider that maybe I HAVE been abducted and am busy on a mission to save the earth and mankind.

Actually I have been sort of down.

The state of Mississippi State football hasn't helped.

The first game was the college kickoff game. We played and lost to SouthCarolina and Steve Spurrier by a score of 15-0.

Jay went with me to that game. I picked him up at the Memphis airport. As usual we went to the U of Memphis bookstore first. He buys things and I enjoy looking at all the merchandise. It is amazing what college connected things they make today. Jay bought a pair of sunglasses that are blue with a tiger print across the lens itself. Cute.

On the way down we made a detour to stop at the old Civil War cemetery at Okalona. It is sad that most of those tombstones say Unknown Condederate soldier.

The game had no highpoints for MSU fans. We scored no points.

It was an ESPN game. They had a camera suspended from the four highest points of the stadium. This allowed them to hover directly over the field of play and place the camera wherever they wanted it.

Unfortunately later than weekend Ole Miss won a close game with Memphis.

The next game was against Auburn, a top five team. It was one of those early 11:30 am TV games. The Ruckers came over on Friday night and we left early on Saturday morning. The boys wore their football jerseys and Emma wore the cheerleader costume I bought for her. They looked so cute.

We went over to the Junction and the kids got to play on the inflatable things they have there. Emma got paw prints painted on her cheeks and I got autographs of some of the baseball team. Emma got autographs of the womens basketball team.

The Ruckers have season tickets this year. Their four are on the upper deck above where mine are. (My extra ticket covers the fifth Rucker.) After the game they told me about how nice it was. After climbing the ramp up there, there is an air conditioned area and tables and chairs to eat at. Also the restrooms are much nicer than those below. I accused them of lying to me. Doesn't this sound like a Ken Rucker joke? Later I found out that it is all true. My seat location can hardly be beat but it is in the very oldest section of the stadium. Emma sat with me at the game.

We lost that game 34-0. This is the first time since the '04 season that we have not scored in the first two games. Make that 1904.

I might as well admit that I told someone off at this game. In front of me next to the couple from Tupelo were a man and a woman dressed in Auburn orange and cheering for Auburn. He works for the Mississippi State extension service and she is a secretary for Calvary Baptist in Starkville.

Their cheering was irritating to begin with but as the game went on it got to be too much. Finally when the game was 31-0 and Auburn recovered our fumble and they are standing up, yelling, and cheering, it was just too much.

I suggested they could move over to where the Auburn people were but if they were sitting there in the MSu section they should be more considerate of the those of us who were really hurting. We were miserable and there they were just spitting in our faces. And Mississippi State put dinner on their table, too.

I don't remember, honestly, what they said. I don't really care.

Saturday I went down by myself to the Tulane game. Our defense has been doing fairly well. However, we kicked off to Tulane, lowly Tulane, and they marched down the field to a touchdown.

We did not score in the first quarter. Then in the middle of the second quarter we were within field goal range. On a third down play our freshman quarterback ran around and lost about 15-20 yards looking for a receiver. (Michael Henig, our quarterback from last season, got hurt in the SC game and will not return.)

Things were bleak. However, the next time we had the ball Omar Conner ran out to play quarterback. He was the quarterback from two seasons ago and he had been playing some kind of receiver.

We marched down to score.

The final score was Tulane 34-29. I do believe that we would have won if the game had gone on.

Our team is terrible.

After the game, I always meet my friends Marty and Charlie Sparrow afterward and we discuss the game and life in general.

Saturday night I got back home about 1 am.

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