Canto LXII

Live blogging of the Oregon game! Here we go! It's something I've wanted to do for a while, and a late Thursday night game is the perfect opportunity. Although with all the late breaking news about Barry Bonds being indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice and A-Rod signing a new $275 million dollar deal, I wonder how much attention this game will garner in the sports media tomorrow.

Well, it's 8:52 PM, and I've turned on ESPN and they're still wetting their pants over the above stories. I'm almost done with my last little bit of homework I wanted to finish before the weekend. And the pre-game show has now begun!

8:55 - Funny story, today's colloquium speaker here at MIT physics was from Arizona. It was on the use of optics in Renaissance paintings. He basically said all Art History majors are stupid. And the only thing right now the talking heads can talk about is upset, upset, upset. Oregon is favored by only 12.5, which I think is pretty low if I was a gambling man.

9:01 - And now they're doing a stupid magic theme for the opening. Why not play a little Steve Miller with that?

9:02 - I think I'm going to go ahead and have the phrase 'I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart' saved in my cut and paste. That opening kickoff should have been stopped before the 20, but his balance let him keep going out to the 30. And then he rips off a 25 yard run past the 50! I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart!

9:05 - I wonder if Dixon is going to be a little rusty tonight. After the knee thing, I wonder how hard he pressed during practice. That O-line can give him plenty of time, though, so he can catch up. I agree with this 4th down play call.... YEEESSSSS!!!!! Nice read, and just a smooth jaunt into the endzone. And now a 2-pointer! Oh Snap!

9:08 - The reason I agree with that 4th down attempt is:
1) It's early, so there's plenty of time to recover
2) It's around the 40 yard line, so punting wouldn't gain more than 20 yards without a very nice punt
3) This offense can get a few yards just about whenever it needs it
4) And of course, it worked, so there's always 20/20 hindsight to rest on, too

9:09 - Who is Taryne Mowatt? Why is she introducing the Cats?

9:10 - Interception, along with some offensive pass interference that was not called! I think my Oregon Duck that plays Mighty Oregon is going to be running out of batteries tonight...

9:13 - Jaison Williams with a good catch over the middle! He only drops those in the 4th quarter. And followed up with a nifty reverse! I can't call it an end-around, even though the ball only changed hands once. There was motion one way, then the field reversed. And now an interception... Bad 'catch' there, and an unlucky bounce to the saftey.

9:18 - Bad tackling. Arizona is not going to win tonight constantly throwing underneath. A lucky run on a long 3rd down, and some bad missed tackles isn't going to win the game.

9:25 - Dixon does look calm, but that's only because that O-line isn't letting anything through. I have a huge man-crush on Jonathan Stewart, that was a really nice run to the 30. Crenshaw isn't chopped liver, either. Ohhh shit. I hope that isn't that bad.

9:29 - And the Brady Leaf era is here. Just get the 3 points, and lets see if Dixon can get back in the game.

9:39 - Nope. He's gone for the night, as are his Heisman hopes. Defense needs to step up now. Only gave up a field goal. The O-line and Stewart can get plenty done, but Leaf just isn't the same. Wow, terrible decision by Stewart. I know you want to make things happen, but half way back in the endzone on a kickoff isn't the place to do it.

9:45 - End of the first quarter. Leaf's looking good handing the ball off, and then faking out the defense with a terrible pump-fake that allowed him to gain 7 yards. Oregon already has more than 150 yards rushing. Looking like another highlight game for the O-line, but the defense needs to tighten up.

9:47 - Ugh. Not good. Not good at all.

9:51 - And there's the Jaison Williams drop on 3rd down we've come to know and love. Tedy Bruschi also on from my most hated team in the NFL. Not good few minutes for me.

9:57 - Shit shit shit. That zone defense isn't looking too good right now.

10:07 - The offense just isn't the same. I don't know if they can score more than 2 or 3 touchdowns for the rest of the game. Let's hope halftime can turn things around.

10:15 - I thought that was a block in the back on the first gunner there, but no, and the touchdown stands.

10:21 - Offense showing some signs of life. Getting a little more methodical. I agree that Stewart needs to be a big part of the offense now, but I don't think he's a 35 carry kind of guy. And not with the defense keying on him every snap. 3rd and long, and Arizona's coaching staff is going a little crazy.

10:26 - And that's just ugly. Why not just run the ball, take the FG, and be happy your offense found some traction? Annnnddd, shank you very much.

10:32 - Arizona's TV ad tells us they were Arizona's first university. Congratulations! And Jaison Williams faked the drop, to fool the defense, and picks up a huge first down out the mid-field!

10:35 - Jaison Williams waits for the ball, and almost has it incepted in front of him, then makes nice catch on the outside at the 20. And of course, Oregon's ad isn't much better.

10:38 - Nice blitz pick-up by Stewart, but with the extra time Leaf throws it right out the end zone. And just think if we had kick a FG the previous possession, we'd only be down 14, instead it's 17. Halftime. The real difference is the 2 INTs (one returned for TD) and the punt return. Oregon can get back in this. Back in 20 minutes!

11:05 - I don't really like only rushing only 3 on 3rd down, try and keep the pressure up, but they pick up a big personal foul penalty, and get a punt after a brief scare on 3rd and 25.

11:25 - Blogger just fucked me. Anyway, the defense is turning it on, but the offense still has a way to go. Still have the man-crush on Stewart.

11:42 - Thanks to ESPN for not showing that last play for a loss. Flutie finally notes that the defense has been playing pretty good.

11:43 - Dueling punters has been the story this 3rd quarter and the last half of the 2nd. I don't know if a Dixon for Heisman commercial is appropriate right now.

11:50 - Fake Punt!!! And #4 for Arizona is signaling the wrong way. WHAT?!?!

11:54 - God damn it. How did Arizona recover that? Seriously? There were 4 Ducks there, and no Cats. I've always wondered if a replay could overturn a fumble recovery call.

12:05 - How the fuck can you call that a fumble?!?! WTF? Did this crew not see last week's game between OSU and UW? He was standing right there, and still ruled it a fumble, despite the fact that he could clearly see that both the runner was down, then reached forward and lost the ball because he hit the ground. How on earth can you possibly see that otherwise? At least the replay did it's job, unlike last week. I guess the Pac-10 does have the worse refs.

12:16 - Touchdown!!! A very nice drive. That's exactly what they needed to do. Make Arizona stop you, and don't let Leaf kill your season. I might have a heart attack tonight...

12:24 - Missed facemask call on Nick Reed, showing off the Pac-10 officiating at it's finest. Of course, they missed a similar call (but less flagrant) against Stewart on the previous drive.

12:28 - After a tough failure to stop them on 4th down, they get a HUGE fumble. BUT, we have to watch more botched officiating instead. This is close, but it looks like it's going back to Arizona. The defense is trying.

12:38 - Crenshaw, not Stewart. This is suddenly turning into the season that could have been. I hope my man-crush is OK.

12:43 - Intercepted. That's about all, folks. Still 3 timeouts, so this is actually going to go a while, despite all the students on the sidelines.

12:51 - 14 seconds to go, 2 quick plays and that's about it. Let's see here, top 2 receivers, top 2 running backs, and our Heisman front runner QB are out by the end of this game. And that's just the skill players on offense. I guess we'll never know how that would have gone had Dixon not been injured on the Duck's third drive. The Ducks were in it all the way through the second half, but the offense never really got going, and the mistakes early in the 2nd quarter cost them the game.

12:56 - Bed time now, along with a vow to never do this again. On a related side note, are Pac-10 refs the worse refs out there? This was a terribly officiated game. Anyway, here's hoping the guys can mend up, and for a USC win over ASU.

Canto LXI

Well, it's late friday afternoon, I'm tired of this calculation and I need a distraction. To the Blog! Also, a bunch of guys around the office with whom I would normally be killing time with went to a day conference down in Providence, RI. I would have liked to go, but sadly I had to teach the ungrateful freshman today. They suck. I think I spend most of my time now complaining about them... Oh well, it makes me feel better.

Something I've been meaning to blog about, not so much from a good-news standpoint, but well, it's something new that's happened to us. And near as we can tell has a happy ending (so far, anyway). A couple weeks ago we started to notice some signs of mice. Things had gotten a little messy, probably enough crumbs and junk on the counter and floor for one of those little fuckers to scrape by. Also, it was starting to get cold so they were probably looking for some place warm to live after the summer. Anyway, after we noticed we cleaned up a little bit so they wouldn't have anything to eat and informed the landlord. When we first moved in I noticed some very old mouse traps (the sticky kind) under the oven, so I know that this would not be too surprising. And he said he would lay down some traps in the basement to catch the bastards, which I presume he did (although we have no verification to that effect). Anyway, we continued to see signs of mice for another week plus. Those little rat bastards. So at that point what to do? This sunday while shopping, we bought our own pair of mouse traps. After we got home, we cleared off everything from the kitchen counter, plus all the lower cabinets and drawers where we could see any possible signs of mice and moved them out. Then baited the traps with some peanut butter and left them out over night. I know people talk about building a better mouse trap, but why? I mean, the ones we have seem to work pretty well. I didn't think we were going to catch anything since these mouse traps must suck so much that we constantly need better ones, but then again, I'm not as dumb as a mouse. [My parents or brother should feel free to post about me and mouse traps at a younger age.] But sure enough, next morning, we had caught a mouse! And by caught, I mean broke it's spine with a steel spring and bar, because it was most assuredly dead by the time we found it. After the morning shower, I played a little something from The Doors In Concert.

I always feel that music should reflect the moments in life. Anyway, it's been 5 days since then and nary a mouse dropping to be found! I think that if there was more than one, they are now sufficiently scared of the hand of man.

I should note that I did feel some smug sense of power after this incident. I never "got" hunting until this monday morning. I'm not saying I'm going to go out and get a rifle to kill Bambi's mom or anything, but there is some thrill in vanquishing an opponent. Even a significantly lesser foe with no real ability to fight back.

On a happier note, a friend here in the CTP is teaching this fall, and in his class is one of the program managers for MIT Radio (WMBR - 88.1 FM). So we may start a 2 hour radio show once a week, along with some other friends of ours. My friend did one in college with a buddy and said it was great. I don't know what this would involve just yet, but sounds like a lot of fun. From 2-4 AM, which is apparently the kind of time slot we would receive. I've thought about doing this before, so here's my big chance before I die. My idea is to have a theme for each show, and play about 10-15 songs based on that theme, then talk about whatever related to that subject. Think High Fidelity, like playing the Top 5 songs involving dogs, for example. Then play things like 'Martha My Dear' by The Beatles (supposedly about Paul's dog), 'My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found' by The Fiery Furnaces, Given The Dog A Bone by AC/DC, etc... It could get more or less obscure depending on how things roll. But you get the idea. Does that sound like a program you would listen to for a while? If so, do you have suggestions for themes and accompanying songs? This would probably start up after the terms over, either December or January.