Here are to other examples:

One: People that think the United Kingdom is "united", have never been to a Scotland-England soccer match.

Two: The warriors of the Navy gave its students a holiday for a day - a Monday - after beating ND earlier this season. I am sure they would not do the same for winning a baseball game!
Thomas | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 1:43 pm | #

Typo alert: Meant "Two", the number "2", not "to". Better come clean fast on this site, or we will never hear the end of grammar corrections!
Thomas | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 1:45 pm | #

Ah, let loose the dogs of war.
You got to love the end of the football season and the rivalries.
Subway Alumni | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 2:31 pm | #

Good post.

However, neither your post nor the very interesting WSJ article made me any more interested in watching the game. Either team would put me to sleep. Both would induce a coma.
Jim | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 4:32 pm | #

George Carlin has a classic bit on Football vs. Baseball. In it he explores the various militaristic nomenclature given to football, compared to the levity of baseball. It is hilarious! Runs about 5 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y...h? v=YphEUa5LPjM
Voice in the Wilderness | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 5:27 pm | #

Great post, Jay!
JuniperRoadJunky | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 6:09 pm | #

Too bad George Carlin turned into a cranky old fart.
Dana Payne | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 7:46 pm | #

Dana,
I agree that George Carlin has become truly joyless. Carlin, at some point, went from being supremely funny, to extremely bitter. I don't know who peed in his cheerios, but calling him a "cranky old fart" is so much nicer than some of the names I have called him recently.
I used to be the biggest David Letterman fan anywhere, but over the past 5-6 years he has really become a miserable bastard, and although he is extraordinarily talented and funny, his overt unhappiness and less-than-astute political observations have afforded me an extra hour of sleep per night.
That said, much of Carlin's old work is, to me, still humorous.
Voice in the Wilderness | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 8:07 pm | #

I just read a book about Quantrille's Raiders a couple of years ago and until then I had no idea of the extent of the terror inflicted by both sides of the slavery question in these two states.

It's just one more intriguing thing about college football when you think about how many years ago schedules were established that brought these two run of the mill football programs to a date with destiny tomorrow.

If you cannot appreciate the importance of this event to so many people in the breadbasket of this country, how in heaven's name can you call yourself a fan?
onehipdad | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 8:39 pm | #

Lou doesn't think Toledo is worth fighting for?! I think he is still bitter that he lost to the U. of Toledo back in 1970 in the Tangerine Bowl. He never has gotten over it...
Patrick | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 1:43 am | #

Swirling around Arrowhead, the finest football stadium in the country, will be the ghosts of real terrorists, Quantrill's raiders, and Bloody Kansas Jayhawkers. ND is represented by the ghost of Dan Devine, ex-MU coach. World-class Bar-B-Que is the tailgate menu. A game that may decide a national championship team. Too bad Jim is in a coma.
Growing up two houses into the Missouri side of the state line, I have a brother and sister who later lived three houses into the Kansas side. A family divided once a year, though not between abolition and slave trade. The historical division is real and palpable in a yearly struggle. We pray any spilled blood is kept to the football field.
Brian | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 2:53 am | #

After the LSU loss, 2007 season is taking on new dimensions.
Here are some questions to ponder.

Whose turn(s) is it for an upset this week.

Who wants to give away the National Championship the most.

Who wants to be worse than Notre Dame this week.
GB | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 5:30 am | #

Jim,
Mizzou has an unbelievable stable of offensive playmakers and is a blast to watch. As a Mizzou alumnus but ND fan first, I know this because Mizzou has been an ice cold Coca-Cola chaser to the $2 shot of rotgut whiskey that ND has acted as every Saturday.

Have fun watching a meaningless Auburn vs. Alabama or Clemson vs. South Carolina while the rest of us are checking out the most unexpected battle for #1 in an insanely electric Arrowhead atmosphere.
Tony Spilotro | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 8:16 am | #

In the summer of '95, I had the dubious pleasure of walking into Mizzou's football stadium, locker rooms, etc. This is what their trophy case consisted of: a Bluebonnet Bowl trophy from like '72 and a framed, yellowed newspaper clipping of their victory over ND in '72.
mikes1160 | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 8:52 am | #

GB:

Nebraska takes the honor of being worse than ND. For the 6th time THIS SEASON it gives up more than 40 and for the second time more than 60.
Lush | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 10:01 am | #

Go Union. Beat The Confederacy.
Fighting Binny | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 10:21 am | #

I just realized that this football season has rendered me more bitter than Carlin; more miserable than Letterman. But, I will say that if Notre Dame had to pick any year in history to be awful, this was the perfect one to do just that. When this fupped duck season finally ends, and the undeserving team hoists the crystal Sears Trophy, virtually every fan of every top tier program in America will be just like me: bitter and miserable. And that I can take solace in that! 2007 will go into the record books as the "WTF Season", and our suckitude will be seen as emblematic of a season that should have been put out if it's misery sometime back in mid-October. So drink up, light up a big cigar and rejoice. The debacle season ends for N.D. in nine hours. And then we can merrily focus on everybody else's pain. Nobody will be happy when this season ends. Even the eventual champ is going to be miserable because there will be at least a half dozen teams claiming they are just as deserving.
Voice in the Wilderness | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 10:35 am | #

Voice,

Maybe so, but I don't think Kansas, WVU or Missouri will feel that bad. The only way you "deserve" to win the NC is if you win all the games. LSU/UGA/ASU/USC, etc. all lost two games. If they still think they should be in it, they are fools. I say let's see the Kansas/Hawaii game everyone is screaming for!
Michael | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 11:35 am | #

Methinks that George Carlin & David Letterman are grumpy old men because they realize the slippery slope as a society we are on. If they are Irish fans, well... you know the story. This season didn't do much to improve the mood.
Irish_Angst | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 11:35 am | #

Voice:

Your thoughts on Carlin and Letterman are dead on...only you expressed them far better than I would.
Dana Payne | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 11:37 am | #

On the subject of comedy....no not the football season ,one guy who I always enjoyed reading was P.J. O'Rourke.

Whether he was on the Left in his National Lampoon Days or the Right today, his stuff is funny in either direction.

Political Comedy tends not to be funny because it is so shrill. Letterman is but one example.
Dana Payne | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 11:48 am | #

Regarding the ND Mizzou game, in 1972 I remember selling programs for that game

My tag line was: "This is the battle of the "perfect records"

It was early season and ND was unbeaten and Mizzou hadn't won...until that day.

I think Al Onofrio coached Mizzou.
Dana Payne | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 11:55 am | #

A friend couldn't use her two tickets to the Stanford game today . . . free to the first person who emails me (I'm going to the game and can meet you at a designated gate).

dcbeach@hotmail.com
Duff | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 12:17 pm | #

Re the ND-Missouri game in 1972, Missouri's RB "scored" the winning TD but did not have the ball when he crossed the goal line--it wasn't even close. He fumbled, ND recovered but the officials missed it.
Lush | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 12:19 pm | #

Bill Callahan--R.I.P.
Lush | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 12:21 pm | #

Coach Weis is very fortunate to have patient fans, other coaches are beginning to drop like flies.
George | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 12:25 pm | #

I last went to the ND-MU game in 1985. Of all college fight songs, the one that sounds most like the Notre Dame Victory March is Mizzou's.
Mario | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 12:26 pm | #

Dana...P.J. O'Rourke has long been a favorite of mine too.

Michael...of course, as things stand this morning, you are 100% correct. But I am extrapolating that Oklahoma beats the winner of the Mizzou/KU clash in the conference championship game. In a nutshell, I'm for whatever makes this season all the more hopelessly screwed up. I think we get AT LEAST a one loss national champion this year, and lots of two loss teams with arguably tougher schedules or conferences will squawk long and hard. I basically want the noise to be so loud that some sort of playoff gets implemented into D1 ball as soon as possible. I'm sick of all the crappy bowls and mythical #1's. Therefore, until then, especially with regards to this horrible season, I stand firmly for complete and utter chaos, punctuated with frequent displays of rage and insanity. When Voice ain't happy, ain't nobody allowed to be happy. ;-)
Voice in the Wilderness | Email | Homepage | 11.24.07 - 12:44 pm | #