I learned last night that our Ducks can stay with a very good Louisville team. Nine times out or ten we’re going to go down to defeat to them, but we played them tough, won the game over the last 37 minutes, and comported ourselves well in a Sweet 16 game. We also covered the spread, which did me no …
12 Seeds Over 5 Seeds Down Through History
I am going to start a movement to ban alcohol at NCAA Selection Committee hotels in the future. The obviously liquored-up 2013 committee placed Oregon in the 12 spot in this year’s bracket, a spot normally reserved for SUNY/Stony Brook, IUPUILSMFT. and Washington. The Ducks victory over Okie State, though not unprecedented (especially this year), was a statistical anomaly. Since …
Marching to Insanity
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the definition of insanity is NOT doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. That’s the definition that your know-it-all brother-in-law will bring out if he disagrees with you about something. The actual definition is: adjective: suffering from severe mental illness (i.e., psychotic disorders like …
Ducking Into Some Time Travel
When I was young I looked forward to the paper being delivered (in the afternoon back then) for two reasons. Sports and comics. I read the sports page in its entirety. I picked and chose among the comics. Blondie? Check. Beetle Bailey? Check. Prince Valiant? Skip it. Mary Worth? Worthless. My favorite, though, was Peanuts. The wit and wisdom of …
Thank God That’s Over!
February has to be the month that contains the highest suckiness quotient of the other 12 months combined. For one thing football, in all of its incarnations, is over. And to make matters worse, we are all tired of being cold and wet. That “nip in the air” that was so refreshing Sept. 23rd has been just plain …
Ducks and the Silver Screen
Sunday night is America’s Night at the Movies. It’s the night when glamour meets art and Tommy Lee Jones celebrates with the industry that made him rich. A look at some of the best picture nominees: Silver Linings Playbook: This movie is about a young man who comes unhinged at a football game. We wouldn’t know anyone like that. …
The Tax Man Can Biteth Me
I just finished my yearly wrangling of the tax code through my friends at Turbo Tax. Though TT is quite good at finding the more obvious deductions, I had to coax it along to find actual tax breaks that are a little more…obscure. Posing Oil: (Tax Code Summary 2004-117) As you can probably tell from my profile picture, I’m cut …
Hearts, Flowers and a Get Out of Jail Valentine
No pressure guys, but next Thursday is a pretty important day. It’s the one day out of the year that you get a chance to prove to your gal that inside of your chest beats the heart of a sensitive poet and not just the spleen of a lout who likes to watch football and Now if …
Oh How we Love to Learn About Our Beloved…San Francisco 49ers?
Its Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, friends. The only game of the year where the pregame is roughly three times the length of the game and your wife shushes you so she can hear the commercials. It’s the game that sells more beer than any other five games put together and you can bet on whether Beyonce will show cleavage during …
Message Board Armageddon! The Battle is Afoot!
Important decisions are being made in the athletic department offices. How to salvage a good recruiting class in the face of coaching turnover. Who will call the plays? What will be the vehicle for the transmission of play calls? (Hand signals, message board or, my favorite, carrier pigeon?) How do we replace the two graduate assistants who were responsible for…something? …
There Are Days When Life Sucks Major Eggs
I opened Facebook Wednesdy morning and saw a sad face beside the headline ”Kelly to take Eagles job.” I felt bad for the Notre Dame fans. You see, it had to be Brian Kelly because we had already gone through this with Chip Kelly. Then, in response to the cold finger of fear that was working its way from my …
Hobby Ideas For Chip Kelly
Well we dodged a bullet, friends. A week ago it looked like we were looking at the end of the Chip era of Oregon football. But he’s back. He loves us like a Beaver fan loves the smell of fertilizer in the morning and all is right in Duckland (especially given the pasting basketball put on Arizona the other night). …