• Favorite Albums Of The Decade

    Another 2000s music retrospective, this time focusing on some of my favorite albums. Not meant to be comprehensive, it’s more an accounting of albums I both enjoyed this decade and which have stood the (brief) test of time. There are plenty of other worthy albums from the decade that probably should be included, but these are my favorites. While there…

  • Updated – The New Man

    I don’t want to overgeneralize, but I think my family’s college football experience in the late 70s and early 80s was typical of many midwesterners. We all pulled for our teams, hoping for the best,* but when late November rolled around we chose sides and watched the Nebraska – Oklahoma game with great interest. I recall the 1979 Orange Bowl…

  • Hitting The Targets

    Pulling out the blogging shotgun and trying to hit multiple targets in one post. KU Football Coaching Search I’ve remained quiet on this largely because it’s been mostly quiet from Lew Perkins’ office, which seems to be the way he likes it. But it seems like a decision is going to be made shortly, and Jim Harbaugh is the key.…

  • Books Of The Decade

    I read a lot of books this decade. I love putting together lists at the end of arbitrary periods of time. Seems like a perfect excuse to share some of my favorite books I read over the past ten years. Please note that the focus is on the date read rather than the date published. There are a few in…

  • Reader’s Notebook

    Done. I finished David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest late Sunday night. That’s three months to knock out roughly 1100 pages, for those of you keeping score at home. It took me about two months to get through the first half, and I flew (relatively) through the second half over the last four weeks. For comparison, I started Bill Simmons’ The…

  • Holiday Weekend

    Some extended weekend. Here, in 2000 words or less, is a summary of how your trusty blogger passed the holiday. We were hosts for the local family this year. It sounds daunting to say that we fed 17, but when you factor in that we are a family of five, hosting 12 people isn’t really that big of a deal.…

  • Favorite Songs Of The Decade

    Something meaty for you to chew on, should this be a short week for you. If not, tuck it away and save it for a day when you have time to read about my 30 favorite songs of the decade. 30 – “Love Steals Us From Loneliness” – Idlewild 2005. This band started out the decade gangbusters, a rocking outfit…

  • Feel The Excitement

    Finally. Remember how I mock complained about always getting assigned to games that ended up being blowouts, often at the expense of the team I was covering? That was a bit of an exaggeration, but it seemed that more often than not, I was asking a coach questions about a loss than a win. Things have been a bit better…

  • Man-oh-Mangino

    I keep a small file on my computer with topics I might like to write about. Get an idea, add it to the list, and when time allows and inspiration strikes, I bust something out for you. Over the weekend I made a single word addition to the list: Mangino. After another fourth quarter collapse against Nebraska, I got to…

  • Nothing Gets By Reggie

    The buzz this morning is about a certain coach’s certain curious decision late in a certain game played in a certain midwest city last night. I don’t want to talk about that (the decision). I want to talk about Reggie Wayne. Lost in the columns pouring forth this morning is my man Reggie’s catch for the ages that completed the…