We interrupt this silence to ask,

"ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME? THAT WAS EXCESSIVE CELEBRATION? UNSPORTSMAN-LIKE CONDUCT?"

I am not an LSU fan. I am certainly not a fan of That School Up North. BUT ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Two calls in a row?? 

Let's just play tiddlywinks. 

Neither of those two calls was justified. 

Please note my formal protest against the SEC officials.
~~

Please note that I already have a tag, "SEC," for just such occasions. 

Cue up the Twilight Zone

You know what's more odd than the Ole Miss vs. A&M and the State vs. Auburn scores? The sound bar arrived today while Mr. Big Food & I were at the game. 

I coaxed Daughter C into hooking it up after I hooked it up after we had supper after we got back from the game. (She did a much better job than I. It actually works now.) 

What a nice distraction the game was! We ran into an old friend!!

La Girl with la Cool Name

~~

"Missy!"

"Missy??"

...

"Missy? Where are you?"

...

"Rocky?"

"Wake up, Boy! Where's Missy?"

"ru.. ruf... f"

"Missy?"

"ruff?"

"Gosh, Rocky. I'm sorry I woke you. I'm still stoked up over the game and don't feel like sleeping. I thought you and  Missy might want to watch the new episode of Dr. Who. We recorded it, don't you know?

"ruff."

"Oh. You know."

"ruff."

"Where's Missy?"

"Ruff."

"Oh."

"ru... f... f"

"Well. I see. Well, then good night Boy."

"ruff"

Dude. You missed the point.

The Product: Doritos

The Premise: A mom returns from the grocery store, and asks her kids for some help unloading the car. They are not enthusiastic about it.

The Punchline: … until they hear that she brought back Doritos, which launches them into a race to the minivan. The older sibling thinks he’s got it made, until the cowboy kid rides up on their massive dog and lassoes the Doritos right out of his hands.

Here's the video. What do you think?

I think the point of the ad-- well, besides selling Doritos-- is this. There are things you can accomplish if you have real life skills-- like whistling, riding a dog, and lassoing-- that you can't if all you do is sit around with your iThingy. 

It's obvious. Duh. 

(Also, I did not like the tone the boy took with his mother.)

Awe, Man

The Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial. Now, excuse me, I need to find a tissue. :-)

The Season in Review: SEC / Mississippis State / Alabama.

Here is what I said on November 16, 2013: 

Imagine having a team that's destined to go 4-8 and having the opportunity to see the #1 team in the nation. At 4-5 the excitement is long gone for State. But, Alabama! Should be fun, right?  

Wrong. 

State's now 4-6. Bama's now 10-0. And we are home. 

State ended the season 7-6 and won the Liberty bowl again Rice 44-7.

Alabama ended the season 11-2 with an unbelievably stupid lose to Auburn. Here's what I had to say about that:

Hey Nick S-- 

I like you just fine. I've liked your teams. But Alabama fans do not "work" for you. You have your directions mixed up. I grant that there are "fans" out there who don't have brains, I am not one. You blew this all by yourself. As a fan, you work for me. And you are fired. 

Seriously. What a monumental screw up. And now listen to ESPN spin. "You had a bunch of lineman trying to run him down." Right. Lineman. Sure, they may have thought you were looking to fake. But let's look at this as we did as we watched the game. Go into overtime. Yes. That would have upset our dinner plans. But you would have won. But no. You opt to try a FIFTY-SEVEN yard field goal. Kicked by a red-shirt freshman. Are you insane? Have you lost your marbles?

And now Nick and his team have succeeded in losing the Nokia Sugar Bowl to Oklahoma 45-31.

As Nelson Muntz would say, "Ha. Ha."

BOOKS: "... lastly, the various styles of head-guards."

That's correct! This is a post about American Rugby, or as you & I like to call it, college football.

"A typical modern scrimmage"

The Back Story

Daughter C gave me a set of beautiful leather-bound encyclopedias-- not the A-Z sort, the sort in which each volume is dedicated to a specific topic.

 Our Wonder World: A Library of Knowledge in Ten Volumes: Volume One The World and Its Peoples (1914). And yes, that is an aeroplane in outerspace. It says, "Off for the planets."

Volume Six is Sports and Pastimes Indoors and Out. It is in this volume that we learn about American Rugby.

Intercollegiate Football

An onside kick

American Rugby is a game of strength as well as of skill. It is also a test of courage and endurance. A really fine football player must be a fine type of boy-- strong, plucky, alert, thoughtful, even-tempered. It is partly because the game develops these qualities that it is so popular, and that great players are looked upon as heroes.

Keep that in mind over the next week or two.

This is a full page "color" illustration. I do not get it. Is that supposed to be Everyman?

The start of an end run

The Outfit

"Many players refuse to wear these last, however."

The Game

"A TOUCHDOWN"

"A PLACE KICK"

Dang. Who is that guy playing Lucy?

Pass it on.

Via Reason, the Superbowl ad the NFL rejected because, you know, defending your country and your home are controversial subjects. 

Pass it on.

#1? Really?

Not from where I was sitting.

Aside from the tailgate-- which was very good-- the game was a complete bust.

Imagine having a team that's destined to go 4-8 and having the opportunity to see the #1 team in the nation. At 4-5 the excitement is long gone for State But, Alabama! Should be fun, right? 

Wrong.

State's now 4-6. Bama's now 10-0. And we are home. 

And that's it for me for college football this year except for from the comfort of my own home. 

There is one more home game. The Egg Bowl against Ole Miss on Thanksgiving evening. I have made a stand. I will not let ESPN dictate to me the traditions I will enjoy on Thanksgiving. 

Who ever heard of such a thing? Going to a college football game Thanksgiving evening? Because ESPN wants to make it a television tradition?

Time for Another Season of 'How to Cook for / Feed 150 People'

Episode 3

This is the third year in a row Mr. Big Food & Co. will be hosting a tailgate for a State game. This one's before the LSU game so he's doing a shrimp boil-- shrimp, potatoes, corn cobs, sausage, seasonings (without shrimp and sausage for the vegans).

Tomorrow, Mr. Big Food and I will go to the Piglet to pick up a few things (!) and A. Leland will travel to Tupelo to pick up the shrimp. We are curious to see what 50 pounds of shrimp looks like. Tomorrow evening we'll shuck 96 ears of corn.

We anticipate problems-- not the least of which might be Karen-- but then, we'd be fools to not. This is not our first rodeo.

Clean & ready to go.

Last year we did sandwiches. Sounds easy, right? Wrong and wrong and wrong again. Here's Part One of Episode 2:

Mr. Big Food & Co. are hosting a tailgate after the MSU / Auburn game which kicks off at 11am central next Saturday.
We expect about 150 people. Here's what we've done so far.
We have procured 28 pounds of beef brisket.
We have procured 28 pounds of pig sholder.
We have procured 35 pounds of turkey breast.
We stored it in the Deep Freezer.
That was Day One. We visited all three of the Big Grocery stores in S'vegas.
On Day Two-- this morning-- we went to Walmart to procure the rest of the list.
30 Vadalia onions & such.
Stay tuned. There's some smokin' comin' up.

Part Two; Part Three, Part Four; Game Day.

Check the blog archive for September 2012 for the recipes for the smoked meats and for the giant pot of red beans

Big Garden, Big Food, Big Life launched with Episode 1. 260 Pieces of Chicken. Remember?

What I Learned at Football Practice

As I mentioned, Mr. Big Food and I went to a Dawgs practice late yesterday afternoon. It was educational.

This is the new artificial turf practice field. I learned that the team should practice on the same field type as their Away opponents. (Truth be told, I know this already but I did learn what artificial turf feels like.)

I learned there are port-a-potties on the practice field.

The Dawgs are Practicing

And, you know, practice makes perfect! Truth be told, if practice makes a winning season next year, we'd be happy.

I took many photos.

I am not a photographer.

I am not a sports photographer.

It's going to take a cup of coffee and a piece of pound cake for me to sort through my photos and edit them. I'll be using GIMP-- better than Photoshop (TM) and free-- and I'll just be trying to make the photos reflect (haha) what we saw. [Photo above definitely not edited in GIMP. Gimp & I can do better.]

Meanwhile, for those inclined to shut their kids up by gagging them with an iSomething, may I suggest Fresh Air, Exercise, and Sunshine?

"It's only weird if it doesn't work."

Alabama Fried Chicken

Alabama Spoon Bread

It worked!

College Football: The Great Distraction

31-28 WOW

21-13 at half time

This must have been quite a game! There was a rally in town last evening before the game, and signs up all along the highway taunting the Bruce team. I think this means they advance to the playoffs. 

The Egg Bowl starts at 6pm this evening. Cross your fingers.

Football-- especially high school and college-- is such a great distraction. 

Score board courtesy of MaxPreps.

Oh oh. 21:0

Texas A&M leads, and not even 1/2 time.

This is not good for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Mr. Big Food is at the game with Mr. Big Food's Mom, Mr. Big Food's Dad, Mr. Big Food's Aunt, and Mr. Big Food's Uncle. Mr. Big Food is a State fan. The rest are, well, from Texas.

Tailgate might not be too much fun unless things change direction.

This is what ugly looks like.

21-0.

I do believe we are getting the snot kicked out of us. 

College football is the last best diversion.

Oh. Man. A four man rush and Russel is creamed. Well, it's just football. 

The Great Distraction

There's some video below.

I had a chance to chat with Critz at the tailgate. (Mr. Big Food's Vegetarian Squash Dressing was a BIG hit and a nice compliment to the grilled sausages, by the way.) 

Critz asked if I was a Democrat and I found his question sort of odd, as Critz has been a frequent visitor to the Farm. I reminded him that Mr. Big Food and I work hard at being non-hypocritical Libertarians.We exchanged some pleasantries about State of the Union and of the World-- nothing political, just a mutual acknowledgment that things in the Union and in the World could be better. 

Critz and I agreed that College Football-- and especially the hoopla of SEC tailgates-- were  great distractions from the State of the Union and of the World.

I mean, Dude, what else are we going to do on an October Saturday afternoon?

I'm hitting publish as I figure out how to post the video.

Fluid.

"A Huge Night For the Game Cocks"

G&T: gin martini & green tea

Let's watch college FB.

Yawn.

Let's go to the Den.

I'm Unique!

An Independent Thinker. I Take the Road Less Traveled. I Challenge Authority. 

But on Game Day, baby, I do as I am told. Just like everybody else!

WHITE OUT!

Respect the Bell. Go Dawgs!!

Game Day! We Did It!!

Company arrived shortly after 8am and the male folk set off for the game.

Leaving us female folk to enjoy our morning coffee and load up the truck.

Thanks to Mr. Bruno  & Lique, and a note from Walter to the Parking Patrol folks, set up went well.

Joe (L) and Albert (R) volunteered

to carve nature at its joins the meat.

Meanwhile...

Score. (See the fireworks?)

This is OUR STATE. Take that That School Up North.

Let's eat!

Mike & Lique, welcome to Mississippi!

We beat Auburn! Go Dawgs.

Back to the '50s

As I roam around the world wide web this afternoon, I see some folks are worried about going back to the crappy old 1950s and the days of Jim Crow.

I don't know who this guy is but he is no elite academic, I promise ya. Must be a redneck racist.

Jackson State's band, The Sonic Boom of the South, got a standing ovation from the Dawgs' fans.

~~

Founded as Natchez Seminary in 1877 by the American Baptist Home mission Society, the school was established as Natchez, Mississippi "for the moral, religious and intellectual improvement of Christian leaders of the colored people of Mississippi and the neighboring states." In November 1882, the school was moved to Jackson; in March 1899, the curriculum was expanded and the name was changed to Jackson College.

The state assumed support of the college in 1940, assigning to it the mission of training teachers. Subsequently, between 1953 and 1956, the curriculum was expanded to include a graduate program and bachelor's programs in the arts and sciences; the name was then changed to Jackson State College in 1956.

Further expansion of the curriculum and a notable building program preceded the elevation of Jackson State College to university status on March 15, 1974. In 1979, Jackson State was officially designated the Urban University of the State of Mississippi. Presently, Jackson State University, a public, coeducational institution, is supported by legislative appropriations supplemented by student fees and federal and private grants.