Shorter Economist, Buckley, Adelman et al.

Sure, Obama has few qualifications, little experience, and in many ways we couldn’t disagree more with his platform. We hope he’s lying. But we (are really damn tired of defending Bush/never liked him anyway), McCain (has pissed us off for years with his grandstanding/should have kept it up), and Obama sure does talk pretty. Oh, and Palin? Ew. Populism. So what the heck, give him a shot.

And by the way, can we get an invite to the inauguration party? Just one of them? Not even one of the big ones? Please?

(See, T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII understands!)

ACC releases new football logo

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — The Atlantic Coast Conference today released a new logo and motto for its football competition.

Word was unavailable at press time as to whether the new motto of “Stop Hitting Yourself” was meant as advice to the league’s unranked teams suggesting that they stop knocking conference mates out of the top 25, to the ranked teams suggesting that they stop choking as soon as national buzz begins around them, or to neutral viewers attempting to watch the conference’s games without a vested rooting interest.

True to my school

I have several family ties to James Madison University. So if the Hokies are off one nice fall Saturday, as they were today, it’s not unknown for me to dig out a purple hat and go cheer on the Dukes, whether at Bridgeforth or even the occasional in-state road trip.

Well, today JMU hit the road as the #1 team in Division I-AA¹ visiting #5 Richmond. In possibly the greatest college football ending I’ve ever seen, JMU scored 15 points in the final minute to win 38-31, finishing it off with a Scotty McGee punt return for a TD with one second left.

Minutes earlier, at 31-23 down, the Dukes had rallied for their first touchdown of the second half at 0:59, then converted the 2 to tie the game. JMU’s defense, which had been confused much of the afternoon, held solid for two downs, then waved for their crowd (at least half of UR Stadium) to make noise on a potentially decisive third down.

Out came my keys, of course.

After the noise forced UR into a false start — their first offensive penalty of the game, leading to a stop and the punt that would win the game — the JMU alumnus beside me motioned to my hand and said, “You must be a Hokie.”

Whether cheering for VT, JMU or anyone else, you got that right.

There is no place like Nebraska

Grossly overdue, considering that I’m watching Mizzou pound them as we speak, but some thoughts seem necessary from what was absolutely my best road game trip ever.

• New one on me: my first flight leg getting reassigned from a Saab prop plane to Air Windstar. CHO-IAD was slower via taxi, but only marginally less comfortable; since I was going standby on an earlier “flight” than my original, I even made my IAD-DEN connection OK.
• Final count of crossings of the Nebraska-Iowa border: 12. Credit staying across the river from Omaha in Council Bluffs and a geographic oddity that puts a short stretch of Iowa between downtown Omaha and the airport.
• The one-hour stretch of I-80 between Omaha and Lincoln is not quite as flat as I expected — more gently rolling hills that proved no obstacle whatsoever to the rental RAV4 to which Hertz helpfully upgraded my midsize reservation.
• Roadtripping Hokie fans: well done. We were all over Lincoln all afternoon Saturday, celebrating UVa’s humiliation at the hands of Duke and having a good time with the locals. Speaking of them…
• Nebraska fans: easily the friendliest fans I’ve ever met. I can only pray we’re as welcoming next year on their return visit.
• Nebraska highway department postgame: not as helpful. Missing the onramp to I-180 was my fault, but closing the ramp from US 6 back onto I-80 was unnecessarily cruel.
• Memorial Stadium doesn’t seem as big as Lane Stadium, but the complete enclosure of both end zones makes a difference, and the visiting player entrance is fairly intimidating — a walk uphill through a crowded, dark concrete jungle full of fans until the gap in the stands opens into the Sea of Red.
• My only criticism of the game experience: the NU sound staff plays loud artificial noise, even sometimes plain white noise, on NU defensive series until the last legal second when the offensive team sets the line. You have 85,000 fans and a reasonably competent band. You don’t need that crap — leave that to low-class places like West Virginia.
• A non-Hokie friend traveling on business confirmed my impression: VT fans owned O’Hare Airport on Sunday afternoon. It was like coming home from a bowl trip — except that we actually won the game this time.