Along with most of the football following world I’d like to give a public thanks to quarterback Brett Favre, who announced his retirement from professional football today. I consider it one of my distinct pleasures as a football fan to have been around to watch him play the game and as a fellow Mississippian, it was a point of pride to share my home state with one of the greatest players in football. While the Saints are my first love in the NFL, the Packers have always been my second favorite with Favre at their helm. I even had a Packers Party during this year’s NFC Championship between the Packers and Giants, replete with brats and cheap Wisconsin beer, which turned out to be #4′s farewell game. Wright Thompson’s article on ESPN.com says a number of things that I can’t say any better about Brett, Mississippi, and the hole he’s left in many a football fan’s heart. It’s a good read. So thanks again, Brett, for all the memories. I wish you’d played one more year so I could have seen you play in the Dome this season, but the fun’s got to end sometime, I guess.
Well, word on the street, at least amongst my contacts, was that Wednesday’s eclipse was beautiful to behold, at least if you were living in Minnesota. It seems that there was one huge, single cloud covering the rest of the United States. So Maddie Potter and I harrumphed a bit about that, then placated ourselves by making spaghetti and splitting a bottle of red wine. All in all, not a bad evening. (more…)
For someone who regularly grumbles at sunny weekdays observed through the prison bars of my office window that then give way to rainy weekends, I have to give ups to the Universe for dealing Baton Rouge two stellar weekends, weather-wise, in a row. Even two lines of storms passing through saw fit to do their dirty work late at night or in the wee hours of the morning on both Saturday and Sunday this last weekend, leaving dawn clear and cool and the days sunny and warm. (more…)
Well, I survived my weekend of carnival, but I have to say that two days of it was plenty enough for me. The guys down in NOLA are slowing trickling back into the real world after their week long Celebration O’ Excess, and I have to say I don’t envy them much on that score at all.
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There’s little of import to report over here in Camp Ashes. A real, for true, honest-to-god, wet, grey winter has descended on the Red Stick, which has left me with the desire to do little more than make stews (an excellent turkey/potato affair was conjured over the weekend), drink dark beers (mad props to this death-defying wonder) and/or whiskey*, watch movies and read.
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Late last year I somehow snuck myself into the line-up for the first run of Culture Candy‘s (an arts incubator here in Baton Rouge) Sweet Tooth, a free art criticism publication to be distributed around the city with the task of “evaluating the pros and cons of art in Baton Rouge.” The fact that I’ve got an article in such a publication is a little laughable considering my history of disdain for published criticism (and I can’t wait to see what they think of my article “Why Football is Art”). Yeah, I’ve got some critical opinions on any number of things, but in our media saturated age where any ass-hat with a website or television/radio talk show can voice theirs, it’s not really an arena I’ve felt worth entering. That is, unless I am complaining about serial complainers (I’m ‘dvc’ in the comments). What can I say? I’m the sum of my contradictions. (more…)
Congratulations to the Bayou Bengals, Louisiana State’s Fighting Tigers, on their second national football title in five years. I’d said that I’d felt like good things were coming for Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole with the New Year, and the Tigers made good on it early. It was great to see New Orleans hopping with activity and by all accounts the bowl season saw the most people in the city and the most tourist dollars spent since Hurricane Katrina. I hope that the exposure our win garnered will not only help keep our football program towards the top of the pile, but prove beneficial both to the university and the city of Baton Rouge.
No matter where life takes me, I will always fondly remember that I lived in Baton Rouge during one of the most special of LSU football seasons. Thanks LSU, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans for making this a season that a die-hard football fan will never forget. GEAUX TIGERS!
