1. UT football

2. UT basketball, men and women.

3. University of South Carolina football

4. Atlanta Braves-I've been a fan since they moved to Atlanta in 1966

5. Indianapolis Colts-I've been fan of the Colts since the Johnny U. days in Baltimore.

6. ABC---Anyone but Clemson   

[TBOCRY]

TBOCRY

It was on a Alabama license plate. The car had a "Roll Tide" sticker.

I can't figure it out.

And, I got a serious server error trying to post that. It took about 15 minutes. First time ever on my home computer.

[the first back-to-back wins over Clemson in school history.]

Wait a minute. Who's doing the fact checking up there?


Spurrier can tick off his accomplishments in Columbia without any cue cards: South Carolina's first-ever win in Knoxville, Tenn., the Gamecocks' first-ever win at Florida, their first SEC East title, their first win over a No. 1-ranked team (Alabama last season), the first back-to-back wins over Clemson in school history.

That last part didn't sound right, so I did the checking. I didn't go all the way back but Carolina beat the tiglets four in a row in 1951-1954, two in a row in 1964-1965 and three in a row in 1968-1970.

Maybe they meant to say that he beat them back to back for the first time but it says "in school history".

Droner, I know you like a lot of Viognier (sp.?) wine, so I thought of you today when I was at the local Earth Fare grocery... they have a wine rack section devoted to wines they label as "exotics" (aka unusual and wierd), and yep ... right smack dab in the middle of that rack was your beloved favorite!  It wasn't placed in any of the "serious" racks, nooooo, they just kicked it aside into the collection that contained stuff like Tasmanian Devil Red and the like (making that up, can't remember exactly what other wines were there, but most of them were truly weird).   Maybe it's just me, but I thought that looked funny to put it there.   

Vioginer isn't known by casual wine drinkers and some wine merchants don't know a whole lot about it either. To them, it's an exotic. It might have been a winery that didn't make much of it but I expect it was just the head of the department that didn't have a lot of knowledge about Viognier. Frequently when people ask me about a good white wine and I mention Viogner, they don't have any idea what I'm talking about. Although production has increased, most people have never heard of it.

[Jérôme Gueneau]

Thanks for asking!

Jérôme Gueneau Sancerre Domaine des Grandes Perrières Le Clos Chartier (2009)($24.00)
Delicious Sancerre (French Sauvignon Blanc) from the Loire Region. Bright fruit, crisp and tart. A great white wine for a hot afternoon. Wine Spectator gives it 89 points and I agree. A very good wine.

It does look pretty cool. For someone else.

But how would it look on a big lineman with a 50 inch waist? How many players on any team have a waist that small?  According to that picture, his waist would fit in his helmet.   

I will be leaving the office at 12:30 today. Some inconsiderate client insisted on an 11:30 appointment. The nerve. He obviously has never read The Usual Friday Reminder.

Thank you. That is all. Carry on.

Janzen apparently failed another drug test. Or several.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6891304/tennessee-volunteers-dismiss-janzen-jackson

If it's weed, then he's an idiot. There is no reason in the world not to be able to stay away from pot. It's not an addiction like narcotics or meth, if it's even an addiction.  People can't stay away from weed because they don't want to and think they can get away with it.

After hearing the news yesterday about Pat, I can't muster a lot of emotion on this one.

Besides, it doesn't come as a big surprise.

And I'm also surprised (and disappointed) that our most recent previous coach escaped unscathed.

If this news is true then I'm going to say what I said I would not be able to say:

It could have been worse.

Quite frankly, considering the state of things in college FB today, I'm shocked.

In the Gator Bowl at the end of the 1966 season, UT played Syracuse. One of the Syracuse players, could have been Floyd Little, said something about that they were disappointed not to be playing a great team but were happy to playing a "good" team like Tennessee. That ticked off my father. He didn't go to UT, didn't even go to college, but that made him mad for a northern school to be talking that way about a southern school. He always liked UT but for no reason really. So I started paying attention and I became a fan.

I followed the Vols and my fandom was solidified in the first game of othe 1968 season. UT vs. UGA, first game on the artificial turf.

But deciding to go to school at UT was almost an accident. I was considering South Carolina, UNC, UGA and (101st Dad will love this) Clemson. One day at high school one of my friends asked me why I didn't consider UT since I really wanted to go some place a good distance away. (Yes, I know it's only a trip of less than 3 hours from Greenville, SC to Knoxville but back then it was a good 4 hours or more.) The problem was that UT required the ACT and the ACT and SAT weren't interchangeable in those days. I had already taken the SAT so I took the ACT, applied to UT and that was that. Almost half of the college bound kids out of my very large HS senior class were dividing between USC and Clemson. I wanted something new. And big.


Semi-humorous story: My Dad said I could go anywhere but South Carolina. He said it was a big party school. So when I decided to go to UT, that was fine with him. The night before I left for college we ran into a girl who was a junior at UT. I asked her did she have any advice. She said "bring an umbrella and be prepared to party." The look on his face was priceless. He really didn't know.

I don't like them much, but I bet they players like them

You are correct. And that's why UT will eventually (soon) wear something like that. I don't like it, because I hate change. ( I wish we still wore the pale orange and indecipherable white numerals of the seventies.)

But the players love it. And that's why we'll do it.

[Jérôme Gueneau]

Thanks for asking! 

Jérôme Gueneau Sancerre Domaine des Grandes Perrières Le Clos Chartier (2009)($24.00)
Delicious Sancerre (French Sauvignon Blanc) from the Loire Region. Bright fruit, crisp and tart. A great white wine for a hot afternoon. Wine Spectator gives it 89 points and I agree. A very good wine.

So, are you playing golf in the stiffling heat today? 

Yep. After playing in the heat of July, this seems relatively cool.

I will be leaving the office at 11:30 today. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to you.

Thank you. That is all. Carry on.

[Instead, they thought Shapiro was just a fan who helped players from out of state.]

So Bryce and Arthur and their entourage get food and rooms from Shapiro but the NCAA has told K State that everything is OK?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/08/17/kansasst.brown.ap/index.html?eref=twitter_feed


The Browns' spiritual adviser, Brian Butler, told The Wichita Eagle that he and the Browns didn't know Shapiro was a Miami booster. Instead, they thought Shapiro was just a fan who helped players from out of state. 

"In our case, he did invite us to lunch and we did go to lunch, and he did reserve some rooms for us, for myself and Mr. Brown senior," Butler told the newspaper. "Those things, I can say that he did."

And there's no NCAA violation?   

Congratulations!

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/08/17/uscs-markeith-ambles-academically-ineligible/

What a shame. 

I'm getting a red X but I assume that they're white. 

By we, I assume you meant you and your liver?

Fortunately there were other livers there to help mine. My wine seems to disappear quckly while bottles other people have brought seem to linger. I opened one bottle, poured myself a glass, went back about 15 minutes later to get another, and it was empty. There were only 4 of us that drank wine.

Ahhhh, reds and whites...thanks for the clarification   

We ran through so many I couldn't keep track. 

...is Droner drinking tonight????   

Thanks for missing me! 

We drank 7 bottles of good wine. Reds and whites.

Regular programming resumes next week.

I will be leaving the office at 1:00 today. A little later than usual but pigeons must be plucked clients must be seen. I will then travel to beautiful Lake Secession. While there I'll be drinking wine.

Thank you. That is all. Carry on.