Word of the Day

"Vanilla."

An obfuscation meant to express the fiction that Oregon's defense was hiding "schemes" and "packages" from its next opponent, and thus didn't bother to seriously challenge the South Dakota offense in a football game yesterday at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.

Not to be confused with "inept" tackling.

Or "disinterested" play.

Or "inferior" talent.


TS

Be Afraid

RWW

TS

Clearly, it's over

Combine Oregon's offense and UCLA's defense and you might have a team with the potential to beat the next Pac-12 champions--the USC Trojans, who will play Stanford in the league championship game and advance to the final four.

Seriously, you don't need to know anything more than that.

BTW, how do you like Mike Riley?  Year after year the guy takes mediocre talent and molds it into a team that by year's end is capable of upsetting anybody.

The Beavs were bad for the most part today, though some of that is attributable to an improved PSU team.

By November they'll give everybody trouble.

True story.


TS

My Big Day

Up for the day.

UCLA at Virginia (Oregon made this trip last season).  Look for the Bruins to win, but I betcha the Cavs are improved over last year.  Hope they've found a QB.

UCLA already has one of those, a good one who shall remain nameless because this is an Oregon Ducks blog.

Want to see Portland State kick OSU's butt, but it likely won't happen despite the Beavs' tendency to play poorly early in the season.

Then at 7:30, if I'm upright, it's time for the Oregon vs. South Dakota game, a contest drawing hecklers from far and wide.  One grumpy blogger asks, Why doesn't Oregon just play a local high school team?  "It would be more interesting."

Ouch!


TS

Gin

T S Eliot once told someone at a party that his inspiration came from “gin and drugs.”

Quitting it is the only reason why I'm still alive

But like Eliot I'll swear by its hallucinogenic qualities.

Here's the story.  You are only going to live as long as you live.  If you don't drink gin you may have nothing to give.

But you'll live longer.


TS

Nob Hill Bar & Grill/Retail Outlet

I delivered a stack of books to this place this morning.

If you're a Portlander and don't want to wait for an Amazon delivery and a chance to read The Children of Vaughn, by all means head over to Nobby's, buy lunch and a brew, pick up a copy for a mere $15.

Ignore the review at Amazon, by the way.  The typos have been fixed and the story was never meant to be a comprehensive history of baseball in Portland.

The reviewer is anonymous, of course, which any self-respecting critic would not choose to be.

ED: A second review has appeared at the Amazon page for this book. JoeB gets it and makes a great case for why the book deserves some recognition.


TS

It's Only Thurs.

I guess I was wrong.

Carolina missed Clowney badly, along with a defensive concept.  Made TAM look better than they are, though Kenny Hill is the real deal.

Boise and Ole Miss in a slug fest with lots of mistakes, errant throws, penalties, etc.  Both lack good QB play.

Maybe WSU and Rutgers will be more entertaining.  Sparse crowd in Seattle.  Heard this is the last year the Cougs will host there.  Sounds like a plan.

ED:  Ole Miss' QB played a lot better in the 2nd half as the Rebels finally got it going.

TS

Third and Long

I just put this on hold at the library.  I hope I like the book as much as I like the premise.

I swear, I'm so far behind it's not even funny.

I'd never heard of it until today.  Damn, it sounds like a book Ben Fountain may have written for me personally:

Dear TS,

Here's what you've been saying for years without much success, without my clarity and skill. It's the story you always wanted to write because it's plugged into your brain.  You didn't write it, I did.  I won the awards, I did the work.

I took A Fan's Notes and End Zone to the next logical step.

Maybe you'll do something in your next lifetime. Keep at it, old-timer. Good luck.

Best,
Ben Fountain


TS

Big Pow Wow

The Degrowth Conference 2014 will be streamed live from Leipzig, Sept. 2-6.

Check it out.

I wanted to send Buddy Dooley to this, but he balked. He doesn't like to fly.

TS

Expert Liar

This weekend's games that matter from the viewpoint of the College Football Playoff selection committee. Or so we are being asked to believe.

Condi Rice will be watching every one of these fer sure, so you should too just in case she finally gets indicted and you're asked to fill in for her at committee meetings.


TS 

Georgia State!!

First win since '12, snapping a 16-game losing streak!

It's officially on.





TS

World of Hype

Lazy journalists bought it, corporations hyped it, everybody was looking for a "feel-good" story.

The Mother of All Hype Stories was this one long ago.

They're right.  Football is like war.

TS

How and Why

The protests were also about more than Ferguson. Because Ferguson isn’t an outlier; it is, at least for a large part of the country, the norm. The same fuel of poverty and disenfranchisement exists in similar communities from Los Angeles to New York. The spark just happened to come in Ferguson.

How it came to pass in Ferguson, and why it will happen again.

TS

The Battlefield

Source: CIA


TS

Bureaucratic Nightmare

New insurance forms arrived in the mail today.

Must keep the bureaucrats busy, it's my duty.  After all, it would have been too easy to make things easy.

I'm open to accepting the bids of anybody out there who will sponsor my move to your nation, provided it is not scheduled to be bombed by the U.S.

Give me a job.  I'll work on your little magazine or be your personal chef. Do you like hamburgers?

Of course, we can't be sure whom the U.S. will actually start picking on next, but I want out of this place.

Sweden?  Norway?  Denmark?

Anybody out there living in a sane place?

Let's talk...


TS