Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday to my sister, Evil Lisa. Love ya', Lise.

It's too bad USC got screwed out of the national championship game (though hopefully this will hasten the demise of the godawful BSC system), but the upside is that for this one year at least, honor has been restored to college football: the Big Ten champion and the Pac-10 champion are meeting in the "granddaddy of them all," the Rose Bowl. Woo hoo! That said, even with the distinct disadvantage of John Navarre, Michigan is going to beat the tar out of Southern Cal. The Trojans' vaunted offense has made its reputation against Pac-10 competition; they have simply never seen the like of a fearsome Big Ten defense. Heh heh heh, lambs to the slaughter.

And from a mythological standpoint, why in Zeus's name would you name yourselves the Trojans? The Trojans lost! Hector was slain by Achilles and his body dragged around the walls of proud Ilium. Wily Odysseus's plan worked perfectly - the Trojan Horse, for the ignorant - and because Cassandra's visions were ignored, Priam's house fell. The men of Troy were killed, the women and children sold into bondage, and Helen, the woman for whom the Trojans had fought the war, was returned to her husband, Menelaus. Ten years of war, and when it was over Troy was no more. Why would you name yourselves after the losers? And the Trojans didn't just lose, they were all but wiped from the face of the earth. They didn't just lose, as a nation they ceased to exist.