The Victors: To the Bitter End
The Agony of Defeat
Purdue 48-42 Michigan
2-7, 1-4 Big Ten
After the debacle against Toledo, I looked at the schedule and concluded Purdue was our single best chance to win another game before the end of the season. And, hey, at least the offense showed up in surprising and thrilling new ways. The hardest part to swallow was the official end of the bowl streak, as the lose eliminated us from potential bowl eligibility. I called an old marching band comrade and told her I wouldn't be attending the first party I'd been invited to in I don't know how long. My mood for the rest of the day made me fit company for neither man nor beast.

The Thrill of Victory
Michigan 29-6 Minnesota
3-7, 2-4 Big Ten
Fielding Yost's ghost, 29-6 is a respectable score over Minnesota even in a normal year! How in the blue blazes did Nick Sheridan manage to forget that he's Nick Sheridan and play like a real quarterback? Old Douglas "I Shall Return" MacArthur was right, in sports as in war, "there is no substitute for victory." We've lost an awful lot this year, and I am referring to much more than just our win-loss ratio (Wayback Machinelink), but, by Jove, we've held to the Little Brown Jug!

The Agony of Defeat
Northwestern 21-14 Michigan
3-8, 2-5 Big Ten
Crumbs, Nick Sheridan remembered who he is. And as has happened so very often this season, we played fairly well for much of the game, but a clutch of mistakes withing a few fleeting moments rendered moot the entire effort. If only the scholarly Wildcats hadn't scored those two touchdowns in such quick succession.... (If only I had The Shadow's power to cloud the minds of men....) I was not additionally stressed by the ballyhooed affliction of our first-ever eight-loss season; to me, 'twas captious hogwash. Losing to a M.A.C. team? Bloody awful. A losing season? Disastrous. No bowl game? Bog's honest truth, I nearly wept. Losing eight games for the first time ever? Who cares, that's just meaningless mathematics. The '58 and '62 squads won only a single game apiece. The 1881 Wolverines were winless, an unblemished 0-3. There is a distinction between scores and numbers, and verdammt numbers do not matter in sports.

The Thrill of Victory
In the looming contest between the valiant University of Michigan Wolverines and the hated "University of Ohio State" Buckeyes, I don't give a tinker's damn about their obvious superiorities and our glaring inferiorities. We are Michigan and we stand ready to do battle with the ancient foe, the champions of ignorance and arrogance, they who believe might makes right. We may be defeated, we may very well be beaten soundly and pitilessly, but we shall remain unbowed. Now and forever, it's great to be a Michigan Wolverine.

Hail! to the victors valiant!
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes!
Hail! Hail! to Michigan
The leaders and best!

Hail! to the victors valiant!
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes!
Hail! Hail! to Michigan
The champions of the West!

Go Blue!

Project OSPREY: The Victors
(No. 10) Duke 71-56 Michigan
Drat! Ospreylink. I watched the first two-thirds of the game before the beginning of Stargate Atlantis, and at times we looked pretty good. Unfortunately, they looked like Duke pretty much the whole time, and our "pretty good" isn't going to cut the mustard against the Blue Devils. Still and all, a lovely stint in the Big Apple, the valiant Wolverines bested one top ten team and put in a solid effort against a second in as may nights. It shall be interesting to see how both teams have progressed when Coach Beilein and company host Duke in the dank of Crisler Arena in a fortnight's time.

My paternal grandmother, God rest her soul, was an alumna of Duke University; so, I feel both a certain affection for the Blue Devils and an irrational disdain for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. However, there is no question that my paramount loyal is first and always to the University of Michigan.

Go Blue!



Why "Project OSPREY"? It's a codename, it's not supposed to have any real meaning. (And in that regard the codename "Project TROIKA" is flawed, as it will after the New Year be a collaboration of the trio of K. Steeze, the Professor, and yours truly, The Last Angry Man. What can I say? Cedar Point instilled in me a love of the word troika.)

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Catch 22, "Supernothing" from Keasbey Nights (T.L.A.M.)