The Victors: Michigan State 26-20 Michigan (O.T.)
4-1, Big Ten 1-1

Today's loss to the dastardly Spartans is not nearly so bitter a pill as I'd have thought it would be. I am thrilled and flabbergasted that we were able to tie the game up at the end of regulation and force overtime time before freshman sensation Tate Forcier's freshman mistake brought the enterprise to a bad end. Live by the froshie, die by the froshie, but let there be no doubt that I still echo MGoBlog's brilliant Star Wars-inspired line about our true freshman, nineteen-year-old Q.B.: "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Forcier."

My parents are hosting their pinochle club's floating monthly game this evening; so, we're giving the house a thorough cleaning. (I don't understand why people always want to make their homes look as though no one lives there when they entertain their friends, but that's neither here nor there.) Consequently, I paid only minimal attention to the first half as I vacuumed the whole house (except the water closets and basement). Immediately after the game, I suited up in jeans, a long sleeved T-shirt, work gloves, and boots and set about trimming the front bushes. We've had rain for most of the last two days and conditions were adjudged by all too wet to risk using the electric hedge clippers; so, I hacked at the bushes the old-fashioned way. I didn't do a full trim, I neither leveled off all the tops nor squared off all the corners, nor crawled behind the bushes to clip right up against the outside wall of the house, but I got rid of all the bright green shoots and did quite a bit to clean up the general appearance of the bushes. And I tell you, dear readers, it was rather therapeutic. After the loss, hacking away at something green, giving vent to my frustration through the hedge clippers, was the best remedy in the world. I've already moved past most of the bitterness of the defeat and am looking forward to next week's game against the tenacious Hawkeyes of the University of Iowa!

And to any dastardly Spartan reading this, I leave you with the last words of Vigo the Carpathian, uttered just before his head died, "Death is but a door, time is but a window. I'll be back!"

Go Blue!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The University of Michigan, "I Want to Go Back to Michigan" from A Saturday Tradition (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Today's R.B.D.S.O.T.D. was selected before kick off and so is not meant to signal a specific desire to return to the friendlier confines of Michigan Stadium after a disappointing afternoon in Evil Lansing. "I Want to Go Back to Michigan" is just a great little ditty (thirty-four seconds long).