The Explorers' Club
№ CCCXXVI - The "Filthy Thirteen," Demolition Section of Headquarters Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, United States Army.







The Victors: Project OSPREY
Saturday, 2 February 2013
(№ 3) Indiana 81-73 Michigan (№ 1)
20-2, Big Ten 7-2

We are in serious trouble here, fellow Wolverines. I admire the never-say-die spirit of the lads at umhoops.com & their attempts to put a brave face on Saturday's defeat, to explain that the valiant Wolverines will never face an opposing home court as hostile as Bloomington's Assembly Hall, but we need to face stark reality, no matter how harsh: we have failed both of our biggest tests of the season, road games against the hated Buckeyes & the wily Hoosiers, as both times because we were caught flatfooted & inept in the first ten minutes of the game. The valiant Wolverines are young, one of the youngest clubs in Division I 'ball, but opponents are not going to show mercy just because we're young. We are not good enough to win a forty-minute-long basketball game against quality opposition after talking a siesta throughout the first ten minutes. Assembly Hall might be a tough place to play, but unless the N.C.A.A.'s rules are substantially revised we won't be able to play all of our games inside the friendly confines of the Crisler Center. Many more Big Ten road games lie ahead, as well as the Big Ten & N.C.A.A. Tournaments. If we don't get our collective act together on the road, if we don't stop acting like deer caught in headlights while our opponents build double-digit leads at the start of each game, we might as well pack it in, turn off the lights, & reallocate the basketball program's resources to the School of Music, Theater, & Dance. I'm not upset that we lost to Indiana, I'm not even disappointed. The '12-'13 wily Hoosiers are a very good basketball club, maybe even a great club. No, my ire is roused solely by the manner in which we lost, the lackluster way we sleepwalked through the first half of the first half. I'm irate because this isn't the first time this has happened. We were blitzed at the start of yesterday's game in almost the exact same way we were blitzed against the hated Buckeyes on 13 January, a 56-53 loss. Twice we were caught off guard on the road, twice we were found completely unprepared to play, & that's simply unacceptable.

Next: At home against (№ 11) Ohio State on Tuesday, a game we must win to revenge the first road loss, & to nip in the bud any rumors of a mid-season collapse after an embarrassing road loss. After that, more difficult road games at Wisconsin & at (№ 13) Michigan State. The road ahead isn't easy, but winning a Big Ten championship is never easy.

Go Blue!

Operation AXIOM
Seventy years ago to the day, 3 February 1943, the "Four Chaplains" & over six hundred others were killed in action when the U.S.A.T. Dorchester was sunk by a U-boat of the Nazi Kriegsmarine (Wayback Machine).

Three hundred seventy-six years ago, less certainly to the day, 3 February 1637, tulip bulb prices in the Dutch Republic reached their zenith, signally the economically devastating end of the Tulip Mania, the first recorded speculative bubble. (Note to self: the Tulip Mania would make the excellent subject for a future episode of "The Explorers' Club.')

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Proclaimers, "Free Market" from Notes & Rhymes (T.L.A.M.)