The Explorers' Club
№ CCCXXXII - The Thirty Years' War, Part III: Protestantism strikes back—The Low Saxon War & the Peace of Lübeck (1629), the Edict of Restitution (1629), the Treaty of Stettin (1630) & the Treaty of Bärwalde (1631), the Sack of Magdeburg (1631), the failure of the Spanish Square at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), its redemption at the Battle of Nördlingen (1634), & the Peace of Prague (1635).







The Victors: Project OSPREY
Friday, 15 March 2013
Big Ten Tournament, Round 2
(№ 22) Wisconsin 68-59 Michigan (№ 6)
26-7, Big Ten 13-7

As the Bard wrote, "beware the Ides of March." I did not see the game as I was volunteering at the weekly Knights of Columbus Friday fish fry; it was there I learned the score & though I was not surprised, I was disappointed. I learned more of the circumstances of our defeat upon my return home, & I hung my head at the news of our second-half collapse. There are entire games in which the pesky Badgers fail to score fifty-one points, so to have surrendered so many to them in the second half portents doom & gloom for our chances in the N.C.A.A. Tournament.

I've not yet filled out my bracket. School spirit will almost certainly compel me to pick the valiant Wolverines to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, but in my heart of hearts I simply do not believe that we have the fight within us to rise to the challenge of presumed opponent Virginia Commonwealth, they of the recent tournament Cinderella stories. (Should V.C.U. fall in the round of sixty-four, the situation might be quite different.) Of course, there is no guarantee that the valiant Wolverines will win their round of sixty-four game, against the epithetless Jackrabbits of South Dakota State University. We are a highly skilled club, in that we have the ability to lose to any opponent, anytime, anywhere. Will this talent be on display on Thursday (& Saturday) or will the valiant Wolverines return to the brilliant form they evinced before the "Murderers' Row" stretch of the season, from which we have never quite recovered our swagger? I should love nothing better than to be exposed as a Doubting Thomas, & to see the valiant Wolverines regain their swagger & make some noise at the Big Dance.

Go Blue!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Dr. John, "Big Chief" from the Rhino Hi-Five: Dr. John E.P. (T.L.A.M.)