Edwin MacPhisto

I can't put Miami back in the rankings yet. This early in the season, no two-loss team deserves a spot. The Houston win is better than most will think, but it was still unimpressive enough to keep a lot of big questions on the table. Even though Boise's 5-0, I'd flip them with Clemson, just because both Clemson and Georgia Tech's ass-whooping performances have come against more impressive competition. Boise, however, looks as close to legitimate a non-BCS team as we're going to get and I'll be happy to see them get a shot against a top-10 team once the year ends. They do belong ahead of Georgia right now, because although the defense is fantastic, the freshman quarterbacks are causing trouble and the bottom's going to drop out sooner rather than later. I think Clemson and GT are dead even as the best teams in the ACC right now, so their ordering doesn't matter that much. Checking out Carnival's, I don't see how you can justify having Texas and LSU at 3 and 4, seeing how all the best unbeaten teams have faced good competition and beaten that competition well by this point. LSU and Texas have whooped some ass, but have yet to notch the big win. Talent-wise it's close to a push, so you've got to go with the wins.

Another shitty low-point win (8) on the way for me. 4-1, but I can't keep up these low percentages too much longer.

Fuck you, Texas Tech.

Add this one to the Czech file: the announce team on GT/VT were bantering and said they were making chitter chatter, so someone in the production booth put up "CHITTER CHATTER" in the spot under the score box where they normally list "OFFSIDES" or "TD GT" or something like that. Clever.

John Tenuta's zone blitzes are really fucking up VT's protection schemes. Glennon is getting rocked and now they're getting to him on almost every other play. Looks really good for the Jackets right now. Also, I wish commentators would shut up about Florida bringing Tim Tebow in for certain plays. They're not creating their own controversy by using him; they're using a great athlete and giving Chris Leak a break after a 45-yard run, dumbasses. Of course, none of that means anything if UF can't get it together and pull ahead of Bama.

And GT is already up 14-0 on Virginia Tech. Iggy may actually be right about these guys. I hope they pour it on.

I'm actually getting a ton of games here. I have all sorts of weird regional networks on my basic cable (including MASN and VS.), so I'm actually getting the Boise/Utah game. Nice. I'm also getting like 3 I-AA games.

I thought this was supposed to be out months ago. The goofy moustaches these guys are rocking now almost make me want to listen to them. Not quite, but almost.

Review is getting ridiculous. I'm watching the shitty UVA/Duke game, and they've had 3 reviews of obviously correct calls in the first 6 minutes of the game. Way, way too tentative about just making a call. They're a combined 1-6, guys. It's not the ACC championship.

I watched the 4th quarter. Really fun game. Both programs are headed in good directions and Rutgers' running backs are pretty super.

A few problems: -Amanda Peet is a deer in headlights. She's been funny in other things, but she's doing Sorkin-by-numbers here. -The high drama/fast pace just doesn't work as well in something like this as it does when you're dealing with the government of the most powerful nation in the world. This needs some time to develop an identity that isn't just "hey, West Wing in Hollywood!" which is exactly the format it's in now. -It's not that funny. The early seasons of the West Wing had me rolling; this stuff, again, needs to get fleshed out a little more. But I'll keep watching, I think.

I'm not that surprised. Really short week (even though most of the important Auburn starters hardly played against Buffalo), a Thursday night road game against a fired-up conference opponent--a little bit of a "letdown" isn't that surprising. Now, if they lose, that'll be very surprising. I think it's about to be 24-10 very soon.

I figured they'd lose a couple of Mountain West games this year, but didn't think so soon.

Arlington, VA: $2.31 Woodbrige, VA: $2.17 The totally badass new Wawa where US 29 meets I-66: $1.94

THURSDAY TCU FRIDAY Rutgers SATURDAY Connecticut Akron Boise State Oregon Virginia Tech Texas A&M San Jose State Kentucky UAB Kansas State Ohio State Washington Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Oregon/Arizona State game? 61 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Iowa's Drew Tate have against Ohio State? 200

Try that album. Good summary of everything they've done, full of plenty of fun bubbly moments and big noisy barrages too. On reissues: Bowie hasn't been that bad, though I'm having a hell of a time finding a non-$20 special edition of Aladdin Sane in any store. I'll probably just give up and order the cheap one. As far as stupid reissues go, I think the entire "Legacy" collection takes the cake, adding minimal material to pretty suspect candidates. No one really needs a $27 version of Weezer's first album, even if it does have "Suzanne" on it.

The snot-on-the-stall thing is foreign to me. I live a clean and sheltered life. I do, however, hate people who make really uninspired stall graffiti, like writing "Metallica Rocks, You Suck Cocks," which is inside the stall at a bar not too far from my apartment. That same stall also features a 10 or 12 part discussion about Eichmann's accountability in the Holocaust (including "hannah arendt kicked him in the nuts"), so it's not bad overall.

Over the past few months Low and Hunky Dory have crawled ahead of Ziggy in my estimation. And I think Low is in the lead for now, because I've listened to "Always Crashing in the Same Car" at least once every day for a week. Chave, after having seen Yo La Tengo earlier this week, I feel compelled to highly recommend I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, their excellent album from 1997. It's an album that, like The Bends, I feel comfortable recommending to anyone regardless of their musical taste. Plus, YLT falls right into your paradigm of preferences, I think.

I've never read anything of his. Some English major I am. Hence, very excited about the impending shipment. What did you decide on for your next Roth foray? I'm looking for another one.

I wonder if he was doing sit-ups when they came to get him.

I love I-AA conference names. Big Sky? Great West? Kicks Conference USA's ass any day.

I think Arizona at #40 is pretty egregious. Yes, I know they received their ass-beatings from two of the nation's best teams, but it's not like they had them on the ropes till the 4th quarter. I guess the BYU win is okay.

collegefootballnews.com ranks all 119 teams every week. This week's poll They have a tendency to cling to a few teams each year and keep them inordinately high no matter the situation, and some of their logic is really screwed. However, they're also much better than the AP/Coaches/Harris/whatever poll at ranking based on how good the team is, not what their schedule looks like. Plus, it's kinda fun to figure out how they order all the lousy teams in the second half of the rankings. Stewart Mandel at SI.com now does full rankings too. I prefer his because he shows where he had every team the week before.

In my limited exposure, InDesign's better but Quark is still the standard. Most people have already shelled out tons for Quark licenses, and so many people know Quark that the transition'll probably take a bit of time. Interestingly, many design academies are starting to entirely replace the Quark curriculum with InDesign. Good for the future, but it creates a funny little artificial gap in skillset, as people without the Quark background are a bit too ahead of the times to get jobs with firms still using Quark.

I've heard the Lakers/Celtics chapter read. I loved that dearly and laughed plenty of times, but the rest of his stuff isn't as good. Just ordered Gravity's Rainbow and Love in the Time of Cholera. Figured I'd go through professed favorite books floating around this thread after I finish up some J.M. Coetzee. Maybe I'll read a Mick Foley book next!