It Begins

Well, yesterday went about as well as could possibly be hoped.

Washington looks to be horrible, maybe beyond horrible (Go, Ty!), and Michigan's defense is nearly as putrid as ours was last year. I can't decide which loss makes me happier. On top of that Pitt looked awful in their loss to Bowling Green, while BC only scored 21 points against Kent State. Navy beat up Towson State, which, apparently, exists. I didn't know that. San Diego State lost to 1 AA Cal Poly (A gimme game just got gimmier.), while North Carolina nearly lost to a 1 AA opponent of their own. Syracuse got flattened by Northwestern. Ouch. I didn't see Michigan State play, but they seemed to give Cal a pretty good game. How good is Cal though? USC, of course, was transcendent. I should probably add that Stanford looked pretty good Friday night against Oregon State, who seem to have a horrible defense. There that's everyone, since Purdue was idle also.

Ordinarily I'd be rooting for all opponents (except Michigan) so that we would have as strong a schedule as possible. This year is different. Charlie Weis has recruited one good class followed by two exceptional ones. A winning record nearly guarantees a third exceptional class and near parity with USC, hence the joy at yesterday's events.

Someone Is Going to Pizza Hut . . .

The image in the foreground is, as far as I can tell, macaroni and cheese with bacon. I rest my case.

The Game Is Afoot

Don't Worry, He's Nuanced.

For the Jihad Needs Containin'!

Do Not Vote for This Man

That is all. Carry on.

Informative

In that not informative kind of way. Was there any point to that video? Any pertinent information as to how Notre Dame would fare this year? Sheesh.

Also, Mike Ragone is out for the year with a partially torn ACL. Good thing freshman Kyle Rudolph has been practicing so well. Still, not a good thing for a freshman to be the second string tight end by default, for a coach who likes to use two tight ends so much. Yeatman looks to be solid though not spectacular, so the only tight end who's going to make significant plays this year is probably going to be Rudolph.

It's a Trap!

So from what I can tell from his article, Linker thinks it desperately unfair for those diabolical conservatives to pass laws highlighting the contradictions of supporting abortion. If only they wouldn't be so uppity.

My Favorite Star Wars Mock Up

What About Football?

Notre Dame started practice on Friday, much to my (and I assume Rico's) delight, since that means we're only four weeks away from the first game.

Since practice now enters its third day (still without pads, I might add), the only real news is the depth chart. No real surprises, save the formal acknowledgment that Harrison Smith is our new strong side linebacker. Since he only weighs 212 lbs. (when 250 are needed for a 3-4 outside linebacker), this may pose a problem. However, knowledgeable posters on Irish Eyes have said that our 3-4 defense has been tweaked so that one outside LB (Kerry Neal or John Ryan) will play with his hand down. How this modified 3-4 differs from a 4-3 is not clear.

Another bit of news is that Steve Filer is practicing as the third string strong side LB. Since he's already 235 lbs., the hope is that he'll be advanced enough to take over the starting position next year, which would bump Harrison back to safety and bring us back to a tradition 3-4.

Right now the 2009 linebacking corps looks like:

Will: Kerry Neal, John Ryan, Kallen Wade, Darius Fleming (I wouldn't be surprised if Fleming shoots up to second string and Ryan moves to defensive end)
Mike: Brian Smith, Toryan Smith, Anthony MacDonald
Jack: Anthony MacDonald or Dave Posluzney
Sam: Steve Filer, ?

Dan Fox is the only outside LB committed to Notre Dame right now for the incoming class of 2009. Carlo Calabrese, also committed, will be an inside LB. This is more evidence that the Notre Dame defense is two years away. A team shouldn't have to rely on sophomores to start. We just don't have the numbers right now.

USA! USA!

Ah, the Olympics. A time when Americans of all creeds and colors can unite behind the principle that a lot of foreigners are weird looking and talk really funny. But perhaps more importantly, it's a time when Americans care about the results of sports like swimming, gymnastics, and the shotput. For two weeks, we're all fans of Kerri Strug, Rulon Gardner, and Michael Phelps.

I freely admit that I'll watch almost any sport when Team USA is involved. The sheer joy I get from watching an American dunk a 5'4" South Korean's head in the pool during a water polo match is nearly incomprehensible.

I don't know how to put this,

but I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.

Once again, my insght and striking observatory powers get me a spot in ESPN's live blog of a major golf championship.

9:56 a.m.: Great e-mail from Ryan in Milwaukee:

Doesn't Kenny Perry's scratched cornea improve his chances of winning? After all, this is the year of the injured victor.

Excellent point. OK, I'm sticking with him to make it 4-for-4 for recently/currently injured/ill players this year.

Based on my success, you might think it's easy to get yourself mentioned in one of these blogs. You'd be wrong.

Matthew 7:7

(Minor spoilers ahead, if you're one of the few people who haven't seen The Dark Knight yet. Seriously, $400 million in 18 days?)

I've got nothing better to do than respond to anonymous critics. In short, The Dark Knight was quite good.

The script was generally well written. My view is fairly unique, but my favorite element was the Harvey Dent-Batman subplot. The way they established the two "heroes" as foils was really well done. Plus, it set up a very good ending.

As many people have said, the movie was quite dark; it really forces the audience to confront some awful situations and doesn't find easy ways out. It's refreshing, because it really stands the recent superhero movies, even the good ones, on their head. As much as I've enjoyed the Spiderman, X-Men, and Iron Man movies, this brought a whole other element that those didn't have.

The acting was almost uniformly superb. Just as in Batman Begins, when your minor characters are portrayed by Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman, you're in good hands. Maggie Gyllenhaal was an improvement over Katie Holmes, though I didn't detest Holmes as much as Big Jim did. Aaron Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent was passable if a little cliched, though that was more a function of the character than the acting. And Christian Bale plays a rich, charming, possibly crazy badass as well as anyone (see also American Psycho). I think that about covers it.

That about covers it, right?

What's that you say?

Ah yes, the gay cowboy! Heath Ledger was very good portraying the Joker, but I don't think he was quite as unbelievable as many have claimed. What people generally have not acknowledged is this: the character was extremely well written. The Joker, especially as envisioned by the writers, is a compelling, intriguing, disarming figure. His completely amoral, psychotic provided a rich landscape for Ledger to use. Granted, ledger used it well, but I'm pretty sure that other actors could have done nearly as well with it.