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We ordered the night of the…

We ordered the night of the game, and I got a shipping notification from MDen this afternoon.

My kids took a picture with…

My kids took a picture with him when he was leaving the stadium after the game. He seemed totally fine and was talking to a lot of the kids/fans. 

I don't know whether it…

I don't know whether it addresses the football/sports/energizing part or not, but "Destiny is calling me" seems pretty appropriate for this football team for the past couple of years.

I was in my second year of…

I was in my second year of graduate school at UM.  I lived in an apartment on Hill Street and woke up late for a class on North Campus. While I was getting ready to leave, a good friend from undergrad called me from Chicago and told me to turn on the TV, where I saw the news coverage in the aftermath of the first plane. Then…the second plane hit.  Stunned silence from the news people.  I watched the coverage in shock until after the towers collapsed. Then, I went to one of my later classes, but I’m not sure why.  I just remember the feeling of wanting to do something “normal.”  I was surprised that almost the entire class was there, but all the prof did was turn on the TV, and we watched more news coverage for the whole hour.  Then, I drove back to my apartment and waited for my roommate to get home. I still vividly remember the dreamlike (or nightmare like) feeling of that day, the rest of that week, and then the weekend when all of the college/NFL games were cancelled.  Also, walking around outside and not seeing any planes/contrails in the air.  You don’t think about how strange that is until it stopped. 

Risk 1.0 bot

Risk 1.0 bot

Just to clarify, "Hail to…

Just to clarify, "Hail to the Orange" is the alma mater for the University of Illinois (like "The Yellow and Blue" is for Michigan).  It was originally written in 1910.  I am not sure whether the title had anything to do with the words used in "The Victors" (written in 1898), but if it truly isn't "original," you have to give them some credit for sticking with it for more than 100 years.

LOL...no, but the other high…

LOL...no, but the other high school across town is the Tigers, so I guess it was a trend to pick nonsensical mascots.  It also looks like they changed the logo a bit since I was there.  We used the University of Florida logos back then, including the script "Gators" on the helmets.

I went to high school at…

I went to high school at Crystal Lake South (class of '96, so a long time ago, but still...).  We had some decent teams back in the day, but I think that it is cool that the Gators are finally sending a kid to the Big Ten (and to Michigan, no less).  Fun fact:  the high school fight song is "Hail to the Victors" (with different words, of course).

Finished first in the…

Finished first in the regular season in my first fantasy football effort (beginner’s luck!):

QB:  Matt Ryan

RBs:  Ezekiel Elliot, Saquon Barkley

WRs:  Julio Jones, Mike Evans

TE:  Travis Kelce

Flex:  Nick Chubb

D/ST:  Chicago Bears

K:  Ka’imi Fairbairn

Bench:  Mitchell Trubisky, Mark Ingram, Sony Michel, Sammy Watkins, Josh Gordon, Corey Davis, Denver Broncos

On to the playoffs!

I feel so bad for him.  He…

I feel so bad for him.  He was just on the Denver 9NEWS Broncos weekly show yesterday talking about his time at Michigan, how hard it was coming back from multiple knee injuries, and how excited he was about getting his chance to finally play in the NFL.  Awful.

My experience (shopping for

My experience (shopping for toys for two little boys) has been that you had better prepare to get severely gouged on price when shopping for popular toys (e.g. Star Wars, Transformers, Marvel/DC, etc.) on Amazon, compared to the brick-and-mortar stores.  You are just as likely to find someone reselling the toys on Amazon with a gigantic markup that they bought elsewhere as you are to find a good deal.  I would say that you are actually paying a premium to use Amazon, in those cases.  Your mileage may vary...

There are a ton of Illinois

There are a ton of Illinois alumni in the St. Louis area, and it is not too far from Champaign (only about 45 minutes farther away then Columbia, MO, where the University of Missouri is).  It could be that they are related to/friends with someone who went there, the high school coaches could have ties to Illinois, etc.

I would tell your Hokie

I would tell your Hokie friend that the following NFL teams would disagree with him:

1980 Oakland Raiders

1997 Denver Broncos

2000 Baltimore Ravens

2005 Pittsburgh Steelers

2007 New York Giants

2010 Green Bay Packers

All wild card teams that won the Super Bowl without winning their division.

I was there for ClockGate in

I was there for ClockGate in 2001.

I was a graduate student at U of M and my brother was an undergrad at MSU.  Before the game, I tailgated with my brother and many of his friends (all MSU students).  In general, I keep a low profile at road tailgates (especially at MSU and OSU) and, in this case, I was only interested in catching up with my brother and his friends because it had been a while since I had seen all of them.  We were constantly interrupted by nearby MSU fans talking smack to me (at best).  The worst was a girl student that tried to spit in my face (and instead hit my chest) and then knocked my beer out of my hand.

At the game, we sat in the back of the student section.  I had my hat grabbed and thrown away by a drunk fan and saw a fellow Michigan fan get a cup of soda dumped on him a couple of rows in front of us.  Obviously, given the result of the game, it was not a great way to spend an afternoon.  That was not the first time that I had attended a Michigan game in East Lansing but it was the last.  It is simply not worth it to me when the visiting Michigan fan experience at other stadiums is significantly better (even at OSU, in my experience).

I hope that you have better luck on Saturday!

He was just an Associate

He was just an Associate Professor when I was getting my Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering (2000 - 2002).  I never took any classes with him but I interacted with him from time to time.  He always seemed like a nice guy and he was obviously very sharp.  My guess is that he will make a very good Dean.

Isn't it possible that if

Isn't it possible that if revised policies from 2011 forced a re-evaluation of this case that there were many other cases to re-evaluate as well?  I would imagine, sadly, that there were more instances of similar conduct amongst the general student population during this time frame and there may have been a significant backlog of cases to review.  That could explain the time that it took to come to this conclusion.

To be clear, I'm not excusing or defending the actions of the persons involved, only providing a possible explanation for the delay in the final decision since the new policies were enacted in 2011.

Close call, but 2001 for me

The 1990 hack job was simply awful, but the 2001 game takes the cake for me, for many reasons.

I was in graduate school at Michigan and I went to visit my brother, who was an undergrad student at State, to go to that game. Before the game, we were tailgating (adults and students, all Sparties) and as I was walking around the tailgate area, a girl student Sparty ran up to me, tried to spit in my face (hitting my chest) and knocked the beer out of my hand, spilling it all over me.

Our tickets were in the student section (not a great idea, in hindsight). During the game, I saw a fellow Michigan fan sitting a few rows in front of me get an entire cup of soda dumped on his head. At one point in the second quarter, a drunk student ran over to me, yanked my Michigan cap off of my head and threw it away, never to be seen again. When I expressed my frustration to my brother about this event, I had the father of a girl student sitting in front of me tell me to stop complaining and ask me what I expected anyway - I don't know, how about not having my personal property ripped off of my head and thrown away?

Then, when the game turned into the disaster that it was, it was the coup de grace on a horrible football experience. Before the touchdown, I remember frantically looking back and forth from the field to the clock, expecting the clock to run out and then being completely dumbfounded when it paused for that extra beat of time on one second and then stopped. You know the rest. Afterward, the guy who stole my hat came up to me and apologized. I shoved him. It wasn't the first time I had been to a game in East Lansing, but it was the worst college football experience I have ever had and I haven't been back there for a game since.

He missed throw #3

My wife and I thought the exact same thing, so we re-watched it multiple times too.  The last time we watched it we noticed that the official's hands didn't go up for the third throw.  It sure looks like the ball goes in, but if you look just above the ball hopper after the third throw you will see the football bouncing off of the ground.  Crazy.