Posted by Losthaven on BGN…really funny! Who says rednecks are dumb?

“Hello, is this the Sheriff’s Office?”

“Yes. What can I do for you?”

“I’m calling to report about my neighbor Virgil Smith. He is hiding marijuana inside his firewood!”

“Thank you very much for the call, sir.”

The next day, the Sheriff’s Deputies descend on Virgil’s house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but find no marijuana. They sneer at Virgil and leave.

The phone rings at Virgil’s house.

“Hey, Virgil! This here is Floyd. Did the Sheriff come?”

“Yeah!”

“Did they chop your firewood?”

“Yep.”

“Happy Birthday, buddy!”

Thanksgiving is almost here, and in this household Thursday won’t be celebrated only with family and a 25 pound turkey. Thursday also brings us the 97th edition of the Backyard Brawl, the annual football game between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Pitt Panthers. While it’s not one of the most storied rivalries nationally, it incites a great deal of passion from everyone in this region. You either support the Mountaineers or the scum from that dingy steel town.

I have wonderful memories of Brawl week, and had the pleaseure of attending several mid 90’s games. There was the ‘94 game where the good guys from Morgantown all but ran the Panthers out of that dump of a stadium, only to watch a heartbreaking comeback from the evil ones. All was right with the world, though, after the wild final two minutes ended with Chad Johnston and Zack Abraham slaying the beasts with a 65 yard game winner. In 1996 we were introduced to an awesome running back named Amos Zereoue, who took his first collegiate handoff 67 yards for a touchdown on the opening play of the game. I watched on TV in 2002 when Ben Collins preserveda victory in the new ketchup field, and celebrated when John Pennington (fellow GW grad) caught a masterpiece touchdown at Mountaineer Field last year.

I also remember the darkest year – 1997. We were up on Pitt but allowed them to tie up the game and go into overtime. They were down to a 4th & 17, but somehow ended up converting it and won 41-38. I don’t remember ever feeling so mad after a game. Things got worse when my best friend and I decided to drown our sorrows with the bottom of a pitcher. We went down to our favorite watering hole (the Sports Page, pre-dance floor) and proceeded to get lit. After awhile, some PIT fans [shudder] came in and started celebrating – IN OUR BAR! The nerve! The only thing that kept the two us, in our drunken rage, from going after all six of them was the logic our girlfriends used – that starting a fight in the bar would only get us banned from ever coming back.

Something else about Brawl week is special to me. During my college years I was in the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, and our big project was the annual Run to Pitt (or from, depending on the year). Each year the run starts at the visitor’s stadium, where the team of runners takes the game ball from the visiting coach and runs the ball, relay-style, along Route 19 to the home team stadium. On gameday, the ball is run onto the field and handed to the home coach in a pregame ceremony. Beforehand and during the run, we collected money to dontate to the Greater Autism Society of Pittsburgh. I did the Run for three years and each time it was a blast! The chapter has started a website about the Run and autism. This years run raised over $2,000 and received a nice article in the Dominion Post.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eat S**t Pitt!!!

A strange little game a buddy sent me…I like my Flash games and all but I don’t have the patience for this.

My Sage RSS feed this morning from CNET tells me that Firefox 1.0 surpassed five million downloads. Since I updated from the preview version yesterday, I wonder how close I came to being the lucky downloader.

I started using Firefox preview releases earlier this year, and I have been most impressed with it. I love the integrated pop-up blocker. No muss, no fuss, just block. I also like some of the extensions available (granted, IE had tons of add-ons, but I never had the desire back then for them). The weather.com addition to the status bar is nice – no more systray applications to crash out. And as noted, I finally joined the RSS world with the Sage extension that drops right into Firefox. Customizing the navbar really helps me keep track of Sage also.

I’m also enjoying the Thunderbird e-mail app. The junk mail controls are so much nicer than anything I’ve tried before.

Been awhile for an entry…had a houseguest and took the family to Charlotte on my business trip last week.

I’m getting disappointed – we’re nearing the end of November and no snow has fallen. I know winter isn’t officially here, but it has been so long since I’ve lived in a climate where snow is a weekly, if not daily, proposition during the colder months of the year. I’m just ready. Besides, the weather during these last few weeks has been chilly and damp. If I were to describe my ideal day, my summer would be low 70’s and sunny, my spring/autumn would be around 50, sunny & breezy, and my winter would be around 20 and snowy.

My Mountaineers are giving me heartburn. Lost the inside track to the BCS by laying an egg against BC. I knew inside that this was not a Top Ten team, but I wanted to believe so badly that they were. Besides, having lived in the heart of ACC country during last year’s debacle, I wanted nothing more than for this team to stick it to those punks. Woo-hoo. I get a 1-2 record with three lousy performances. Yes, they’ve won eight games (nine, since we play Pitt Thursday night and I hate them!)and will be bowling again, but the season still feels like a letdown.

At least our BB team won their opener. Even though I’m not a big hoops fan, I forgot how enjoyable college games are in the Coliseum. Plus, we got decent tickets to the St. Johns game in January for donating non-perishable foods. Good trade!

Closing with a thought: think back to the CBS Rudolph special we all watched at Christmas. At the end when Rudolph leads the sled team, why is Donner standing on the ground admiring his son? Shouldn’t he be up there too?