Week 11: Crisis of Confidence

"Sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking

When I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head.

Sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking

When I said by rights you should be bludgeoned in your bed.

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt as the flames rose to her Roman nose

And her Walkman started to melt. 

Bigmouth, Bigmouth, Bigmouth strikes again

And I've got no right to take my place with the human race…"

They say you have to take the good with the bad.  Like when you're in a taxi in Shanghai and you're thinking to yourself, "My, this cabbie's sense of urgency certainly appeals to my complete lack of patience - so driving on the sidewalk, sure, go for it!  Juxtaposed against the prospect of eating one's meals through a straw for the rest of your life.

So processing the Louisville game was not such a straightforward exercise.  We looked… better, yes?  And boy, the team is getting a lot of experience for next year.  We didn't miss every kick - just the important one.  And for stretches, the defense looked competent.  But just not quite good enough against a team you knew wasn't as good as we were making them look. 

But can it mellow the frustrated Domer?

But I could've guessed the day would end in disappointment since it started that way - having forgot to bring my little scotch cask to the tailgater.  As you may recall, le petite keg has, unlike its owner, been maturing over the last several weeks and was ready for public distribution.  Scotchlandia's first export!  GNP growth off the charts!

Relatively few people know that many whiskeys are actually purer than their Scottish malt counterparts.  But it's those impurities that give them the latter their flavor.  In my case, perhaps too much flavor:

• Sweet top notes of premium Captain Crunch
• Undercurrents of buttery English muffin
• A rich PB (extra chunky) &J finish.

And possibly anything else I may have been eating during the distillation process - my work space wasn't exactly a clean room.  Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I had some Pringles accounting for the salty hint as well.  When tried first neat, then cut with a splash of water to help release the volatile compounds, all the subtleties of this unique malt are brought out for a sensory experience that screams northern Indiana!

Well, more for me.  And depending on how things fare on Saturday, I may need it.

Game Observations

Thanksgiving break start early?

-  Too many Louisville fans.  Too few students.  If that isn't a barometer on the state of the program...

-  Golson's shoulder is definitely not 100%.  But he wasn't why we lost.

-  To call our safeties average is disrespectful to all of the proud mediocrity out there.

-  Whatever sins Redfield and Shumate committed, it can't only be football-related.

-  Nyles Morgan.  Your hit just became the textbook definition of targeting. They'll be teaching in pre-season classrooms for years.

-  Did we really have nine freshmen on defense at one time?

-  Possibly related to the prior observation (though I have my doubts), we just might be the worst tackling team in America.

-  And outside of Cole Luke, we don't cover particularly well either.

-  Which is a problem.

-  Tough to watch Brindza's career flame out like this.

-  Thought it was pretty cool seeing Jaylon wear Joe Schmidt'd jersey.

-  Still a Kelly supporter but his habit of throwing his players under the bus in the post-game PC is getting old.

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough…

Go indoors, like sensible people.  (And on behalf of myself, Mark and Claire, thank you, Raz for the 'shelter from the storm', so to speak.)

Terry:  "Mary, isn't that your husband and son, down there?  In the second row.  In the pouring rain."

Mary:  "It sure is..."

Terry:  "That looks miserable.  Say, would you like some hot chocolate - I'm going for a top up..."

Word of the Week

man·qué adjective \mäⁿ-ˈkā\

- used to describe what a person could or should have been but never was

-  short of or frustrated in the fulfillment of one's aspirations or talents —used postpositively <a poet manqué>

Origin

French, from past participle of manquer to lack, fail, from Italian mancare, from manco lacking, left-handed, from Latin, having a crippled hand, probably from manus

First Known Use: 1773

Used in a sentence:  As the referee signaled the final 'no good', Young Terry considered the latest manqué performance by the Irish and felt only a brief numbness.  Although that might've been the lingering effects of Peter's Bloody Mary's… 

Buddy's buddy

Tarean, you deserve better. 

Unfortunately, this is all I've got for ya - a Buddy award.

Quote of the Week

"At one point, I thought life was about acquiring things.  Life is totally about losing everything..."

Mike Tyson

Substitute 'life' with 'Notre Dame football' and you've got a much more coherent 'state of the nation. To wit, 'I thought ND football was about acquiring things, like championships.  ND football is totally about losing everything, like faith, hope and self respect…" 

But not wagers, if you're Team 7. 

2014 Schedule

August

28      Rice                                  W

September

6       Michigan  -                       W

13     Purdue (Indianapolis)     W

27     @Syracuse (MetLife)      W

October 

4      Stanford                           W

11    North Carolina                 W

18    @FSU                          W  L

November

  1   @Navy                                W

  8   @Arizona State                 L

15    Northwestern                    L

22    Louisville                          L

29   @USC

The Wager: 

Team 7, looking even better every week.  

Boy that loss sure wiped out a ton of candidates...

Wins	Song	Representative Lyric	ND Application	Contestant  prediction
12	Burning Down The House	“Here's your ticket, Pack your bag. Time for jumpin' overboard...”	Man Oh Man Oh Man... if we win this much, something's getting lit up! Starting with me.	Bryan
11				Daryl, Dave M
10	Heaven	“Heaven...   is a place...  where nothing... nothing ever happens...”	Boy, attaining this level of consistent, calm excellence...  I could get used to.	Kevin C, Terry, Lini, Jerry W, Peter, Rob W
9				JP,, Ted, Mike C, Jerry C, Tim C, Bob R, Tim S, Jim S, Jay, Jim B
8	Once In A Lifetime	"And you may ask yourself, how did I get here? Same as it ever was..."	8-5... again?!  How did we get to this point of near constant mediocrity?	Brian W, Jim T, Jerry P, Tom, Kevin M, Garrett, Mark, Mike G
7				John, Ray, Blair, Alvin, Dave, Ryan, Randy, Dennis
6	The Big Country	“I wouldn't live there if you paid me.  I couldn't live that, no siree..."	Both 'A' Lot and ND football - gone the way of the dinosaur. I need to make some profound changes in my life.	Matt
5
4	No Compassion	“They say compassion is a virtue...  But I don't have the time.”	Empathy for our pathetic football program is over-rated.   I am so done.   Hello, lacrosse.
3
2	Psycho Killer	“Run run run run  run run run away… Oh oh ohhhhhh...  ay yai yai  yai yai...”	Dad is just staring at the TV. He's not even paying attention to the game. And he's drooling.
1

Schadenfreude Time

Once again, a somewhat half-hearted call out.

1.  USC  Anytime they lose is a good week.  And anything that can undermine their confidence, I'm for!

Terry's Trolls.

Jameis.  Pushing a ref? Twice?  Without any repercussions.  This is getting so predictable.

ACC.  You get closer to SEC standards every day. 

Frank Clark.  In this day and age, I consider getting kicked off any college team an achievement.  Another Michigan Man with apparent anger management issues involving women…  

An English Major Walks Into A Bar…

    

Anyone notice that all my recent cocktails are based on books none of which are within a century of present day?  Connection, or lack thereof, seemed like an apropos theme for this week's offering, given ND's distressing inability to consistently do it in any part of their game: offense, defense and especially special teams.

Howard's Blend

(Howard's End (1910))

by E. M. Forster

   

   

Sad that the writer of "Only connect" - Howard's End's epigraph - had such a tortured time doing so himself.  Edward Morgan (E.M.) Forster, the long-closeted novelist of literary masterpieces A Room With A View and A Passage To India (the last book he'd write for 50 years, until his death), imagined three distinct families in Howard's End, an English estate at the center of class tensions, inheritance resentments and the rare death-by-falling-bookcase.

      Here we blend the three distinct flavors of the vintage "Janet Howard" cocktail, for a posh but pronto drink.  This'll have you connecting in no time - with other people, God willing, not toppled furniture.

• 2 oz. brandy
• ½ oz. orgeat syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

A perfect drink for the day you receive word your wealthiest relative shuffled off this mortal coil… shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  Then  gather the bravery to ask, um, anything in the will for, you know, um, me?

Final Thought - I

Final Thought -II

Excellent to the last pour…