It’s Game Day!

The weather this morning is bleak, but the Weather Channel promises that it will be downright miserable by the 6:30 kickoff. No one around here knows what to expect from the Cats this season. They finished a surprising 7-5 last year and of the 5 losses, 3 were lost in the last minutes of the game (or seconds in the case of LSU). But we lost several key players to graduation and Baylor hired away our coach for much more money than KY was willing to pay. That means that the seniors are now playing for their 3rd coach in 4 years. That can’t be good. The morning line has us as a 5½ point favorite over Louisville, not that that means anything.

In South Carolina football news, Clemson kicked off Tommy Bowden’s last year as head coach by lying down and playing dead for Georgia, 30-0. It must have been a long drive home for the Tiger faithful yesterday evening. Tigerpundit did the postmortem.

In Columbia, South Carolina beat Louisiana-Lafayette by 7. The only problem is that they were supposed to beat them by 24. Even though it’s a win, will this be a second straight bowl-less year for Gamecock fans?

Update: In honor of the day, I changed the heading to Blue and White. It’s not exactly Kentucky Blue, but it’s as close as I’m going to get this morning.

3 Faces of Charlie

I’m on vacation and shouldn’t be thinking of politics but it’s an illness. Recently I wondered if Charlie Condon could re-invent himself in the race for the US Senate. Evidently Brad Warthen of The State is wondering the same thing:

“I’ve written in the past that there were two Charlie Condons — “the soft-spoken, thoughtful Charlie,” and “the public Charlie Condon. The demagogue. The headline-grabber who will inject himself into every issue where he can occupy the popular side.”

What we’re seeing here is a sort of third Charlie Condon, an amalgam of the two, a candidate who is willing to be serious in public about fundamental issues, and to stake a major political campaign on that premise.

It will be interesting to see whether he sticks with it — and whether it works. If it does, maybe other candidates will try it. That would be a very good thing.”

I couldn’t agree with the last paragraph more. When the campaign heats up, can good Charlie keep bad Charlie in check?

On The Road

My flights from Charleston to Cincinnati, and from there to Lexington yesterday were uneventful and on-time. That’s the way I like them. They were my first flights since newer, supposedly stricter, security regulations went into effect for electronic devices so I decided to travel without laptop and digital camera this time. (I have access to both here). Since I wasn’t checking a bag, I printed out my boarding pass at home before leaving for the airport. When I got to gate security, my bag and cell phone zipped through the x-ray machine in record time. So did the laptops, cell phones, CD players, and cameras belonging to other people with early flights. No one was asked to turn anything on to prove that it worked. So much for heightened security. Of course, when I fly here again next weekend and bring my toys with me I’ll probably be singled out to put on a multi-media show for the screeners.

Oldest daughter wasn’t lucky Thursday when she flew to West Virginia. She had spent an hour and a half packing. She is the type who can cram 3 suitcases worth of clothes into one bag. When she got to the airport the screeners proceeded to empty it for her. Completely empty it. Then they crammed everything back in willy-nilly.

The weather forecast for the Kentucky/Louisville game tomorrow night is terrible. A 60% chance of thunderstorms. I was at a game last year that was halted for a long while because of lightning. It may happen again.

Labor Day Weekend

It will be an early night tonight. I have to be up at 4 AM, leave the house by 5 AM for a 6:20 flight to Kentucky. I’ll be visiting family and going to Kentucky’s opening football game. It will be on ESPN2 Sunday night so, if you watch it, look for me in the stands.

Blogging will be light, or not at all, until Tuesday.

Send out the St. Bernards

Paul is missing. If anyone has seen him, let me know.

John Ashcroft is My Pilot

Yes, click here.

Via N4KU.

Why can’t I look like Harrison Ford?

Recently Bryan S. at AWS posted photos of celebrities that people have accused him of looking like.

He’s lucky. No one has ever said that I look like a celebrity, just a bit player. One night, while the girls and I were having dinner in a midtown Manhattan restaurant, a woman at the next table leaned over and asked me if I was an actor. I assured her that I wasn’t. She must have thought that I was lying because she said that she was sure that she’d seen me the night before in an episode of Law & Order. Evidently I played the murderer.

I’ve since seen the episode that she saw and I hope to hell that I don’t look like that.

Today’s Handy Household Hint

Did you know that if you wash golf balls in your dishwasher, they come out cleaner than if you use the ball-washers at the tee boxes? I’m a PhD, and naturally curious, so I had to try it.

The balls I used weren’t any that I paid good money for. Since I live on a golf course, and since lots of bad golfers play the course, I collect lots of golf balls from my backyard, or from the lateral water hazard that separates my yard from the 15th fairway. I’ve tried to clean those found balls at the kitchen sink but they come out dingy looking. The balls I put in the dishwasher this morning came out bright white.

I have no idea if this torture affects their performance. I’m such a bad golfer, I doubt if I could tell the difference.

You know you need a new life when…

…the highlight of your day is going to the Grand Opening of a Bed, Bath & Beyond. To be fair to myself, the only other BB&B location in the Charleston area is 18 miles from where I live which translates into at least a 30 minute drive. The new location is just minutes away and, as an added bonus, it’s across the street from Target.

Still, it’s pretty pathetic that I find this exciting.

Yawn

To no one’s surprise, former SC Attorney General Charlie Condon announced today that he is running for Fritz Hollings’ Senate seat.

I agree with Michael Graham that Charlie is the least-electable Republican in the state of South Carolina. It will be interesting to see if he can re-invent himself before the primary. Even though it’s too early to handicap the Republican primary race, I’ll take a stab at it:

1. Jim deMint
2. Thomas Ravenel
3. Mark McBride
4. A player to be named later
5. Charlie Condon

These are my pre-season rankings. No doubt they will change as candidates say something smart, say something stupid, or (in the case of Ravenel) just say something.