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I’m going to slag off the University of Oregon football team. Not because they are going to the Rose Bowl and the team I support, Stanford, isn’t (I dislike such petty player-hatin’). I won’t even be mocking the fact that their mascot is the Ducks. …OK, maybe I will a little. But my real point is that U of O’s team should be called the Clothes Horses.

It’s not news that the athletic program in Eugene has assloads of money, very much of it flowing from alumnus Phil Knight, founder of athletic apparel behemoth Nike, Inc. As a result, this football team has a bigger wardrobe than a Lake Oswego debutante. I’ve been a football fan for a long time, and I’m used to your basic two uniforms per team: home and away. I’ll admit that the NFL’s mixing in nostalgic “throwback” uniforms appealed to my own history-nerdiness, save for the occasional ghastly misstep (of which I blogged not long ago). However, the Ducks have taken things to a new level, all but erasing the line between football season and fashion week. Check out this fancy shit:
preseason unveiling
According to GoDucks.com, this first re-design of the football uniforms since all the way back in… um, 2006, is all about sound science: Read the rest of this entry »

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As much time and hassle as it saves me, handling my accounts online isn’t completely free of drawbacks. Although I may provoke a flurry of patronizing tsk-tsking from the online-security paranoiacs, the drawbacks I’m going to address don’t have to do with whatever chance might exist of my identity being stolen. I’m talking about the unwanted extra email that so many of my online accounts continually send me, no matter how many times I “unsubscribe” from these “special offers and information for account holders,” or whatever the euphemism may be.

Let’s illustrate this bitch. On my Citi/AT&T Universal Card, I signed up as per usual for the “paperless” option—online statements, online auto-payments, emailed confirmations thereof, and emailed notices in case of any problems with limits or payment processing. When I selected these services, I was careful to specify my desire to receive no other emails from the credit card other than these specific statement and payment notices. Nevertheless, here is a junk email I received from them this morning. Read the rest of this entry »

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I like CVS. The one near my new apartment even has an Rx counter with a drive-thru window. Like most any Angeleno, I feel instant affection for any merchant that allows me to patronize their store without exiting my car. Plus, you gotta admire their self-sustaining marketing strategy. Supply and demand is for amateurs—these guys are rockin’ some cause and effect. Check it out:

Darn it. If I’d been paying attention I could have saved $5 when I bought¹ $20 or more of Halloween candy.

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¹ Yes, that’s right: $5, and one pronoun. Look at the flyer again.

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The following is text I composed for the “Additional message to President Obama” field, after I had signed my name to CredoAction.com’s petition “Tell Obama: The public option is not optional.” I urge all of you who read this while the health care reform issue is still current to do the same. Unless you don’t agree with me. No, fuck that — if you don’t agree I still want you to sign it.

Health care reform has been the issue of greatest concern to me for a long time. Therefore, in the following I will make every effort to temper my vehement language and trust that you will pardon me if a mild profanity or two do creep in.

If you punt on the public option, this whole initiative will have been in vain. All that would be left in the bill would be the window dressing. Window dressing, without a bloody *window*! Read the rest of this entry »

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Just when you thought my blogging inconsistency couldn’t get any more shameful, here it is – my first post since September.  As even a cursory glance will show, C&B has been mute during a period filled with events of historic significance: the spectacular collapse of American financial conglomerates, bringing the national (and hence, global) economy to the brink of utter ruin; the election of the first African-American President of the United States, who furthermore appears to be capable of getting America up off the mat;  and the lamentable passage of Proposition 8 in California, inserting language into the state constitution to strip rights away from gay people… to name a few.

Therefore, what out of this abundance of profound current events is it that has finally dragged me back to the blogging pad?

This past weekend, my previously blogged-upon fantasy football team, the E.J. Junior Sr. Junior High Grumpy Hippos, ended a dismal 2008 season out of the league playoffs.  In the two coming weekends of playoff games between the four qualifying teams, we remaining six losers have the option of playing each other in meaningless “grudge matches” if we want.

2008-whip-standings

I emailed such a challenge to fellow playoff outcast Heath, our league’s commissioner, owner of the Opa Locka Bowlsnappers.  I reasoned that he would be smarting from his playoff exclusion more than anyone else, because it represents the end of his stunning streak of four consecutive league championships. What’s worse than missing the playoffs after a Snap da Bowl four-peat? Losing a grudge match to the league’s last-place team, i.e., mine.

Heath emailed me back a little while ago to accept my challenge. He did, however, ask me one question that I wasn’t immediately ready for: “What do you want to call the game?”

Having now spent a not-too-long but nevertheless indefensible amount of time considering possible answers, I turn now to you, the reader who somehow is here despite my not having posted in ages, to resolve this hugely significant matter. Please consult your deepest moral fiber, and vote.

UPDATE: no need to try to vote, because the poll is closed. The image below shows the final result.

poll results

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