Dear Mike Hart,

Next spring you'll have a big NFL contract, but today you are a loser.

Thanks for sticking around, Cap'n Attitude.

Highway Message of the Day

This message was alternating on one of the signs along 315 today:

FOOTBALL
USE
LANE

...

DINOSAUR
USE
ACKERMAN

The Buckeyes' open practice was tonight, and even if that weren't common knowledge it's not hard to figure out what a generic reference to "FOOTBALL" means when you're on 315. It's also not hard to picture a T-Rex crashing through swarms of witless commuters, veering right to exit at the last second and not even signaling.

I was pretty amazed, what with the open practice gates opening at 5:15, at how light traffic was this afternoon. Presumably some portion of northbound traffic saw today's driving instructions directed at dinosaurs, said "F that noise," and promptly exited at the Medical Center.

Juice

Thought you'd heard the last of O.J. Simpson? I, for one, was hoping* the miserable creep would see continued fame only via tabloids on his way to hell. Mankind is not so fortunate.

O.J. has an upcoming interview on Fox where he'll push his new book (published by a Fox subsidiary) describing how he would have killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend. Hypothetically. If he'd done it.

In a promotional clip for the interview Simpson is shown answering questions posed by an unseen woman.

"You wrote, 'I have never seen so much blood in my life'," the woman asks.

"I don't think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood," Simpson answers.

If anyone still had themselves convinced that O.J. Simpson is not a murderer, so much for that. Let's say O.J. were innocent. Would an innocent man describe, in graphic detail, murders he was once tried for committing? What if one of the victims was his ex-wife, and the mother of his children? And how's that tireless search for the murderer coming? As a coworker said, "I think it's safe to assume the killer's not hiding on a golf course."

Enjoy this while it lasts, O.J. - your time will come.

* I just finished watching The Punisher again. I wish Thomas Jane would have at O.J. with an unnecessarily complicated combination of arrows, knives, explosives and fire. For days.

Oh, Reporters

The right wingers have had their chance to run the party, and they did so poorly.

That's the "big idea" from The Other Paper's Dan Williamson in the November 2nd issue, in his piece titled "Out of the driver's seat and back to the pews." It's like when they printed the paper, they wanted to save people the trouble of actually reading Williamson's article - the above quote is the excerpt highlighted in the center of the page. The title and the quote aren't so much biased as completely stupid.

Which "right wingers" are Mr. Williamson referring to, and when did they "run the party"? In the paragraphs preceding our quote, he talks about evangelical turnout in the 2004 presidential campaign... and about May 2nd of this year, when Ken Blackwell and Sandra O'Brien won their primaries. That's it.

Either the voting on those two dates is equivalent to "[having] their chance to run the party," or Dan Williamson thinks the Republican leadership we've had for the past few cycles is a deeply conservative one. I'm really not sure which of those assertions would be more silly. Reading the article, it seems like this quote fits in more as generic celebration than anything. The mindless Jesus-drones are being dragged out of public office, and it's about time! That wild right-wing Bob Taft and his... er... tax increases?

If Ken Blackwell loses on Tuesday, it won't be because his faith was too conservative or his ideas were outlandish. It will be because Ted Strickland held the liberals by being one of them, and held enough of the rest of us by virtue of having a D next to his name. Dan Williamson and every center-left/left/scary-left pundit and politician can pretend this is a failure of conservatism if they'd like. But, had the R's currently in charge led like conservatives instead of tax and spenders with conservative rhetoric, we'd be reading more whining and less gloating in the press about now.

No, Seriously

Last night I saw a movie trailer that made me wonder: who keeps giving the Wayans brothers money?


I particularly enjoy the tagline "From the guys who brought you White Chicks." It's as if Pepsi were pushing a new flavor and chose to advertise it as "From the folks who invented arsenic."

For legal reasons I should mention that the image is copyright Sony Pictures. Thanks, Sony.

A High-Pitched Flood

I spent the better part of yesterday at the grand Ohio State Fair with my little sisters. The fair itself was nothing to get worked up about - it's like a bigger, more crowded version of the county fair back home, minus the friends and family. We did get to watch dogs catch frisbees, and the butter cow is always fun to see.

We were at the fair, though, for the evening concert at the Celeste Center. The younger of my two sisters is a big Saving Jane fan, and the Columbus band was opening for Bo Bice. Our middle sister is also a Saving Jane fan, although she refers to the band as "she," as if the lead singer's name was Saving. And... I'm... not really their target demographic.

Nonetheless, I loved the show. Having two little sisters means unavoidable exposure to a lot of Gilmore Girls, Reba, and so on, but in the case of Saving Jane I'm more than happy to be included. I like groups who write their own music, and Saving Jane falls into this category - with better songs than what's written for Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson. Who, yes, I've heard a lot of on account of the above-noted little sister factor. Actually, Marti's lyrics make me wish my sister hadn't told me her name; I'm sure that knowing it somehow takes me past crush and into weird celebrity obsession.

The band played energetically and, not surprisingly, very well. They did a long set - most of the hits from their current album and a new one they'd never performed before - considering that they were the opening act. Live, as on the album, their music fits the lyrics throughout both the noisy and the softer songs. And the lead singer has one heck of a voice... she sounds at least as good live as in the studio. At the end of their performance (which included a Better Than Ezra cover, which was awesome), an Expo Center employee came out to announce that the band would be signing autographs at the merchandise booth.

WEEEAAIIIEEE!!! was the immediate sound that came from every direction. By the time they had heard a few songs, even the girls who had come for Bo Bice were sold on Saving Jane. My sister wanted an autograph, and we were swept along by a deluge of shrieking 14 year olds. I almost had to fight a kid - who looked the type that should be a lineman but isn't because he's too busy sitting in the dark thinking Goth thoughts - when he practically plowed over my sisters to get in front of them in line.

As I stood there surrounded by junior high girls, thinking about what to say to strike a balance between "too cool for you" and "your words are my reason for living," I thought about the band. Here you've got six people about my age who have just spent the last hour working their various parts off... and now they get to meet a few normal fans who wanted to say "you guys are great" mixed in with a whole lot more crazies who just have to get a piece of the action. For all the work they must do writing, rewriting, practicing, traveling, and performing, there's no small amount of PR tacked on top.

Which is why I didn't feel too bad when a security guard came through the line 20 minutes later to tell us no more Herbie Hancocks would be given. All but one member of the band is from Columbus, and they get to spend a whole two days at home before racing off to who-knows-where. Godspeed, Saving Jane... and gimme a call sometime!

Definitions

One of the most important things about setting up a website - probably number two, behind knowing why you're making one - is thinking of a good name.

Well I usually don't think of good ones, so "Overgrad" is what you get. I wanted something that described being finished with college and nothing I could think of was catchier or more succinct. This little site, then, will be dedicated to the sort of phase-limbo of being done with school but not particularly different for it. You get your degree, you find a job, and then what?

What, indeed.

A Test Post For the Ages

Hours, nay, half-days from now, history will look back upon this entry with the utmost of respectful disinterest.