TheTastyGreek

I am a shameless self-promoter. Also, Courtland and I have been seen in the same place at the same time. Of course... I wear glasses, but he doesn't. It's a classic secret identity technique.

It was a bad sign when Todd Dodge got off to the worst start of any coach in the history of Sun Belt football. And it was a disappointing milestone when, one year later, he set the new record for longest conference losing streak in Sun Belt history. There have been lots of discouraging signs along the way. But as bad as the Todd Dodge Equivalent Futility List may have been... As depressing as the stats for coaches who start their tenure with 3 sub-.500 seasons were... Those could all be dismissed by pointing to one or two rare exceptions. But would you like to know the names of all the coaches, dating back to 1881, that have had three straight seasons of double-digit losses to start their tenure at a school and have then gone on to reach .500 in any subsequent season for that school? I can tell you. ____________. There you go. It's never happened in the history of NCAA football. Not one time, by any coach, at any school, in any era, over a period of nearly 130 years. Ever. If Dodge gets fired, anyone who thinks it was premature should consider that nifty historical tidbit and weigh it against our likelihood of beating Arkansas State.

That is really, really weird. Except for the very small stations that have their tower on site (like KLDT), everyone routes their signal through a transmitter out in Cedar Hill. Locals might remember a few years ago, one of the towers was damaged and a few radio stations and one TV station were out of commission for a little while until they could get their signals re-routed. Usually, there's a dedicated transmitter engineer that works like a lighthouse keeper. That's not just figurative... There's a responsibility to make sure the flashing lights are working to help keep pilots from crashing into the antenna towers. I have a friend who worked at an NPR station, and there was a giant Big Brother sign on their wall that constantly asked "HAVE YOU LOGGED THE TOWER LIGHTS???". Transmitter stations are generally set up so that the engineer on-site can serve as backup redundancy for local master control. If something goes wrong at the station, they can re-route what signal is being sent out over the channel. After Hurricane Opal made landfall back in the 90's, there was a station in Atlanta that unexpectedly lost power due to rainstorms. They couldn't get their generator working, so they had to improvise. They fed network signal direct through the transmitter station, then did their morning local news in the parking garage. They used a microwave truck to send a one camera signal that the transmitter sent out straight, and they just read off paper with a bunch of parked cars in the background. If they just had a fire at the station in Fort Worth, they shouldn't have gone off the air. The only way that happens is if they've cut back so much that they don't have a transmitter engineer on duty. It's not inconceivable that they might not have someone camped out overnight... But there should have been someone with an emergency beeper on-call to cover this sort of problem. A well run engineering department has a protocol that dictates who alerts the on-call engineer, and the on-call guy or girl is supposed to be within a very short distance. I worked at one of the most shoestring, cut-corner, ghetto radio operations in the history of broadcasting, and our engineering emergency protocols had a 40 minute tolerance. Barring some sort of citywide disaster that made transportation impossible, there was never a situation that didn't have the on-call engineer on site and working within 40 minutes, and that's just because the overnight on-call guy lived in Denton and the network operations center was in Dallas. If the problem was only in Fort Worth... Somebody sucks at running their department. Because a problem like this gets fixed by pushing 3 buttons on a router, maximum. If someone was at the transmitter, it's literally a 2 second fix.

If it's been an hour, I'm betting it's the transmitter at Cedar Hill. If the problem were with their national feed, they'd have a "Technical Difficulties" graphic up at their local master control in Fort Worth. If the problem was at their local master control, they'd just route the national satellite feed directly at the transmitter, and you'd be seeing public service announcements about drugs and smoking and forest fires instead of local commercials. Actually... Now that I think about it, NBC did a deal with their owned and operated stations called Hubbing (or something like that). They run master control for multiple stations out of a handful of regional locations. I think Dallas runs out of Tulsa. This could be a problem with their signal from Tulsa (or wherever the hub that serves Dallas is) to Cedar Hill.

UCLA students?

I actually didn't realize those were Ticket drops, but I did realize you weren't seriously taking shots at me.

We'd better not be jacking up 3's. And if we miss a single free throw... So help me, I don't know what I'll do.

I don't get it, I just perpetuate it. Like in school when I didn't understand slang that the older kids used. As long as I'm laughing, too... Nobody's laughing at me.

Fixed it for ya. Also, as I've already confessed... I was born near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Which, in the native Algonquin language, means "the good land". Thanks, Alice Cooper!

As in, we keep going in circles and/or generating 0's.

I can express our entire football program as a standard polar function.

Which one? Navajo? Sioux? Cherokee? I get so confused...

I think I saw him in a fedora, once. I hope like hell it wasn't a pork pie.

Hipsterism can be like herpes- a lifelong, incurable condition.

I blame my father.

Now everyone here has. Put him in the pile. College experience, defensive coordinator (tend to do better as HC's than offense guys), silver fox...

I'm not from Greece. I was born in Wisconsin. Also, I live in Dallas, and it's very flat here.

The stuffed grape leaves were almost certainly dolmathes. It's not inappropriate to dip them in the hummus; most Greek people wouldn't, but many non-Greeks find them a little dry.

Think of hummus as salsa. I wouldn't tell anyone there's a right or wrong way to eat anything they enjoy. But when you're eating hummus, it's basically the same deal as salsa. People might look at you funny if you're just spooning it up. But if it tastes good and you're happy and it's not going to kill you, who cares? Tell the Mrs. that if she doesn't like the way you eat hummus, then she ought to get in the kitchen and bake you some cookies or a pie so you'll have something else to eat. Then, raise your arm across your body in a menacing way.

For Harvard/Yale? I think we could be convinced to take a guest submission. If nothing else, I'd just love to see pictures of so many monocles and top hats at a tailgate.

My parents are retired and spend 4-5 months in Greece every year now. Depending on when you'll be there in September, you may have two great tour guides eager to meet and entertain you. Either way, let me know when the time gets closer and I'll be delighted to help you plan some activities. As for Crete, I have an uncle that was born there. After he took early retirement from Olympic Airlines, he moved back and now he grows olives, grapes, and a very little bit of papyrus in a tiny town called Venerato. Every time I've been to Crete, I've spent most of my time there just taking it easy. If you're going on business, you'll probably be in Heraklion (or maybe Chania... But I'm almost sure it'll be Heraklion) and that's probably the best place to do easy tourist stuff. Check out the fortress that lines the harbor. If you have the time and the resources, take the very short trip to the south shore of the island and see the Matala. One place I've never been, but always wanted to go, is Knossos- the Labyrinth. Definitely call or message me when you're ready to start planning any trip over there.

Harvard/Yale? Awesome. Take pictures.

I actually watched part of the Ukraine game. Called my Mom after it ended. My brother and I actually own Greek national team jerseys that some of our relatives sent us after the 2004 Euro Cup victory. Looks like we'll have to break them out again next year. I can guarantee KRAM that I'll watch at least three soccer games in 2010.

Holmen played a LONG time while carrying four fouls. I wanted to bang my head against the wall when he shot that three... But the way he handled foul trouble showed tremendous maturity.

If a tuition-paying sheep in good academic standing wants to run for homecoming court... I honestly don't give a crap. Because it's HOMECOMING COURT. Maybe at Western Kentucky, a farm animal could get enough fraternity votes to win an election... But I doubt it ever happens here. And even if it does, it's HOMECOMING COURT - freakin' transient... Never mind.