Greeks bearing Gifts

The Robinsons arrived today at around 10 am with many goodies... including Mountain Dew. Mary's dad accompanied me to Queen's College and had a look around Edgbaston while I worked for a couple of hours. We walked all the way home (approx. 3 miles), got some fish and chips near our house, and proceeded to consume more grease than should be legal. We plan to have some fun at the city centre tomorrow. Will blog it...

Taught my last "Gospel of John" class today... feel like I know enough about it now to teach it.

I forgot to blog on American sports logos last Thursday. Over the past 2 1/2 months, I have seen 396 New York Yankees caps/shirts (not Yankees fans mind you, just folks who know the NY stands for New York and like it), one Atlanta Braves cap, and a University of Tennessee T-shirt. The UT shirt was worn by a Queen's College student, a woman studying to become an Anglican vicar. I asked her if she liked UT, and she said that she loved Memphis, and the States in general, having returned from a 1-month stay in November. This surprised me mostly because she appeared to be a lesbian. Now, I'll admit that she never said as much, but she seemed to hint at it, and she "looked the part" (though this is certainly debatable). But she made it clear that she'd prefer to live in the States. Could it be because American Anglicans (Episcopalians) allow homosexual clergy while the Church of England does not? I have no idea and admit that I am speculating in ignorance. But, if I am right, her love of Tennessee is particularly ironic.

Now to less controversial issues... I'm now third in my NCAA "pick 'em" pool. I am optimistic on my chances of winning. I picked 10 of the sweet 16. The number one slot is occupied by one C. Smith, who picked 11 of the sweet 16. No. 2 is going downhill slowly, so I'll probably be contending soon. BK has a decent shot according to his potential points remaining, but he only picked 8 of the sweet 16.

J-Dog criticized by pick against UAB. Now that they have finally succumbed, let me lay out 5 reasons to always pick against the Blazers.
1) The UAB football program exists to suck a couple of decent in-state players away from AU and UA, thus diminishing the title hopes of either. For example, I don't doubt that UAB had one defensive back good enough to replace Will Herring. This DB would have had more sense than to bite on the fake reverses UT used to keep the SEC championship game interesting. With its blow out win, AU would have made a decent argument for playing USC.

2) Their fan base is 278 people... oh wait, 277... one just died.

3) One of the 10 lamest mascots in college sports. Its a dragon, not a blazer. This is a blazer.

4) I got a parking ticket from campus police, which I ignored.

5) My favorite Birmingham football team is Aston Villa.