Run Ricky Run!

Ricky Williams is a famously enigmatic running back. He is one of 27 people to rush for more than 10,000 yards at the pro level. His 2002 campaign was fantastic: he led the league in rushing with 1853 yards (14th most in a single season) and in carries with 383 (14th most in one season), had 2216 yards from scrimmage (20th most in a single season), scored 17 touchdowns, and was first-team All Pro.

Things went downhill from there, perhaps because he carried the ball 392 times the next year (7th most ever in a season). That's 775 attempts in two years. I think that's the most carries ever in consecutive seasons. The closest players I can find are Larry Johnson (752 in 2005-2006), James Wilder (772 in 1984-1985), and Eric Dickerson (769 attempts in 1983-1984). Johnson and Wilder broke down the next year. Dickerson survived and even thrived but he might not be human. Throw in 97 receptions over that span and you will appreciate how many lumps Ricky took his first two years in Miami. It's no surprise that he had to self-medicate.

Ricky may have to spark mad izm again soon, as he's about to take more lumps in federal court (bonus KRS video!). Tattoo artist Stephen Allen of Crybabies Tattoo in Shreveport, LA sued Ricky Williams and Electronic Arts, Inc. in the Western District of Lousisiana for copyright infringement. According to the complaint, Mr. Allen gave Ricky Wiliams a tattoo in 2003 for $200. In 2010, Mr. Allen learned that Ricky Williams, tattoos and all, appeared on the cover of two video games made by EA Sports:

So, naturally, Mr. Allen sued Ricky Williams and EA. According to Mr. Allen's complaint, he "is the owner of all right, title and interest to the original artwork form [sic] which the tattoo on Mr. Williams' arm was created" and "[t]he artwork from which the tattoo on Mr. Wialliams' right and left arms was created is original with [Mr. Allen] and is copyrightable subject matter." He asserts that neither Ricky nor EA received his permission to reproduce, distribute, adapt, or publicly display his "Copyrighted Work."

I have a hard time seeing the tattoos in the images above but maybe they're clearer when you look at the game. And one of them seems to match one of Ricky Williams' arm tattoos:

But I'm not sure I'm buying all this. It seems to me that once you stick a tattoo on someone it is implicit that they have the right to publicly display it. And they also have the right to adapt it if, for example, they want to get a cover-up. Finally, it seems unfair that a famous person can't cash in on their fame by getting an endorsement deal without coughing up cash to their tattoo artist. But I know nothing about tattoo copyrights so maybe this is a typical cause of action. Imagine how much Lil Wayne has to pay his inkers whenever someone runs his photo in print!?! No one enjoys my lenghty pontifications so I won't spill any more ink (puns!) regarding what I think about this case.

The highlight of the complaint is Exhibit 1, a "Consent to Tattoo or Piercing Procedure & Release of Claims" from Crybabies Tattoo signed by Ricky Williams. I enjoyed this because when Ricky Williams signs his name his finishing flourish is the number 34. Check it:

Good think he never played for the Bears! Otherwise he would have to adapt (ha!) his signature to incorporate a second number. If he separated the numbers with a dash or a slash he would have the beginnings of a math problem, and he is not a mathematician. As the foregoing image shows, he can't even remember his date of birth or print his name.

I can't wait to see what happens when Mark appears on the cover of Grand Theft Auto. Perhaps we'll find out that he signs his name with a 69.

Dynasty? Dynasty.

I'm a two-time National Champion! And have you seen my girlfriend?

Brent Musberger has the Under

That's my best guess, at least. What am I talking about? Tonight's BCS Championship Game of course. What was shaping up as an epic battle between the College Football teams that Rob and TJ root for (even though neither of them attended these schools...you guys might want to read this) that would be highlighted (Kind of. Maybe?) by a post where these two matched wits and predictions for said game never materialized, sadly.

TJ is over in Italy to finally visit Chef Boyardee's grave (h/t Marls) and is unable to participate. So we thought we'd take advantage of the expansion of the G:TB staff and bring in another Notre Dame supporter (who also didn't attend the school), our very own Danimal who was kind enough to take time away from drinking in a cabana in Miami to answer some questions about tonight's BCS Championship Game. Without further ado...

Since this game is being held in the "home" stadium of one of the most annoying and obnoxious fan bases in College Football (Miami), who has the more annoyingly obnoxious fan base, Alabama or Notre Dame?

Rob: I don’t think this one’s really all that close. Alabama’s fans are far, far more obnoxious than Notre Dame’s. Between the floppy Southern frat boy haircuts of the more well-educated ones and the casual inbreeding, racism, and just general stupidity at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, there’s not that much to like about Alabama fans. Unless you’re into really, really gorgeous women in houndstooth. I’ve never really considered Domers obnoxious, unless you count Mike Golic, and he’s mostly doing schtick. Unrealistically entitled, maybe, but not obnoxious.

Danimal: I can’t answer this with firsthand knowledge yet, to be truthful. But I don’t think there will be any question it’s Bama. They just look like a bunch of dicks. As an ND fan, I will say that I did think it was in poor taste and a little classless to break out the “Domers vs Homers” & “Catholics vs Cousins” shirts. There’s no need to give the opponents more motivation to kick your ass. And it just wasn’t nice. Come on now, can’t we just have fun and get along?

(The correct answer here is still 'Miami fans'. Do you really think they care their team isn't playing in this game? Not one bit. Still plenty of douchebags throwing "The U" symbols.)

What matchup (individual or personnel groups) is most crucial to victory for Notre Dame or Alabama?

Rob: This is hardly an original thought, but Alabama’s offensive line versus the Irish front seven is massively important. It’s probably safe to say that neither unit has faced another as good as the one it’ll line up against tonight – the Tide’s arguably played better defensive fronts in the SEC than Notre Dame played on average, but that’s a small edge, if any. I’m no connoisseur of the grunt game, so I’ll save the deep analysis for someone who knows what they’re talking about, but if Alabama can wear Notre Dame down like they’ve done to so many other defenses this season, they’ll walk away with another title.

Danimal: D-Line vs Bama’s backs - TJ Yeldon & Eddie Lacy. Those guys are f’ing beasts. Men amongst boys. They scare the shit out of me. They shouldn’t be allowed to play tonight. It’s not fair.

(It's definitely up front, and that matchup up front bleeds into Bama's ability to run the ball. Well done, chaps)

In your estimation, which player must play an above average game in order for his team to win?

Rob: From the Notre Dame perspective, it’s hard to see a path to victory if Everett Golson isn’t excellent. Alabama’s only loss came against an athletic quarterback who made a shitload of mind-boggling plays. If Everett Football comes to play, he gives the Irish a dimension that’s proven to trouble the stout Tide defense.

Alabama’s two-headed tailback committee of T.J. Yeldon and Eddie Lacy are beastly. Both rolled for over 1000 yards this season, totaling 27 touchdowns in 13 games. We’ll know things are going Nick Saban’s way if they get off early. Under Saban, Alabama is 49-0 when they rush for more than 150 yards, 11-7 when they don’t. The Tide’s offense is predicated on establishing the run and using play-action to give A.J. McCarron time and space. I don’t think there’s a more important stat to keep an eye on.


Danimal: ND has to score touchdowns when they get in the red zone. This is where they consistently stalled this season. For this to happen, Golson Golson Golson, with the right plays called of course. Also – Kyle Brindza, Kicker, should ND stall inside the 20. My boy Kyle, or “Breezy” as I like to call him, needs to be perfect this evening.

(For Bama, it's Barrett Jones. He's the leader of their O-Line and their most versatile Olineman, Chance Warmack is the best. For Notre Dame it's Louis Nix. He has to command double teams to open lanes for ND's linebackers. And what do you know? They'll be going head up against one another for much of the night. You should really try and watch these two tonight)

What phase of the game do you see the opposing team's biggest weakness? How do you think that your rooting interest will attack this weakness?

Rob: I don’t think all that much of Notre Dame’s talent at the offensive skill positions. I think the Irish wideouts will have a hard time finding space against Alabama’s corners, a unit Saban coaches himself, and as a result, Golson will have to make a ton of plays after the pocket breaks down. The one obvious exception here is tight end Tyler Eifert, who I expect to be a big part of the Irish game plan, as always. I’m hoping the Tide attacks him with a variety of dirty hits and ethnic slurs. What the fuck is an Eifert, anyway?

Danimal: Does Bama really have a weakness? I guess they do – A&M beat them but they got that Johnny Touchdown fella. Is that his name? ND’s gotta spread the wealth tonight among the receivers. They get one of their weapons back, Devaris Daniels, who has been out with an injury since I don’t remember when, but a while, and he’s fucking good. Between he, Theo Riddick who is primarily a back but can line up as a WR, and the #1 TE in the draft Tyler Eifert, ND might cause some problems. It will be up to Golson to manage and execute. Get’r Done Golson!

(Bama does have a weakness, Danimal. It's their lack of pass rush. They haven't been able to do it consistently this year. Golson could make this even more challenging with his ability to improvise)

Each of these teams will have plenty of fans in South Florida for the game. Which fan base is going to look more out of place in South Beach?

Rob: This is really a push. Alabama rednecks will certainly stand out amongst the beautiful people, but the beefy, pasty Chicago contingent is gonna look awful with sunburn blisters. Notre Dame rooters will likely have better manners – I don’t expect one of them to teabag a Tide fan in the unlikely event they win.

That wasn’t one of our finest moments.

Danimal: With ND, you’ve got their alum and you’ve got the non-alum. They differ greatly. With Bama, they all look the same, and that is out of place.

(The correct answer is both. Because both fanbases have tons of great, big fat people. Duh.)

And, of course, who wins tonight and what's the score?

Rob: I’m a little nervous about how little nerves I have about this game. Maybe the two titles the Tide’s won in the last three seasons have made me complacent. Maybe I’ve overbought the SEC hype. Maybe I’m just a lousy prognosticator (though my history with Alabama games has been pretty good, right Mark?). But I don’t think the Tide has much trouble tonight. Manti Te’o will get a lot of run from the television guys, and it’s richly deserved. Notre Dame will be amped up as the game starts – might even have the lead after the first quarter. But Alabama’s offensive line is the best in the game, and they’ll take a toll. Alabama wins going away, 27-13.

Danimal: After a perfectly executed game by ND, on the plus side in the turnover battle with no TO’s, and 3-3 in field goals, ND wins 16-13.

Thanks for your efforts guys. Good luck (I don't really mean this) tonight!

Adopt a Team: Redux

Thanks to Mark's super-sleuthing, we're able to avoid a fairly embarrassing faux pas. Just ignore anything that was posted about adopting a team earlier this year.

We're honoring A Doofus Abroad by dropping a post in his inimitable style, though we'll likely spell everything correctly.

For now, at least, we welcome Fiorentina as our adopted Serie A side. The Gigiliati (lilies, in Italian, and doesn't that fit us perfectly) are currently tied for third in the league table, holding onto Italy's final Champions League spot. As far as we can tell.

Montenegran striker Stevan Jovetic leads Fiorentina with 8 goals, despite only playing in 13 of the club's 18 Serie A matches. We're also partial to Azzuri stalwart Luca Toni, who's scored 6 times in just 9 matches since rejoining La Viola after stints with numerous high-level European clubs. Obviously, given our history, we like him because we can make a Tony! Toni! Toné! reference. Argentine defender Facundo Roncaglia has a fun name to say, too.

Bravo Gigiliati! And piss off, Trevor Mbakwe.

This Week in Wrenball: Bygones

I WAS VERY FRUSTRATED!

We're out of the prognostication business, friends. After we went public with our belief in W&M's chances against Vanderbilt, the Wrens responded by laying a fully formed, perfectly rotten egg, a stinker the likes of which we haven't seen this season. And even playing like complete dogshit, were within seven points with the ball with 6:33 left. Sooooo frustrating, this game.

Deep, cleansing breaths. We won't speak of this one again.

George Mason, the Nuke Laloosh of the CAA (million dollar talent, five cent head), comes to Williamsburg this afternoon in a matchup of two squads smarting after recent defeats. Mason blew a seven-point halftime lead in a miasma of bad decision-making and cheesecloth-porous defense, yielding 54 second-half points at home in an 84-74 loss to preseason conference middlers Northeastern. (The Huskies, by the way, with a healthy Jonathan Lee joining Joel Smith in a dangerous backcourt, served notice that they'll dent some skulls in the wide-open Colonial.)

Patriot guard Sherrod Wright averages 17.5 points per game, and is on a serious roll, getting 21.2 per game over Mason's last five outings. No other player scores in double digits for GMU, but nine players average at least 11 minutes and four points apiece. Mason's capable of playing at a very high level - they beat UVA and Richmond earlier this season - but they've also shown an ability to disappear at key moments.

W&M's played enough games for Tony Shaver to know he can count on Marcus Thornton and Tim Rusthoven (17.9 and 14.0 ppg, respectively) for consistent offense. The open question heading into today's regionally televised contest (Comcast Mid-Atlantic) is which Brandon Britt and Kyle Gaillard will post. Over the Tribe's last 60 minutes of play, the two (who average a combined 22.5 ppg on 55.2% shooting) scored a grand total of...five points, all by Gaillard. Britt scored as many as Clarence did.

It's a simple game. You pass the ball. You shoot the ball. You rebound the ball. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes, it rains. And even then, you still play, because you're in a gym. Says here that Britt and Gaillard need to shake off the last two and get back to the aggressive play that made the Tribe's offense the most efficient in the conference over the season's first 10 contests.

Says here, too, that we're not predicting any damn thing about this game. Go Tribe.

(For kicks, check out Thornton's dunk/chin-up at the 2:05 mark. He got a technical, but you don't see many Tribe guards drive and dunk against SEC opponents. In fact, our research staff believes that this may be the first time its happened in the 319-year history of the school.)

Look at Big Nuts!

How about this? Danimal's first post evah. Saw this as I was leaving the not-so-polar plunge on 1/1. I did so w/my 4-year old in tow.

"Daddy, why are you taking a picture of that squirrel?" 

"Aah son, have you ever seen a nutsack like that before on a squirrel?"

He said he hadn't.

Adopt a Team: 2013

Three times we've adopted college basketball teams as our own, and three times those teams have seen their fortunes wane. We're not statisticians, but we're pretty sure that's a significant trend. So much so that we considered adopting North Carolina or Kentucky this season.

But after careful thought and a lot of discussion, we decided that the opinion of some obscure blog about a team's relative attractiveness probably doesn't have any actual bearing on that team's future performance. So we're pressing ahead. We give you our 2013 adopted team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Aaaaaaaaah!

I confess that this choice is a bit selfish, as I just purchased a snappy maroon and gold Minnesota t-shirt for myself (and similar ones for my wife and kids), and spend several days each month in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. But after watching Tubby Smith's kids close out Michigan State on New Year's Eve with an 18-2 run to improve to 13-1, I like them for basketball reasons, too.

The Gophers are led by sophomore Andre Hollins, who dropped 41 on Memphis earlier in the year, and scored 22 against the Spartans. Hollins, who almost went to Harvard, is a bouncy lead guard with top-flight athleticism. He averages 12.2 points and 3.5 assists a game as part of a balanced offensive attack.

Senior forward Rodney Williams is Minnesota's top scorer, getting 13.0 points on 56% shooting. Guard Austin Hollins, son of former NBA great Lionel Hollins averages 10.5 points and 2.3 steals, while Joe Coleman gets 10.2 points and 4.5 boards. 6'8", 245-lb local product Trevor Mbakwe leads the squad in rebounding with 7.2 per game, though his boards and points are significantly down from the previous two seasons as he recovers from a serious knee injury. Finally, all-name addition Maverick Ahanmisi leads the Gophers in three-point shooting, making 43.5% of his attempts from deep. The athletic Gophs are 15th in the nation in steals per game and 22nd in field-goal percentage defense.

All of that's interesting, and everything, but what really sold me on the Gophers is this:

Tubby Smith's new mustache screams leadership, with just enough devil-may-care whatfuckery to give opponents pause. You could see it in Tom Izzo's team down the stretch on New Year's Eve. Though they led deep into the second half, they came unglued in the face of the Tubstache's withering glare.

The Big 10(ish) is the best basketball conference in the country, so our Gophers have a tough task ahead of them. But nobody will relish the thought of traveling to Williams Arena, and Minnesota's an athletic, balanced, and versatile squad with lots of ways to score.

And there's that mustache.

The Teej Goes To Ghitaly

Florence, to be exact. And we leave tomorrow. But, I am confident my Italian lessons have prepared me for the trip:


I have been informed we have wifi in the apartment we are staying at, so look forward to unfunny and lame updates from me in the G:TB comments over the next ten days.

This Week in Wrenball: Get On With It, Already

@batogato says something about the quality of this team that I'm pissed we are going to lose. No moral victories.
— T Marls (@KingmanKong) December 29, 2012

I received that Tweet in the waning moments of the Tribe's 73-66 loss at Purdue. It encapsulates perfectly my feeling about both the game and the 2012-13 edition of the Green and Gold.

W&M led Purdue, 40-39, at halftime, and only several difficult makes by the Boilers in the half's final possessions made it that close. The Tribe overcame a sloppy start to outplay the bigger, more acclaimed Big Ten foe, shooting 60% from the floor and making half of their 10 three-point attempts. Junior forward Kyle Gaillard was unstoppable, alternately driving for lefty floaters and making triples. Gaillard's 12 led all scorers at the break, followed closely by teammates Brandon Britt and Marcus Thornton with 11 and 10 respectively.

While the Wrens couldn't keep up the offensive pace in the second frame, they still battled the Boilers tooth and nail. Tim Rusthoven's mid-lane jumper tied the game at 58 with 8:31 left. Later, Thornton's two-pointer from the wing drew the Tribe to within 66-64 with 2:21 on the Mackey Arena clock. From there, Julian Boatner and Thornton missed three-pointers on consecutive possessions, and Purdue escaped with a home win. And dozens of Futile Superfans were left to once again lament what might have, what absolutely could have and perhaps should have been.

Thornton finished with 21, and looked entirely comfortable against power conference competition. Tim Rusthoven tallied 16 and grabbed 7 rebounds despite giving away significant size to Purdue's interior defenders. The telling story of the second half, though, was the combined zero points scored by Gaillard and Britt in the final frame. The aggression both showed in the first half paid off repeatedly - its absence in the second was glaring. This completely impartial and obviously qualified observer thinks that Tony Shaver needs to sit both down in a room and show the first half film on a loop for several hours in advance of each Tribe game. Because when Britt and Gaillard were aggressive, W&M's offense was very, very hard to stop. 

More of that, please, tonight, when the Wrens travel to Nashville to play their final non-conference game against Vanderbilt. Though the Commodores have beaten Xavier this season, they've also lost by 17 to Marist, and are licking their wounds after getting curbstomped by Butler. Kevin Stallings' team is looking at an 11-day break after this contest before they start their conference schedule against Kentucky. If ever W&M sized up an SEC opponent and expected to win, it'd be this game. 

I think they do expect to win. W&M's now played three major conference opponents in 2012. (For the purposes of this argument, we're counting the Atlantic 10 as a hoops major. Sue us. Or report us to Mid-Majority, whichever.) The Tribe was within two points in the final 2:30 of each of those contests. Yes, we're unrepentant Pollyannas. Yes, Vanderbilt will likely be more athletic (once again, see, Gaillard, Kyle and Britt, Brandon for keys to W&M's chances and an counter-argument to the athleticism point), and probably bigger. But the 'Dores are young - they've only got one junior and no seniors on their roster - they don't shoot very well (41.8% on the year), and they're coming off back to back humbling losses (they fell to Middle Tennessee State before being drilled by Butler). 

So the Tribe should expect to win.

And I think they will.   

One of these days, I'll be right about something. Why not now?

The Twelve Days of Gheorghe-mas: Day Twelve

On the eleventh day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me...

Twelve Appreciations
Eleven Months of Blog Posts
Ten (ish) Gifts for Gheorghies
Nine Lists of Top 10 Things
Eight Wins Worth Noting
Seven Traits for Winning
Six Facts O'Ghoogling
Five Lasting Images
Four Things to Think About
Three catastrophe 'staches
The Finest Holiday Duet in History
And One Hell of a bloggy Par-ty

I love Gheorghemas. It’s the only time you can expect regular submissions from the Gheorghe staff, and while our random irreverence is what keeps people typing in our URL (in actuality you’ve bookmarked our site) from January through November, the twelfth month brings annual anticipation of Rob’s summation, Teej’s picture, and a number of other recurring segments that actually recur.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to close out each Gheorghemas and the corresponding year’s worth of bloggery with my frequently redundant batch of appreciations.  This is the fifth installment of G-mas, and as I read over Day 12 versions 1 through 4, the first thing I notice is my duplication of either general sentiments or specific mentions in each post.  What can I say, I don’t evolve much through the years, and my memory is pretty holey these days.  The other thing that strikes me is that the four-year period of my Gheorghemas cappers has been a whirlwind of upheaval, discord, new endeavors, and change in my life.  I am sitting approximately 100 yards from where I typed Day 12 in 2008, and yet I am thousands of miles away in many aspects of my life, for better and for worse.  Four years is an eternity in one’s life.  Where will we be four years from now?

As it has turned out, 2012 marked a significant uptick in the day-to-day joy in my goings-on, certainly from the dreck of the three years prior.  Once again, I set the appreciations to music, my favorites from 2012.  Here we go again...

Myth – Beach House

Next summer marks the 20^th Annual Outer Banks Fishing Trip.  That’s a big number, and considering the debacle that OBFT the First was, it’s amazing to see the trip rolling on after two decades.  Not one thought of the annual jaunt occurs with great appreciation for the house we inhabit one weekend a year, the lengths to which people go to make the trip, and the good times we crank out every single time.

Let Me Lie – Trey Anastasio

Revolution – Dr. John

Let's Go – Matt & Kim

Take A Walk – Passion Pit

I appreciate and marvel at the physical feats and eye on bodily health undertaken by the GTBers and the FOGTB.  Rob continues to move further away from his Little Pork Rind days, running a 10k even on New Year’s Day.  Danimal is our resident Iron Man type, Dave goes for a run before other OBFTers even wake up, KQ will work you out and cleanse your body, Mark is battling back from his Peyton Manning-like neck injury, most all of you run races . . . it goes on and on.  And then there’s Maude.  Meaning me, the guy with Bea Arthur’s physique.  I have friends who have executed inspirational game plans to get themselves healthy.  I have friends in the health care industry who stress the importance of being physically fit.  Hell, I have a friend that’s a professor at an Ivy League medical school and whose entire career work has centered around the correlation between physical exercise and cancer prevention and treatment – it’s just preposterous that she ever let me lay my unhealthy flabby body down on top of hers.

I have not been one to make idle threats of improvement in the past – I recall responding to Dave Flynn’s promise that 2003 was the “year of fitness” with a declaration that would instead be the “year of fatness.”  But it’s time, and 2013 shall be the year.  I may consult with some of you as to how to accomplish it, but I appreciate what you all have managed to do in this realm, and I will try to join the movement.

Hold On – Alabama Shakes

That Old Black Hole – Dr. Dog

Happy Pills – Norah Jones

Paul Newman vs. The Demons – The Avett Brothers

Not so fast, my friend.  The road to being able to see my johnson in anything but a mirror won’t be rapid, and it won’t mean a total abandonment of vices. I just had to use Merriam-Webster’s website to get the meaning of moderation, so it’s time for baby steps.

In the meantime, I will confess to highly enjoying the comments section of G:TB as a place to check in and log the night’s consumption details.

Live and Die – The Avett Brothers

Out of Love – Rhett Miller

Leaving Time – Patterson Hood

Rocky Ground – Bruce Springsteen

Here’s one I do every year.  Live music.  Soul-stirring, chills-inducing good shit.  My 2012: Old 97’s in January, Black Keys in February, The Last Bison in March, Drive-By Truckers in April, Avett Brothers in June, Wilco and The Beach Boys in July, Flogging Molly in August, Springsteen in September, Adam Ant in October.  All great fun.  Missed seeing old Norfolk fave Waxing Poetics reunite onstage last night because of a certain football game.  (Well worth it, though.) Old 97’s in C’ville again on Valentine’s Day 2013 (good way to wow your ladies, dudes) and Fishbone in a tiny Norfolk venue that same month.  Live shows make my world go ‘round.

When I'm Rollin' – Major and The Monbacks

A friend of mine’s family business is Birdland Records, a Virginia Beach classic.  His brother runs the store, and they are stubbornly old-school in their approach.  My friend’s twin sons are enrolled at William & Mary and UVA, respectively, and they formed a great local (now 10-piece) band called Major and the Monbacks.  Playing January 5 at the Norva.  Here’s to the notion that our obviously brilliant taste in music can be passed down to our progeny, defeating the evil empire of pop bullshit music that seems to find them at every turn. 

Stubborn Love – The Lumineers

If Only – Dave Matthews Band

 
Hope springs eternal in the unending love for our sports teams.  (Unending for everyone except Rob.)  In Day Twelves of Gheoghemas Past, I bemoaned my awful rooting interests.  And though nothing of banner consequence has been recorded into the books yet, here’s where I stand:

• I saw R.A. Dickey get his 19^th win on an amazin’ day at Citi.  (Thanks, Marls.)
• The not-awful Tribe has its best chance ever to get off the NCAA tourney schneid.
• Hail to the Redskins.

I’m such a sucker.

Charmer – Aimee Mann

Cherokee – Cat Power

Serpents – Sharon Van Etten

All Your Gold – Bat for Lashes

Here’s my annual toast to the ladies of G:TB, the G:TBers’ ladies, and just ladies in general.  We are thinking of you, and when we do, we think of you like this:

Sorry.

The Way We Move – Langhorne Slim & The Law

This Head I Hold – Electric Guest

A hat-tip to good deeds on display every day.  I appreciated the 2012 Santa Stumbles.  I appreciate the fund-raising activities in which many of the G:TB gang participate, even when I am tapped out and can’t give to all of them.  And finally, I appreciate like crazy the chance to work where I work and see acts of giving on a daily basis.  It’s pretty friggin’ great.  Kudos, and here’s to a day when Gheorghe can have a charitable component to it (beyond the free chuckles doled out on occasion).

Default – Django Django

Hi, Gheorghies!  People don’t always get what G:TB means to those who frequent it.  I get mocked for being a blogger.  The reality, however, it’s that it’s simply a means to staying in touch with old friends and getting to know new ones.  (Mark, thanks for the Gmas gift… I’m still getting accommodated to it, but I like it.)  There’s no way I’d be so in tune with what these college cronies have going on with their lives without Gheorghe.  Facebook and Twitter serve a similar purpose, but before there were those, there was Gheorghe.

And here's the the summits that were GheorgheFest and the Doofus Overlord's wedding. Outstanding.

And the way my chums have picked up on the wee-hours “Hi, Gheorghies!” check-in makes me smile.

Somebody That I Used to Know – Gotye

Doom and Gloom – The Rolling Stones

The Descent – Bob Mould

Sleep – Allen Stone

Silent Song – Daniel Rossen

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings – Father John Misty

Heaven – The Walkmen

Rest in Peace… MCA. Don Cornelius. Andy Griffith.  J.R. Ewing, George Jefferson, and Quincy. Epstein and Horshack. The only one on this list that I was for Halloween, Richard Dawson.  Neil Armstrong and “Ride” Sally Ride. Angelo Dundee and Bert Sugar. Alex Karras. Davy Jones singing, Dave Brubeck at the piano, Earl Scruggs on banjo, Duck Dunn on bass, and Levon Helm behind the kit.  Kid Carter.  

The other Whitney.  And, sadly, on the rebel side of heaven, Igor.  (We’ll miss him most.)

And more importantly, people in our lives.  Grandparents.  More sadly, parents.  Tragically, children.  Friends.  Family.  Evan, Lud, and Flynn, I’m not nearly forgetting you clowns.  Here’s to them all.

Reboot the Mission – The Wallflowers

Change – Churchill

Yet Again – Grizzly Bear

I continue to appreciate the contributions all you people make in posts and comments.  Keeps me informed, biased, and laughing all the way.  Ho ho ho.  And, in appreciation for their tireless contributions to the blog, the G:TB staff has asked Danimal and Marls to come aboard for 2013.  (In a related story, I lost in arbitration over my 2013 contract, so I’ll continue to be blogging for the league minimum.)  Here’s to more quality content being churned out in the name of Gheorghe.  And postcount!

One More – Jimmy Cliff

This post is a milestone, definitely not for content but merely for a number.  This is the 2,500^th published post at Gheorghe: The Blog. 

Happy New Year, friends.  Here’s to another 365, and all the best in Lucky ’13.

Untitled (Love Song) – Counting Crows

One Lovely Day – Citizen Cope

Oh, one more thing.  I’m getting hitched again in a few weeks, and you are invited.  Norfolk, VA.  January 26.  Be there.

Cheers, and Hi, Gheorgies!

Bills Fans Say "Don't Re-Tread On Me"

G:TB superfan Work Jerry alerted Teedge and me (not I) of Chan Gailey's rumored termination and requested a post summarizing candidates for the big chair at One Bills Drive. So here we are.

Since the great Marv Levy retired, the Bills have suffered through five-and-a-half head coaches: Wade Phillips, Gregg Williams, Mike Mularkey, Dick Jauron, Perry Fewell (only on an interim basis for 7 games, and thus only half a coach), and Chan Gailey. Phillips was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach when Levy retired and at the time the move made sense, or at least was defensible (pun!) as Buffalo's defense was pretty good under Phillips and promoting from 'twixt Marv's ranks made sense to Bills fans. That Phillips phloundered as HC in Denver a few years earlier wasn't a concern, as Marv was a retread from KC when the Bills hired him. Although he's generally viewed as a dolt and a failure, Phillips had a 0.604 win percentage in Buffalo (29-19) and was the last coach to take them to the playoffs (in 1998 and 1999), although he never won a playoff game.

The Gregg Williams hire also made more than an insignificant amount of sense in 2001. Williams was the engineer of Tennessee's ferocious defense that was arguably best in the league in 2000. He was only about 42 at the time and never held a head coaching position at the NFL level so he didn't have to carry retread baggage. Who wouldn't want a young, successful, innovative defensive mind to take over a team with lots of young talent on defense? Williams went 17-31 in three seasons and was fired after the 2003 campaign even though he turned the defense into a top-5 unit. The real problem with the 2003 squad was the offense, which mustered a meager 11 passing TD and 13 rushing TD in 16 games, resulting in the 30th fewest points scored. Thanks Bledsoe! Williams went on to have relative success in Washington and later won a Super Bowl in New Orleans where he tried to have several players mutilated, leading to what appears to be a lifetime ban from the NFL.

The Bills then turned to Mike Mularkey, who coordinated the Pittsburgh's 20th-ranked offense the year before. Like Williams, Mularkey had no head coaching experience and was something of an up-and-coming youngster who put together top-8 offenses in 2001 and 2002 with Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox. It seemed like a great idea at the time to bring in an offensive guru to straighten things out on that side of the ball and just maintain Williams' solid defense. It didn't work out as planned, and, in fact, was a complete mess. By 2005 the Bills ranked 24th or worse in points and yardage on both offense and defense, and Mularkey was fired with a 14-18 record in Buffalo. Mularkey is now shitting the bed as HC in Jacksonville, where the 2-12 Jaguars rank 31st in offensive points and yardage. At least he achieved symmetry.

After the mularkey with Mularkey, the braintrust in Buffalo decided to go retread again and hired Dick Jauron who despite having 2001 Coach of the Year on his resume was a clearly terrible candidate with a 36-49 record as HC and only one season with more than seven wins, including a 1-4 stint as interim head coach in Detroit in 2005 after Steve Mariucci got canned. Remarkably, the Bills took Detroit's castoff and put him in charge. Jauron went 7-9 three years in a row and was 3-6 in 2009 when Ralph Wilson took pity on me and relieved Jauron of his duties (or, in his case, doodies). Perry Fewell took over and stood no chance of getting the HC job, what with Jauron's stench and stain upon him.

Which brings us to Chan Gailey, who was a very successful OC with Pittsburgh in 1996-97 with Mike Tomczak and Kordell Stewart (history repeating?). Gailey was the HC in Dallas in 1998-99, where he went 18-14 and engineered top-10 offenses both years. After Jerry Jones gave him the boot for an 8-8 season (which was probably appropriate given all the HOF/Pro Bowl talent they had), he was the OC in Miami for two years where he was the steward of a statistically below-average offense. From 2002-2007 he was the HC at Georgia Tech, where he went 44-32, including 2-4 in Bowls, and never won an ACC Championship. Somehow he became the OC for the Chiefs in 2008 who ranked 24th and 26th in yards and points respectively. After about a decade of mediocrity, Gailey apparently held no football-related job in 2009. Then Buddy Nix swooped in and put him in charge of the Bills in 2010. Since then he is 15-32, or 0.319 for those of you without calculators handy. Predicting this undesired outcome does not require genius-level intelligence -- indeed, I'm an idiot and my first reaction to the Gailey hiring was "I want to die" (scroll down to the comments for all the scatological fun).

Gailey has to be out after this year. HAS to. Would you play for a man who throws like this?

I could prepare a list of candidates that I would like to get the job, the usual suspects like Cowher and Gruden, but all of those guys are too smart to even interview for the position. So here's a list of mopes that I predict will don a suit and tie and meet with the Bills' geriatric braintrust. Like my johnson, this list is short and undistinguished. I fully expect the Bills to hire another team's castoff to retread the HC position. The only question is, how far removed from his last head coaching job will the new hire be?

Andy Reid
Reid won't get the job because he's too legitimate: he has a 130-92-1 regular season record, he's 10-9 in the postseason, and his offenses are consistently excellent. He makes the list because he has a very Buffalo look about him and I can envision Buddy Nix offering to bring McNabb in to play QB. Although he qualifies as a retread he is way too qualified to handle the reins in Buffalo.

HIRING ODDS: 6.9%

Norv Turner
Norv looks like a good fit in light of the foregoing. He has a goofy name like "Gregg" and "Chan" and he experienced tremendous success as an OC in the 1990s with the Cowboys. He is 113-122-1 in the regular season and 4-4 in the postseason, and these numbers may actually be too good for him to get the job in Buffalo. I know Skins fans loathe Norv but he took Washington to the playoffs and won a game which is more than anyone has done for Buffalo since Marv Levy beat the Dolphins on December 30, 1995 by calling 49 rushing plays on a 26 degree afternoon. Not a typo. December 30, 1995. It's been 17 years. But I digress. Simply put, Norv Turner is too good an option to make the grade for the Bills. They will dig deeper.

HIRING ODDS: 7.1%

Mike Nolan
Mike Nolan is one of those guys who remain inexplicably employed in high level positions, making him a strong to quite strong candidate for the Bills. He broke onto the scene as the Giants' DC in 1993, a year in which the G-Men ranked 1st and 5th in points and yards allowed, respectively. The Giants' defense drifted into mediocrity over the next few years under Nolan. He became the Skins' DC in 1997, and their defense became increasingly worse under his steady hand, culminating in the 1999 season when his defense ranked 30th and 24th (out of 31 teams) in yards and points. He then put up a good season as the Jets' DC, making them an above-average unit. The next year he was Baltimore's WR coach, which is a totally logical career progression. In 2002 he became the Ravens' DC and they had a below-average defense, which is remarkable because they were top-10 for the three years before and the four years after that. To his credit, Nolan oversaw two of those top-10 years (2003 and 2004) before landing the HC job in SF. Under Nolan the Niners had one of the worst defenses in the league from 2005-2008. He then ran fair-to-middling defenses in Denver and Miami. He is now the DC in Atlanta, where they currently rank a tough-to-reconcile 23rd in yards and 4th in points. Nolan was 18-37 as the HC in SF and he never made the playoffs. In fact, he never won more than 7 games in a season. This record of low achievement and making sow's ears out of silk purses makes Nolan a great fit for the Bills, but at 53 years old he might be too young. Nolan's old-timey habit of coaching in a suit might confuse Nix into thinking Nolan is elderly, so that helps his cause.

HIRING ODDS: 69%

Ted Marchibroda
Ted Marchibroda is a spry 81 years young, 8 years older than Buddy Nix and 13 years younger than Ralph Wilson. So he gets all their cultural references to Packards and Claudette Colbert. Marchibroda is so old that he was the #5 overall pick in the 1953 draft, back when there were 30 rounds and 13 teams. Marchibroda also has ties to the Bills as the architect of the K-Gun offense when he was Marv Levy's OC from 1989 to 1991. He's 87-98-1 as HC with a 2-4 playoff performance. Those two playoff wins seem like two too many for the Bills, but both came in ... wait for it ... 1995! Symmetry! His teams made the playoffs three other times, in 1975, 1976, and 1977. These dates may be a bit too recent for Nix and Wilson's approval but they are pretty attenuated. He hasn't coached since 1998. There's no way in hell that Marchibroda is up the task of working 14 hour days or even staying awake for three consecutive hours on a Sunday afternoon. I expect him to make it to the final round of interviews.

HIRING ODDS: 71%

Weeb Ewbank
Weeb has a preposterous name like Chan and he's over 90 like Ralph Wilson. He has three rings, his most recent coming with division rival New York. The Bills have lost 6 in a row to the Jets and 8 of the last 9. Weeb's inside info as a former Jet coach would be just the edge the Bills need to get past them. Some will say that his 0.502 regular season and 0.800 postseason records are too good, but Ralph and Buddy might look past this in light of the fact that Ewbank hasn't coached in 40 years. And he's in the Hall of Fame! Who could pass on a pedigree like this? The fact that he's dead cuts against him, but not enough to preclude him from getting the job.

HIRING ODDS: 96.9%

I realize that my hiring odds figures add up to well more than 100%, but I took SSMCIS, a curriculum developed in the early 1960's in response to the first Sputnik launch which convinced American educators that the US lagged behind the Russians in math and science. Accordingly, I, like the Bills' front office, rely on new math and all hiring odds figures are presented in base 8. Tom Lehrer can explain it for you.

The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day 11

On the eleventh day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me...

Eleven Months of Blog Posts
Ten (ish) Gifts for Gheorghies
Nine Lists of Top 10 Things
Eight Wins Worth Noting
Seven Traits for Winning
Six Facts O'Ghoogling
Five Lasting Images
Four Things to Think About
Three catastrophe 'staches
The Finest Holiday Duet in History
And One Hell of a bloggy Par-ty

One of my favorite Gheorghemas activities, after the unveiling of the picture of Baby Teejus, is sitting down with a bit of wassail (in this case a Summit Oatmeal Stout), and a good playlist (the Pitchfork Best Songs of 2012 on Spotify) and reading through the year's posts. (You would NOT believe how much crap we post in a 12-month period. It's amazing the network hasn't cancelled us yet. Thank God for that small, yet vocal, group of influential women that dig our scene.)

Without fail, this annual exercise produces a mix of laughter, mild disgust, and genuine admiration for the work this extremely motley crew produced over the preceding annum. And so, without further ado, the Best of Gheorghe: The Blog 2012:

January was dominated by posts about the dreadful and completely unlikeable Washington Wizards and the equally dreadful but much more fan-friendly William & Mary Tribe. In the midst of that bleak blogscape, Dave managed to tear off an appreciation of Talking Heads' 'Once in a Lifetime' that both informed and engaged. And made us wistfully recall a time when he was a serial lizard murderer.

We also celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day, which reminds me to remind you to mark January 21 on your calendars to celebrate this year's events. Mark, I take a size medium in most surf t-shirts.

Marcus Thornton gave us the first amazing moment of his career.

Lord in Heaven, I'd almost forgotten about the picture that accompanied our BCS Championship Game preview. I think it's the hat that does it for me.

Dave also gave us an appreciation of the digital first down line and, on January 3, provided the blogosphere's first 2012 Year in Review. So he peaked early. Which, yep.

In February, Teej rubbed electronic shoulders with a former Washington Bullet, which presaged the greatest moment on G:TB history by less than a month. Tracy Murray is a good sport.

We were all more than a little shocked when Clarence dropped a pissy (though probably warranted) rant about the Grammys. So out of character for this character.

Less than a week later, Clarence weighed in again (you'd better damn believe that pun is intended) with another lengthy (though not particularly girthy) Grantland review. The combined effort must have winded him, because I'm fairly sure he never wrote anything else all year long.

Mark waited until March to give us his first post of the year, but it was a good one, complete with a dope - as the kids say - playlist from his wedding.

On Monday, March 5, we told a story 19 years in the making. And even though our words and pictures were pretty good, they didn't do justice to the Night Gheorghe met Gheorghe. We'll do it again, if only to make sure Mark can make it this time. (And TR may have clinched the Oscar for Best Performance as a Recovering Urinatee.)

The most coherent post of Gheorghe: The Week was KQ and Shlara's retrospective of the Washington Bullets' criminally underrated 'You the Man' video.

We celebrated Rick Reilly. Really. (Skip the fact that the thing we celebrated was 9 years old. It was worth celebrating.)

We also celebrated vaginas. In a far less creepy way than we normally do.

Dennis posted! About babies, Catcher in the Rye, and The Shins. Hope he doesn't post again in 2013, or he'll be Octodad.

Our first post about conference realignment, the death of the CAA, and W&M's eventual move to the Patriot League surfaced late in the month. The Teej jumped in with Breaking News that turned out to be more wrong than a picture of a crocheted vagina on a Muslim kids blog.

TR turning heel on Joe Namath foreshadowed a shitshow of a Jets season.

Finally, Zman remained the internet's leading expert on the Jack Urbon/Ghostface legal kerfuffle.

Phew, March came in like a lion and tore that motherfucker up all month long. I don't expect it to keep up.

Three themes dominated April: squirrels, baseball, and art.

Our first picture of Tim Kurkjian's underwear accompanied our review of major league baseball's marketing slogans, which were predictably lame. Not so Clarence (who may have been Igor at the time) and Marls' preview of the Mets' 2012 campaign. Certainly, they'd agree that the preview was far more entertaining than the season.

Dave gave us his definitive list (and really, with Dave, is there any other kind of list?) of Seven Movies That Are Better Than The Book, and while he omitted 'The Green Mile', he turned in a solid effort. I can't wait for the film version.

Fugazi's Ian MacKaye gave us the G:TB Quote of the Alltime:

"I was cleaning my room once and I was listening to Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant was going on and on about all of these seemingly adult kind of things and I realized he was eighteen when he did that record—I was probably twenty-nine years old at the time—and I just thought, “Oh my god, I’m twenty-nine years old and I never became an adult.” Here’s Robert Plant and he’s eighteen and he’s singing about having his own apartment and running around town. To me, he seemed so adult. I called my dad and I said, “Dad, I’m kinda freaking out over here. I’m twenty-nine years old and I’m starting to realize that I’m a man, but I never made that transition.” And he said, “Well, I’ll tell you two things. First off, I see you as a man, as an adult man. You’re not a kid. And the second thing is that I can’t see myself as a man.” He was sixty at the time and he hadn’t come to terms with it either. It was nice and terrible at the same time to realize that that transition is a difficult one."

Clarence and I went back to back with posts about ukelele music and poetry. Badass ukelele music and poetry.

Thankfully, Mark redeemed the month with a long think piece about the NFL Draft. Footbaw!

Honestly, May was a pretty dismal month, both in terms of the quality of our output and the subject matter. The world lost both MCA, Maurice Sendak, and Chuck Brown (Duck Dunn, too), and we shared our sadness.

The CAA blew up, too, and while our initial assessment of W&M's athletic administration was probably overly simplistic and too harsh (if you think I feel bad about dissing Terry Driscoll after chatting with him about the subject at length, you're right - this is why I would make a terrible journalist), we're still nursing a post-heyday hangover. So, too, is #caahoops, apparently.

I cannot fucking believe I forgot about this picture when I did the Best Sports Photos of the Year.

The Teej inadvertantly killed Igor by celebrating America. And Whitney. I miss those guys.

At least we drew the month to a close in style, as TR recapped the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, featuring Fat Anthony Kiedis.

June saw us drop a mere 20 posts, the fewest of any month since December 2007. Nice work, lads.

Despite the lack of quantity, I submit to you that the (relative, because, c'mon, it's us we're talking about) quality was impressive - even the filler. Topics ranged from the serious (the use of the term 'hero' to describe military men and women and a tribute to a friend of mine who passed far too early) to the silly (pictures of my feet made a triumphant return), stopping at a burrito-making robot and an appreciation for LeBron's first title. Importantly, we also debuted the 'questionable mascot sexuality' tag. Huge SEO.

Mark started the month with a great read on the Thunder/Spurs Western Conference final, complete with albino James Harden photo, and finished it with a typically solid NBA Draft post. I'm far more happy about the fact that he recently acknowledged that I was right about Draymond Green. Blind squirrel, nut.

I usurped Clarence's role as resident music critic, reviewing Rhett Miller at Jammin' Java and the excellent and highly-recommended Big Easy Express.

We also continued to shake our heads in increasingly dumbfounded amazement as the War on Vaginas escalated.

I'm pretty proud of our resilience. After what must've been an exhausting June, we soldiered on, cranking out 21 posts in July. Warriors, we, the Kellen Winslow, Jr. kind.

Fully five of those posts celebrated, in one form or another, the event of the Gheorghian social season. It was a glorious mess, full of foreign accents, silliness, awkward social interactions, and barely remembered late night grease. Wait, that was just Greg's part. In actual fact, Doofus Wedding was one of the most heartfelt celebrations of love and friendship this grizzled correspondent has ever attended.

One of the more unexpected events of the year occurred in the week before the wedding festivities, when Clarence professed his admiration for Mike Love. This ranks just slightly below Wayne Lapierre being found to have a heart on the list of unlikely happenstances.

In more prosaic news, Dave got a dog. If you haven't read the story of the interaction between Dave, his dog, two garbage cans, and three lesbians, I insist you stop what you're doing and click this link. It might be the single most guffaw-inducing moment in G:TB history.

Summer Dave put his free time to additional good use, proving the existence of the Higgs Boson by...interviewing it. Bet those CERN pointyheads feel pretty stupid about spending all that money on the Large Hadron Collider now.

Speaking of the Collider (which we only did 4 times this year - we're clearly going to need to devote more resources to the project in 2012, if the fucking Republicans in Congress can get their act together and resolve our budget issues), it gave us one of the year's best typographical errors.

Gheorghe: The Nation fielded our first-ever Olympic team, and while we didn't medal, we did have the tallest flagbearer. In other Olympic news, we were among the first major news outlets to predict glory for Gabby "The Flying Squirrel" Douglass. Honestly, prescience like ours should be licensed to protect the innocent.

August is generally one of our lamer months, both as a society and a blog. In our consistency, we did not disappoint. Our August was a mishmash of filler (in one case, we just posted a bunch of the stuff we'd left lingering in drafts - I assume it was a statement on the ephemeral nature of art. Or just really lazy.), video clips, Doofus Honeymoon photos, and dumb fashion.

We did manage to continue to raise awareness of stupid male behavior, international version, as we highlighted the Pussy Riot story.

FOG:TB Marls heralded the great news of the Mars Curiosity Lander's challenge to the Large Hadron Collider's scientific supremacy.

Wan Joon Kim, y'all, the Gangsta Godfather.

Oh, and after years of idle threats, I quit the Redskins.

As ambivalent as our efforts may have been over the summer months, September was a revelation. We were entertaining as shit. By my count, 21 of the 27 posts were at least above average by our standards, an amazing batting average. Even some of the filler was high quality (Taylor Morris, once again) Hell, I don't even have space to highlight two fine college football posts from Mark. In fact, I recommend you peruse the entire month. But in the event you've only got half an hour to kill rather than an afternoon, you'll enjoy these posts:

One Man's Fan Free Agency Journey concluded with the selection of the New Orleans Saints as my new NFL rooting interest. It hasn't exactly been a success on the field. But I move on, stoic in my resolution.

Zman delivered another in a long line of excellent tennis posts, this time a requiem for Andy Roddick's career. He was fated to be an afterthought in the Federer/Nadal/Djokovic era, but he was a massive talent, and a seemingly good dude.

TR entertained with a story of a sporting odyssey, capped with a keeper of a photo. Almost certainly the highlight of the season for the Jets.

Bob Mould rocked, Snoop talked politics, and we learned how to execute a proper snot rocket.

We debuted Music Mondays with Shlara, to much critical acclaim. People liked it so much that we did it again a week later.

Wheelhouse Geoff gave us one of the better Ryder Cup previews you'll find anywhere on the dipshit side of the interwebs, and likely anywhere at all.

You guys remember when we didn't have the real NFL referees? Clarence does - his expert roundtable closed the month in style.

October, as you might imagine, was a bit of a letdown after September's rocket ride to glory.

The little guy was celebrated, as we championed Taylor Heinicke's Heisman campaign (he did win the much more prestigious Walter Payton award) and Adam Greenberg's Field of Dreams moment.

We had zMusic and zLaw, equal measures excellent. And zBills, which was nothing so much as a cry for help.

Shlara gave us a serious post on Lance Armstrong's inevitable exposure as a cheat, and a far-less-serious post in which she self-identified as a cougar. You don't get this kind of range anywhere else in the blogosphere.

While this post about FOG:TB Mike Litos' career move was a solid one, the comments are a great chronicle of the Gheorghe community's experience with Superstorm Sandy.

Our GOP friends were unwise enough to come at me in an election wager. And dumb enough across the nation to give Republicans a majority in the House. Not really dumb enough, actually, just gerrymandered enough.

Our Washington Wizards season preview was as awful as the team turns out to be. Foreshadowing, as it turns out. (Get it?)

And then there was November, in which we did the right thing as a nation, and returned Joe Biden to Washington. 

The Brothers Murray are American treasures and should be celebrated at every opportunity.

I'm pretty proud of the 'Nate Silver is a many splendored manbeast' metatag.

Dave's post-Sandy story was a great read.

In an upset, we were optimistic about the 2012-13 William & Mary hoops season. #1bid4wmtribe!

And in less of a surprise, Dave both defended his Scary Story Contest title and wrote about it using a completely different font than the one cleared for use by the G:TB Brand Management team.

We outed Clarence as a poet, enabling us to use the 'badass poetry' tag again. Also an upset.

We also outed Danimal as an athlete, raconteur, and prince among men.

Clarence closed the month with a post about booze. Another in a line of really surprising things.

We'll finish the year with 305 or so posts, and while it's a bit of a down year in terms of quantity, there was a lot to like. Apologies if I left out one of your favorites. This is hard goddamn work. Much love to the entire Community of Gheorghes. Feel free to excoriate me in the comments, and have a Gheorghey New Year.