We are in the eye of the finals hurricane.  Here is another AJC story on GSU football.

The papers reported this yesterday.  The following e-mail was just sent out to all GSU students.

Georgia State University Faculty, Staff and Students:

Are you ready to tailgate??!!   If you are, then plan to be at the Student Center Atrium tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 p.m. for the announcement regarding the future of football at Georgia State.

You don’t want to miss this one!!

Don’t know what the “You don’t want to miss this one!!” language means.  Surprises possible???

This team will provide more opportunities to play near home for many talented Georgia high school athletes.  Believe us, there are hordes of them.

Georgia State, soon to become our own little USF.

We were provoked to thought by a recent Dennis Dodd Knowshon Moreno slobber piece. Dodd even got his grandma into the story.

Seeing that the Knowshon promotion machine is up and running, we would like to make a suggestion.

[We start smiling when we hear the word “know.” Which is pretty often, and can be hell in a job interview.]

First, a brief digression.

European soccer fans often use songs in support of their clubs. Here are a few interesting selections.

I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts - Cambridge United

The Battle Hymn of the Republic - Used by numerous clubs in the same fashion it is used betwixt the hedges. (ex. Tottenham Hot Spur, Leeds United, Manchester United)

Do They Know It’s Christmas - Fans of many teams turn this against Liverpool clubs in singing, Feed the scousers, Let them Know it’s Christmas Time. Is there anything as satisfying as a blend of athletic rivalry and socioeconomic taunting?

Tune Unknown - Fans of Aston Villa in response to gruesome injury suffered by Arsenal player Eduardo chanted, Eduardo, he used to have silky skills, now he walks like Heather Mills. [Warning this is quite nasty] Here is the picture of that break. It is a terrible and awful thing to view. [Read more →]

[The paternalism continues.]

1. Urban Gardeners new location in East Atlanta Village is having its grand opening this weekend.  It is located at 491-B Flat Shoals behind Sugar Britches.  While the store is pretty pricey the staff are excellent and the selection is varied.
2. The UGA baseball team pounded Clempson last night.  Official UGA has the dirty details.
3. Dennis Dodd has a great article on new Tech coach Paul Johnson.  It seems to us that the chip on Johnson’s shoulder will be uber popular with the angst-ridden male attendants and alumni of the Institute.
4. Cynthia Tucker takes it easy on Mayor Franklin.  In our opinion she is a mayor without a legacy running a government only slightly more efficient than what we got under Bill Campbell.
5. Sunday Sales = Dead.
6. Drive a Faster Car has the 2008 Chastain schedule.  Embarrassing fact - we have never been to Chastain.  Stepford North Atlanta is scary.
7. A few days back PWD did some interesting analysis of the future of Georgia men’s basketball.  Okay, you can go back to obsessing about football now.
8. Potentially free New Pornographers tickets at Cable & Tweed.  Need we say more?
9. Metroblogging with a nice find regarding MARTA’s new operating chief.
10. New bowl game to be played in DC.  It has an ACC tie-in.  Despite the potential for chilly weather it has great travel possibilities.  GT Sports Blog.

This is a rip-off of a rip-off. Just to be clear.

Moving to Charleston – All anyone tells me about is how hard it is to get jobs in Charleston. This discussion seems to be inversely related to the increasing number of people I know up there. Maybe, Charlestonian Georgia fans can lord over lowly South Carolina and Clemson fans the way Florida fans try to in Atlanta.

Chick-fil-A – Commonly used as a form of currency for the early morning saving of parking spaces. The sandwiches are delicious, and, as a bonus, have the WTOFFWJE factor going for it. That stands for “What Type Of Fast Food Would Jesus Eat.” Come to think of it, Mark Richt, Truett Cathy, and Chick-fil-A itself have remarkably similar public personas.

Getting Really Defensive About Our Academic Reputation – We currently sit at 59th in the US News and World Report rankings. Maddeningly, this is one slot below Ohio State. In order to compensate we act as though we are a top 25 school and talk loudly about unfair Northern elitism. It’s basically the academic rankings version of the length versus girth argument.

[Bongiorno Signore Caleb King]

Scooters (Athletes Only) – In a recently fabricated scientific study it was found that scooters were the only common denominator between twenty-something Mediterranean urban dwellers and UGA athletes. These fictitious scientists are using the study in an attempt to lower Georgia’s profile in the Fulmer Cup. [Read more →]

[Just gorge yourself.]

1. Braves and Birds talks state of the Thrashers nation. Some of the facts are quite damning.
2. Yesterday we discovered (only in the same sense as Columbus discovered America) a great Gwinnett blog called Exurban Adventures. With nearly 800,000 residents we question Gwinnett’s exurbanity. Here is their take on the “gang fight” at Mill Creek High School. The battle for control of the Mall of Georgia is getting intense, huh?
3. Rusty from RGM has a great piece of Georgia Legislatature history. Did that elicit yawns? It involves booze. See, we knew you drunkards would be into it.
4. FEMA teat, as predicted, available for suckling.
5. Peach Pundit has an interesting local perspective on the Obama race thing. We will not call it a “controversy,” unless, of course, we can say it the British way.
6. Former SEC basketball official going to prison for running a Ponzi scheme. The SEC official was initially investigated by the, uh, well, SEC. Who is investigating yesterday’s crew for the Georgi-Xavier game?
7. AJC gets around to discussing Moreland Avenue development. So, they are only about 2-3 months behind on the story. If this related to Buckhead we guess the response time might have been quicker.
8. CL has a review of the Glenwood, a restaurant in East Atlanta. The EAV was hit hard by the tornado. Make you way over and support the neighborhood with your patronage.
9. GT Sports Blog has the world’s quickest”Where are they now?” Info on Taylor Bennett.
10. Mixed-use development in Henry County. We are guessing that there is no public transportation element. Don’t be fooled by terminology into thinking something is green, or smart development, or whateve.
11. GrifDrift talks about Shirley Franklin defending her daughter’s light sentence via internet pseudonym. If we had caught the same charge as Kai Frankin we would be servicing our prison boyfriend at this very moment.
12. Tondee’s says an elected official was caught whilst being serviced by a staffer. No names yet.
13. Magic City, the Atlanta strip club known throughout the hip hop world, has been repurchased by its original owner.  We once heard Dennis Scott say the club was a favorite spot to take GT basketball recruits.
14. UGA VI was named top mascot in the NCAA tournament.  Yeah, not much consolation.
15. Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield is upset that she was called out for missing so many votes.  Decatur Metro with her excuses.
16. Terrell Pryor to Ohio State.  You are officially the last college football fan to know.
17. South Atlanta High School basketball wunderkind Derrick Favors is the Georgia Player of the Year, according the official beverage of jortsporters.  How can Georgia get this kid?
18. Kudos to Creative Loafing for putting a reference to the Wire in this headline.
19. The Tour de Georgia starts in 31 days.  Why can’t they call it the Tour of Georgia.  The “de” seems silly outside of French speaking countries.  Euro teams Saunier-Duval, CSC, and Gerolsteiner are among the competitors.
20. Tondee’s has an excellent summary of the 2008 Georgia US Senate race.

[EAST ATLANTA BEER FEST!]

1. Tony Barnhardt talks about the Ray Ray McElrathbey (that dude who adopted his little brother) situation up at Clemson. Interesting stuff.
2. Built to Spill and the Meat Puppets play tonight at the Variety Playhouse. Creative Loafing has slightly more info.
3. GT Sports Blog has a neat map showing where various ACC recruits hail from. We are currently inquiring about the existence of an SEC version.
4. EAST ATLANTA BEER FEST! EAST ATLANTA BEER FEST! EAST ATLANTA BEER FEST! Looks like prices went up.

[Do you happen to know where I can get 10 of these in varying heights?]

1. I present you wit a triumvirate of articles about Felton’s future at UGA. Baseless speculation (ie our guess) says he will be back. CBS has a go. Schlabach with a valiant try.  PWD with the truth.
2. EDSBS has thoughts on Derek Dooley’s promotion to LA Tech AD.
3. This is it what, luchini pouring from the sky, lets get rich what, this is it what.  Ticket donations come in.  The raises go out.  Georgia Sports Blog shows that everyone in the SEC is stacking ‘em up.
4. Senior night at Tech.  Congrats to the Jackets.  GT Sports Blog with coverage that is actually insightful

In case you didn’t know, those US News & World Reports rankings are largely based on the size of your schools endowment. In the past UGA has lagged behind in the fund raising arena, but now Michael Adams is projecting that UGA will raise $650 million in the Archway to Excellence Campaign.

[Yesirrrr, Mike Adams stacks paper]

If UGA and its alumni want the academic respect afforded public universities like UVA, UNC, and yes, Tech, we need to start giving like they do. The campaign ends on June 30, and we plan on sending a spare dollar or two their [read: our] way.

It is interesting that this release comes out so shortly after football ticket donations were due. Was this a record year for donations? Ticket newbies better hope not.

If absurdity has any detractors, you will never find us in their midst. Orson Swindle at Every Day Should Be Saturday continues to destroy all comers in the college football [holding space until a non-nauseating synonym for blogosphere is discovered] with incisive expletive-laden commentary. EDSBS is the college football website par excellence. We are admitted sycophants.

[Ah, memories.]

Today he uses a Danger Mouse (the cartoon, not the former Athens musician in residence) framework to discuss all the obstacles Georgia may face in the 2008 season. It isn’t anything most learned Georgia fans haven’t already worried about [read: already having sleepless nights]. As Orson and other Florida fans know, playing in the SEC each year is as frightening as life gets — like, Faces of Death when you were 9 in the basement of some kid who’s parents didn’t pay attention to their son and now he’s probably a dipsomaniac frightening.

EDSBS