The Winter Blues

This was supposed to be Blue Monday: the day after the Super Bowl when the entire Hoosier state was celebrating our Colts' victory--or in this case NOT. Sure I watched the game wearing my blue Super Bowl sweatshirt and felt my stomach churn and ache as the game wore on. But the reality and the finality struck. The Indianapolis Colts had lost. The Lombardi trophy would not be coming back to Indiana. I'm not sure why this loss is so difficult. After all, I went to Indiana University. We nearly always loose, especially in football. So we should be immune to it. IU fans don't often have the fun and excitement that comes with a winning season like our northern Indiana folks have with Purdue and Notre Dame. The IU Hoosier national had our favorite rant  "wait till basketball season." (But now we don't even have that to fall back on.)

The Indpls Colts finally gave us bragging rights. We IU fans had our winning team at last. The Super Bowl was our bowl game and our chance to show team pride and spirit. Regardless of the score, we still have our Colts and the best quarterback in the world. But the season's over and our blue has turned to the ugly, drab gray of winter.  Ironically, though, two former Hoosiers play for the Saints. Congratulations, Tracy Porter and Courtney Robey. Well done.

Is it over yet?

According to the Pew Research organization, 50% of Americans have a negative view of the last decade. Well, DUH! Of course we're ready for it to end, especially those of us here in B'town. This blog's too small to recap all the weird things from the last 10 years so I'll just mention some that come immediately to mind. First and foremost were the fighter planes intercepting an Amish farmer's plane over Bloomington the week of 9/11/01. My poor parents, remembering Pearl Harbor, thought we were under attack. For some reason, the pilot just didn't get the message that the airports were closed to everyone--even Amish farmers from southern Indiana.

Then who would have imagined that Miles Brand would have the balls to fire Bobby Knight or hire those athletic directors McNaulty and Greenspan? Could hizzoner, the President, have dug any further down in the barrel of green slime? Then not to be outdone, his successor supported the hiring of Kelvin Sampson who must have been lurking at its very bottom. Thank goodness for Fred Glass.

This also seemed to be the decade of "traffic calming." That's the Liberalville synonym for building hazardous obstacles in the middle of the street. It's a wonder that complete neighborhoods have not been destroyed due to a fire truck's inability to maneuver the roadway or round the round- abouts...especially on 7th Street. This must have been the reason so many Bloomingtonians converted to "Smart" cars. They were the only ones intelligent enough to traverse our dangerous but "calm" streets.

Another marker of the decade was the invasion of the "Coasties," a form of locust. They arrive en masse each August and leave every May in 4-year cycles. The females are easily identified by their UGGs, black leggings, huge sun glasses, Longchamp tote bags and North Face jackets...The male species are seen in pajama bottoms, flip flops, stubbly beards and bed heads. Both sexes swarm through downtown in Beamers, Escalades, Porshes and the like all bearing license plates from New York and New Jersey.

Oh, I could go on and on and rant and rant. But in the interest of starting the next decade on a high, up-beat note, I'll just say au revoir and adieu to the aughts. Good riddance. Bring on the teens.

Have you switched from cable to satellite TV to see IU Athletics?

Not to be harping on an old theme, but I'm taking an extremely unscientific poll to measure how many people have actually switched from cable to satellite TV to access to IU basketball and other sports not available on Comcast of Insight cable. The polling station is to the right of this post and it will be up for until December 1. Results will be published on the blog and possibly other places if I can interest the Bloomington newspaper.
Please provide any comments in the comment section below.

Insight to Direct TV

In my previous post, I described my parents' drive (literally and figuratively) to watch their beloved Hoosiers. Saturday and their inability to watch their team play Purdue and win the Oaken Bucket finally drove them to make the big switch to satellite TV. The law of supply and demand has taken the day. When you can't supply the big games, the consumer is driven to search for other avenues to satisfy that demand. It's an amazing phenomenon.

Based on the front page article in Saturday's Indianapolis Star, Mom and Dad aren't the only ones feeling the pain inflicted by Insight...Comcast or other Indiana cable TV carriers. Supply and demand has won the day. The free-market economy and the consumers' demand has spoken. But will the suppliers actually listen. More to come.

IU Sports: The Video or Lack Thereof

Thanks to the Big-Ten Network, the IU Athletic Department and our local cable provider, I've been able to spend Saturday afternoons with my parents. Unfortunately, they only have basic cable TV, while the daughter has satellite and the only way to see the IU football games on the Big Ten Network--and other obscure ESPN channels. I love my parents dearly and spend lots of quality time with them throughout the year. But its just damn unfair to them that they have to leave the comfort of their own recliners and my Dad's Saturday afternoon sandwich and beer to drive to my house to watch their game.

They love IU sports and it's one of the reasons they retired to B'town. My dad is a 50+ year I- Man and my mother loves sporting her IU sweatshirt or beads on game days. At 79, it's just too uncomfortable for them to sit for four or more hours in Memorial Stadium.. And even though they grew up listening to the radio, they want to SEE their Hoosiers, not just listen to Don Fisher's play-by-play on wireless.

We only have one more football game in the season (no bowl bids we're sure) and then comes world famous Hoosier hysteria and the promise of another winning basketball team. But like football, they won't be able to watch; those too won't be shown on cable. What's even worse is so many games are at night when Mom and Dad don't go out, so coming to my house will be difficult at best but likely impossible. I'm sure they aren't the only ones saddened by the reality they won't be able to spend their cold, snowy winter nights watching their Hoosiers. It's one of the few enjoyable things you can do in Liberalville in the winter.

For me, I think its absolutely disgusting that the Big Ten is so money hungry that they're depriving loyal fans from following their teams. It's even more sickening, since its based on pure greed. So to the IU Athletic Department and the Big Ten I say, rethink this money making scheme. Some day you might find yourself with no fans at all. You owe it to all the IU alumni who've followed you through thick and thin--good and bad times--scandals and evening the firing of Bobby Knight. How does your concsience let you live, knowing you're depriving so many of so much.