Let's get a little perspective, people

Missouri and Kansas are playing each other in college football Saturday. It's the latest "biggest game ofthe season," and the winner has a clear shot at the national title.

Here's what some Missouri fans are wearing.



The reference? Quantrill's Raiders, pro-slavery Missourians, burning down Lawrence, Kansas, where KU is.

A little more from the Lawrence Journal-World:

First, KU fans wore “Muck Fizzou” T-shirts as a thinly veiled attempt to speak their minds about the collegiate rival.

Now, some Missouri fans are fighting back with a T-shirt of their own, as the two teams prepare for a Nov. 24 football matchup at Arrowhead Stadium, with the winner likely taking the Big 12 North.

[link to the photo of the shirt (above]

Under the picture is the word “Scoreboard,” and under that is the Missouri Tiger logo. On the back, according to the post, is Quantrill’s slogan: “Raise the black flag and ride hard, boys. Our cause is just and our enemies many.”

Author Nathan Fowler writes: “You can have your Ohio State v. Michigan or Alabama v. Auburn, but the last time I checked nobody from Columbus ever went to Ann Arbor and systematically executed every man they could find while burning the town to the ground. And certainly nobody made t-shirts later celebrating that fact.”

Fowler also notes a new KU shirt on the market, as KU officials and some student groups are trying to get students to stop wearing the “Muck Fizzou” shirts.

The new shirts show a picture of abolitionist John Brown, with the words: “Kansas: Keeping America safe from Missouri since 1854.”

I suppose my only solace is that somebody remembers history.

Fair warning: It's gonna be a posty night . . .

On the media beat  . . .

1. Speaking of Kansas University football, here's something from a story on the gu who has turned the Kansas program around. Note the town-next-to-Pennsic and Toscano references:

Mark Thomas Mangino was born into his dream neighborhood.

Growing up in New Castle, Pa., a hardscrabble steel town near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, he quickly discovered that everybody knew everybody. Some families had lived on the same block, sometimes even in the same house, for generations.

"You played ball all day and all night," Mangino said.

The kids played hard, and the adults worked hard. Italian-Americans with surnames such as Toscano and Cardella, Parenti and Bonelli were the lifeblood of New Castle. They worked the railroads. They manned the steel mills.

"People had to really work hard to make a living," said Mangino, whose mom worked as a school secretary for 30 years and whose dad became the first in his family to graduate from college. "I think our family could've moved out of the neighborhood if we wanted to, but my father wanted to stay close to the family. Everybody was right there."

2. So the New York Times does a story about the male fans at Jets' games chanting "Show us your tits at women at halftime.

So we get this gem:

Another guard later said they were not permitted to do anything about the chants at Gate D because of free speech laws.

If you don't know anything about the First Amendment, you should not be allowed to comment on it. ;)

It's a private event. You can do whatever you want.

Unless, apparently, you are a reporter.

 Yet when a reporter tried to interview two security guards after halftime, he was detained in a holding room, threatened with arrest and asked to hand over his tape recorder.

Here's the whole story.

3. From our friends at the Associated Press:

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful Barack Obama told Manchester (New Hampshire) high school students today that when he was their age he was hardly a model student.

He says he experimented with illegal drugs and alcohol.

Obama stopped by a study hall at Manchester Central High School this morning and answered students' questions about the war in Iraq and his education plan. But when an adult asked about his time as a student, Obama said he had to confess that he was a good-off in high school.

I am sorry. There's nothing to see here. If you're worried about what someone did back in the day, you need to get a life. I think this has changed a lot since the days of "I didn't inhale." It's just not a big deal.
 
            

Tuesday night: The "What's Up with Liam" post

1. I am now on Ravelry. Yes, yes, I am on a knitting blog. Guess what? My name there is LiamStLiam. Add me, why doncha?

2. I will be covering college hockey this weekend. The Skidmore Thoroughbreds vs. Cortland (NY) State on Friday and Skidmore vs. either Salve Regina (Newport, R.I.) or Southern Maine on Saturday.

3. First snow of the season here in rural, eastern New York. Very wet and messy. Icky, icky, icky.

4. The tentative 2008 schedule for the 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, still featuring Curt Schilling and Mike Lowell. ;)

5. My latest reading material is "Valentine's Resolve," a post-apocalyptic Vampire-esque novel by E.E. Knight/

6. My playlist tonight has included Great Big Sea, Hair of the Dog, the Buffy Musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, "Springtime for Morden," "I'm a Duke and You're Not, and "Who's On First?"

7. Oh, and not being on the Pelican and Silver Crescent dicussion lists? Priceless. Just priceless.