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Hayduke

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Everything posted by Hayduke

  1. And look at how many games Arkansas and OU have on the chart ... because their games will be more competitive. Texas games with A&M and OU are down in relative competitiveness, and UT's game with Arkansas doesn't even make the top 100 because it's not expected to be close enough. But check the peak viewership scores for Texas-Arkansas and A&M-Arkansas and I bet they're higher for the former, at least during the early part of the game. Average Nielsen viewership for Texas-Arky was 4.5 in 2024 (Week 12), and it was 1.5 for A&M Arkansas (Week 5).
  2. I just read his stuff here as a matter of principle, but maybe I ought to contribute traffic to his site so he has a little more encouragement to keep amusing us. You raise an interesting question. Is he really here for their entertainment or ours? Is he just a master at drawing all of us? 5D chess. Maybe he's Surly, making a few extra bucks off of both crowds. Maybe YOU are Graham?
  3. @DFW Horn, after puzzling over the KFord site and how he came up with those watchability scores, I've concluded that you're on to a measure better than Ford's. He must have some relatively arbitrary (and probably flexible) weighting number to make that 10-point watchability scale based on the KFord rating and KFord spread. You're right -- everyone loves a train wreck. You should copyright a "Train Wreckiness" score to pull in some clickbait money. Graham and whatever loyal aggy readership he has are probably good for some rabid visits. (His "angry Longhorns" comment was a hoot. As if folks can't identify a good game already.) Obligatory McClennan County "Crash at Crush" photo:
  4. That's a fair description ... for critical-thinking-challenged Aggies who buy the implicit argument that there are only two factors involved in "watchability" -- how competitive you are and how likely your opponents are to make it a close game. Then Ags can conveniently ignore factors that also make a team inherently watchable, like All-American players and trophy candidates, being in the playoff picture, or being the blueblood that everyone loves to either hate or love. Good-looking cheerleaders. A fine band. A better setting. History. In a two-factor formula, everyone's local high school will have at least a couple more games that are more "watchable" than, for instance, Texas 8-4's annual November FCS matchup. Except in years when aggy manages to suddenly find itself in a highly watchable fourth-quarter upset. Bluebloods who consistently play head and shoulders above the lesser teams on their schedule will inherently have a couple more games on average that are less watchable than many games on an also-ran's schedule. Oh, but look who has three of the top five most watchable games of the season ... and who has a game that falls all the way to 61 on the scale because its opponent isn't as competitive ...
  5. I vote no delete. Not the only link posted more than once, and I think it's a great story that deserves its own thread if for no other reason than the history woven through it.
  6. Oak Cliff. Down at the very bottom of that story, which for a really long piece was still worth the read.
  7. I found the historical parts more interesting in that story. I posted that link this morning over in the current recruiting thread, but it's worth a repost on the main FB board because of that history. And one of the cool bits of history was the story of what happened to that car. Wonder where it is now. That was a pretty famous car and it wouldn't have been easy to keep it from being noticed after it got stolen unless it was repainted ... which I suspect it was.
  8. So the Big 12 broke up? When did that happen? Where did it go? Most of the conferences that Rice has been involved with have also died, "broken up" or reorganized. So have the ones that Texas A&M was involved with, including the old Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and if you're going to go back that far, be sure you include a good look at all 72 teams that have been part of that one, including Presbyterian, Centre College, Johns Hopkins and Morehouse State. Generally I like to be a little more indirect in responses to folks and stick to facts, but I'll venture the opinion that you're really showing your ass here when it comes to an understanding of realignment history.
  9. Guess I should have probably posted this in the NIL thread, but somebody else can cross-post if it's helpful. I was too distracted by the shiny "Boulevard of Broken Bagmen" thread title. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/46011014/college-football-texas-car-dealers Late said that since he handed Ewers the keys to that black Corvette, he has signed 27 Texas players to NIL deals including some of the Longhorns' biggest stars like Roschon Johnson, Jaylan Ford, T'Vondre Sweat, Kelvin Banks Jr., Colin Simmons, Anthony Hill Jr., Matthew Golden, Ryan Wingo, Malik Muhammad and DeAndre Moore Jr. He gives the player a price range and asks them what they want, then looks to used car auctions if it's not a model he sells. That includes Ewers, who eventually decided the Corvette was giving him back issues. He couldn't abide that with his QB1, so he asked Ewers what else he'd like. "How about a Porsche Cayenne GTS?" said Ewers. Done.
  10. Great pics, @tomahawk dunk. Looks like you finished up. Second one, right? Would love to hear a few highlights and comparisons with the first.
  11. Hayduke

    "Bring it" songs

    Good stuff. Can't say that I've ever paid attention to Kelly but now I have. Enjoyed reading this statement from her Wikipedia bio: "The series chronicled their day-to-day life, portraying a dysfunctional family in which metal music, profanity and other harshness were a daily part of life." Only a couple of decades ago, but an entirely different lifetime. Man, that's three songs with a lot of energy. Was never a huge GNR fan so hadn't heard "Get in the Ring," but that's gotta be one of the only songs ever written that takes on so many music critics by name. Seems almost like an afterthought to the main challenge to everybody else in the world, though.
  12. Great find. Best thing posted on Surly in about 10 days. Or more. Probably more.
  13. Whaddaya think, @Mittens? Create a new post or keep this four-year-old, barely-four-pages thread going? Supercup with your Stuttgart vs. Bayern in another couple of hours. Pokal is now in full swing and the Bundesliga starts next week, so we've got some action to start filling the gap before Ohio State. Seems your old stomping grounds have their club going just a day after Stuttgart another 10 days from now. Just watched fourth-tier Illertissen beat second-division Nürnberg on PKs in the Pokal. Second division already two weeks in. Bielefeld and Darmstadt are at the top of the table with two other 2-0 teams just behind them.
  14. Didn't have that tone at all, IMO -- I enjoyed those stories -- but I also understand why @utee94 pounced on the opportunity. Surly ethos and all. Our son is in the reserves and ROTC with a year of school left. He's had a couple of great internships and has been flown around a bit -- starting with basic training, when it seemed they purposely made the airport experience hellish. But based on the stories he's been telling, even with his internships, it appears the military and military-related agencies are trying to replicate the space available/standby experience as a matter of standard procedure.
  15. Appreciate this perspective a lot. I enjoy a more detailed discussion of anything that sparks my curiosity, and the OAG did that because I'd not heard of it. I don't think I'm nostalgic, except maybe for a childhood when I was able to be more easily impressed by things like a "free" meal on a plane. Flew very little when I was young and have only experienced enough of it since to be able to see which parts of the experience have eroded over time, which is probably most of them except the high-end stuff and the presence of things that were only Jetsons material before. Flying is a kick in the nuts if you're not business class or above, or fortunate enough to have a single-leg trip. I'd probably rather drive from NY to LA. Free wifi ain't gonna save the experience for me, but a Kindle book and my own music makes it more bearable. I'm with you there. Can't say I'd rather have a bad free meal on the plane than an acceptable to decent one in the airport. But the entire flying experience seems to have deteriorated. Navigating take-out selections in the jammed, narrow concourses at O'Hare, for instance, is a nightmare that made me pick hunger over the prospect of missing a connection last year. At the same time, I also remember flying to a conference around 1997 or so from Easterwood Regional in College Station. Flight was at 7:35 a.m. and I woke up at 7:10. Even though I was six miles from the airport, I made the plane. If I have to venture an opinion, it's that air travel did strike me as more bearable and even humane when I first flew and wasn't horrible when I was a younger adult and flying on my own. From parking to security to picking up baggage, it's more a trial now, and a decent part of that probably is a function of aging. No question on your final point, though. Except ... pics.
  16. Nice shots. You've got a good eye with the camera.
  17. Thanks, @Ghost of LL. The guide would have made sense for frequent travelers, especially if they didn't want to rely on travel agents and administrative travel planners. I recall some flights with my family in the '70s when I was too small to pay attention to seat size, but remember better times, especially regarding meals. Some quick AI searches say average coach seat size has shrunk from 20-21 inches wide (about the size of current first-class seats) and legroom from about 35 inches in the '60s to around 31 now and as low as 28 in budget carriers. Before deregulation of the industry, complimentary meals, drinks (including alcoholic beverages) and even some entertainment were the norm and airlines competed with one another on amenities. One thing that popped up said Southwest "offered a bottle of alcohol to passengers who paid the full fare." Anybody remember that? So generally folks were getting what's now first-class experience -- and paying the price. Even my earliest flights, paid by the military when we followed Dad to Europe, were on airlines that I think no longer exist but still seemed slightly luxurious to me and my siblings. Things have just been eroding since, although, as @tigol points out, at least the air on planes has gotten better. Was coming back from Costa Rica via Panama maybe 10 years ago on Copa and was stunned by a free meal and beer in coach. I wonder if they're still holding out, but kinda doubt it.
  18. Never heard of it, which surprises me a little because my very long education and work experience are rooted in communication and touch a bit on tourism/recreation. I'm guessing this is is a publication whose primary audience was travel professionals, especially corporate folks and agencies. And folks who had to pay attention to transport logistics for other reasons. Ran a cursory search for more info but didn't get far, so I'm wondering if any of y'all would care to elaborate. Genuinely interested in why this is so meaningful.
  19. I'm going to get into the general spirit of questioning the motives and character of everyone else on this thread by questioning your motives and general character, based on your description versus what I see on the link you gave. I mean, the whole point of this contest is to give us something outrageously beyond the staple fair foods. I'd fly into DFW or DAL on a charter full of furries to try this:
  20. If you give him permission, people might make this a running gag or something, and then we might not get the airport designation talk we really need.
  21. Yep. But it took me a while -- as it probably takes many, or most, of us -- to get to a place where I wasn't bummed for at least a few hours by an especially painful or gut-wrenching loss. Like the 2015 Okie State game, which was not just a loss, but a reminder of how stupid and unfair life can be. Sometimes you just don't need the reminder, and that's what these games can do because we get a bit invested in them. The emotion makes them both more entertaining and disheartening. At the same time, there are so many glorious things about sports. The willingness to give in to a tear or two, or a visceral bellow of triumph, also makes them more fun, both on and off the field. Young people are so much more able to give in to their emotions that it's a life-affirming thing for me to watch, for instance, the video most of us saw from the other day. And it's our team, so naturally we feel something extra. Love watching the expressions on the faces around Landwehr as the guys start catching on to what's happening, and the explosion of unmitigated pride and elation from the brotherhood never gets old. It's also an affirmation of everyone else's triumphs and work, so it's basically a communal celebration of values.
  22. Hardly had to deal with the guy at all, actually. I've told this story before, probably, but the couple of times he attended class he just drew his legs up on the seat and turtled both his head and legs into his t-shirt and went to sleep. That damn t-shirt had to have been as big as a hot-air balloon, so that kinda narrows who it could have been. Still can't believe a guy that big could even fit into an auditorium seat like that, but he was indeed athletic. Nah. I get the whole Westlake thing. In some ways it's easier to be a fool for your local high-school team than for a place like UT that may be more closely tied to your livelihood. I make sure to ask my daughter two or three times a season if I'm cheering too loudly for her to be able to return home. Lots of ways to be a diehard, but some may just a little more restrained than others -- like I had to learn the first time I embarrassed the hell out of myself by yelling in the press box.
  23. With all due respect, @TreatyOak, as you are one of my favorite posters, you are full of hullabaloo caneck-caneck. IMO. I was living in CS when the bonfire fell and when Major got sick at the hotel. I have had to sit through Aggie Muster when they spent more time bad-mouthing Texas than they praise themselves -- and we know that's a lot. I had to get the A&M athletic department to withdraw another "Heisman-worthy" RB from my class because he never showed up and never did anything. I could go on, but suffice it to say that I was rewording "Lubbock in the rear-view mirror" when I drove a U-Haul out of that place for good. I love the Appalachian State win, but it will never surpass, for instance, Bubba Jacques' 30-yard fumble return to beat OU in '91. I was in my apartment in Bryan at the time, watching on my brand-new 29-inch color TV, and it was the first time I'd yelled because of a football game in years (because I was still free-lancing some sports at the time, mostly additional coverage of the Aggies for the Statesman -- Bohls was, of course, the main guy). I sat in the press box when Steve McMichael beat the hell out of some Aggie pre-game whenever that was, and my assignment that day was to write about the fight. Haven't been to a fraction of the games many folks here have been to, but I was at the Cotton Bowl for Robert Brewer's 30-yard run to beat Bama. I was around the 20-yard-line of the south end of DKR-Memorial when Mark Berry tackled Darren Lewis to preserve the 1990 win against A&M. I was in the stands in St. Louis and was directly on the 30 when James Brown rolled left. Some radio games: Vince hitting a 21-yard TD with 17 seconds left against KU while I'm in the parking lot of a Sam's Club in Topeka. McIvor crushing the Aggies while I'm listening on American Forces Network in Germany, as well as Texas beating Auburn and Bo Jackson. But mostly I've watched on TV. Vince for the win against USC. Sweed for the win against OSU in my basement with neighbors in Manhattan, KS. I've had a ton of Old Fashioned-fueled old-man primal screams at the TV in the last couple of years -- Bama, Michigan, Texas Tech in our final Big 12 title. Those were all truly entertaining games. But I do love me some App State and Dave South.
  24. I endured 14 years in College Station and even I can't understand that one.
  25. Huh. I always got the sense he was already up there and thus not likely alive any more. Frat-tastic sounds about right. Didn't really find him passive-aggressive, but I've always believed that term to be one of the greatest marketing ideas ever for psychiatry. Who's not on that scale? Of course ... present company excepted. All of Surly.
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