Yeah, yeah, yeah - this is stale news. But y'all I had presents to open, meals to cook, carols to sing and Coach Hullabaloo had his fireworks to burn.
I am still not all caught up yet on all the celebrating that needs to be happening. Twelfth Night is just around the corner and that means Mardi Gras! My life is a whirlwind. (
plus, get this: the TU Alumni House actually called me a week ago to see what I thought about throwing a pre-game tailgate party for the TU v. USM basketball game. Which now it appears that the Saints will be in a Wilcard Game downtown the same day. I was tickled to be called nonetheless)And speaking of celebrating -
how genius is this invitation sent out by Big Mike to his holiday party?
LMAO -
"more foot stomping music than a Saturday night at Shady's!" ha! ha! Tulane peoples are famously irreverent - we just
love hatin on the tiggers - and Big Mike just cracks me up! He is so unaplogetically not PC and that is refreshing.
At a recent holiday party we were both at he was griping about Team Wilson Center on many recent issues, including their evasiveness in addressing whether or not the new stadium will have lights. One would think this would be a "yes" or "no" answer. But sigh, Team Wilson Center is scairt of the Audubon Boulevard homeowners and Big Mike rightly pointed out the obvious: "We have an
entire law school full of Jewish lawyers. If Tulane can't figure out how to win that battle, we've got a lot bigger problems than 10 neighbors complaining about lights!" ha! Gotta love Big Mike -
and his cocktail weanie recipe which I will share below.
So while on the topic of weanies: I had some words with some fellow "credentialed" members of the New Orleans area media. They were
completely useless a few weeks back as evidenced
by their email response. I also sent me a letter to the Times Picayune for finding new ways to be pathetic.
42,000 Cajuns and San Diegans in town for the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl and the Times Pic buries a story about the nail biter finish on page 11 the following day. The "Mighty 690" Weanies didn't even mention it at all. You'd think they'd need to have naked mascots or something to get some coverage.
Oh wait, but there were naked mascots. ha!
My rampage to hold "credentialed" New Orleans sports media accountable was quelle hilarious because after I sent me off that Letter to the Editor at the Times Pic-A-Sheet, my phone rang. The Times Pic actually called and asked me if I wrote it. Well, yeah - you gonna run it? Just because Scott Cowen won't say nothin to Board Member Ashton Phelps about the bull his paper runs, doesn't preclude me from offering a piece of my mind. Plus - Scott Cowen is too preoccupied approving purple and gold ads for the Medical School it seems.
Anyways, the Times Pic uh... chickened out and ran another, more ummm, congenial letter pointing out to them that they blew it. and Gawd do they bleaux! Because unless it involves purple and gold, the Times Pic and the "Mighty 690" Weanies don't know whether to scratch their watch or wind their butts.
So since every "credentialed" media outlet is completely cast into a psychotic purple haze for at least another week I shall have to pick up the slack and give you my most colorful post-mortem as possible of the other sporting events happening with "local" teams in "Our City."
My story begins the day before the New Orleans Bowl. I had asked Coach Hullabaloo if he was interested in partying with the Cajuns at the Dome. I was thrilled to see that I had indeed piqued his interest with the prospect and so I then immediately went in for the kill by mentioning that it is "prime" oyster season happening right now and we could pit stop at Drago's before going to the Dome for a date night. Totally genius.
My sorority color is cardinal red, so I have got all kinds of cute red outfits happening. Coach Hullabaloo's fraternity is also cardinal red, so with color appropriate outfits and delish Drago's ersters we were all set to go mingle with the Aztecs and the Cajuns.
Outside the dome, there were some very sweet cajuns who had plaza level tickets just one section over from our normal Saturday dome seats. They even had some kind of special booster club pricing so we got them at an awesome price. Excellent football karma happening for us.
Well....Then Coach Hullabalo waded his way through Champions Square hunting for the ATM machine and came back reporting all kinds of drunkeness happening amongst the Cajuns.
I admit I got scairt. Here I was envisioning this lovely evening with delightful Lafayette-ans and I hadn't quite thought through how these peeps would be unleashed after 45 years of not having a winning season. It's bad enough for us that we are approaching 10 years, but 45!? That's like centuries.
And y'all -
were they unleashed* period exclamation point. Coach and I naively took our seats on the UL sideline in what turned out to be ground zero of Cajun madness and after about oh, 5 minutes looked longingly over to the San Diego sidelines and decided that it was more our speed over there.
(*So here's the perfect plan: Let's let the unleashed Cajun Fans and the Tiger fans just duke it out until there's nobody left standing.)So we headed over to the SDSU side and ran into Coach TD Woods and also into Booty! Booty was selling programs, which she does in order to get into Saints games. But unfortunately she was a
major party pooper and said she wasn't staying for the game. I am here to say that she. missed. out.
Coach and I had agreed earlier that we would be agnostic for the game, although we had a soft spot for the Cajuns. It was starting to be hard to
not root for SDSU though because the level of immaturity coming from some of the Cajun fans was just really putting a damper on my evening. I was so sad about that. Near us on the SDSU sideline seats there were some particularly immature (and ungroomed) Cajun students who appeared to have come straight from their OccupyLafayette meeting. Lawd have mercy, these chirrens started acting all kinds of ways. Coach Hullabaloo initially thought they were hippies from San Diego, but they were using all kinds of foul language that can only be found I think in a backwater. After a few downs, Coach could tolerate it no more so he had them bounced.
First Coach Hullabaloo went over and told these Cajun chirren to zip it and that they were making the state look bad - he wasn't going to tolerate such behavior with our out of town visitors. They looked at him and said "Yes sir" and then as soon as Coach turned around they went right back to yelling foolishness to the SDSU families. Oy. So Coach Hullabaloo snapped up and went to go find him some cops. It took him
for-ever and I was starting to get worried because SDSU men were getting up from their seats and yelling back and these Cajun chirren. Yes, it was escalating!
Finally Coach showed up with officers in tow and they snatched the kiddos right up. Cops shoulda been equipped with muzzles in addition to handcuffs because these kids continued to yell obsceneties the whole way out. Coach said he was delayed because the cops were busy breaking up all kinds of fights around the dome and he had to wait.
So back to the game: The first quarter I was somewhat glad that Mark Hudspeth and his
baby momma, the UNA cheerleader he knocked up and divorced his first wife for wife decided to stay in Lafayette instead of accepting the offer to coach The Greenwave because he was dialing up some really lame plays and the Cajun Kicker, Brett Baer couldn't kick an extra point to save his life. SDSU was carving them up.
And y'all - the SDSU band was vastly superior to the Cajun Band. Bless their hearts the Cajuns have a lot of catching up to do on fun game day traditions. And gameday outfits. Because I saw
all kinds of attire. This should be a rule: Tulle skirts are appropriate for toddlers, not adult women.
The Cajun Band only played "Dr. Who" it seemed like the entire game - I was about to poke my eye out. In contrast, the SDSU Aztec band was very lively. And their fans have a very cute cheer that they do to one of the band songs: S! D! S! U! S-D-S-U-FIGHT-FIGHT-FIGHT!
The cheer/song was sooooooooo cute that Coach Hullabaloo and I have decided that we are introducing this at Tulane. We even practiced by chanting our made up Greenwave version everytime the SDSU Band played it:
T!...U!...GREEN!...WAVE!
T-U-GREEN-WAVE-ROLL-WAVE-ROLL!
And the poor little Cajun Pepper Mascot - all he has is a little head piece.
I hope he earns a proper mascot costume after this bowl payout.
Well, I can't really say anything about not having enough costuming because SDSU peeps also seemed to have either lost their luggage or they dress half naked on purpose.
Just look at this woman.
The ripping up of gameday shirts into flashdance creations?
But then y'all - Mr. Aztec.
Actually I think his proper name is Monty, as in Montezuma. I immediately notified Booty that she had missed her opportunity for some kinda Mascot encounter.
Just look at this man's washboard abs. It made me want to stand up and applaud.
That kilt thing he was wearing looked like it was barely clinging to his hip flexors. When your mascot can be confused for a Chippendale's costume: clearly an indication that your mascot should be more appropriately attired.
Anyways: the game - I thoroughly enjoyed the exciting finish, despite being constantly distracted by the half naked mascot. When SDSU took the lead with 35 seconds left to the game, Coach and I looked at the sad Cajun fans, crying and witnessning the game slipping away from them. And well, we took pity on them. Then outa nowhere boom, boom, boom - the Cajuns manage to get into field goal kicking range and won it back. It was un-freaking-believable. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Their poor kicker, Brett Baer had missed 3 extra points earlier in the game.
But win it they did and the celebrating in the dome was deafening. And the 690 Weanies missed out on some very fun post-game discussion that coulda been happening on Monday after the game. Instead, they act like fools.
And y'all - this cocktail weanie recipe care of Big Mike will bring a cascade of applause at your next gathering. I promise!
BIG MIKE'S FAMOUS COCKTAIL WEANIESLittle Smokies
pound bacon - cut strips in half
cuppa Brown Sugar or so
Toothpicks
Big Mike says this is a labor intensive party dish in that wrapping the bacon around the little weanies can be exhausting. So maybe have a friend help and roll em up with some cocktails to pass the time.
Soak your toothpicks in water so that they don't like catch fire in the oven. Then you wrap each weanie in a half strip of bacon and then secure with your toothpick. Line em up side by side in a caserole dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top until covered. Broil in the oven for a spell until the bacon looks cooked and crisp. Keep warm in a chaffing dish or a crockpot on low.
I think these weanies would be awesome for a brunch tailgate with a Hashbrown casserole. mmmm....
Alright - next up I'll take about the funnest game I've been to in for-ever: The ladies basketball tourney. Soooo much fun! Can't wait to share. It was great.
