The Eyes of Texas Were Upon Us

The Wave Gigged Texas, yes indeedy!

I can't wait til we are formally invited to the Big 12 (ha, sooo still dreaming). What fun! And other than Mr Annoying Man in the section over from us, I very much enjoyed mingling with my people from Texas.

Mrs. Hullabaloo is Texan, you know.

 All the Longhorn Fans were mostly pleasant. AND generous - we got us free tickets to both games as we walked up from very nice strangers, plus we got a golf cart ride to the stadium, and because God is Good: their ice cream stand in the stadium had Reese's Pieces, and they were selling hot chocolate like all normal college stadiums tend to do. Winning!

Their stadium UFCU Disch Falk Field was beautiful. And by the way ... UFCU stands for University Federal Credit Union. I know - I wondered about that a little. Especially with Furman having had "FU" emblazoned on their ball caps last week. Lawd did Big Mike make me laugh with his inappropriate commentary about that! ha!

Isn't that a beautiful ballpark?  UFCU >> Litter Box .  Anyways, so Friday's game washed out after 2 innings unfortunately. But not before we got to show up in our cute outfits. I got this dress online at Loft. Get yours.

Saturday's weather was beautiful, but we only stayed for the remainder of the rescheduled first game and then half of the second game. It got cold and I got hangry again so we had to leave to go stuff my face. My sorority sister whom I'll call Dulcecita brought her precious boys on Saturday. They got to get a baseball signed by Jake Rogers and Lex Kaplan. So cute.

Evan is holding Mr. Pickle in the bottom right which was our lucky charm. #winning

I cant stress enough how much I enjoyed UFCU Field! Before the game Texas shows a video of a former player singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame - I love love love this tradition. Can we please do this at Turchin? Like with Coach Brockhoff and his precious grandsons while he's still alive and we can?

Please excuse Coach Hullabaloo rudely interrupting this video.  I gave him a major eyeroll as these Longhorn fans were all so nice and Coach Hullabaloo was being silly.

So now Mr Annoying Man.  I was having a splendid time until this happened: in the first game on Saturday he got up half way through one of the middle innings, very rudely interrupted my pleasant conversation with a Longhorn fan about Mack Brown and the 2005 CWS, and he screamed at us "HEEEYYYY!!!!! TULANE FANS! Thats how you catch a ball!!" Of course, the other Longhorns in our section sat there embarrassed and silent. I wanted to get up and do something to him. What, I don't know, but it woulda been lights out. Maybe go stomp on his toe with my cute boots.

To be fair, their outfield was boss. They totally shut us down mostly. I am completely shocked we won because we are playing all out position, and Texas really IS that awesome and their players were amazing. Anyways after Mr. Big Mouth opened his pecan pie hole, Richard Carthon outran a throw to first and then Hope got a homerun. I felt like screaming back at him "HEY! Did you see THAT?! That's how you run on base and get a homerun!"

Another funny was that during one of our many Hullabaloos, the Longhorn Fans commented, well Gee all we do is clap.  And my friend whom I'll call Pete said, well our athletic department budget doesn't allow for cannons. ha!  Those cannons, omg.  Probably my least favorite portion of our visit to UFCU Field.

Earlier before the game, Coach and I hit up Stitch Switch BBQ and I fell in love with their Green Bean salad. That is my new favorite BBQ side, so below is a recipe.

GREEN BEAN SALAD

Lemon vinaigrette

Steamed green beans

Chopped red bell peppers 

Toasted pecans

Use pre-made lemon vinaigrette like this or whisk together lemon juice, dijon mustard, dill (or other tasty herb like tarragon), walnut+canola oil, garlic powder, salt/pepper to taste. DE-RIB your green beans (or just use frozen chopped) and steam them with salt pepper and onion/garlic powder. Toast chopped up pecans with butter (either on a baking sheet in the oven or in a pan over the stove). Chop up your red bellpepper. Ok, this is when we get to the hard part: toss everything together and refrigerate.

So thank Yahweh for this series win in Austin because it helps make our losses to Nicholls, SLU, and UNO a fainter memory. Shaa! Meaningless Midweek Games. I am seaux seaux seaux glad I skipped SLU and UNO. Because suffering through that loss at Didier Field at Harvard on the Bayou is about as much as I can deal with at this point in time.  I haven't quite licked my bruised ego from the last time we lost there. Them Cajuns went totally out the box with their victory lap after the game. They had fireworks and Hooters girls and everything. I am serious. Peggy and I laughed and laughed about that on our way home from Thibovegas.

So yes, so totally glad for this win! Hullabaloo Ray Ray!!

Laughing is fun! Who knew?

It has been so much fun to belly laugh the past few days.

We just got back from Thibodaux, and I don't really care that we only won 1-0. And I don't really want to think about how we went a zillion innings with a goose egg before finally scoring right now. I'll have time to think about having a close game with Nicholls some other time in the far way future.

Me and my peeps and Coach Hullabaloo (who made a rare cameo at a mid week game) trekked over the bridge and down Highway 90 to Thibovegas to avenge our embarassment from last year at Didier Field.

We stopped for dinner at Bubbas. I don't know exactly which Bubbas it was because that whole Bubbas thing is just confusion. Bubbas II, Bubbas on the Bayou - whatever. But seriously, Bubbas has got to be the most expensive fried seafood in the history of man. $75 for food served on trays, served with plastic forks and lemon juice packets!! It was like a robbery hold up, but in reverse. In my opinion of good seafod eatin', Bubbas ain't got nothing, nothing on Drago's.

We sat at the game with our favorite Tulane friend, Lil General, and her husband, Mr. Lil General. They live in Thibodaux. They are so sweet and came to sit with us a spell at Bubbas before the game too.

Mr. Lil General was throwing out the funnies left and right (har har). I say left and right like that because there were some very annoying Kappa Sigmas who were cheerleading the game and one of their go to cat calls was the "left right left right" chant when our Greenwave players walked off the field. It was uber annoying.

Here are the Kappa Sigs when they thought they could sit on top of the Tulane dugout. They snapped this just moments before they got kicked off and sent away by security.

showsyy
Afterwards the Kappa Sigs set up like railbirds in front of the fence along first base bleachers and continued their annoying cheers. The one that was actually kind of funny was that they would all go "WHOO!" in unison each time that Rankin does his famous wind up high kick that he does. (We looove you Daniel! We wouldn't change a thing about your baseball habits! It's cute!)

photo from David Grunfeld, Times Pic
Afterwards they all congratulated the Greenies and shook hands, so I have forgiven the Kappa Sigs for some of their more immature taunts. At least they are doing something constructive with their time in college like supporting their classmates who are student athletes and not like running a drug den out of their fraternity house or acting like fools at seranades. So overall I was impressed and jealous with their school spirit - because like when's the last time a Tulane fraternity has shown up for a game, any game? ..... It's been decades. Sigh.

So anyways, on the way out to Thibodaux, Peggy kept us in stitches by sharing a classic story that will go down in the annals of Hullabaloo Huddle as one for the ages. It just might displace our apron story, as funniest story ever.

Peggy and some of my girls, Pickle and Jubilee, had been volunteering at a tournament which shall remain nameless because I don't want the FDA or health inspectors knocking down our door. or someone getting in trouble. So I'll just discuss it here on the interwebs between you and me.

So my girls Peggy, Jubilee, and Pickle are at this event and they were in charge of distributing the lunches to the teams that were participating. Which would seem like an easy task However, some of the teams would come up and grab all of their lunches for their team, but then sometimes individuals would go up and claim their own lunch. It was up to our peeps to keep track of who was getting what. You can see how this might go sideways if you aren't paying attention.

So one of the participants came up to the lunch check out and asked for her sandwich by herself. She dressed her sandwich and then left. Meanwhile another team came up to claim their lunches for the entire team. There was a stray sandwich still wrapped up all nicely that was still on the table, so it got added to the pile that was being handed over to the team and off that sandwich went.

Well the girl came back and asked where her sandwich went that she had left on the table. Peggy was momentarily horrified and explained that it must have been given to another group. The girl sez, you don't understand - I put mayo on the sandwich. Peggy responded, Oh well the sandwich in question is gone. And the girl then responds, no you don't understand! She had taken a BITE out of the sandwich! Immediately Peggy's response is to start laughing. She's given out a half eaten sandwich to goodness knows who.

One of my other girls who was also volunteering, whom I'm calling Pickle also starts to laugh, or cackle, and everybody is laughing like it's the funnies thing. Amongst just us, Pickle whispers through laughter and tears that she hoped it had gotten picked up by one of the LSU coaches (omg ha, right?!). And that she hopes (kiiiiddddding) that they think we did it on purpose. ha ha!

One of the worker bees who was supposed to be supervising Peggy, Pickle and Jubileee - was just beside herself fraught with worry over SandwichGate. Meanwhile Peggy, Pickle and Jubilee can't even look at each other without laughing. And then they start cracking jokes about the bite being like a kingcake baby. Meanwhile the concerned workerbee was wanting to report SandwichGate up the chain of command, which just made it all the more comical. Even when the concerned worker bee is distraught and trying to explain to the tournament supervisor about the mistake, it was making Peggy, Jubilee and Pickle - grown women who are mostly all grandmothers - laugh even harder. Because could you like imagine sending out a half eaten sandwich and the reaction of the person who got the half a sandwich? Or if they God forbid, had eaten it?!

Don't ever trust us to volunteer again! But in all seriousness: I swear on my cats that we won't spit in your tailgating food, or serve sandwiches we've already bitten into. I prooommmmmise!!!

SandwichGate reminds me of Peggy's and my last trip to the Litter Box in Bataan Rouge for a final farewell baseball game there. They were just building the new place next door and Peggy and I discussed at length the possibility of digging and burying some Tulane jerseys in the new litter box stadium while construction was still happening. Could you imagine how funny? Peggy even suggested that if we buried say 2 jerseys, that we should send a ransom type note and tell them that there were 4 buried jerseys just so that they would dig up the whole place chasing down the 2 ghost jerseys.

Oh, the fun of rivalries I tell you!

Yes, ha! The corndogs lost to USL. Of course they are blaming the rain delay on all their errors. While I still find USL annoying, I shan't pass up a chance to laugh that corndogs lost. So: ha ha ha ha

Nothing a Bad Attitude Can't Fix Y'all

Oh, what are you all worked up over?

So we got run ruled at home last week, followed by losing a meaningless midweek game. What's the big deal?

At least our cookie cake was cute. See.

also the pictures interspersed here are of Mrs Hullabaloo modeling a costume change with an unknown Tulane fan. Yes, I undressed in front of my husband with a complete stranger and switched shirts for a photo op. This bowling shirt is on my bucket list of Greenwave lore to own. Norby's was a tradition between Outhouse fans and Greenies that whoever won a game had to wheelbarrow the other team's fans. This all took place somewhere down in the bayou. Not sure if you can see the wheelbarrow drawing on the back of the bowling shirt that is on the other pictures that follow below. It hasn't been done in a zillion years because, well, our record and also since they refuse to play us (do you blame them, would you play us?). But unknown fan loved my "Hey Tigahs, Bleaux Me" shirt so much that he asked to wear mine for the picture I wanted to take and well there you have it, we were all undressing in Rosen.


So chin up greenwave fans, nothing a little bad attitude can't fix. Or a chipper Wave Chat in your inbox to spin any bad news into being just part of "the plan". Everything is rolling along according to plan, so just turn that frown upside down ya heard!

So yes, as you can see Coach and Mrs. Hullabaloo were at "the game." I stayed until I literally could feel the wind penetrating my brain it was so flippin cold. (I can't believe they had Devon Walker out with us in that weather!)

Coach and Mrs. Hullabaloo ducked out with Mr. and Mrs. Baldboy about the 5th or 6th inning, but not before I got to sing our one and only round of Hullabaloo AND watch a double play. and all of four hits. Yes. See: there is a silver lining in everything! Even in sub-Arctic temperatures. Hoo-ray!


Mr. and Mrs. Baldboy are our new fun couple that also enjoy subjecting themselves to the humiliation that comes with being a Tulane fan. Yay, kindred spirits! Although today Mr. Baldboy had it up to here (lawd, he's been a fan longer than me if you can believe it) and he finally put his foot down. Mrs. Baldboy was just hilarious recounting her husband's ire, cause ooooh noooo, now they'd gone and done it.

You see, it's not enough that we have to watch the unwatchable, but then we are also forced to follow absurd parking and tailgating "rules" on top of it. Mr. Baldboy was so worked up over his absurd parking situation that he demanded they come pick him up in a golf cart with all of his tailgate crap, and Mrs. Baldboy sat there laughing taking this all in (she is so cute). Luckily they produced a good enough parking space closer to Rosen to satisfy Mr. Baldboy. When I told him the Rosen parking passes were $5, Mr. Baldboy went through the roof.


Honest to Yahweh I believe that somewhere in the nether recesses of Wilson Center there's a secret committee that meets to figure out what are the most absurd and arcane situations they can dream up to put Tulane Fans in, not tell anybody about or announce in any normal way and then sit back, watch and see how many more of us they can chase off. Like we are laboratory mice or something. I swear, it must also be on their employee reviews as well. How many season tickets did you sell...mmm I see. Well how many fans did you piss off?...mmmm, excellent! Oh, and can your father declare in national interviews that we were the reason College Athletic Conferences fell apart? Smashing! You are Hired!


This here is the recovering foot of a fan I'll call Cute As a Button. Cute As a Button's dad is a trip. We just love him in section 110. And his seriously awesome meatballs he sells. Anyways, here Cute As a Button is modeling all the signatures she's collecting from New Orleans athletes, including Thomas Morstead! fer real!

In all fairness, Mrs. Hullabaloo has a very lovely connection inside the office who was totally awesome and secured me parking passes without a single solitary obstacle, who was ever sweet and even came over to check up on us and make sure that everything went smoothly. So grateful for that. But not every fan has a Bat Line. Mrs. Hullabaloo worked in Washington DC after college for the Ana Wintour of DC Lobbyists. So I am battle trained to deal with shit hitting a fan and how to head it off in advance. Man, I tell you that man I worked for was c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y cray. He'd call up out of the blue "Miss Hullabaloo! Go find me that and get it to me in 5 minutes. By the way I'm on the Hill" and hang up. Pre-cell phone days I'd have to figure out what "that" was and where exactly on the Hill he was (senate side? house side? which office building? or Hill adjacent having lunch?). I had a rolodex the size of an airplane engine. And he would call me on Friday nights while I was at post-Happy Hour asking if I would drive to Maryland to babysit his kids. Lawd - I once ran out onto the runway at a fedex facility at Dulles Airport to get a fedex package onto a plane for that man.

Yes this is the bat that almost took out Carthon last nite.
I don't think we even made contact with the ball.


Captured by Parker Waters.

So I'm used to crazy. I can laugh about it. But your average fan can only put up with so much crazy. Add finding new ways to lose games or witnessing how the sausage is made at Wilson Center and well that's just a recipe for bad news to the average fan. But don't worry, TPTB will just zip out a new Wave Chat and explain it all away. And don't you know that Cal State Fullerton turned it all around once 20 years ago? The laws of probability on that happening again makes it very very plausible we can whip up a miracle at Turchin. What with the transfer+scholarship rules, our intimidating tuition, and our strength and conditioning program that always somehow results in the decimation of our depth chart. Other teams play on a regulation field, with NCAA equipment and follow NCAA rules and yet somehow there's always a convenient excuse to bail us out.

Listen y'all - I have the utmost respect for Coach Rick Jones. I do! I love him and all his crazy. Like outlawing "Green! Wave!" chanting because it is "ineffective." Or threatening to cut down our tree in Peggy's Patio because it causes undue juju for being the only mulberry bush amongst the palms in the outfield.

Mrs. Hullabaloo the tree hugger. Save the Tree!

But having being run-ruled Saturday at home for the Memphis series as all part of our grand plan to eek out a series win on Sunday is suspect, IMHO. At one point during the Run Ruling Strategery, we were down 10-0 and finally Rick Jones stomps out to the mound. Coach Jones had been violently ill on Friday night and you know it had to be bad because he didn't go to the game. That happens like never. Oh but we had us a grand ole time cheering "Green! Wave!" to our heart's content. The marketing peeps even put the cheer on the scoreboard (!). Yes! Shhh, don't tell Jones about it tho. Anyways, Coach Jones stomped out to the mound at 10-0 and I thought out loud, Wow, here I thought this a redo on Weekend at Bernie's down in the dugout. The Greenies tossed ourselves down a black hole at this game and our dugout was completely silent and nobody rustling about. Like this is how we were supposed to roll now. What the Facundus is what I have to say about that.

So anyways, Coach Hullabaloo is licking his wounds this morning as he just seeths at Outhouse and their awful fans. Wants desperately to put them in their place. As do I, but ya know what exactly can we do as a collective? Protest and stop going to games? Did you see the vast swaths of purple engulfing Turchin last night? It was enough to make you ill. We know how to beat these people, remember this? the last time they were numbah two?

April 1, 2009


When LSU lost like fools on April fools 2009

It leaves us all with the unanswered question that I have yet to hear a straight "Yes" or "No" answer from TPTB......

Do. You. Want. Tulane. To. Win? question mark question mark exclamation point

Sure TPTB has perfected the response that Athletics is basically a glorified academic program for gifted student athletes and yada yada yada "right for our situation" yada yada. But if Florida Gulf Coast University (who the facundus has ever even heard of that school before?) can figure it out, what with our legions of Freeman business and Tulane Law graduates haven't been able to figure out how to run a department properly. As Big Mike so eloquently said once, We have an entire law school of Jewish lawyers at our disposal here. What is the point of operating at a loss and/or with a losing record for decades? To bring new coaches here so that they can gain 50 pounds and then graveyard their careers? We done wrote the playbook on "let's play not to lose" perspective. Been doing that since Yahweh was a boy and look where it's gotten us: humiliating trips to Thibodaux!

Anyways, I leave you with this: Middleton was Safe and here's photographic proof.



And that's all there is to it. Ciao my chamudis!

There is No Plan B

Ha, I'm fixin to graffiti this at the Wilson Center until they agree to restructure our scholarship situation. Or at least schedule a discussion with Gibson Hall about it.

So freshman Tim Yandel delivered today and got us a win in overtime today in baseball. Lawd have mercy we needed that win. Without it, stick a fork in us we were done. d-o-n-e.

And just look! Times Picayune actually covered the game. And they actually suppressed their pre-pertubal urges and didn't select another infantile picture of a Tulane player getting hit in the groin as "Photo of The Day" like TP photog David Grunfeld did after the Northwestern game last Tuesday. We are so proud.

Bra-vo, TP!


photo by Peter Forest

Of course I must also breathlessly report that last night at Senior Night for the Greenwave basketball team the ever classy UH cooters, headed by their Etiquette Coach, James Dick-e, acted like the thug fools they are. It was a close game and Tulane was ahead most of the game, falling behind, battling back and then letting it heartbreaking-ly slip away in the final moments. So instead of saying "Great Game!" let's shake hands, Mr. Dick-e encouraged his thug team into cursing and flipping off the Tulane fans in the stands. Yes. Have I mentioned enough how simply awful that wretched institution is? And we have to be associated with them for the foreseable future until we can finally mercifully manage to get ourselves into a for real college conference and out of the "Awkward 12"*

*Yes I think the new name for the Big East is stupid, so sue me for being a cynical fan.

Anyways, on more pleasant topics: I am finally excited about 2013 tailgating. No, we haven't gotten a new schedule, although I continue to pray on that daily. TPTB spinning that this schedule includes 6 bowl teams just further exacerbates that we...um... have not quite been in that number. So today after the baseball game Coach and Mrs. Hullabaloo spent some social time with Booty to laugh and brainstorm what to do about tailgating themes for this very unfortunate schedule we are having heaped on us in less than five months time. Time is a ticking, so I need to hop to it.

I just have to say that Booty is a rock. Last season she walked me off the ledge about morning games (I wish we had simple problems such as this). And today she helped birth some fab ideas that has me truly excited about Tulane Tailgating for 2013.

I present to you, our Potential 2013 Tailgating Themes

August 31: Jamaican Me Crazy Already Playing Jack(ed)son State: Jerk Chicken Wings, Plantain chips and Lime Pepper Jelly over Cream Cheese, Fresh Fruit Kabobs, Pineapple Slaw, Black Bean salsa, Caribbean Crispix Mix, Coconut Curry Popcorn, Red Stripe Beer and Mint Lime Blueberry Gingerbeer Cocktail (with optional bourbon).

Since it feels like we tailgate on the surface of the sun in August and September, Booty suggested a luau theme. But with Bob Marley's grandson, Nico, now playing for the Wave, I thought of Jamaica and with New Orleans the unofficial Capital of the Caribbean, why, it's a perfect combination.

September 7: Challah-baloo TM (yes! aren't we clever): In honor of welcoming our Southernmost Alabamians and also in reverence that Rosh Hashana will be upon us soon, we're getting our Jew on. Kosher Deli Meat Roll, Sweet and Tangy Beef Brisket, Whitefish Salad, Kosher Pickles, Granny Smith Apple Wedges with honey, Sweet and Savory Noodle Kugel Casserole, Maneschewitz Sangria, Chocolate Matza Cracker Brittle, Almond Raisin Challah Rolls, and Coconut Macaroon Brownies.

October 5: Mean Green Octoberfest. Get out your leiderhosen and your cowboy boots. Reprise of a tried and true theme. Welkommen North Texans!

October 12 (ECU): Columbus Discovers Bacon (or Seafood). I'm still fleshing this Columbus Day theme out. A pork and bacon centric tailgate menu could be very fun with BLT pasta salad, or pulled pork sliders. But Coach Hullabaloo wants shrimp cake sliders. Hmmmm, we'll see.

October 27 (Aslut): Halloween. Boo: Aslut is coming to Nola.

November 23 (UTEP): Tex-Mex, because who doesn't like tex-mex?

So, my chamudis? What do you think? Cute, right?

Postcard From The Edge

Welcome back, Mrs. Bad Fan here breaks her silence.

I almost asked Preacherman to just drive his minivan with all of us aboard straight into Bayou Lafourche last nite, but then I thought of you and how much y'all have missed me.

A group of us road tripped out to Thibodaux for our "away" baseball game with Harvard on the Bayou. Jesus, Joseph and Mary and all of the angels and saints: What is Going On Here?! We lost in the most humiliating fashion to a school who's press box is a card table set up on metal bleachers and a shed for a ticket window.

See, here's photographic proof. This is it. This is the expanse of Didier Field. Where we lost like fools.


I wish I'd snapped a picture of Graf in his hoodie trying to broadcast from that card table. It was hilarious.

Speaking of hilarious: On the way to Thibodaux Peggy was telling me the story about of Tulane's last away game at Didier Field which I did not attend. I was laughing so hard I almost pee'd my pants. Did you know Coach Jones got kicked out of Nicholl's stadium? Twice! Apparently Coach Jones got hot about some call during the game, so the ump told him to leave. But as you can see this stadium is not exactly a fortress. So Jones snuck back in somehow into a corner somewhere in the stands and didn't even have a mustache disguise or potted fern to hide behind or anything. So he got discovered and walked back out to the bus, but Tulane fans made a human tunnel for him to leave through causing much aggravation to the Colonels and their fans. So afterwards a stupid LSU fan tries to taunt Big Mike because that's how they roll in Baton Rouge - you get aggravated with games and so you taunt the opponent's fans. So Big Mike turned to the sorry squirt and said "Yeah?! Well, I peed on your truck. So there." He didn't really, but OMG ha!

But alas...after the humiliation of the past 4 games, Coach Hullabaloo is going to refuse to go to Tuscaloosa for the series with Alabama and that makes me sad.

Anyways, I just have to say: All of you have been so kind and patient during my many months of silence following the end of that whackadoodle football season we had in 2012. After the umpteenth person asked about Hullabaloo Huddle last night and during our first weekend series at Turchin, I decided to just post already. My silence has been kind of on purpose, save a few outbursts on twitter. And save some some booty shaking over the Bowl Season Upsets that warmed my heart so. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank YOU Clemson and, well, um, thank you, begrudingly, Louisville. Bowl Season can make strange bedfellows of even some of us most hardened fans. But by the way, did you know that Tulane has a vastly larger endowment than Clemson?

So, anyways, what has mostly contributed to my silence has been the ever changing landscape of our future. Paying attention to and following conference negotiations, media deals and our recruiting inroads has been like running with the bulls. The fluctuations of each and every twitter newscycle has been like totally cray. At this point in our lives it even appears that the Big East is about to shred all sense of dignity and acquiese into selling it's name (!) to the Seven Whiny Babies also informally known as the Catholic 7.

Yes, you've emailed, texted and cornered me on social media for my opinions. I value that you value my ole little opinion so here is a summation:

To Whom It May Concern: Mrs. Hullabaloo approved of the Big East news. Made Lorenzo Doss' takeaway in the final game of the season a glimmer of the possibilities. But the shine's kinda worn off with the implosion that ensued and now that the 2013 schedule's been announced, plus with Robert Kelley being academically ineligible it forces me to remember that we are talking about Tulane here and not some mythical land of manna that has decided truly once and for all to get it's act together.

Plus, forgive me for not busting out a ticker tape parade about Aslut following us to the Big East and the whole excrutiating C7 Death Spiral. Although I did pause to do my best Vincent Price MUWAHAHA! that we were asked first over the remaining members of Ex-Cusa. Witnessing the apoplexy of the haters was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s for the moments that it lasted.

But then, I was confronted with a most ratchet* development in Tulane Contemporary History: Our 2013 football schedule. It SO blows. I'm a schedule elitist y'all, so sue me.

*Ratchet is actually word y'all. It's the twitter bastardization of wretched. hilarous, right? kids!

Anyways, back to my regularly scheduled bitching: What has further cemented my gossip fueled and cynical opinions is that at the tail end of the conference capers and what not, Tulane's AD pipes up and finally "had something to say."

Ok, Listen up folks! A Member of TPTB Feels It Imperative To Announce, Above All Other Absurdity of Our Making, That - wait for it ........ Boisie State Is Inappopriate and Unreasonable.....

Y'all. !

With the awkward level of crap heaved at Tulane over the winter from every corner of ESPN and national newspapers (and that unfortunate Marquette interview) about how we were responsible for the demise of the American College Conferences As We Know It for daring to accept the invitation to the Big East, this is what merited an outburst of outrage from Wilson Center: That Boisie State's PTB aren't shy or demure about strong arming a deal to benefit themselves. Look who's looking out for number one! How Shameful. And We Won't Stand For That Behavior!

Talk about a lost opportunity to Jujitzu all of the bad publicity into something positive. When's the last time we trended in the newscycles?

Anyways, moving on. I gotta reserve some ire for this Inappropriate and Unreasonable Football Schedule and this just most truly sad start to the baseball season. (But honestly, lost in all this if you can take a break from your wrist slitting appointments, Tulane Baskeball has been winning. Shhhh! though. We can't mention it or it will break the mojo. So everybody remain silent ok.)

2013 HOME Southernmost Alabama, ULM, Jack(who?)son State, East Carolina, North(of Denton) Texas, Aslut, UTEP

2013 AWAY Boca Raton Community College FAU, Louisiana Tech, Rice, UTSA, Syracuse

This is what an inaugural member of the SEC has come to: Road trips to Ruston!. I won't lie: I won't be shedding a tear about going to Boca Raton with Coach Hullabaloo, we're big fans of Miami. I can't wait to make all of my favorite restaurant reservations and hit up my favorite shops. The lone bright spot. And what's more is that with the awfulness that has befallen my Slugger Birds, we now have to turn our minds and get pumped up about opening up against South Alabama. boo.

The silver lining in all of this is my spiritual edification. In that this all makes my fog of disappointment about morning games last season just all the more tragic. God sure learned me to question a game time against Ole Miss. (What was I thinking??!!!) A sure lesson in gratefulness and humility, because even if TPTB scheduled 6pm games to make up for this ratchet-ness, it is not going to rectify a schedule packed 100% with directional schools. Lord, please forgive me and show us mercy. There is still time though for TPTB to Rise Up and walk back an agreement with one of these schools like Alabama and the Outhouse did to us. Our Lady of Football Schedules, pray for us. Amen.

Anyways, my dears: 7 months to plan so I just need to get over it and Echa Pa'Lante!

Summer Break

We were this, this, close to getting into a baseball regional (in Waco it was gossiped), but then that minor detail of actually winning games during the CUSA tourney kinda put a damper on things.

And of course, it helped that ECU had their AD on the selection committee so they got picked over us even having beat them senseless 4 times (hey! novel idea. when is the Greenwave TPTB gonna smarten up and figure out those kinda home cooking arrangements?)

So I bought me these boots instead of having a pity party.  Retail therapy, cures all that ails ya.

I found them on a birthday trip to Austin the same weekend of the Cusa Tourney which was taking place in Pearl, Mississippi.  I found these at this lovely boot scootin shop called "Allen Boots" located amongst the Hippie dives of South Congress.  (Serious. Austin is sooo weird. and I say that as a New Orleanean.)

Here's a link, don't look at the price, just buy them because they are fabulous. And get them in a size larger because they run small.

......So, now, am I ready to go pitchforking Coach Rick Jones like some of the haters? ....Uh, No Thank You!  Lawd have mercy.  Could you imagine all of the extraordinary drama that TPTB at Wilson Center could invent in their effort to derail yet another head coaching search?

During the football head coaching search, there was all kinds of drama. And I mean: all kinds.  I got grey hairs from all of it and worse: it was interfereing with my ability to hostess proper tailgating parties! And that is serious y'all! 

The Football Head Coaching Search which was conducted was such an absurd tragi-comedy that Hot Wheels renamed the thread on the topic on GoTula.net as the "Head Coaching Search Hostage Crisis Day {insert number of days}" lmao!  It was like a countdown, and each day it would be updated with the newest day.  Of course TPTB just hated that and even mentioned it underhandedly at the announcement presser, but whatever. Laugh with us, or cry with us.

It's sad that this was actually funny to us, but seriously - this search could not have been handled in a more absurd manner.  It got to the point that the only thing a random candidate needed was an offer from Tulane in order to parlay that into getting a better gig at a better program.  Scott Cowen had even schockingly opened up the coffers to the limit, above and beyond what other schools were offering to pay and nobody, I mean, nobody, dared accept.  Every candidate pulled a Todd Graham on us, accepting our overtures in order to use our offers to sweaten the ones they really wanted.  It was embarassing, excruciating, undignified.

Tulane started out at the front of the pack in the coaching search in October and we offered everybody with a living pulse before finally thankfully drawing the charade to a close in high December with someone not but 3 miles away from campus. I cannot make this up.

And then to top that drama, we now have the withering away of CUSA right before our very eyes - which was a joke of a conference to begin with. Titanic imagery and all. And second-guessing TCU for conference hopping.  And making Louisville and Cincinnatti promise to schedule CUSA games as an exchange condition for bolting. (!!!!!!)

We, as in Tulane, have managed to identify, along with CUSA, some additions of schools whose names even I can't even wring out of my skull or point out on a map.  Seriously.  The indiginity of even recalling these "new" additions to CUSA is so embarassing to me, that I can't bring myself to even type them until I absolutely must because they happen to be on the schedule.

(Please Buddah or whoever, Great One Up Above, please, pretty please help us get into a for real college conference?  If you could find it in your heart. We've suffered enough.....)

So in short, I'll get back to my point with respect to Coach Rick Jones: We all deserve better treatment than what would most certainly ensue in a "search" should we fire him. The foreseen possibilities that this course of action would promise causes me to have post-traumatic stress disorder in advance.  And by "we" who deserve better: I mean the entire Greenwave family: fans, players, and most of all Coach Rick Jones who's given us more wins than any other coach in the history of the Greenwave. and yet, has stuck around.

I do, however, acknowledge that RJ does need to do some hard thinking about the lineup of his coaching staff and how long he lets pitchers marinate on the mound. And then Dickson needs to do some Rise Up TM thinking about proper scholarship arrangements for baseball so that we can do what Rice figured out to do long ago.

Maybe we'll get these wishes in time for Christmas. Dare to dream.....

It was funny to us in Section 110 at the time, but we threatened to take matters into our own hands and do a Forrest Gump.

As in commandeer signal calling away from the third base coach.  Sending players around 3rd when they wouldn't make it in time, giving them the signal to stop when it was too late for them to cool the momentum of their jets, running into players running for home.  And lawered knows how many botched stolen bases that would doom innings.

Anyways, that's all I gots to say about all of this.  Onward to the food and shopping portion of my post today.

I have found these cuuu-te football party gear and hope ya'll love them too.

Cute tailgate glasses from Glam Glasses.  Adorable, non?

and Yummy recipes too...I think I'm gonna serve this at the Rice game this season

RACHEL RAY'S TEX MEX BRISKET 
Spice Rub
1/4 cuppa light brown sugar, packed
3 tbs paprika
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs mustard seeds
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Braised Beef prep  beef brisket (5 to 6 pounds), liposuctioned, but leave 1/8" of fat on top
fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive erl
4 cloves chopped garlic
2-3 stalks chopped celery
2 chopped carrots
1 large chopped oignon
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons pureed seeded chipotle in adobo
2 tablespoons tomater paste
1 bottle dark Mejican Cerveza
2 cups beef stock
One 32-ounce can tomater puree

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine spice blend ingredients, reserve 2 tbsp of blend for another use.

Bring the brisket to room temperature. Sprinkle with black pepper and some of the spice blend onto the meat.

Heat 3 tbsp of erl in a skillet and brown the brisket on both sides and then remove from heat onto a separate plate. Don't cook thru.

To the same skillet, add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil, sautee the veggies for 5 mins, seasoned with salt n pepper. Stir in the chipotle puree and tomato paste and let simmer for a minute. Add the beer, stir and simmer for another minute. Add the beef stock n tomato puree and bring to a low simmering boil.

Add the brisket back in, cover the skillet and braise in the oven until fork tender, about 2.5 to 3 hours. Very carefully, remove the brisket and slice it up.

Puree the braising gravy left in the skillet with an immersion blender and add sliced brisket back into the sauce.

serve with Jalapeno Orzo Mac n Cheese (yum-o!)

JALAPENO POPPER ORZO MAC N CHEESE
Kosher salt
1 pound orzo
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
4 jalapenos seeded and finely chopped
2 jalapenos, sliced with seeds
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups milk
Fresh ground pepper
2 cups cheddar
4 ounces cream cheese
2 cups panko
2 Fresno chile peppers, sliced

Cook orzo in berld salted water for 6 mins. Until al dente. Drain orzo.

Sautée chopped jalapenos, garlic and onions in 4 tbsp butter until soft. Add the flour and make a roux. Add the milk and stir until the sauce thickens (you've made a bechamel!). Season with salt n pepper. Add cheddar and cream cheese, stir until melted delicious goo-eyness.

Combine the orzo with your cheesy sauce in a casserole dish.

Melt 4 tbsp of butter and toss with panko to coat. Sprinkle buttered panko over the casserole and top with sliced jalapenos and Fresno chiles.  Yum, tastes just like a jalapeno popper!  With the Orzo, it's a perfect Houston inspired menu with the Greek and the Tex Mex and the American all coming together.  Can't wait!

SWEEP! SWEEP! SWEEP!

Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray Varsa Varsa Tee Ay!

image borrowed from livinglocurlo.com. I love this vintage baseball tablescape. love, love, love!

Before I get to the coverage of this very exciting weekend in Tulane Greenwave Baseball, I finally got Che to provide an update on former Tulane baseball players in the Minors/Majors y'all

PITCHERS
Brandon Gomes - Tampa Bay Rays
Micah Owings - San Diego Padres
Aaron Loup - New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA - Toronto Blue Jays)
Preston "Commando" Claiborne - Trenton Thunder (AA - NY Yankees)
Conrad Flynn - Reno Aces (AAA - Arizona Diamondbacks)
Josh Zeid - Corpus Christi Hooks (AA - Houston Astros)
Shooter Hunt - Batavia Muckdogs (A - St. Louis Cardinals)

GUYS PLAYING THE FIELD
Brian "Bogie" Bogusevic, OF - Houston Astros
Brad Emaus, 2B - Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA - Boston Red Sox)
Josh Prince, SS - Huntsville Stars (AA - Milwaukee Brewers)
Sam "Homerun" Honeck, 1B - Savannah Sand Gnats (A - NY Mets)
Ant'ny Scelfo, LF - Charlotte Stone Crabs (A - Tampa Bay Rays)
Tommy Manzella, SS - Milwaukee Brewers Minors system
Mark Hamilton, 1B - Memphis Red Birds (AAA - St. Louis Cardinals)
Rob "Seggy" Segedin, OF - Tampa Yankees (A - NY Yankees)

So meanwhile, back at Turchin, Tulane played USM this weekend in Baseball and the Baseball Gods looked down favorably on my beloved Greenwave after the horrible Thursday we had.  See, let God be your vindicator. 

We swept USM! Yes!

I can't remember the last time we had a CUSA sweep, which was I think 2008 when we played UCF and they were having a major meltdown in Orlando.  We even run-ruled them after like 6 innings it was so out of hand.  The team was on auto-pilot because their coach had been dismissed after some unfortunate incident where he simulated sodomizing the equipment manager with a bat, because I am certain that was the worst of his sins. 

Yes, I know,  y'all keep on keeping it classy UCF. But now, you see, they've traded up for this totally awesome former LSU player as a coach that teaches his players to slide cleats up.*  Oh and instructs them to say "Whatchu looking at Bitch?!" to the opposing team's catcher.*  And throwing their bats and helmets on the field after striking out.* 

(I am SO glad to be rid of UCF and their "Town and Gown" approved manners)

*true stories

But enough of letting UCF occupy real estate on my cyber shtetl.

Yes, ma'am did I enjoy the sweep this weekend - and, of course, who would want to miss Big Mike wearing a Sombrero in his nod to Cinco Derby Day?  

After Tulane won away on Friday,  USM turns it around gives us a game and takes a lead on Saturday. However, the USM closer had a major meltdown in the 9th inning and who the hell knows what happened in the outfield for them too.

It starts out with Boudreaux getting a base run to first (who by the way had a MONSTER weekend at bat. To keep up the Juju his adorable mom and dad wore the same clothes the whole series!).  So after Boudreaux gets on base, the USM pitcher walks on Crohan and then walks on Schnee.  He walked Schnee!  I honestly thought that the intent was to start to load up the bases into a double play and then a pop fly out or something like that, but in actuality what I was witnessing was a meltdown with no reliever in sight.

But then when Shaff knocked the ball out out to the wall, why didn't that Golden Eagle outfielder throw the ball? What the Facundus was that all about? Not that I'm complaining.  But Shaff knocked the ball onto the park wall and then the Golden Eagle picks it up and stands there watching the developments until we got the winning run in.

Of course the stands and our bull pen just E-rrupted in celebration when that went down.  The Wave players just burried Shaff in a pile on, it was fantastic. It was all just so crazy to watch!

Sunday was equally as riveting, with Tulane hanging on to a 4-3 lead going into the 9th and DJ pulling out the 3 strikes in a nail biter! 

There were these young superfans, whom I completely admire and who I believe are our neighbors during Football tailgating.  I'll call them The Young Turks. So the Young Turks took over the seats lined up over the USM bullpen and they were cracking us up! 

At the top of the 9th the USM pitcher was taking for-freaking-ever in his pitches, I think to buy time and hope that DJ Ponder would wear down in the bottom of the 9th after waiting so long to finish his pitching. We weren't sure if DJ Ponder would hold up after the rain delay and being called in so early to relieve. 

So The Young Turks started yelling at the USM pitcher to move it along, he was just camping out on the mound here. I swear I thought he was gonna grab a sleeping bag and a remote control to start watching movies on the Jumbotron.  One of the Young Turks retorts during the pitcher's stalling: "HEY! I GOTTA GO TAKE MY FINALS!"

We about fell out!

Anyways, another excellent development in the Greenie Dat Nation is how the Witches of Eastwick on the City Council and the snobs of Audubon Boulevard are getting the reaction that they deserve over the IZD sham to shut down construction of Tulane Stadium. Thank you Moses!

These snobs have just been getting raked over the coals in the public relations arena since they acted all a fool last week.  I personally would have expected at the very least for the Nimby's attorney, Jane Booth, Esq, to get a citation for showing up to a hearing dressed all kinda ways and with her sloppy hair pulled back in polka dot jaw clip.  Really now.  How professional of her.  What, with 3 days notice you couldn't find time for a proper blow out?

Also, I post this picture because of the lovely tag line provided by the Times Picayune underneath Miz Booth.  Interim District Zoning?  Oh, whatever....

But it has been ever so delightful to snicker and pour over headline after headline, letter after letter, radio call in after radio call in, all calling out these whiners and accomplices for the idiots that they are. And Jackie Clarkson with her faux-outrage, puh-leeze. (What glee! Thank you!)

We were laughing about it at tailgating on Saturday before the USM game that we should hold a can shake fundraiser at the end of their precious Audubon Boulevard on the Claiborne Street side to gather funds to offset what their antics are costing us.  Orange vest suits and all - just watch us!  Maybe I'll even include a can shake to fundraise for Jane to own a round brush and a hair dryer. Or at least to set up a charity fund for her at Paris Parker.

But back to the purpose of this blog: Tailgating and all things cute and delicious.

Sweet Miz Jeanie joined us on Saturday and offered up some major awesome ideas for Football tailgating which I shall share below in anticipation. Yum-o

SOUTHERN ALMOND TEA (how genius and delicious does this sound?)
2.5 cups of simple syrup
2 cups ice water to mix with 2 tablespoons of instant iced tea
2 tablespoons of almond extract
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
enough water to make a gallon of tea
Lemon slices for garnish

Make your simple syrup and set aside.  Mix the ice water and instant tea to make a pasty liquid mixture. Mix together syrup, tea mixture, almond extract and vanilla and then add enough water to make a gallon of tea.  Serve over ice with lemon garnish. I wonder if an adult version of this could be figured out? How fun would that be?

APPLES WITH HEATH CARAMEL DIP (so easy and yet sounds so insidously evil!)
Sliced up apples
Sprite
Tub of caramel (bought or make your own if you are inspired)
Crushed up Heath candy bars

Soak your apples in Spite and then dump out the Sprite.  Take your tub of caramel and mix with the crushed Heath candy bar topping.  Leave some crushed Heath bar to garnish on top of the caramel to look cute. Apparently this was a huge hit with the crowd at the Grove, so it will probably be much appreciated with the Hullabaloo Huddlers.

And listen, I don't care how much these Audubon Boulevard homeowners come over groveling and begging for forgiveness to our fabulousity tailgating, I shan't share any with them for their childish and immature behavior.  That'll learn em.


Peace out!

Yes, We're All Sinners Get Over It

Boo the drama’s over. Nothing to see here anymore. Except that I wish that they would show Imelda Jefferson’s collection of shoes. Coach Hullabaloo is fierce in the shoe shopping department and he doesn’t own 50 pairs of shoes. I don’t think I even own 50 pairs of shoes. I heard that the Jefferson Shoes deserved their own episode of Crib’s.

How exactly does a scholarship student from rural Louisiana afford 50 pairs of $100 sneakers. Oh the spin doctors on WWL just turned themselves into pretzels explaining how since U-BR had done some sort of favor to Nike, now their players could order shoes at deep discounts thru Nike. And all is kosher with this improper benefit NCAA regulations thingy. Dontcha just love it?

Well, so now enough with them and on with Us.


Casey Robottom doing the Heisman at last year's game. Photo taken by the Commercial Appeal.

In seven short days we got ourselves the Ham-land, as Coach likes to call it, coming into our decaying city. Our City which these visitors claim/disown in the same breath. When asked where they are from, I promise you that these individuals would all chrip out “New Orleans!” yet then they turn around and say how they could never possibly live here with all the colorfulness that is here. Mrs. Hullabaloo rolls her eyes at you! While I acknowledge that The Hamland is quaint in that Mayberry kind of way, I could never actually live there either. I’m too much of a sinner and I do quite enjoy my mixed-race/mixed-income neighborhood thank you very much. So there, we're even.

Koozie, Peggy, Coach and I drove to The Hamland a year or so ago for a Tulane baseball game. One of our former players is now a coach there, which causes us much distress. On a previous occasion, Peggy and I went alone and had life changing pizza at Tommy's Pizzeria. Tommy's Pizzeria might make me pause to say I could never live in The Hamland because it is the best kept secret out of there. Anyways, with our bellies full of this divine pizza, Peggy and I kept cheering something silly between innings which made us laugh like silly teenagers because at the end of our made-up cheer another Greenie Dat would chime in “and Take #23 with you!” (or whatever our former player/their current coach’s jersey number was). Every single time. We just laughed ourselves silly. Lawd we have to have a sense of humor here in Greenie Dat Nation.

So anyways, on this particular trip with Koozie, Peggy, Coach, we met up with FF Jim and his wife, Red, and perched ourselves on their precarious splinter-ridden rightfield bleechers. Section 110 on the Road kinda like. Well, we somehow got onto the topic about how Jews don’t say G-d’s name. Jews and Tulane just go with the territory, so it wasn’t a stretch to get on this topic. Jews don’t say “Yahweh” “Jehovah” none of that, they don’t even write it. It’s too sacred to even say his name (notice how I omit the “o” in deference to my proper Tulane upbringing). So then Peggy, with her endless sense of humor, starts joking about some Christian hymn that includes his name and starts asking aloud “Well what do they do when they get to that part of the song? Do they hum instead?” So the silly season started and we just took off doing all kinds of funny versions of said hymn. Very reminiscent of our banter in Section 110 at Turchin.

And then have you ever had that sneaking feeling when everyone around you is silent and watching you? Well we collectively got that feeling and looked around us to find that the Hammond-ites were none to pleased with us sinners and giving us the sideways glance stares. Clearly, we were no longer getting the pass we normally enjoy in Section 110 which has given us much acclaim and fame.

They are just so uptight and Christian up there.

And copy-cats too. Greenwave Marketing had some videos done for football season with individual players saying “Get your football tickets and come watch me do this” and then there would be a clip of some spectacular play from last season. Like Orleans Darkwa bulldozing Ole Miss, Joe Kemp catching a long bomb v. Ole Miss, Ryan Griffin airing one out to Ryan Grant for Rice.

And so Southeastern had to do that same thing with them showing clips of an interception against us. Ha ha ha – sooo funny! ha ha ha!


Well, let’s just see who has the last laugh y’all.

Okay my Chamudi's: Tulane v. SLU Gameday Menu – please sign up Hullabaloo Tailgaters

Muffalettas
BBQ Shrimp
Stuffed Artichokes
Fruit Salad
Robert’s Shrimp Dip
Rouse’s Crawfish Dip
Mother’s Jambalaya
Popeye’s
Vodka for Bloody Marys

....and then I think I might bring some Creole Tea Sandwiches (biscuits with turkey or ham, tomato and LeRuth’s Green Goddess Meynez)

Mazel Tov!

"Where Are They Now?" Part Deux

(to be contributed by our Exiled Contributing Editor, Che. Thank you Che!)

So the official baseball season has ended, and the Greenies made it into the Conference Tourney by the hair on their chiny-chin-chin. While a mid-week trip to the hamlet of Pearl, Mississippi is quite enticing, I don't think we'll be going (why again is it in Pearl?).


Of course, unless we win the tourney outright (ha!) we will not get an at large bid for the regionals. It's disgusting to me that the barney purple will get a bid even though they don't even have a .5 in conference record. I swear, I feel chunks rising in my throat just at the very thought of Miss Scott Cody producing breathless segments on this. I hope they get embarrassed. That alone will soothe this injustice.

I did not stay for the final game yesterday, although those extra innings sounded quite exciting and I held out hope. I was only able to swing in for a hot dog at tailgating and then had to head back to my sweatshop. Mega sighs.

Coach Hullabaloo made me SO proud and made his very first Coleslaw! Yes! Very easy:

Coach Hullabaloo's Coleslaw
chopped cabbage
chopped green onions
shredded carrots
pickle relish
marzetti's coleslaw dressing
you could add regular onion in this, shred it with a grater.

It was a great first start!

So Coach stayed and sweltered in the stands with a long lost friend, Mr. Bacchus, who also made it to the game with his little Bacchus, jr. Later on Mrs. Bacchus came after the 5th inning. I was glad that Coach got to have a man-date with Mr. Bacchus.

Coach wore his Tulane Blue golf tourney polo, apparently Football Operations Director, David Fox wore the same shirt as did Brandon from the Tulane Athletic Fund. So the three of them were standing together saying hellos and Mr. Bacchus commented that he didn't know it was wear Tulane Golf Polo day. And the response was that yes, if you actually go to the Golf Classic. Ha! We love picking on Mr. Bacchus for being a slacker the past couple of seasons. That and for letting his wife, Mrs. Bacchus, use their home plate seats for her and her lsu friends. For real! I know. I can't get over that either.

Okay, so the other funnies that have come up: last week was our team's weekendus horriblis at Marshall. Coach RJ really got worked up over that and finally said something. Cause he's had it up to here with their thundering bull. So much so that they're officially The Plundering Turd to us now. Now my dear fans, I cannot take credit for such genius terminology. Apparently that was christened by Mountaineer Fans, because these individuals have some nerve!

2 football seasons ago, The Turds, horsecollared Peyton Jason into having to get his petellar tendon replaced with a cadaver tendon. In baseball that year Tulane was in the middle of a sweep when they decided to spring it on Coach RJ that they would be wrapping up the game that inning cause their flight was in an hour or some other bullshit lie. It wasn't enough innings or points for the game to count, so we were essentially forced to forfeit. The previous friday night game from that series, their coaches were ejected for being classless fools, their players flipped the bird to our fans sitting behind their dugout and they spit on Greer Field. (!) This year, they literally tell Coach RJ at the game-end handshake that a doubleheader was happening in an hour. Because there would be too much sunshine the next day or some other equally cataclysmic event preventing a Saturday game to continue as scheduled. We took the series despite their lame attempts at mindgames.

Okay, so on to the news portion of this blogpost:

Tulane Homecoming 2011 is officially 5 months out. Crunch time on finalizing our menus. I have stumbled across some barefoot southerner, Dave, and his food blog. I'm intrigued by this biscuit sandwich with green goddess mayonaise.


Looks good, huh? Might have to include it on our menu. I'll christen it The Creole Tea Sandwich. LeRuth's Green Goddess avocado dressing is legendary and must be used. And on a biscuit! As a co-ed my favorite breakfast was a good cup of coffee and a still hot buttery biscuit from the Architecture snack bar. Yum.


Michael Aubrey hit 4 homeruns last week for the Syracuse Chiefs. And yes, Syracue-ans: it is pronounced Too-lane.

.....and, finally, my petites choux, from our Contributing Editor, Che:

With the college baseball season winding down and the major and minor leagues in full swing, here is another installment of "Where are they now" of former Green Wave baseball players. One month into the MLB season and about 1/2 a month into the Minor League Season things are already crazy. Of course that's baseball. This is up to date as of May 4, 2011.

First off the pitchers:
Brandon Gomes - Tampa Bay Rays
Aaron Loup - Dunedin Blue Jays (Class A, Toronto Blue Jays)
Shooter Hunt - Ft. Meyers Miracle (Class A, Minnesota Twins)
Micah Owings - Reno Aces (Class AAA, Arizona Diamondbacks)
Taylor Rogers - Augusta Green Jackets (Class A, S.F. Giants)

Position players:
Mark Hamilton - St. Louis Cardinals
Brian Bogusevic - Houston Astros
Brad Emaus - Colorado Sky Sox (Class AAA, Colorado Rockies)...here is the craziness of baseball Brad was released by the Mets, became a free agent, signed by the Rockes and optioned to AAA
Tommy Manzella - Oklahoma Red Hawks (Class AAA, Houston Astros)
Rob Segedin - Charleston River Dogs (Class A, N.Y. Yankees)
Anthony Scelfo - Charlotte Stone Crabs (Class A, Tampa Bay Rays)
Josh Prince - Brevard County Manatees (Class A, Milwaukee Brewers)
Sam Honeck - Savannah Sand Gnats (Class A, N.Y. Mets)

Roll Wave and cheers to the Wave's chances in Pearl. (Mississippi that is)!

Sweep Shirts....

Jake Gautreaux and Coach RJ just as annoyed as I am with UCF. Of course Gautreaux got bounced for having dip on the field (so embarrassed at that), but so proud of RJ! Photo from Rivals.

Where are my uber annoying UCF fan/readers? I so want your take on this weekend's baseball series!

I have to say that I so love that Rick Jones got ejected on his 1000th win. I fully admit that I would have preferred that RJ had gotten his 1000th against the Tiggers, but I will settle that it was at UCF. Yes indeed. and in Orlando to boot.

We had a mini tailgate for the game v. les tigres. We literally set up burger grilling on Mr. Jim's tailgate. It was very rustic. Nadine went on Koozie's car.

The funniest story to share: I was plum exhausted after the Spring Tailgating Festivus and all that went into putting that up. So we didn't really make any plans for the LSU game. When Priscilla called to say that Mr. Jim would be grilling burgers for a simple tailgate and for me to bring me a turkey patti, I was grateful.

I tossed together the seasoning ingredients for my no-mistake recipe and doubled bagged them in a ziplock. Packed them up together with some turkey patties into a shoulder cooler Coach Hullabaloo got from the Conk Naquin/Ray Hester Golf Tournament and then raced out of the house for a busy weekday of activities. I put the cooler on the roof of my car to get myself organized in the car and then promptly sped away. 2 hours later I rememberd that I had left the cooler on top of the car. Bye Bye coooler. LOL!

But the good thing that came out of it was when I went to buy replacement turkey patties and my favorite gluten-free hamburger buns, I discovered these Applegate Farm patties which are very good.

There were like 7 metry moms (you know what I mean) henpecking just 1 butcher at the Whole Foods on Vets, and I was in a rush. I spotted this package out of the corner of my eye and thanked God for pointing it out to me so I could scat out of there as quickly as possible.


I don't know why turkey burgers are hard for meatatarians to wrap their heads around, but whatever. I have found that this combination of the Cayon Bakehouse Gluten-Free buns and the Applegate patties are delicious and convenient way to keep tailgates healthy and easy.

Okay, so I really don't have a comperehensive edition for today - I apologize - just some parts and pieces of things that I found that I wanted to post and share....so bear with me, ok?

First - this is SOOOO totally a dare. Just you wait peoples for the Mrs. Hullabloo version.


Coach Hullabaloo HATED my chandelier and passive aggressively broke it on purpose. So now I have a new idea to put together over the summer for fall football tailgating. It will be completely over the top. and Coach Hullabaloo will hate it too.

Then I ran across these neat Tulane Greenwave football program covers from years past. Aren't they great?




Snicker on the Budweiser promotion in '82. Gotta love it, Only in New Orleans, Only at Tulane. right?

And then finally, I ran across these cute football themed party ideas.




The "burgers" at the bottom of the top pic are actually cupcakes. Too cute right? The Pennants are my favorite touch and will be debuted next season for Tulane Homecoming tailgating, I promise

...and now finally, to address some issues of serious importance. 2011 Tailgating Menus options...let me know what you think?

SLU: Bloody Mar bar + fixings, BBQ Shrimp, Muffalettas, Stuffed Artichokes, Mother's Jambalaya, Popeyes, Rouse's crawfish dip, Robert's shrimp dip, Fruit Salad

Tulsa: What else would be appropriate, but Pigs in Pen (hot dogs+chili+cheese inside Hi Do pistolettes), corn on the cob OR Williams-Sonoma southfork corn salad ????

Syracuse: Grilled Brat Hoagies, Shiskabobs, German potato salad, old settler's beans, cookies and Arnold Palmers.

UTEP: Tex-Mex Fajitas, Priscilla's enchiladas and spanish rice, salsa and the famous guacamole and chips.

Memphis: ooohhh...but of course BBQ. Rendezvous in Louisiana fo' sho. Priscilla's Brisket, Peggy's Ribs, BBQ Chicken, Priscilla's potato salad, green bean salad, Cheddar cornbread muffins and Honey Mustard Coleslaw.

Houston: Dress your own Burger Bar with blue brie cheese, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, an array of mayos, mustards, etc. and Cowboy Caviar Salad.

This recipe sounds soooooo good! Can't wait to try it!


Cowboy Caviar Salad from myrecipes.com and photo by Norman Plate

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
couple shakes of hot sauce
helping of olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
sprinkle of ground black pepper
1 firm-ripe avocado
1 can (15 oz.) black-eyed peas
1 can (11 oz.) sweet corn kernels
2/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 pound Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Salt

In a large bowl mix vinegar, hot sauce, oil, garlic, and pepper. Cut avocado into 1/2-inch cubes. Add to vinegar mixture and mix gently to coat to keep from browning. Drain and rinse peas and corn. Add peas, corn, onions, cilantro, and tomatoes to avocado; mix gently to coat. Add salt to taste. Serving suggestions: 1 bag (6 oz.) tortilla chips to scoop as a dip or 2 cups finely shredded cabbage to toss in for a salad

.....yummmmmm, just 5 months to tailgating season!