Yes We're Alive

So by now you know. Dun, Dun, Dun, DUN! Bob Toledo Is Back for Another Year, Plus An Extension.

I just about fell over. You might find my lifeless body clutching one of these glasses from Party Cup Express in Jefferson (off River Road).

But then .... I thought about all of you.

I just need to put my big girl panties on and "be there" when someone(s) currently in the way retires either at Gibson Hall or at Wilson Center and it's offically the Dawn of a New Day. I'm picturing a fabulous sun, with a rainbow - just like this picture. See the baby pelican and the little pond?


In the interim, I do have a few things to say.

My beloved Mario Cristobal engineered a bowl win for FIU and is now being bandied about for the positions at UCONN* and Pitt. He's slipping through our fingers. Like my nightmare is just not ending.

Mike Leach might be headed to Maryland. Step away from the Riesling or Vinho Verde Mrs. Hullabaloo.

One of my Newcomb sorority sisters found me on facebook and her profile picture is of her and her husband at an LSU game and not only is she wearing purple, she had a paw tattoo on her cheek. O.M.G.

So next year we play Syracuse and then go to Hawaii. Yay. phhfft.

Mrs. Hullabaloo is trying to put on a happy face y'all. I swear. I so wish I were a basketball person, cause then I'd have all kinds of fabulous posts about Coach Conroy and his Miracle on Freret currently underway.

So I was out shopping (shocking, I know) for the holidays and I was at M Goldberg playing stylist for Coach Hullabaloo. On the teevee at M Goldberg's was the UTEP BYU bowl game in New Mexico. Oy. I just couldn't stand it. Didn't we beat those guys?!

Alright, okay: the things that I am thankful for: LSU shuffled off to Dallas and not a) in the Sugar Bowl and b) not in a BCS championship. Thank you sweet dear Jesus. (Can they just stay there in Dallas?)

and Coach Hullabaloo bought me this book (maybe you can find it at the campus bookstore. no?)


It has some interesting exercises on how to figure out opponent game plans while watching a game. Very easy. Need a writing instrument and a sheet of paper. Perhaps also a roster cause while I could cobble together a fantasy team, I am not encyclopedic for 119 FCS teams and 33 NFL teams. So if I could do this, certainly Doddmentum can grind it out.

Our tailgating krewe masters, Red and her husband FF Jim, do a similar task during baseball season. Red keeps her notebook, keeping track of all the pitches, outs, runs, errors, etcetera. Which leads me to my final thing I am most thankful for:

Baseball Season! Yes! Friday, February 18th. Opening at home v. Sam Houston.

*Guess WHO played at UCONN. and actually recruited by THE Lou Stoltz. For real. But now he's determined to sabotage the things I love about Tulane: the Greenwave and Newcomb. Oy. There's a lesson here somewhere.

Den of Iniquity

So I dragged Coach Hullabaloo all the way out to Kennah, bra.

Since UCF is our opponent this week and they are in somewhat proximity to one of our favorite cities (Miami! Home to our SUPERBOWL!), our tailgating menu is lucious latin. Unfortunately I just do not have the time to roast a Lechon (a cuban cochon du laît) to make Cuban sandwiches for tailgating. So off to the famous Norma's we went to taste test and, if tailgate-worthy, place an order for Saturday.

Of course it's a Honduran bakery that is famous for their Cuban sandwiches, but whatever. They barely speak english, so that's authentic enough for me and they were delicioso.

Coach Hullabaloo approved, but said that while they were not "Miami-worthy," they were excellent for New Orleans. Note, he did not say "Orlando-worthy," but Miami-worthy. Since apparently the trend is that Dens of Iniquity tend to have better food. All of that immorality and temptation just hanging out on the streets everywhere, crosses over into seriously sinful food eatin'.

That must be why fans are just so rabid and ugly at UCF. No seriously good eatin' amidst all that boringness and empty subdivisions. I might go a little Phaedra Parks on ya and even accuse them of only eating canned food. That angst and hunger must leave UCF'ers just wanting to lash out.

(ooop! ooop! wait, I hear that there are tawdry strip clubs on international drive....)

Anyways, while we were admiring the deliciousness of the sandwiches, guava pastelitos and tres leches at Norma's we noticed they had this wonderful poster on the wall.


We just knew that this was culinary Beshert for Mr. and Mrs. Hullabaloo!

So Roll Wave y'all!

P.S. Dear Sad Little UCF'ers: Just because we have a beautiful decaying city in New Orleans, does not excuse your fans from behaving like they were raised in a barn. You may not come to my blog and criticize my wonderful city just because you have trashy fans. Well, maybe you were raised in a barn, but clearly you are just jealous. Using cities is a lame excuse! So anyways, thanks for stopping by! Have fun with your post or pre-game at Oz on Bourbon!

Let's Digress

Yes, Let's Digress!

Orlando is boring and pristine. New Orleans is scuzzy (but we love it so!). UCF fans are an embarassment. UCF marked their only top 25 appearance by promptly losing to USM (snicker!). Shasta is a silly mascot name. Crazy Ole Miss Fanettes dress and apply makeup in the dark. Tulsans eat corn. Yes, these are things we know....

But seriously, I do want to digress. I want digress all the way back to Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite moments in Tulane Athletics ....

Enjoy! (thank you to Noladave and FanBase for the photos)

They's Just Trash

Yes. I'm talking about you UCF. Low. Rent.

(and I speak with authority because I was there last season. UCF totally deserves the Sports Illustrated poll as the rudest in the NCAA)

From your "I'm a UCF B*tch" tee shirts the co-eds wear, to urinating on visiting fans, to posting opponent QB phone numbers, and a cowardly inability to face a silly school exam like a man [soooo weak!]...


Here I thought that only LSU fans had the monopoly on issuing death threats to opponent player's parents. Silly me!

It's just such a telling anecdote when the only time UCF is mentioned in the national news is scandal related. Such as wide-spread undergraduate cheating (we were just shocked, simply shocked...if you could see me, I am so rolling my eyes) and Reality show starletts who raid their war deployed ex-husbands' bank accounts to pay for breast augmentation.

I could go on and on about former players being caught in aggravated robbery at gunpoint, coaches being dismissed for sexual assault, etc., etc., etc. This can all be easily googled.

I posted about the "Town and Gowns" a few months ago. I still chuckle about that, cause these women take their silly job so seriously. I guess they have to, look at what cards they're dealt.

OMG on the Town and Gown I met last season. Poor woman struggled to offer a positive spin after I had to leave the sidelines because UCF cops are so useless. The guy was just chill, picking his teeth while all around him everyone screamed profanity and generally acted the part of a garden variety ignorant UCF fan. She actually thought I was going to be appeased because she went and "took the incident straight to the UCF President." Wonderful News! I'm sure he'll add that one to the stack and give it his most careful attention. ha!

I so hate to break it to the Town and Gowns that women like Vienna Girardi and those "I'm a UCF B*tch" tee-shirt club members do more to set the tone over there than their sad little welcome wagon club.

Speaking of Vienna, poll: was she named after the city or the sausage? Me thinks the latter....

So now that you know exactly how I feel about UCF, ummmm, Roll Wave! Hopefully I'll have a cheerier topic in a day or two to share with you.

p.s. I just had to get this off my chest, as there is just simply nothing funny or humorous about these people. They's just pitiful and I can't wait until another conference will have them.

Craigslist

photographic proof that the Times Picayune took a photo of a Tulane game this season. Michael DeMocker did it.

Yea yea yea. it's almost afternoon and I've totally slacked on the post-game edition.

Don't get me wrong: I was completely kvelling over the win. We even went to Tracey's to harass tiger fans even though there was no post-game radio show there. It was great. They're such weanies.

So the game. Okay. When we witnessed that long bomb from Ryan Griffin to Ryan Grant and it was actually caught and resulted in a touchdown - it seemed like it totally happened in slow motion.

Let me set it up for you....

There's not a sound. The entire Greenie Dat Nation is standing and holding their breath. Griffin is under pressure. The ball sails out of Ryan's hands in a lollipop shape out to the 20. Ryan Grant is in a tight run with a cornerback. He stretches out his hands, the defender is a few steps off his heels. The ball actually lands and stays in his hands. Eeeh, aahh, ooohhh, he trips into the endzone. The DOME ERUPTS.

!!!!!!

Girl, let me tell you. I still wasn't breathing. Peggy and I were so shocked we turned, looked at each other and let out a massive scream with our mouths wide open, our knees slightly crouched and our palms wide open at our sides in complete exclamation. Then we hugged and jumped up and down hugging for about a minute. Very Laverne and Shirley.

...and then. Rice marched down the field and made a 1st down. Because we jumped off sides. OMG SIGH. Coach Hullabaloo was so angry. He couldn't even watch that last throw by Fanuzzi's replacement. It ended up hitting the receiver right in the helmet. I had to tell Coach Hullabaloo all about it afterwards.

Our reaction to Ryan Grant's miracle touchdown was such a contrast to THAT LAME @$$ field goal on 4th and 3 at the goal line. WHAT was that story exactly? I had moved up the terrace level at the beginning of the 4th Q. The entire Greenbackers section all screamed NOOOOOO! when we saw the field goal unit jog out.

The ENTIRE Greenie Dat Nation was so disgusted, there was no Hullabaloo cheered after the score was announced. A Protest. I think we have had our fill of lame coaching decisions. We've reached our quota, so enough of that - Ok? Alright. Just so you know. It's on the record.

So we've also decided to put an ad in Craigslist for a special teams coach. Because as things are, we might as well just go and place the ball for a 40 or 60 yard scoring drive for our opponents and rest our kickers for all the uselessness that is our blocking.

Who cares about Where's Waldo - where's our special teams coach!?!

Anyways, our We Eat Rice for Lunch tailgating menu was a success. We ordered Jambalaya from Mothers, Priscilla made a yummy gumbo with white rice, Peggy brought "Owl" Tenders, Coach Hullabaloo made Rice Crispy Treats and I made Deviled Owl Eggs. and Bootie Judy provided some yummy drunken Rice Pudding.

Oh and we laughed ourselves silly choreagraphing Riptide beating up Shasta as part of a gametime performance. Who is Shasta you ask? That's the name of the Houston Cooter. Seriously. It's name is Shasta.

Booty Judy has become a fan of the Rice Owl Marching Band and their sarcasm after I posted their Tulsa skit, so we kinda took that a few steps beyond in our Riptide Stalks Shasta skit. Coach Hullabaloo rolls his eyes at the Rice band - Peggy was just perplexed, I don't think she'd ever paid attention to them. Like what's up with the Nutria Rat chasing Little Red Riding Hood, and oil drum and hurricane glasses? As Coach Hullabaloo says, they're like a halftime Renaissance Festival.

Well, here we go. UCF next week. Time to just grab onto our ankles and pray. [yes, I just wrote that - if you have a problem with it, be useful and help me with the Craigslist ad. If you haven't watched a UCF game this fall: don't. Just go into next Saturday's game blissfully ignorant.]

SuperFan Fridays

So yes, I am allowed to move the days of my SuperFan reporting because we can be SuperFans any day, and this is also my blog and I shall do as I please. Everyday is a great day to be a Tulane Fan!

So my SuperFan profile today is Lil'General.


Lil'General is such a hoot, this is her wall at home.

Her seats for football are over in 140 in the very last row so that she can stand and yell and cheer the whole game without anybody fussing.

Mr. Koozie would so appreciate this as he's had to inform unsuspecting Uptown ladies who dare to look at him sideways: "hey, look lady - dis aint da bah-ley!" Hear Hear Mr. Koozie!

Mental Note: tell Tulane ticket office to sell "boring people" tickets to a section all to themselves.


Lil'General and Mr. Lil'General host a yearly barbecue at their house for their family right before the beginning of football season. It's aptly named The Pre Wave BBQ. Dontcha just love that tradition?

She and her peeps tailgate every game just like us Hullabaloo Huddlers. And judging from her facebook pics they pass a good time also. I never thought I'd meet a bigger fan than me, but here she is in all her glory: Miss Lil'General!

How and When did you know you were a true Tulane fan?

When I got married, when I couldn't stand hearing anything about lswho! [thatta girl!]

What was the #1 most exciting/memorable moment for you as a Tulane fan?

12-0 season and we went to the Liberty Bowl in 1998!!Outstanding!! We motored to Memphis with the "Hebert Family", children, grandchildren and friends from Thibodaux in a CARAVAN of passenger vans. 30 of us in total, we were the MOST "Tulane Loving Fans"!!!

The Friday night before the game we went out on Bealle Street to a fun place called Silky O Sullivan's. Mike even got to take a picture with Silky. It was awesome! Gameday, we got up early. We were so excited about the game, so we just got ready early !! I even set a personal goal. I told everyone: "If we win, I will quit smoking" and it worked! We won the game and haven't touched a cigarette since and never will!! Tulane is to be thanked for that. We both won!!!

After the game we went "Downtown after the Victory to celebrate the New Year. Very Cold! [It was butt @$$ cold on New Years Eve that year, I concur]

Which is your #1 favorite Tulane student athlete (past or current)?

Matt Forte and so many others!!

Do you have any pre-game rituals or lucky outfits/accessories?

I have a favorite Tulane scarf that stays in my Tulane bag all year long, comes out for the games, of course the bag comes with me too. We also listen to the Tulane Fight Song early that morning too!!

Are there any past Tulane fans that you have admired and thankful you got to know?

Our dearest friend Clayton Hebert. He was a HUGE "Tulane Fan" and supporter. He passed in December 2009, but not before making all but 2 games that season while undergoing treatments for a brain tumor which was discovered in July. He wanted to see his "Wave" for the last time and he was determined to be there and he was. Its just not the same without him this year, but we know he's among us. After each game we win, we all gather in the parking lot and we have a spcial chant that was started by Clayton and his brother Craig.


Oh how special are the memories of Clayton. He and his wife Marie are the proud parents of 7 grown children and many grandchildren, all of whom are "Tulane Fans!" His tradition lives on!!

Thanks Lil'General for sharing your stories! I love them all ~

10th Circle of Hell

(where have I been? GIRL, b-u-s-y! But I HAD to post this in honor of RICE. I know I'm late with my SuperFan Thursday, so it will just need to be SuperFan Friday. Forgive me? Okay, good! love! love!)

From the Tulsa Galaxy World, November 27, 2007
By Eric Bailey, GalaxyWorld Sports Scribbler Writer

The director of the Rice University band issued a public apology Tuesday for his group's halftime performance during Saturday's Tulsa-Rice football game.

The 10-minute show, titled "Todd Graham's Inferno," mocked the TU coach, who spent one season coaching at Rice before taking the Tulsa job. The "MOB" (Marching Owl Band) performed music and a skit that paralleled Dante's "Divine Comedy," and acted like it was searching for Graham.

It ended with the band's announcer calling Graham a "douche bag" over the Rice Stadium's public address system. [hell to the yeah!]

"I always apologize when people are upset. It's just what you owe people," Rice director Chuck Throckmorton said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "When you're being creative and putting something out there, you know what you meant..."

Tulsa athletic director Bubba Cunningham [no, really, his name is Bubba. How very Tulsa!], who declined comment on Tuesday evening [because stringing together coherent words in Tulsa is, well, a stretch], said earlier this week that his farm school had issued a formal complaint [whiners] with Conference USA regarding the show. [!]

"The intent wasn't to be mean or insulting," Throckmorton said. "It was to poke fun and be funny. [Mrs. Hullabaloo thought this was genius and very very funny] Since it came across different than that, then I certainly apologize."

Rice president David Leebron and athletic director Chris Del Conte were unavailable for comment. [Because they were too busy rewatching the show and laughing!]

The show was scripted by students and approved by Throckmorton, who has spent the last six years as Rice's band director. The group is known for its satirical humor and mocking nature of opponents. [yeah aslut, so get over yourself!] Throckmorton said the Rice student body went through waves of emotions when Graham departed for Tulsa after only one season and plans for last Saturday's show began in August.

The show's script went through circles of Hell, with the band playing music and pictures shown on the stadium video board. The finale was when the group apparently found Graham in the 10th circle of Hell -- at the University of Tulsa. [Mrs. Hullabaloo wholeheartedly concurs: expert description. spot on. Bra-vo!]

The show ended with the announcer saying, "You know, that reminds me of a joke: A priest, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar. Now, I forgot how the rest of it went, but I think in the end Todd Graham is a douche bag." [L-eaux-L]

Throckmorton said he was surprised at the reaction to the words "douche bag." [as was Mrs. Hullabaloo!]

"It was sort of a mild insult . . . it was used to get the point across but not dirty," he said. "In all common usage I see, it's devoid of any literal meaning. I looked it up and it means someone that talks big about himself and that is a jerk.

"Going through the show writing process, I thought it was a mild vulgarity."

Throckmorton said he was surprised with the attention that the show received.

"Tulsa won the football game and still has their coach," he said. "This was his first time back since he left, and we gave him a rhetorical public flogging. Everyone expected it. It was as mild as we could make it with it still being funny." [yeah, but aslut is just lame and cannot appreciate your fine humor, they probably don't even know what Dante is. and don't use fancy words like rhetorical either. Mr. Bailey probably had to look that one up]

BELOW - the famous script!

Script and Photos taken from the Marching Owl Band website

A Dark Forest; "Where is Todd Graham?"


Announcer:The MOB decided it was high time to give Todd Graham a piece of our mind. We searched high and low, asking "Where the hell is Todd Graham?"

Lucky for us, we found Dante, wandering in a dark wood, who told us we should be asking: "Where in Hell is Todd Graham?"
(music: Dies Irae)


2nd Circle: Your Mom


Announcer:We knew he wasn't in Limbo (since he had no spine), so we started our search in the second circle of Hell. We didn't find Todd Graham among the adulterers, but your mom suggested we go lower.
(music: YMCA as played incessantly in hell)

4th Circle: Franchione in Hell


Announcer:We thought we might find Todd Graham in the fourth circle with the greedy and the avaricious, but he was nowhere to be found. However, we did find his shredded Rice contract — leading like breadcrumbs into the inferno — and there, gathering the pieces, was Dennis Franchione.
Music:Sell Out (by Reel Big Fish)

8th Circle: A River (of poo) Runs Through It


Announcer:Since he had made all those pretty speeches about how much he loved Rice and would never, ever leave, we were sure to find Todd Graham with the flatterers in the eighth circle, wallowing in donkey dung. But the damned said they'd had enough of his B-S.
Music:Cotton-Eyed Joe

Tulsa: Damnation
Announcer:And lo, The MOB descended to the ninth circle of Hell — home of traitors and the Prince of Lies. Yet, of Todd Graham, there still was no sign. Cautiously, we approached Satan to inquire.


Demon:Todd Graham?! That oaf knows better than to hope for the sweet release of my ninth circle.

Announcer:We thought him scum, to be sure, but did he deserve an eternity beyond Hell's greatest depths?

Demon:If you wish to see his fate... come.


Announcer:A twisted path led down to a door, blackened by flame, inscribed with three frightful words: Welcome. To. Tulsa.
Music:Louie, Louie

Closing
Announcer:You know, that reminds me of a joke: A priest, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar. Now, I forgot how the rest of it went, but I think in the end Todd Graham is a douchebag.

Ha! I don't know about you, but that Welcome to Tulsa certainly scares me! oh no, endless corn eating! Ha!