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About me


I'm Brendan Loy, a 26-year-old graduate of USC and Notre Dame now living and working in Knoxville, Tennessee. My wife Becky and I are brand-new parents of a beautiful baby girl, born on New Year's Eve.

I'm a big-time sports fan, a politics, media & law junkie, an astronomy buff, a weather nerd, an Apple aficionado, a Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter fanatic, and an all-around dork. My blog is best-known for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, but I blog about anything and everything that interests me.

You can contact me at irishtrojan [at] gmail.com, or donate to my "tip jar" by clicking the link below:

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« November 19, 2007 | Main | November 21, 2007 »

November 20, 2007

CFB road-tripper arrested in Texas

By Brendan Loy

Remember Jonathan Tu, the USC fan and blogger on a cross-country, stadium-by-stadium college-football tour, who Jay and I met up with for the Tennessee-Arkansas game 10 days ago? Well, he got arrested in College Station, Texas on Monday, trying to sneak into Texas A&M's Kyle Field. I kid you not.


Left: Jon in Tennessee. Right: Jon in Texas.

Well, hey, it'll make for an interesting chapter in his book.

25 years ago today...

By Brendan Loy

...this happened:

Longer clip (without background music, and without helpful camera-zoom enhancement) here.

You can read stories about the 25th anniversary here, here and here.

These dudes can ball.

By Jay Johnson

Granted, it's against Middle Tennessee State, but still. 

MTSU 21- UT 61 at the half

JaJuan Smith has 26 on his own.  At the half.

This is a team that people in Westwood, Chapel Hill, etc., should be very, very concerned about.

UPDATE: Final 109-40.  That was with the Vols sleepwalking through the second half.

UPDATE #2: The basketball dudes from Westwood look like they are being coached by Karl Dorrell.  The fUCLA hoopsters are trailing Michigan St. by around 10 (as they have most of the game) a few minutes into the 2d half.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: fUCLA pulled it out. Nick Saban described it as a comeback on par with American forces in the Pacific rallying to defeat imperial Japan. :) Anyway, by beating Sparty, UCLA just barely accomplished something that puts them in elite company alongside Grand Valley State. Congrats, Bruins! ;)

Also in the Pac-10, #11 Oregon was stunned by St. Mary's. Maybe Gonzaga won't be the only at-large candidate from the WCC this season!

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

-- Polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs is sentenced to five years to life in prison for arranging the marriage of a minor, AP reports.

Nick Saban is not at all hyperbolic

By Brendan Loy

Taking a page out of Andrew's playbook, Alabama coach Nick Saban attempted to motivate his team Monday by comparing the Crimson Tide's loss to Louisiana-Lafayette with 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. Heh.

But what would that make Michigan's loss to Appalachian State? Antietam?

P.S. Holocaust-tastic!

P.P.S. I don't know what everyone is so upset about. We all already knew that SEC football is a war! :)

CBS News writers authorize strike

By Victoria Lopez

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced Monday that news writers, graphic artists and other CBS news staff members working in the television and radio news departments voted to authorize a work stoppage.  The CBS news writers have been working without a contract since April 1st of 2005 and have not met at the negotiating table with CBS since January when the WGA rejected CBS's "final" offer.

Continue reading "CBS News writers authorize strike" »

Down the street, an epic Friday-night clash looms

By Brendan Loy

Back in September, the football team at nearby Bearden High School here in West Knoxville lost to archrival Farragut High School for the eighth straight time, 35-28 in 2 OTs. Although I didn't go, it was an epic Friday-night football clash by all accounts -- and now it's going to have a sequel, in the state playoffs this Friday night.

Meanwhile, back home in Connecticut, the Newington Indians are on the playoff bubble. They need to hope Newtown beats Masuk tomorrow night, and then the Indians must take care of business on Thanksgiving Day against their archrival, Wethersfield.

More on both Bearden and Newington after the jump.

Continue reading "Down the street, an epic Friday-night clash looms" »

While we are on the subject,

By dcl

Shall we discuss Air Force One also?

A very serious problem

By dcl

First off, we shall admit that the scientific basis for this survey is a little soft, that being said, I should think that when such a high percentage of students at a school of NYU's caliber would be willing to give up the underpinnings of freedom, liberty, and democracy for so cheap that we do have a very serious problem in this country and we have far too many people that take what we have for granted. It truly boggles the mind that people could hold the rights of citizenship so cheap... Read the article in the NYU student newspaper.

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