Luther Hackman just won me a bet

Wow. Never before has such circumstantial evidence that I alone had paid such dividens. Luther Hackman, former add-on to the Darrell Kile trade and Cardinals middle reliever, given away for the immortal Brett Tomko, has tested positve for steroid use, five plus years after I received information from an anonymous source that he was actively seeking performance enhancing drugs to cure his ailing shoulder. To all those people who deemed me as a sensationalism spewing conspiracy theorists, I have one dignified response: "Ha!" Now all that has to happen is for Fernando Tatis to be brought up on cocaine dealing charges and I'll have enough corroborated evidence to write an expose on the 1999-2002 Cardinals in the fashion of the "Bronx Zoo" or "Ball Four"

The past weekend was busy: on Saturday I went to a talk about postmodernism. Now, I'm no big city lawyer, but it seems to me that if you were going to give a talk on a subject, you would at least be kind enough to your audience as to what postmodernism actually was. Instead the two main speakers gave two different descriptions, and mostly relied on examples of things I couldn't relate to, such as Thomas Pynchon, Schoenberg, and Tom Stoppard. I've heard of all those people, but I don't really know anything about their work. It all seemed like calling The Metamorphosis Kafka-esque, no real value to the examples. After this I went to a Gaelic Football and Hurling match. Gaelic Football is what soccer would be like if you could use your hands and get fractions of a point just for getting the ball over the net instead of in it. Now if you want to know what hurling is, think of the same game, take out the soccer ball, and substitute a baseball and field hockey sticks. It makes for a very dangerous sport.

Monday was the Dublin Marathon and Bank Holiday. It seems that the Irish feel they're overworked, so they invent holidays for themselves. I'm not complaining. Americans do it too (Hello, Columbus Day). During the Marathon, I sat at the 21 mile marker and shouted "Only 22 miles to go!" Very interesting costumes too. Some of the best included fugitives from a chain gang, a minotaur, and a blind guy. Oh, wait . . .

Last night I saw Uncle Vanya with the Dowlings. Although it was about a dysfunctional family, it was far more normal than the last play they took me to. The one downside to it was that it was too effective. When something about ennui makes you bored, even though it's trying to have you feel the boredom of the characters, can you call it a success? Hmm . . . Perhaps.

Tonight was the long awaited Halloween party and Table quiz at O'Connell House. First prize in the trivia contest was dinner for four. Second prize: money on your cell phone. Although my team came in second place, I think it's safe to say we were screwed. A few points:

1.) One question was this:"What is the only country to have three consecutive letters of the alphabet in its name?" I go through the alphabet and stop when I say TUV, and immediately I think Survivor: Tuvalu. So we write it down. When they announce the answer Afghanistan, I ask about Tuvalu and am told it's only an island and not a country. My argument of "Survivor=sovereignty" was not persuasive enough. So I go home tonight, look up tuvalu on wikipedia and I find that it has = been independent since 1978.

2.) "In what year was Notre Dame's last Bowl victory?" Easy. January 1, 1994 against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl. Not according to our judges though, 1993? What? True, same opponent, bowl, and result, but it was the 1993-1994 season.

3.) They also asked an insane amount of personal questions about OUR (Happy?) program coordinator, the recent graduate of ND I talked about earlier, and other staff members. Like, "What are his children's names?" "In which Boston suburb did she grow up?" "In what country was my mother born?" And the inevitable, "Identify the staff member by their baby picture." Of course, we tanked on these.

In the end we lost by 3 questions- 2 of which we were screwed on validly- and the rest had nothing to do with trivia knowledge. If I ever get to write a trivia contest that involves these people, I think I'll include the name of my subdivision, my proctologist, and what is my dad's brand of shaving cream? So I won 10 euro's worth of phone credit. Whoo. Now I can't use my cheapness as a reason for not responding to others text messages.

Now I'll turn a little political. I've had some time off recently and I've been thinking more and more about the Presidential Race and how I more and more support Ron Paul. He opposes the war in Iraq and other state building liberal crusades. He pledges to preserve civil liberties more than any other candidate. He has never voted to raise taxes, while at the same time no one in Congress has done more to curtail spending and the national debt (no matter how unsuccessful his efforts have proven). He also is willing to take a critical look at American policy history, not just that of George Bush, and other Mideast lobbying forces in Washington. Most importantly, he's the only candidate willing to stand up to fat people:

Go to youtube and enter "ron paul morton downey." Perhaps the least professional talk show I've ever seen. This makes Maury Povich look like Charlie Rose. But it is funny. I especially like when the host starts dancing, insinuating that Ron Paul will be tripping out while serving as president. Oh, that and the woman, who's dressed as a militant?, saying she sick and tired of people standing behind the Constitution. I think she would have seen eye to eye with a certain Attorney General.