No, really!

(Dual hat tip: My mom and Becky.)

It’s been 18 years to the day since the Red Sox lost Game 7 of the 1986 World Series to the Mets. Get it? 18? ‘18? :)

In honor of tonight’s Game 4, and the possibility that The Curse might finally be lifted [Knock on wood!!! -ed.], ESPN ranks the six moments in history — most recently, that one 18 years ago tonight — when the Red Sox have been one game away from breaking The Curse.

Here’s hoping that list doesn’t grow from 6 to 10. :)

GO SAWX!!!

Those who advocate absentee-only voting should be sure to read this story. Repeatedly.

The BrendanLoy.com community is now predicting Bush 259, Kerry 258 with three “tossup” states (Iowa, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin).

Two states, Ohio and New Mexico, are predicted — by a bare majority of contestants — to “flip” from their 2000 results. Illinois and New Jersey have moved into the “safe Kerry” column. Here’s a map:

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There will be a total lunar eclipse tonight. Here’s a diagram and timetable (in South Bend time, which is EST/CDT) of the moon moving through the Earth’s shadow:

You can find diagrams for other time zones here (or you can just add/subtract as necessary from the diagram above). Mid-eclipse is at 10:04 PM South Bend time.

At the peak of the eclipse, the moon will be a dark, blood-red color. As Chris points out, if Boston wins tonight, they will be celebrating their first World Series championship since 1918 right around the time of mid-eclipse. The Red Sox break the curse under a Red Moon? Hey, it could happen!

P.S. The Woonsocket Call of Woonsocket, Rhode Island reports:

David Huestis, Northern Rhode Island’s resident astronomer, reported Tuesday that the weather looks good for both Sox fans here and their team in St. Louis to see a rare full lunar eclipse.

Not only should the skies be clear for its viewing in both New England and St. Louis, but Huestis reported that tonight will also be the first time an eclipse is believed to have occurred during an actual World Series game.

There are lots of news stories about this.

The next total lunar eclipse isn’t until March 3-4, 2007 (an unusually long gap between eclipses).

I’ve missed several classes this week, which was really not how I intended to start the second half of the semester. So, as an added motivation to actually get my butt to class from now on, I thought I would do some math and determine the amount of money I’m wasting every time I miss class.

Tuition is $15,082.50 per semester. Going on the number of credits and the number of times each class meets per semester, the cost of each class period varies from $74.48 to $104.02. Here’s the breakdown:

CivPro: $69.34
Torts: $74.48
Legal Writing: $80.44
Legal Reserach: $83.79
CrimLaw: $104.02
Contracts: $104.02

So yeah. I wasted $253.80 of tuition money today. Dammit! That’s like the cost of my trip to L.A.! Shame on me. :(

Last night, I dreamed that it was Election Day. In the dream, I had taken an afternoon nap and forgotten to vote; Bush appeared to be en route to victory; and the Colorado electoral-vote-reform initiative had passed easily (58% to 40%, I believe). Needless to say, I was rather relieved when I woke up. :)

3 down; 1 to go. I’m starting to get worried. What if the Red Sox actually do win a World Series? I think that I’d lose part of my identity. Red Sox Nation is going to need a series of support groups all around the country to cope with our newfound winning ability. I just think it’s too bad that some of the greatest Sox in history–I’m thinking of Ted Williams especially–won’t be around to see it.

Anyway, on to the Curse update.

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The New York Times on the necessary conditions for a repeat of Florida 2000:

Of course, several things need to happen for the courts to play a leading role again. The margin in the Electoral College must be slim. The popular vote tallies in one or more states must be very close. And the magnitude of voting problems in those states must be significant.

Ahem. As anyone who knows what the hell they’re talking about is aware, the magnitude of voting “problems” is always “significant” — at least, significant enough to create controversy if the first two criteria are met.

It remains to be seen how well our nation as a whole has learned the “lessons” of 2000, but one thing is crystal clear: the media has learned very little.

Nike, perhaps, says it best:

Here’s the ad that goes with the wallpaper.

(Hat tip: Brian, who introduced me to this wallpaper today in Torts. He’s got money on the Cardinals, but is rooting for the Red Sox anyway.)

That’s right, Pedro. Just one more.

P.S. SI.com says: “the Red Sox are one win away from ending a 31,091-day drought between World Series titles.” Meanwhile, ESPN points out an amazing fact: “The Sox haven’t even trailed since the eighth inning of Game 5 [of the ALCS].”

A local school district here in Washington has made national headlines recently because of a policy put in place to ban halloween parties during the school day.

Among other reasons cited by the administration is that they don’t wish to offend Wiccans.

UPDATE: Welcome, my dear search-engine monkeys, to the Irish Trojan’s Blog! :)

This is a very old post. If you’re looking for coverage of the 2005 Notre Dame football season, please go to my homepage!

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for photos of Brady Quinn with his shirt off, BrendanLoy.com isn’t into that sort of thing, but BoiFromTroy is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. :)

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This post originally linked to another site’s reporting on alleged bad behavior by Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn. However, it has come to my attention that this post was one of the top Google hits when you do a search for “Brady Quinn.” I’m not comfortable with that, so I’m taking the post down.

Although the source I cited in this post is one I have found to be reliable, I cannot independently verify the facts in this particular case. I believe I exercised reasonable care in posting this item, linking to the original source, and specifically pointing from the outset that I could not independently verify the veracity of the allegations. My removal of the post now is not an admission that I did anything wrong by posting it. But seeing that people who do not regularly read my website are coming here specifically to read about Brady Quinn’s alleged misbehavior makes me uncomfortable, so I’m putting a stop to it.

And no, I haven’t been threatened with a lawsuit or anything. No one has even complained, except for a brief passing mention in a comment elsewhere. This was a purely self-motivated decision: I looked at my stats, noticed the hits from searches for “brady quinn,” and decided to take the post down.

Fight on Trojans, and Go Irish! (except against the Trojans)

Some of my liberal friends who have never been terribly fond of Eminem (because of his history of homophobic and misogynistic lyrics) may find themselves suddenly liking him a bit more if they watch his latest video. Why? I’ll give you a hint:

Yes, that’s a screen shot from the video, and yes, it shows a knife stabbing a photo of President Bush. Sample song lyric:

Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain’t loyal
If we don’t serve our own country we’re patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it’s all lies, the stars and stripes
They’ve been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And replaced with his own face

In typical Eminem fashion, the video is getting lots of media attention. Salon calls it the “most important protest song of this election.”

View the whole thing, if you’re so inclined. There’s a bit of profanity here and there, of course, so be warned. (Hat tip: my roommate, a Republican and Bush supporter who nevertheless said this “might be the coolest video I’ve ever seen,” aesthetically at least. We link, you decide.)