The Chicago Sun-Times’s Jim O’Donnell explains the touching gesture that had 80,000 people watching in reverential silence at the end of the ND-Navy game on Saturday:

Moments after Notre Dame’s 42-21 victory over Navy was final, most of the 80,795 fans in attendance remained to watch as Charlie Weis and his Irish players stood at attention while a visiting segment of the Naval Academy band played the school’s alma mater, “Navy Blue & Gold.”

A corps of Midshipmen in the southeast corner of Notre Dame Stadium sang along, doffing their white caps and holding their hands over their hearts. Weis later said his team’s participation was hardly impromptu.

“I went to coach [Paul] Johnson before the game and asked him, ‘When do you sing your alma mater? Does anyone come over and honor you when you do this?’” Weis said. “He said, ‘Sometimes.’ So, I said, ‘Well, you don’t mind if we come, do you?’

“We would have done that whether we won or lost. … [Navy players] stand for so much more than college football.”

Indeed they do, and especially on the day after Veterans Day, it was only fitting that everyone salute them.

It was a very nice thing that Charlie Weis and the Irish did, and was truly moving to watch. I was so moved, in fact, that — very uncharacteristically — I didn’t take a picture. I felt it would be disturbing the moment to whip out my camera, what with the accompanying noise of the velcro pouch opening, the lens expanding and all that. It was honestly silent in the stadium, except for the sound of the band playing.

P.S. ND senior Peter Schroeder writes in the Observer :

[T]he most impressive event in that stadium was when 80,795 people did no cheering at all. No yelling, no talking, not even an odd sneeze. Dead silence. That’s what the Navy band received at the end of the game while they played their alma mater. …

Remember when we were looking for a football coach, seemingly eons ago? One of the things that is always listed in the job requirements is a guy who gets Notre Dame. He has to get “it.” Notre Dame may not be able to describe in words what “it” is, but the coach has got to have “it.” If people weren’t convinced yet, the end of Saturday’s game proved Charlie Weis has “it” coming out of his ears. After convincingly crushing the opponent, Charlie led the team over to Navy’s corner of the field to sing their alma mater. Just minutes before, these two teams walked on that grass as dire enemies, but now they walked across as one. Hopefully next year Charlie can show Michigan State how a real team celebrates a victory.

With no time left on the clock and the outcome decided, this respectful gesture wasn’t about Navy’s football team; it was about Navy. It was a sobering reminder that what we just poured all of our energy into was just a game. Many times that’s easy to forget at Notre Dame, where football lies in the hierarchy of priorities somewhere between inhaling and exhaling. While we can spend countless hours worrying about Sagarin rankings, passing efficiency, and Mark May, Navy has bigger fish to fry. We may claim that we must protect this house, but Navy must protect something way bigger.

Hat tip: The Blue-Gray Sky (which also has an interesting post positing that, in the last 42 years, Notre Dame’s average margin of victory over Navy under each head coach’s tenure “is a pretty good indicator of overall ND coaching success,” and “Charlie’s inaugural MOV over Navy, although an obviously limited statistical sample, is nevertheless an encouraging 21 points.”)

P.P.S. Thebeef points out that the Mids in the crowd stuck around for Notre Dame’s Alma Mater, “taking off their ‘lids’ and placing them over their hearts. Quite the return salute.” He adds, “It was a proud moment for all in attendance–both Navy and Irish.” Indeed.

Nicole Gelinas writes in City Journal that, if the initial reporting on New Orleans’s post-Katrina crime wave was exaggerated, the pendulum has now swung too far in the opposite direction. It was still pretty damn bad, she says (and she cites lots of facts to back her up).

More importantly, Gelinas writes, New Orleans’s pre-Katrina violent crime wave was already a bona fide crisis, one whose roots go deep. Rebuilding the city, she says, demands serious solutions to the epidemic of drug-fueled violence, not mere empty rhetoric about poverty and so forth.

The article is long, but worth reading in its entirety. (Hat tip: Fresh Bilge.)

LSU’s win over Alabama on Saturday means the Crimson Tide are no longer in the SEC West driver’s seat, but it may not keep them out of the BCS — instead, it may mean Oregon will go to the Holiday Bowl instead of the Fiesta Bowl, writes Stewart Mandel:

Alabama’s loss to LSU shook up this week’s projections — at the expense of Oregon. Last week, I had a Penn State-Oregon Fiesta Bowl, but if the Crimson Tide finish with one loss but don’t win the SEC, I’d imagine the Fiesta will jump at the chance to stage a Notre Dame-Alabama matchup. The Orange would then grab Penn State to face Miami in an equally glamorous showdown, thus squeezing the one-loss Ducks out of the BCS.

If the Tide loses to Auburn on Saturday, however, it’s hard to imagine the Fiesta taking a team that ended its season on a two-game losing streak. In that event, the Fiesta’s doors would open back up to the Ducks or Ohio State (if it beats Michigan next week).

It should be noted that Mandel is assuming LSU will beat Ole Miss and Arkansas — probably a safe bet. But if LSU loses either of those games, and Alabama beats Auburn, the Tide would win the SEC West in spite of their loss to LSU, and would go to the SEC championship game on Dec. 3 against Georgia (or South Carolina). In that case, it’s probably Sugar Bowl or nothing for the Tide, since the Fiesta Bowl is unlikely to pick a two-loss team that finished the season with a defeat. So that scenario, too, would bring Oregon or Ohio State back into the BCS picture.

All of which is another way of saying that those three games — LSU vs. Ole Miss, LSU vs. Arkansas, and the Alabama-Auburn “Iron Bowl” — are worth about $13 million to the SEC (and, conversely, to either the Pac 10 or Big Ten). They’re also probably worth a chunk of change to Gold Canyon Golf Resort, which can expect to have a greater number of guests for the Loy-Zak wedding if Notre Dame goes to the Fiesta Bowl. :)

P.S. Of course, all of the above scenarios also assume that USC and Texas win out. If either the Trojans or the Longhorns stumble, all current BCS projections go out the window. USC-Miami in the Rose Bowl, Notre Dame-Alabama in the Orange Bowl, and Colorado-Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl? Texas-Miami in the Rose Bowl, Penn State-Alabama in the Orange Bowl, and Notre Dame-USC in the Fiesta Bowl? USC-Penn State in the Rose Bowl, Florida State-Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, and Alabama-Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl? All sorts of craziness becomes possible if the top teams lose unexpectedly.

This is interesting. (Hat tip: Insty.)

The BBC reports that French President Jacques Chirac today “confirmed that the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [who is a man] would ask parliament to extend an emergency law allowing the imposition of curfews in towns across the country.” The AP explains that the extension “would allow the current 12-day state of emergency to be prolonged until mid-February if needed. The emergency measures empower regions to impose curfews on minors, conduct house searches and take other steps to prevent unrest.”

Chirac added, “It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love the Republic. The power you give me, I will lay down when this crisis has abated.”

Heh:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused Mexican leader Vicente Fox of being a “puppy” of President Bush and said: “Don’t mess with me, sir.” Fox shot back on Monday that “we have dignity in this country” and demanded an apology.

Now the two nations are withdrawing their ambassadors.

In a display of diplomatic skill worthy of a second-grader, Venezuelan Ambassador to Mexico Vladimir Villegas said, “The whole world knows that this didn’t begin on the Venezuelan side.” Fox retorted that Villegas has cooties and Chavez is a big meanie.

UPDATE: More here. (Hat tip: Insty.)

My ND-Navy photos are now online. There are two pages (1, 2).

A few highlights:

The photo at bottom right is fellow 2L Nick Surmacz’s plane, flying over the stadium late in the third quarter. See also here (the same plane, 40 seconds earlier). Nick was in New York on Friday visiting law firms, then flew back Saturday morning but got delayed at LaGuardia and thus missed his connecting flight in Cincinnati. He arrived at Notre Dame Stadium with about six minutes left in the game, ran up to his row in the student section and declared, “I don’t miss home games.” Heh.

Full photo gallery here.

There was a major earthquake off the coast of Japan 20 minutes ago. Initial magnitude estimate is 7.3 on the Richter scale. Dunno anything yet about any tsunami alerts.

UPDATE: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center writes:

NO DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.

HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE REGION OF THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.

Here’s a closer-up map of the earthquake’s epicenter.

UPDATE 2: There was a 30-centimeter tsunami at the coastal city of Ofunato. That’s roughly one foot high. Several insects tragically drowned. :)

UPDATE 3: More:

Tsunami waves of 12 and 19 inches hit the city of Ofunato, and 4- to 12-inch waves generated by the quake struck at least four other towns in the area, the agency said. …

Ross Stein, a geophysicist with the USGS in Menlo Park, Calif., said the swell amounted to “a surfable tsunami.”

Surfable? For a mouse on a tiny, mouse-sized surfboard, maybe.

I mean, we’re basically talking about a glorified tidal bore, here.

UPDATE 4: I found a photo of someone who could have surfed this tsunami:

From Saturday’s game… note the flag at right:

Heh. Fight on!

(For the uninitiated: there is a flag for each of ND’s opponents on the rim of Notre Dame Stadium. The USC flag just happened to be rather well-placed, from my perspective.)

Reminds me of this photo from the ND-USC game, sent along by USC fan and Irish Trojan reader Bruce Seltzer. He titled it “Touchdown Jesus is a USC fan”:

Hee hee.

More photos from the Navy game to follow shortly.

The Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez edged Boston’s David Ortiz for the American League MVP. Lame.

Given that David Ortiz is God, I expect lightning to strike Yankee Stadium, or the East River to turn to blood, or some such thing, any minute now. :)

I’ve added the 2012 transit of Venus and the 2017 total eclipse of the Sun to my list of “upcoming events” at left. Sure, they’re a ways off, but I’m definitely looking forward to both of them. :)

More immediately… 4 days till Goblet of Fire!!! I won’t be able to watch a midnight show Friday morning, because Becky and I are flying to L.A. (for the USC-Fresno State game) on Thursday night, and we won’t arrive at LAX till after 11:00 PM. But we bought tickets to see the 10:30 PM show Friday night at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, which beats Cinemark 14 Mishawaka rather easily. :)

Something struck me this afternoon. Human pollsters sometimes (okay always) don’t see the big picture. Brendan has harangued us on this point in the past, to be sure. But this point becomes rather clear when we look at the one loss teams currently ranked. They are, by current rankings (AP rankings, as the BCS rankings are not out yet):

• Miami (3)
• LSU (4)
• Penn State (5)
• Virginia Tech (7)
• Alabama (8)
• Oregon (10)
• UCLA (12)
• West Virginia (13)
• TCU (15)
• Fresno State (16)
• UTEP (24)

Now, of course football is not the transitive property. And certainly there are strength of schedule concerns that need to be kept in mind. However, let us take a moment to look inside the numbers.

First, lets look at the one loss, and the victors current record and ranking:

• Miami 10-7 Florida State (7-3 #22)
• LSU 30-27 (ot) Tennessee (4-5 Not Ranked)
• Penn State 27-25 Michigan (7-3 #17)
• Virginia Tech 27-7 Miami (8-1 #3)
• Alabama 16-13 (ot) LSU (8-1 #4)
• Oregon 45-13 USC (10-0 #1)
• UCLA 52-14 Arizona (3-7 Not Ranked)
• West Virginia 34-17 Virginia Tech (8-1 #7)
• TCU 21-10 SMU (3-6 Not Ranked)
• Fresno State 37-34 Oregon (9-1 #10)
• UTEP 27-20 Memphis (4-5 Not Ranked)

Now, lets take a look at (rather a subjective measure here) the team’s “best win”

• Miami 27-7 over Virginia Tech 8-1 #7
• LSU 16-13 ot Alabama 9-1 #8
• Penn State 17-10 Ohio State 8-2 #9
• Virginia Tech 34-17 West Virginia 8-1 #13
• Alabama 37-14 South Carolina 7-3 #19
• Oregon 37-34 Fresno State 8-1 #16
• UCLA 47-40 over 6-4 Cal (Not Ranked), or 41-24 over 6-3 Oklahoma (Not Ranked)
• West Virginia 46-44 Louisville 7-2 #18
• TCU 17-10 over Oklahoma 6-3 (Not Ranked first game after National Championship game)
• Fresno State 44-14 over Toledo 7-2 (Not Ranked)
• UTEP 41-38 over Tulsa 6-4 (Not Ranked) or 49-28 over New Mexico 6-4 (Not Ranked)

If we were to go through and order the teams on their best win we might get something like this:

• Miami
• LSU
• Virginia Tech
• Oregon
• Penn State
• Alabama
• West Virginia
• TCU
• Fresno State
• UCLA
• UTEP

Which seems a little off.

Of course if we go through and order them based on their loss we would get something like this:

• Oregon
• Fresno State
• Virginia Tech
• Alabama
• West Virginia
• Penn State
• Miami
• LSU
• TCU
• UCLA
• UTEP

Obviosly, that does not make sense though.

However, mostly what I am trying to point out is that Oregon is underrated. And UCLA is probably overrated.

So, my question is this. If we are to ignore all undefeated teams and all 2 and three loss teams. What order should the 11 one loss teams be placed in?

Guest blog — dcl

 
[UPDATE, 8/22/06: For the latest, up-to-date commentary on Spike Lee’s film — which I was in — please visit my homepage or my Katrina category.]
 
 

Life imitates Leahy! Today I’ve received an e-mail and a phone call from a producer for Spike Lee’s upcoming documentary about Hurricane Katrina. Apparently they want to interview the wunder-weatherblogger. I think I’m on minute 17 now, or maybe minute 18. :)

SpaceWeather.com says the Moon and Mars are poised for a close encounter in the sky this evening. “You can see them rising in the east, side-by-side, at sundown.” I noticed them overhead in the wee hours of this morning while walking the dog, and they were already quite lovely.

In other space news, here’s a picture of the 1,400-pound meteorite that was found in Kansas earlier this month. It’s the third-largest meteorite ever found.

Reuters:

Eight Sydney men arrested on terrorism charges may have been planning a bomb attack against the city’s nuclear reactor, police said on Monday. …

[P]olice said three of the men were stopped near Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in December 2004. A security gate lock had recently been cut.