At least 100 people were killed and 125 wounded in a string of attacks in Baghdad's Sadr City today, police said. Visit CNN for the latest.

Gobble, gobble.

Have a great holiday, everyone!

P.S. This holiday-greeting post also doubles as a caption contest… please, submit your suggestions in comments.

P.P.S. Story here. A somewhat more flattering picture, of both the president and the pardoned turkey, can be found here. You can see the turkey by itself here. Of course, the caption contest is for the shamelessly horrible photo up top. :)

They’re baaaaaack!

The Gonzaga Bulldogs sent a message to the college-basketball world Wednesday night, announcing emphatically that they are once again legitimate contenders — despite losing last year’s stars, Adam Morrison and J.P. Batista — with a stunning 82-74 upset of North Carolina in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden in New York.

In Gonzaga’s illustrious history of giant-killing upsets, this one was — in terms of poll ranking, anyway — the biggest in school history. The Tar Heels are ranked #2 in both the AP and coaches’ polls. Gonzaga is #23 in the coaches’ poll and #27 (technically unranked) in the AP poll, but that will undoubtedly change next week… if Gonzaga can beat upstart fellow finalist Butler in the NIT championship game Friday at 7:00 PM EST on ESPN2. (Butler, which previously defeated Notre Dame and Indiana, upset #21 Tennessee in Wednesday’s first semifinal.)

The Zags fell behind 14-2 early, but battled back to take a 40-37 lead into halftime. It was 52-47 with four minutes into the second half, and then Gonzaga went on a 13-2 run to take a 65-49 lead with 12:00 left. Disconcertingly, the Zags nearly blew that lead, bringing back disturbing memories of their choke job against UCLA back in March. Notably, a rapid-succession series of bad decisions and bad shots by Derek Raivio helped the Tar Heels get as close as 70-68. But, unlike against the Bruins last season, Gonzaga held on for the victory.

Two points I want to make. First, Raivio needs to get better. Period. The kid has a huge amount of talent/potential, but frankly, he was a liability for much of last season, and he almost lost us the game tonight. He’s a senior now, and needs to be this team’s leader, which means he can’t suffer massive brain-farts in crucial, potentially game-deciding situations. Granted, 5-for-8 from three-point land is nothing to complain about, but he was dreadful during that near-fatal slump when UNC rallied. No more of that, Derek, I beg of you.

But second, on a more positive note, this is undeniably a HUGE win for the Zags. I saw portions of their games against Rice and Baylor, and they looked good, but it was hard to judge because of the quality of their opposition. I was expecting a loss against UNC, and was just hoping it’d be close. To get a win is amazing, and proves this team has more potential than I think most people realized. They may be Morrison-less and Batista-less, but they’re more balanced and playing better defense. And you know what they say about defense. It wins cha… well, let’s get ahead of ourselves. But the point is, the Zags are good. This has the potential to be a very fun season.

And now for the epic clash of Bulldogs vs. Bulldogs. For me, it’ll be the Friday-evening warm-up to Saturday’s big game. GO ZAGS, BEAT BUTLER!!!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… well, a bunch of planes, actually:

That’s not a strange constellation in the sky over Phoenix — it’s a line of planes, five of ‘em, approaching Sky Harbor Airport from the east on this busiest (or possibly second-busiest, depending on whom you believe) travel day of the year. Photo taken from near Becky’s parents’ house in Gold Canyon, 40 miles east of the airport.

It’s not just the skies that are crowded, of course. Here’s a look at the traffic we faced on I-90 in Chicago en route to O’Hare Airport after our little mix-up this afternoon:

But as Andrew says, we’re lucky we only had to deal with Chicago traffic, and not L.A. traffic.

As Briandot noted in Brendan’s post of the charming light display in the airport, Brendan and I did indeed fly out of O’Hare today. Of course, that didn’t stop Brendan from telling me that we were flying out of Midway, and since he bought the tickets, it never occured to me that he would confuse something as important as which freaking airport we had to go to. Alas, we discovered his mistake at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter at Midway when we went to check in and there was no reservation for us because, duh, we were at the wrong airport (and airline — we were flying American).

Luckily, since it’s Thanksgiving and traffic in Chicago is a nightmare, we had left South Bend at around 12:15 Eastern time for a 5:05 Central time (6:05 EST) flight, just to be sure. So we had three hours until takeoff when we discovered Brendan’s mistake. We made it to O’Hare around 5:00, and got through security with about 20 minutes left before boarding time. In what for me was an unprecedented experience at O’Hare, there was no line to check bags and no line at security. Phew!

So we made it to Phoenix safe and sound! Hurray! Plus, I get to milk this one forever! It’s even better than the time Brendan insisted that Gandalf says “You cannot pass” to the Balrog on Khazad-dum in Fellowship of the Ring, rather than “You shall not pass.” He was so adamant about it, and I told him Gandalf said “You shall not pass,” and he was like, “Becky, you’re dumb. ‘You cannot pass’ sounds way cooler.” He went off about it and when the DVD came out, it proved I was right and I’ve never let Brendan forget it. Mwahahaha!

The Zags are KILLING the Tar Heels!

We're on the ground in Phoenix… and Gonzaga, after trailing big early, is leading North Carolina 32-30 late in the first half. Woohoo!

About to board our flight. A few minutes ago, we saw a vision of our future walk by: a 20-something couple with the husband carrying a little blonde girl in one arm and a pug in the other. :)

I’m not much for numerology, but still, I’m not sure I’d want to ride in this cab:

Heh. In other news, Becky and I are still en route to the airport. Funny story about that — or, at least, it will be funny, assuming we catch our flight (which I think we will, knock on wood, thanks to Becky’s insistence on being ridiculously early). More on that in a later post. I’ll keep you in suspense for now. :)

Speaking of holiday travel and people missing flights… Yikes:

An overturned truck closed the southbound 405 Freeway Wednesday near Rosecrans Boulevard.

More than 20 drums containing hazardous chemicals fell from the truck in Hawthorne. A hazardous materials crews is at the scene.

Authorities said the cleanup might slow traffic throughout the afternoon. The California Highway Patrol said the cleanup might continue until 4 p.m.

The northbound 405 Freeway remains open, but traffic is slow.

With all southbound lanes closed, holiday traffic en route to Los Angeles International Airport backed up quickly. At 11:30 a.m., the backup extended into the San Fernando Valley. [!!! -ed.]

The crash occurred shortly before 10 a.m., north of Rosecrans Avenue, said German Aguilera of the county fire department. The truck crashed with another vehicle and overturned on an embankment on the shoulder of the 405 Freeway.

The liquids in the 55-gallon drums were described as “corrosive and flammable,” Aguilera said.

Fire officials said the substances remained in the drums.

In one of those mystifying annual stories that always makes me wonder, “How can they possibly know that in advance?,” AAA estimates that 38.3 million Americans will travel today.

Seriously, do you think some intern just makes that number up each year? And if not, why not? It’s not like anyone would know the difference! I should try this technique. “BrendanLoy.com estimates that 67.3 million Americans will pick their noses today, BrendanLoy.com announced.” Fake predictions: it could be a whole cottage industry!

Anyway, Becky and I are two of those “38.3 million.” We’ll be leaving South Bend around noon EST, departing Chicago Midway at 5:05 PM CST, and arriving in Phoenix at 7:55 PM MST, if everything goes according to schedule.

I realize it’s far too early to really care about college basketball, especially in the midst of USC-ND Week… but c’mon, it’s always a good day when Duke goes down.

Will the ACC’s other Tobacco Road titan bite the dust on Wednesday? #23-ranked Gonzaga (#27 in the AP poll) sure hopes so, as they’ll take the court against North Carolina at 9pm Eastern for the second of two NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals at Madison Square Garden. (The first, Tennessee vs. Butler, is at 7pm.) “This will give us a good barometer of where we are on the national scene,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of the showdown with the #2-ranked Tar Heels. “This is a great opportunity for such a young, unproven group.” The game will air on ESPN2, but unfortunately, I’ll miss most or all of it because of the timing of my flight to Phoenix. Still, I’ll be rooting for them in spirit. GO ZAGS!

For horny heterosexual males everywhere, these may be the saddest words ever* spoken: “There is not a sex video of Kevin and Britney in existence.” So says Kevin Federline’s lawyer.

Stupid lawyers, always ruining everything.

*or at least the saddest words spoken since those NFL cheerleaders denied engaging in hot girl-on-girl action in a Tampa bar bathroom.

“The first time that Bo Schembechler will ever cheer for Notre Dame will be this Saturday.” –Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, during a memorial service for Schembechler at the Big House.

Heh.

It’s funny how things work out. Last week, Irish fans were rooting for Michigan for BCS purposes. This week, Wolverine fans are rooting for Notre Dame, also for BCS purposes. Reminds me of the time Trojans became UCLA fans in 2002. A ton of USC fans actually went to the definitely-not-sold-out Rose Bowl — wearing Trojan gear, of course — to cheer on the Bruins! ‘Twas an amusing sight.

Marshall Wittmann, the blogger formerly known as “Bull Moose,” has been hired as the new communications director for Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-CT).

“Wittmann’s whole theme on Bull Moose has been on the need to strengthen the nation’s center,” according to the Moderate Voice. Sounds like he’s a perfect fit for Senator Joe. (Hat tip: InstaPundit, who says of Lieberman, “Hmm, does this mean he’s running in 2008?” I wish!)

The New York Times profiles the enigmatic Mr. Wittmann, and it’s not an especially flattering profile: “To say that Mr. Wittmann defies classification is like saying Paris Hilton defies modesty.” More:

Mr. Wittmann…is a Trotskyite turned Zionist turned Reaganite turned bipartisan irritant turned pretty much everything in between — including chief lobbyist for the Christian Coalition, the only Jew who has ever held that position. …

There are of course plenty of political people who have undergone philosophical evolutions over the years. But Mr. Wittmann, 53, has zigzagged in the extreme, from stints in left-leaning unions to right-wing policy shops. He describes his career as “eclectic,� saying he has always been drawn to independent thinkers. “The good lord has made me a contrarian,� Mr. Wittmann said.

The good lord has also blessed him with the gift of speaking in punchy and irresistible sound bites. …

[Recently,] Mr. Wittmann soared into the blogosphere. He immersed himself in his popular online diary, Bull Moose, named for the party of his political hero, Teddy Roosevelt. It became a virtual megaphone through which Mr. Wittmann could ridicule both the Bush administration and the liberal bloggers, or “netrootsâ€? (or, in Mr. Wittmann’s words, the “nutrootsâ€?) that attacked Mr. Lieberman relentlessly during his re-election campaign. …

In announcing Mr. Wittmann’s appointment, Mr. Lieberman hailed his “independent and diverse background� in a statement (or understatement).

Heh.

Incidentally, about the whole “ID-CT” thing… that’s Lieberman’s official party designation in the Senate now: Independent Democrat. I just think it’s funny that the abbreviated version looks like he can’t decide whether he’s the senator from Idaho or from Connecticut. :)

After some technical difficulties, I’ve managed to get my (and Lisa’s) videos from the Notre Dame-Army game online. There are 15 clips total, including three from the pep rally. They’re all after the jump. Enjoy!

Oh, and Fight on! :)

(more…)