My brother-in-law Casey is renowned in the family for his ability to eat large quantities of food at a single sitting. But he’s got nothing on his octopus.

If you’re not watching ESPN2 right now, you should be. Great game between Texas and Oklahoma State. It’s in the second overtime, and threatening to go to a third. Lots of huge shots, big-time plays, momentum shifts, and general craziness. Just try to tune out the inane Rick Majerus commentary.

UPDATE: Triple overtime!

Those who argue that creating a college-football playoff would make the regular season meaningless, “just like in college basketball,” should watch the intensity of the coaches, players and fans in this game.

UPDATE 2: The home team, Oklahoma State, wins 105-103 in 3 OTs on a ridiculous miraculous shot… WOW! Probably the best basketball game I’ve seen since Gonzaga-Michigan State last season, and the most exciting sporting event of any kind that I’ve seen in, well, a little over two weeks. :) I’m glad I randomly happened to tune in!

P.S. Matt’s excited, too. Meanwhile, at Burnt Orange Nation, “excited” isn’t the right word, but they’re still talking about that being the “game of the year,” even though their Longhorns lost. A few assorted comments:

the is the first loss in a long time that i’m not devastated about. that was one of the greatest games i’ve ever seen.

First person to mention this game tomorrow gets kicked in the teeth. I’m so mad I could set fire to my house. ARRRRRRHHHHRHRHHRHRR.

WOW - About as evenly matched as you can get… File that under “Instant Classic”…

file that under instant classic that i will never f***ing watch because it just ripped my heart out.

Despite loss, Still an incredible game. Can’t remember the last time watching a basketball game got me as exhausted as I am.

Arkansas freshman receiver Damian Williams transferred to USC earlier this month, and now it looks like freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain, 8-0 as a starter until being bizarrely benched for Casey Dick (who proceeded to lead the Razorbacks to a 2-3 finish), also wants out:

Arkansas quarterback Mitch Mustain, undefeated as a Razorbacks starter after a stellar high school career, has been given permission to transfer to another university, coach Houston Nutt said Tuesday.

The move came one day after offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, Mustain’s high school coach, left to become assistant head coach and co-offensive coordinator at Tulsa. Mustain and Malzahn joined the Razorbacks a year ago from Springdale High School. …

Last month, parents of Mustain and two other freshmen met with athletic director Frank Broyles amid concerns that Malzahn didn’t have enough control over the offense. One of the freshmen, receiver Damian Williams, has since transferred to Southern California, and now Mustain has asked for his release.

At least one commenter on a Trojan football message board doubts Mustain will follow Williams to USC:

I doubt he’ll contact USC. His family seems WAY to into this kid’s CFB career to let him get too far away from the nest. Besides, LORD HELP us if he ever became part of our Program. Nutt has apparently been up to his eyeballs dealing with Mitch’s family, all the way up to his GRANDMOTHER. If he had to wait until his Junior year to start it’d be nothing but drama. Besides, he may have gone 8-0 as a starter for the Hogs this season but let’s face it, [Darren McFadden] got him there, not his passing ability. If anything I bet he goes to Tulsa, sits out a year then starts for Malzhan his final three.

Meanwhile, out in Hawaii, the Colt Brennan Watch continues. Today he delayed his announcement again:

Fans eager to learn the future plans of University of Hawai’i junior quarterback Colt Brennan will have to wait — again.

Brennan…was scheduled to announce on Monday whether he would stay in school for his senior year or enter the NFL draft.

He postponed his announcement to Tuesday. Now, he said he will announce his decision on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Stan Sheriff. …

Brennan filed his papers to enter the NFL draft, but the NFL allows 72 hours to rescind the decision.

3:00 PM Hawaii time is 8:00 PM Eastern.

AOL News today gives the ten top dogs in the US among breeds, based on breeder numbers. It also gives readers a chance to vote for their favorite breed, and also their least favorite breed.

I will note, for breed partisans (Brendan???), that a few breeds did NOT make the Top Ten: Pug. Huskie. Llasa apso. Greyhound. (Please don’t tell Robbie.)

Finally, the piece gives favorite dogs by city. Miami - German Shepherd. Detroit - German Shepherd. So far so good. New York City - Ohhhhhhhhhh, the fru-fru-ity! Poodle.

I was until quite recently a New Yorker. Do I miss New York? I guess not the dog parks.

Today’s obvious article that will doubtless be controversial despite its obviousness is brought to you by Opinion Journal, which points out that intelligence may have some impact on education.

P.S. In fairness, to the extent that the article cites The Bell Curve to support its conclusion, that may be legitimately controversial. But the basic premise seems solid to me, with or without the support of that particular book. That 50% of people are below average (well, technically 1 less than 50%) is pretty much indisputable. And that this imposes some limit on the extent to which people can be educated also seems pretty obvious. I particularly liked this point:

What IQ is necessary to give a child a reasonable chance to meet the NAEP’s basic achievement score? Remarkably, it appears that no one has tried to answer that question. We only know for sure that if the bar for basic achievement is meaningfully defined, some substantial proportion of students will be unable to meet it no matter how well they are taught.

Check out this incredible home video from Portland, OR showing some morons attempting to drive on the icy streets after the recent snow storms. Fortunately there appeared to be no serious injuries.

Note: it’s Windows Media file; Mac users can install the free viewer components here.

For the first time in almost two years, Gonzaga lost a WCC game last night, 80-75 at Saint Mary’s.

La Rev said: “Well, it’s back to the drawing board. After a showing like that, I just hope we can make the Women’s NIT.”

In all seriousness, the Zags need to be careful. They’re 12-7, and the über-tough non-conference schedule won’t save them from the NCAA Tournament bubble if they lose more than a small handful of WCC games.

Barack Obama isn’t quite running for president yet, but he’s getting there:

I’ll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together. And on February 10th, at the end of these decisions and in my home state of Illinois, I’ll share my plans with my friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.

Your move, Hillary.

Apropos of a certain video clip from Saturday night, and a certain lyrical post from back in December, I have some news to share: Becky and I are moving to Tennessee!

Yesterday I accepted an offer from Judge Charles D. Susano, Jr. of the Tennessee Court of Civil Appeals for a clerkship in Knoxville, Tennessee, starting in September. It’s a one-year, potentially renewable position. I’m really looking forward to working for Judge Susano, who seemed like a great guy in our interview last month, and who comes highly praised by at least two Tennessee lawyers I know: Jay Johnson of DrawingDead fame, and Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit fame.

Judge Susano got his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame, graduating in 1958. After a two-year stint in the military, he went to Tennessee for law school, graduating in 1963, then practiced law in Knoxville for 30 years before being appointed to the bench in 1994. One of the reasons I think we’ll get along great — except, perhaps, one week a year — is that he’s a big sports fan. And yet he still offered me the job, despite my being a Trojan! :) Actually, as it happened, we talked by phone the day after the USC-Notre Dame game, and he offered me “grudging congratulations” — and then scheduled me for an interview. The clerk I’ll be replacing is an LSU grad, so I guess he’s used to occasional sports-based antagonism with his clerks. Heh.

Of particular interest, perhaps, is that Judge Susano loves my blog! I don’t think he was a reader before receiving my application or anything like that, but the URL is listed on my resumé, and he apparently logged on and was quite taken with it. His wallpaper at work is one of my Golden Dome at the end of the rainbow photos, and his wallpaper at home is one of my Heavenly Dome photos. When I asked him yesterday whether it would be all right if I blogged about getting the job (and about the details I just mentioned), he said, “I’d be honored to be on the blog.”

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this should serve as something of a rebuke to those who have tried to argue that my blog would somehow destroy my professional career. I’ve long been aware that having this blog entails a certain amount of risk to my career prospects, and that it might close some doors for me — but it’s always been my belief that, as long as I’m careful about what I post (i.e., not blogging about what I do at work, always keeping in mind that my employers and potential future employers can read anything that I put on here, etc.), the blog would open at least as many doors as it closes. Now I have a great piece of empirical evidence to back up that belief: the blog helped me get a job.

Actually, if it weren’t for the blog, I never would have been looking for a job in Tennessee in the first place. When Becky and I decided to turn our focus away, at least for the moment, from Arizona, we basically got out a map and started going through the country by process of elimination, figuring out where I should apply for clerkships. And I’ll be honest: the Volunteer State wasn’t initially on our radar. We didn’t rule it out, but we didn’t rule it in, either. But then Jay started whispering in my ear (uh, figuratively speaking) about the joys of East Tennessee, and I figured, ah, what the heck. I applied there, and the rest is history. Now, I’m really looking forward to living in Tennessee for at least a year, maybe longer. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Knoxville, and it seemed like a very nice city during my brief visit there. And of course, I’m not altogether unhappy about the prospect of perhaps being able to attend a college football game or two — at the third-largest football stadium in the country, no less — and a few college basketball games for sure. For a college sports fan like me, being in a university town definitely has its perks.

That said, no, this does not mean I’ll become the Irish Trojan Vol. (If I was going to list college-sports allegiances beyond the schools I actually attended, it would be more like Irish Trojan Zag Husky Vol. :) I’ll root for Tennessee in the SEC, though; why not? I don’t have any other allegiances there. (I may have to soften my SEC-mocking rhetoric a bit, though. Heh.) What Becky will do about her affinity for Alabama, Tennessee’s most hated rival, I’m not sure. I know I’ll still be backing the Lady Huskies in women’s basketball, whereas I’m fairly certain Becky will become a HUGE fan of Pat Summitt’s gals, just to piss me off. :) As for men’s basketball and football, my teams rarely go head-to-head with the Vols, so that’s not really a problem — and hey, I like Bruce Pearl and his ridicuous orange blazers. And I’m already a fan of “Rocky Top” … thank you, Backer!

Anyway… whether we stay in Knoxville after the clerkship, or end up in Denver or Phoenix or someplace else, remains to be seen. I’ve got contacts in all three cities, and am definitely keeping my options open. Among other things, where I take the bar this summer has yet to be determined. (I’m not required to take the Tennessee bar for the clerkship.) But for the moment, I’m just happy to know where I’m going after graduation. On May 21 (because I’m sure Becky won’t want to wait a day longer than necessary to leave South Bend), the Loy Family & Menagerie will embark for Knoxville. Go South, young man!

P.S. This is the inaugural post in my “Tennessee and environs” blog category (though I’ll probably go back and add some earlier ones as appropriate). Since I’ll be living there, I’ll doubtless do some “local interest” blogging, as I have in all of my previous “home” areas. Speaking of which: upon our move, Becky and I will have lived in the Northeast, the West Coast, the Southwest, the Midwest and the South — all in the space of just over four years.

P.P.S. Please keep in mind that, any time I talk about jobs — past, present or future — on the blog, I’m treading a fine line. As such, there are some related topics that some readers may be curious about which I will not want to discuss here. If you have a question or want to say something that you think might not be blog-appropriate, feel free to e-mail me at bloy[at]nd.edu. And if you leave a comment that I subsequently delete, please don’t take it personally; I may have to censor/edit with a heavier hand than usual, simply because of the subject matter.

CNN confirms 21 people were killed and 69 wounded by a bomb attack near a university in Baghdad. Also, 10 civilians were shot dead in a Baghdad marketplace by gunmen riding motorcycles, an Interior Ministry official said. Visit CNN for the latest.

is far too early to be in class.

But hey, at least I don’t have class on Fridays. :)