I said it was a “very good crowd” at today’s Blue-Gold Game, and I wasn’t kidding: attendance was listed at 51,852. In the words of Her Loyal Sons, “52,000!!! That’s 50,000 more than an Illinois Spring Game draws. … If you had 26 Illinois Spring Games, you would just barely match the attendance of one ND Spring Game. That’s badass.” Heh. The attendance shattered last year’s Notre Dame record of 41,279, which itself shattered the old record of 35,675 in 1981. (Though to be honest, I don’t know how they get such a exact number, since the entry procedures at the student gate appeared way too disorganized for any sort of accurate head count to be happening.)

In terms of attendance, though, Notre Dame’s got nothing on Alabama. More than 92,000 fans showed up for the Crimson Tide’s spring game to see Nick Saban’s debut, and several thousand more were turned away. Crazy Alabamans.

Anyway, back to the Blue-Gold Game. ‘Twas a relatively unexciting affair, ultimately won by Gold, 10-6. Lou Holtz was the honorary coach for the Gold team, and after the game, he got a Gatorade bath. “You don’t throw Gatorade on a guy at 70 years old in a spring game when it’s not expected,” he said later. “I could have had a heart attack and sued Notre Dame for a lot of money.” Heh!

None of the quartet of quarterbacks competing for the starting job — Jimmy Clausen, Evan Sharpley, Demetrius Jones and Zach Frazer — particularly shined, though according to Charlie Weis, “none of the four…played themselves out of contention.”

Irish Insights has many more, well, insights into what happened on the field. Personally, I left in the third quarter; I’m just not enough of a recruiting/player development nerd to get really excited about a scrimmage, especially with all the injury-prevention rules that make the action on the field somewhat lame (automatic fair catches on punts and kickoffs, a “sack” is declared whenever the quarterback is touched by a defender, etc.). But it was definitely fun to go. I think my favorite moment was when a sizeable group of students chanted — I kid you not — “Goooo Irish / Beeeeat Irish / Suck it, Irish! / Go, Irish, Go!” Heh.

Last night’s “Final Tailgater” 30 Days Party, hosted by Neil of Domer Law Blog fame, was fun too, as was this morning’s tailgate in the stadium lot, hosted by Chris and his parents and Amanda (and Amanda’s dog). I’ll post some photos from the tailgate and the game shortly.

UPDATE: My photos are here.

Note to self: when having a house party, do not invite all of MySpace.

In other news, I freakin’ love British people and their wonderfully British ways of saying things. “I wouldn’t say she was off her face, but she was quite merry”? LOL!

In Soviet Russia Boston, you don’t surf the Internet, the Internet surfs you.

Okay, that doesn’t actually make any sense, I just felt like saying it. Anyway, yeah, city governments shouldn’t be banning websites. That’s all I have to say about that. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

P.S. BoingBoing has a pre-existing page detailing how to circumvent “censorware.” Its stated purpose is to help people whose “employer or corrupt, undemocratic, dictator-based government uses a filtering service…to block access to BoingBoing.net.” Who knew the government of Boston was “corrupt, undemocratic and dictator-based”? Heh.

Just keep looking up:

The sky will be dark and moonless for at least three hours before the first light of dawn on Sunday morning, April 22, when the annual Lyrid meteor shower is due to reach its peak. …

Within a day on either side of the maximum, about 5 to 10 Lyrids can usually be seen each hour by a single observer under good skies. At the peak, the Lyrid rate is roughly 10 to 20 per hour. …

While hardly a rich display, like the famous August Perseids or December Geminids, the April Lyrids are brilliant and appear to move fairly fast, appearing to streak through our atmosphere at 30 miles (48 km) per second. About 20 to 25 percent leave persistent trains.

In 1922, an unexpected Lyrid rate of 96 was recorded, and in 1982 rates unexpectedly reached 80 per hour, so although usually a weak display, the Lyrids have had a history to surprise observers so it’s always one to watch.

(Hat tip: ScottF.)

The pilot of a U.S. Navy Blue Angels F/A-18 jet that crashed at an air show in South Carolina is dead, the Beaufort County coroner says.

Visit CNN for the latest.

There has been at least one fatality in the crash of a U.S. Navy Blue Angels F/A-18 jet at an air show in South Carolina, the Beaufort County coroner says.

Visit CNN for the latest.

A member of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels precision flight team has crashed during an air show in Beaufort, South Carolina, witnesses tell CNN.

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I'm wandering around, taking pictures from various sections of the stadium. Not something you usually get to do at Notre Dame games. Fun times. And what a beautiful day!

Why are some sections of the stadium closed? What would be the harm in letting people sit where they want? It's a scrimmage, it's general admission, and the stadium is nowhere near capacity, so what's the big deal? Stupid regulatory randomness.

It’s amazing how fast ND games go without NBC TV timeouts.

At the Blue-Gold Game. Very good crowd. Ara and Lou are honorary coaches!

The dog's name is Charlie. Woof!

A committee on Church teaching and doctrine has issued a finding reversing the idea that unbaptized infants are relegated to Limbo.