I grappled for the past few days with the question of whether it would be appropriate under the circumstances to post an offweek cocktail. I hemmed. I hawwed. I even vacilated for a brief moment. Certainly cocktails are generally a good idea (the exceptions being while working, operating heavy machinery, babysitting, or working as a babysitter on a construction site full of heavy machinery). But they are generally a celebratory kind of thing, and there's nobody around here celebrating these days.

So, I've nixed Cocktail Thursday for the week. We don't need to slow down and enjoy a cocktail. We need to dust ourselves off, grab our hardhats and get to work. We need to find a tight end. We need to find a consistent pass rush. We need to figure out how to pass block. And all of  us fans need to come out of our funk. We've probably got work to do, too. And when you're working, you should probably be listening to this:

And while you're working and listening to the finest worksong, I want you to take heart in the fact that Tuscaloosa never produced a single band who produced a single song one-fifth as cool as anything in the R.E.M. catalog.# Leaving aside Shiny Happy People. In fact, perhaps the 2008 Alabama game was Mark Richt's own private Shiny Happy People, which is OK, because even the greats have one of those every once in a while.

I'll be back tomorrow with some recruitin', which I've generally let slide in the rush of real honest to goodness football being played. Until then . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

# Though admittedly, Tuscaloosan  Dinah Washington was pretty awesome in her time. And Tuscaloosa did produce one of the early innovators in treating yellow fever. Feel free to insert jokes about the nexus between the state of Alabama and diseases spread through substandard public health conditions here.