It feels like it's been about 20 minutes since the last BlogPoll roundtable, yet here it is . . . the next BlogPoll roundtable, this time hosted by the inimitable Orson Swindle at Every Day Should Be Saturday. Asks Orson:
1. Education. List the region of the country you were born in, what universities you attended and at least one other you would have attended if your alma mater didn't exist.
I was born in Atlanta and I attended Clayton State College (now Clayton State University), from which I received an associate's degree in political science before transferring to the University of Georgia. In Athens, I earned baccalaureate and law degrees.
I have no idea where I would have gone had my alma mater never existed. As I have noted before, I honestly can't imagine a world in which the University of Georgia didn't exist.
On the eighth day, He created the Arch.
2. Sports Affiliations. List your top 10 favorite teams in all of sports in descending order. For instance, your alma mater's football team may be number 1, but perhaps there is a professional team that squeezes in before you get to your alma mater's lacrosse team.
- The Georgia Bulldogs football team.
- The Georgia Bulldogs football team.
- The Georgia Bulldogs football team.
- The U.S. World Cup team. Nah, I'm just messing with you . . . the Georgia Bulldogs football team, of course!
- Did I mention the Georgia Bulldogs football team?
The jersey may say No. 34, but we all know he's really No. 1.
- The Georgia Diamond Dogs baseball team.
- After a 12-year hiatus, the Atlanta Braves.
- Whichever N.F.L. team produces the highest number when you add the number of games the team has won in the current or most recent season to the number of former Georgia Bulldogs presently on the team's roster. Right now, that team would be the Pittsburgh Steelers.
- The Georgia Gym Dogs women's gymnastics team.
- Whomever is playing the Auburn Tigers football team. I hate Auburn.
In other words, my ideal sporting event would involve an N.F.L. team consisting of nothing but former Bulldogs winning the Super Bowl in a blowout, with Suzanne Yoculan pile-driving Tommy Tuberville into the 50 yard line by his big Dumbo ears at halftime.
3. Movies. List the movie you've watched the most, your favorite sports related movie, the movie you secretly love but don't like to admit it (possibly a chick flick or b film), and the movie you were (or still are) most looking forward to from this summer's season.
It's a toss-up which movie I've watched the most . . . "Patton" or "Smokey and the Bandit." My favorite sports-related movie is "The Longest Yard" . . . the 1974 version.
I would list "The Dukes of Hazzard" as the movie I secretly love but don't like to admit it, but, since I repeatedly and publicly have proclaimed it the greatest movie ever made, I guess that whole secrecy thing is pretty well shot. I don't know . . . "Chasing Amy," maybe?
Gratuitous Daisy Duke photo.
The movie to which I am most looking forward this summer is the new "X-Men" movie. Yes, I know it's out already, but I haven't seen it yet, so don't spoil it for me.
4. Music. List your favorite band from middle school, high school, college, and today. Also, as with the movies, include the song you secretly love but don't like to admit. If Nickleback is involved in any of these responses, please give a detailed explanation as to why.
In my day, middle school was called "junior high," but, during both junior high and high school, my favorite band was the Police. In college, my favorite band would have to have been the Stones. Today, my favorite band is the Drive-By Truckers.
I can't narrow it down to just one song that I hate to admit that I love, but Nena's "99 Red Balloons," Night Ranger's "Motorin'," the Go-Gos' "Vacation," and pretty much the entire R.E.O. Speedwagon oeuvre all have to be in contention, though.
Seriously, if you're ever going on a long car trip with me and "Shadows of the Night" comes on the radio, you'll want to do yourself a favor and not talk 'til the song is over, O.K.?
5. Books. Favorite book you've finished, worst book you've finished and the book you really should read but haven't gotten around to it.
The best novel I ever finished was, without question, William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, which is quite simply the finest work of literature produced by America's finest novelist.
At the other end of the spectrum, Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah and Chapterhouse: Dune weren't remotely in a class with Dune, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, or Heretics of Dune. Egad, did I used to be that big a geek?
One of these days, I really need to get around to reading Lonesome Dove instead of just relying on having seen the movie.
Gus and Woodrow . . . driving cattle to Montana when driving cattle to Montana wasn't cool.
6. Travel. Favorite city you've ever been to and the one place you still must visit before you shuffle off this mortal coil.
Travel isn't so much my bag, baby; my 30th birthday had come and gone ere I ever set foot in a state that did not have a star on the Confederate battle flag. That being the case, my favorite among the cities I have visited is the one in which I lived for many years: the Classic City . . . Athens, Georgia.
I'm almost positive we covered this material already.
After that, what's left? I've been to Clemson, Cordele (to get some pool room hot dogs), Jacksonville, Lexington, Nashville, Oxford, and Big Fork, Montana, so what more is there? I'd like to see a football game in every S.E.C. stadium before I die, but do I really want to list Fayetteville and Starkville among the places I have a burning desire to be?
Given my unabashed advocacy of a Georgia-Michigan home and home series, I guess I'd have to say I'd like to visit Ann Arbor to see the Bulldogs play in the Big House before it's all said and done.
7. What do you love most about college football in 20 words or less?
20 words or less?!?! Orson, I'm a lawyer, for crying out loud . . . in my profession, we describe a 10,000-word document using the word "brief." Have you, like, read me ever?
A picture is worth . . . wait, hang on, that's 980 words too many. . . .
All right, all right . . . your game, your rules, I guess. Here are my 20 words:
Passion, pageantry, elation, tradition, family, unity, grandeur, slobberknockers, silver britches, feeling like a Bulldog on Saturday night, and . . . Go 'Dawgs!