Football

Kentucky once again displayed an inept offense and solid defense in losing to the Alabama Phytoplankton 17-14.

I am really enjoying this season, despite the fact that watching Kentucky try to move the football is almost physically painful.

I was very impressed with the defense. They played great without their best player, Micah Johnson, and he's due back next week, as are both the Cobbs and Justin Jeffries.

I still have not given up on the offense, either. Mike Hartline looks terrible at times, but no he looks no worse than Andre Woodson when he was a sophomore- in fact I think Hartline looks better. If some receiver, any receiver (please!) steps up in addition to Lyons, and with Cobb back to provide occasional change-ups at QB, then the offense can start clicking.

I see no reason not to be optimistic that Kentucky can end it's 0 and 15 drought against Spurrier next week.

Facemask

I have some opinions about the game that I'll share later. But for now, I only have a question.

I don't really have a beef with the officiating, because this is NEVER called. But how come ball carriers who stiff-arm defenders as shown in the picture are not penalized for grabbing the facemask?

3 of 3

I still can't predict a UK victory. Kentucky has a legitimate shot, though.

Both teams are well into their seasons, so I have to base my prediction on what the teams have done. On that basis, Alabama's been better.

But Alabama can't get much better than they've been already. I don't really buy the notion that it's a 'trap' game for them, but even if they play well they're still likely to play a little worse than they played against Georgia.

Kentucky, on the other hand, is much more likely to take a huge leap forward. If Tony Dixon runs into holes rather than diving into them, (or if he plays a lot less) it will help. If any one of the young receivers manages to hold onto a couple of passes, it will help a lot, too.

2 of 3

I'm trying doggedly to get into Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter."

I've read 7 or 8 Graham Greene novels. Two or three have been great, and the rest at least good. I bought this particular book at Half-Price Books over a year ago, but still haven't read it despite two previous aborted attempts.

This time, I'm determined. I feel confident that if I give it a good effort then I'll get into it and enjoy it, because I've had similar difficulty with a couple of his other books.

The problem is that Greene was primarily a screenwriter. His novels are very good, but the openings establish mood and bounce between seemingly unrelated characters in a manner that is very effective in movies, but drags in print. Once they get going, though, they are always worth it.

1 of 3

"She's awful" isn't much of a critique, so I'll expound.

I admit I am predisposed to dislike any candidate who thinks creationism should be taught in a science class. That's just plain stupid, so I don't feel any need to elaborate.

Despite the fairly positive media reviews, though, I still feel my assessment of "awful" was arrived at fairly objectively.

I gave Palin fairly positive marks for aggressiveness and for sticking well to talking points she believed worked for her. I believe, however, that she probably only impressed those who were likely to vote for her already.

She stuck doggedly to her script, and when forced to leave it at all she looked like a deer in headlights. She showed adequate command of a narrow range of issues, and on the rest she either relied entirely on notes-if she had notes for that particular topic, or floundered like a fish out of water.

Nice. Two animal metaphors in the same paragraph.

V.P. debate

I do not want John McCain to be the next president. Not at all. I'm adamantly supportive of Barack Obama.

But if McCain wins, then every day I will pray feverishly for President McCain's health.

A President Palin would make me long for the good old days of George W. Bush. She's terrible. I can't believe how awful she is.

If this was a city council debate I'd say she's making a strong showing.
Mayoral debate for a city of, say, 20,000, she's doing fine.
If this were a Kentucky gubernatorial debate I'd say she was fairly weak.
Vice-presidential debate? And she's a candidate? Really? Am I on Candid Camera?

Game prediction

I've been very optimistic this football season. I want to stay that way, and I'd really like to predict a Wildcat victory Saturday.

But I just don't see it happening.



I still believe Kentucky has a shot. Last Friday I predicted that Alabama would beat Georgia, but Kentucky could beat Alabama. And it's true. They could. But they won't.

Alabama is now overrated at #2. But they're quite good.

Kentucky's defense will hold up fine. And by the end of the season the offense will be clicking along nicely. In fact, I expect some Kentucky fans will be suprised by how well the offense moves the ball Saturday. But it's not going to improve so quickly as to pull out a road win at Alabama.

And a side note...since the other night when I visited that Alabama fan forum, I've really had the itch to go back to it, sign up, and start posting comments with a screen name of "BarackAbama." I think it would go over really well, since the non-football comments I saw made Kentuckians look like Arthur Schlesinger or Noam Chomsky by comparison.