Like Mike

Before I go dose myself with dressing, a bit of holiday goodwill on behalf of our alumni in Dallas:

It seems Mike Leach's won't be short $10,000 -- or not all of it, at least -- thanks to the dedication of his (Texas Tech's) fans. Leach was fined by the Big 12 for -- gasp! -- daring to question the officiating of a game.

Granted, UT did most of the damage without the help of zebras. And, yeah, a public flogging wasn't the most PC way to handle the situation. But that's Leach. Pirate flags in West Texas? Guest game introductions by Donald Trump? Such things have become part of life around Lubbock.

So this is a symbolic gesture of support, Dallas businessman Brian Mayes, who is leading the effort, told the Dallas Morning News.

Contact Mayes at ilikemikefund@gmail.com.

Gator-Raided

For a team that started the season sporting the second-youngest team in the country, lacking its three most vaunted receivers and picked by the people who supposedly matter to place fifth -- fifth! -- in the Big 12 South (that's out of six teams, folks), a New Year's Day bowl seems a bit beyond expectations.
Yet here we are coming off a win over the reeling "weren't we #3 last week?" Sooners -- yeah, the luck had to end sooner or later guys (forgive me that one) -- and already getting courted by the Gator Bowl.
A quote from Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett: "They've got an opportunity to break the Top 25 after all these games play out over the next couple of weeks, so they should be ranked, and they're one of the best offenses in America. If you're a college football fan and you don't like the way they play offense, there's something wrong with you.''
Granted, there are caveats. Two teams from the Big 12 need to get into BCS bowls, which, ironically, may hinge on OU not completely collapsing and tallying another loss against OSU this weekend, which is completely possible. So I think this weekend I'll be rooting for OU. And Kansas.

It's not too late!

I really hit the snooze button on announcing this one, but for those of you who either believe you can play chess or are fascinated by people who can, this is for you: SPICE Cup 2007, the biggest invitational, international, inter-whatever chess tournament held on U.S. soil in five years and within Texas borders since 1972. Yeah, you think you're smart. You aren't. Not like this. The average rating of these players is 2,527. You need a 2,400 to earn the U.S. Chess Federation’s highest class designation of senior master.
Me? I'm doing good if I remember which one's the queen.
Anyway, it's a bit surreal seeing these people -- players from places like Mexico and Russia -- congregating in the Texas Tech Student Union Building to play. The event began Nov. 9 and wraps up Friday. You can keep up with the action through Susan Polgar's blog or watch it live here.

Pack it up, Pack it in

So what do the people of Wolfforth know that Lubbock does not?

How to party, apparently.

Yeah, that's right, nipping a bit of the hair-of-the-dog after a hard Friday night will be that much easier now that the Wolfforth City Council unanimously approved an amendment to its city ordinance allowing beer sales to begin at 8 a.m. on Saturdays.

A year after Wolfforth residents jumped light years ahead of Lubbock in progressiveness (into the 20th century) by voting to approve package beer and wine sales, they made it that much easier for their residents to get their hands on a cold brew -- surely a source of ire for those of us in the Hub City still schlepping down the highway to get our hard-earned money yanked out like teeth at the Strip.

The Strip, ah the lovely Strip. I have rather mixed feelings on this particular Lubbock icon. While I'd hate to see it go for aesthetic reasons -- those garish, glittering, blinking signs evoke all that is kitschy and wonderful of Americana -- I think it stands as a painful indicator of how far Lubbock has to go to be a metropolitan center of the sophistication it aspires to.

Of course, part of the problem with expanding Lubbock's liquor sales is explained rather concisely by the Avalanche-Journal's Eric Finley here, but still. The Lubbock City Council has incorporated the Strip inside its city limits, so it's drawing revenue from all those beer sales. People are still risking lives by driving down highways at midnight to either stock up or reload. Alcohol is still overpriced and Lubbockites are still explaining the nuances of their semi-dry city to outsiders.

So I propose that we, the citizens of Lubbock, sit back, take a few minutes to think things over, and (to steal that now-ubiquitous teen pop-religion catch-phrase) ask "what would Wolfforth do?"