FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

Last one, from a pretty authoritative source:

http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/plainenglish/writingmyths/

Plain English Guidelines: Seven Writing Myths

(3) You must not end a sentence with a preposition.

Sorry to flood the board, but apparently some people need specific citations.

[Knightstalker]

Or as they used to say in Brooklyn when my dad was a kid, "Dance wit da one dat brung ya."

[finsleft]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/prepositions.html

The myth that ending a sentence with a preposition is wrong appears to have started with an influential book by an eighteenth-century Bishop of London, Robert Lowth, according to Bill Bryson's The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words. In Lowth's Short Introduction to English Grammar, the "gentleman grammarian" urged his readers to be polite by avoiding prepositions at the end of their sentences if they possibly could. To Lowth, for example, writing "this is something you should go to" was less appealing than "this is something to which you should go."

...

If you believe a sentence looks or sounds better with a preposition at the end, write it that way. Grammarians won't quarrel. In fact many will applaud.

Not only is it harmless to put a preposition at the end, it's also natural ... Consider the following sentences:

"She refused to come in."

"What's the world coming to?"

"That is the sort of thing up with which I will not put!" (Winston Churchill)
OK, so you and Winston Churchill are "technically" correct in some cases, although, I'm quite confident that Sister Mary, OSB is someone you could never agree with. . She's who I was taught English by.
Good job on the research! You'll even be given a karma to. OOPS!

But speaking of myths, and back to football, I heard a rumor that Gags is going to prove Archimedes right by getting some mirrors from the SJU Science Dept. and post them in strategic locations around the stadium in order to start the Oles' bus on fire. If that doesn't work and they make it in, the mirrors will be adjusted to reflect the sun's rays directly into Wilsey's eyes whenever (if) they get the ball.

[TC]

Fun weekend in Iowa City.  I can't imagine the Gophers can recruit anyone to play football in the Dome when other conference teams have places like Kinnick--let alone the Big House and Camp Randall.  The U of M really, really needs an on-campus, outdoor stadium. 

It was no Stifftungfestivities, but Saturday was the first time since the Stagg Bowl that I woke up at 6:45 in the morning to tailgate.  There were a TON of fellow degenerates out at that time of the morning, but the whole scene was really laid back.  There was no intermingling between car loads of 'gaters.  Michigan and Iowa fans drank 4 feet from each other without any kind of good natured carousing.  Kind of reminded me of MUC fans before the Stagg--a very business-like approach to pre-game drunkening while the SJU fans were, ahem, "more caught up in the atmosphere".  Still about 1000 times better than drinking in the Washington Avenue parking lot, then going inside to watch professional college football.

Speaking of Mount Union, what an amazing streak.  That said, I think it might be a good thing that they finally lost a regular season game.  Their average fan is arrogant enough to make a Johnnie fan blush, and that's saying something.  Judging by the reaction on the OAC board, it sounds like the coaches, players and diehard fans were pretty disappointed by the lack of support the home crowd showed the team as they were losing in the 4th quarter.  Hopefully this loss will get their spoiled fans to stop taking everything for granted.  (Flame away!)

I'm excited for the Johnnie/Ole game this weekend.  So excited, in fact, that I am going fishing instead of going to the game, but excited nonetheless.  Personally, I don't think STO is going to be able to move the ball well enough to keep up. 

Teams with 0 or 1 loss in the West:

Monmouth--MWC           8-0
St. John's--MIAC             8-0
UW-Whitewater-WIAC   7-0
St. Olaf--MIAC                7-0
Linfield--NWC                 6-0
Occidental--SCIAC          6-0
Concordia--MIAC            6-1
Central--IIAC                  6-1
Coe--IIAC                       6-1
UW-Oshkosh--WIAC       6-1
Cal Lutheran--SCIAC      5-1

(Current Conference leaders in bold)

(At least...) Three of those teams will not make the playoffs.  I don't know how the IIAC's tie-breaker works, but it looks like 6-2 (5-1 IIAC) Wartburg could still quite conceivably win their AQ--heck, they might control their own destiny for all I know.  The SCIAC would likely not get a second team in over a similarly qualified team from the MIAC/WIAC (right?), so CalLu might be stuck.  There are still big MIAC and IIAC games to be played, and anything can happen in the WIAC.  Still, if SJU, CON, and STO all finish 9-1, it looks like the MIAC could have a ligitimate claim on both of the at-large spots.  If one of the teams finishes 8-2, they likely will have to jump over a 1-loss team to make it.  I'd argue that if St. Olaf were to get the MIAC AQ, St. John's and Concordia are better than Coe/Central/Wartburg, Oshkosh, or Cal Lutheran.  Looks like a pretty damn tough region this year.  Maybe we can ship Occidental to the South and Whitewater to the North?  Yeah, let's do that.

Q: What do you call an Ole with a MIAC Football Championship ring?



A:  A thief. 

(Edited to fix a couple of grammatical errors so that Pat doesn't have to make annotated corrections later...)

[Kilted Rat]

Can we interrupt the english lesson to talk about Monkeystomps and football like the board is for?

[TC]

So watching MNF has me thinking maybe Olaf is like the Bengals this year.  They are a good team who has surprised some people and put up some good numbers.  Then they run into the defending conference champs, the Steelers, and get a beat down.  Looks like SJU will win this weekend 27-13

I tend to prefer St. Olaf=Texas Tech, and a 52-17 St. John's win this weekend.

[finsleft]

One last rule of grammar:

It is almost always acceptable to end your sentence with a proposition.





No,it's not a typo.

[Knightstalker]

Speaking of Monkey Stomps, there is another new one on the LL board.  JT came up with the concept and I adjusted the name slightly.  When a team is monkey stomped by the backup qb it is a Bench Monkey Stomp.  Speaking of Monkey Stomps, the Falcons look like they will be putting the Monkey Stomp to the Jets.

[Kilted Rat]

 Speaking of Monkey Stomps, the Falcons look like they will be putting the Monkey Stomp to the Jets.

Never count your MonkeyStomps before they've hatched.

[TC]

quote]

Damn St. John's education...

[finsleft]

Their average fan is arrogant enough to make a Johnnie fan blush, and that's saying something.  Judging by the reaction on the OAC board, it sounds like the coaches, players and diehard fans were pretty disappointed by the lack of support the home crowd showed the team as they were losing in the 4th quarter.  Hopefully this loss will get their spoiled fans to stop taking everything for granted.  (Flame away!)

Good point. Two things I remember from '03 Stagg Bowl about that. At the pre-game meal at the Pancake Hut or whatever it was called, I said "good luck" to a purple clad group who were filing out past our table. A 60ish lady stopped and said, "Oh we just hope it will be a good game." I was surprised she didn't pat me on the head. Then, early in the 4th quarter when the purple goose was cooked, I'd say half the purple gang beat a path to the exits. Nice support!

But I love Raiderguy. He's cool 8)

[finsleft]

Can we interrupt the enlish lesson to talk about Monkeystomps and football like the board is for?

Damn right! Football, monkeystomps and pharmacology! 

[Kilted Rat]

Then, early in the 4th quarter when the purple goose was cooked, I'd say half the purple gang beat a path to the exits. Nice support!

But I love Raiderguy. He's cool 8)

4th quarter? I saw large contingents leaving in the 3rd already!

Who leaves a National Championship game early to drive 10 hours home? I know the Stagg is a big game, but I never anticipated any kind of traffic problem getting out at the end of the game!


Fins,
I had a similar experience in the parking lot pre-game. We picked up JR from his hotel and drove to the stadium to start tailgating. Some MUC fans came over and had the balls to say "You really came all this way to see your team embarassed?"

They stayed away once we had a large enough mass of Johnnie fans to pound them and we got enough liquid courage to talk back.

[Senor RedTackle]

here you go boys...as self-appointed head of the graphics dept of the newly formed "Stompology" division of the LL board, RT presents this gift for the MIAC to use...

[miacfb]

TC,

Where did you tailgate outside of Kinnick?  The atmosphere between fans before games is really dependent on what lot/area you are in.  Of course, the parking lot that most students used to tailgate in was closed a couple of years ago after students were throwing full beer cans at Michigan fans.  Probably for the best.  The atmosphere last Saturday was amazing...too bad the home team didn't capitalize on their opportunities and let the 23 game home winning streak slip away.

I agree with what Wahoo and others have said about the atmosphere up in Collegeville.  The big crowd pumps you up as an opposing player and I never had any problems hearing our audibles (of course, being an offensive guard may have had something to do with this).  The two times I played up in Collegeville ('97 and '99) we kept ourselves in it, but couldn't make plays when we absolutely had to...obviously, Johnnie defenders like Novak, Labore, Pahula, Wesley, Domo the Elder and the like had something to do with this.   

Oles need to limit turnovers and keep game close...Johnnies have ability to feed on momentum and put games away in a matter of minutes.  No predictions from this Ole fan, but I'm looking forward to making the 7 hr. drive from Iowa City for my first look at this year's edition of the Oles.  I just refuse to believe the stuff Wahoo keeps saying about how much more talented this year's team is than any he played on.  Wahoo, do you remember that offensive line of 2000?