Monthly Archives: January 2007

Details, details

What happened to the devil?

Long, long ago, Lucifer encountered his supernatural teenage years and decided that God was totally uncool.  He rebelled, and God expelled him from heaven.  Since that time, he has been making every effort to thwart God’s purposes.

These efforts were famously examined in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, a book of letters from an older, wiser demon to a younger demon; in the book, the older, wiser demon counsels the younger demon in the most effective methods to prevent humans from devoting themselves to God.

Unfortunately, in many Christian circles, it seems the devil receives minimal credit for his work.  The common dynamic now tends to be human actions and their effects on human interaction with God, with little attention paid to the devil’s tireless efforts to prevent such interaction.  The devil, it seems, is popularly viewed as a supernatural Ralph Nader to the two-party system of God and man: a bit of a pest, but no major threat.

This is a problem for us but a boon for the devil; we are told, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” but it’s hard to resist the devil without first fully acknowledging his power in this world.

Now might be a good time to start.

So, does Bob Evans Sausage contain Bob Evans?

In Wales, the Black Mountain Smokery has been ordered to alter the name of one of its products.  Trading standards watchdogs have ordered the company to rename its Welsh Dragon Sausage because the sausages do not contain dragon, thus making the name misleading for consumers, they say.

The sausages are now labeled Welsh Dragon Pork Sausages.

In other news, university officials in East Lansing have been ordered to rename Michigan State Football.  The NCAA has ruled that the name may cause sports fans to expect to find football in East Lansing.

Hail to the chiefs

It’s been a tough year: the Michigan football program suffered two major losses this season.  No, not the games against Ohio State and USC; those were just football games.

Former coach Bo Schembechler and former team captain and MVP Gerald Ford died during this football season.  Schembechler became the face of Michigan football; Ford became president of the United States.

Michigan football is fortunate to have two such figures in its history.

The terrible ‘tudes

This year’s Rose Bowl featured two asinine displays of classlessness on the field. Surprisingly, neither act drew a flag.

  • In the second half, Southern Cal receiver Dwayne Jarrett caught a pass and streaked down the field for a touchdown. As he neared the end zone, Jarrett looked at the nearest Michigan defender and pointed at him. The taunt, normally an almost automatic penalty in the college game, failed to draw a flag.
  • Later in the game, Jarrett caught a pass for a first down. He sat up and dropped the ball in the lap of the Michigan defender sitting next to him. Again, there was no penalty.

(There also was a derivative end zone celebration that failed to draw a flag, but that seems to attract less attention these days; it’s harder to consider that a likely penalty now.)

Unfortunately, those incidents are representative of football culture. Also unfortunately, they are better for television’s demand for entertainment than they are for the game of football itself.

It’s worth noting that even the TV analysts were becoming irked by the actions of some of the USC players; they began wondering why the officials weren’t calling the penalties. It was a fine example of talking heads criticizing the result of their own medium.

Ah, well. It is apparent that one question was answered by Jarrett’s actions in the Rose Bowl. Forget his body and his work ethic: without a doubt, Jarrett’s attitude is ready to jump to the NFL.