Friday, January 15, 2010

Who Wins...Ironic or Happy?

(An insider Catholic blogosphere piece.)

To be Happy, or to be Ironic? Find out Sunday when the Vikings trounce the Dallas Cowboys! Sure, I know Julie and other Catholic bloggers from that accumulation of hot asphalt and tex-mex foods are good folks. But let's be honest...we need the win more. It's the middle of Minnesota winter. A win would help in the war against despair we wage this time of year.

Apparently there was a happiness survey done which concluded that Minnesota was the 26th happiest state in the nation, right behind North Dakota, by which a Star Trib columnist memorably (and ironically) noted that North Dakotans get happy when they see a tree. So be it. We're holy and ironic and better at football. See you on the other side of the field, Dallas Bloggers!

(I'm warming up the theological trash talk tips, Minnesota bloggers! Are you with me?)

16 comments:

Julie D. said...

Oh so that's how you wanna play it, huh? No problemo...

:-D

Class factotum said...

But the real issue: what will make the folks in Wisconsin happy?

http://class-factotum.blogspot.com/2010/01/wisconsin-101-pack.html

The Ironic Catholic said...

Class factorum--
easy. Cheese and Beer.

And admittedly, seeing Farve beat bad.

Class factotum said...

Real, real bad.

Julie D. said...

CF, I knew you were on the side of God's ... I mean AMERICA'S team. :-D

Dcn Scott Dodge said...

It is one of those games I wish both teams could lose.

macman said...

Here's an idea for you. While your watching the Vikes pound the Cowboys (I mean cmmon, A viking vs a cowboy?) invite people over and have a commercial contest. Every time one of the nasty commercials comes on, turn down the sound and have a guest perform a home grown commercial, trophy to be awarded for best commercial at the end of the Vikings victory

Mark said...

We're holy and ironic and better at football.

Let's see...

http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings/_/seasontype/3

University of Texas
TCU
Texas Tech

It seems that Minnesota schools are slightly...absent...from most football polls. We have 3 of the top 20. (Oh, and Wisconsin even managed to make the list.)

Perhaps college isn't your thing.

http://highschool.rivals.com/viewrankhs.asp?ra_key=646

Yes, that would be 9 out of the top 100 in Texas, one from Minnesota.

Ok, maybe fiction is a better place to look. How many movies have they made about Minnesota football? Hmmm...I guess that would be none (I'm not counting Fran Tarkenton highlights from NFL Films). We have at least one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390022/

Oh, and that reminds me...how many Super Bowl rings did Fran win? For that matter, how many Super Bowl rings have they ever given to a team wearing purple?

Sorry, Ironic, but we live football down here. You snowplow drivers only pretend. And we have the ultimate weapon in the contest on Sunday...Brad Childress.

Smack down concluded. Have a nice off season.

Mark Windsor

P.S. Humility, schmumility. This is football!

Class factotum said...

Julie, it's easy to be for the Cowboys as long as the Packers aren't playing. After all, I am a Texan. :) But I live in Wisconsin now, so I'd face a dilemma if the two teams were to face each other in a superbowl. Would the Packers rosary help me then? Who knows? My friend says that the reason it didn't work against the Cardinals was because - well, the Pack was playing THE CARDINALS.

PS You really do have to see the photo: http://class-factotum.blogspot.com/2010/01/wisconsin-101-pack.html

PS Mark. Since when did TCU become good at football? All I remember is from when I was in college in the early 80s in the SWC. OK, so I went to Rice, which was everyone's homecoming game, but TCU was the second choice if you couldn't play Rice and wanted a guaranteed win.

The Ironic Catholic said...

Mark, your post simply proves that Texans are obsessed. See, in MN, we specialize in cross training. We pass and punt, then cross country ski, then kick the ball, then jump in a frozen lake, etc. While it is little known, this is the same regimen that helped the East Germans and Russians dominate the winter olympics for decades. We're environmentally superior.

As for the lack of top ranked football teams in MN...
1) Minnesotans don't do rankings. Haven't you ever listened to Garrison Keillor? Just not done. Showy, you know.
2) The university I teach at? We're undefeated at football.

o' course, we have no team....

The Ironic Catholic said...

Scott, you wound me. Who the heck do you cheer for in Salt Lake? Dustdevils?

Mark said...

We're environmentally superior. I'm very happy for you. This gives algore a target to visit that's not in Texas.

Class - TCU has been pretty serious for the past three years. To be honest, I don't follow college football all that much. From what I've heard through the grapevine, they've been rebuilding the program for about six years. It started working about three years ago, and now they had a legit shot at the top spot. But when you were here, who know that Tech would be what they are today? A&M and Houston are both shells, so I guess the other schools have picked up the slack.

Mark Windsor

Kiwi Nomad 2008 said...

Fight on the grand happy ironic stoush. Let noone deer you from the rout. And may all your snowballs be round ones.

Julie D. said...

IC - great way to lift the spirits, btw, and leave me smiling. Merci beaucoups.

I'd say, let the best man win, but that leaves us right where I began ... celebrating a Cowboy's victory tomorrow! :-D

Lisa said...

These comments were fun to read through, especially as a displaced Wisconsinite now living in Texas. I'll certainly be cheering on the Cowboys on Sunday!

And TCU has had two great seasons under their belt, playing in two bowl games in the most recent years and this year going undefeated (sans the Fiesta Bowl...)

Paul Cat said...

This is just my on, but I think it is a moral responsibility for every Catholic to cheer for the Saints.

Saint Drew Brees . . . Pray for us.
Saint Colston and Bush . . . Pray for us.
Saint Vilma and Saint Sharper . . . Pray for us.
All You Saints fans black and gold . . . Pray for us.