I think I speak for every American who types for a living and/or as a hobby, when I say how happy I am that the former leader of Libya is now officially out of office. There are just too goddamn many ways to spell his name, and I’ve always tried to avoid it, though I mostly liked to think of him as Colonel Gadaffy Duck. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve had a special relationship with Col. Duck here in Syracuse, what with him ordering the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and all. Ironic that the guy they put in prison for that seems to have outlived the Duckman, isn’t it? I say “seems to” because I’m certain that we’ll be hearing the conspiracy theories soon that Gadaffy is actually alive and living on an island off the coast of Argentina with Hitler, Osama, Saddam, Elvis, Jim Morrison, and JFK. Yes, yesterday was certainly an exciting day, as exemplified by Sec State Hillary Clinton (who is letting her hair go long – I like it; she should let it go gray and get that whole crazy cat lady thing going), who, upon hearing the news, said, “wow.”

Speaking of exciting, it was another exciting finish in game two of the world series last night (yes, I realize that “exciting baseball” is kind of an oxymoron), as one team I wouldn’t give a crap about even if I gave a crap about baseball beat another team I wouldn’t care about either, except I’d rather have the latter win the series just because the former will always be associated with Dubya. Though Rick Perry could probably use the bump that would be associated with a “winner.” But who can possibly care about baseball when it’s football season?

Not only is it football season, but tonight is the big game between SU and West Virginia – which will be highlighted by a rare appearance at the Dome by yours truly (depending on what time The Rapture Part 2 kicks in, of course).

At halftime, they’ll be remembering Ernie Davis, who became the first black guy to win the Heisman Trophy 50 years ago this year. No doubt, Floyd Little will be on hand to say a few words.

I will, of course, be wearing my Ernie Davis #44 replica jersey (the orange one, not the white one), which I only trot out on game occasions (I bought it as a birthday present for myself back when I turned 44 years old – which was longer ago than I’d care to think about).

The winner of the game gets to keep the Ben Schwartzwalder Trophy (named, ironically enough, for WV native Ben Schwartzwalder, who played center for West Virginia back in olde tyme leather helmet days and coached a football team here in Central New York).

We’ve played WV more times than anybody else with the exception of Colgate, and it’s always a big game for us, though apparently WV doesn’t actually give a shit – at least according to WV AD and former QB Oliver Luck.

“In fact, I would trade Air Force or Navy for Syracuse every day of the week in terms of the quality of the football program.”

Well, fuck you, too, Ollie. No doubt you’re bitter because you were 0-4 against SU when you were playing.

What with SU heading to the ACC and WV trying to wangle its way to the SEC or Big 12, whoever wins tonight may get to keep the trophy for a long, long time.

Sadly, seeing as WV is playing very well and ranked #11 in the country and Syracuse is, um, not so much, it’s liable to be a very long night for yours truly (and not just because the game doesn’t even start until the time that I’m usually snuggled up in bed with my Kindle). My hope is that it won’t be totally embarrassing.

Anyhow, if you get bored tonight, tune in to ESPN and look for me. I’ll be the guy wearing an orange #44 jersey (should only be a couple thousand of them). Don’t expect to hear from me in the morning (not that anybody cares, I realize), because not only will I probably be out until well past midnight (in fact, what with the game being on TV, I’m not likely to get home much earlier than I normally get out of bed in the morning), but odds are I’ll be terribly pissed-off and depressed.

And then Vernon (and Oliver Luck) will be able to gloat.