While you're wondering

Hey Vols, this weekend while a delightful little tune is being sung in your honor, the more curious among your number may want to know just what a yellowhammer is. See for yourselves:

Image credit: BBC

The yellowhammer has been the state bird of Alabama since 1927. According to the Alabama Department of Archives & History,

Alabama has been known as the “Yellowhammer State” since the Civil War. The yellowhammer nickname was applied to the Confederate soldiers from Alabama when a company of young cavalry soldiers from Huntsville, under the command of Rev. D.C. Kelly, arrived at Hopkinsville, KY, where Gen. Forrest's troops were stationed. The officers and men of the Huntsville company wore fine, new uniforms, whereas the soldiers who had long been on the battlefields were dressed in faded, worn uniforms. On the sleeves, collars and coattails of the new calvary troop were bits of brilliant yellow cloth. As the company rode past Company A, Will Arnett cried out in greeting “Yellowhammer, Yellowhammer, flicker, flicker!” The greeting brought a roar of laughter from the men and from that moment the Huntsville soldiers were spoken of as the “yellowhammer company.” The term quickly spread throughout the Confederate Army and all Alabama troops were referred to unofficially as the “Yellowhammers.”

Press hit

A good friend of mine rated a mention in a Wall Street Journal article about blatant bias in Heisman voting:

"It seems like it's always something with us," says Patrick Bobo, a Tennessee fan who contributes to a site called Third Saturday in Blogtober. "A lot of Tennessee fans say they don't want the stupid award because it's a joke."

(Back in college, he wore FSU gear but then started pulling for the Vols when they did so well under Peyton Manning, thus earning plenty of good-natured ribbing about bandwagon-hopping.)

As Darren Everson notes in "The South's Heisman Trophy Grudge," no Crimson Tide player has ever won the Heisman even though the program is one of the all-time elites in college football. Bobo pulls for the wrong team but is right on about what a joke Heisman voting is.

The name of the blog is a nod to the third Saturday in October, the annual renewal of the big Alabama-Tennessee rivalry—which happens to take place on the fourth Saturday in October of this year, but whatever. Bloggers from both sides fuel the fire with some good ol' trash-talk.

Even people outside the South know of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, but the Vols run a very close second. A few years ago, for example, I said I'd rather beat UT than the Tigers if I had to choose. Maybe it has something to do with living in north Alabama and having to endure a higher rate of Tennessee puke-orange sightings. The inset is Daniel Moore's "Rocky Stop," which depicts Roman Harper's (#41) fumble-causing, game-saving hit in an ugly 6-3 matchup.

Congratulations, but I'm looking forward to enjoying this year's victory cigar, Bobo!

If the code monkey thing doesn't work out

This morning I sat in for Toni on WBHP's The Morning Show with Toni & Gary.

I haven't yet gotten the all-clear from Dr. Byrd, so Sam, the kids, and I all left at 7 this morning for the radio station. The instructions sent me to the back of the building where there was a ten-foot fence with razor wire at the top. I called Nate the producer, and he met us at the door. Sam and the kids headed off for a hearty breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

I learned later that the razor wire and security door were there because a woman was working nights there, and a stalker would hang out around back, peeking in the windows and engaging and other unwelcome behavior. What's with people?

So Nate and I traversed the twisty passages (all alike!) until we came to the broadcast booth. He hooked up my earphones and mentioned that Gary was still at the TV station. I opened up my Ducks Unlimited portfolio and glanced over my notes while I listened to prerecorded banter between the two regular hosts where Gary was talking about getting in trouble as a youngster for setting a fire in the woods.

Today wasn't my first time in a broadcast booth. Back in 2002 when I ran for state senate, WVNN's Fred Thompson and Peter Thiele (no, a different one) invited me to be on their morning show where I botched my opportunity by failing to stay on message.

Five or ten minutes later, Gary strolled in, and we exchanged pleasantries. He offered to fetch me a cup of coffee, and when he returned, we laughed about my own pyromania-gone-bad story. A neighborhood kid and I were lighting pine straw on fire in a hole and then snuffing it out&emdash;with more pine straw. As you might imagine, we soon lost control of the fire and had to run to a nearby road crew for help. While they dug a control ditch, I ran home and told Mom between breaths to call the fire department. Somehow I managed not to get in trouble for that: maybe an unusual bout of willful ignorance.

Finally on air, Gary introduced me and broke the ice by asking, as people commonly do, whether I'm related to Kevin Bacon. I told him I've learned to answer to Kevin because my last name is evidently easy to remember, but the first must be a little trickier.

The remainder of the show was gone in an Augenblick. We talked about family, work, and topics such as the state's slow-pay record on tax refunds, California versus Texas, whether I'd consider running for office again, and Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. For the last one, I wondered aloud about requiring sending FPU kits to all members of the congress.

Toni likes to ask trivia questions, so I brought a few with me. I wanted to ask about outlaw William H. Bonney Jr. (a.k.a. Billy the Kid) because it was the anniversary of his capture, but Gary covered it in a prerecorded segment. The questions (and answers) I did ask:

Which American patriot emphatically declared, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!" Patrick Henry

A 2006 study published in Cancer Research showed that capsaicin, the chemical that makes buffalo wings, for example, hot is effective in fighting what form of cancer? Prostate

On this day in 1798, a bill was enacted in Congress that criminalized "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against elected officials. What was the name of this act? Sedition Act

In an essay called "Gold and Economic Freedom," a well-known economist wrote, "In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation." Who was this economist? Alan Greenspan

One caller correctly answered the question about Patrick Henry. I was pleased when another caller guessed Murray Rothbard instead of the world's most famous counterfeiter. My friend Jenny texted me promptly about the Sedition Act because she'd recently seen the John Adams series.

I managed to work in a couple of plugs too. In another text, Jenny (a huge Alabama fan) asked, "Can I get a Roll Tide?" Last night, I told Carey I'd mention Haskell somehow, but the best I was able to do was a parting shot. Gary gave me a puzzled look and said, "I hope we shouldn't have bleeped whatever it is you just said."

I was sorry to see nine o'clock roll around. Gary mentioned the possibility of having me sit in for him while he's out next month, and I told him to just say when.

Sixty days!

Although we're in the miserable high-heat, high-humidity dog days of summer, college football season is less than sixty days away, with pleasant football weather following soon behind!

Considering we're replacing a quarterback and a Outland Trophy-winning left tackle, we're looking at a favorable schedule for a rebuilding year. The one tough road game all year is the opener in Atlanta against the Virginia Tech. We have rivals UT and LSU at home. Yes, this year's Iron Bowl is at Jordan-Hare, but we play better there anyway. The game at Oxford will be one to look out for if the Rebels live up to the love they've been getting already, but that will become clearer with time. If we play Florida, it'll be in Atlanta.

Notice my careful choice of adjective in the preceding paragraph: ours is favorable, but for the other guy's team it's always a cupcake schedule. Now before you partisans of the Pac-10, ACC, Big T'Eleven, and other girls field hockey leagues get going, you know how even a favorable SEC schedule compares with your Sadie Hawkins dances.

Important questions remain. Will the Tide have anything resembling a pass rush this year? All through the regular season last year, we managed to get by with a shaky secondary, but Florida and Utah did their homework and fully exploited that weakness. McElroy was understudy to John Parker Flock of Seagulls but never managed to upstage him. Was this for team stability or because Mac didn't have it? Will a herd of flat-out hosses in the backfield be enough to offset the disadvantage of a green O-line?

Will the Southeastern Conference be home to the national champs for the fourth year in a row?

Grrr!

My son's basketball team has a game tomorrow at Mount Carmel — tipoff at 3pm, same time as the national championship game. Our people asked the other team to reschedule, but they refused — probably a bunch of bitter Aubies.

Dear Coach Saban

After the latest disaster, please consider radical action: tear up the scholarships of all players who signed with your incompetent predecessor. He didn't look for character and heart in his recruits, and it shows on and off the field. Before more of his deadwood falls and does further damage, get out in front of the problem.

Yes, that will make for a rough couple of years, but after the torture we've taken since Coach Stallings left, we can tough it out a little while longer.

How to lose six in a row to a cow college

Play with all the fire, intensity, and desire of a house fern.

Dear Coach Saban

Just beat Auburn.

I *seen* it!

I've been meaning to put this baby up forever, and I finally got around to scanning it (albeit two years later as you can see from the date).

This was the game where where Jamie Christiansen won the game with that ugly kick and of course Roman Harper's famous forced fumble, memorialized by Daniel Moore in "Rocky Stop." I'd still like to add a copy next to Tyrone Prothro's amazing catch and put the stub inside the frame.

Before the game, I got to meet my aunt, uncle, and a couple of cousins for some mean Mexican. That was after the Florida game where we humbled the cocky Urban Meyer. I heard the ground was literally rumbling from all the cheering. Wish I coulda been there too!

We had great seats -- at the 40 yard line -- and could see everything. I remember being sick of hearing it from my Tennessee-fan friends (if there can be such a thing). I even told my aunt that I'd rather beat UT than Auburn if we could only have one.

(If you remember, that was how it ended up. My brother-in-law who scored those tickets also had a hookup for Iron Bowl tickets. After Prothro took that horrific injury on a stupid, needless, low-class, NFL-style showoff long pass when the Gators were already starting to load the buses -- Shula, you dog! -- we just didn't have it. They were mine for the taking, and I easily said, "No thanks.")

But now the bad times are behind us: it's morning in Alabama!

Bo stole my line!

Bo stole my line! (Not really -- he gave an attribution and everything -- but "Bo follows MLA style" is a pretty lame headline.)

A relative of my wife's -- one of those baby-mama-sista-cousin kind of deals -- knows someone connected to the Bama athletic department and had been saying since around Thanksgiving that Nick Saban was a done deal.

Given Saban's strong denials, it didn't seem likely at all. Bill, I'm glad I was wrong!

Shula was a clown. He's gone, so it's morning in Alabama.

Poor Shula decision hurts Tide again

Alabama came up huge against Florida, only to have the great victory spoiled by a terrible injury to the gifted Tyrone Prothro.

Reminding us of Shula's stupid decision last year to leave Brodie Croyle in with a big lead over Western Carolina, which resulted in losing Croyle to a season-ending knee injury, now we've lost Prothro for the rest of the way. We had no business throwing at the end zone with the starters in the fourth quarter. You play more conservatively with a big lead because Tide tradition is winning with class -- we aren't out to embarrass other teams -- and so you don't risk injuries!

What a shame that Tyrone Prothro paid the price for Mike Shula's low-class move!

Roll Tide!

Alabama 37, South Carolina 14

The Tide looked great! Before the game, I was worried because if coaching was going to be the difference, Spurrier and the Gamecocks would get the W. No, South Carolina isn't a quality opponent, but today's performance makes me cautiously optimistic that Shula finally has the team on the right track.

Now what about Georgia and their squeaker against USC? At a tailgate party at work, I picked UGA to win the SEC (and Texas to win it all), but early appearances indicate the the Bulldogs will underperform yet again.

Yes, Tennessee would have been a good pick too, but I don't want to see UT and Snitch-mer do well. Even though Auburn is considered our biggest rival, I'm to the point where I'd rather beat Tennessee if I had to choose.