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I've been to a lot of Georgia games, but I've really never been to any game like this before.

The forecast for the rare Black Friday night game was for severe cold, so I lost my seat mate. Mom made the right decision. I've never been so cold in Athens, and for more than three quarters of football, the Bulldogs didn't do anything to help. (I didn't feel so cold in the fourth quarter, but that was because I really needed to pee and couldn't worry about both discomforts at once. When I finally went, I felt colder than ever.) It may have be the worst, the most inept football I've ever seen the Bulldogs play in person.

GA Tech led 17-0 at halftime, and I kept telling myself that if they stretched that lead any, I was going to go home. But they couldn't. Georgia finally started scoring, but when Tech scored with less than 6 minutes to restore a 2 touchdown lead, half the stadium gave up. I don't blame them. At the time, it seemed the sane decision. Sadly, that only made the rest of us colder because we lost our windbreak.

And then somehow, very late in the game, UGA came back to tie. So after a bad game, they played one overtime. Then another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. Eight in all. It was the most bonkers thing I've ever seen in Sanford Stadium.

Think I'm exaggerating? This is the ESPN Win Probability graph of the game.

The football was so crazy, I don't know that I have space in my brain for all the other notable things. Poor Uga (whose name is, ironically, Boom) tried to run away from the pre-game fireworks. The 50th anniversary of the Alumni Band played at halftime. Georgia's decision to go for 2 when down by 11. The crowd deciding that GT was faking injuries to slow the game down and booing those players when they were helped off the field. The failure to explain overtime rules to the crowd and their resulting confusion when Georgia didn't attempt a kick for the win in the second OT. The scoreboard gave up on counting overtimes after 5. And have I mentioned the cold?

When I thought I was going to be leaving early, I decided I would post a picture of the stadium at the moment I finally decided to leave. Ultimately, at three minutes after midnight, this is that moment:

Truth be told, I didn't even leave then. I watched the Tech players crawl off the field and waited for the presentation of the Governor's Cup (by the Governor). Then, when the Georgia student section finally left, so did I.

I'm home now (4:32 AM), and I'm still cold.

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97/2408. Collision Course (1989)
Jay Leno's first leading role in a movie.... is bad. It's pretty clear that's not Jay's fault, or co-star Pat Morita's either. The script is worthless, the direction is weak, and this was clearly edited to appease television censors. I read afterwards that the production company that made it, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (which also made Transformers: The Movie), declared bankruptcy during production, and it shows, especially in the third act "action." As a film, it's an interesting curiosity, but not great entertainment.

98/2409. A Sprinkle of Deceit: A Hannah Swensen Mystery (2024)
Hallmark's Hannah Swensen mysteries are still a favorite, and this one course corrects a bit from the last so that the large supporting cast doesn't come off quite as goofy (though still plenty unrealistically goofy). More, please.

99/2410. The Joe Louis Story (1953)
The absolutely true life story of Joe Louis! Well, about as "true life" as any 1950s sports biopic ever got, I suppose. The verisimilitude is helped a great deal by the inclusion of footage of Louis' actual fights. It also helps that the actor playing Louis is so bad at delivering lines that you figure he couldn't be making them up. (For about half the film, I was convinced he had to be related to Louis.)

100/2411. Le Professionnel (1981)
This is a great French action film in the same anti-authority vein as anything Eastwood or Bronson were making at about the same time. Highly recommended.

101/2412. Curious Caterer: Forbidden Fruit (2024)
Speaking of Hallmark Mysteries, this series very much feels as though it was created in desperation during the period that actress Alison Sweeney was unavailable to make more Hannah Swenson movies. Sadly, these are really too easy to solve because their mystery-construction formula is obvious. (Seriously, in this one I knew which one was the killer as soon as they introduced all the suspects even though the killer's random motivation wasn't pulled out of the ether until just before the last commercial break.) Still, I love these little puzzle boxes, even when they're easy.

More to come.

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At long last, in the friscalating dusklight, here's SpongeBob sitting out in front of my house.

Little guy looks thrilled to be there.

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I did not attend today's UGA / UMass game, but I am happy to say that my tickets did not go unused.

I gave them to friend James who took his son. I am assured they had a good time, and that's really what's important about football. And everything else, really.

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Pepper

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During the month of October, inspired by an inability to shave my face because of a poison ivy rash, I thought it might be fun to try and grow a goatee for the first time in my life.

It was not. Goatee is now gone and is only being shown here as a reminder to self in case I ever get such a stupid idea again.

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A year and a week have passed since I last visited Athens, GA, but today* I attended my first football game of the year to see the #12 Georgia Bulldogs play the #7 Tennessee Volunteers.

Things have changed a little in the past year. For one thing, the Bulldogs aren't quite as dominant now as then, struggling to get started in what eventually became a convincing win. For another, the local high school where we have parked for years has become a new unofficial tailgating lot, meaning we had to find a new place to park the car. Third, the stadium now sells beer, though the raucous atmosphere didn't seem too out of place for a Tennessee game. Very late starts always portend a carnival atmosphere in the stands.

Fourth and perhaps worst, the stadium now has fireworks. Those aren't rain clouds in the photo above. There were launchers all around the stadium; fireworks went up after every Bulldogs' score, and ash fell down on the fans. Ick.

Mom was my companion, and she was a real trooper. She doesn't really like cold night games (she prefers to be curled up with a heating pad and a good book by 9 PM), but in recognition that this could be one of the last chances to watch a game in Sanford Stadium with me, she soldiered on without complaint. Thanks, Mom!

* By "today" I really mean yesterday. Technically, I'm typing this at 3:28 AM on November 17, but that's only because I didn't get back to Newnan until 2:40. It was a 7:45 PM kickoff, the game ran the full four quarters, and we didn't even get from the stadium back to the parking lot until 12:08 AM. As I said, Mom was a real trooper.

Additional note: For about a half hour prior to the game, Kirk Herbstreit was on the field with his newest travel companion, Peter, who is apparently the brother of Kirk's late golden retriever, Ben. Herbstreit certainly looked to be a great dog daddy as he let anyone who wanted get a picture with Peter, who eagerly accepted all the head scratches he could get. Go dogs!

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92/2403. Nikki & Nora: Sister Sleuths (2022)
Mom gave up on this Hallmark Mystery Movie early (and often). I'm not quite sure what she hated so much about it. Yes, the plot is silly and contrived with two sisters who... are also silly and contrived. But "Silly and Contrived" is pretty much the Hallmark brand, isn't it? I thought it was fine. Not great. Just fine.

93/2404. Split Second (1953)
The title of this surprisingly taut drama about a hostage situation in a very unfortunate location isn't doing it any favors, but honestly neither would the more accurate "The Petrified Forest But Set at Ground Zero." Of course, The Petrified Forest also had the on-screen star power Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, and Leslie Howard, while the biggest star of Split Second is Dick Powell behind the camera in his directorial debut. All of which is to say that Split Second is passable entertainment that knows better than to overstay its welcome, even if it doesn't manage to be particularly memorable.

94/2405. The Seventh Victim (1943)
The first half of this would lead you to believe that it's a murder mystery, but then it shifts gears into either psychological or supernatural horror (depending on the scene and the characters in it) and then it ends with an off-screen suicide maybe? I've read that much of the script for this was left behind on the cutting room floor, which I can believe, because there are just too many holes in the schizephrenic plot for it to be remotely satisfying.

95/2406. Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans (2024)
Silly and contrived? Check and double check. This one is a bit of a locked room mystery, and I love locked room mysteries. I didn't love this one, though, maybe because I've read too many great locked room mysteries to be impressed by mediocre ones. More often than not, it feels like the "locked room" aspect is merely a response to the need to keep the budget down.

96/2407. Hamburger Hill (1987)
This movie spends so much time trying to be an honest presentation of what it felt like to be a sausage in the meat grinder of the Vietnam War that it somehow fails to be entertaining. Was the goal to give the audience PTSD for watching your movie? Mission accomplished.

More to come.

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