AURex

5 tidbits about "The Queen's Gambit" that most people don't know. 1. Heath Ledger originally wanted to turn the book into a movie, which he would direct and star in. He was an excellent chess player. 2. The author of the book, Walter Tevis, was a very good chess player in his youth, but never played at this level of competition. He was born in SF and confined to a hospital in his youth due to illness and was kept drugged with phenobarbital (3 doses per day) for a prolonged period, during which his parents basically abandoned him. After being released at age 11, he hopped a train and traveled across country by himself to find his family in Kentucky. 3. Although the home setting for the girl in the movie was Kentucky, the orphanage and Paris hotel scenes were filmed in Berlin and the scenes depicting Kentucky were filmed in Ontario Canada. 4. Tevis became obsessed with pool and became a very good pool player. As a student at U of Kentucky (where he earned a BA and MA in English), he worked in a pool hall. He wrote a short story with a pool theme while in college and became obsessed with pool. He later wrote the books that "The Hustler" and its sequel "The Color of Money" were based on. 5. Tevis also read a lot of scifi in his youth, reading books from the public library. He wrote the novel "The Man Who Fell To Earth" which was made into a movie starring David Bowie.

Just finished "The Queen's Gambit." WOW! I got to it late, but there is a reason this 7-episode series has been #1 in 63 countries for more than a month.

A few events, and of course our Auburn ladies crush the opposition. But will any other universities line up to compete? And will there be a championship? This is not one of those sports with close person-to-person contact, so COVED-19 is not the primary issue. The problem is more financing. For almost all schools, football funds secondary sports. And welp .... Equestrian is not even a bona fide NCAA sport. So for MOST universities, Equestrian is not high on their funding list. So Auburn may have funding, because ..... ya know .... AU = #1 and all of us (yes, you know who we are) support our athletic teams including Equestrian, right! And as Auburn donors, we drop money for our girls! Right? RIGHT!?! Yes, we support our Equestrian team with $$ .... RIGHT?) But many other schools may not. And that's the problem. So, here we are, Auburn once again the best Equestrian team in the country. But if no competition and no national championship ........ Last year, Auburn undefeated, no question the best in the country, but no NC due to The Rona. And here we are again. A few events. Auburn clearly still #1. But so far it's likely there will be no national championship competition, so ....... Personally, I think Auburn should just CLAIM national championships for 2019 and 2020 just based on their record in the competitions that was on record. I really d not think any other school would challenge that. Because everybody knows, Auburn #1 in Equestrian. Love my Equestrian Ladies!

Talking heads are now calling for Ogre to be fired, along with other LSU people who covered up for these perps. Of course, it's just your typical talking heads. But the whole thing is beginning to smell a lot like Baylor, which is not good for the "Bengalese-on-the-Bayou". Personally, of all the SEC teams, I've always considered LSU the slimiest of the slimy, from fans to the entire university. We knew Freeze was dirty and the NCAA finally caught up with him. We knew Wade was dirty and the NCAA is now ready to deal with him. We knew the entire Kansas stink was real stink, and the NCAA is gonna aerate that program.Unless the NCAA decides to pull a UNC/FSU "we be blind" thing, in which case nuthin gonna be happening and Ogre gonna be doing the same ole same ole for years to come.

These cases do NOT predate Ogre. In fact, most of them were on his watch and the team talked about them. Some of the players were "disciplined" by Ogre. Others were not. Guice was one of the players accused of rape and assault by 3 different women while Ogre was coach. The big issue for the NCAA is that these incidents were all covered up, the women's reports were ignored, and Title IX guidelines were not followed. Here is another article about the situation from ESPN. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30292896/alabama-crimson-tide-lsu-tigers-texas-tennessee-volunteers-games-postponed

If these cases make their way into the courts, LSU will not be able to continue covering up for Ogre and the other LSU coaches and admins. All the records will be subpoenaed and made public. But, will the women step forward at this point to press the cases? The basketball and football programs are currently in tarbitration at the penalty phase for previous NCAA violations. I wonder if these new and entirely separate violations of institutional cover-up and failure to follow Title IX guidelines could drop them into potential "death penalty"territory. I doubt the NCAA would ever dothat again, but it seems like LSU just completely and willfully ignores NCAA rules, confident that the violations really won't affect them much. Ogre and Wade -- what a combo they got at LSU.

As always, it's really informative to see this kind of breakdown. Thanks!

AU vs Ole Miss -- the kickoff call Here is the way I saw it. The closest ref was behind Shivers. The ball went past Shivers. Shivers began to pursue. BUT the whistle blew when the ball crossed the goal line. The ref behind Shivers could not see his hands, so assumed that Shivers did not touch the ball, so he blew the play dead when the ball crossed the goal line. At that point, it was a touchback. End of play. Shivers stopped pursuing the ball. Okay, we do not know if Shivers actually touched the ball. Only he knows. (The video sure looks like he MIGHT have.) The quick review by the replay officials said they did not see enough evidence to overturn the call on the field. But what is your take on this? Do you think there was another ref who had a better view? Should the replay officials have stopped play to review?

Thanks JMR for your expert insights. Like you, I noticed Bo continuing to throw off his back foot. You'd think a year of off-season would have corrected this, Still, I was glad to see that he was working more from he pocket. And Seth is THE MAN! Shrove got some catches, but like to see Mr Speed Schwarz get the ball more often. Alas, what happened to the TEs? All this conversation during off-season about Morris using the TEs more in the passing game. Is this on Bo r Morris? I dunno. Waiting! Let's do it!

Away on Netflix. Not bad.

I'm old. I can't pizz that far anymore! 😬

So, I'm really curious about this. Equestrian is a non-contact sport. In fact, there is not a lot of really close interaction required. Plus, it is not an NCAA sport, so it is not regulated by NCAA decisions. Why can't we have Equestrian competition in the age of Corona? Deal with the issue of spectators, but let the riders and horses compete. As it is, spectators do not really contribute much to the competitions. Just make it a non-spectator sport for the coming year. What am I missing?

Starting over with The Expanse. Last time around (a few years ago), I just could not get into it. The characters all seemed like cardboard cutouts with hackneyed lines in a predictable set piece. But wifey liked it and says it gets better, So, now about 8 episodes in. I'm trying. Now that we've dropped cable and saving money by streaming, paying extra for streaming services involves cost justification. So far, after reading all the reviews of HBO Max, we aren't biting. It's really expensive for what they are offering. Unfortunately, they are in a bind. They charge $15 for cable access and the same amount for HBO Max, but with HBO Max they are unable to deliver a lot of their properties due to all the licensing issues of both HBO and Warner Brothers. So the availability of DC universe movies (Batman, etc) is very limited, and so are Warner Bothers series. AT&T has lost their shirt, pants and undies on DirecTV and this HBO Max gambit is going to be a loss leader as well until they sort t all out. Maybe in the fall we will try the free trial, eat up the second season of Mandalorian (like Star Wars offensively stupid but mildly entertaining) and the new series Perry Mason. But until they launch their GoT spinoffs to good reviews, it's nada for now.

You are NOT an ass. You are one of ours. All of us are on your side, bro. War Eagle!

Sorry, my reading comprehension is sometimes really bad.

Um, victim of what?

New season of Westworld launches this coming Sunday, March 15, the Ides of March. Setting future real world Earth. Supposedly a more linear approach, and hints at competing companies with robots. Amount of violence -- likely high. Amount of gratuitous nudity -- unknown.

Apologies, but I don't follow pro football. Will there be any Auburn players on the field for this Super Bowl? Sunday UPDATE -- Don't rush to reply. I answered the question for myself.

As a swimmer (not good enough to make the letter team), I enjoyed the company of the volleyball and gymnastics coeds. Enough said. Funny -- I was also a "hippie." Long hair, fu-manchu mustache, so I was also a member of the counter culture. Funny thing was, I worked part time at RBD library and ended up being the "token hippie" of one of the Auburn cheerleaders. She's drop by and if I wasn't on duty she'd leave me an apple with a note or a picture with a note, or a book with a note saying hello. My frat-guy, clean cut, sidekick at work never really understood why a cheerleader would be stopping by to see me or leave gifts/notes. I never went out withe her (not my type, nor me hers) but she and I remained friends for her entire time at AU.

Witcher -- never read a book, never played a game. Episode 1 -- meh, nothing. I guess if you've played the games or read the books ........ UPDATE -- re-watched episode 1. Watched the entire series over a 2 week period. It was okay. It seems that every scene was dark, as if there is no sunlight in this world. And I can't say much for the script. The dialog sux. But overall, it was okay. The comparison to Xena and Hercules ..... well, in terms of script and dialog and action, yeah. But both of those had lots of sunlight and some humor. But I think Witcher has a lot more substance to it than either of those series. Mandalorian -- the episodes are short. Maybe that's a good thing. Not a lot of time wasted on empty filler. I lost interest in the whole Star Wars universe thing many years ago and have not even seen the newer moves. So here we have a series about a warrior nanny. hahaha And a terminator wetnurse! hahaha Well, it was okay -- a lot more fun than Witcher, although totally without the substance.

Mandalorian VS The Witcher Mandalorian = PG (actually G) escort the baby Yoda and, along the way, kill a few bad guys. Witcher = dude in a bad wig, R-rated bunch of nekkid wimmins, plus killing evil eminies. That's the simplistic. In reality, as an adult, I like The Witcher better than the Mandalorian. But then, I haven't even seen the lastr 3 Star Wars movies because ..... um .....

We know how our SEC opponents are going to play against Auburn this year. Stop the run and force Bo to pass the ball. Since Auburn's OL is not likely going to be able to enforce its will on most SEC-caliber defensive fronts, this will certainly present a challenge for the CGM strategy.

Stat, this report card can't be right, because Auburn moved up to 7th in the Coaches Poll after our big victory over Tulane. You need to put your Sharpie to work to adjust the numbers. 😉 As always, thank you for compiling the data, Stat.

Thanks, Stat! Your post-game analyses always tell the tale of the tape.

Thanks Coach. I was offline and missed the game, so just now watching some highlights of the game. Your notes are always informative, and today even moreso as I now get back to the Interwebs.