'Tis only a flesh wound...

Ahh...the immortal Monty Python. If you haven't seen Monty Python's Holy Grail, then I suggest you go rent it. There is that one classic scene involving the Black Knight and King Arthur. If you've seen it, then you know that Arthur repeatedly cuts off various extremities of the Black Knight. After each arm or leg is lopped off, the Black Knight taunts Arthur with some new way that he is going to kill him, sans whatever appendage is now missing. At one point he insists, despite having an arm or two, and a leg, or two, lying in the blood soaked grass beside him, that all he has is "a flesh wound." The humor of such a gory scene (although the special effects budget was so poor that the gore isn't really all that shocking - probably more mild than what you can see at your grocer's butcher counter) comes in the obvious absurdity of the Black Knight's statements. And that pretty much sums up what this Notre Dame fan, and I'm sure many others, are feeling tonight. After each USC touchdown I tried to convince myself that it was just a flesh wound, and that the white knights of Notre Dame (hey, we're the godly ones in this game, so we get to be the white knights instead of the black) would rally to defeat USC. Alas, at the end of the game, I came to realize that I had been left a dismembered corpse on the heap of broken dreams that has been Notre Dame football for the last 18 years. This hurts.

On a slightly more positive note, 25 years of being a Cubs fan has taught me that there is always next year. Apparently, however, Cubs players are slightly deaf. While their fans have been saying next year, they heard "next century." I'm not sure how this happens, but it's the only explanation I have for 98 years of futility. So, make plans to join me sometime this coming season to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Cubs World Series title, and then the year after we can celebrate the 100th anniversary of the last Cubs World Series title.

And while I'm venting my pain at watching my teams fall in defeat yet again, I'll vent that Cathedral won the Indiana 4A State Football Championship this weekend. This means that they defeated my alma mater to get there, and since my grandfather attended Cathedral, I'm sure he'll delight in pointing out their victory for weeks. My only hope is that he's just as dejected as I am about Notre Dame's loss and forgets about those other "Irish."