How Not to Grow a Blog

There weren't many readers before, I suspect, and not posting for three weeks won't increase their numbers. But boy do I have excuses ... the kids, their homework, my work, French classes, bills, chores, etc. So, some updates:

Regarding this post, sure enough, there has been a ton of heartbreak among Hawkeye fans. A painful 23-3 loss to in-state rival Iowa State (aka Moo U), followed by a crushing 31-6 thrashing by Ohio State. Ouch. Ugh. Gasp. They've turned it around a little bit (winning last week at Purdue), so the season is not yet a total loss, but they've gone from being ranked 8th in the country to unranked. We will see.

My 7th grade son had his first experience dealing with girls. Much to his embarrassment and discomfort, a girl in his class started calling him at home. After the second time, whenever the phone rang he would get a stricken, desperate look on his face, a combination of "please don't answer it" and "why, oh why me?" To teach my younger son (who took great pleasure in the plight of his older brother) a lesson, I once answered a call from a good friend of his by placing a stricken look on my face and saying to him with great seriousness: "Oh, no, Andrew, it's a girl and it ... for you." The look on his face was a priceless combination of half 'that Dad's such a joker' and half 'oh, no, this can't be happening to me too!' But my older son reluctantly and painfully (if not entirely gracefully) did the right thing, and asked the girl to stop calling him at home, which has temporarily brought the phone phobia to an end.

Finally, for your West Coast reading pleasure, a Hawkeye story you have missed, the case of the allegedly sexist pink locker room. For years, the visitor's locker room at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City has been painted pink, under the theory that pink is a calming color and will make opposing teams less agressive. The stadium was recently remodeled, and the visitor's locker room made even more pink, including the addition of pink urinals.

Well, leave it to a law professor from the East Coast on to find fault with a cute tradition:

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- A University of Iowa law professor said the school is promoting homophobia and will challenge whether Iowa is violating NCAA rules by painting a visitors' locker room pink.Erin Buzuvis moved to Iowa from Boston in the fall and discovered the visiting team's locker room at Kinnick Stadium was pink -- something she said promotes sexism and homophobia. But officials with the school's sports department said they won't change the pink walls, which is a long-time facet in Kinnick Stadium. The color was introduced decades ago by former Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry to soften opponents. But recent stadium renovations added more pink items to the locker room, including lockers, sinks and urinals. Buzuvis plans to speak with a school committee compiling a report on Iowa's compliance with NCAA regulations.

This resulted in a bit of a hullabaloo in Iowa City, which likes to think of itself as particularly liberal and P.C. but is located ... well, in Iowa. So you had internet death threats against the professor and pink fans in the stands the next game, which lead to dire posts on tolerance.org and national press coverage.

The local paper, the Press Citizen, printed a number of comments on the controversy. My pal the Grump, who has been depressed and on a blogging hiatus since Hurricane Katrina, thinks this one says it best:

Are you kidding me? This is what the professors at the UI law school do with their time? As an Iowa native, Hawkeye season ticket holder and lawyer, I am left shaking my head yet again about the lengths to which the politically correct crowd will go for attention. I should add I am a die-hard liberal and a passionate believer in the rights of gays and women, but this is pretty ridiculous. If someone is actually offended by the color pink, perhaps a little therapy might be in order. While we are at it, the black and yellow colors might offend someone, too, so I propose that the uniforms, locker rooms, coaching staff, players, stands, field, band, cheerleaders and fans are all painted in shades of gray. Pleasantville, Iowa anyone?

By the way, I attended law school at Washington University in St. Louis and I seem to recall our professors being a little too busy with teaching, researching, arguing before the Supreme Court, writing treatises/casebooks, etc., to worry about the color of a locker room. If this is what the faculty is concerning themselves with, I am glad I turned down my acceptance to Iowa and went to Wash U.