At halftime of the Texas Tech-Oklahoma State game, ABC showed video of Doug Flutie at the unveiling of a statue honoring him at Boston College.  Is it a sign of a faultering economy that the only guy that is getting a life-sized statue is one of the smallest quarterbacks (and Heisman winners) in modern college football history? 

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Flutie is generously listed at 5′10″; the statue appears to be slightly larger than Flutie - perhaps they would have saved money by making it more accurately life-sized.

Resources:

• Flutie Honored With Statue At BC [2008-11-07, WBZ, video]
• Flutie statue unveiled [2008-11-07, Boston Globe]

In my mind, the election was officially over on October 17, 2008 when I heard a NPR story regarding Paddy Power, an online oddsmaking site.  The story, Irish Bookie Pays Out Obama Bets Weeks Early indicated that:

Shortly following the final presidential debate, Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, declared Sen. Barack Obama the victor — and paid out accordingly, turning over more than $1,360,000 to Obama backers.

Even though, (1) it is not a huge sum of money for a bookmaking site, (2) the odds were already to skewed 9:1, and (3) this was a potentially good publicity ploy, I had to think that bookies care deeply about their reputation.  Paying out a bet they didn’t have to would make them look rather foolish.  

…

By midnight eastern time on Election Day, McCain had already conceded and Barack Obama had already completed his acceptance speech, having received the 270 necessary electoral college votes much earlier in the evening.  The final tally [CNN] was 349-163, though the popular vote tally was 63,896,968 (53%) to 56,405,897 (46%).  

If you divide the difference by the total, you get: 

• [Electoral] [349-163] / [349+163] = 36.3%
• [Popular] [63,896,968 - 56,405,897] / [63,896,968 + 56,405,897] = 6.2%

The only thing that made the election interesting to me was a similarity I noticed between the Electoral College and something that I actually participate actively in, Fantasy Football.  Fantasy Football is the awkward beast that turns dorks into sports fans and sports fans into dorks.  In Fantasy Football, you can match your opponent yard for yard and even exceed them, but if their players get the call on scoring plays, you’re going to get buried on the scoreboard.  

I find this especially relevant since I am in 8th place in a 10 team league that I should dominate.  This is despite having the 4th most points and having been on the receiving end of a number of close losses.  To be fair, I go into every Fantasy League season thinking I will dominate and it doesn’t necessarily happen.  

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Closing thoughts:

• The way people speak about Barack Obama sickens me.  It is not dissimilar to the way a person would gush incessantly about a significant other.  I am fairly sure that if you were fortunate enough to get close to him, you would find that his poop does indeed stink.  
• I am glad that Facebook status messages will soon go back to being more directly self-centered instead of this indirect “I care about our democracy” type of self-centered commentary that has been all the rage.  
• I am glad that we don’t ever have to hear the phrase, “Is America ready for a black president?” phrase ever again.  It quickly ascended to the Cliché Hall of Fame.  
• I am unsure if there is a Cliché Hall of Fame, but there is a Fantasy Football Hall of Fame.  
• I sometimes think I should just been an Obama supporter so that I could have participated in the free love [most likely only marginally discounted] that assuredly took place last night.  Quoth a good friend:
  • Over the past 6-18 months, you were kind of like the Mormon at the huge wild drunken bash, a party pooper, as it were.  That’s why you were a pariah, you could certainly choose not to drink, but the entire world was getting tipsy and celebrating joyfully and you were doing the equivalent of sitting in a corner reading a book going “Hmph.”  “I’m right, you know, drinking isn’t good for your health in the long run.” 
• Michelle Obama at the acceptance speech: fire your stylist [Michelle Obama's election night dress upsets America's fashion crowd] but keep blaring the Sir Mix-A-Lot.