March Madness Coverage Continues (and Ends!) / Plus, The Boys' Book Club Gets Academic On Your Ass!

Chip has called KU's second-round loss to Northern Iowa last night "the worst thing that has happened to Larryville since Quantrill's Raid." Agree or not, we have to admit that it's certainly changed most of our plans for the next two weekends, which were to consist of getting shitfaced at random times of the day and night and praising this year's team with a near-religious fervor.

Despite the shocking loss, however, surely the best thing for us to do is rally around the coach and team and thank them for a great season. Coll.ns, you can still wave that cock around proudly in public, as far as we're concerned.

But why do we have a feeling that many local "fans" disagree? Let's see what they have to say today on the message boards.

heterohilfiger says: "Dear Brady Boringstar, can you please stop wearing those baggy sleeves under your jersey? You may as well be wearing sweat pants under your shorts. Such a bad look. And maybe step up your game when Sherron is having a rare off night?... I really can't see you and your sleeves leading us. Cut the sleeves off any maybe you will be more aerodynamic or at least look better while your tail is tucked between your legs in the tournament."

HighEliteMajor says: "Unfortunately, I drove to and from OKC from the KC area yesterday for that fiasco. My mood is not one of humility. I have said this all year, only to be called "disloyal", etc. by those that drink the Kool-Aid and have "blind-faith". Where are kvskuball, blownjay, babyjay1, jayhawkinmullen, ginger 2015, etc? The "it is right because coach Self says so", the "you're not a division I coach like coach Self", the "enjoy the ride" crowd? Enjoying the ride now? How smart is coach Self now? And how dumb are all of us that sounded the alarms this season?"

trueblue9 says: "Bill Self is one desparation 3 from Davidson as being regarded as the biggest joke in the coaching profession. I'm willing to overlook the fact that Davidson missed."

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KU's English Department recently courted (and lost) an academic superstar who gave a stirring lecture on what he called "remix culture," a loosening of our arguably too-strict standards regarding plagiarism and source documentation that might allow more of a sense of freedom into writing. David Shields' new work, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, also addresses these ideas. The book consists of "618 numbered paragraphs, more than half of them drawn from other sources, attributed only at the end of the book" (NY-Times). The NY-Times nicely summarizes Shields' argument:


"There is an artistic movement brewing, Shields writes. Among its hallmarks are the incorporation of “seemingly unprocessed” material; “randomness, openness to accident and serendipity; . . . criticism as autobiography; self-reflexivity; . . . a blurring (to the point of invisibility) of any distinction between fiction and nonfiction.”...Reality is a landscape that includes unreal features; being true to reality involves a certain amount of wavering between real and unreal. Likewise originality, if there can ever be any such thing, will inevitably entail a quantity of borrowing, conscious and otherwise."


What do the boys think?

Richard: "Call me Ishmael."

Chip: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."