Illini

I had the good fortune on Saturday to attend my 2nd consecutive Ohio State game. This time the tickets came from my sister and Dan and I made the road trip to Champaign.

Our seats were 12 rows up and there were easily as many Buckeyes fans there as Illinois fans. This made me proud of our people and their willingness to travel, but one thing that embarrassed me was how ignorant some of them were. Everyone knows that the big cheer for Ohio State is an O-H met with an I-O. For Illinois, their cheer is an I-L-L met with an I-N-I. This of course spells Illini, their mascot. But Dan and I heard our peers comment several times that their fans didn't even know how to spell, assuming that they were trying to spell out the name of their state. But at least they're loyal enough to make the road trip.

In the end, the Buckeyes won the game, though not as convincingly as some might have liked. The media is trying to paint it like they narrowly avoided an upset, which is not really accurate. They lead 17-o at halftime and played Tressel-ball for the 2nd half. Illinois started to play a little bit at the end but were never at a point where any of us were worried. At least not in the way that Ball State had Michigan worried. Besides, you can't really fault the players for not wanting to go all out and risk injuring themselves before the biggest game in the history of the universe.

More pictures are available in the gallery.

Great Day

I pretty bummed during the last few weeks because it seemed like everyone I knew was going to the Ohio State game this past Saturday except for me. Erin and her sister were going, Tim and Mary were coming down, Terby and Klaus had tickets, and I was destined to watch from my living room.

Then Fisher decided to come to town and we all went down to tailgate with Klaus's cousin Katie near the stadium. After a few hours of drinking other people's beer and eating other people's food we found ourselves hanging out in a pretty sweet RV, ready to watch the game while everyone else left for the horseshoe. Then Fisher pulled a Fisher and talked Katie and her boyfriend into selling us their student tickets. Before long we were down in the A-deck watching the Buckeyes shut out Minnesota with 100,000 of our closest friends.

I'm not sure if the highlight was watching the Golden Bear dot the I in Script Ohio or the fact that I got into the game using the ID of a girl who looks like this. Either way, it was a great day.

More pictures are available in the gallery.

Penny Prank

Always a fan of good pranks, I knew when Farasey sent me this one I'd have to post it.

"This girl that sits behind me hates pennies so while she was at lunch I emptied about 6 rolls of pennies on her desk and made sure none of them were touching. She was pissed but loved it at the same time. I came back to my desk and she was throwing them at my computer but she started laughing and I knew I won."

Poland Sprung

I recently posted Farasey's letter to Poland Spring regarding their lack of availability in the Chicagoland area. This was their response. The typo of his name is the best part.


Dear Brain,

Thank you very much for your nice words about Poland Spring. I agree, (no coincidence), that it's the best tasting water on Earth. The problem is, due to a very competitive market in bottled water, we primarily sell the product in the northeast. You see all of Poland Spring comes from Maine. It costs quite a bit on money to ship that heavy water very far. Because of that, we market a brand of water in the Mid-West called Ice Mountain, bottled in Michigan. It's our experience that people are only willing to pay so much for their water. This is the best system we have to stay competitive with the likes of Coke and Pepsi ( They market processed tap water, Dasani and Aquafina).

Because of the popularity of Poland Spring, we have a few outlets in Chicago that are willing to sell it at the higher cost. I will have someone get you a list of those accounts

so you don't have to drive to Ohio to find it. For starters, I think you can find Poland Spring at your nearest Whole Foods Market.

I appreciate your passion and loyalty for our products. Please look to hear some more from us shortly.

Regards,

Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Nestle Waters North America

Poland Spring

An open letter from Brain to the makers of Poland Spring...

To whom it may concern:

Sometime in the past five or six years I became an addict. It's one of those things you see happening to other people but never think it will happen to you. I try to keep myself under control and not spend money on things I don't need, but I’m addicted to Poland Spring water and there’s nothing I can do about it.

The only thing that's keeping my addiction from taking complete control of me is the fact that Poland Spring is close to impossible to find in Chicago. I've only discovered two establishments that continuously carry Poland Spring, a Sbarro downtown and a convenient store in Bucktown. Both places only carry pint bottles which aren't practical for the amount of water I like to consume in a given day. Instead I find myself buying eight to ten gallon jugs at CVS when I visit my parents in Cincinnati. Even that only lasts me a week or two then I have to drink bad tasting tap water which somehow tastes worse after it goes through my Brita.

My life would be much more enjoyable and healthier if I could have access to a constant supply of Poland Spring water. I'm not asking for free water or anything. I'm not a freeloader. I would just like to have access to my favorite water.

Many of my friends make fun of me because I have such a problem with Poland Spring. I often hear people saying, "Water is water" and "Why do you have to drink that water instead of other waters?” But I don’t have a good answer. I love the taste of Poland Spring and have since I was in college, but hate the fact that it’s almost impossible for me to get it where I live now.

I would like to see if there is any possible way I could start getting jugs of Poland Spring, just like the jugs I see on the NBC show "The Office." I'll even buy a water cooler and pay for the shipping of the bottles. I’ll do whatever it takes to drink Poland Spring as much as I can. I want my Poland Spring.

Please let me know if there is anything I can to do help this situation. If it's going to every CVS in the area and requesting that they start carrying Poland Spring. If there are other regular retailers in Chicago I would be happy to start frequenting those spots, but I need to know where they are.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I look forward to hearing back from you in the near future.


Sincerely,

Brian Farasey

The Tan Man

Apparently Matt Farasey, or Meether, has an alter ego in Cincinnati. He is the Tan Man. If you email Q102 and are convincing enough, you could have him crash your pool party with "ice cold drinks from Pepsi, sunscreen from Banana Boat, and lunch from Subway, Snyders Pretzels and Trauth Ice Cream."

Normally, if I just heard about it randomly and didn't know who the Tan Man personally, I would think something like this wasn't worth writing to them about. But the public has no idea that having Meether at your pool party is the best thing that could ever happen to you. Or your pool.

All Better

I have returned from the 10th Annual All Good and I must say that it was quite the experience. Drew and I met people from all over the country and had a great time. Pictures are up in the gallery.

All Good

Tonight I'm leaving for the weekend to meet Drew in West Virginia for the All Good Festival. It'll be like Bonnaroo except only 18,000 people instead of 80,000. We will be seeing a bunch of awesome musical acts with no overlap including The Black Crowes, Galactic, The Greyboy Allstars, Trey and Mike, Ween, Les Claypool, John Medeski, Disco Biscuits, Donavon Frankenreiter, Railroad Earth, and Mofro. Expect pictures next week.

Sorry for the lack of links in this post.

RIP Randy Walker

Northwestern head football coach Randy Walker died suddenly yesterday of an apparent heart attack at age 52. Before moving to Northwestern he was the head coach at Miami for 9 years. His daughter Abbey and her husband Brian are friends of mine, and my deepest sympathies go out to them and the rest of the Walker family. He was a great human being and his death is truly a tragedy.

Space513

There's an awesome new website for Cincinnati called Space513.com. Labeled as "your guide to Cincinnati's best restaurants, entertainment and attractions," it's definitely one of the best uses of flash I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that because Joe Patten did the music and the site was created by his sister and brother-in-law at Stanard Design Partners. Check it out.

Chicago Trip

I forgot to mention when the site came back up that pictures of the trip my fiancé and I took to Chicago to see Brian are now in the gallery. Enjoy.

Smilin' Will

Joey's band has a website. Their name is Smilin' Will. While I haven't heard them yet, George Pierson McDavis says they might be the best band in the world. And you can't argue with that.

Note: None of the band members are named Will.

Peeps is 27

This is just a shoutout to my man Joey, whose birthday is tomorrow. Have a good one echoba!

Back from Vegas

We have returned from Vegas in one piece. Lots of great memories and even more memories lost. Pictures are now up in the gallery.

Vegas Baby

I leave tonight for Tim's bachelor party in Las Vegas. I won't be posting anything until at least Tuesday, if I can open my eyes then. There are close to 20 of us going so it should be a blast. Insert random Swingers/Fear and Loathing/Ocean's 11 joke here.

Go Bucks

The Ohio State Buckeyes pulled off a win yesterday.
Even with the Michigan superfan rooting against them.

What are you writing?

Sorry, only a couple people will get that.

Hooray for Joey

I'm back from Joe and Dana's wedding. Pictures are available here.

Noseph

Joe, I will not post pictures of Ashley Judd. And I'm telling Dana.

Tell Me

Have you seen this boy?