The Rest

It gets dark so damn early now. Not like winter, when the short days and standard time combine to give you that depressing pitch-darkness at 5 p.m. That's just depressing. We're not nearly there yet.

But I brought a football to my friend Justin's place last Sunday, figuring we could chuck it around after the 4 o'clock games ended. I hadn't yet noticed that it is now too dark to throw a football outdoors at 7:15 p.m. That's a bummer.

So is trying to cook in the dark. I live to grill, but we don't have lights in our yard, so dinner gets cooked in the dark. My wife's flashlight appears not to have been used in a while. I changed the batteries, but that sucker is weak. But it all worked out. They're turkey burgers, anyway. Left over from Monday night's tailgate at the U2 concert in Foxborough. Nittany Wife doesn't eat red meat, so I've gotten used to subbing turkey for beef. It's not so bad. Actually, was craving fried chicken tonight, but the only thing worse than wasting money is wasting food, so out of the freezer the turkey burgers came. And there was bacon in there, too. Turkey burgers cooked on a charcoal fire and covered with cheddar and bacon are actually pretty damned good.

And here's the bright side (literally) of grilling in the dark: the charcoal fire looks positively bad-ass in the dark, especially as flames pour out of a chimney starter and the metal sides of that baby glow red.

Speaking of U2: Monday night's show was my first U2 show. I bought the tickets for the wife, who likes U2 a lot more than I do (I think they're really good, but really overrated, too), but also calls Snow Patrol, which opened up, her favorite band. Those Irish lads acquitted themselves quite well Monday night -- their last night on the tour. Of all the people I know who went to one of the two Foxborough shows, none really knew Snow Patrol, but all were impressed. I don't love them. I'm a fan by marriage. But I was happy for them. They're talented and very good.

And speaking of grilling, I think I'll be in tailgate heaven next weekend. I'll be heading with some friends to Kansas City for the Giants-Chiefs game. Arrowhead Stadium is reputed to be the pinnacle of the tailgate. I don't see how it could be better than Giants Stadium, but I'm keeping an open mind.

Anyway, it won't be about the gameday tailgate. It's all about the American Royal Barbecue competition. I'm hoping my new status as an official NFL blogger gets me and the boys in the trenches with one of the barbecue teams. I WILL cover this with the respect it deserves.

And, by the way -- the word is spelled "B-A-R-B-E-C-U-E." Just becauses "BBQ" is an acceptable abbreviation does not make "barbeque" an acceptable spelling. It's not. It's barbecue. My position on this matter shall be considered inflexible.

As for the Giants, tomorrow will be the first time I will have to travel to a sports bar to see them -- and hope that said sports bar will show the game with the stupid Patriots playing at the same time. I'm supposed to cover the game for the blog, and I won't be able to see it at home because I don't have Sunday Ticket. It's going to be an annoying enterprise. Thank goodness the Giants have three crappy opponents coming up, because they are awfully banged-up, especially on defense.

CRAPPY COMMERCIALS

Nothing could be worse than those "money you could be saving by switching to Geico commercials," but these Dennis Leary Ford truck commercials are pretty close -- not because of Dennis Leary. Dennis Leary is great. Because all they are are Dennis Leary talking about trucks -- and not saying anything interesting -- while all his words appear on the screen around pictures of Ford trucks. One of the most annoying things in the world is having someone read to you. You know, as an adult. If you're still 5 years old, it's kind of nice having your mom or dad read you a story. If you're 36, you don't need Dennis Leary reading you a script about Ford trucks that you can read yourself.

SYRACUSE FOOTBALL REVISITED -- WITH GRAMMAR LESSON

I decided tonight that Twitter is not for me, but I did follow the Syracuse-Maine game on Twitter, and the Orange is now ahead 41-17. So we don't have to spend the week shaking our heads that we can't even get an easy win against a Division I-AA team. But clearly we have a long way to go. Well, we know that. But it's even longer.

"The Orange is ahead? Hey Phil, don't you mean the Orange are ahead? They're a team. That's plural, right?"

Could be. The English use plural pronouns and verb forms in all instance when referring to teams, bands and other organizations. "Chelsea have a match with Arsenal this weekend." "Cream are reuniting for a tour." They're consistent.

Americans are not. They outsmart themselves. They'll say things like, "The Orange have to play better." But they would never say, "Syracuse have to play better." They'd use "has." This makes no sense. Both of those nouns are singular, and both refer to the exact same thing -- a football team. That could be seen as singular -- it's a team, a thing -- or plural -- it's 80 players. But it appears we're not smart enough to decide which, because you'll hear grammatical disasters during sports reports: "Notre Dame loses their first game of the year." So Notre Dame is both singular ("loses") and plural ("their") in the same sentence.

Sports Illustrated for years has applied a policy of treating teams with collectively singular nicknames (Orange, Cardinal, Heat, etc.) as singular. The Syracuse newspapers have done the same since Chancellor Nancy Cantor pissed on the heads of SU alumni by deciding that our beloved Orangemen were now "The Orange." Both, however, are a little lax in their enforcement of this policy. SI, in particular, does a good job of editing its feature stories but is loaded with errors in its "departments." Maybe I'm just anal, but it's a little disappointing.

NIGHT COLLEGE SCORES

Syracuse gives up a late touchdown -- would like to see the Maine necks stepped on a little harder -- but wins 41-24. I'll take it but would have preferred it not be so nerve-wracking for so long. Just a reminder that we're not that far removed yet from being the team that's been one of the worst in the nation the last four years. Are we headed in the right direction? Absolutely. But it's going to take a lot of time. More than one season.

Ditto for St. Anselm. They're not going to get pushed around by anyone but the best teams in the league anymore, but I hoped we'd see them at least slow down Merrimack today. Didn't happen. Couldn't stop the run at all, and couldn't match the offensive output. Nothing much more to say.

Meanwhile I think I'd better hide anything in the house that's black and yellow, lest the wife light it on fire. Penn State is spitting the bit against the Hawkeyes for the second straight year, this time at home. I've got my own problems, and this isn't one of them. Were I a Penn State fan, however, I'd be eating broken glass right now. They're giving this game away.

That's enough for tonight.