The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Home 2007 Archives for July 2007

Archives for July 2007

So, It’s All About TV Revenue in the Big Ten

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Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has made it clear that the Big Ten would be looking for a 12th member over the next year, to pump up the revenues of the fledgling Big Ten Network (BTN). A 12-team league, which could be organized into two divisions with a playoff game for the championship, would add a major TV market and one more big game, and that means big bucks.

Never mind that the existing 12 game schedule is already onerous for the players, some of whom actually do have to save time for academics. Nah, it’s all about the money. Why kid ourselves about academics not taking a back seat?

Hey, we’re not far from paying players to compete. With these sorts of big money machinations going on at the conference level, why bother with the charade about the players being amateur athletes? Might as well cut them some million dollar contracts and stop taking advantage of their indentured servitude.

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The Turkey Returns

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It’s hard to keep an old bird down. This particular Turkey, having endured a pain in the neck that threatened to do some more serious damage, had the surgery needed to ensure facile typing fingers and restored sarcasm. I entered the hospital on July 10 and left on July 16. Now, I’ll be in a neck brace for 12 weeks.

The surgery itself was a triple discectomy in the cervical spine, followed by bone grafts and fusion of four vertebrae with titanium plates and screws.

There was never much pain, but I spent some extra time in the hospital because of a secondary infection of unidentified origin, which was treated aggressively with Vancomycin IV twice a day.

Now, I’m back home and bored. You see, there are some severe restrictions on my activities. It should be obvious that with a neck brace in place, I won’t be able to drive for the whole 12 weeks. Also, I can’t lift objects greater than 5 lbs. I can’t stoop or kneel. Just shoot me, already!

What I can do is walk and work, which should get me through this. Walking is my favorite form of exercise, anyway, and I should be capable of working several hours a day from my home office, which will stave off the boredom.

Furthermore, I can use the convalescence period as a good excuse to get a new, big screen HDTV for the family room just in time for football season!

The Turkey Takes a Break

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I’ll be having major surgery on Tuesday, July 10. In the meanwhile, I’m going to be pretty busy getting things in order, so I thought I would take this opportunity to let my vast readership, both of you, know that I’ll be taking a break from writing this drivel.

People have asked me if I’ll be taking a laptop to the hospital to alleviate the boredom. Just what I’d need—refereeing chat room fights from my sickbed. No, I won’t be doing that. I’m expected to be in the hospital 3–5 days, and I shall see how much strength I have to get along without the electronic tether. I’ll have my cell phone, but at least there’ll be actual talking human beings on the other end of it. Besides, they don’t have Wi-Fi at the hospital, just dial-up.

Awwww, hell, I think I’ll take a computer. At least I can play DVDs on it. I’ll be bored, so I could answer some email while I’m at it. And, aw, what the hell, maybe I could get some work done. And maybe I’ll write some stuff for The Turkey. Yeah! Why the hell not?

One way or the other, I wish you folks a happy week or two and a great celebration of our nation’s independence from the Limeys. Ciao, for now.