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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Some Random Thoughts about Iowa

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Waterloo, Iowa is a town with a population of about two-thirds of a full house at Beaver Stadium. It is subject to devastating floods when the Cedar River swells. I guess that’s why they call it Waterloo: water representing the floods and loo being British slang for toilet, which brings us to the Nittany Lions’ performance at their own Waterloo last Saturday night.

For those of you who attended public school and slept through it, Waterloo was the site of Napoleon Bonaparte’s final defeat. After the Grand Army got its butt kicked there by the British and the Prussians, Nappy abdicated his emperorship and retired. A couple of years later, he died.

But I digress.

The Nittany Lions came to their own Waterloo feeling pretty good about their chances. They were #4 and #5 in the big national polls. Just about everybody — including this Turkey — felt that they were ranked at least 10 positions too high. What had they accomplished this year, other than giving us doubts about whether the offensive line would ever be effective and reassuring us by beating three 30-point underdogs?

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Site Redesign

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As you might have noticed, The Nittany Turkey has changed cosmetically. Everything that was here before is still here; the contents are merely arranged differently. I needed an extra column to squeeze in all the stuff I want and I wanted an updated look that would not resemble about 30% of the hosted WordPress blogs out there using the same default theme as I had.

The old look was getting to be pretty stale. However, I’m still in love with the header I created for the old blog, which I’m trying to figure out how best to work into the new layout. In the meanwhile, you’ll have to put up with the plain text and no visible turkeys or Penn State logo items.

The featured photos on this page are all taken by me, including some from 45 years ago, when I was at Penn State. A different one should come up each time you refresh the page. Later on, I might crank a Flash slide show into that space, but for now, static pictures are what you get.

Please let me know if you encounter any problems with the new design.

You Gotta Have Heart

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Nate Mink of The Daily Collegian is getting pumped up for a pivotal game with Iowa but he wonders whether the Nittany Lions are similarly pumped. He seems to doubt it. So do I. From the beginning of this season, I’ve been saying that these guys are emotionless out there.

I’ve characterized the emotion level of this team as being like guys heading off for another day of work in the coal mine. I’ve been trying to figure out why that is the case. ????? ????? ??? ???? Is it because their coaches are telling them to be cool, to act like they’ve been in big games before? Is it because they take valium and beta-blockers before the game? Is it because they are aliens from the planet Alia, or perhaps, Vulcan?

How does one not get himself up for playing in a game in front of 110,000 crazed fans, all dressed in white, many of whom camped out in tents all week to see him play?

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