The first speaker for WVU’s Festival of Ideas has been posted.

Arianna Huffington will speak this Friday at the Mountainlair at 7:30PM. She spoke here several years ago (you’ll have to search, since I wasn’t using blogging software at that point, so didn’t have permalinks) for the same series, and I thoroughly enjoyed her talk. She’s a very dynamic and vivacious speaker, so if you have the chance, you may want to take the time to hear her talk.

And hopefully we’ll have a better idea who else is speaking soon.

What is my “regional” accent?

Neutral.

This doesn’t come as a surprise at all. I can do a southern WV drawl when I’m drunk, and use y’all, but my dialect is neutral, and that comes from both my parents (eastern MD and western MD/Canada/Chicage & Air Force brat).

However, 1) Pittsburgh definitely has an accent all its own, and definitely does not belong in the “neutral” area. And 2) they’re right to tag northern WV as very different from the rest of the state–for more reasons than one. And Morgantown is different from the rest of the state, primarily because we draw in so many people from other parts of the country–and the world.

(via Stonekettle Station)

As if we didn’t already know it… the handful of Republicans in the state are apparently raving lunatics.

Huckabee wins WV Republican convention

I’m really starting to have come concerns about my state.

ADDENDUM the First:
Apparently, Huckebee won only because McCain and Paul supporters chose Huckabee to keep the delegates from going to Romney.

I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or not.

According to WAJR, the User Fee was overwhelmingly defeated today. (I haven’t found it anywhere else, and the Dominion Post website (like the paper) is worthless.)

I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Local roads are a mess, but traffic is not going to improve until we’re willing to spend the money to make the desperately needed changes.

I suppose that to some this may seem trivial, but I’ve grown up here, and the changes in traffic, especially over the past decade, are incredible, and it’s all due to the fact that Morgantown is a small town that never expected the traffic associated with 30k students. Our two lane roads simply cannot accommodate the number of cars trying to move through town every day, and despite attempts to improve things, the situation gets worse every year.

University and Beechurst have to be widened, as does the Mileground. Unfortunately, the longer we put off these projects, the worse the traffic gets, and the more horrific things will be during construction. Unfortunately, with the failure of the user fee, these renovation projects remain on the back burner, while traffic continues to back up, and trips that should take two minutes stretch out to 30.

It continues to astound me that every time a levy or bond issue comes up in Morgantown, it is soundly defeated. As if we can continue to function without better roads, without a new high school, without improved emergency facilities and vehicles.

Everyone loves to bitch about the traffic, but apparently no one wants to do anything about it.

West Virginia officials are wondering if assistant coaches aren’t all that Rich Rodriguez took with him to Michigan. They believe he may also have destroyed all or most of the paperwork files relating to every player on the current Mountaineer roster and virtually all of the activities conducted by the program over the past seven years.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

I think this is the worst of it:

Most disturbing, though, is the absence of all of the players’ personal files, which included, among other things, contact information, scholarship money awarded, class attendance records and records on personal conduct and community service, be it positive or negative.

Hopefully, all those who were the recipients of the player’s community service will step up and help provide at least that information.

I’ll end here because everything else I can think to add isn’t fit for polite company–or any company at all for that matter.

Here’s a very nice article on Bill Stewart from the Post Gazette.

I’m optimistic, although not overly optimistic. As we were saying this morning at work, we’ll need two years to see how he really does, but I am hoping this work out as well as the Fiesta Bowl, because the more I read, the more I like Bill Stewart.

Good!

And we’re off!

I liked the comment by one of the seniors (Reed Williams?) in the pre game.

Announcer: Do you prefer natural grass or artificial turf.
WVU Sr: I’m just glad there’s a surface. I’m from Moorefield, and we had a dirt field with a few strands of grass there.

8:40 – (sigh)

8:44 – Eric Wicks = Awesome

8:50 – ACK! Steve Slaton CAN’T have a hamstring pull! NOOOO!

8:51 – YAY Pat McAfee!

8:57 – WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Fantastic interception!

I have to say I’m liking Bill Stewart’s coaching so far. He’s stepped back to let the team take center stage, and seems to have a good rapport with the guys.

9:05 – Yay McAfee again!

9:25 – Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Play clean guys!

9:35- TOUCHDOWN! YES!

9:42 – Whew. I can’t believe they didn’t capitalize on that pass.

9:49 – YES! YES! YES! (happy dance)

10:37 – I can’t believe they didn’t call the blatant holding and facemasking! Jeesh! No wonder Johnny Dingle is upset!

10:54 – (sigh)

11:00 – DEVINE WITH THE TOUCHDOWN!

11:08 – DARIUS REYNAUD WITH THE TOUCHDOWN!

Can we keep Bill Stewart?

11:19 – Well, okay. I don’t really feel bad about that at all. It was a very nice pass. Don’t know why they keep trying the 2 point conversion. Our defense is HOT tonight.

11:23 – 79 YARD TOUCHDOWN PASS! Yay for Tito Gonzales!

11:35 – ENOUGH with the PENALTIES ALREADY!

11:42 – I can’t believe this. I’m in awe. I never expected us to do this well.

11:55 – I’m beginning to suspect one of the refs is a Sooner fan. Some of these calls…

12:01 – Man, Bradford has a hell of an arm. But I still like Pat White better.

12:08 – That’s a lot of hugging going on down there.

12:08 – WE WIN! WE WIN! WE WIN! Hurray for Bill Stewart!

It’s almost time!

Here’s hoping that Pat White can keep the team together.

LET’S GO MOUNTAINEERS!

Speaking of Rodriguez…

Today’s Word of the Day:

craven  \KRAY-vun\  adjective
: lacking the least bit of courage : contemptibly fainthearted

And now I am officially done with the topic of Rich Rodriguez.

Fuck you.

“I plan on being at West Virginia the rest of my career” my ass.

For those who are interested, Raging Red is doing a good job keeping up with the details of the Megan Williams case, especially the on going argument over whether Hate Crimes should be charged.

I haven’t been writing about it, because even the little I’ve heard about what happened to Megan Williams makes me feel physically ill, and to be blunt, I am simply incapable of processing that much awfulness right now.

But it profoundly distresses me that such behavior still occurs in this country and in this state, and whether the case is prosecuted as a hate crime or not, I sincerely hope that the six individuals who tortured Megan Williams rot in prison for the rest of their lives.

Kick off! Maryland fumble. WVU recovers…

TOUCHDOWN!

Here’s hoping the happiness continues. (And this is MUCH better than last week, when we lost radio reception at the end of the first quarter on the way to VA .)

ADDENDUM the First:
Boo.

ADDENDUM the Second:
Why are radio commercials so absolutely horrific?

(Yes, I know the game is on ESPN. I’m watching it with the sound off so I can listen to the radio instead.

ADDENDUM the Third:
Amusing quote from the color guy. “That’s why they’re called a receiver; they’re supposed to catch the ball.”

ADDENDUM the Fourth:
I think I prefer watching football when I don’t care who wins.

ADDENDUM the Fifth:
Yay Noel Devine! (Though Pat White is still my favorite.)