So...Is It Time to Release the H-Word from Purgatory?

[76lsjumb]

There I was -- Tunnel 4, Row 55, Seat 15.  We were already ahead 7-0, and Wisconsin was facing third down on their first possession.  The sound level in our section was beginning to ramp up.

Then, from a few rows behind I hear someone bellow:  "Come on people, this is H.UGE!!!"  Naturally, having visited this Board more than a few times, I immediately cringed upon hearing the forbidden adjective.  However, after watching our guys respond to our cheering by shutting down Wisconsin and forcing a punt, I turned around to see from whence the [SUCCESSFUL!] exhortation had come.  Sure enough, smiling broadly [and brandishing what I believe may have been a Bud], there was ... Teejers!

If I understand it correctly, the H-word was banished as a result of the Texas game, which opened up the 1999 season [otherwise known as the last season to end up in the Rose Bowl before this year].  So, it seems a reasonable question to ask:  Have the demons been exorcised?

[BTW, if you think I'm making this up, I can at least prove, thanks to that gigapan website, that Teejers was, in fact, sitting a few rows behind me, and a few seats to the left of terry, I believe.]

[fullmetal]

ah!  if only teejers were here to make that case to yvonne...

[Leftcoast]

Paging Teejers ....... Paging Teejers ........ You have a call on the special Cardboard hotline.

(Last active on Dec 29, 2012 so we haven't heard from him since the epic Rose Bowl win.)

[terry]

BTW, if you think I'm making this up, I can at least prove, thanks to that gigapan website, that Teejers was, in fact, sitting a few rows behind me, and a few seats to the left of terry, I believe.

Yep, that was Teejers, and that was me a few seats away in the same row. You should have introduced yourself!

[teejers1]

As Terry noted, that was I behind you, reminding all in the area that Wiscy's first third-down play was, in fact, h.uge!

Other comments on various threads:

1.  Garvin, please get the quote right to the emcee at the dueling piano bar in Austin.  My response to his questioning demanding an explanation for Stanford after the Annihilation in Austin was very succinct:  "The refs f%^&ed us!"

2.  JeffInCorvalis, great photo!

3.  Rose Bowl was tremendous.  Sorry to have missed the Cardboard gathering, but no one (especially garvin) would have wanted three elementary school-aged kids interrupting the festivities, so we ended up doing dinner with some law school friends in Pasadena.

4.  Hope everyone is having a good 2013, and here's to a return BCS trip in 2014!

[garvin]

no one (especially garvin) would have wanted three elementary school-aged kids interrupting the festivities

Amusingly, at a post-game dinner with Oasis and me, Lefty explained that he would have come to earlier CardBoard gatherings but was afraid his then-small children would be subject to various of the imaginative sanctions I have suggested over the years for unruly kids at Stanford games. (Mrs. Lefty perhaps lurks this board, for she also seemed remarkably familiar with my child-rearing theories.) Let the record show that the various Lefty Juniors and Leftyettes were witty, charming, and resolutely anti-Wisconsin, and their presence was a huuuuge plus.

As long as we are lifting sanctions, I hereby revoke all previous negative commentary on Mrs. GoodGrief, who I previously accused of negatively impacting GoodGrief's life by causing him to miss the CardBoard's Orange Bowl meeting with her unreasonable demand for a honeymoon at a non-Stanford-football site. She and GoodGrief stopped by our seats to say hello to pefloresjr and me before the game. She's very sweet and sufficiently gorgeous to get Brent Musburger fired. I think we should expel GoodGrief, who hasn't punched anybody in the nose in ages, and give her his CardBoard seat.

Finally, no rehabilitation for the H-word. It will take centuries to detoxify.

[FarmBoy]

Finally, no rehabilitation for the H-word. It will take centuries to detoxify.

Is the outcome of one non-conference game from 1999 that important that all traces of bad ju-ju need to be eliminated? We went to the Rose Bowl that year, for God's sakes. Who's to say that the use of the word "h.uge" prior to the game wasn't the butterfly wing flapping that set off the course of events leading to ending the 30 year drought?

OT, I was looking on the gostanford.com archives and noticed on the 1999 season results a mention of a game "at Tacoma" on June 2. What the heck does that refer to? (http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-footb...00aab.html)

[jayasena]

Wait, I thought the embargo on the H-word was already lifted. I could have sworn I saw it appear unmolested a while ago. Maybe the poster employed "black" magic to pass the word through the filter.

Testing: of immense proportions

EDIT: looks like it's good to go. This is of immense proportions!!

[Extra Point]

I always thought the embargo on of immense proportions was a bit too much. There is no way that fans can affect the outcome of football games by the verbiage they use on a bulletin board.

[76lsjumb]

Wait, I thought the embargo on the H-word was already lifted. I could have sworn I saw it appear unmolested a while ago. Maybe the poster employed "black" magic to pass the word through the filter.

Testing: of immense proportions

EDIT: looks like it's good to go. This is of immense proportions!!

Wow!  Especially after garvin's post this a.m., I was all set to put the H-word back in the file along with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens...  I figured I'd try again after we won the 2113 Rose Bowl.  This is, indeed, ...of immense proportions.

[garvin]

There is no way that fans can affect the outcome of football games by the verbiage they use on a bulletin board.

So, EP, you're part of the War on Science? Not to mention morality. The H-word should be waterboarded, cattle-prodded and whipped bloody for what it did. And whatever fool persuaded the software to let it back in should get the same.

[CowboyIndian]

I figured I'd try again after we won the 2113 Rose Bowl. 

What's your secret?

[76lsjumb]

Yep, that was Teejers, and that was me a few seats away in the same row. You should have introduced yourself!

Terry -- I would have, but I was spending most of the non-cheering time re-introducing myself to my family.  I was the guy in the LSJUMB uniform, and, for about 16 hours over the prior two days I had been at Band practices so I could -- roughly 35 years later -- finally get my chance to march in the Rose Parade. 

Having attended Stanford immediately AFTER the Ralston Rose Bowls, and having been unable to work out the logistics to march with the Band in 2000, I finally got my chance this year.  For anyone who has ever put on spats and a shako, and been forced to endure countless Hal Leonard arrangements, in a high school marching band -- even those of us who later had the privilege of marching [sic] with the LSJUMB in college -- doing the Rose Parade is sort of like climbing Everest [or, at least, playing St. Andrews].  But, this was no simple "show up at 4:30 am on New Year's Day in Pasadena and you can play" gig.  I can attest, as a percipient witness, that the Band's practice schedule over the prior two days was anything but leisurely -- it takes a lot of work to look chaotic!  In any event, since I didn't do the field shows [honestly, I wanted to see the game and the tickets we had were too good to pass up], the game was about the first time since very early on Sunday morning I had seen my family for any extended period.  Unfortunately, of course, that also meant I had to miss the CardBoard gathering...which I fully intend to be at for the NCG next year.

By the way, for those who weren't able to quite make out the Band's pre-game formations -- or, if you just want to see an awesome shot of the B-2 flyover [assuming it's not photoshopped] -- this link has photos taken by a guy with non-obstructed view seats...in a Cessna:


http://www.markholtzman.com/Sports/Footb...&lb=1&s=XL

[jayasena]

The H-word should be waterboarded, cattle-prodded and whipped bloody for what it did. And whatever fool persuaded the software to let it back in should get the same.

But... but... maybe we have this all wrong. Maybe of immense proportions is our lucky charm.

Think about it -- the last time it was uttered on this board, we went to the Rose Bowl (the Texas game was probably a test of faith... in an inconsequential OOC game to boot). Then the word was banned and we got Buddy, Wlat and a decade+ long Rose Bowl winter. Even when we had success, we ended up in other BCS bowls but not the Rose. Surely, the sequence of events that locked us out of the Rose in 2011 (when the Rose committee clearly would have loved to have us there) could not have been coincidence.

of immense proportions comes off the blocked list earlier this season and voila! We are back in the Rose.

BTW, notice Yvonne's silence on this? I think she has been enlightened and silently released "of immense proportions" from purgatory but wasn't ready to say anything about it until we non-believers were ready to believe the evidence.

I say we ensure "of immense proportions" appears as often as we can on the board. Maybe auto-replace "the" with "of immense proportions". Then we might go to the Rose Bowl every year!

[Extra Point]

"So, EP, you're part of the War on Science? Not to mention morality. The H-word should be waterboarded, cattle-prodded and whipped bloody for what it did. And whatever fool persuaded the software to let it back in should get the same."

I guess I never saw the scientific evidence proving that games were lost because someone thought they were of immense proportions. I always thought the major factors contributing to failure were Wlat Harris and Buddy Tevens.

[yvonne]

In a season coached by TWillingham? Now, that's an interesting take.

[Extra Point]

"In a season coached by TWillingham? Now, that's an interesting take."

I guess I don't know the "of immense proportions" history here. Can you explain what happened Yvonne?

[garvin]

The H-word was insanely overused by teejers in every single post he made during the three months leading up to the Stanford-Texas game in 1999. The result was a 69-17 Stanford loss. That's when the H-word was banned. Those posters arguing that the loss of the Rose Bowl and the hiring of Bud.dy and Idiotface were triggered by the ban on the H-word have it backward. The universe did all that stuff to punish us for not banning it quickly enough.

Now we've trifled with the forces of nature again, and the first result is a Stanford basketball loss to U.S.C., not merely one of the worst teams in the conference but one of the worst teams in the country. Once again we have unleashed Frankenstein. Teejers doesn't care; he's a lawyer, catastrophe, tragedy and desolation are all that give his life purpose. But this is a terrible indictment of the actual humans on the board. The software was all that was standing between us and End Times. The rest is silence but for the anguished shrieks of the damned.

[Leftcoast]

But this is a terrible indictment of the actual humans on the board. The software was all that was standing between us and End Times. The rest is silence but for the anguished shrieks of the damned.

Don't care.  I spit in the face of the looming apocalypse and will endure the plagues that mark the end times.  Rivers of blood, locusts and  the dead coming back to life have no hold over me.  I've been waiting to do this for 12 years and nothing is going to stop me.

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Ah .... now I feel of extremely large proportions better.

[GoodGrief]

no one (especially garvin) would have wanted three elementary school-aged kids interrupting the festivities

As long as we are lifting sanctions, I hereby revoke all previous negative commentary on Mrs. Good Grief, who I previously accused of negatively impacting Good Grief's life by causing him to miss the CardBoard's Orange Bowl meeting with her unreasonable demand for a honeymoon at a non-Stanford-football site. She and Good Grief stopped by our seats to say hello to pefloresjr and me before the game. She's very sweet and sufficiently gorgeous to get Brent Musburger fired. I think we should expel Good Grief, who hasn't punched anybody in the nose in ages, and give her his CardBoard seat.

Finally, no rehabilitation for the H-word. It will take centuries to detoxify.

Ahh, thank you Garvin for the fine compliment to Mrs. GoodGrief and also for lifting me from double-secret probation. And in Mrs. GoodGrief's defense, we did schedule our honeymoon to be back in the country for the BCS National Championship Game in case Stanford was playing in it. And if she did take over my CardBoard seat, she wouldn't miss a beat: she loves Stanford Football, hates Notre Dame, and despises USC. That's my woman!