Goodbye, Mulcahy! F.U., R.U. Football.

loving the Top Chef contestants...really interesting personalities this time.
Ariane (JERSEY!)
I love *watching* Carla, because she's such an amazing spazz...puts *me* to shame. (she talked about yelling "hoodie-hoodie-hoo" to her husband to find each other in public places in the ep i just watched. how cute is that?)
and the egotistical europeans...looove Stephan and Fabio...and Gene is so cute.

recently saw "Evan Almighty" with Steve Carell, and "Premonition" with Sandra Bullock..i would like four hours of my life back, please. bad bad bad.

in other outstanding news, the blinker on my car is going super-fast...doesn't that mean it's going to die soon? great! 'cause I just replaced a headlight last week.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gHzzqUVZMF8L5hi2CiAJfiB4QEAwD950QO2O4
AND, as I was on my way home from working late and listening to the absolute retards on NJ101.5's evening show in order to find out the traffic/weather (pls god let there be a delay tomorrow), I found out that Robert Mulcahy (former head of the Meadowlands) has been fired from Rutgers' Scarlet Knights. Great! I hope the whole damn football program topples. I wish I could congratulate Professor Dowling and say that it is due to his efforts to retain academia at a state college, but I think it's more due to the fact that RU has NO money with the economy being how it is (how much $$ is NJ in the hole for now?) and the Board of Governor's eyes are made of dollar-signsand they simply can't support the football program any more at the expense of academics...it's gotten to such a ludicrous state of affairs that they finally got in major trouble. they just need $ now, and have to respond to the very high-profile report that came out in November (see below link). Maybe McCormick will get the axe too?

"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Robert E. Mulcahy said he was fired as Rutgers athletic director after refusing a request by university president Richard L. McCormick to resign. Mulcahy said he did not try to talk McCormick out of his decision after the president said the university was looking to go in a different direction with its athletic department.The firing, which will be effective on Dec. 31, came less than a month after an independent committee appointed to review the university's athletic program criticized Mulcahy, McCormick and other officials for failing to exercise proper oversight.The 72-year-old Mulcahy, who will have to be paid the remaining 1 1/2 years on his contract, has been one of the driving forces behind the Rutgers football team's rise from one of the nation's least successful programs to one that has qualified for bowl games in four consecutive seasons."

(Poor Bob, considering his *base* salary is more than $400,000, not counting bonuses and whatnot. that's an awful nice farewell.)

NYT editorial "The Rutgers Mess" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/opinion/24mon4.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=rutgers&st=cse&o

Now if they'd only cut Greg Schiano...(for the 2009 season, he's supposed to get $1 mill. guaranteed salary. at a *state* university).

Here's the NYT article on the report that got Mulcahy fired:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/sports/ncaafootball/20rutgers.html?_r=1&ref=ncaafootball

"The committee’s conclusions came several months after The Star-Ledger of Newark published articles reporting that Schiano received an extra $250,000 a year from a sports marketing firm that had employed Mulcahy’s son, and that the State Legislature directed $2.25 million over four years to the athletic department."

On August 26, 2008, BOG member George Zoffinger wrote an op-ed in the Bergen Record that made, among others, the following points: (1) the decision to raise Rutgers tuition to unprecedented levels at a time when the university is pouring tens of millions of dollars into "professionalized" college sports is unconscionable ("we must," wrote Mr. Zoffinger, "strive to keep Rutgers affordable"), (2) the expenditure of over $100 million dollars for a stadium expansion with luxury seats and corporate skyboxes at a time when the university has been hit with $64 million in budget cuts is indefensible, and (3) the decision to cut six teams in participatory athletics so as to pay Mulcahy's football coach, Gregory Schiano, $2 million a year is outrageous ("The decision to cut funding for six Olympic sports at the university was based on erroneous assumptions and should be reversed.")

More on the entire issue here: www.ru1000.com