Blogger roundtable: Enough about you, let's talk about me.

It's Every Day Should Be Saturday's turn at the wheel of the semi-regular blogger roundtable, and their questions offer a perfect opportunity for the kind of self-indulgence that every blogger secretly craves. Giddyup:

1. Education. List the region of the country you were born in, what universities you attended and at least one other you would have attended if your alma mater didn't exist.

I was born in the Southeast -- specifically, Roanoke, Virginia -- and have lived in that region all my life. As probably the whole world now knows, I went to the University of Georgia; which school I would've gone to had UGA not existed kinda depends. At the time, it probably would've been the University of Missouri, but I was also looking at the University of Texas -- and given that I now have a much greater appreciation for the quality of the female population of Austin, and that I could now be rubbing "National Champs, bitch!" in the faces of everyone I know, if I'm being granted the benefit of hindsight here, I probably woulda gone to UT.


And so would you.

2. Sports Affiliations. List your top 10 favorite teams in all of sports in descending order. For instance, your alma mater's football team may be number 1, but perhaps there is a professional team that squeezes in before you get to your alma mater's lacrosse team.

1. Georgia football, naturally.
2. The Washington Redskins.
3. Virginia football.
4. UAB football.
5. The Atlanta Braves.
6. UAB basketball.
7. Atlanta Falcons.
8. Georgia gymnastics.
9. Georgia baseball.
10. Georgia basketball.

Just missed the top 10: Alabama football, the Washington Nationals, the Slovak national hockey team, the Atlanta Thrashers, and, of course, Duke lacrosse.

(And not that anyone asked, but the 10 teams I loathe the most, in ascending order of hatred: North Carolina basketball, Texas A&M football, Georgia Tech basketball, the Lakers, the Mets, Ohio State football, Florida football, the Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee football, and Georgia Tech football. Congrats, Techies!)


Reggie Ball, finally first at something besides incompletions. Bless his heart.

3. Movies. List the movie you've watched the most, your favorite sports related movie, the movie you secretly love but don't like to admit it (possibly a chick flick or B-film), and the movie you were (or still are) most looking forward to from this summer's season.

Movie I've watched the most: "Airplane!," no question.

My favorite sports-related movie: You know, it's been my experience that even the best-acted, engrossing, most lavishly produced sports movie still pales in comparison to the drama of an actual sporting event, and maybe for that reason, my favorite "sports movies" are generally those in which the sports part is secondary. My favorite, then, is probably "Jerry Maguire." Go ahead, make your jokes, but Sports Illustrated put it on their list of the "50 Greatest Sports Movies of All Time," so go take it up with them, awwright?


A wistful reminder of a more innocent time, before Tom Cruise went certifiably bat-shit insane.

Movie I secretly love but don't want to admit it: "Bring It On." And I don't want any commenters coming on here saying that they didn't actually like that movie; I will not have you making my blog a house of lies.

Most anticipated movie this summer: To the surprise of exactly no one, "Cars." Most anticipated movie yet to be released: Probably "Beerfest," just barely ahead of "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and, of course, "Snakes on a Plane."

4. Music. List your favorite band from middle school, high school, college and today. Also, as with the movies, include the song you secretly love but don't like to admit. If Nickelback is involved in any of these responses, please give a detailed explanation as to why, god, why.

Again, to the surprise of precisely nobody, my favorite band from all of those time periods has remained the same -- it's the Pet Shop Boys, dammit, and I refused to be ashamed of this, as either a music fan or a straight man. The song I secretly love but don't like to admit: Phil Collins' "Sussudio," bitches. (Interestingly enough, Wikipedia says that song was bumped from the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1985 by the runner-up answer for this question, Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill.")

5. Books. Favorite book you've finished, worst book you've finished and the book you really should read but haven't gotten around to it.

In order: The Secret History, by Donna Tartt; A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe; and the Bible.

6. Travel. Favorite city you've ever been to and the one place you still must visit before you shuffle off this mortal coil.

Favorite city I've ever been to: Probably London, though some of the best memories I have are from Heidelberg, Germany. (Home of one of the best Irish pubs I've ever been to. Yes, Irish pub. In Germany.) Place I have to visit before I die: Moscow.


Maria Sharapova welcomes you.

7. What do you love most about college football in 20 words or less?

It drives college-educated professionals and Ivy Leaguers just as crazy as rednecks and frat boys. It is the great equalizer.