Stupid Stuff that Ohio State Does

I'm a Buckeye.  I was born in Columbus Ohio at Mount Caramel by an OSU alumni doctor, to an OSU alumni father.  I grew up 25 minutes from the 'Shoe.  I lamented during the Cooper and O'Brien years, and celebrated when the two saviors arrived to deliver us.  I was thirteen when we beat Miami in 2002 for the National Championship, I made a mug in art class embossed with '14-0' in honor of the feat.  Now I attend The Disney World of major land grant research institutions and I could not be more smitten.  I only applied to one school, I made marching band my freshman year and I will never look back.

The bottom line is this: I LOVE THE Ohio State University.  Love it.

But, I'm not going to praise it any more in this article.  And for good reason, we just won B1G TEN titles in both Men's and Women's basketball, received a 100 million dollar donation to make our medical center even more dominant and it's about to spring, and nothing beats springtime on the oval.

Okay, that was praise, but now I'm really done.

This morning, as with most weekday mornings, I read The Lantern.  Normally I like reading it.  Interesting articles and fine pictures are normally contained within it's pages.  And normally the stance of the writers sympathizes with students and takes a student perspective (duh, it's written by students).  I like this, I like reading the opinions, sometimes, and the sports page.  It's not the best but I like it.  I'm thinking of submitted a guest opinion article even.

This morning, however, there was something I really, really didn't like.

Quick side note:  This is my blog and so I want it to reflect my personal writing style and voice, therefore when I use the term 'gay', I'm referring to something that is poorly done, overly hyped or apparently hastily thought out.  Generally, a cop-out.  A good and somewhat hilariously contradictory (I will refrain from using "ironic" because I'm trying to boycott the word, because no one, including me, knows how to use it properly) example of something i think is gay is the commercial with Wanda Sykes saying "When you say 'gay' do you realize what you say? Knock it off!".  Who cares?  Gay is gay, if I want to refer to a homosexual person I normally call them a homosexual person, and I don't hate anyone.  So just don't be offended.

From The Lantern article on 2/7/2011 here

Ohio State can get really gay sometimes.  What I'm referring to in this post is the replacement of the highly anticipated 'Selection Sunday Jump' with a "viewing party at the Schott" that would be "catered with prizes, giveaways, a big screen and possibly a half-court shot for free tuition or something...".  Wow.  It's gay, that's all you can say about it.  Why does the university think we can be satiated with big screens and cheap prizes? Who thinks that's fun.  If they really want to replace the Olentangy River jump, provide us with beer and let us do what we do.  I think it's super gay the stuff they think we think is fun.  We're not in first grade, we're all adults, we don't want a clown and a moon bounce, we don't want to sit and watch the selection on a big screen after we wait in line for a piece of pizza and a Dixie cup of Coke products.

Ohio Union opening day

Don't get me wrong, free pizza is great because it's free.  Free stuff is great, and hanging out with a bunch of people who are all excited about OSU bastketball is also a fine thing.  But let us have our dangerous fun!  Everyone is so afraid of what could happen that we're missing out on starting a major tradition.  If you ask a student if they have a fonder memory of the Union opening day than they have of their first Mirror Lake jump, I'm sure you'll hear more responses involving the latter.  What memories were not deleted by Captain Morgan are some of the most vivid from my Freshman year.  The opening of the new Ohio Union, however, are of immense crowds, architectural protesters and general disappointment.  Maybe I'm one of the only people that has a bad taste from the hypocrisy of the Union, but the opening will forever be the pinnacle of gayness for me.

Recently some other gay stuff has happened.  The opening of 'the lounge' in the RPAC, for one.  Why the hell does it need to be called 'The Lounge'?  It's just confusing! Why can't we just call it the rec room, or 'that room with the pool tables and the xbox and stuff'?  Worst of all they devoted an entire day, complete with T-shirts and all kinds of gimmicky attractions.  It was really gay.

I know this is from the Spring Game, and it was
for a good cause, but just look at it...

The scoreboard at Ohio Stadium on game day.  It has gone out of control in gayness.  Bobble head races, puppets waving, Brutus heads with block 'O's coming out of its mouth.  It's so so so so so stupid!  Just show the replays and stuff people want to see!  We have the band and cheerleaders to play songs and lead cheers, and it's not like the 80 year olds are going to cheer along.  It doesn't matter who we're playing, they just want to sit down with their little butt pads and watch the game.  That, however, is not gay.  That's just what old people are supposed to do.

Even Tressel is
embarassed.

That is getting to the root of the argument here.  Things should be the way they're supposed to be.  That is probably the most subjective statement out there, because everyone has an idea of how something should be, but that in itself is how it should be.

Everyone has differing opinions of what is fun, and if a group of students think jumping into a freezing, dangerous and outright disgusting shallow river to 'show support' for the basketball team, what gives a group of middle aged alumni who can't cut the cord from college the right to change their collective minds for them and not allow it?  I say sack up and do it, get arrested, do your time and be a martyr.  That is the college students way in the world, and we should not stand by while it's snuffed out by old losers.