Somehow he'll still manage to get pictures.





I don't believe I ever flat out named the university that appeared in "The Second Time Around", although many aspects of it were lifted straight from my first meeting with Cheryl there. I probably did mention Vizh rooting for U of M's football team in those early stories watching television with Yo though. Considering that we've established that half of the cast went to the same university as Vizh (Al, Muffy, Helen MacAllistair) we don't need to pin it down as Michigan now unless you really care to play off of it.

The University of Michigan teams (and alumni) go by the nickname Wolverines (as Michigan is oddly enough the "wolverine state" despite it being fairly dubious that wolverines were ever particularly numerous here.) To tie in to the little exchange with Jason down the board, the school's colors are blue and gold (maize and blue, to be specific) and in a remarkable coincidence (according to Len Wein) since the 1930's the team's iconic football helmets have featured a stylized wing shape design suggestively similar to a certain Canadian mutant's mask. In football, the school has an epic rivalry with the Ohio State Buckeyes. (On a side note, both of Cheryl's parents were Buckeyes, which made for some interesting dinner conversations around the big game. Lisa also briefly attended Ohio State before coming to her senses.)

It's pretty much the classic American university, and one of the few that ranks in the top 20 in the world in academics while being one of the top schools in the country in athletics as well. It's well known for it's graduate and research programs. My dorm was just a block away from the Pheonix Medical and Research Nuclear Reactor, but despite having just about as many safety protocols as the labs at Peter Parker's Empire State, I never developed any super-powers after my visits there. I did get a little queasy staring down into the glowing core, however, and plenty of people lost their pens and sunglasses and stuff by leaning too far over the railing to get a look... so there may be a collection of super-irradiated writing utensils somewhere on campus still.

Other alumni (besides myself and Sally) include President Gerald Ford, James Earl Jones, Arthur Miller, Lawrence Kasdan, Lucy Liu (she graduated when I was a freshman, so I probably never really had a chance with her), the "Unibomber" Ted Kaczynski, the entire crew of Apollo 15 (who placed a placard establishing the first lunar chapter of the alumni society on the moon) and a slew of others. It's a colorful bunch.

Madonna went to both my high school and U of M, but she never earned her degree... so I like to think I'm ahead of her in that regard.





Ah... yes, that seems like an easier sell for him.





I have no idea. Kirk seems to pop in in the middle of the week when there's something to comment on. I'm not sure where Jay's at this week.