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Coveted T.A.H. invitation to the sometimes annual L.B.L. |
Once notified of this important date, we set about pondering, or as Jethro on the Beverly Hillbillies used to say “cogitating,” about this important event. Here’s what we came up with: It’s time for some change, some evolution if you will.
But first, some history.
Yes, T.A.H. was born on January 27, 2005 – you could look it up in Wikipedia to confirm, but we still don’t have a Wikipedia page. The first T.A.H. was an email to what we now fondly refer to as CC Nation. CC Nation was then, and is now, a hardcore group of men and women who are either alums or lifelong fans of various ACC schools. The list has expanded over the years, but like then, CC Nation understands all the inside jokes and the vagaries of not only the bar scene in College Park or Clemson but also the likes of Liverpalooza, the VP Kup and Hacks v. Hicks.
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The Mayflower of T.A.H., and, yes, it includes a factual error! |
Remarkably, even the Duke and Carolina folks are civil and Southernly polite for 362 days a year. Note we didn’t say 361 as that would suggest that he Duke v. UNC football game had the potential to draw ire from either fan base. Alas, most years, it does not.
So on that fateful day back in January of ’05, we sent the homies this email.
Fear the Hokies. (Following VT’s win over UVa)
Rumor has it that there is now a University of Virginia at Waynesboro and that is where Gillen and the Hoos will be held up until they deem it safe to return to Charlottesville after last night’s catastrophic and demoralizing defeat.
Who would have bet that on 1/27/2005 the Hokies (which lost to VMI earlier in the year) would be in fourth place in the ACC ahead of Maryland, GT, NC State, UVA and Clemson...OK, maybe ahead of Clemson who hasn't had an impact player since Tree Rollins (who is older than me! Clemson class of 1977)...
Rumor has it that there is now a University of Virginia at Waynesboro and that is where Gillen and the Hoos will be held up until they deem it safe to return to Charlottesville after last night’s catastrophic and demoralizing defeat.
Who would have bet that on 1/27/2005 the Hokies (which lost to VMI earlier in the year) would be in fourth place in the ACC ahead of Maryland, GT, NC State, UVA and Clemson...OK, maybe ahead of Clemson who hasn't had an impact player since Tree Rollins (who is older than me! Clemson class of 1977)...
Of course, like the guys who invented Facebook (maybe Zuckerberg, maybe those robot twin crew dudes) we didn’t realize how big it would become! Four days later, the second edition was published:
1. Fear the Turtle.
2. Hokies, welcome back to earth.
3. Hoos...ooohh, my. I believe the Hoos are in a very dark place. They barely put their hands up to defend themselves vs UNC. The score could have easily have been 140-73. Carolina's leading scorer for the year scores all of 5 points while Wahoos surrender 110 - ouch!
2. Hokies, welcome back to earth.
3. Hoos...ooohh, my. I believe the Hoos are in a very dark place. They barely put their hands up to defend themselves vs UNC. The score could have easily have been 140-73. Carolina's leading scorer for the year scores all of 5 points while Wahoos surrender 110 - ouch!
And finally, three days after that, the historic first T.A.H. that actually included headlines and the name T.A.H.:
Subj: Today’s ACC Headlines, Date: 2/3/2005
CAROLINA REMAINS ONLY ONE LOSS TEAM AFTER WAKE BEATS DUKE (AGAIN) -- Heels face stern test in Chapel Hill tonight - ESPN - 7pm, UNC slim 17 point favorite.
DUKE IN FOUL TROUBLE FORCED TO PLAY THREE WHITE GUYS, SUFFERS NARROW LOSS TO WAKE -- Krezlewkishikne&#!ki blames tsunami, McDonalds, increase in prime rate, Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson and Tom Brady.
GEORGIA TECH TOPS FSU BY LATE FIELD GOAL -- Bowden angry with officials, Clark still not sure it was a basketball game.
VIRGINIIA TECH BEATS MIAMI (AGAIN) -- Beamer's special teams somehow take credit for the win.
MEDIOCRE BIG EAST PROVIDENCE TIES NCAA RECORD FOR THREES WHILE HUMBLING HOOS -- Gillen fired, team disbands.
DR. JEKYL AND MR. CANTER-MEDLY LOSE TO STATE -- Currently no reason to fear small, armored reptiles.
So there it was, the fledging T.A.H. out of the nest and looking for stories, readers, sources of humor and, of course, the occasional free beer.
This evolved to include more and more email addresses as T.A.H. was passed around. It hardly went viral, but it did develop a loyal fan base. By and by, the email became a PDF file and eventually the web page you are reading right now. The PDF files included original headers almost every day – some of our finest work.

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John Paul Jones |
Then Bobby Bowden retires…dadgummit…and along with his departure a long (and successful in our humble opinion) run of jokes about dadbern and doggone football stuff. Speaking of FSU and eventually N.C. State then back to FSU as an assistant, how about Chuck Amato? Virtual cannon fodder for T.A.H. in so many ways…(Editor’s Note: Coach Amato, who was released by Florida State following the Noles 2010 bowl game, is suffering from throat cancer and, in all seriousness, we wish him well.)
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Editorial staff meeting of T.A.H. |
Coverage expanded to women’s basketball, baseball and lacrosse. Of course, there were always the old favorites on board – horse racing, cricket, motorcycle racing, relevant pop culture (if there really is such a thing) “Dear Mr. Snyder” and, of course, “Things That Make You Go…Hmmm.”
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Some Maryland dude punking Jon "Crazy Face" Scheyer. |
This somewhat organized chaos appealed to our journalistic sensibilities. However, as time has marched on and the scope of T.A.H. expanded again and again, we have discovered that our “old fashioned” approach was in need of change. Enter Darwin.
T.A.H. is a hobby. It earns the Editor and the Pop Culture Editor Young A.T. about enough money annually to cover one good bar bill (about $120 – so when you are stuck on the phone on that stupid conference call could you maybe click through ads on T.A.H. and pick up the staff and the beleaguered Research Department a couple of extra adult beverages? Can you do that in exchange for thousands of chuckles, guffaws and “oh wow, I didn’t know that”s over the past six years?)
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An exhausted "Toly Hansbrough" at a pee wee FYF game. |
So the challenge was how to reduce the amount of time it takes to publish T.A.H. The answer was simple and if you read it daily you have already seen the results of the change over the past ten days. Gone most days is the formatted start-to-finish edition of T.A.H. In its place is the NEW T.A.H. which functions more like a typical blog – items are published throughout the day in chronological order not in story importance order.
(For example, in a random phone call about some unrelated scheduling of a child’s activity, the Pop Culture Editor learned that Liz Taylor had died, she informed the Editor, we posted it on T.A.H. not 25 minutes after the crazy-on-the-hot-tin-roof drew her last perfumed and diamond encrusted breath. That’s some quality journalism there, yes? OK, we “borrowed” the actual words from CNN as another way to cut down on publishing time is to reduce original content and rewrite inferior stories from other so called “major” news sources. Hacks! All of ‘em…[just kidding]. Damn it, the Legal Department constantly reminds us not to incite those from which we plagurize…)
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Barry Bond's success explained. |
Real media web pages like ESPN, CNN, etc. still use the multi-content home pages, but the blogosphere utilizes the simpler approach.
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The VP Kup's black jacket goes to the winner while the Kaptains again demonstrate the sportsmanship that is the signature of the event. |
So if some days (not today) things look a bit different and somewhat disorganized, “don’t panic” (as Douglas Adams once so eloquently said in his classic book The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. You may have seen the bad movie. It was terrible, but the books are great. Go read them.)
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Nice spelling. |
P.S. The original point of this post was to note for the one billionth time in the blogsphere that the Big (L)East was, and is, and probably always will be, massively overrated…Go ACC!
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