Go Great Danes!

The nation's number one party school back in the late 90s has worked its way up in the world of college basketball, and the city is lovin' it. History is made everyday!

But since Albany is playing Conn in the first game of the Big Dance, there's not much hope...c'mon, I'm just being realistic! And since the other two teams for which I should technically show allegiance didn't even get asked to the dance (Rutgers and NU), I'm going orange, JUST for basketball. One quarter of my family are Illini--it's in the blood.

Anyhow, that isn't even the point of my entry on this rainy, dreary, lame afternoon in Upstate New York. The gloom is penetrated by the exciting and historical prospect of the Danes in Philadelphia--which spurred a drunken and inhibitionless St. Patrick's Day celebration downtown.

Just ask my buddy Chuck, NY's senior senator--with whom I've had two run-ins in the last three days. Chuck proudly revealed at his press conference this morning the identity of Little D, the Great Danes' mascot--who marched with him the two miles down Central Ave. on Saturday during the St. Paddy's Day Parade.

I exchanged handwaves with Chuck and Little D that day, through an inebriated haze spurred by the absence of an open-container law on the streets of the city.

But I don't remember this happening:

Chuck fondly recalled the moment during the parade when his faithful aide--a young curly blonde donning the heavy dog suit--was accosted by a drunken college youth during the parade. He told me and a gaggle of social workers about how the youth pulled the dog mask off of the aide's head and dutifully poured a can of beer into it. And then she put it back on her head.

That's loyalty, folks.

To the Danes, I mean.