That is even more difficult than it sounds. Our last five months in North America were filled with balmy weather, but the June-July-August period is winter in Buenos Aires, with lows in the 40s.

Not too long ago I heard someone proclaim confidently, “There will never be another Beatles,” but this lady seems to be The Chosen One. Swift is the first musician to achieve billionaire status “solely based on her songs and performances”, according to Forbes.

Lord knows why.

I suppose I’m not the right age or gender to grasp the reason for her immense popularity.

There’s not much to marvel at (or laugh at) this week.

A few notes:

The oddball story of the week: Rutgers was ahead of THE Ohio State University at halftime, and finished the game with 361 yards from scrimmage, compared to 328 from THE. What an upset that would have been! Of course the boys from THE finally remembered who they were and crushed those Rutgers dreams in the second half, but even so, it was a confirmation that the Rutgers program is legitimate at last.

  • In 2018 they were 1-11, losing their last 11, and every conference game.
  • In 2019 they improved to 2-10, again beating only two weak non-conference teams.
  • In 2020 they were 3-6, beating three conference opponents and taking mighty Michigan to overtime.
  • In 2021, they upped the W column to 5, including two conference games.
  • They backslid only a hair last year to 4-8.
  • This year they are 6-3 so far, and two of their losses were to the #1 and #3 teams in the country!

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North Carolina played an FCS team so weak that the bookies wouldn’t set a line. (There’s no telling how a game like that will go, or whether the strong team will rest all of its stars.) I have never heard of the Campbell Camels, other than that I used to sell soup and cigarettes. I didn’t make up that name, and their logo is as cheesy as you might expect. It looks like it must have been designed by the coach’s kid, assuming he has kids younger than 10. I looked up the school and found that it is located on Main Street in beautiful downtown Buies Creek, North Carolina, an unincorporated area that I have also never heard of, population 3,000. Wikipedia calls it “a wooded hamlet.” You know an area is insignificant when the promotional material tells which “major” towns are nearby, and you never heard of them either! Expanding our way out a bit from small towns, the Wikipedia article says it is part of the “Dunn Metropolitan Area,” which really strains the definition of “metropolis.” (9,000 inhabitants, including Opie, Barney and Aunt Bee!) Anyway, you have to give their kids credit for lining up against a school with 20,000 undergraduates and a storied sports program. Kudos to them for holding tough through the first quarter, which ended 7-7. The rest of the game didn’t go as well. The Fightin’ Camels never scored again while the Tarheels added 52 more points.

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The top eight teams all won. #9 Oklahoma lost a tough one to Oklahoma State. #15 Notre Dame lost to Clemson, which is unrated but always tough.

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Formerly undefeated Air Force got exposed as a paper tiger. Although the flyboys came into the game rated #25, I don’t think any sensible observer thought they were really one of the nation’s top 25 teams, despite their resounding victories over mighty teams like Robert Morris. That fact was exposed in the most embarrassing way possible, as they were able to score only a single field goal against Army, which came into the game 2-6.

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Liberty and James Madison remained undefeated. I wonder whether the committee will award one of them the honorary #25 slot vacated by Air Force.

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Far from the beaten path, Memphis allowed 50 points – and won! If you bet on that game, I hope you had the “over.”

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This week’s scoreboard