text:
He Didn't Mean to Hurt You
Last season, Ndamukong Suh became the most vilified man in football, the poster boy for gratuitous violence and dirty play. But Suh's not just a 300-pound destruction machine. He knows what you think of him. He understands the game and his role in it. And he's happy to explain things, really, just give him a minute—but try not to mention The Stomping
Backstage at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, all the greenroom doors swing wildly, guests popping out—a beaming Kyra Sedgwick, honeysuckle-sweet; a burly reality-TV star hugging, loving—everyone here is buzzed, juiced as if on a sugarcoated planet.
Everyone except Ndamukong Suh. He's behind the middle door. Shut. Off-limits. There's a guy in a suit knocking, coaxing, holding a Subway sandwich. Come on out and join the party! Knocking again. Nothing. I'm standing with the suited man thinking, Well, good luck, buddy. Because this is how it's been all day with Suh. All day long I've been waiting. Ducking in and out of cars with him, shifting one hip, then the other, standing, just trying to make eye contact with him, having long given up on a smile, let alone words. Nothing. Shy? Rude? Mean? I have no idea.
On the football field, Suh is fire, heat, a constant explosion of violent desire. He is science fiction; six feet four, 307 pounds, a speeding machine of humanity intent on devouring mankind, per the NFL-defensive-lineman mystique. Suh was second overall in the 2010 draft; signed with Detroit for $68 million; became immediately famous for demolishing quarterbacks; had ten sacks, more than any Lion, any rookie, any defensive tackle in the league his first year. His style is unmistakably violent, doing whatever it takes to get the job done and then some—seemingly shoving a forearm into Jay Cutler's head during a tackle, throwing Marion Barber down by his hair. Midway through his second season, he was voted the NFL's "dirtiest player" by fellow players.
And that was all before The Stomping. Thanksgiving Day 2011, third quarter, Packers 7, Lions 0, and Suh some kind of snorting bull out there, full of rage or testosterone or whatever else overcomes and compels a man. The whistle blew, pass in the end zone incomplete, but there back at the line of scrimmage was the drama, there was Packers lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith's head getting pounded by Suh into the turf; Suh bounces up and here comes his foot, his cleat, bam! onto Dietrich-Smith's arm. Constant replays on TV and everlasting replays online tell a simple story of raw temper, a burst of hot, spoiled-brat rage—exploding out of a gigantic multimillionaire in spandex.
Ejected from the game, suspended for two more, and docked those game checks—adding to the $47,500 already levied by the NFL—Ndamukong Suh has been flagged for more personal fouls than any other player since 2010. He's become a symbol for violence in sports, of crossing the line from fair to foul play. All those headlines about concussions. Young guys bashing their heads so hard they turn into middle-aged crazy guys. Suicidal. Terrible shit. With all those headlines, America has been ripe for an icon to push against, a guy who might stand for a reason to no longer tolerate spectacular sadistic hits—and for the moment Suh is it.
He finally has to emerge from his dressing room, because it's almost his turn to go on TV, and the Subway guy hands him the sandwich he has been paid to endorse. Cameras click, sputter, and twinkle. The Subway guys—they have multiplied—are all goofy smiles, and one of them is saying, Please, please try to get the word "Subway" somehow in there with Fallon, maybe he can slip it in, and Suh is nodding his big oblong head, standing over them like a sycamore in a creek full of scrawny cattails, and then one of the Subway guys whips out a photo of the bust they made of Suh, more than 1,000 pepperoni slices forming ears, nose, chin, countless black olive curls, provolone eyeballs, freshly baked bready shoulders. Would Suh sign a picture of the remarkable pepperoni likeness of his head? "Uh, sure," he says, blinking studiously at the photo of his meat face, and this is when I feel something resembling compassion begin to grow inside me.
On Fallon he throws some kind of switch and turns charming. "I'm soft-spoken," he tells Jimmy, offering eyes of understanding and intellect. "Where I am today isn't just because of my hard work and family and friends but from the village of people that have been around me and always taken care of me." Fallon lobs him easy ones, mentions the $2.6 million Suh donated to his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, the largest philanthropic gift ever from a former player. Suh smoothly shrugs it off, expert as a politician in his response until he turns it into a friggin' Subway plug, of all beautiful things, even though the donation had nothing whatsoever to do with Subway, and the Subway guys are back here high-fiving Russ, Suh's marketing agent, who told them so, because Ndamukong is good, is loyal, is always obedient.
I'm trying to square these: dutiful performer, dirty player, mute monster. He is a tangle of contradiction, or he is a man of deliberate calculation and design. After the show we ride the elevator in silence, except when he offers me the hoagie to take home.
Ndamukong (en-da-meh-kon) means "house of spears" in the language of the Ngemba tribe of Cameroon, the small country in Africa where his dad grew up. His mom is from Jamaica. His sister, Ngum—"giver of strength, giver of power"—came first, and four years later, Ndamukong, named after his great-grandfather who famously stood seven feet three. They were different from other kids in middle-class Portland, Oregon. Their parents, who divorced when the kids were still preschoolers, were strict rulers, demanding way more respect than other parents. Family tradition dictated that the older sibling make something of herself and then turn her attention to the younger, for whom she is responsible. At 29, Ngum is Suh's manager, scheduler, gatekeeper. He does nothing without consulting Ngum. No one gets to him without going through Ngum, who calls herself "my brother's keeper."
"Everything off the field, I got it; that's the motto," she's saying. "I didn't really have a choice. It's a family business, and this is my job." We're driving toward their dad's house in Portland, and she's showing me around the neighborhood, split-levels, small yards occasionally separated by chain-link dog fences, clematis vines, and short driveways with lying-down bikes. I make the point to Ngum that getting to know her brother is like trying to catch a cat.
"It can be taken as rude," she says.
"But it's not—"
She's wearing a haphazard braid down her back, a chiseled face, model-beautiful. "He grew up quiet," she says. "He would not talk. You almost wanted to start worrying. In middle school, I was like, 'What's wrong with you?' He just studies every situation before speaking. He was always that way. And then it turned out he had a photographic memory. His style of learning is just...sick."
The house is simple, low, with green siding and a concrete stoop, and there's a blue van out front advertising Suh Son Mechanical LLC, their dad's heating-and-air-conditioning business. Suh's black BMW 750Li is parked next to it, the only sign that anything spectacular may be going on here at all. The garage door rises when she pushes the button, and she asks me not to mind the mess. "He's probably in his room," Ngum says. "Our rooms are across from each other. Our parents are like, culturally, there's no reason to move out unless you're married, you know?"
I mumble something polite about how a lot of people move home after college, so this is nothing...odd?
Do I need to point out that her brother will earn $68 million—and that's before his endorsements with Nike, Chrysler, and all the rest? Do I need to point out that her brother is fourteenth on the Forbes list of the world's hundred highest-paid athletes?
_The Suhs (from left): sister Ngum, father Michael, and
shy, quiet Ndamukong, whose name means "house of
The _world's. _
Suh recently bought a house outside Detroit, where he and Ngum live during the season, and they have a place in Houston, but Portland is home during the off-season. It's comfortable. It's got that nice, big training facility at the Nike headquarters nearby. It's home, and returning to it is a sign of respect. Just like, she says, not drinking in front of your parents is a sign of respect. And not cursing in front of your parents. "I think he curses on the football field," Ngum says, holding her lips tight. "I can see it." One time he called her and told her he got a tattoo. "I was getting ready to throw up," she says. "I'm like, 'How am I going to hide that from Mom and Dad? They are going to see it!' I was almost in tears. And then he's like, 'Just kidding.' I was going to kill him. That was not a funny joke at all."
I make the point that he's a 25-year-old filthy-rich feared monster athlete who can bench-press 475 pounds. He can't get a tattoo?
"Oh, my gosh, no!"
Ngum makes Ndamukong come out of his room and eat lunch with us, and at the restaurant he stays buried in his BlackBerry, then his iPhone, then his BlackBerry again, but after he finishes a heaping mound of pad thai, she looks at him and says, "Well?" and makes him talk to me about his approach, each week, as he prepares to crush quarterbacks.
"Mondays I sleep," he offers. He's dressed in black workout gear, and he takes up so much space at the table everything around him looks miniature. "I go in at ten, do my lift, watch the game from the day before. Tuesday is off, but I go in, lift, watch film. Then I have French toast with my sister."
"We love French toast," she says.
"French toast Tuesdays," he says. "Then I study. I understand the whole plan by Thursday. Friday I memorize it. Then I cut my brain off from football. That's how I treat it: Don't let your brain get overheated. Saturday night I eat by myself, go over it, like final exams. Take a picture of it with my brain, like. It gets imprinted on my brain. Then, when that week is over, I slash it out and start putting the new stuff in."
He pauses, looks at her, shrugs.
"That's basically it during the season," she says. "That's about it."
He says he has to go. She invites me to come to the house later for dinner to talk more. But he blows off dinner, disappears, and she can't find him, so she checks her Twitter feed, because that's the easiest way; some fan just spotted Ndamukong Suh at Costco looking at TVs.
The stomping. Every time I bring it up, people here seem vaguely startled. _Why are we talking about this again? _
"This is sports," says his dad, Michael. "Sometimes you go out there and you're going to stomp on somebody." He himself is a soccer man, a star back home in his village. That's what his kids were supposed to play. "I'm behind in American football," he allows. "Even now, I'm not all the way up on it." He's a slight, tidy man—only five eight—with a round face encircled with unapologetic fuzz. He's sitting at a desk in his basement, where he just finished a bid for a job installing a furnace.
Ndamukong started out playing soccer, like his sister before him. She excelled at it, played for Mississippi State, made the Cameroon national team. He was different, clearly an athlete but so damn big, an oaf out there rumbling down the pitch, knocking kids over, helping them up, lifting them with one hand by the shorts. Like the Jolly Green Giant on the TV commercials. He was good at basketball, too, but it was always hold back, hold back, his body pushing him to go bigger, wider, broader, the world telling him: No. You'll hurt somebody. He tried shot put, threw sixty-one feet, four inches, state champion. So that was easy. But football—now, football looked interesting. His dad said no way. Football was scary. His mom said no way. Football was violent, and don't forget academics comes first. "Then one day he came home and said, 'You gonna come watch my game?' " his dad recalls. "I said, 'What game?' He said, 'Football.' "
Coaches had been begging him to play. A kid that big? That nimble? His first year trying, a sophomore, he played varsity. A prodigy. He had always been "a fine-tuned kid," teachers said; he could be a surgeon the way he focused, the way he would lock into any task you gave him, and when football came along he locked all of himself in there. Physically the game was a liberation. Suddenly his size, his muscle mass, were assets. It was like coming out of the closet. He was encouraged to hit people. "It's okay, Dad," he said. "The position I'm playing, they're scared of me. I don't get hit. I hit them." He said, "It's okay, Mom. Come see." He had maintained a 3.0, as she'd demanded, and he'd all but solved the issue about getting hurt, so there was nothing his parents could do.
In a blink he was at Nebraska, cementing his name in the record books, then Detroit, where Lions coaches saw in Suh what Husker coaches had so readily seen. "Cerebral," former Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini used to say. "Hungry." One of the strongest guys he'd ever seen play the game, coupled with the focus and discipline of a nerd. Suh used to meet with Pelini separately, weekly, talk about every defensive position on the field, study the possibilities and combinations like a chess player, turning plays over and inside out and over in his mind. His rookie year in Detroit, he was the same. On the field, on the line, it was the same. "Suh plays super intense and super emotional," says Packers offensive lineman Josh Sitton, who knows what it's like to breathe his steam. "He definitely plays violently. And with a few things he's done, that line becomes very thin between playing violent and playing nasty."
Suh's dad was at Ford Field on that Thanksgiving Day when his son got ejected for stomping Evan Dietrich-Smith (who would go on to hate having his career defined by two seconds of airtime—the guy who got stomped). "I saw it," Suh's dad recalls. "I thought, it's part of the game. A lot of violent things happen. Referees always read the reaction. They do not see the action that started it." Context, he says. Everything in context. "It did not look like a stomp to me, it looked like somebody grabbing you and you trying to shake him off." Bam! The foot. Dietrich-Smith's arm. Slow it down. Look at it again. Slow it down. That's what happened, Suh's dad says. Anybody looks at anything long enough, they'll see what they want to see. They wanted a villain, and they picked his son.
The stomping was not something anyone in the family recognized as Suh's fault. At most, an accident. So it was not, "Oh, we have to rein in that wild child." Or, "tame that evil demon." He was never a wild child, had no more demons than the next guy. To them the stomping was simply bad luck. Just three games on TV that day, not much else for people to talk about. A bit of bad PR for the Suh brand. _You mean people aren't over that yet? _
"You want to come out to the driveway and see my van?" his dad asks. Suh Son LLC. He put " Son" on the van when Ndamukong graduated from college, because that was always the plan. "He got his degree in construction management," he points out. A family business, another option for Ndamukong to go into someday, his dad thinks.
Suh's mother, across town, is no different. The bubble. The sister, the father, the mother, everyone in this family seems to be in some bubble distinctly removed from the American culture of celebrity, a situation that is not necessarily terribly odd, except they have an American celebrity in it. I'm not yet convinced Ndamukong is complicit in creating the kind of fame he's selling, feeding an audience hungry for violence week after week.
"On the TV they're saying my son is angry," Suh's mom says. She's lanky, somewhat nervous, a schoolteacher for thirty-two years who still walks down the block to the classroom each morning from her small clapboard house. "They're building it up that he's an angry man," she says. "What does this child have to be angry about? This child is blessed. He has nothing to be angry about. So I don't know where they're getting that."
She talks to me from her doorway. "You know, I came to the conclusion last year, after he got that suspension, that maybe he just doesn't need to give 200 percent when he plays football," she says. "Do you know it's being perceived as a bad thing?"
I tell her yes, I know that.
"You want to see his room?" she asks, leading me through the bright blue dining room she painted well before her son started wearing Lion blue. His bedroom—tiny, jammed with football stuff—is not a shrine so much as something to show the neighborhood kids who come knocking. "I need to update it. I've got way more Nebraska stuff than Detroit. Popcorn bowls with his name on them, a Lions tail, ticket stubs, a Lions toothbrush, look at this, just stuff. Stuff, you know? I lead the kids back, and then at the end I show them...it."
It? Apparently, there's a logic to the collection, a purpose.
She walks up to his black Husker graduation gown hanging on the closet door, reaches to straighten a fold at the top. "I just leave it hanging right here, kind of like the grand finale."
I tell her frankly that I don't think the neighborhood kids are coming by to see Ndamukong Suh's graduation gown.
"I don't know what he did with the cap," she says. "I wanted that, too, but I'm just kind of satisfied with the gown."
Nothing happens that makes Suh decide to talk to me, nothing particular or funny or unusual, but when he decides to talk, he comes on like a truck.
We're in the training facility of the Nike headquarters, a sprawling campus of flowering ornamental trees lined up just so in front of rows of towering evergreens. Hushed, like a holy place, where fog settles between office buildings connected by garden pathways. Inside, the training building is all blond wood and black, vast, vaulted ceilings, photos of sweating determined faces blown up huge and towering over us like stained-glass windows in a cathedral. Sports may be the last institution of deference left in America—the body, the will, the fight—here's what irony and cynicism cannot yet touch.
Trainers love Suh because he does what he's told. It's refreshing. Like when a teacher gets a kid who does all his homework without once whining. "It's easy with Suh, because he buys into it," says trainer Keith D'Amelio. "He sees the big picture. Athletes in general don't really understand why they're training. Just going in throwing weights isn't gonna do it." He tells me about Suh's assessment plan, everything monitored, every movement, even his sleep—how much REM? Can we improve it? They work on range of motion, patterns of motion, muscle combinations. "Suh's going to be a monster no matter what I do; he's as strong and powerful as they come. So what we do here is: Use it. Enhance it."
When I got here this morning, Suh was on the ground pouring with sweat, doing push-ups with chains draped over his back and neck, chains as thick as my arm, doing what he's told, all obedience—to his trainers, to his coaches, to the NFL, to America. We did, after all, ask for this. The biggest kid, the toughest kid, the kid who doesn't hold back, uses his gifts, develops them, fine-tunes them, becomes the machine. He's a masterpiece of our creation. And now, if he's run amok, well, shame on...him? For America to take any responsibility is to take the fun out of football, so forget that. Forget all the chatter about concussions. We're not supposed to think about any of that stuff when it comes to our most successful sports league ever. We're supposed to buy into the new narrative that the NFL cares. Crack down on hits. Fine players who can't stop their bodies at eighteen miles an hour in the split second before impact. It's a truce. We know it's pretense; they bank on our willingness to deny our own hypocrisy.
I was thinking about this stuff when Ngum called, asked me if Suh had talked to me yet, and I said no. Then Suh finished the workout and walked up to grab a towel, came so close to me I could feel the heat off him, and I smiled as anyone would smile to begin a conversation, but he took a towel and without once looking at me passed by and headed to the locker room. A few minutes later I got a call from Ngum saying he'd meet me in the cafeteria. He was going to talk. She told me he was definitely going to talk.
He has eggs. He's sitting across from me, and the cafeteria is closed, no one else here at all except the people in the kitchen who were kind enough to cook the eggs. "A lot of people don't know truly who I am," he tells me. "And at this point in time, there are not a lot of people I let close enough to find out."
I tell him I noticed. I decide it's not my place to tell him his evasiveness is extreme to the point of creepy.
"I don't want anybody in my circle that's a cancer to what I'm trying to create," he says. "So stay on the outside and make your opinions. They're going to be meaningless to everything in the circle. The boundaries are up for me to keep, and a responsibility of my family, too. That's why, like, I guess you've gone through a good screening process."
Apparently, there's a compliment in here somewhere. (Cancer?) I ask him about being named the dirtiest player in the NFL.
"It's not the norm, I guess, to see someone as aggressive as me being more or less very athletic. You see me running, having a big, violent hit, it's going to look bad, but that's the natural ability I've been given. Why would I let it run to the wayside and not use it?
"Football is a violent sport. Somebody's going to get hurt. It's the game. Just hopefully, you're on the good side of it. So I don't, I really don't get the controversy. It's the game."
"You play it dirty," I say. "Dirty is wrong."
He says no. Emphatically no. He's not dirty. "A dirty player is somebody who ultimately is trying to hurt somebody. There's a huge difference. There's no gray in that. Like, you have no conscience, no nothing, no guilt. I don't have that mean streak in me. I don't play angry. It's not anger."
He's not, notably, jabbing his food like an angry person. In fact, his movements are gentle; his eyes scan the room as he thinks.
"When I first started playing, I was surprised at the fact that I was allowed to hit people as hard as I could and not get in trouble. Because in soccer, when you get to a certain level, you can slide-tackle and take them off their feet, but you have to always hit the ball first and then take that person out. But in football, that's not true. You can run as hard as you can into somebody else and take them down. Thumbs up!
"But as far as I know, I've never hurt anybody through playing the game of football."
I ask him about concussions, all the headlines now about guys like Junior Seau killing themselves, likely as a result of what football did to their brains.
"I think concussions are really important, but I don't think if you look back at any of my hits, there's nothing in the hit that would cause concussions. Maybe whiplash. That's not because of me, that's because somebody doesn't know how to take a hit. I'm not doing helmet-to-helmet hits. I might hit somebody under their chin because I hit them in their chest and I rise up, because that's how we were taught to play football. Hit them and run your feet through. Eventually you're going to come up through the person. Concussions, I don't think, really fall into my category."
It's odd to me that the guy with the rap as the dirtiest player in the NFL isn't more up on this stuff. I thought the NFL was on a campaign to explain brain injuries to its players, to warn them. It's not just about concussions. It's the subconcussive hits, the constant bam, bam, bam that linemen like Suh give and receive. Those are the hits scientists say cause the lasting damage to the brain, the kind of injuries that made guys like Mike Webster, Terry Long, and so many others go crazy. The subconcussive hits—every single play.
"Go hard every single play," Suh says. "That's how I've been taught. So now, when they see that and that correlates to big plays, things that aren't in the norm, for them to justify it, they can't just say, Oh, it's a different person, it's a different breed of player, so they say, Oh, he's just dirty. That's their easy scapegoat.
"It's like, I open the throttle too much? I get in trouble for opening my throttle...just like being on a jet. Like, you know, when they're starting a plane, you just gradually, gradually throw it into full throttle. I'm always in full throttle. But they tell me now I need to be at three-quarters of a throttle.
"The NFL, I don't know what their role is. I guess they have to punish. But at the same time, when I see the big Jay Cutler hit that I had in my rookie season, I supposedly hit him in the back of his head. I hit him in his nameplate. I got a fine for that, but yet you see on the NFL network or NFL.com it's publicized, it gets played millions and millions of times. So it's like a good thing, but it's a bad thing.
"I don't want to snap anybody's neck off. I was brought up to treat others like you want to be treated."
And yet he stomps on a guy—after the whistle is blown.
"If you slow down and analyze anything, it's going to look worse in my opinion. It was not intentional. If it was intentional, it could have been a lot worse.
"If I wanted to go out there to hurt somebody,_ I could hurt somebody_. I don't want any part of that." Hurting is too easy. Too obvious. A yawn, in that regard. Beating someone is different from hurting someone. Beating someone, he says, that's the game.
"I mean, if I wanted to hurt you, I'd go for your quarterback. Because me stopping your play is going to frustrate you more than me physically hurting you. Because I'm just that much better than you. That's how I look at it. It's like killing somebody with kindness."
Kindness. I promise him that kindness is not the word I expected to be considering when talking to Ndamukong Suh. I tell him I'm not getting kindness. He says irritating might be a better word. He knows he's irritating. He's proud of that.
"It's mind games. A lot of mind games," he says. He describes a play, like so many plays: trapped by two linemen, dodging one, throwing the other off, reaching the quarterback with all he had. "All you hear is the wind being taken out of him, and he's, like, Oh sh—. I get enjoyment out of that. I like big hits because I impose my will.
"Getting an interception or a fumble or a recovery or a touchdown, that's out of this world, that's an amazing feeling," he continues. "But to be honest with you, it's more rewarding for me to get a sack. There's luck that goes into creating an interception, scoring a touchdown, but there's no luck in a sack.
"I love hitting Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler. Ben Roethlisberger, I would like to go against him, because they say he's one of the hardest to take down. I see that as a challenge, so I would love to take him down multiple times. Peyton Manning, oh, I would love that. I think Michael Vick, I did sack him, one of the most elusive quarterbacks to ever play the game. I took him down with one arm."
He goes on. The guy who would not speak now can't be interrupted, talking hits, hits, the joy of hits.
The stomping, he says one last time, was not intentional. He knows it. His family knows it. He is going to protect that mythology no matter what. He will ignore the people who say otherwise. He will stay inside the bubble and refuse to let any of that cancer in.
"For me personally? It's over," he says. "That's something that happened in the 2011 season. Will it follow me? I think it will follow me because of the outside world. It won't follow me because of me."
It occurs to me that whatever role American celebrity has assigned him, and no matter how complicit he is in that transaction, he remains a 25-year-old young man who grew up painfully shy and obedient, and he isn't all that different today, except now we've turned him into a pepperoni head.
"I'm quiet," he says. "I'm very quiet. I'm a very good observer. That's just the way I am. If I'm speaking, it's because it's meaningful."


text:
Over at the Guardian, writer/comedian Simon Dunn raises a compelling question: when science fiction writers or creators insert junk science or "technobabble" into their stories, are they doing the same thing as the people who promote pseudoscience with a straight face? And isn't technobabble basically the same sort of mumbo jumbo as people use to extol the healing power of magnets?
He adds:
To be honest, as a writer, I used to have no problem with this abuse of science. If it serves the story, that's all that matters. I don't even have a problem with it as a reader or a viewer. All I care about is being swept along by a great plot.
But it does beg the question; do we have a responsibility as artists to respect the scientific method?
As a skeptic, I decry the way alt.med at once uses and abuses science. Shouldn't I hold my writing up to the same standard?
He closes with a rousing call for science fiction that respects the scientific method and makes science the hero, which I think we can all get behind. [Guardian]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
No. 23 Oklahoma 74, Kansas St. 68
Aaryn Ellenberg scored 18 points to lead five Oklahoma players
scoring in double figures as the No. 23 Sooners defeated Kansas
State 74-68 on Wednesday night.
Joanna McFarland added 10 points and 15 rebounds for Oklahoma
(17-5, 7-3 Big 12), who have won 11 straight against Kansas State.
The Wildcats (12-10, 3-7) trailed 63-60 with 2:46 remaining, but
the Sooners protected the lead by going 9 for 10 from the
free-throw line down the stretch.
Sharane Campbell scored 14 points, Nicole Griffin 13 and Morgan
Hook 11 for Oklahoma. McFarland posted her sixth double-double in
conference play, tops in the Big 12, and had at least 10 rebounds
for the 11th time in 14 games.
Haley Texada had 25 points, Mariah White 15 points and Brittany
Chambers 14 points and 11 rebounds for Kansas State.
All of Ellenberg's field goals came from 3-point range, where
she was 4 for 7. The Sooners, who lead the nation in 3-point
shooting percentage, made 10 of 20 attempts from behind the


text:
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FORT MYERS, Fla. (Oct. 11, 2009) - After two straight days of strong play ETSU men's tennis senior Daniel Isaza (Medellin, Columbia) closed out the fourth annual UNF Fall with a pair of championships Sunday at the UNF Tennis Center in Fort Myers, Fla.
Isaza, along with sophomore teammate Ofir Weintraub (Rishon Le Zion, Israel), picked up the Bucs first victory of the day with a outstanding 8-6 victory over Florida Gulf Coast's Thibuad Aime and Matt Rock. Minutes later the ETSU team was at it again, this time in the Flight A doubles championship contest, where the Buc pair made quick work of Jacksonville's Jimmy Esteban and Victor Vaz, 8-3.
After winning the top doubles bracket Isaza continued his hot play with 6-4, 7-6, championship victory over North Florida's Daniel Sotomarino in the Flight A singles bracket.
"I was real proud of Danny this weekend," said ETSU assistant coach Ricky Rojas. "There were some good teams and players in this tournament so it was exciting to see him come out of these three days with two championships."
Weintraub also picked up a singles win for ETSU on Sunday as the second-year Buc outlasted Georgia Southern's Sebastein Felt 4-6, 6-3, 10-5.
"Overall, I thought our guys competed hard," said Rojas. "Hopefully we can take what we learned this weekend and use it against some of these same conference teams in the spring season."
Attached above is the link to final results of the fourth annual UNF Fall Invitational.
For more information on the championship ETSU men's tennis team, please visit www.ETSUBucs.com.


text:
Ralph Sorrell wears many hats in the Leavenworth Police Department.
Ralph Sorrell wears many hats in the Leavenworth Police Department.
In addition to being the department's traffic sergeant, Sorrell serves as a firearms range instructor and polygraph examiner.
Sorrell's efforts were recognized Wednesday during the annual Leavenworth Police Department Awards Ceremony. He was named the department's Officer of the Year.
"It's a total shock," he said.
The police chief's secretary, Arianne Burgoon, was honored with the Civilian Employee of the Year award.
"I'm speechless," Burgoon said.
The Civilian of the Year award is named after Jane McDonald, a former Police Department employee.
A number of other awards were handed out during Wednesday's ceremony. The event took place at Riverfront Community Center.
The ceremony came during National Police Week, and today is Peace Officers Memorial Day.
Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens said anyone in the department can submit nominations for awards. For most of the awards, recipients were selected by a committee.
Kitchens said he and Deputy Chief Dan Nicodemus selected the recipients of the Civilian Employee of the Year and Officer of the Year awards.
Sorrell has been with the police department for nearly 19 years.
He's originally from Illinois and came to the Leavenworth area while serving in the Army.
Sorrell said he enjoys working in law enforcement because of the daily challenges.
"Every day is different," he said.
Sorrell also received a Police Commendation on Monday with Sgt. Derek Burleson for their work to implement the use mobile data terminals in police cars.
Ed Gunnels, a civilian employee of the city, also was honored for his assistance with the MDTs. Gunnels was presented a Certificate of Appreciation.
Sorrell also received a Medal of Valor for his role last year in the pursuit of a murder suspect who was later apprehended in St. Joseph, Mo.
Sgt. Roger Hundley and Officers Robert Flynn, Cory Langford, Brandon Mance and Hannah McMillin also received the Medal of Valor for their roles in the case. Sgt. Brian Anderson received a Police Commendation, and dispatchers Delta Anderson and Tracey Comley were recognized with Police Achievement awards.
Burgoon has worked for the Leavenworth Police Department for 10 years. For the last four of those years, she has been in the position of the chief's secretary.
Burgoon said she loves her job.
"No two days are the same," she said.


text: Dan Sartain is an American rock and roll musician from Birmingham, Alabama. His music encompasses a variety of genres including rockabilly and blues. After releasing two self-produced albums through independent record labels, his first commercially-available studio album Dan Sartain vs. the Serpientes was released in 2005 through San Diego, California-based Swami Records. This was followed by Join Dan Sartain in 2006, also on the Swami label. In 2007 Sartain toured as an opening act for The White Stripes and The Hives.


text:
2007-07-25 / Obituaries
Amityville's Sarah Koch, 87
Longtime Amityville resident and dedicated member of St. Martin of Tours R.C. Church, Sarah J. Koch died June 29, 2007 at New Island Hospital in Bethpage. She was 87 years old. Born June 19, 1920 in Lawrence, Massachusetts to George J. and Mary Malvina (Morin) Bennett, she worked as a bookkeeper for CMR Industries in Bay Shore until her retirement.
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text:
A Home Office Staple: The Stapler
Who woulda thunk I could write an entire post about staplers? Especially in a day and age where people are using less paper. But in our house, we can never find our little mini stapler when we need it - and now my girl is in preschool, we need it more frequently with all of the newsletters and notices to keep track of. Between that and important documents, it's clear a good stapler is still a good addition to any home office
So, as we get our home office organized, I think it's time to find a stapler than can take it's place permanently on the desktop with pride. Designers have heard the call - probably part of that whole "we-love-handmade" trend, and given us lots of options. I just can't decide if we go more whimsical or more modern. Which way do you lean?
- Blue Stapler ($30, Zady)
- Grasshopper Stapler ($18, Anthropologie)
- Wooden Stapler ($31.02, Alexcious)
- Staple Free Stapler ($8.00, See Jane Work)
- Crocodile Stapler ($39.00, The Loaded Trunk)
(Images: as linked above)


text:
1:00 am
Nature "Cracking The Koala Code" Scientists track the day-to-day lives of an extended family of koalas in a forest pocket near urban Brisbane, Australia, to unravel what a forest needs to support a healthy population and how these slow-moving creatures react to the surrounding suburbia. Other scientists on St. Bees Island use solar-powered mobile phones to record koala vocalizations and begin to decipher some of the animals' communications.G
2:00 am
Frontline "The Meth Epidemic" FRONTLINE, in association with The Oregonian, investigates the ongoing meth problem in America: the devastating impact on individuals, families and communities and the state-by-state battles to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug, a strategy that's led to significant improvement in Oregon.G
3:00 am
MI-5 A laptop containing the identities of five high level assets is stolen. One of the identified assets, Martha Ford, is close to one of Gavrik's companies. Assets begin to be killed and Martha's identity is leaked. Harry meets with Elena to tell her that someone is posing as him.G
4:00 am
William and Mary William is visited by a boy and his dog. The boy tells William that his father has drowned at sea and no body has been recovered. Would William be willing to hold a service without a body?G
5:00 am
History of Science "What Is The Secret of Life?" Michael Mosley presents the story of how the secret of life has been examined through the prism of the most complex organism known - the human body. It begins with attempts to save the lives of gladiators in Ancient Rome and unfolds to the microscopic world of cells and DNA. Part 5 of 6G
6:00 am
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood "How People Make Trumpets/Plans for Comet Celebrating" NULL
6:30 am
Curious George "A Bridge to Farm/Monkey Fever" When George sees six stranded chicks on an island in a pond, it's monkey to the rescue!G
7:00 am
Wild Kratts "Zig-Zagged" Chris and Martin get caught in the middle of a Zebra stampede, and when the dust clears, a lone baby Zebra is left behind. The Wild Kratts must find the young zebra's herd and return him to his mom. Along the way, they learn the secrets of patterns in the creature world and how the zebra's stripes are critical to a special defense called "confusion camouflage. D
7:30 am
Peep and the Big Wide World/Pocoyo "Bringing Spring/Quack's Pond Party/Pocoyo - Elly's Tea Party" It's February, which means it's cold and bleagh and dreary. But things start to cheer up when the birds help a young groundhog find her shadow. Quack needs some attention (shocking!), and decides to throw a party to get some. D
8:00 am
Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! "Flight of the Penguin/Let's Go Fly A Kite" Flight of the Penguin - Sally and Nick are pretending to fly in their backyard. Oh wouldn't it be great if they really could? The Cat in the Hat brings them to meet his good friend Percy the penguin. After a fun race with a penguin and a bird, the kids learn that not all birds fly, but that doesn't mean they aren't fast! Let's Go Fly a Kite - Sally, Nick and the Cat are trying to fly a kite, but there's not enough wind. D
8:30 am
Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps "Angelina & Alice's Big Night/Angelina and the Giant" Angelina's Musical Day - Ms. Mimi's class plans to put on a production of Peter and the Wolf in which each character is identified by a series of musical notes played on a student's favorite instrument. When Ms. Mimi arrives at rehearsal with laryngitis, she uses the designated notes to communicate with the mouselings. Vici decides that if it can work for Ms. Mimi, it can work for her! As she attempts to communicate by using a recorder and no words, she ends up showing everyone that friends don't always need words to talk to each other. D
9:00 am
Bob the Builder "Following Clues (Pt. 2)" Muck & the Old School Wall - Spud and Scrambler are still searching for the Golden Hammer. When they see school teacher Ela's class practicing their Chinese dragon dance in costume, they think the dragon is real. They decide to follow it in hopes of locating the Golden Hammer. D
9:30 am
Franny's Feet "Seasons Greetings/Opening Night Jitters" A) Franny travels to Israel, where she meets Jacob, a young boy whose family is preparing for Hanukkah. Franny learns about celebrating the holiday by cooking special foods, playing with a dreidel and lighting the menorah. She also learns the importance of doing good deeds. D
10:00 am
Thomas & Friends "All Together Now" Ol' Wheezy Wobbles - On Misty Island, Ol' Wheezy has stopped working. Thomas wants to help and says he can fix Ol' Wheezy. He puffs to the Dieselworks, and asks Den and Dart for help because two busy boilers are better than one. D
10:30 am
Dialogue "Samuel Hunter" Host Marcia Franklin talks with Moscow native playwright Samuel Hunter about his works and the influence of Idaho in his plays. Hunter, who was in Boise recently to help direct one of his plays, is the recipient of a 2011 Obie Award, the equivalent of a Tony Award for off-Broadway productions, for his play A Bright New Boise.G
11:00 am
BBC Newsnight NULL
11:30 am
Consuelo Mack WealthTrack "Financial Thought Leaders: James Bianco" Guest: James Bianco, President, Bianco Research. This week's Consuelo Mack WealthTrack features a "Financial Thought Leader" who challenges conventional Wall Street wisdom. Anchor and Managing Editor Consuelo Mack uncovers the myths James Bianco and his team at Bianco Research are shattering now to help you make better investment decisions. D
12:00 pm
To The Contrary with Bonnie Erbe Majority Minority: For the first time in U.S. history, white newborns are outnumbered by babies of color. Women on the Front Lines: The U.S. D
12:30 pm
McLaughlin Group NULL
1:00 pm
Painting and Travel with Roger & Sarah Bansemer "Grandfather's House" Visit a unique turn of the century summer home in Ipswich, Mass. built by Sarah's grandfather, Arthur Shurcliff, an acclaimed landscape architect. Roger chooses to paint the garden with the stone tower in it designed for architect Shurcliff's six children to enjoy. D
1:30 pm
Sew It All "Sewing Space Spruce-Up, Jacquie Gering" Bring new life into your sewing space with matching curtains, a stool and a sewing machine cover. D
2:00 pm
Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting "Indigo Star" Mary and Jenny Doane demonstrate how to make quick four patch units and also how to use special rulers to make units for a simple star block. D
2:30 pm
Hometime "Stone Cottage - Finishing The Trim" The HOMETIME team varnishes the cherry millwork, applies stone on the basement fireplace and wraps up the irrigation system. D
3:00 pm
Woodsmith Shop "Conquering Curves" Learn the basics of adding graceful curves to your next project - starting with a graceful curved-front table, then moving onto a beautiful bow-front drawer, and finally a unique bentwood coat rack. The editors of Woodsmith show three simple techniques for conquering curves.G
3:30 pm
This Old House "Bedford Project, Part 7 of 16" General contractor Tom Silva tops off the existing cellulose insulation in the walls of the oldest part of the house. Meanwhile, landscape contractor Roger Cook takes homeowner Becky Titlow to see a display of "garden to table" raised beds at Elm Bank Reservation in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Then, back at the house, landscape designer Jenn Nawada lends a hand as Roger builds raised beds out of fieldstone from the old foundation, and Becky plants the first vegetables for her family. D
4:00 pm
Ask This Old House "Repairing a Crack in an Asphalt Walkway; Getting Rid of Mold" Landscape contractor Roger Cook helps a homeowner repair a crack in an asphalt walkway. Then Roger, along with host Kevin O'Connor, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey and general contractor Tom Silva, asks "What is it?" Afterward, Tom helps a homeowner get rid of the mold in her attic. D
4:30 pm
Growing a Greener World "Living Walls; A New Way to Make Great Neighbors" That old expression; "great walls make great neighbors" is more true today thanks to a much more "neighborly" twist. The great, living walls of today are lush with plants and vines to dazzle the senses. With an abundance of wall space yet shortage of open land, gardeners are looking up. D
5:00 pm
Moyers & Company "Tom Morello: A Troubadour for Justice" Songs of social protest -- music and the quest for justice -- have long been intertwined, and the troubadours of troubling times -- Guthrie, Seeger, Baez, Dylan, and Springsteen among them -- have become famous for their dedication to both. Now we can add a name to the ranks of those who lift their voices for social and economic justice: Tom Morello. Morello, who will be Bill's guest on Moyers & Company this weekend (check local listings), is the Harvard-educated (honors in political science!) guitarist who dabbled in politics, then chose rock music to make a difference. D
6:00 pm
William and Mary Molly comes home from the hospital and the family anxiously waits to hear her results. William gets a shock when he meets the twin brother of a body he is arranging a funeral for.G
7:00 pm
Outdoor Idaho "Palisades By Season" Experience the seasons in eastern Idaho's Palisades on the South Fork of the Snake River near the Wyoming border. With a reservoir, prize river fishing spots and more than 400,000 acres of wildlands in the region, each season brings a new attraction. Cameras follow biologists and nesting eagles, fishing enthusiasts, a huckleberry gatherer, and winter wildlife watchers.G
7:30 pm
Oregon Field Guide "Avalanche Safety/ Fishing Quotas/ Music In Nature" Students take a level-one avalanche course with regional expert Glenn Kessler. Musicians Deklun and Pace travel from Mount Hood to the coast with their electronic/trumpet musical improvisations to play for nature.G
8:00 pm
Finding Your Roots "Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier and Linda Chavez" The three women all share Spanish colonial roots yet each views their own identity differently. Crisscrossing Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean and the Southwest, Gates reveals stories of ancestral Conquistadors, Indian rebels and "Crypto-Jews" (Spanish Jews who outwardly converted to Catholicism to survive the Inquisition, yet secretly continued to practice their religion). Part 10 of 10G
9:00 pm
Masterpiece Mystery! "Sherlock, Series II - The Reichenbach Fall" In what may be the climactic case of his career, Sherlock faces Moriarty's diabolical plot to "get Sherlock." First the criminal mastermind breaks into the Crown Jewels. As the scheme unfolds, Moriarty poses the "final problem," and a tabloid reporter reveals the "shocking truth" about the great detective.G
10:30 pm
New Tricks "Objects of Desire" An old flame, DCI James Larson, comes to ask Sandra Pullman to put her UCOS team on the trail of the murder of an antiques dealer, originally believed to have been bludgeoned to death during a bungled burglary. There is reason to believe the dealer was a police informant in return for the police turning a blind eye to his dodgier dealings.G
11:30 pm
Official Best of Fest "Fathers & Daughters" From Australia, a girl seeks to understand her strange father in Getting Dad. Canada provides Reflection, a story about a father and his grief.G


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Gordon fuels ETSU with career-high 30 points; Lady Bucs tie school record with 15 threes
CINCINNATI, Ohio. (March 21, 2010) - The Lady Bucs threw everything they could - and then some - at the fifth-ranked Xavier Musketeers on Sunday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately, with the Lady Bucs trailing by one with less than three minutes to play, Xavier stepped up and closed out the game on a 13-2 run to escape a major upset by ETSU, as the third-seeded Musketeers captured a 94-82 victory on their home court inside the Cintas Center.
Junior point guard Tarita Gordon (Wichita, Kan.) shined on the big stage by pouring in a career-high 30 points and drained five of the Lady Bucs' school-record-tying 15 3-point field goals. Along with Gordon's effort, senior and two-time Atlantic Sun Player of the Year Siarre Evans (Griffin, Ga.) closed out an illustrious career with a 20-point, 7-rebound performance. Fellow senior and two-time Atlantic Sun First Team All-Conference performer TaRonda Wiles (Danville, Va.) chipped in with 14 points, six boards and two steals.
For the third straight year, the Blue and Gold exited the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a loss; however, after falling by 32 to Iowa State a year ago, ETSU showed the country what Lady Buccaneer basketball is all about. The Lady Bucs, who never gave up and fought hard for the entire 40 minutes on Sunday, had their program-best 10-game winning streak come to an end, while finishing the year with an ETSU record 23 wins (23-9).
"Obviously 23 years ago when I began coaching, I got in this game to win so I'm very disappointed that we lost, but I am so proud of this team and what they did today because I am sure that no one in this country thought it would be a ball game with two minutes to go," commented head coach Karen Kemp, who has guided ETSU to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. "I told the team in the locker room they need to keep their heads high, because they have nothing to be ashamed of. I told them before the game to leave it all on the court and between those lines. They did, they left it out there. I am so proud of this group because obviously we had a height disadvantage, with Xavier's 6'6, 6'5, but we didn't let that stop us, we kept fighting and fighting until the very end. I hate to see it end, but I am glad that we competed and showed people the ETSU Lady Bucs can play basketball."
The Lady Bucs showed the country all about their up-tempo, high scoring game, including a record-setting first half. In the opening 20 minutes, the country saw a lot of fireworks and runs, as the Lady Bucs drained a first round NCAA record 12 threes, and the half had two ties and four lead changes.
The Musketeers stormed out to an early 9-0 lead; however, a three-pointer by Gwen Washington (Manassas, Va.) and a lay-up from Tara Davis (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) settled ETSU's nerves with only 3 minutes, 10 seconds coming off the clock. Once again Xavier gained a brief spurt to grab a 15-5 lead, but a 15-5 Lady Buccaneer run tied the game at 20, when Evans knocked down a three at the top of the arc with 11:42 left in the half.
The Musketeers again mounted a 13-1 run over the next four-plus minutes, but the 3-point shot continued to keep the Lady Bucs in the game, as back-to-back treys by Gordon made it 33-27 with 8:05 left before the break.
The threes continued to rain inside Cintas Center and Gordon's fifth bomb of the half gave the Lady Bucs their first lead of the game, 42-41, with less than three minutes before intermission.
However, Xavier stole momentum as Special Jennings' three-pointer at mid-court banked off the glass as time expired - giving the Musketeers a 50-45 lead at the half.
For the half, 12 of ETSU's 16 field goals made were from beyond the arc and the Lady Bucs shot 60-percent from long range; while hitting 55.2 percent of their shots overall. Meanwhile, Xavier shot 47.6 percent (20-42) in the first 20 minutes, while outscoring ETSU - 24 to 2 in the paint. The Musketeers also out-rebounded the Lady Bucs by 11, 24-13, and turned 12 offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points. Fortunately, the Lady Bucs were able to get out and run, as ETSU held a 16-5 advantage in fast-break points, and both clubs scored 13 points off turnovers.
In the second half the Lady Bucs couldn't get the long-range shot to fall and Xavier capitalized by opening the first 3 minutes, 11 seconds on a 10-2 run to take a 60-47 lead. The Lady Bucs continued to fight back and made it a nine-point contest, 62-53, but Xavier pushed its margin up to 15, 75-60 after Amber Harris scored two of her game-high 31 points at the 8:50 mark.
Again, ETSU didn't back away from the tall giants as Evans and Wiles started a 20-5 run with back-to-back threes, and the Lady Bucs pulled to within one, 81-80, when Davis found Gordon open for a jumper with 2:45 to play.
The jumper brought all 4,122 fans on their feet and Xavier used the home-court advantage to its liking, as the Musketeers finished the game on a 13-2 run to escape with the 12-point win.
For the game, ETSU shot 43.8 percent from the field (28-64), and the Lady Bucs knocked down a program-tying 15 threes (31 attempts) - which was one off from tying the all-time best in a NCAA Tournament game as well. Xavier shot 43.9 percent for the contest (36-82) and finished 7-of-26 from beyond the arc (7-26). The Lady Bucs assisted on 16 of their makes with Davis leading the way at seven. The Musketeers outscored ETSU 50-14 in the points and netted 28 second-chance points. However, the Lady Bucs recorded 25 fast-break points, but the Lady Bucs were an uncharacteristic 11-of-17 from the free throw line.
With Harris leading the way at 31 points, fellow Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy candidate Ta'Shia Phillips added 23 points and 21 rebounds.
Sunday was a bittersweet day for the Blue and Gold, as Evans and Wiles said good-bye to the Lady Buccaneer faithful after posting astonishing playing careers. Over the four years, the dominate duo compiled 84 victories - including four consecutive trips to the postseason play. Evans finished her career fifth on the all-time scoring charts (1,829) and third in rebounds (1,116). Meanwhile, Wiles enjoyed a stellar a career as well, finishing sixth all-time with 1,503 points.
"It's really hard to put Siarre's and TaRonda's careers into words, because they have done so much for this program," added Kemp. "They made a difference the day they stepped onto the campus of ETSU. They are winners - and I am not saying we haven't had winners before - but they are winners and knew how to compete. I think we were fortunate to get them, and I think they feel fortunate to have been at ETSU. I told the players in the locker room that if we don't continue to have success next year and the year after, that Siarre and TaRonda will call them and chew them out because they have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears out there for this program."
Xavier will take on sixth-seeded Vanderbilt on Tuesday for the right to advance to the sweet 16.
For more information on Lady Buccaneer basketball, visit www.ETSUBucs.com.


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Britney Spears + Stevie Nicks Remixed for 'Till the Dream Ends'
As pop music divas go, Britney Spears and Stevie Nicks are pretty much opposites in just about every way, but they blend together nicely on a new mashup remix called 'Till the Dream Ends.'
The track combines Brit's smash hit 'Till the World Ends' with 'Dreams,' from Fleetwood Mac's legendary 1977 album 'Rumours.' The construction of the remix is simple — the instrumental music from Spears' dance song is placed under Nicks' vocals from the Fleetwood Mac classic.
The tempo picks up as Nicks hits the chorus, "Thunder only happens when it's raining / Players only love you when they're playing / Say women, they will come and they will go / When the rain washes you clean you'll know." The remix hits its peak near the end as Spears' "Whoa-oh-oh-oh" vocal loop finally appears.
We've never imagined Stevie Nicks as a synth-pop performer, but 'Till the Dream Ends' makes it work. Brit obviously approves — she posted the mashup on her official Tumblr page. We're guessing Nicks doesn't mind being paired with Britney, since she was cool with Destiny's Child sampling her 'Edge of Seventeen' guitar riff in 'Bootylicious.'
Listen to Britney Spears and Stevie Nicks' 'Till the Dream Ends'


text:
|2010-01-03, 22:57
|Link #181
Portable Dude Mk. II
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: All ghillied up spying on someone ~2,000 yards away using telescope sights.
Age: 30
... who's Floris? I've not been reading the novels lately so I'm kinda missing out on new info. >_<
|2010-01-04, 04:32
|Link #182
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: In my room
she first appear on vol 16.
As one of the enemies hired by one of the princess. In vol 17 the guy help her or rather save her.
She is quite quite so I like her. It's rare for touma to have foreign harem even though ursula looks like one.
|2010-01-04, 19:40
|Link #183
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
I think To Aru Majutsu no Index can be made better with just a few changes:
Touma is a girl.
All of the members of her harem are now guys.
Replace Touma's punches with slaps.
Now, the story is about some crazy girl who goes around rescuing various guys. After slapping the crap out of the guys' enemies, Touma gives a long shpiel about the value of life to all of the dudes in distress. Shortly after they all fall in love but the girl is oblivious and continues to slap adding more and more to her collection of dudes.
|2010-01-04, 20:00
|Link #184
Good-Natured Asshole.
Join Date: May 2007
Age: 29
|2010-01-05, 14:22
|Link #185
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: In my room
I like index the way it is. And if they change it I don't want the other girls turning into guys. though I'm not against turning touma into a girl but the others and having a main heroine plus tons of guys NOOOOO F****** WAY!!!!!
|2010-01-05, 19:09
|Link #187
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: In my room
even if its a joke its enough to give me chills down my spinal column signaling my brain that I'm having a mental break down.
I don't like story with pretty boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bringing the idea in index for every girl turn into boys and touma turning to a girl ( I like this one ) is A NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOO! to me.
TOuma is fine in either gender. She/He will stay hero. To be honest I think the girl touma is better. I'm a fan of yuri to begin with but NO NO NO BOYS!
Serious mental damage.... reaching critical level... need to activate regeneration process.......
skipping school because of head ache.
|2010-01-05, 19:40
|Link #190
Some say I'm the Reverse
Join Date: Jul 2006
"Obaachan once said: An attractive character is an attractive character, regardless of his or her gender."
(Point to sky)
...although for it to work with the genders reversed, I'd have to say Index would be a more responsible and serious priest and Touma the one with the crazy appetite.
|2010-01-05, 20:15
|Link #192
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: In my room
I don't want to imagine but wilfri force me too..... now I just remember some hentai loli/shota manga. The one tends to the teacher getting pranks from her student but ended up in h.........
my eyes my eyes are bleeding. Need to look again at my swimsuit wearing biribri and the flat face of touma saying. what is she doing. ( no love super ultra dense guy )
why does it always had a same theme that the leading in harem are dense. Though some had backbone knowing they are harem leading but it tend up to be too much ecchi.
|2010-01-06, 11:39
|Link #194
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Age: 35
To keep the plot from collapsing would be my guess.
Once the lead settles on someone, most of the wacky happenings that work in a harem situation get a lot less funny and a lot more complicated if there's a genuine relationship involved.
|2010-01-06, 22:04
|Link #196
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Hmmm...what I like about Touma is that he doesn't give up in any situations even when odds are highly against him. In addition when his anti-magic right hand always gives him a bad day everyday.
Spoiler for Episode 14:
By the way, after listening and watching a few voice acting samples and scenes of Johnny Yong Bosch, I am completely convinced (as well as from MrTerrorist) that Johnny Yong Bosch is a second candidate to voice this character for an English dub if James Arnold Taylor can't voice Touma for legal reasons. Of course, I would rather have Bosch voice Accelerator instead of Touma.
BTW, I'm planning to start a character sheet of To aru Majutsu no Index in TV Tropes. If anyone can describe Touma with tropes from TV Tropes, It would be a great gift.
|2010-01-07, 00:11
|Link #197
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: In my room
what's tropes?
Are their going to be a dub version of to aru? is it going to be released in america?
And accelerator is literally the strongest esper and still in his best form (without cripple state yet) so YES the guy is amazing for beating up a monster.
|2010-01-07, 02:26
|Link #198
Good-Natured Asshole.
Join Date: May 2007
Age: 29
Until they develop an awesome random Trope combo generator, I continue to think of them as grasping straws.
|2010-01-07, 04:51
|Link #199
Some say I'm the Reverse
Join Date: Jul 2006
That's the issue I have with dubs--it only takes one not-right voice actor for the role to really mess it up.
|2010-01-07, 06:41
|Link #200
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Age: 27
Anti Magic
Blessed With Suck
Catch Phrase
Cosmic Plaything
The Dulcinea Effect
Think Nothing Of It
Those are the only ones i can think of.
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