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Hello, people. I???ve been banding about fifty half-baked ideas and writing for the past few weeks, and felt that returning to this format would be a good way to clear my head of at least some of these demons. I used to write a column called the Friday Night Pimpslap, and I???m going to continue this here, new name, same crap. Since this is going to be new to some of you, I???m going to start off with a bit of my fan history, then get into the topics of the week. Don???t expect award-winning writing ??? just expect award-winning thoughts, OK? This is a clearing house for me??? and if I get Zach to look over these, he???d really be looking for mushrooms on his bike ride home.

ITEM I: Fandom
Shall we begin with college basketball? OK. I grew up in North Carolina ??? and at the time there were few, if any, Duke fans during my formative years. You either were a UNC fan or a State fan. There was no middle ground ??? and unless you were an alumnus, there were no Demon Deacon stickers. So how did I pick what team to root for? Easy??? my brother was, and is, a State fan. Tada! I became a Tarheel. I will admit, I think I???ve received the better end of that deal over the years. I will admit, unlike most people, I hope Duke goes 26-4 every year ??? of course losing to UNC all four times. I remember the days of UNC being the only legit contender, and it makes for bad basketball. So I pull for all the ACC teams after Carolina. *(Next week, I???ll go over my college football fandom.)

http://sportsnickel.com/2011/04/09/a-saturday-sockful-of- nickels-vol-i/