Brief Wednesday Sips:

I'm tryina learn about American Government and Art History over here, ya heard? Oh, and read my post two posts ago about ex-NU folks gone pro. Not to mention the fanposts Loretta and Chad posted over on the right. 

• For the only time this year, the mystical curtain behind the Coaches Poll is lifted, and in an Wizard of Oz twist, the guy voting up Northwestern week after week wasn't a host of coaches each mutually appreciating NU's success, but Charlie Weatherbie head coach for Louisiana-Monroe. Weatherbie had the Cats 16th, providing nine of NU's 24 points, good for 30th. Of course, Weatherbie had a lot of time this past week to fill out his ballot, because he got fired from his job November 30th after completing his seventh consecutive non-winning season at the helm of the Warhawks, but that certainly didn't effect the vigor with which he filled out his poll mere days later. (He also left LSU off the ballot. Dedicated to ULM to the end, that Weatherbie.) Robb Akey from Idaho had us 19th, while no Big Ten coaches had us in the 25 except Bill Lynch, who had us 24th. Basically, the poll reeks of rampant homerism (Brian Kelly put Cincinnati No. 1, Jim Harbaugh has Stanford five spots higher than anybody else at No. 12, North Carolina owes its two points to their own head coach, Butch Davis, and Missouri can thank Gary Pinkel for four of their five.) So, basically, never trust the coaches poll, until next year when we're ranked there and I can go like GO U NU YEAH and you'll forget I ever wrote this post.
• I know this video has been posted on every other NU sports blog, but it's funny, and tremendously executed. 
• I personally am excited to enjoy Outback Steakhouse's unique blend of American food with an Australian guy voicing over their commercials. (Does anybody actually know what type of food they eat in Australia? Is it really just the same food as in America, but you have to go to a suburban strip mall to get it?) My Outback experiences thus far in my life are essentially limited to the one Outback Steakhouse along the I-84 almost exactly in the middle of the drive between New York and Boston, which for me is essentially the only landmark in the middle of Connecticut for me to distinguish how much longer I have to go. And I have to say, I've never had any issues with the food there, although it is really annoying having to figure out which random town in Australia corresponds to the regular American food you're trying to get. However, I do have one complaint, which is that Outback's jingle is possibly the worst in the history of mankind:
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• "Life will still be there tomorrow?" The only less committed statement they could've given was "Go Outback Tonight... There's like an 80That's the best you can give me? To be honest, before I saw this ad, I had no fears that my life would not still be there tomorrow. When I'm deciding which chain restaurant I want to go to, one of my issues is not "how likely is it that I die within eight hours of eating their food?" But they kind of snuck that into the back of my head. 
• Also, this:
  
• First off, not funny. Second off, Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords is clearly from New Zealand, not Australia. Which is different.
• UPDATE: of course, a day after I do a major post about every NU player remotely near the NFL, the Saints sign Prince Kwateng to their practice squad. So good to see him getting paid.