Vada Murray

We wanted to put our humorous hat aside for a moment and turn to much more important matters.  As some of you may know, former Michigan DB Vada Murray ('88-'90) has been battling cancer since 2008.  The father, husband and Ann Arbor police officer is facing a tougher battle than any he ever faced on the football fied.

Title 9 pointed me to Vada's page on CaringBridge.com, a website for family and friends to share information and support throughout a significant health challenge.  There, his family revealed on February 18th that Vada's cancer had metastasized to his brain.

In the next update on the 26th, his wife provides the following update:

Vada is home from the hospital & resting comfortably.  He has finished radiation treatments to the brain & is undergoing treatments to his spine & pelvic bone.  Radiation makes Vada very tired.  I am still limiting visitors & will let you know when this changes.

We have never, ever, in our lives felt so scared.  We also have never felt so loved.  Thank you for the cards, emails, text messages, phone calls & messages on this website; thank you for your continued expressions of love & support.  Thank you to the Ann Arbor Police Department for their unwavering love.  They give true meaning to the phrase, "Whatever you need, whenever you need it." Thank you for understanding if we don't personally return your message.  We both want you to know, we love you back.

Sarah (and Vada)

We here at the MZone wanted to let Vada and his family know they're in our thoughts and prayers.

We also wanted to provide the Vada's CaringBridge.com info above in case any of our readers want to give any words of encouragement to Vada and his family during this most difficult time.

Spring has sprung

HT: Go BlueBob. Tigers spring training games start today. In tribute to Ernie Harwell...

For lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone;
the flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
~ Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Those aren't dolls! Those are Tosu teaching aids!

Oh, man.

Your kids call what's going on in the video below "playing with dolls." But at Tosu it's "a sexual harassment training video created for an employment law class of the masters of labor and human resources program at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business."



Yeah, obviously a masters level class. Undergrads in C-bus only get to use Play Doh.

If the RV's a rockin'...it's probably because the shocks gave out

The picture and email below come from regular MZone reader, Phil:

Yost,

I'm on vacation in Florida (78 degrees tomorrow!) and Mascot Man pulls up beside me at a stoplight.  If it wasn't for the fact that the tires were bald, gray exhaust fumes where coming out of the tailpipe, the RV is at least 20 years old, it has a lighthouse in the back window and a super classy combo ladder/storage locker, this vehicle would be a real OSU chick magnet.  Hey, enjoy the off-season. 

GO BLUE!  

-Phil

Caption contest, anyone?

Wallpaper Wednesday: Tim Hardaway Junior

Two straight Big Ten Freshman of the Week Honors deserves a wallpaper.

HAIL!

UGA's hedges get police protection after attack on Toomer's Corner trees

(from MZone wire reports) Athens, GA - Note to 'Bama fans: don't even think about fucking with Georgia's hedges.

Who you calling overzealous?

In the wake of an Alabama fan poisoning the oak trees at Toomer's Corner, a place where Auburn fans have long celebrated football victories, the famous hedges inside Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia are now under police protection.

Just in case.

The arrest last week of redneck overzealous Tide fan Harvey Updyke, Jr. (pictured at right)  for allegedly using a potent tree-destroying herbicide on Auburn's cherished trees sent a chill through the Georgia fanbase.  They've been on edge about potential harm to their own hollowed greenery - the pivet hedges which have surrounded UGA's football field since 1929.

So this week, Georgia AD Greg McGarity ordered around the clock protection for Georgia's iconic shrubbery. 

"We share a loooong border with those crazy, oversigning bastards," said McGarity.  "So we're not taking any chances.  If the police inside Sanford Stadium see so much as one houndstooth hat and a weed wacker between the hedges, I've told them to shoot to kill between the eyes."

"Put the hedge clippers down.  NOW!"

Obese Buckeye fan gets stuck in doorway after shoplifting, then tased

Why T9 thought this warranted but a small blurb on his Delicious Buffet to the right, I'll never know.  I trust you'll see why I bumped it up, stat.

According to NYDailyNews.com:

A 400-pound Michigan woman was busted for shoplifting--and later hit with a Taser-- when her motorized cart got stuck in a supermarket's door, according to police.

Jerrie Perkins, 30, allegedly tried to steal more than $600 worth of electronic merchandise from a Meijer in Rochester Hills last week.

As she attempted to drive out of the supermarket in her cart, the door's alarm was activated. Perkins became hostile when Meijer employees approached her and asked for her receipt.

The 5-foot-2 woman shoved a loss-prevention officer and hit her in the face, the Oakland County sheriff's office told The Oakland Press.

When authorities asked her to put her hands behind her back, she cursed, according to a press release from the sheriff's department, "balled her right hand into a fist and took a fighting stance."

Twice Perkins was asked to put her hands behind her back before deputies zapped her with the Taser.

On her Friendster account, Perkins describes herself as a singer/songwriter/deejay with "a little extra weight."

She was released on $15,000 bail and charged with unarmed robbery, resisting and obstructing a police officer and second-degree retail fraud.

So, why did we do a story about a female shoplifter in Michigan?  Well, check out the pic below:  apparently Ms. Jenkins is a "big" Buckeye fan.

As far as we know, the only basketball in this photo is the orange and white one
being held by the woman in black

Now, there is so much to discuss about this story, I'm not sure where to begin.  So let's just dive in, shall we?

First of all, in the NYDailyNews.com article linked above, their caption under the pic above reads:

Jerrie Perkins, 30, right, attempt to steal from a Meijer in Michigan was foiled when she got stuck in the doorway, police said. 

Perkins is the one on the right?  No shit.  Gee, thanks for clearing that up.   

And I love this line in the initial news story:

On her Friendster account, Perkins describes herself as a singer/songwriter/deejay with "a little extra weight."

Uh, who the hell has a Friendster account?  What is a Friendster account?   Isn't that like a place where swinger's meet?  Can any of our readers in The Lifestyle clear that up for me?


And "a little extra weight"?  Come! On!  Weighing 400 pounds and having to get around on a scooter is not " a little extra weight."  I know we all exaggerate online but that's like Gerg Robinson saying his defense had "a couple lapses" last season.


Finally, I see she was charged with unarmed robbery, second-degree retail fraud, and resisting and obstructing a police officer.  "Obstructing"  a police officer?  Okay, that's just being mean now.


Hey, what is the female equiv of the Buckstache?