* College students might not want to admit it, but American Idol brings out the fire in everyone. Readers went hog wild after newbie Penn State contributor Petro declared his hate for the popular TV show and announced he wanted David Cook to win. By the time ole’ David brought home the trophy (stealing America’s heart by over 12 million votes), thousands of OTR readers had examined Petro’s comments.

“Sheesh - talk about NEGATIVE - Go find something to be happy about - instead of using all your energy to criticize!” an passionate Mary Sunshine wrote. “David A was at least AS talented as David Cook - both young men - are extremely talented - and BOTH young men WILL succeed....Get a life - and be happy!! Seems all you could say was negative!! I feel bad for you!!”

“I absolutely loveee david archuletta,” another wrote. “If you hated idol so much, why are you putting soo much extra effort into bashing it? So really stop bashing on my boy archuletta..he made it this far and he's only 17, that shows alotttt.”

One grammatically-challenged reader went so far as to post a poem:

Hey Buddy
You Suck
IF you hate it so much y do u complaine about
oh thats rite
U HAVE NO LIFE 

The Idol reactions were so intense Petro decided to make a contest of it.
“I'm hoping to start up a weekly (bi-weekly) FanMail post. Send me any questions you have and I'll respond to them,” he wrote in a separate post. “I want to have some fun with this so lets do it together!”

Hey Idol fans, you heard the man! Get writing!


* OTR Editor Lacy sparked a war in the Midwest when she asked readers to compare the hotness of two dudes – Michigan’s Justin Finkelman and Cliff Rippel of Minnesota State.

“Finkleflex looks like a scrawny bitch,” an anonymous Cliff fan declared. “Probly [sic] played golf in high school.” While some seemed to fall in line with this thinking, a female reader disagreed. 
“Clifford is gay for posing with his car in the background,” she wrote. “Guys who try too hard = gross!”

By 4pm on Friday 60% of the votes went to Finkelman, but another 32% voted that both contestants were fugly. One reader responded to the poll with a question of his own: 

“There is such a thing as Minnesota State University?” 

We may never know...


* Social drinkers and drunks alike banded together with additional contributions for UMDBlogger’s list of Great Summer Drinking Games.

“Me and my friends created a variation on flip cup called The DUKE,” a presumed Dukie wrote. “If you are stuck at DUKE for long you will never get out, but you sure will pass out. It gets everyone drunk pretty fast and it’s a good time.”

“Try to play kings with mixed drinks,” one reader offered. “Waterfall gets a little difficult but it severely increases the time to drunk ratio.”

Other suggestions included Corners, Quarters, Booze Kart and an oddly title “zummmy zummmmayyyy zummy zummaayy,” which was proclaimed “clearly the best game.” Later, FuhQ2 generously took the time to post links to the directions on the suggested games.


* Sports Illustrated gave love to UW-Madison contributor Blondie for her post on senior Danielle McIntosh’s hula hoop rack invention. “Great Rack” their headline applauded.


* Finally, The Philosopher expressed relief that his Tuft’s degree might have some value based on the idea that Jessica Biel (a Jumbo drop out) could survive without a full education and still marry Justin Timberlake.

“This news comes at an extremely encouraging time,” he wrote. “If Jessica Biel gets to drop out of Tufts and marry Justin, then our degrees TOTALLY guarantee something, right?”

Sadly, Hector squashed the dream. “I think Jessica Biel's plump rear-end is what guaranteed her the marriage, not the Tufts degree,” he suggested gently.
Ahhh, well still.  A boy can dream... 


Until next week!