of the English language? Really? Why is this a recurring theme amongst Arkansas fans and apparently now State fans? It will never once upset me to know that there are certain people who are bothered by the way I or my co-bloggeurs write because, frankly put, such sentiments make our detractors look stupid.

Unless, of course, you were somehow complementing me. If so, then thanks.

Also, you missed the whole point of my Dan Mullen and Schadenfreude bit. There is nothing wrong with Schadenfreude per se (I just combined German and Latin there. If that makes your brain cry then I apologize.), but rather the general attitude of the common Bulldog fan. My argument is that a plethora of Mississippi State fans care more about Ole Miss losing than they do about State winning.

Hell, just yesterday a good FotC called me and told me a story about one particular State fan he recently interacted with. One of his students (he teaches in a high school near Jackson) heckled him in class because Ole Miss lost the Egg Bowl. The FotC then asked his State fan student to name one player on the Mississippi State team, to which the “fan” couldn’t even spit out a single reply.

Having grown up in Mississippi, I’ve seen this kind of nonsense more than enough times to count. State fans have convinced themselves that everything Ole Miss does is pure, unadulterated evil and have literally deluded themselves via rivalry groupthink. Dan Mullen is astute enough to have known this and simply plays off it for fan support (also, the fact that he could outcoach Croom while drunk and blindfolded doesn’t hurt either).

Back when I was in high school, I remember my English classes teaching entire vocabulary lessons on words of foreign origin. Helps on those standardized tests – and reading a higher level of writing of course (sorry, State).

dehumanzes people who lose, like Ghost.