Off the topic ... mostly

Hey everyone. It's been a little while. Not much going on with Auburn, and I've been doing some non-Auburn work during the last few weeks. In that vein, I wanted to pass along a few totally random things that I've seen, thought and laughed about lately.

Lemme start with a few Auburn items. Those of you who read this only for the AU athletics stuff then can tune out.

**I talked with Jay Jacobs on Tuesday about a variety of Auburn issues. Much of it dealt with things you hard-core fans already know about. I thought the stuff about Troy was pretty interesting. Also, he'll be going to Destin for the summer meetings in the next few weeks for the program's big payday. Annual revenue-sharing payouts this season are expected to be around $20 million. They were $17 million last season.

**It's official: Tommy Slater is safe. Jacobs said so. The Tigers are 8-19 in the SEC right now. A three-game series at Kentucky, a very good team, will be Auburn's final outing of the season.

2005 team: 34-26, 13-17 in the SEC, no SEC tournament, lost in NCAA regionals
2006 team: 22-34, 9-21 in the SEC, no SEC tournament, no NCAAs
2007 team: 29-24, 8-19 in the SEC, no SEC tournament, no NCAAs

Jacobs is showing some guts sticking with Slater right now. Another flop season in 2008 surely would be Slater's final stand, which isn't a good thing in the grand scheme of things. Tommy Slater is a good man who is working hard to make that program better. I'm just not seeing much improvement. We've been hearing about this being an up-and-coming team for a few years now. It's been mostly down-and-going (down) so far. He has a chance to turn it around, of course, but it's getting late.

**Tray Blackmon is back on campus and getting situated for the upcoming semester. Graduation was last week. Summer school begins on May 16. Some people have suggested to me that Blackmon would transfer to Troy. No way. He's still got a clear shot to play at Auburn. His "record" with Tuberville et al will be clean once he enrolls in school. He's paid his dues. His last chance begins now.

--------------PERSONAL ZONE---------------
OK. I attended a wedding last weekend that was pretty surprising. I had a big Catholic wedding that was pretty traditional, so maybe I'm biased in that sense. Some things I saw last weekend struck me as, well, quirky.

2:00 -- Wedding scheduled to begin. Church full of guests.
2:10 -- Musician arrives
2:15 -- The gal who appears to be the coordinator begins discussing music selections with musician, who did not attend the rehearsal.
2:18 -- Musician asks pastor for ideas about how to get the keyboard to play through the amplifier. Pastor quickly gets it set up.
2:19 -- Sound check begins.
2:27 -- Actual wedding music starts.
2:39 -- Flower girl drops ... feathers ... which prefaces bride's walk down the aisle.

Also saw a groomsman in sunglasses. In a church. No sun. To his credit, he stuck with the shades through the ceremony and reception. His hero: Michael Irvin.