News of the day, 1/31

Hey everyone. My lovely lass DVR'ed "Through the Looking Glass" last night, so I'm now fully up to speed for tonight's season premiere of LOST. As you know from yesterday's blog, I'm highly geeked about this.

I know you're here for Auburn. So let's talk about Auburn.

Thanks to residents of 49 American states for making this the HOTTEST Auburn blog on the 'net. Maine is the lone holdout since December 15. That's really disappointing considering all the nice things I said about you during my trip to "Vacationland" in 2000.

Coach Jeff Lebo said last night, and re-iterated today, that F Korvotney Barber's broken left wrist is not healing as quickly as expected. The junior was due for a re-assessment this week, but that has been delayed a week. That means Barber's best-case scenario for a return is the third week in February. Remember that he hasn't practiced since the injury in late December.

Barber is six minutes past the NCAA's medical-redshirt threshold. College athletics' governing body extended the redshirt window to 30 percent of the season this year (up from 20 percent), so it's unlikely that Barber will receive leniency from the NCAA.

He's still expected to apply for a waiver.

HABOTN fave Bryan Matthews, who is 40, has word that Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., deep snapper Dax Dellenbach has committed to play football at Auburn beginning this summer. If you're wondering why Tommy Tuberville would dedicate a scholarship to a long snapper, well, I don't have a great answer for you. I will at some point.

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LOST AREA
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Michael Emerson, who plays the manipulative Ben Linus on the show, spent nearly two years in Montgomery (93-95) at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Emerson met a gal there by the name of Carrie Preston, she played Ophelia during ASF's 1995 reprisal of "Hamlet," and the two actors married in 1998.

The downside for Auburn fans: Emerson attended ASF because the institution, in conjunction with University of Alabama, offered a master's degree in fine arts. So he's technically a Bammer, though I'm fairly sure he isn't a big Crimson Tide fan per se.

Here's an excerpt from a recent interview he did with The Reel Deal:

I knew that there was one thing that I wanted to do and that was to pursue a career in the classics on stage. And when I heard about this training program at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, it looked to me like that was the answer to my dreams. That this was a way for me to withdraw from the mad scramble of my so-called career and be able to focus on something that I was interested in and that I felt passionate about.

Now, it did involve some sacrifices. One of them was freedom of movement. It meant moving to Montgomery, Ala., for two years and being in the clutches of a big institutional theater for that period of time. And I mean long hours and a ridiculously heavy load between my academic work and my stage work. It was kind of overwhelming and occasionally made me feel fairly desperate. Often, there were days when I just wanted to get in my motor vehicle and drive anywhere that was away from Montgomery.

But in the end, I got through it. And I was glad to have done it because it was tremendously focused and it took me off the treadmill of my former life.

There's a picture of Evangeline for those of you itching for a shot of this gal.