The Joke of a University internet The-Ozone isn't an interweb that I visit on a regular basis. Much in the same way that Al Gore doesn't go poking around internets maintained by global-warming enthusiasts, I am not really looking for chances to interact with the barely literate and usually idiotic Buckeye nation. I used to regularly make an exception, though, for The-Ozone's weekly feature Michigan Monday.
Each week during football season, Ozone writer Tom Orr would chronicle and analyze the previous weekend's Michigan football game as an ostensible attempt at helping Buckeye fans keep track of the Wolverines in a smart, measured way. Orr was surely a Buckeye fan, but he was also an erudite football observer who was fair in his praise and criticism, regularly articulating Michigan truisms that were usually conveyed elsewhere with less clarity. Reading his Michigan Monday columns was a true guilty pleasure for a Michigan fan.
It no longer appears as though Wolverines will need to worry about generating so much traffic for The-Ozone, though, as Tom Orr has been replaced this season, to the detriment of everyone, by Tony Gerdeman. Gerdeman's initial Michigan Monday effort can be found here. The attempts at humor are awkward and lame, lacking Orr's wit; the writing style is mechanical and boring, lacking Orr's gift for exposition; and the observations are stilted, lacking the wonderfully efficient context that Orr applied admirably.