A Sound of Sheer Silence

Tomorrow, Northwestern with open its 2026 football campaign against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.  The game will be played at Northwestern's exceptionally cool and beautiful temporary stadium on Lake Michigan.  The game starts at 8 pm Eastern/7 pm Central and can be seen on the BigTen Network, which is available on many cable and satellite packages as well as through the FoxOne app/stream service.  Which is how I will be watching the game.  Sigh.  Remember kids, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Having gotten this out of the way, I would like to kick off this season by discussing how to be a responsible sports fan.  Being a sports fan is, or at least can be, a perfectly reasonable and productive lifestyle choice.  But there are also some ways in which it can become very toxic, both to yourself and those around you.  Fortunately, these toxic dimensions can be avoided by keeping a few simple principles in mind. 1.  This is...

Good evening.  My name is Michael Boyle, and I am a fan of Northwestern University football.  In a bit I will explain how  I came to be a fan of this somewhat niche team in the Big Ten Conference of what is now referred to at "FBS" college football.  But first, I want to share my vision for this project so that you, the reader, can have your expectations properly set for what I plan to provide over the course of the fall. Beginning on September 5, 2026, Northwestern will play a series of 12 games on a generally weekly basis.  Before each game, on Friday, I will post an essay in connection with the game.  I say "in connection with the game" because I anticipate these essays will have a varied degree of connection to the actual game that will be actually played on the field.  Perhaps some essays will provide some sort of substantive analysis of the game, but I suspect many of them will be inspired by the game in a much looser fashion, on a more thematic ...

In January 2023, Virginia Marie Boyle nee Jones passed away.  I have tried, over the course of the time since then to write something about Mom.  The problem, I have come to realize, is that I was trying to write something that described who she was.  That is, I have come to see, an impossible project.  It can't be done, at least not by me.  Instead, what I can do is describe who she was to me .  I can only tell you what she was from my albeit narrow and singular point of view, and not try to occupy some sort of objective perspective.  I can only talk about her in a personal, and perhaps even narcissistic, way.  And so, this is what I will to do here. Let me start at the end, and work my way back to the beginning.  Prior to January 2023, I have never lost someone who had the significance in my life equivalent to Mom.  A friend was killed in a car accident when I was 8, and I lost my maternal grandparents at 13 and 23, respectively (my pa...