The Visual State of Beat Visitor dot com on the Fifth of January Twenty Ten

It's obvious from this picture that I need to use the word Rutgers with more regularity. Rutgers. Rutgers. Rutgers. Visit Wordle.net to try one yourself for your own site, or for a website that you visit regularly.
I was surprised by the words that popped up most regularly on my blog. But I'll fix that. Rutgers. Rutgers. Rutgers. Scarlet Knights. Scarlet Kinghts. Scarlet Knights. Football. Football. Football.
This cloud of words was created using the tools at http://www.wordle.net/. Images of Wordles are licensed by a Creative Commons license.

Fashionable Flappers Love the Scarlet Knights

Everybody knows (or should know) that the last great economic crisis to hit the world is traditionally dated to the stock market crash that took place on Black Thursday, October 24, Black Monday, October 28, and Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929.
So, which magazine was lying around on the credenzas, sideboards, and davenports of America's fashionable parlors as the tickertape machines spewed out the news of losses? In many of those rooms of the newly poor, it was probably this October 25, 1929 issue of Life with the caption "I'd die for dear old Rutgers!"

Maybe she's just cold (note that she's wearing her boyfriend's letter sweater around her neck, not a scarlet scarf), and maybe she's thinking about what to do with her risky portfolio of investments, or the fact that her Stutz Bearcat is burning oil, but I know that look, and I get the idea that she's worried about more important things. I get the idea from the look on her face that her beloved men in scarlet are not in the process of winning.

(1929 record (5-4-0): 9/28 Providence W 17-0; 10/5 Delaware W 19-0; 10/12 at Holy Cross L 3-20; 10/19 St. John's (MD) W 14-7; 10/26 Catholic Univ. L 10-14; 11/2 Ursinus W 19-13; 11/9 at Lafayette L 6-20; 11/16 Lehigh W 14-0; 11/23 NYU L 7-20)

I found this picture of the Life cover here, but does anyone know where you can get this as a poster?

I also think that we need to start dressing better for our modern games. Maybe at Homecoming we can all start wearing blazers and scarlet ties and dresses and heels. (Or not.)

Vote for the "Face of Rutgers Football" at ESPN.com

ESPN has chosen the "1869 Photo[sic]" of the Rutgers-Princeton game as "ESPN.com's Face" of the Rutgers football program. You can help choose "SportsNation's Pick" for that honor by clicking here. You can choose the "photo" or Ray Rice or Greg Schiano or Brian Leonard. What, no Paul Robeson? No representation at all from the 20th Century??
There were no cameras that could freeze sports action in 1869 of course, so "the photo" is actually a cropped and decolorized reproduction of the Arnold Friberg painting that was commissioned by Chevrolet for the 100th anniversary of the game in 1969. You can see it, and a little bit of its history, here and here.
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[ESPN's inexact use of the written language continues on their Rutgers Team Page, where their ad for the ESPN Shop still (after at least a month) shouts: "RUTIGERS FANS, GEAR UP NOW!".
They also have a problem with their possessive case on the Comments page with the heading "Rutger's Face of the Program"; Rutger Who? Rutger Hauer?]