Howdy all!

(In a continuing tradition, I reuse as much of last year's email as
possible... This may be 4 straight years of essentially the same
email)

First I'd like to congratulate you all on being selected to be on my
2008/9 bowl pool invitation list. You should feel very honored! (I've
been using that joke for as long as I can remember, now, and I'm very
likely the only one who gets it. But I sure do enjoy it...) For those
of you who rarely hear from me, feel free to consider this a Christmas
(or similar (non-)religious holiday) card.

***
*** Stop skimming now! Actual rules follow! ***
***

There are a whopping 34 bowl games this year (!!). For each game pick
the winner (straight up, we don't use the line, I only include it for
informational purposes). Then, rank the games from most confident to
least confident where for the game you're most confident about there
are 34 points on the line. Second most confident is worth 33 points...
for the game you're least confident about there is 1 point on the
line.

Clearly you will all pick Virginia Tech as your most confident game
and will win 34 points when they roll over Cincinnati.

(And if that wasn't clear, let's say you choose Cincinnati as the
Orange Bowl winner and put it as your 27 point game. If Cincinnati
wins you get 27 points. If Cincinnati loses you get 0 points. Zippo.
Not a sausage.)

Whoever gets the most total points, well, wins.

Entry is $3. It's not $3 because it was last year (and every year).
It's not $3 because that's what it costs me to buy a small blizzard at
Dairy Queen (heh, not anymore...). It's not $3 because that's as much
as I can get for renting my dog out for stud. It's $3 because it's the
proper amount. Period. Anyone entering a pool that charges a different
amount will suffer panic attacks throughout the holiday season and be
doomed to a miserable 2009. Be good to yourself and stick to the three
dollar pools.

Last year we had 38 entries and paid out the top 5. The particulars of
the payout are up to me because I am all powerful or, at least, am the
one sending the email... and I choose to keep them secret for now and
will for the foreseeable future or until I figure out what they are. I
will announce the payout after all the entries show up... if I feel
like it.

*********************************************************************
Entries must be received before the first game on December 20! Entry
fees can take their sweet time but PLEASE don't make me hunt you down.
There nothing less fun about running this than fighting to get $3 from
you. Just do it now, eh? PayPal it in... you'll be done in 2 minutes.
*********************************************************************

EMAIL your entry to doug@...

PLEASE make it VERY CLEAR in your entry which games get 34 points, 33,
32, and so on. Assume I'm a drooling idiot and need things spelled
out. If your entry is confusing you owe me an extra $10 per entry as a
processing fee.

**** **** **** **** **** ****
I include a partial example of my preferred entry style at the
bottom of this email. Please make it look like that!
**** **** **** **** **** ****

Feel free to enter as many times as you like.

I prefer payment by PayPal, if possible.

If you are NOT using a credit/debit card, PayPal to Doug@...

If you ARE using a credit/debit card, PayPal to doug@... and
include an extra $.50 to cover the fees.

Or, if you're not into modern technology, send your big buxx to

170 Windfall Dr
Winterville, GA 30683

----------------------------------------------------------------
If this table looks messy change your font to a fixed width font and
it will look sun shiningly beautiful!

Date Bowl Favorite Line Underdog
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec 20 Eagle Bank Wake Forest 3 Navy
Dec 20 New Mexico Fresno St 3 Colorado St
Dec 20 St. Petersburg South Florida 13 Memphis
Dec 20 Las Vegas Arizona 3.5 BYU
Dec 21 New Orleans Troy 3.5 Southern Miss
Dec 23 Poinsettia TCU 2 Boise St
Dec 24 Hawaii Hawaii 1.5 Notre Dame
Dec 26 Motor City Central Mich 6.5 Florida Atlantic
Dec 27 Meineke West Virginia 0 North Carolina
Dec 27 Champs Sports Florida St 5.5 Wisconsin
Dec 27 Emerald California 6 Miami
Dec 28 Independence Northern Ill 2 Louisiana Tech
Dec 29 Paja Johns Rutgers 6.5 NC State
Dec 29 Alamo Missouri 13.5 Northwestern
Dec 30 Humanitarian Maryland 0 Nevada
Dec 30 Texas Rice 3 Western Michigan
Dec 30 Holiday Oklahoma St 3.5 Oregon
Dec 31 Armed Forces Houston 3 Air Force
Dec 31 Sun Oregon St 3 Pittsburgh
Dec 31 Music City Boston College 4 Vanderbilt
Dec 31 Insight Kansas 10 Minnesota
Dec 31 Chick-fil-A Georgia Tech 4 LSU
Jan 01 Outback Iowa 3 South Carolina
Jan 01 Gator Clemson 3 Nebraska
Jan 01 Capital One Georgia 6 Michigan St
Jan 01 Rose Southern Cal 10 Penn St
Jan 01 Orange Cincinnati 2 Virginia Tech
Jan 02 Cotton Texas Tech 6 Mississippi
Jan 02 Liberty East Carolina 2.5 Kentucky
Jan 02 Sugar Alabama 11 Utah
Jan 03 International Connecticut 4.5 Buffalo
Jan 05 Fiesta Texas 10 Ohio St
Jan 06 GMAC Ball St 2.5 Tulsa
Jan 08 BCS Champ Florida 3 Oklahoma


------------------------------------------------------------------

Make your entry look like this and I will love you!

34 Georgia Tech
33 Virginia Tech
32 Georgia
31 Texas
30 Notre Dame
29 Southern Cal
...
2 Minnesota
1 Tulsa

(That is, put the point value and the winning team)