was PLS at ND. He and I were the only two people from my town to go there in like 20 years. He was a few years older than me and I went to visit him my senior year of high school.

My conclusion, PLS majors (among his friends, anyway) smoked a TOOOONNNN of weed.

but that book has done an outstanding job holding up a broken shelf in my kitchen cabinet.

That's what we do.

You know ... when we're not engaged in the whole Sharks v. Jets thing with Philo majors:

"Bitch, you only read excerpts of The Gay Science!"

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It's a must read.

Um, hopefully this is fully recognized as sarcasm.

that Coyne picked up at ND.

It's a condition of acceptance to Notre Dame that all males are to give their SYR dates a single red rose, picked up at the LaFortune flower shop.

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I went to one of her parties once.

People talked about books. A lot.

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An admonition to write concretely? A hackneyed cliche?

I actually met Coyne when he was on campus researching the book. I think it was at a PLS party (which, like all PLS parties, was RAWK-IN!).

The looks in the booth sum it up.

learning more about mid-1990s ND football. Trust me. I was there for all of it.

Apparently I was the first Domer he actually taught (and I got him to sign my copy). Best piece of his writing advice: "You don't give someone flowers, you give someone roses."

I haven't read it in ages, maybe I should go back.

It's not really about ND football so much as ND in general. But it takes place in 1992, which was the start of the greatest 4-year stretch in Notre Dame history and the era on which all future Notre Dame decisions should be based. Everything was perfect -- even the 10 days in 1994 where we didn't see the high side of zero degrees Farenheit were perfectly below-zero freezing our ass off days that added character and showed who the real ND men(tm) were.

In any event, the book may not exactly meet your needs, but it's a friggin' great read.

"I'm f-ing Irish. I'll deal with something being wrong for the rest of my life."

Same jokes, same bad food, same guilt. I mean, at least the Eye-talian Catholics have good food. We get boiled meat and potatoes.

Go ahead, read Eden's book. You'll notice a few familiar names and faces in it, too.

Especially the 2004 season, including the Call For Change and some other NDNation-based stuff.

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It has struck me recently that I am pretty well-versed in the Rockne, Parseghian, and Weis/Kelly eras of ND football but not really in the 90s. I watched the games but was too young to follow/be interested in the Holtz/Monk/Wadsworth/etc. machinations until I got to campus in 2000.

Anybody know of a good book or magazine articles on this time period? The problem is most of what I know of already is either valedictories on coaches or hit pieces.

Is Touchdown Jesus by Scott Eden the best place to start?