...but what really knocked me out was her cheap sunglasses.

By popular demand...

"Are you talkin' to us?"

Concrete, it might surprise you to learn, is the most used building material on Earth. Enough of the stuff is produced each year to provide every man, woman and child on the planet more than a full cubic meter worth. It's also a heck of a lot more versatile than you would expect and can be used to construct a variety of unlikely products - like, say, canoes.

The University of Alabama is hosting the finals of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 22nd Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition this week. The initial weigh in and critical "float test" will be held on The Quad between 7 and 11 a.m. tomorrow and the actual races will be held Saturday at Lake Nichol from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The competition is considered the "America’s Cup of Civil Engineering" with technical expertise playing as large a role in the success of a team's entry as physical prowess on the water. In fact, the canoe competition is less a question of making a vessel that is seaworthy than maximizing the properties of the material to create the fastest craft possible.

The University of Nevada, Reno will be trying to repeat as champions against a field of 22 teams who have advanced from regional semi-final contests held during the spring. The honor of the State of Alabama will be upheld by the engineers from UA Huntsville who have no less than five championships under their belt (although the last was in 2001). This year Team UAH has built a 20-foot-long canoe dubbed "ITZ Civilized" (it’s an engineering thing) that weighs in right at 217 pounds. They spoke to The Huntsville Times this week about their hopes for the competition.

Curious? A few YouTube vids from last year's competition after the jump:

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As you are all no doubt aware, we are working dilligently on getting this year's edition of Yea Alabama completed and are roughly two weeks away from wrapping things up.  One of the articles we'll be doing this year is a focus on tailgating culture in the SEC, and in the sidebars we are going to have grilling tips and recipes for y'all to try this fall.  Here's where you come in; if you have a special something you make for your tailgates that all your friends love and you think everyone should try, send it in.  Recipes should be:

1. Not overly complicated.  These are things that should ideally be prepared on a grill, so no special equipment that isn't normally found in a stadium parking lot and no special culinary skills beyond what your average Food Network viewer can handle should be required.  
2. Mostly original.  We know there are only so many ways to do a burger, but don't just copy and paste something you saw on Boy Meets Grill.  This should be something reasonably unique to you and your tailgate.
3. Creative.  Any idiot can open a can of baked beans and toss some bacon in it.  Give us some baked beans (or whatever) that will make people think "never though of that, but I'm doing it this way from now on!"
4. Opponent specific. This one may be a little tricky, but if you have an awesome way to do turkey legs that would go great before the Va. Tech game or a unique hush puppies recipe for Mississippi State, then that's the kind of creativity we're looking for.

E-mail them to us at rollbamaroll -at- gmail.com by Friday, and I'll select the ten or so that sound the best over the weekend to post here.  Popular vote will decide the top four (this isn't cheesecake voting, so my blogtator hat will be off on this one) and those lucky winners will have their recipes included in the book with full credit to their submitter, and we'll also send you a free copy once it's printed (though if you still wanted to go out and buy two extra copies for all your family and friends that would be great, too). 

Birmingham artist Bonard Hughins (via alias Baxter Wahl) currently has a show up at Rojo on Highland Avenue that includes one Alabama football related piece titled The Reason Alabama Lost the First Iron Bowl. The rest of the series, like this piece, takes actual events, people and places around Highland Avenue in Birmingham history and puts a different spin on them. The series is called "The Highland Ave. Mystery Mini-Series." While I'm amused by this one as a football fan, it's actually one of my least favorite in the series. I particularly like the one about the Five Points fountain and the Highland Golf Course one. He also takes a shot at the current city government in one of the pieces as well.

I think anybody from Birmingham and especially those familiar with Southside will recognize just about everyone and every place in the series. Very cool drawings. You can go see them in person at Rojo or see the ones Hughins has put up on his Flickr photostream (where you can view the drawings much larger):

Looks like a reasonable theory to me.

Not sure how many of you know this, but Alabama has a hockey team, and they are apparently pretty good. We were contacted by a representative of the team about throwing some link their way, and I have to say I'm fairly impressed with what they've managed in a football crazy state at a football crazy program with a sport that no one plays here. Finishing the season at 19-5, they are currently ranked #8 in the ACHA South and headed to regionals at the Atlanta Ice Forum this weekend. What's that you say? Can't make it to Atlanta during Valentine's weekend for hockey? Well you'll have plenty of opportunity to see the Frozen Tide at the Pelham Civic Complex for the Southeastern Hockey Conference Championship. It's from Feb 27 - March 1, and you can download their press release/info packet here (word .doc, 92kb).

...it's gonna be stuck in yours, too.

Crimson and White Roundtable answers later tonight, and you can always listen to last night's RBR Radio Hour(ish) to pass the time.

...can't think of anything clever to say.

click to enlarge

SEC previews resume, one way or another, next week. I'm toying with an idea on how to quickly get the other eight teams I still have to do (or, in another way of putting, every conference team we actually play) in the two shorts weeks before the start of the season and still have them be worthwhile, so we'll see how well it works out over the weekend. Enjoy yours.