Rough stuff, real tough, Texas A&M

I'm sure there's more than one Maroon blooded purebred Aggie out there with an MLS who disdains an intentionally ironic, self-mocking 2%-er & godless commie bastard like moi squatting on the moniker Aggie Librarian. Fine, call go yourself the "Real Aggie Librarian" or something.

I do still bleed maroon myself, believe it or not, and I don't forget my humble beginnings at dear old Aggieland.

Here's where Aggies can go to check out the latest info on the most ridiculous Aggie-joke of an Intellectual Property lawsuit I've ever seen:

http://www.sawemoff.com/

Which is a battle between the University of Texas and this popular collegiate apparel vendor:
http://www.aggielandoutfitters.com/

(short URL is www.ao12.com )

As an atheist, I admit I'm not overly fond of the versions of the shirt that quote the bible verse out of the book of Psalms, but whatever. I know there are WAY more religious nutjobs in Aggieland than rational atheists, so that's just good marketing strategy.

I think the "Saw 'Em Off" 12th Man towel thing looks COOL. It's straight out of the goddamn Aggie War Hymn. We used to build Bonfire to express our burning desire to beat the ever livin', ever lovin' HELL outta t.u. (Which, as I never tire of pointing out, was a class-based resentment; Thanks, Dr. Resch, for introducing me to Uncle Karl, even if I resented the hell out of it at the time; it was real growth for me to find myself agreeing with ol' Karl & Fred way more than I expected I would)

Anyway, Watch out...and mark my word if the T-sips win this one, they'll go after our expression "t.u." next and any private vendor that dares sell t-shirts "defaming" their "logo" in that way; I mean, SERIOUSLY, WTF here!? I'm no intellectual property lawyer, but where the F*CK do STATE schools get off with this proprietary logo crap?? They ought to be goddamn public domain...our tax dollars go to support them and keep them OPEN, for fuck's sake. Private Universities, like Rice University (another of my Alma Maters), OK, I can understand THAT argument, were it at issue, but for PUBLIC universities? I just don't get it, but then again, I'm just a dumb Aggie, what do I know.

It amused (and annoyed) me to no end to watch my library school, the University of North Texas, go to enormous lengths to research and "rebrand" itself. There were SERIOUS meetings taking many months to find just the right "fit"; enormous funds were expended to better "market" the UNT "product" to its "consumers" (i.e. parents, students, employers, and UNT sports franchise fans). It was madness and folly from start to finish, but there it was.

As regards the Aggie Outfitters lawsuit, I do hope they (AO) prevail---not just because I'm an Aggie alumnus myself, but because UT-Austin's case is stupid and were THEY to prevail, the legal precedents set would be just awful and would take decades, maybe even a few generations, to reverse/overcome.