We’ve been meaning to do this for quite some time now, but finally remembered to post about The Return of The Birminghamster.

It appears the much-lamented demise of a Birmingham guerrilla operative’s Onion-esque riffs on everything Birmingham was premature. A few weeks ago, the Weekly called out the ‘Hamster, who hadn’t posted a new issue since November.

We don’t know if we had any direct impact, but the perceptive rodent has been flushed back out into the open. (One faux headline in the issue, “‘Hamster Shamed” makes us think that maybe, just maybe, we had something to do with it.)

The new March 14 posting includes a spoof on a Holy Hoagie at T-Bones, and a painfully funny jab at BJCC DomeLite proponents who compromised by building half a dome. (Be sure to check out The ‘Hamster’s new poll on John Rodgers the Hutt, too. We vote: “(Grumblerockschewinginaudiblerockchewing).”

[P.S. A fine gift from our editor's office if anyone can unmask the mind behind the 'Hamster. Be warned, though: Our editor has a lot of weird stuff.]

(Dis)Honorable Mention

We already knew that we could add Louisiana to the short list that includes Mississippi when we make jokes about bordering states. But now the national press is onto it, too.

In his column that appears in the upcoming March 26 issue of Sports Illustrated, back-page smart-aleck Rick Reilly wrote about the college campus trend of “cyberheckling” that has students doing internet research on opposing schools’ athletes and coaches – better ammo to heckle with, of course.

He closes the column by referring to the fake news story circulated about the University of Alabama’s new coach, Nick Saban, that made the rounds shortly after Saban jetted Miami futility for UA humidity:

“For sheer guerrilla cyberheckling, though [Reilly writes], nobody beats SEC football fans. One of them posted a fake news story under a byline, quoting new Alabama coach Nick Saban as saying that Mississippi State was funding scholarships ‘by collecting pop bottles and aluminum cans along the highways,’ and that ‘we will go into Louisiana and take each and every player we want. LSU will not, nor can stop me.’”

“A lot of people believed it [Reilly continues], including Opelousas, La., Daily World sports editor Tom Dodge, who wrote a column ripping Saban, for which he was then fired.” [Dodge, that is – not Saban]

The article’s not online yet, so you’ll just have to trust us at this point. We’ll post a link when it’s up.

– Phillip Jordan