Don't Eat A Buckeye!

For all this time, I have managed to keep autoFoodography fair and apolitical, despite writing every single post from “within the beltway.” I just don't see the need to mix food and politics, for food is a great uniter. If you want to make the case that the debate between ground chuck and filet mignon had dual meaning this year, you can do so elsewhere. Well that's what I thought up until now. Food and politicking may need to be mixed now for sake of Michigan and peanut butter fans alike throughout the world.

Heading into this weekend, the first Michigan-Ohio State football weekend since 2002 that I have not been a student at UM, and the first time in memory that I have not been an Ann Arbor resident for the game, I feel my team has lost a little of its luster in my absence. Okay, maybe that’s a slight understatement. I think we've all heard the story of the fallen mighty, and most seem to revel in it when they're not the mighty (my coworkers). But perhaps it’s fear of the knowledge – of the certainty – that the mighty will be mighty again. That this brief joyous respite is only a mask for the fear of what's to come.

So like any Michigan fan, I would never head into this weekend with a look of shame on my face. Only one of pride and respect for our team, and the knowledge – the certainty – of our return. For I don't think anything is worth screaming your living heart out for one year – or five or fifteen – that you wouldn't scream for even when the odds were long. And in the exact same spirit, if someone were to offer me that surely-delicious, chocolaty-peanut-buttery, bon-bon-like, frou-frou treat known as the Buckeye last year during this weekend, I would have surely done what any Michigan fan would do. Refuse it, chuck it, even smash it into a peanut butter pancake. It's forbidden to eat a Buckeye! If you want chocolate, peanut butter, maize and blue all in your life, go find Reese, but of course don't go find a Buckeye fan! Not now, not then, not ever. Eating one with the comfort of knowing it won’t affect the game this year is the ultimate act of complacency and weakness. Not the behavior of any true Michigan fan.

Once you love the mighty Wolverines, you can never leave, never look at anyone else's team the same again. Never eat anyone else’s candy. Now might be winter for Michigan in more ways than one, but we hold our heads up – and Buckeye fans shouldn't hold their heads up too too high – for spring is not very far away. Just last night, look at the once-trodden basketball team. They never ate any Buckeyes, or Bruins for that matter, and now spring could be coming for them even sooner. In more ways than just one.