Can Iowa State ever hold a lead? Can NFL referees ever make correct calls in big games? Can Nebraska ever have any bad luck? Can North Carolina win a big game? Is hell heating up now that the New York football teams are tied for first? Do I put a jinx on teams I think will win? Can I write a good column, or can I write a column that is not awful?

To paraphrase a Dodge ad, these are the questions. Last weekend was the answer. The weekend produced some stunning answers to all the questions except the last few, which are silly, facetious questions anyway.

I don’t have many complaints about the weekend’s results. I think that what ISU did this weekend was a vast improvement over previous games. Although we didn’t prevent the other team from winning, we didn’t hand the game over on a platter. We played our hearts out and showed why we deserve fan support. I’m not a huge McCarney fan, but he really got his players up. And, as with the Cubs, there’s always next year (not to say that we couldn’t win, but it’s not particularly likely).

The bad calls made this week in the NFL either favored my teams or the teams I didn’t care about. I’m OK with both of those things. My Dolphins were beneficiaries of a blown call on a Glenn Foley to Wayne Krebett pass that Krebett clearly caught and then fumbled after being down by contact, i.e., no fumble at all.

Another call, a bad, bad call, was on Monday night. The scene is as follows, the Eagles returner signaled for a fair catch and someone ran into him before he had a chance at the ball. The play was ruled no foul after the Niners recovered. When refs make a call as bad as that, it’s simply awful!

The Giants and Jets finally lost. Breathe a sigh of relief, maybe the world is not coming to an end. But I do think the Tuna and the Fossil (Jim Fossel) can lead the green men and the big men to the playoffs.

Wait, according to ABC, Judgement Day was Saturday. Say everything you want to say, and do everything you want to do!

Wait again, they were referring to College Football. Sorry! And North Carolina was judged badly, as was Penn State. The mighty pollsters dropped them, and they dropped Nebraska as well because the Huskers were forced to rely on God to save the game against the Tigers.

I can explain many of Saturday’s results. It is (creepy music, please) Athreya’s jinx. Whenever I predict a team as a winner, they lose by a lot. When Michigan State was unbeaten, I thought they could win it all. Bang! They lost four in a row. When I thought the Giants would win the World Series they immediately were swept by Florida. When I thought Nebraska would win, they nearly lost. I believed that UNC and PSU would win, and they went out and died. When I thought the Jets would run away with the division, my Dolphins beat them. Heck, I even thought Moorer would beat Holyfield and that the Niners wouldn’t make the playoffs without Jerry Rice.

Shows how smart I am, or how powerful my cosmic enemies are.

But perhaps the jinx is wearing off. I was right about the fall of the Cowboys, and I’ve been right about ISU hockey (at summer’s end I predicted them to be No.1). So it is with less apprehension that I can say ISU basketball will win it all. Oh yeah! The Cyclone men win the big dance, and the Cyclone women take the Big 12. Hopefully, we won’t soon be asking questions about our Cyclones.

Jayadev Athreya is a sophomore in mathematics from Ames.