FanPost

Know your Jams!

Too many jams and not enough time. - Photo by dichohecho via Flickr.

Having written that A&M is the sole SEC rep in this weekend's Paradise Jam, I concerned when I opened Swish Appeal and saw:

Lady Vols vs. Virginia in the Paradise Jam, 2 PM EST

Did I have a brain cramp while reading the Paradise Jam schedule?

No, I'm afraid that while Lady Vols fans are the gold standard for fans of Women's College Basketball, Rocky Top Talk's Chris Pendley is understandably confused.

  • Basketball Travelers is a purveyor of fine basketball tourneys in sunny locations, just as Fortnum and Mason is a purveyor of fine fruit preserves to Her Majesty the Queen*. The Woodland Strawberry Preserve and the Coronation Royal Sovereign Strawberry Preserve are both Strawberry Jams, but they are different products with berries from Scotland and England, respectively. I get my strawberry jam from Smuckers, but I can't afford to vacation in the Bahamas (Junkanoo) or the Virgin Islands (Paradise) either.
  • Perhaps Chris was deceived by the fact that there is an orange wearing team that calls itself UT in the Paradise Jam. At TAMU we call them tu to avoid just this kind of confusion**. We hope to BTHO tu tonight. Texas burnt orange is a little more scorched after their blowout loss to yet another orange team: Syracuse in the Reef (not Reefer) division of the Paradise Jam. Maybe Chris was confused by all the teams with orange in their colors playing on a holiday. If you make jam with oranges, it's a marmalade. If you make jam with reefers, I hope you're in Colorado.
  • It's Junkanoo, not Junkaroo. A Junkaroo sounds like an animal mascot for a campus that consumes too much reefer marmalade. A Junkaroo is a joyful street parade with music, something I didn't bother to learn even when A&M first played in the Junkanoo Jam in 2003, finishing third (I probably thought it was Junkaroo at the time). I learned what a Junkanoo is from an episode of Top Chef, where they set the kitchen on fire. Later that year, the Ags returned to the Bahamas and the Junkanoo jam where Sydney Carter caught on fire and was the tourney MVP.

Whatever the Jam, here's to the SEC bringing home both crowns!

* wondering what the automatic ad placements will do with this fanpost!

** actually, we do that to annoy them. They call us "aggy" and much worse.