What's in a "the"?

Today we officially celebrate THE Day at the Blob, because THE U.S, Patent and Trademark Office has officially granted THE Ohio State University a trademark on the word "THE," which means OSU can now officially license merchandise using THE as part of it.

The Blob finds THIS ridiculous, but Ohio State has had a bug up its keister about it for at least three years now, when the school first filed to trademark it.

What you can say about that is THE Ohio State University is home to a lot of self-reverential twits, and that they all must have an inferiority complex wider than the Olentangy to make such a fuss over three measly letters. Also they're not real up to snuff on their history.

After all, it was Ohio University over in Athens that was calling itself THE Ohio University before there ever was an Ohio State. Which means Ohio State basically stole it to begin with.

In any case, all THE Buckeyes have done is set themselves up for some nuclear ridicule down the road. No one's more inventive at ridicule than college students, after all. And so imagine the banner the rival student section will unfurl should the Buckeyes ever again lose to Wisconsin or Penn State or, God forbid, even Michigan.

THE Losers, it will read.

Ouch.