Kickoff? It's Between Noon And 4

One of TigerBlog's favorite domestic chores is doing the laundry. There's nothing quite like knowing that everything you own is clean and that TB is free to wear any of his 20 or so official Nike-issue "Princeton Athletics" shirts.

Sadly, TB put the laundry into the dryer Sunday afternoon, went back to get it an hour later and found that it was still wet and that the dryer wasn't heating up properly. First thing Monday, TB made a service call to get the dryer fixed, and he was told the first available appointment was for Thursday and that his options were either "between eight and noon or noon and 4."

As anyone who has ever needed something fixed or delivered knows, the best you usually get is a four-hour window. TigerBlog has always wondered why this is, so he made three calls to three appliance service-oriented large chain stores to find out. As could be predicted, he got three different answers:
1) the service calls are outsourced, so it's up to the individual vendors to set their schedules each day
2) the store doesn't want to say a specific time and then have that time not be correct
3) it's the nature of the appliance service business

TigerBlog, like the rest of the world, is used to it, so it's just a part of life. Of course, it's not the nature of every business.

Athletics, for instance, operates on a little more precise time frame. Princeton plays Cornell in football Saturday, and the game is at 1. It probably wouldn't be a good marketing campaign to announce that kickoff is "between noon and 4" and then have people sit there from noon on waiting to see when it would start.

This weekend Princeton features a bunch of quality events. And, to show how customer-friendly we are, they all come with exact start times.

This weekend is the start of the fall/winter overlap, something that unlike the Central Jersey leaves won't peak for another 2-3 weeks. Still, the men's hockey team opens its regular season (about a month after the rest of Division I, by the way) with a pair of non-conference home games against Brown Friday at 4 and Yale Saturday at 7.

Those games are considered non-league games because Princeton will play those teams two other times during the regular season. The reason that the teams play non-league games is to start the regular season off on something of an equal footing, rather than playing against teams already in game shape after playing real games for four weeks already.

There are actually rare hockey doubleheaders at Baker Rink this weekend, as the women's team will play at 7 Friday against RPI and at 4 Saturday against Union.

There are four chances to watch Princeton play Cornell on campus this weekend. The field hockey team goes for at least a share of its fifth Ivy League title in a row (and what would be 14 of the last 15) Friday at 6, and then there are three events Saturday:
* football at 1
* women's soccer at 4
* men's soccer at 7

The women's soccer team hasn't given up a goal in 492 minutes and is 22-6-1 after Oct. 15 since 2004. The men's soccer team currently has a national RPI (not to be confused with the women's hockey opponent) of 10, which is a direct result of how strong Ivy League men's soccer is.

Then there's one of TigerBlog's favorite events of any year, the Heps cross country championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York. The women's race begins at 11:15; the men's race is at 12:15.

If you're anywhere near, it's a great event to check out. Princeton has won the men's and women's races each of the last three years.

And that's the weekend schedule, complete with actual times. And a guarantee that when the event does start, you won't have to go through this again next week - after the part that needs to be ordered comes in.