You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

If TBS still had its "A Christmas Story" marathon going, then TigerBlog would still be watching it. TB isn't sure how many days it would take for him to turn the movie off, though he's pretty sure he wouldn't quite reach his limit until at least New Year's Day.

For those who haven't seen the movie, "A Christmas Story" follows the story of nine-year-old Indiana fourth-grader Ralphie Parker, who lives with his angelic mother, tortured father and strange little brother while attending school with his friends and two bullies. For the coming Christmas, all Ralphie wants is a Red Ryder BB gun, yet every adult with whom he comes in contact shrugs it off by saying "You'll shoot your eye out," something to which Ralphie has no comeback, other than to wonder "was there no end to this conspiracy of irrational prejudice against Red Ryder and his peacemaker?"

For those who are unaware, TBS shows the movie for 24 hours straight beginning at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve and continuing for 12 two-hour showings until 8 p.m. Christmas night. The first showing overalps as NBC shows "It's a Wonderful Life" Christmas Eve at 8 as well, which means that the first "A Christmas Story" ends just as George Bailey is getting himself into some bigtime self-awareness in Bedford Falls.

As an aside, TigerBlog can't help but choke back the tears when Harry Bailey leads the town in a toast by saying "to my big brother George, the richest man in town."

Meanwhile, back at "A Christmas Story," the movie is a bunch of somewhat related scenes that can be viewed in any order without losing the story, which makes it perfect for tuning in and out any time during the marathon. TigerBlog's favorite scenes are:
* the one where Ralphie curses "the queen mother of dirty words, F dash dash dash" and the subsequent explanation by Ralphie to himself of where he first heard it ("my father worked in profanity the way other artists worked in oils or clay") and then the reaction of Schwartz' mother when Ralphie pins it on his friend
* the scene at the end in the Chinese restaurant with the unfortunate duck
* the scene where they see Santa Claus at the mall
* the scenes with the leg lamp

It's a great family Christmas movie, and, sadly, another Christmas has come and gone, which means the marathon is on hold for another 12 months. TigerBlog has the movie on DVD, but it's not the same thing.

And so with Christmas behind us and the New Year's approaching, goprincetontigers.com continues its countdown of the top athletes of the decade.

We've reached the Top 3 on the list, which includes the No. 3 selections Ryan Boyle of men's lacrosse and Caroline Lind of women's rowing. These two are in some ways similar and in some ways completely different, depending on your take.

Boyle scored some huge goals in his career, especially in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinals, but he was mostly known (and still is, for that matter), as a feeder, a player who made those around him better.

Lind, on the other hand, competes in one of the great group sports of all, rowing. In many ways, it's difficult to separate the contribution of any one rower from the others, but at the same time, Lind, like Boyle, helped make those around her better.

Lind and Boyle also have gone on to considerable success beyond Princeton: Lind has an Olympic gold medal; Boyle has a World Championship and three professional championships.

There are only two left on each list, coming up tomorrow and Wednesday. TigerBlog thinks the remaining choices are obvious, or at least he did, until athletic director Gary Walters came in this morning and mentioned that a different athlete, one who did not make the goprincetontigers.com Top 10, would have been his No. 1 female.

"That's what makes horse races," he said.

Or, as Ralphie's dad would have said: "fragile? 'Frah-gee-lee.' Must be Italian."

That, by the way, has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but TigerBlog always thinks it's hysterical.