The Weekend In Rowing

You know what TigerBlog considers the eight most-annoying words in the English language? 

That would be these: "Please place your item in the bagging area." Those eight words are followed closely by these seven: "Please wait. Help is on the way." Actually, the first eight are usually followed by those seven. 

You know what he means. At least you do if you're a regular user of the self-checkout line at a supermarket. 

TB is a huge fan of the self-checkout. In fact, he avoids supermarkets that don't offer self-checkout. How can there be no self-checkout still at some places?

At the same time, it's infuriating when you're scanning your purchases and then all of the sudden the screen locks you out and that little computer-generated voice scolds you with those eight words. And then the seven that come next. 

At that point, you have to wait for the only person more annoyed than you are. The person who is assigned to the self-checkout area has to constantly come over, scan the employee card, press a few buttons and get you going. This must happen at least 100 times per shift. 

Of course, what does the supermarket care what you do with the item once it's scanned? You're already being charged for it. Why does it have to go into the bagging area? 

Maybe they're afraid you'll slip it back onto your cart and nobody will be able to tell what's been scanned and what hasn't? The whole system is based on trust anyway — although TB's supermarket does randomly select every 20th person or so and check seven items after you've checked out to make sure you've paid for them. 

Now that TB has that out of his system, he can focus on what's going on with Princeton Athletics. By this point of May, there's not much left on the calendar, but what there is would be really important.

This weekend, for instance, will see the final three Ivy League championships awarded, in men's lightweight and heavyweight rowing at Eastern Sprints in Worcester and in women's open rowing in Pennsauken.

The Princeton women have won six straight Ivy League titles and eight of the last nine. The Tigers are ranked third nationally, behind Texas and Stanford. There are three other Ivies in the Top 11, with Brown and Yale at six and seven and Penn at 11. 

How has this season gone so far for the Tigers? Well, if you look at the team's schedule, you'll see all "W's" in the results column.

Another big W for the women's open rowing team comes from Hailey Mead, one of the winners of the Spirit of Princeton Award. This is her write-up:

Hailey Mead, a senior from Orinda, California, is majoring in the School of Public and International Affairs and pursuing certificates in entrepreneurship and creative writing. She is a member of the openweight rowing team and was part of the varsity four boat that won a gold medal at the 2022 NCAA Championships and the 2022 Ivy League Championships. She founded Princeton Pictures, the University's only student organization centered around film production, and co-founded and served as the executive director of the Princeton Film Festival. She is a guitarist for the Princeton University Rock Ensemble and her independent band Plum. In the summer of 2023, she was a technology policy fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP). 

As for the men, this will be the start of a pretty exciting few weeks. The heavyweight Tigers are the No. 1 ranked team in the country, but there are five other Ivies in the Top 10. The lightweight men are one of four league teams who make up the top four of the poll, with Harvard at No. 1, Penn at No. 2, Princeton at No. 3 and Cornell at No. 4, with Dartmouth at No. 6.

There's not much that separates these boats in the poll. This weekend will show how much separates them in the water.

The women's open championships begin on Saturday and conclude Sunday. The men will be at the Eastern Sprints, which will be contested Sunday in one day.

The best way to follow the results will be through Row2K.