Provincial Squeamishness

TigerBlog would like to share two humorous moments from his Thursday, both of which happened about five minutes apart.

First, he found himself stopped behind a school bus when he saw a woman jogging and pushing a stroller at the same time. As she got closer, it was clear that there was nothing in the stroller — no baby, no dog, no bag, nothing. 

TB put his window down and called out to her to say that her stroller was empty, to which she responded "I know." TB left it at that. He prefers to never find out why a woman was jogging and pushing an empty stroller, largely because he's afraid it might make sense. 

And then she was gone, rid of TB's provincial squeamishness forever. 

TB, by the way, didn't write that last part. Can you tell him what classic book that's from?  

Then, as he started to move again, he saw another woman who was walking her dog, only the dog had stopped in a series of bushes and wouldn't move, no matter how much she pulled the leash. Then the dog appeared, holding a small branch in his mouth. 

This wasn't some English Mastiff or something. This was an average-sized dog. And the branch had to be six or seven feet wide. 

Off the dog went. And the owner looked in TB's direction, saw him laughing and threw her hands up as if to say "oh well. 

And now, the weekend in Princeton sports:

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There are 12 events on the Princeton calendar for the next three days.  

Of those 12, there are 11 that are away from home. That's a rarity. One home event. 

HERE is the full schedule.  

Maybe the highlight is the men's water polo trip to the Navy Invitational in Annapolis. Princeton went 5-0 last weekend in its own invitational, and now it heads to Maryland for three matches, the first of which is tonight at 7:30 against Salem.

Then there are two games tomorrow, the first of which is against the home team. And who is the home team coach? That would be Luis Nicolao, who spent 20 years as the Princeton head coach and won 844 games between the men's and women's teams.

The Tigers, by the way, are ranked 10th nationally. Who is ahead of them? Eight schools from California and Fordham.  

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The lone team to be home this weekend is the field hockey team, who was almost home twice before a late schedule change. 

Princeton opened its season last weekend with a 2-1 win over Old Dominion and then a 3-2 loss to No. 2 North Carolina. The Tiger reward was to drop from 10th to 11th in the poll. Oh well. 

The college field hockey season starts with pretty much every team to play Friday and Sunday games. For this weekend, it's Princeton at home today at 5 against No. 5 Syracuse, who is 4-0 on the young year. 

Then it's off to No. 18 Rutgers Sunday at noon. That game would have been in Princeton, but the teams decided to flip flop home games between this year and next, so that the Tigers wouldn't open their season with seven straight home games. 

Interestingly, the visiting team has won the last five games between Princeton and Rutgers. 

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If you want to watch Princeton soccer this weekend, you need to get in your car, unless you happen to live on the Main Line or West Point. 

The Princeton men, who lost a tough and physical game Wednesday night 1-0 to Hofstra on a penalty kick in the second half, are at Villanova tomorrow at 1. Princeton is 1-1-0 now with that loss and an opening 3-1 win over Rutgers, while Villanova is 2-1-2, including a 0-0 tie against Columbia and most recently a 2-0 loss to Army.

The Princeton women are at Army Sunday at 1. Army is 4-2-1, with a most recent 3-0 loss to West Virginia.   

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Trivia answer: It's from "The Great Gatsby." 

It's probably TB's favorite turn of a phrase in literature — possibly because Nick was giving up forever on a Yale guy.