Wednesday, March 19, 2014

In The Criminal Justice System ...

TigerBlog has been watching "Law & Order" reruns lately.

It's one of his favorite shows of all time. It's a great concept - half the show is about "the police who investigate crimes" and the other half is about the "district attorneys who prosecute the offenders."

It's a rare show that endured for 20 years and had several complete turnovers in its cast and yet managed to survive and thrive. TB can't think of another show that was able to accomplish anything close to that level of upheaval and still maintained its high level of quality. Most shows that have to replace even one key character often disintegrate.

TB likes to DVR the show, which is running regularly these days on WE TV. TB also doesn't get the idea of programming three episodes of "Law & Order" in the late afternoon and early evening on a network that otherwise appears to be devoted to targeting a strictly women's audience, with shows like "Marriage Boot Camp," "Mary, Mary" and returns of "Will & Grace" and "Roseanne," as well as skin care infomercials with Vivica Fox and Cindy Crawford.

And in between all of that is "Law & Order," three times a day.

This week, We has been advertising the coming season premiere of "Joan and Melissa," which TB would only watch if he was given a $100 bill for every minute he could stand it.

WE has also been advertising that this week is "Sopranos meets Law & Order" week. Now that is right in TB's wheelhouse.

Edie Falco has appeared as a public defender. It's easy to pick out Carmela Soprano. Junior appears as a judge. Christopher is a defendant in one episode who comes back as a detective later in the series. Big Pussy is a defendant more than once.

Anyone can see them.

But can you also find Father Intintola as a police offer who gets ripped into by Lennie Briscoe in a brief scene, after the murder weapon is found in a drain that the soon-to-be spiritual adviser/creepy stalker of Carmela didn't want to search (though it turned out not to be his fault)?

Or, for that matter, that Profaci - who was a pretty good character who didn't get a big enough role, in TB's mind - was played by the same guy who would play Gigi on "The Sopranos." On a series where many characters had unfortunate endings, nobody had it worse than Gigi - and let's just leave it at that.

Every now and then, there will be a Princeton reference on "Law & Order." In fact, one honor student-turned-bad was referred to as having had a chance to play soccer at Princeton, something that Jim Barlow was never able to confirm.

TB can't think of any Princeton references on "The Sopranos," though Meadow did go to Columbia.

Meanwhile, back at Princeton Athletics, spring break continues for a few more days, which means that several spring teams are spread out around the country.

There are six Princeton teams (technically one is a winter team) who will be competing today, and here are their opponents - Miami, USC, Duke, Tulane, Barton College, Mt. Olive, Pacific.

Actually, here's a fun game. Match the team with the opponent, as Princeton will have events in women's lacrosse, men's basketball, softball, baseball, men's volleyball and women's tennis today. The men's volleyball team has two opponents.

Anyway, it's a pretty interesting mix of opponents.

Let's start with the women's lacrosse game at USC, a program in its second year. Last year, Princeton defeated USC 18-13 on Sherrerd Field as USC went 8-10 in its first season. This time around, USC is 3-2 this year, with a win over Columbia in its most recent game.

It wasn't that long ago that the idea of being able to go to California to find Division I women's lacrosse opponents was unthinkable. Now? The Princeton women are playing two California teams on the spring trip, with a game Saturday against San Diego State. Now in Year 3, San Diego State started out 5-10 in 2012, then went 8-8 last year and now is off to a 6-1 start.

San Diego State has two players from New Jersey on its roster. USC has 11 players from New Jersey on its roster.

Princeton? One New Jersey player.

The baseball team will take on Duke in North Carolina. The softball team takes on a different group of Tigers, the ones from Pacific, in California. The women's tennis team is in Florida to take on Miami.

The basketball team is in New Orleans to take on Tulane in the first round of the CBI.

And the men's volleyball team is also in North Carolina, to take on Mt. Olive and Barton.

Those would be your matching game answers.

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