Just Thinking

TigerBlog was back at it yesterday, on the bike, on the towpath, once again taking advantage of the ridiculous weather.

TigerBlog is one of the friendly people on the towpath. He says "hello" or "good morning" to everyone he sees, or at the very least gives the head nod as he goes by. Most people return the gesture, though some don't. Of that group, most of them are listening to music. Some, TB assumes, are just not that nice.

As he rode yesterday morning, it was already in the 70s, which is higher than the average high of 65.

Unlike Tuesday's workout, TB was alone yesterday.

TB doesn't listen to music when he rides by himself. Every now and then he does find himself singing, maybe louder than he thinks. Yesterday he was singing "Peaceful Easy Feeling" by the Eagles, for reasons he's not exactly sure of, other than it was really peaceful he supposes.

Sometimes, songs just pop into your head and stay there. For that matter, sometimes other things do as well.

Among the things TB thought of as he pedaled yesterday were:

* The new feature on the website is about to go live.

The first of the new "Achieve, Serve, Lead" series was about to go live on goprincetontigers.com.

The series will feature a different Princeton athlete each Wednesday, with the focus on the complete experience that the athletes have and what they bring to all three facets of that heading.

The first one in the series features Steffen Seitz, a back-up goalkeeper on the men's soccer team. Beyond just his athletic career, Seitz also teaches philosophy in prisons and has also tutored inmates one-on-one. He spoke about feeling an obligation to get out from just the Princeton community during his time here and make a difference where he could.

This is part of what he had to say: "Criminal justice reform might be the most pressing civil rights issue of our generation, because we imprison people at unprecedented rates, and while this is one way for me to get a new perspective on this broken system, it also gives me a chance to interact with people who I'd otherwise never interact with. Gives me the chance to help people and allows me to feel like I'm able to make a difference, which has been really rewarding for me personally."

You can see the entire first entry in the series HERE.

And you can come back each Wednesday for a new one. It's an important series, TB thinks, in the way it will personalize the things that are most important to Princeton Athletics. They're not just words on a page or on a banner. These are real people, young people, who do so much in their lives beyond just play a college sport.

* How can you swap out a real hip for a fake one so fast?

Remember the "Cool Field Hockey Moms" from earlier this fall? Well, one of them, Sue Hackman, needed hip replacement, and she had her surgery Monday. TigerBlog sends out get-well wishes.

How long do you think hip replacement surgery takes? TigerBlog assumed it took several hours. Nope. It took 45 minutes. That seemed fast to TB.

 * When is the story in the New York Times with Pete Carril in it coming out?

TigerBlog got an email earlier this week from a New York Times sportswriter who was doing a story about the Golden State Warriors and wanted to talk to Pete Carril. TigerBlog put him in touch with the legendary Princeton coach, who then confirmed that he'd spoken with the reporter and actually liked him.

As TB rode, he wondered if the story was out yet. It doesn't appear that it was.

He also started thinking about some of the funny things he's heard Carril say through the years. For whatever reason, two little anecdotes came to mind:

1) when told that one of his players had made the all-tournament team at an in-season tournament, Carril said "so did the guy he was guarding."
2) when a reporter asked him to comment when one his players had earned an academic award with a 3.8 grade point average, Carril said "he'd be better off with a 3.6 and more work on his jump shot."

Funny stuff. TigerBlog has no idea why he thought of them.

* Who could do a list of the top 10 moments in Gilmore Girls history and miss the obvious?

So the day after Thanksgiving will be more than a great shopping day. It'll be the day that the four new 90-minute episodes of "Gilmore Girls" is released on Netflix.

TigerBlog saw a list of the top 10 moments in the original seven seasons of the show, and it missed the three that TB would have on his list. The top one on the list he saw? The first kiss between Luke and Lorelei.

The actual best moment in the history of the show was the karaoke scene in the third-to-last episode, when Lorelei sings "I Will Always Love You" to Luke.

*Where is Princeton football in the FCS rankings?

Princeton hosts Harvard Saturday at 1 in a matchup of two of the three unbeaten Ivy League football teams. Both teams enter the game at 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the league.

TB was pretty sure Princeton wasn't ranked, but he wondered where the team was, if anywhere, in the receiving votes category.

As it turns out, the Tigers are others receiving vote, not votes. As in one. Harvard is 26th, one spot away from the Top 25, with 236 points, and two spots ahead of Sacred Heart, with 134. Penn has four points. Princeton has one, tied with Duquesne, Wagner, Eastern Kentucky and Southeastern Louisiana.

Does this matter for the game Saturday? Not a bit.

* Why was there the need for the electronic sign if there was already a stop sign?

There had recently been one of those electronic signs near the Grad College that basically read "all vehicles must stop at the stop sign."

Isn't that obvious?