Story Time

TigerBlog ordered a pizza and a salad the other day.

The pizza was a complicated one. TB asked for a large pie, onions on the whole pizza, mushrooms on one side, green peppers on the other. His side would have been the mushroom side.

He also asked for a salad.

He went to the pizza place, one that he's been to about a million times. In fact, it probably would have been cheaper for him to simply buy the pizza place back in 1995, when he first started going there, rather than spend all the money he's spent there through the years.

It's a really good little place. It's not fancy by any stretch. The food is always good, pizza or entrees. The service is always good. And, like most good family restaurants, the same people have been working there for the more than 20 years TB has been going.

Anyway, TB was due for one mishap at the place, and this was it.

When he got home, he found that he had a large pie, with mushrooms and pepperoni on the entire thing. He also had no salad, but he did have friend calamari.

Oh, and he also had a receipt that said "Betsy" on it.

TigerBlog assumes that "Betsy" got the pizza and salad TB wanted. What are you supposed to do in that situation? TB's solution was to eat what he had and not worry about it further.

He's not 100 percent sure what Betsy did for dinner.

Oh, and you won't believe this story.

The pizza place is about a mile from where TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog went to the orthodontist. TB took them there for years, and for thousands of dollars.

Visit after visit there were the same few women who worked behind the desk. They'd always say hi. They were very friendly.

MTB got her braces off a year or so ago, so it's been awhile since TigerBlog has been there. When he got to the Princeton-Denver men's lacrosse scrimmage two weeks ago in Baltimore, there was one of the women from behind the desk at the orthodontist.

What are you doing here, TB asked.

And her answer? She is Bill Tierney's sister.

All of those years, and TigerBlog never knew that. All of those years going there wearing Princeton Athletics and Princeton Lacrosse gear, and it never came up.

Bill Tierney's sister? How in the world did TigerBlog never know this?

While TB is sharing stories, he came back to the office yesterday afternoon to find that his colleague John Bullis was a guest lecturer at a class at Clarion University.

Bullis, one of Princeton's video dudes extraordinaire, was teaching via Skype or something, to a class of video students. Their assignment is to create an original video feature, and Bullis is something of an expert on video storytelling.

He and his partner at Princeton, Cody Chrusciel, were at a conference this summer in Atlanta when they met the class professor. Bullis shared a video he had recently done here, and he was extended an invitation by the professor to speak to the class.

The video that he made was about 11-year-old Jack Guthrie and his remarkable recovery from a coma after a skiing accident.

Jack is the youngest child of Kevin and Sari Guthrie. His older brother Jeffers is a freshman on the men's lacrosse team, and he also has a sister named Claire.

His mother used to be Sari Chang, and she was a Heps track and field champ at Princeton. His father? Well, Kevin Guthrie is one of the very best football players TigerBlog has ever seen play here.

Kevin was a wide receiver and a phenomenal all-around athlete. He holds the Princeton records for, among other things, receptions in a game, season and career. His single game record is 16 - sixteen - against Bucknell in 1983, and three of those went for touchdowns.

Guthrie teamed with Derek Graham to form the best 1-2 receiving combination in Princeton history. Guthrie, a 1984 grad, finished his career with 193 receptions. Graham, who graduated a year later, is second with 177.

Third place? That would be a tie between Matt Costello and Chisom Opara, at 154 each.

The video tells the story of Jack's injury and recovery. It shows him at his worst in the hospital. It shows him as he learns to smile again. It shows him as he gets better and better.

And, of course, it shows the impact Jack has had on the current Princeton football team. It's a great piece, the kind that Bullis excels at producing. He's the same person who produced the documentary on Chuck Dibilio last year.

You can watch it HERE.

It's definitely worth the seven minutes.