It's Time For Christmas

TigerBlog laughed out loud twice yesterday before 10 am. That's a pretty good start to a day.

The first was when he was watching a rerun of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." That Lou Grant. He was one funny guy.

That was around 8 or so. It was less than two hours later that it was Greg Paczkowski's turn.

Greg is Princeton's Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities. He's a really hard-working, no-task-too-small, behind-the-scenes guy, the kind that any good organization needs if it's going to have any chance of being successful.

He can also be funny. Like yesterday.

See for yourself:

That's really, really funny. Like, one of the funniest things TB has seen in a long time.

The "suspect," of course, is the Grinch himself. Today is the 23rd, which makes it two days before Christmas.

It certainly doesn't feel like Christmas to TigerBlog. He's not sure why. It's certainly been cold enough of late.

Maybe it's because the Christmas season itself starts earlier and earlier each year and so maybe it seems like it is never ending. Maybe it's because Hanukkah hasn't started yet - it begins tomorrow night at sundown - and it usually has come and gone long before Christmas arrives.

Maybe it's because TB hasn't seen one Christmas show this year, not even Charlie Brown and his little tree.

As TigerBlog says every year, he likes Christmas as much as any Jewish guy out there. He's a big fan of the music, the movies, the Christmas episodes of TV shows. He can recite "A Visit From St. Nicholas" from memory (you know it. That's the one that starts "Twas the night before Christmas."- or at least he used to be able to; these days, he probably would get some of it out of order (though he definitely can still recite the entire "Cat In The Hat").

TigerBlog offers this up again, as he did a year ago:

His favorite Christmas movie is "It's a Wonderful Life," especially the part at the end that always, always makes him tear up. You know, when Harry makes his toast for George. You can see it HERE.

"To my big brother George, the richest man in town." That always gets TB.

One of the best traditions this time of year is the 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" on TBS. The movie is hilarious, and it's really a series of unrelated scenes tied together loosely, which makes it perfect for checking in and out over the course of 24 hours.

Yeah, yeah, TigerBlog knows. He says the same thing about Christmas every year.

He posts the same links to the same clips. You know, like the one from "It's a Wonderful Life." And these:

* the end scene from "A Christmas Story"

* bonus scene from the same movie

* Judy Garland sings "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" in "Meet Me In St. Louis"

* Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree

* you'll love this one

* you'll love this one too

That last one goes hand-in-hand with Greg's text from yesterday morning.

Princeton Athletics is a very secular undertaking, which is how it should be.

Christmas, of course, is a federal holiday, as well as a Christian holiday. Princeton Athletics stops for Christmas in a way that it doesn't stop for anything else other than first semester exams.

The men's basketball team defeated Bucknell last night 72-70. It was a good win for the Tigers, over a team that came in 8-4 overall and a perfect 4-0 at home. Princeton was in control pretty much throughout, even if the Bison never really went away and fought all the way to the end, which is actually a pretty good thing for Princeton.

The Tigers were led by Devin Cannady (19 points, seven rebounds), Steven Cook (17 points, seven rebounds) and Spencer Weisz (eight points, 11 rebounds, five assists), with big supporting roles by a few others, especially Myles Stephens. That, by the way, is a winning sentence for Princeton basketball as it looks ahead to the 2017 Ivy League schedule.

The next Princeton Athletic event isn't until this coming Wednesday, when the men's basketball team hosts Hampton (tip is at 5). TigerBlog will be back on the radio for that game, along with Patrick McCarthy; their first broadcast together went pretty well, if TB says so himself.

That's not just the next basketball game. That's the next Princeton Athletic event for any sport. That's five straight days with no events.

The schedule doesn't stop for any other Christian holidays, or holidays of other religions. TigerBlog has been at Princeton games on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (fasting of course), Ramadan, Easter - basically any other religious holiday. And Thanksgiving.

Never on Christmas, which, for this year, is just two days away. Even if it doesn't seem like it. Maybe it's because Christmas Eve is a Saturday and Christmas is a Sunday?

Princeton Athletics will be back shortly.

For this weekend, it's Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.