Summer Swoosh

Sweeney Todd - you remember the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, right?  - and Mrs. Lovett had a nice little going way back when.

Okay, okay, in musical theater romantic history, they weren't quite Tony and Maria ("there's a place for us, somewhere a place for us"), Lt. Cable and Liat ("angel and lover, heaven and Earth am I with you"), Curly and Laurey ("sweetheart, they're suspecting things - people will say we're in love") or even Tevye and Golde ("do you love me? I suppose I do").

Still, Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett were in love. At least she was in love with him, as you can tell when she sang this to him: "Me eyelids'll flutter, I'll turn into butter, the moment I mutter I do."

By the way, can you identify the four musicals that TB quoted?

TigerBlog saw the original version of "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway back in 1979, on its way to the Tony Award for Best Musical. Mrs. Lovett was played by Angela Lansbury. Sweeney Todd was played by the guy walking into the restaurant last night as TigerBlog walked out.

Len Cariou, who was the original "Sweeney," lives in FatherBlog's building and hangs in FatherBlog's circle of friends there. TigerBlog found himself at dinner with FB last night, and as they left the restaurant, in walked three of the gentlemen from that circle.

The one in the middle was Cariou. If you didn't see him in "Sweeney Todd," perhaps you know him better as Tom Selleck's father on "Blue Bloods."

FatherBlog introduced TB to the three men, all three of whom TigerBlog has met about 20 times before. Each time, FatherBlog acts as if he's never introduced his son to them before, so he does it again.

TigerBlog had this conversation with Cariou:
TB: "Saw you in 'Sweeney Todd.' "
Cariou: "Yeah? Wow. What'd you think?"
TB: "You were pretty good."

By the way, the musicals TB mentioned were: "West Side Story," "South Pacific," "Oklahoma" and "Fiddler on the Roof." You should hear TigerBlog sing them.

Anyway, FatherBlog is coming up on the 40th anniversary of living in that building, which is right on the Hudson River. TB was in Hoboken earlier, and he made the short drive from there to FatherBlog's place.

The thing is that, after those 40 years, TigerBlog found a new way to get from where he was near the Lincoln Tunnel to his dad's building. He never knew it was there before. It was right along the river. Who knew?

It was actually the second time in a few days that he found himself in that situation.

Clif Perry, the head equipment manager, called TB the other day and asked him to come by and see just how much space the delivery of the new Nike gear for the coming year takes up on arrival. Okay, TB though. Why not?

So he walked down to Clif's office, and Clif then took him to the rooms where the gear was stored. It was down a hallway that TB never knew was there.

TigerBlog is pretty sure his first time in Jadwin Gym was in the 1983-84 range, either for Princeton-Penn basketball (as a Quaker) or the New Jersey high school wrestling championships (as a sportswriter). Since then, he's spent decades in the building, and he was pretty sure he knew every corner of it and Caldwell Field House.

He didn't. There was a hallway there that he never knew existed. Who knew?

Meanwhile, back at the Nike stuff, it was in two different locker rooms, one for the women's stuff, one for the men's stuff. Both rooms were essentially packed from floor to ceiling with boxes.

And these were just the items for the coaches and teams, not the department staff.

TigerBlog has said this before, but it's worth mentioning again. Princeton's partnership with Nike has been among the very best things that he's seen in all his time here.

Before the Nike deal, it seemed like each team went in its own direction, with different shades of orange, different logos, different everything. It made for a lack of consistency in the overall athletic look, which made for a somewhat fractured department. That's not really an overstatement.

Back then, TigerBlog would often see Princeton's athletes on campus wearing different kinds of apparel, and, way worse than that, t-shirts and sweatshirts of other colleges. That was a huge pet peeve of TB's.

Then, along came Nike. Suddenly, everyone matched. Everyone had the same colors. Everyone's Princeton shield or striped "P" was identical.

If you think that something so seemingly small can't have a huge impact, you're underestimating things. The Nike partnership has brought to Princeton Athletics an increased sense of pride. TigerBlog isn't overstating that.

And there was the next generation of Nike gear, ready to be organized and distributed for the 2017-18 season.

With it will again come that sense of pride.