Winter Wondering

Want to hear something nuts?

The University of Wisconsin women's hockey team is ranked No. 1 in the country, and the Badgers have a 4-0 record. That's right. They've already played four games.

Hmm. That means that Wisconsin's women's hockey team has played more games already than Princeton's football team.

Princeton, by the way, is receiving votes in that poll.

Princeton's men's and women's hockey teams have already started practicing. So has the women's basketball team. It won't be long until the winter seasons begin.

It seems so fast, doesn't it? Wasn't it just summer? It was in the 80s last week here.

Today is a sure sign that winter is on the way. It's the first day for flu shots here at Princeton.

TigerBlog gets one every year. He knows people who never get them, but he'd like to think that there's value in doing everything possible to prevent getting that sick.

Of course, the germophobic TigerBlog isn't the right one to ask about things like this, as he is never without his hand sanitizer. BrotherBlog, on the other hand, essentially mocks germs - or is it his brother - by doing things like, egads, touching the handrails in public places. The last time BB did that when his brother was with him, he then turned and laughed as he could see TigerBlog cringe.

For all of that, TB isn't sure if BrotherBlog gets a flu shot every year. TB will be there today to get one though.

TigerBlog's contention is that time never seems to move faster than it does from Halloween through Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Amazingly, Halloween is only a few weeks away.

The talk of winter was brought on by the combination of the Wisconsin women's hockey team and the flu shot. TigerBlog doesn't want to get too ahead of himself, since it's the beginning of October, which means that the Jadwin Gym lobby project is starting to really take shape.

The lobby renovation started in August. It's supposed to end in early November, and it looks like it's on track. And it's going to look incredible when it's done. For now, TigerBlog and his Office of Athletic Communications colleagues, from their solitude on E level, are immune from the hammering and drilling and everything else that's been going on up there. 

Early October also means that it's time for what is basically the best weather of the year around here. In fact, it's shorts and light sweatshirt weather, and it doesn't get better than that.

You can wear that combination tonight at Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, as Princeton hosts Villanova in men's soccer. The game begins at 7 and is free.

Princeton has already packed a few years worth of heartache into one half of one season. It happened again in the Ivy opener Saturday, when Princeton fell in overtime at Dartmouth 2-1.

There's too much of the season left for the Tigers to pack it in though. There are still six Ivy League games to be played, and anything can happen the rest of the way.

Villanova comes in with a record of 5-5-0. The Tigers lead the all-time series 4-3, something that TB finds shocking, since he'd just assumed that the teams had played way more than seven times previously.

The men's soccer game is the only event for Princeton today. There is also one event tomorrow, and that's the men's water polo match against Wagner, which starts at 7 and is also free.

Princeton is ranked 11th nationally. The Tigers had a good weekend last weekend, with home wins against Harvard, Brown and MIT.

Luis Nicolao, the men's and women's water polo coach, came into the OAC yesterday holding a very old book. He said that the grandfather of an official from the games last weekend had given it to him.

It was something like a very old, very dusty yearbook, one from ’07. That would be 1907.

It said "Princeton 1907" on the cover, along with the name "J.E. Freeman," who presumably was the printer. It's a book with a lot of pictures of a lot of Princeton men, and no Princeton women, as it would be another 63 years before the school would embrace coeducation.

TigerBlog is a big fan of old books like that one. Maybe it's the American History major in him.

He also loves the contrast between that Princeton and this one, more than 100 years later, one that has seen such incredible strides in its openness to people from all backgrounds.

It's like night and day. Or summer and winter. Figuratively, at least. In a literal sense, they're going to blend together really soon.