Another "Spring" Weekend

If you're a regular TigerBlog reader, then you know he drifts into talking about religion every now and then, especially the experiences and traditions of his people.

It's coming up on the end of Passover, for instance, an eight-day celebration of the time Moses delivered TB's people when they had been slaves in Egypt. As part of the holiday, TB is supposed to go eight days without eating anything leavened, most specifically bread, pasta, grains, that sort of stuff.

There is something called matzoh brei, which is basically matzoh - unleavened bread - that is crumpled up and cooked with eggs. TB remembers when MotherBlog used to make it, and he had to laugh when he saw a story about matzoh brei that said "you either love it or loathe it." TB is in the "loathe" category.

So it's a no-carb week, or at least supposed to be. TigerBlog can fast for 24 hours on Yom Kippur without a problem, but going eight days without any bread products isn't easy. In fact, he can't remember a time that he was actually successful in accomplishing it.

Which would you rather do? Go eight days without eating a staple of your diet or 24 hours without eating or drinking at all? 

This year TB got off to a good, well-intentioned start to the holiday. Then it fell apart, slowly at first. But it fell apart anyway.

Anyway, Passover will be over soon. There will be other holidays of TigerBlog's people soon; there always seems to be another one right around the corner.

While religion is the topic of the moment, TigerBlog wants to tell you about a sign he saw outside a church. It said this:

"Honk and drive if you love Jesus. Text and drive if you want to meet him."

Now that's genius.

And that's enough religion for one day.

Maybe TB should focus on a safer topic.

It was Mark Twain who said "everybody talks about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it."

It was Ben Franklin who said "some people are weather-wise. Some people are other-wise."

Or maybe it was the other way around.

Either way, whoever said the part about how nobody does anything about the weather obviously didn't work in college athletics in the Northeast in the spring. Already events all over the place are being changed in advance of tomorrow's possibly bad weather.

The softball team, for instance, will host Dartmouth today for a doubleheader at 2 and then a single game Saturday at 12:30. The Sam Howell Invitational track and field meet is now a one-day event today. There's also the men's golf invitational, which will now start today as well.

TigerBlog has talked a lot about the weather of late. As he looks at the forecast, it looks like it might not be as bad next week as was originally thought.

Hopefully it cooperates this weekend too. There is a lot on the schedule.

Mostly there's a lot of rowing at home. In fact, all four teams - men's heavyweight, men's lightweight, women's open and women's lightweight - will be on Lake Carnegie.

The women's open crew is ranked fourth nationally and already has a win over Brown. This weekend the Tigers host the Ivy Challenge, an event in Year 1 but one that figures quickly to become a big part of the annual schedule.

Princeton will host six other Ivy teams - all but Brown - in a series of races. The Tigers, for instance, will go against Cornell and Harvard at 11 am and then Penn and Dartmouth at 3 pm.

The day actually starts at 8:15 with the heavyweight men, who take on Columbia and Penn for the Childs Cup. The last races go off at 4:10.

In all, there will be 16 teams there, which means that the boathouse parking lot will be closed. For more information about the day, including parking information, click HERE.

For TigerBlog, one of the best parts of working at Princeton has always been what has been referred to as "broad-based athletic participation." There are nearly 1,000 athletes each year, on 37 different teams, playing wildly different sports. There's always something there to be seen.

This weekend, there's a lot to see. HERE is the complete schedule.

That includes the rowing. If you've never seen rowing, it's definitely something worth your time. And tomorrow, you'll have plenty of chances to do so.

Rain or shine, it'll be quite a show.