As an aside, this only applies if you're flying by yourself.
Anyway, you get to your row and nobody is there. Your first thought is that maybe, just maybe, you're going to have some unexpected roominess.
You sit and you keep an eye out. Is that person coming to sit here? No, not the mother and baby. Noooooo - yesssss, they're a few rows ahead.
Eventually, almost every time, someone ends up sitting next to you. And you're forced to nod hello and be polite, when all you wanted was for them to be anywhere else.
Ah, but those rare times when it's clear that the door is closed, the plane is pushing back and you're all by yourself for that flight. That's what happened for Miss TigerBlog ’22 Sunday evening on her flight to Paris.
She texted TigerBlog from the plane saying that nobody was sitting next to her, and this on an overnight flight to Paris. How lucky is that?
One possible explanation, of course, is that maybe the person who was supposed to be in Row 37 on the flight to Paris Sunday changed plans and went earlier, to be there in time for the World Cup final between France and Croatia.
BrotherBlog and Joe, the official brother-in-law of TigerBlog, got to Paris Thursday, in advance of their week-long role as tour guides. They've been to Paris often.
TigerBlog has been to 16 European countries, but never to England, France or Italy. Try to find someone else who can say that.
BrotherBlog originally suggested that MTB not go to France on July 14, which would be Bastille Day. Instead, she should wait and come Sunday, when things presumably would be calmer. Little did anyone suspect that the next day would turn out to be the day that France won its second World Cup, defeating Croatia 4-2.
As it was, she took a flight that got her there yesterday morning local time, so she missed the game and the party that followed. BB and Joe watched the first half of the game from the apartment they've rented and then went outside to be part of it during the second half. Here is BB's video from the streets:
It's quite a scene, no? As TigerBlog has said, there's nothing in American sports that can match the fan obsession that international soccer has.
TigerBlog watched BB's video and other videos he saw of the celebrating, and it got him wondering what the biggest celebrations on Princeton's campus have been after an athletic success.
He's not talking about bonfires or anything that's planned. He's talking about an impromptu party that broke out after someone had a really, really big win.
He's heard that it got pretty celebratory after Princeton's win over UCLA in 1996 in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, but he was in Indianapolis, not Princeton, for that one. Still, he heard from a few people who were on campus then that it got pretty wild.
In addition he's also seen pictures after the men's basketball team defeated Providence to advance to the 1965 NCAA Final Four. There were players, including future Director of Athletics Gary Walters, on top of the bus with a huge crowd of students around it.
Are there others? There certainly has been no shortage of huge wins here.
Does anyone have any examples?
Maybe there were big parties after some of the bigger football wins. There are many who remember the great teams of the 1960s and others who go back to the 1950s and the Dick Kazmaier days.
How about the 1933 or 1935 national championship teams? Both of those seasons ended with huge wins at Yale, by scores of 27-2 in 1933 and 38-7 in 1935. What happened when the team got back to Princeton after those games?
TigerBlog has seen a lot of teams who have celebrated, in locker rooms and on fields and in buses on the way back. But something that galvanized the entire campus?
In the meantime, MTB walked into the tail end of the celebrations in Paris.
Hopefully she'll have a great week over there, and hopefully her tour guides won't lose her or anything.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment