Today is November 11, or 11/11.
It's a reminder that if you take any number made up solely of "1s" and multiply it by any other similar number, you'll get a palindrome. For instance, 11x11=121.
Try it. Choose any two such numbers, and you'll see. Try 11,111 times 111.
This will give you hours of great fun.
If you take any of those numbers and multiply it against itself, then you'll get not only a palindrome but also a perfectly numerical one. Again, 1,111 times 1,111 gives you 1,234,321.
Of course, there's more to Nov. 11 than just a numerical oddity.
Today is also Veterans Day.
TigerBlog is not a military veteran. He's often wondered how he would have done had he spent some time in the service and what sort of longterm impact the experience would have had on him.
He does know that he reserves his highest respect for those who have served. At the NCAA men's lacrosse championships each year, the military veterans in the crowd are asked to stand and be saluted. TB always marvels at how few there are.
In honor of Veterans Day, TB goes back to 2009, for something he wrote then. It still captures exactly what he'd want to say:
TigerBlog woke up this morning like he does every other morning: free.
It's certainly not through his own doing, and it's certainly something he takes for granted. TigerBlog
is free to do what he wants. Go to work. Not go to work. Work here
forever. Quit today. Live here. Pick up and move 3,000 miles away.
Whatever he wants.
Why? Because that's how it works in America,
and it works that way because of the sacrifice that hundreds of
thousands of American soldiers have made in various wars during the last
233 years.
Today is Veterans' Day, obviously. For those who
weren't paying attention in school, Veterans' Day is usually Nov. 11 (it
can be moved if it falls on the weekend) in honor of the signing of the
Armistice that ended World War I on Nov. 11, 1918.
TigerBlog
can't imagine the horror of fighting in a war, and he saves his
greatest respect for those who have. His uncle Herbie fought in Europe
and the Pacific in World War II. His uncle Larry fought in Korea and
never spoke a word about his experiences there til the day more than
50 years later when he died. FatherBlog was in the Army as well, though it was during the point between the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Princeton's
connection to the military is long and heroic, befitting a school whose
unofficial motto is "In the Nation's Service." Visitors to the ground
floor rotunda of Nassau Hall are greeted by a memorial to Princeton's
war dead.
Princeton lost 355 students in World War II, which
exceeded the total number lost in every previous war combined (319 of
whom had been killed in World War I). During the war, nearly 80% of
Princeton students left campus to enlist in the military, and, according
to Mudd Library, the University was able to remain viable only by becoming a training school for the Army and Navy.
Princeton
athletics were greatly affected by the two World Wars. The 1917
Princeton football season consisted of two games, against teams from
nearby military bases, and the same was true of the three-game 1918
season. Hockey was suspended for the 1917-18 season and only two games
were played the following year.
There would be no hockey from
1943 until the 1945-46 season. Football would play seven games in 1943
and 1945 and three in 1944. Lacrosse would play a total of 17 games
between 1942 and 1945.
TigerBlog
has no idea how many Princeton athletes are among the school's war
dead, but he does know the legendary stories of two former Tiger
athletes. Moe Berg, a catcher on the baseball team who went on to have a
long career in the Major Leagues, was a spy during World War II who
came close to having to assassinate the head of Germany's nuclear
program and who took rooftop photos to make maps of Tokyo during baseball barnstorming trips
that were later used for air raids.
The other is Hobey Baker, whom TigerBlog considers along with Dick Kazmaier
and Bill Bradley to be the one of the three greatest athletes in
Princeton history. Baker's story is also famous: After graduating in
1914 as one of the greatest hockey and football players of all-time and
finding life without athletics to be somewhat tedious (he was a banker
who played club hockey before there was a professional league for either
of his sports), he found a replacement thrill when he learned to fly.
He flew against the Germans in World War I, and he died while taking a
plane for a test flight six weeks after the Armistice. Legend has it
that rather than face a life without sports or war, he crashed his plane
on purpose.
Take a minute to think about what the significance of today is.
Veterans' Day lacks the family feel of Thanksgiving and Christmas. It
doesn't conjure up the start of summer like Memorial Day or make you
think of a barbecue in the backyard and watching fireworks like the Fourth of July.
Mostly,
it's just another day for many people, a day to go about business as
usual. Except that we do it in a country that is free, and because today
salutes those who made it that way and continue to make it that way,
it's nothing short of the most important day of the year.
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1 comment:
The Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry, called "The Rivalry" by its protagonists, is well known as the "longest" football series among American colleges, that is, the competition with the most games played.
Less widely known is the reason they have racked up the most games. From the inception of the rivalry in 1884 through 1901, Lehigh and Lafayette played twice per season (with the exception of 1891, when they played three times, and 1896, when they did not meet at all).
So this puts the Princeton-Yale competition at the top of the more precisely but more awkwardly named list for "Most Years Played" with 142 for P-Y and 136 for L-L.
P-Y and L-L share another commonality. Princeton was founded by a group of Yale graduates (with one Harvard guy helping out) who felt that their respective alma maters had drifted too far from their earliest principles. Lehigh was founded by local businessman Asa Parker who believed that Lehigh had lost its way.
In both cases, the younger institution is the more highly ranked academically. How often do you see, in a family of athletes, it's the youngest child who achieves the highest heights?
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