Leveling Up

TigerBlog had his six-month dental checkup yesterday. 

Remember what Rodney Dangerfield said about going to his dentist? 

"I said to the dentist 'my teeth are turning yellow; what should I do?' He said 'wear a brown necktie.'" 

Going to the dentist doesn't stress TB out or anything. He likes his dentist. He went to her house for Thanksgiving once. 

Remember that story? He asked her for floss after they ate. 

The dental hygienist, on the other hand, was brand-new. She seemed like she knew what she was doing, though she has a job TigerBlog would not want. Ick. 

Every hygienist always says the same thing: "Floss more." It's almost like you have personally let them down, so much so that TB felt the need to apologize. 

When it was time to go, Lindsey, the affable office manager, asked TB if he wanted to schedule his next six-month checkup, to which TB said he would. Then she asked him which was better, Jan. 19 at 9 am or Jan. 20 at 10 am. He went with Jan. 19, so now he has his first thing on his schedule for 2027. 

The trip to the dentist was one of yesterday's peaks. There was also the matter of the first World Cup semifinal, in which Spain defeated France 2-0. It was never really in doubt for the Spaniards, even if TB thought France would ride Kylian Mbappe all the way to the Cup. 

Today is semifinal No. 2, between England and Argentina. If England can win, then the final would match two countries making their second appearances in the finals. 

Oh, and here's a little reminder for American writers and broadcasters: the name of a country is singular, not plural, so it's "Spain advances to the final," not "Spain advance to the final." 

Princeton is an "it." Tigers are a "they." 

While today's subject is soccer, TigerBlog stumbled on the story on the main Princeton website about men's soccer alum Gabriel Duchovny. You can read it HERE. 

Duchovny graduated this past spring after being a big part of Princeton's run to an Ivy League championship, Ivy tournament and the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament a year ago. He also scored Top Drawer Soccer's 2024 Goal of the Year for the game-winner in the 2024 win at Columbia. 

IT HAD TO BE THE MAN FROM NEW YORK! 🗽

Gabe Duchovny with a ROCKET from way out and the Tigers lead 2-1!! 🚀#PrincetonSoccer #WhosNext pic.twitter.com/VG4tzQahWW

— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@PrincetonMSoc) October 19, 2024

The story was actually from last month, though TB didn't see it until yesterday. The feature is part of a Senior Thesis Spotlight series, and it's really interesting stuff. 

Also, as the story says, his thesis was entitled “Ancient Roman Banditry: A Modern Criminological Analysis,” which applies modern criminological theory to ancient Roman accounts of organized crime and earned Duchovny the John J. Keaney Prize, the classics department’s prize for the best senior thesis. 

This is how it starts: 

As a classics major at Princeton, he spent four years learning to read ancient texts slowly and carefully. As an investigator in the Brooklyn public defense office, he scoured the borough for surveillance footage after alleged crimes occurred and interviewed witnesses. And as a midfielder on the Princeton men’s soccer team, he won recognition for his tactical precision and ability to connect play down the field. For Duchovny, all three pursuits share something fundamental: the practice of connecting scattered details into a meaningful picture.

Duchovny came to Princeton from Brooklyn, where he first started playing soccer before he ever started school. At Princeton he was a Classics major, something he was pointed to from his first Latin class in eighth grade. There was this from the story: 

“I liked how reading a Latin sentence felt like putting together a puzzle,” he said. “You look at all the cases and tenses and you piece it together to extract a meaning.” 

There's a lot of depth to Duchovny, and it all comes out in the piece. It's also a great look into once again what continues to make Princeton so special. You have a champion athlete. You have a classical scholar. You have a well-rounded citizen. 

TB leaves you with this, also from the story: 

He describes his four years at the University as a continual process of “leveling up,” academically, athletically and intellectually.