As I
write these words, I am sitting in rocking chair on the famous and expansive
porch of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.
I am sipping a glass of Cruzan reserve rum gazing out at the spectacular
view of a full moon rising over Lake Huron, draping the waters with blue
silver.
The Grand
Hotel was built in 1887 as a destination resort for the railroad. Tradition is
key here; not much has changed in design or style for a long time. Motor vehicles are not permitted on the
island; travel is by foot, bike, or horse-drawn carriage. Coat and tie are required for gentlemen in
the evening and it is requested that ladies not wear slacks. The movie Somewhere
in Time was filmed here because the director wanted a place that looked
like “it hasn’t changed in 100 years”.
Yet I am
recording these thoughts by dictating into my iPhone that is using
remotely-accessed speech recognition software to interpret my words into dots
on a screen aligned into a specified font.
The document created in Pages is then automatically uploaded to the
cloud where it is beamed wirelessly back down to me and into my iPad that sits
adjacent to me. When I finish dictating,
I can pick up my iPad to finish editing the story.
I am
using technology that Steve Jobs gave us and brought us into the future. In a place that remains stubbornly rooted to
the past. Irony can be so . . .
ironic.
The awkward balance between latest technology and old tradition is
played out throughout the college football world. Big bands full of brass instruments play
fight songs written in the 1920’s then give way to “I Gotta Feeling” piped in
through the PA system. Tailgaters gather in the Grove in Mississippi or the
golf course in Pasadena, laying out traditional white table tablecloths and
lighting candles. Then they hook up
their satellite dish and fire up the 55 inch plasma strapped to the side of
their RV.
This last off-season was a very eventful one for college
football. Old tradition at Penn State
was shattered by the conviction of Jerry Sandusky, the damning of Joe Paterno’s
reputation with the Freer report, and the leveling of unprecedented sanctions. Yet among this gloom and horror their
emerging a shining beacon of hope.
College presidents and Athletic Directors, finally waking up and doing
the math of how much it would bring in profits, worked out a deal for a college
football playoff. As I have repeated so
often in this blog, I hate the BCS but I appreciate it because it is the next
step in evolution towards a playoff. And
I was right. It finally happened. Even better, the format is a college football
fan’s dream:
1) Semi-finals played at a rotation among the current major
bowls
2) Finals played on a neutral site awarded to the highest bidder
(with the money going to the schools, not a 3rd party promoter)
3) The four teams selected by a committee, not a bizarre
computer algorithm.
2014 cant come soon enough.
But until then, we will enjoy USC’s run at a National Title this
year. And the evolution of the Big 12
and SEC. And the final death throes of
the Big East (please just let it go). And
another year of game day pancakes, ESPN College Game Day, grilled bratwurst,
and packed stadiums under robin’s egg blue Midwestern skies.
The underdog
contest starts in four weeks. Be ready,
dogs!
Fight On,
Hans
PS. The couple (well, ok, more like several)
glasses of rum are starting to get to me.
This rocking chair is reasonably comfortable but hardly suitable for
sleeping. In the Somewhere in Time
Christopher Reeve arrives at the grand Hotel without a reservation and proceeds
to fall asleep on the porch in an Adirondack chair. I envy that man right now.
