A Perfect Autumn Day and Night

Reporting from Iowa City, IA

First off, allow me to apologize for skipping last week’s blog; I was working night shifts that weekend and that tends to play Hell with one’s diurnal productivity.  Inspired by the start of my favorite season, I tried to get my Facebook friends to contribute some seasonal poetry but ran into an epic fail.  Here’s my summary from last weekend: fall is here, slow cooked brats are awesome, USC bounced back against Cal, I am embarrassed for the 17 points I got at the expense of the Hawkeyes, and I predict the hail mary fiasco on Monday Night Football will encourage a settlement between the league and the refs.  (Good call, that last one)

This weekend, I have a rare quiet couple days at home.  Good thing, too, because tonight is the Harvest Moon and the weather in Iowa is often beautiful this time of year.  Sure enough, we have robin’s egg blue skies, cool clear nights, warm sunny afternoons, and the leaves are just starting to change, filling our forest with blazes of fire and gold.  I headed out to work on Saturday morning into the crisp Midwestern air, riding my bike through the maze of tailgaters, soaking in the scent of grilling bacon, roasted burgers, and gallons of spilled beer.  I worked the first-aid station for the Iowa – Minnesota game, a rivalry match played each year for Floyd of Rosedale, a bronze pig.  Floyd has resided north of the border for two years and we were eager to get him back.  After their epic collapse last week, Iowa finally woke up and played great on both sides of the ball, winning convincingly 31 – 13.

The first-aid station was busier than usual, thanks to the warm sunny weather as the game started.  The heat in the stadium caught everyone by surprise; this morning it was a brisk 47, but quickly shot up to over 80 by the second half.  The patient census at the first aid station is directly correlated to the ambient temperature; the hotter it is, the more patients we see.  Another trend we see is that underage persons are the ones most likely to have trouble with alcohol.  As expected, the only intoxicated patients we had to deal with today were under 21.  After the game, I went for a long bike ride in the warm sun, basking in the perfect weather.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent enjoying football from around the nation.  There were some great games (‘cmon South Florida! Too bad- close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades), but the big story of the day has to be Geno Smith, the West Virginia QB who triumphed in a ridiculous 70-63 shootout over Baylor.  He went 45 for 51 (yes, a 88% completion percentage) with 8 TD’s, no INT’s, and 656 yards.  Had he been in my fantasy football league, he would have scored an unbelievable 62 points!  No one has previously won the Heisman in September, but Smith might have just pulled off the feat.  Apparently, Smith is also a rather gifted artist.  Here's a great biography from the New York Times: GenoSmithNewYorkTimes

After watching highlights of Geno Smith throwing for touchdown after touchdown, I soothed my sore throat with a delightful hot toddy* and fell asleep on my couch, bathed in the blue glow of the harvest moon and dreaming of lounging on a beach in Hawaii.

43 days, 4 hours, and 4 minutes . . .

Fight On,

Hans

*PS: my favorite recipe:  put 1 – 2 oz of good scotch into a mug.  Laphroaig works great due to its smoky aroma, but any decent scotch will do.  You could substitute rye whiskey instead, but Templeton Rye is just too rare to be mixed this way.  Add 1 – 2 teaspoons of sugar and mix.  Fill the mug with hot water and enjoy.  It is best paired with a cold weather, a soft blanket, a leather chair, and the company of a West Highland White Terrier.  

Cant Beat Them

Reporting from Palo Alto, CA

Many of our long term readers know that I love San Francisco and eagerly look forward to USC's annual road trip to the bay area. This year, we got to play Stanford and were humbled by losing to them for the 4th year in a row. More on that later. I'm here at the game with my dad (mouse), brother (khouse), and Kurt's father-in-law Jon Colton (jcman00). The game is unusually early in the season so the weather is absolutely perfect- sunny with an expected high of 80.

For the second year in a row, we are in Apple's backyard the same weekend they unveil the newest model of iPhone. My wife, sick and tired of AT&T's awful service and spotty (at best) coverage, was very happy to pre-order it in the early hours of yesterday morning. When the site opened, the ship date was one week later. After just one hour, the ship date was pushed back to 2 weeks. After 18 hours, it will take 3 weeks to get your phone. Although the critique that Apple has yet to introduce something totally new is valid, their continued refinement of this revolutionary device is clearly wildly successful when it comes to sales.

I thank Steve Jobs just about everyday for bringing us the future. When I travel I just bring my iPhone and iPad and I have all I need for entertainment, productivity and logistics. For example, in the first 24 hours of this trip, I utilized this technology by:

• Using the American Airlines app and checking into my flight
• Sending the boarding passes that I downloaded to my iPad to my air printer
• Checking the status of my flight and the weather at the destination airport to project for possible delays including watching live Doppler radar from Texas as thunderstorms rolled across the state.
• Using the AA app for my connecting gate information as I arrived at the AA hub in Dallas
• Using Airport Maps app to locate food and the Admirals Club in the Dallas terminal
• Connected to the Internet while on board my flight from Dallas to San Francisco and followed the progress of the plane across a map of the United States.
• Send a text to my dad from the plane to let him know we were to be late
• Watched movie on my iPad, rented and downloaded the night before
• Kept track of my caloric intake with the My Fitness Pal app
• Used Google maps to locate Smuggler's Cove, my favorite bar in San Francisco
• "Checked in" on Facebook and posted a picture of the world's greatest cocktail, the Parisian Blonde
• Ordered a limousine from the Über app to take us to dinner (this is a GREAT service. Check it out if you don't know about it.  https://www.uber.com/)
• As we walked through the Fairmont Hotel, I pulled up a copy of one of my old blogs so my dad Could read about the history of the place and it's famous Tonga room. (http://underdogcontest.blogspot.com/2008/07/coldest-winter.html)
• Determined the calories burned from a walk around Union Square with Workout app
• Located sushi restaurants that may are open late for a post-game meal and read their reviews with Yelp
• Reserved a table with Open Table
• And, of course, kept track of the scores and upsets that make this contest great!

As you all know, there was one upset that was not so great. Stanford beat USC. . . again. For suffering Trojan fans this is becoming an increasingly annoying occurrence. Stanford is successful because they focus on winning the trenches; their teams over the last 6 years have been characterized by dominant O and D line play. Before they had Luck airing it out, the Cardinal ground out gritty wins with ball-control offense and relentless rushing attack. They lack the speed and flash of Oregon but as far as USC concerned, it's worse. USC's offensive line looked non-existent and Matt Barkley will be nursing his bruises for a long time to come, right up until the Heisman ceremony when he isn't invited to New York.

As you may know, my wife Kristi is a very proud alum of the Leland Stanford Jr University. She has been enjoying their run of 5 wins in the last 6 years. The proverb "If you can't beat them, join them" is traced to an American Senator in 1932. Sounds like good advice. Maybe Barkley should find a nice young lady from Stanford and settle down. It worked for me.

This was a rough weekend. I'm ready for Hawaii in 57 days, 7 hours, 47 minutes.

Fight on,
Hans

PS: here's a great slideshow of the best college football bars in the country, including the Dixie Chicken I mentioned 2 weeks ago.
http://www.thedailymeal.com/best-college-football-bars-0?utm_source=yahoo%2Bpostgame&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=college%2Bfootball%2Bbars&RM_Exclude=Welcome

State College

This is not about Jerry Sandusky or about a torrid sex scandal. This is about a community coming together to heal and reestablishing it's priorities over scholarship, loyalty, and football.

I have come to State College for a family reunion; to enjoy barbecued meats and fine scotch with my brothers, aunts and uncles, and mother. While here, I wanted to get a true sense of the Penn State community; how they are coping with the changes in leadership at the beginning of a protracted period of football futility.

The Nittany Lions began play last week with the first new head coach since 1966. Is there a cult of personality at Penn State? Apparently not; I'm told it was not about Joe Paterno the person. It was about a football coach was loyal to the school. Win or lose, he kept showing up to work for a school he loved. Russ Rose, their venerable volleyball coach, has paced the hardwood since 1979. Mike the Mailman has operated the campus post office since 1978 and writes a regular column on state college.com. The students love him so much they made him grand marshall last year.

Penn State is about loyalty. Loyalty and longevity at the institution. They prefer persistence to turnover. Can these principles lead to unfortunate tolerance of inappropriate behavior? Sure; witness the tale of Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland. She was the coach since 1980, published documented homophobic views since 1986, and was finally forced to resign in 2007. (no, that's not a typo)

The current narrative in the press is that the football program was all powerful at Penn State and dictated the decisions of the administration. Whereas no one is debating the football traditions and football income was important to the school, the NCAA perception that institutional priorities have become dominated by the athletic department may be a tad exaggerated (and rather hypocritical).

Penn State got hammered by the trustees of the school, firing the head coach, AD, and president. Then they got hammered by the NCAA with unprecedented sanctions. Now they face the real possibility of federal government action due to violation of the Clery Act. The school's published policy on this was only developed in 2011 and the Clery Act has been law since 1990 (http://www.police.psu.edu/cleryact/). As a result, there is a sense of increased scrutiny and a renewed emphasis on compliance on campus. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but we have seen a significant drop in underdog players from Penn State this year.

But overriding this reaction to punishment and scandal is a dominating unity within the community. Many homes in the area boast signs such as this one, proudly proclaiming their support of the players. Not the coach, not the program, but the young men who have chosen to stay at the school and earn their degrees. After all, regardless of happens on the field, Penn State remains a world class institution of higher learning. Penn State, along with Notre Dame, lead the NCAA in graduation rate. Ironically, by allowing current players to transfer without penalty, the NCAA sent a message that football players are here for NFL preparation and are not student-athletes. Pre- professional Silas Redd was happy to leave for Tailback U, eyeing a boost in draft position. Most other players remained so they can continue to proclaim "We are Penn State". Loyalty to the school above all.


It has been a wonderful weekend and I hope the best for my friends and family in Happy Valley. The Nitany Lion animal may be extinct, but its independent spirit of survival in the face of adversity will live on throughout the campus.

My Trojans start in 4 hours- that's just enough time to drive to Meadowlands to catch kickoff.

And 65 days, 10 hours, 22 minutes to Hawaii.

Fight on,
Hans

PS- as I watched ESPN game day from College Station, I am reminded of the tremendous traditions at Texas A&M, including the 12th man, the midnight yell, and kissing after scores. My favorite is their mascot Reveille. Here's a great article about her:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reveille_(dog)

Opening Weekend!

Reporting this week from Dallas, TX

I would like to say that I have traveled here to celebrate the opening of college football and attend the epic blockbuster of #2 Alabama vs #8 Michigan at Jerry Jones’ palace of football.  But sadly, I am stuck in a board review course while the game is about to start just beyond view of my hotel room.  But I have a suite, and two TV’s, so I got to watch Alabama/Michigan on one screen while my Trojans beat up Hawaii on the other.  And, thanks to the miracle of text messaging and FaceTime, I got to enjoy the company of my brothers live from Ann Arbor!  Aren’t they so cute in their matching Maize and Blue?

I am impressed with the quality slate of games on this opening weekend.  Usually, the first weekend is just for warm up games against Sun Belt or Division I-AA schools (or Hawaii).  But we got to see Notre Dame- Navy, Michigan State – Boise State, Clemson – Auburn,  South Carolina – Vanderbilt, and, of course, Alabama- Michigan.  And we got some special locations- Cowboy Stadium, Dublin Ireland, Kinnick East (AKA Soldier Field).  And a whole series of games held in Atlanta during the same weekend as DragonCon!  (if you understood that last reference, you are a nerd like me). Naturally, not all of these games were nailbiters.  But just having football back is enough for me.

I must admit; I do feel bad for Penn State.  Unlike 14 others in the contest, I didn’t have the heart to pick against Penn State in their very emotional opener at home against Ohio.  It was time for the State College community to come together and start putting this terrible off season behind them.  Instead, it ended with students dancing in the streets of Athens, Ohio, calling the Bobcats victory the “biggest win in school history”.  Somehow, it just didn’t seem like a classy reaction.  But much more on that next week when I will report from State College.

I enjoyed tonight’s games with a plate of yucca chips with tomatillo salsa and traditional buffalo wings, all washed down with a bottle of Texas’ own Shiner Bock beer.  I first tasted Shiner Bock the summer after I graduated college, when I drove a friend from her home in Phoenix to her new job in Key West, Florida.  That was an amazing road trip.  We hooked up with some fellow Trojans in El Paso and watched Wayne Gretzky lead the Kings into their first Stanley Cup finals (ok, sports fans, now you know what year I graduated college).  We explored Carlsbad Caverns and discovered the most amazing tamale stand in Pecos, Texas.  And we stopped in College Station where we played dominoes at the Dixie Chicken bar and drank Shiner Bock beer.  Back then, it was only available within 100 miles of Shiner, Texas.  Now, you can get it on draught all over the country.  But out of respect for its history I only drink it here in Texas.  There are lots more crazy stories from that road trip, including a wonderful night in New Orleans, but I leave those for another time.

You may notice that I have made it this far into my blog this year without mentioning game day pancakes.  And what the Hell are yucca chips, anyway?  Well, they’re quite good.  But the point is that I am on a diet.  So my Trojans will have to make their march toward Miami without my lucky breakfast.  Judging by tonight’s result, they will be fine (and the scary thing is that they could have played even better!).  I am going to keep this diet up until Kristi and I go to Hawaii in November.  Its working so far.  Its best not to think about how long that will be.

71 Days, 21 Hours, 48 Minutes to Hawaii.

Fight On,

Hans