Sunday Observations 11.25.2

Well I did find something, something I had been saving to write once I found out more about Sandy's hit on Stone Harbor. I never did use it but I do like it and finding a home for orphan paragraphs was the whole idea behind Sunday Observations. I don't remember where it was from or who wrote it but it's just a perfect description of why people feel how they do about the Jersey shore, the shore.

"There are parts of the Jersey Shore that, in high summer, are almost indistinguishable from California or Florida or some other sun-washed paradise. The difference here is that summer dies each year. It is briefer, and thus more precious, and Labor Day is the saddest day of all. That’s why we grasp the Shore so hard, why we hang on to it so fiercely. How much can we squeeze from this wave, from this romance, from this fishing trip, from this bar band, from this sun? How much more before it all chills and fades and we have to wait nine more months to try again?"

Before anyone texts me I know I could just google the first line and find out where it came from but that would take away from it no? Okay it came from a New York Times op-ed piece by Kevin Coyne.

One more thing while I'm thinking about The New York Times. What is up with the Styles section? Its been way too boring for months now. After three years maybe it's time Stuart Emmrich went back to the Travel section and left Styles to somebody new, preferably a woman after two decades under men.

Sunday Observations 11.25

A weekend with the family seems to go so fast but here we are, Sunday, soon time to head back to the Village. I think I will be waiting until morning, traffic be damned, because I have some photo work I can do here and quite honestly I don't feel like going back yet. Usually I have some notes left over to post Sunday morning but I was a bit lax this week so I'm going to have to wing it. Here we go.

In an awesome gesture Penn State put the year 2012 on the wall of Beaver Stadium along with the years of all the championships and undefeated seasons. It is meant to honor a team that stuck together through everything that happened in the last year but more importantly it honors the thirty one seniors who held the team together. Penn State won its final game against Wisconsin and finished the year 8-4, pretty damn awesome considering many national writers didn't see them win a single game, indeed hoped they wouldn't.

Bill O'Brien became a legend at state in a single year. Not only did he coach the team to its 8-4 record he did it with a style of football some fans have only dreamed of for years. O'Brien's eight wins are the most ever by any first year head coach of the Penn State football team. An impressive total even though there have only been 15 head coaches in the team's 125 year history. Now rumors swirl that some NFL or NCAA team will try and buy him out of his contract after one year so I guess we'll all find out something about Bill O'Brien in the coming months.

An interesting fact about Wisconsin. The Badgers will face Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game next week even though the finished third in their division. They are just lucky enough to be in the same division as Penn State and an undefeated Ohio State both of which are ineligible for the championship or any bowl games. As for bowl games, I don't care who is playing, none of them will be as good or played as hard as yesterday's come from behind (both teams) over-time win by Penn State.

In totally diff type of football the Penn State women's soccer team will be heading to the College Cup, the final four of NCAA soccer, where they will play Florida State next Friday on ESPNU. Even though PSU has won fifteen consecutive Big Ten titles it will be their first trip to the final four since 2005. Congrats!

Seems Sunday Observations became a sports blog this week. That's what happens when I hang around my dad too much.