After a late start Saturday I made it to Nittany Valley for the Lady Lions game against Dayton with plenty of time to spare. With plenty of time to spare to drink that beer that my brother had waiting for me in the parking lot because he had faith in my arrival time even if I was skeptical about it. PSU won its opening round game 75-66 in what was the start of a big day in Penn State sports. It was also the opening day of spring football practice which next month culminates in the annual Blue & White game. The Blue & White game is probably the only football scrimmage played that draws 100,000 spectators. You might call us weird but we like our football team up here in the Valley. The day ended with Penn State wrestlers winning the NCAA team title in Philadelphia where among others they defeated three time defending champion Iowa.
Sean and I were long gone from the mountains before any wrestling championship celebrations began. Part of the basketball ticket deal was that I give him a ride home after the game but he was also kind enough to offer to drive so that I could take a nap. That was the plan anyway but you know how the best laid plans go, I never did get my nap. The problem is the two of us like to talk politics which is a habit we probably picked up from my dad and developed over years of fishing in a lake that seemed to contain no fish.
What you get here is the scientist and the artist trying to solve all the geo-political problems of the world as we speed down the interstate. Things seem to go much smoother when we are in separate cars because we are too busy playing interstate tag to worry about the rest of the world except the part of the world that has a flashing light on its roof. But that’s another story for another time.
We ended up dwelling on two totally separate things. The first was related to the events in the Middle East. After Saudi Arabia blatantly thumbed its nose at the United States by sending troops into neighboring Bahrain to help subdue protests what happens when it becomes the Saudi's turn? Another autocratic family run regime that not only happens to sit on the world's largest oil reserves but also rules a country that contains the holiest city in Islam. We figure this is one the West can't touch, just stay the hell away from it no matter what, and start producing those electric cars soon.
The second was a little closer to home; almost a philosophical sports question if that is possible. With today’s sad economy it's sickening to watch the NFL and the NFL Players Association fight over a $9 billion a year. The owners take a billion off the top before the players get any and now they want another billion because they all want a stadium like the NFL version of Versailles that Dallas owner Jerry Jones has built. Thing is it seems the taxpayers end up footing the bill for the stadiums anyway, ask NJ Governor Chris Christie about that. He wants to cut education to cut the states budget deficit yet the state still owes $300,000 on the original Meadowlands which no longer exists. What we think is that the owners should take that billion dollars and give it to the NCAA to help make up for state budget cuts to colleges and universities. After all the NFL uses the NCAA as its minor league anyway, maybe it’s time they started paying for it.
Here is to the all the little peeps, from the parking lot attendants to the peanut vendors, that are all forgotten when billionaires argue with millionaires. Welcome to America ....
The Raveonettes - Recharge & Revolt
13:00 update - keeping with the PSU sports, I saw this on the Penn State Athletics website. "The Big Ten Conference today announced the intention to recommend the establishment of men's ice hockey as an official conference sport, with The Pennsylvania State University one of the six institutions that would compete for the 2013-14 academic year." Good stuff ....
