Lynah Faithful in the News

With Cornell having played in the Florida College Hockey Classic in all eight years of the tournament's existence, the locals have grown accustomed to the traveling Lynah Faithful and our antics. This was the seventh straight year we've come down to watch, and Cornell always twice as many fans as the other three schools combined. It's obvious that some of the things we do -- yelling "red" during the anthem, standing for the whole game, chanting and yelling throughout -- aren't commonplace at the Germain Arena.

This is why it's always fun to read what the local press has to say about the Cornell fans.

The Fort Myers News-Press story about the first game led with this:

A group of about 100 Cornell University fans sat together in the south end of Germain Arena for Saturday night’s game. Dressed in red jerseys, the fans chanted “Let’s Go Red” throughout the contest.

The Big Red are 1,300 miles away from their Ithaca, N.Y. campus, but they feel at home in Southwest Florida.

I think 100 is a low estimate, but we'll take the attention.

The Naples Daily News also led with a shout-out to our fans:

If any Division I college hockey team is at home at Germain Arena, it’s the Cornell Big Red, who have played each year of the Florida College Classic as its de facto host team.

And Cornell looked right at home on Saturday night in the first round of this year’s tournament, beating St. Cloud State 3-2 to advance to today’s championship against Eastern College Athletic Association rival Colgate, at 7:35 p.m. at Germain Arena.

“Yeah, I think we probably have the most fans,” Big Red forward Joe Devin said, smiling.

Go us.

We didn't get quite as glowing coverage after yesterday's games, but here was one reference:

Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens stopped Colgate shooter Tom Riley on the next shot, and then the stands full of Big Red faithful in Section 114 erupted.

However, that same story also had this:

It wasn't upstate New York, and rowdy college students didn't crowd the stands shouting: "Go Big Red" or "Go Raiders!"

Where were they? I led at least three "Let's go red" cheers in the game.

The News-Press lead was also weak:

Seventy-five miles separates Cornell and Colgate’s campuses in central New York. That closeness makes these Eastern College Athletic Conference opponents bitter rivals in every sport, but hockey draws a special atmosphere.

Students from both campuses stand in line for hours to score tickets to Cornell-Colgate games.

I wouldn't exactly call us "bitter rivals." Despite our proximity, the Harvard rivalry is a much bigger deal for Cornell. And "every sport?" Really? Colgate isn't in the Ivy League so we don't even play them in most other sports. Do some research.

And that last part...Cornell fans wait in line to buy season tickets, which happen to include the Toothpaste game. Given the empty seats at the Colgate game at Lynah this fall, I don't think demand was that high.

And as for our friends over in Hamilton, their idiot students only go to that game because they're bribed with free tickets, free pizza, and instructions on how to cheer.

The Toothpaste coach got it right:

“I think it’s more of a rivalry for us than them,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. “Cornell’s top rival is probably Harvard. But this is a pretty strong rivalry. I think the success of these two programs in the past seven to eight years has really helped.”

I also heard from a local that we were on the 6:00 news yesterday for our newspaper waving during the starting lineups.

She also said that the Everblades fans have adopted our "it's all your fault...it's all your fault" chant after each goal.

I have a Facebook album up if you want to see some pictures from the trip.

Lastly, sorry for the delay in posting, but I didn't have a chance to blog during the tournament.

Doc J Helps U.S. Win War on Terror

My physics teacher in high school, whom we affectionately called Doc J, was on the project team at Pfizer that developed Viagra. After retiring from Pfizer with millions of dollars in stock options, he decided to teach physics at my high school. Check out the Facebook group for more info on the Doc.

This is why I was amused to read this front page story from today's Washington Post:

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

Hey, whatever works.

For all you finance people

In Thomas Friedman's column from Tuesday about America's economic plight, he gets this part right:

To top it off, we’ve fallen into a trend of diverting and rewarding the best of our collective I.Q. to people doing financial engineering rather than real engineering. These rocket scientists and engineers were designing complex financial instruments to make money out of money — rather than designing cars, phones, computers, teaching tools, Internet programs and medical equipment that could improve the lives and productivity of millions.

How did finance become the backbone of our economy?

Nagowski had a similar thought the other day over at Metaezra:

For the last several years, over twenty percent of Cornell graduates have enterred [sic] the financial services industry, including undoubtedly some students trained in mechanical or chemical engineering, labor relations, or consumer regulation. All things which we might need more of in the coming years.

There's nothing wrong with making money, but sometimes I wonder if some of Cornell's bright minds shouldn't be looking at different fields. Majors like AEM, ILR, and PAM, which were without question intended to not be fast-tracks to I-banking, have become exactly that for many graduates. I assume the same has been true at other universities.

Picture of the Day

Looking west from Siesta Key, 5:40pm



(Click for larger image)

I had no idea my crappy phone could actually produce decent pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Read any good blogs recently?

So maybe you're not quite sure what a blog is (how'd you get here?) or are just looking to kill some time on the internet. There are plenty of great blogs out there, but here are a few to get you started.

Political blogs:

Andrew Sullivan. Openly gay, former Republican who is now essentially an independent. Obsessed with Sarah Palin's medical records. Blogs for The Atlantic.

Wonkette. Generally hilarious DC-based political satire with a liberal lean. Perez Hilton goes to Washington.

Matt Drudge. One of the most trafficked sites on the internet, highly valued by nearly everyone in Washington. The enigmatic Drudge has a conservative slant.

Taegan Goddard. Short, to-the-point analysis of what's going on in politics.

Honorable Mention: FiveThirtyEight, Mike Luckovich, DailyKos

Just for fun:

PhotoshopDisasters. Indulge your geeky side and laugh at others' blunders with the popular deisgn program.

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. Indulge your nerdy side and laugh at others' bluders with the English language.

MetaEzra. What an alumni blog should be.

If at first you don't succeed

When I started blogging here over the summer, I was writing about the wrong things. I tried to create a quality political blog, along the lines of an Andrew Sullivan or Kos. But at this point in my life I don't have the talent to do that, nor the time to be constantly scouring and analyzing political news.

I'm starting this again, and you can expect to read about things I know about. Cornell and Cornell hockey. Politics. Greek life. My own life. The internet. I don't promise to have the level of insight you'll find elsewhere, but I hope that regardless of whether you know me, you'll enjoy reading the blog.