the check is in the mail

The NCAA has long outlived its usefulness, if it were ever useful. The list of malfeasance is nearly endless: recruiting scandals, inability to actually investigate anything, useless bans and suspensions, moneymaking skills on par with FIFA, shit leadership, and general incompetence. I have way too many thoughts on the NCAA to come to some clear conclusion and you blame that on my life long love of sport. I want it to be good and fair but I know it's not.

Paying athletes has long been an issue across major moneymaking sports at major universities. Right of the bat we should bear in mind this first fact - most major university athletic departments don't operate at a profit.(here's a link to a great site with mid-tier University of Iowa chosen). Undoubtedly, the massive programs (Texas, Alabama, Ohio St.) have football programs that pull the entire department over the line but the vast majority of departments lose money. Paying athletes, on top of the losing financial proposition in place, doesn't make financial sense. Football players at the major programs are now essentially 'paid' to study their chose profession - a year of tuition, room and board at USC is allegedly $72K. For a football player when you consider travel, equipment, special training, medical, additional facilities, special diet/food/training meals, etc, you can add something like 40% to that number, so we are talking about $100K per year, $400K over four years to study your chosen profession at a level that even academic scholarship students studying the likes of medicine, science, or English will never see. And, post-graduation, who donates more back to major universities, athletes or other alumni? Maybe the donations come because the football program is doing well. I don't know, but I suspect that non-athletes contribute to the endowment number more than athletes. I could go deeper into other stuff I ponder in this particular area, but I won't.

I won't go further because I'm more on the players' side than the universities and the NCAA. Even though I know that USC was USC before Reggie Bush, and USC will be USC after Reggie Bush, they did benefit from his name and likeness during his time there. Yes, USC made Reggie Bush, not vice versa (anyone think Reggie Bush at North Dakota St. would have had the same career?). It wouldn't be a reach to see schools begin to pay athletes but eliminate athletic scholarships and tell athletes that "we'll pay you $150K per year, but you owe us $100K for your training and facilities." Might not work out as well as one thought.

What else? Well, how about we do away with college athletics as we know it and move all the athletics to the Art Department? (Hat tip to anonymous source on that one.) How about the NCAA tries to get with the game and figure out how to move forward in athlete compensation. How about they work hard on details and methods to ensure that athletes whose names and likenesses earn money are compensated in some way.

How about the professional sports leagues who make billions of dollars fund minor leagues along the lines of MLB and junior hockey in Canada? I'm not sure why we still think that universities and colleges should be in the business of profit and sport on the level we currently see.

I'd like to think that the downfall of the NCAA might foretell the end of college sports but it will more likely bring more money and graft into colleges and universities.

Oh, what started this? What made you read all this junk? It's this article on California deciding to allow college athletes to be paid.

be there or be ...

I have a weird interest in traffic and civil planning (is that the phrase? City planning?) Having grown up on Omaha, all square aside from crazy Leavenworth St., and someone who enjoys walking in Manhattan (hello squares), this article piqued my interest. What more do you need then an economist, city/urban planning, and Burning Man? It reminded me of a once monthly visit/episode called "Shaping the City" that Kojo Nnamdi used to host with the architect Roger Lewis on WAMU in DC. I don't think the "Shaping" series is still ongoing but it was easily my favorite episode every month because Lewis had a way of talking about planning, architecture, memorial planning (it is DC, afterall), and all aspects of human economy. Having zero life experience how these things actually work I enjoyed reading how true experts understand and plan the human experience - obviously, some good and some bad.

The Burning Man event is human gathering that allows these folks to actually plan, create, inhabit, disassemble, and walk way every single year only to do it again in twelve months with added corporate (funny, right?) knowledge. Not only is this of interest for the caching of details for future city planners, but it should be of interest into how we can plan for tens of thousands of people needed immediate in disasters and migration (forced or otherwise).

Anyway, here's the article in the NYTimes. Enjoy.

the game

 

It's been a long and very enjoyable summer of baseball. Our primary source of sports entertainment was the Keene Swamp Bats who won the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) championship this season. The league consists of still active college players from across the country who spent the (short) summer league living in local homes and playing about 45 games throughout a chunk of New England. We also had a chance to see the Portland Sea Dogs host the Reading Fighin' Phils while on vacation (p.s. Portland's Hadlock Field is a very nice stadium). What brought this to the fore was following the Nationals v Mets game online last night. It was one of those games you rarely see where it gets totally crazy in the late innings. The gist: First, the Mets suck. Second, the game was to be a pitching dual between the last three Cy Young holders: Max Scherzer and Jacob de Grom. Scherzer exited first, de Grom went long, but all we need to know is the Nats closed to 5-4 at the end of the eight. I figured they'll get a shot in the 9th, right? Well, the bullpen gave up five in the top of the 9th, three unearned., and staring at a 10-4 deficit was rough. In quite a turn, the Nats rallied in the bottom of the 9th for...wait on it...seven runs. It all happened like this.

I've been following the Nats very closely this year, and it all seemed lost early on; lost for a really good team (if one overlooks a struggling bullpen, which every team seems to have this year). They started 19-31 (.380 ball on pace for 100 losses) that ended with an awful four-game (losing) sweep at CitiField in New York. Since then they've gone a MLB-best 59-28 (.678) and have both a MVP leader in Anthony Rendon (.338/32/112/1.054) and an outside shot at a Cy Young with Stephen Strasburg. They won't catch the Braves for the division, but they have just about locked up the #1 wild card slot. Granted, a one-game wild card playoff won't be my favorite, but it's what you get.

the north

Along with any number of things I'd like to 'work' on in my near years I'd like to blog some more. I'm bringing sexy back, right?

The Eleven abandoned the issues (issuances?) down South and moved to Vermont about two months ago. Much like the scene in Fletch (you only need to watch to the 1:30 mark), it was so sudden, you know, at the very end.We'd planned to move up eventually - to build, clear the land, tap some trees, live off the our wilderness skills - but our standing lease in Virginia, work, houses for sale, and whatnot conspired with/against us and off we went in two U-Hauls (one towing a car), and a CR-V containing X and two cats. The drive was amazingly easy considering we were rigging it up I-95 for much of the journey and hitting the GW Bridge to cross Manhattan. By the way, a 20" U-Haul with a Nissan Versa on a dolly in tow will run you $84 at the bridge. The three of us ended up running differing routes from Manhattan to the house but all arrived safe and sound.

The first Vermont entry is going to be about the 40th annual Putney Craft Tour over Thanksgiving weekend. This was probably the fifth time The 51 has done it, with others popping in and out over the years, and it's the best thing. Putney, even though it has a 'center' of town, is really just a big, open patch of country littered with artists and their studios. The best part of the tour is driving to these tucked away gems where you get to see houses with satellite studios hidden away in hills, forests, and valleys, most often near a running brook or stream. The artists open up the studios to visitors and you get to see the creativity, tools, and products they make for a living. It doesn't hurt that it's usually cold and the studios are woodstove-heated with hot cider and snacks. You can take time to chat with the artists since no single place is overrun at any given time, at least not in the mornings. We saw a lot of the usual places, but even they seem different every year. And, unlike two years ago I didn't buy at every stop...just half of them. My favorites?

Fiona Morehouse at Alchemy Arts

Julia Brandis at Julia Brandis Glassworks (I'll be getting a stained glass once I get X in tow...)

Ken Pick at Ken Pick Pottery

The cheese (as always) at the amazing Parish Hill Creamery

and, Dena Moses at Vermont Weaving School where I have a 3-day class in February

Now if I can just get around to chickens, cheesemaking,weaving, and mandolin playing.

truths

I’d say I have a current issue with sandwiches, but it’s really a long, long campaign in my head. It’s not really the sandwiches that are the problem, it’s the makers. I think the two greatest sandwiches of all time, in order, are the Reuben and egg salad. I haven’t had a good Rueben in forever; I had a great egg salad sandwich in Indianapolis in November 2014.

There’s some debate on the origin of the Rueben, but I still hold to the idea that it was first created Omaha (shout out!). Rueben: corned beef, Swiss, sauerkraut, Russian dressing, rye bread. I’m guilty of ordering the portobello Rueben, in hopes of just finding any Rueben worth its weight, and have regretted it every single time. Generally, it wasn’t the mushroom-in-place-of-corned beef thing, it was either the lack of quality of the remainder of ingredients, or hateful construction ignorance. You cannot call anything a Reuben that doesn’t have a good half inch of quality sauerkraut – the main issue that is most likely to be missing. Actual construction is often pathetic and that combined with some weak spread of ‘kraut damns these sandwiches to hell. Hell. If I get up to no good this weekend I may finally gather the forces and do a proper Reuben. Dare to dream.

I’ll leave egg salad for later chat.

l'oeuf

We crossed the border last night for a big birthday dinner. We do it every summer and have done the last two years at Hen of the Wood in Burlington - a fantastic place that makes a mushroom toast you dream of. This year there was a request to find a French place somewhere nearby (Quebec, as it turns out) for the festivities. X sleuth-ed out L'Oeuf in Mystic, Quebec, a short 25-minute drive from our summer locale. (As an aside, we ended up crossing into Quebec via the the same border patrol agent who'd seen the boys earlier in the week.). Southern Quebec is very Midwestern in layout: corn, soy beans, flat, barns. Mystic is a very small village hidden in the trees and made up of 30-40 fabulously maintained Quebecoise homes; and. L'Oeuf. The shop, inn, and restaurant are run by a couple who've somehow put together the best little place in the World. The shop is full of chocolate (that they make), mustards (some of which they make), marmalades, and assorted French stuff that sucks me in like me wandering into a high-end NYC papier. Before dinner we were three digits of money into our stash of chocolate, mustard, chestnut paste, and Opinel knives.

Dinner on a lovely screened in porch near the garden was a chef's selection for two of us and some a la carte on the other half. Everything was perfectly done with the beaujolais, confit de canard, terrine, and desserts. The terrine gave us insight into the handmade mustard half Canadian, half French seeds) that was a perfect piquant. On the way out we grabbed yet another jar that the waiter told us came with the terrine, but we were stopped short by the owner/mustardeer who directed to his unlabel home cache of jars - of which he gave us one free. It's gold. You'll never taste it because it's too precious. There was nothing in the entire event that wasn't perfect. Seriously. One of the best meals, ever. If you're up that way, and you never know, get a reservation.

Maybe we need a cross-border home.

halt, who goes there?

We are spending the week on the shores of Lake Champlain, very near (.5 miles) to the Canada border on the Vermont side. There is I-87 exit 22*, where we're staying, immediately followed by the border. If you happen to miss the exit you are rewarded by sitting in line to cross into Canada. If you are two young lads on their way back to the lake house from a day/dinner in Burlington, Vermont, sans passports, and slip by the exit you get a free hour long 'mini-vacation' having a long, interesting discussion with Canadian border guards: Where do you live? Where are you staying? Where were you born? What is your business? Hand me your passports. Answers to these questions were along the lines of America, on the lake in a house, I think Vermont, no idea, we don't have any. They had their car searched by the great northerners and then told to take the quick u-turn, no doubt in place for just these more-than-often events, and pointed back to the US border shack on the southbound side. Whatever the procedure at the border, and I'm sure it's well worn for accidental tourists, the Americans weren't so much interested as they watch them come down the "lane of shame" heading back to their homeland. We are thinking that if they go out alone again we'll pin a big note on each of them with their names, place of birth, lake cabin address, and their mother's phone number.

*Vermont must be the only state in the Union where the interstate highways don't have exits numbered by mile marker. You might come into Vermont from the south thinking, "We are getting off at exit 10 which is in about ten miles." Funny that. Exit 10 could be 112, or 5, miles away - there is no math or knowledge that can help you.

tell me where you're at

I'm almost positive that I've answered the question, "If you could see any band live, right now, who would it be?" with The Clash. That may still be true, but suddenly, after decades, my mind is split and we can blame it on the turntable thing I bought a few weeks back. A few years ago I went searching for an Uptown Rulers LP, something that I could put in a album frame and have on the wall to remind me the early/mid-1980s. I unframed it the other night and spun the sounds. Took me right back.The Rulers were a band hailing from the Bloomington-Normal, IL area - they toured exclusively across the midwest/plains in an area bounded by southern Illinois; Lincoln, NE; and the Twin Cities. I never heard of them going further afield than those areas. The Rulers fit into whatever wave of Ska was hitting then (second? third?) and did a combo platter of originals and covers. We loved the Rulers. One of my best friends (there were three) was even more crazy than I was, and I was crazy: student union shows, sneaking into bars, driving to the Quad Cities on New Year's Eve from Omaha for a show (that is another story), and numerous other shows, particularly in Iowa City where I was leaving a trail of over-drinking and sleeping that supported my 1.92 GPA over two full years. Well, there was also a pizza place job, some Cubs' games on TV, a lot of skanking, and two lovely girlfriends. Rulers shows were the biggest, sweatest, danc-iest, skankiest pit shows ever. Ever. You'd be hardpressed to have more fun at any show. If we could all go back and time and have the Rulers show up on a stage in a small venue and play two hours for us, it would be the best.

There was once liner notes for a Gear Daddies CD where the writer who introduced them to us said something along the lines of: there are better bands in the World, but there is no band I'll ever love more than the Gear Daddies. The Rulers are probably the band I most love.

sweep the leg

I’ve had a ton of discussions about risk aversion and conservative coaching with cohorts. Well, mostly with Probability Boy (now known at ProbBoy). Which leads to this: We were watching some Jeopardy! last night and the players were at (about) $12k, $10k, and $8k as the final answer on the Double Jeopardy board came up (category: U.S. Congressional Committees). Since the $12k player has just answered the last question correctly she was the ‘question’ chooser for the final question, which happened to be the last Daily Double – it’s all hers. There is only one way to play this – bet it all and either end it now or go home. I did not spend 22 minutes of my life to watch you fucking lay up. Bet it all – how many committees do you think there are? We’ve seen judiciary, we’ve seen Oversight. Bet. It. All. Look, you are the only one that gets the question, you won’t have to worry about your opponents getting it right and you missing it in Final Jeopardy. You won’t have to do math to figure out if you need to bet $3,145 to win. You don’t have to worry about a category coming up in Final Jeopardy that you don’t know jack about, like “Tang Dynasty Chinese Poetry”. It’s all you. Bet. Win. Drop the mic. Lock it down. She bets like $2k. My head explodes. 

Might as well watch John Harbaugh coach.

P.S. The question was, "Three word committed that oversees..." Fucking stop. What is Ways and Means. She killed me.

strumming

I’m going to focus on a musician named Joe Overton. The first time I saw him perform I was stuck in Indianapolis the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2014. He was playing as part of The Party Line – the band that is integral to the Nora Jane Struthers traveling carnival. I think he plays just about anything with strings, but his focus on stage is the fiddle, banjo (resonator and open-back), and lap steel. Having now seen him four times – twice with the band (including last Thursday night in DC), and twice at house concerts as a duo with Nora Jane (including Sunday night on Kent Island) – I can say that he might be my favorite musician. He has his own album of original songs that was the first to spin on my new turntable configuration last night, plus he and Nora Jane also have an album of old Irish, English, Appalachian standards that they released this year and played through the entire first set on Sunday night. What I first noticed about him playing that night in Indianapolis was that the total ease he exhibits when playing music. There seems to be a deft style about his playing that implies just letting the instrument throw out the sounds that you’re guiding it through. It’s pretty hard to describe, but I remember getting home after that ‘trip’ and trying to vaguely emulate the relaxed grip he had on his instruments while creating a more relaxed practice method on the mandolin. It works. I guess it’s akin to taking a deep breath when you’re tense and then feeling your shoulders and body immediately relax immediately: a light grip on the instrument and an easier manner in trying to coax the notes. Take all that for what it’s worth, which ain’t much.