Six Degrees of Separation – from Eloise at the Plaza to The Secret River

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is the final book from last month, which in my case is Eloise by Kay Thompson, the famous 1950s picture book about the girl who lived at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Virtual Advent Calendar - A Memory from Duke

Thank you to Sprite Writes for including me in the Virtual Advent Tour she has hosted for six years (you can visit her site daily for links to the day's post).  For those who don’t know, Advent is a liturgical season leading up to Christmas which includes the four preceding Sundays.  Today I want to share an Advent tradition I enjoyed the two years I was in graduate school at Duke. 

March Madness

March Madness To Cost $1.7 Billion In Lost Work! But don't look at me - I was hard at work when the president of my firm poked his head in to say hello today. . . however, if Duke had been playing it might have been another story!

It's awesome, baby!

How suitable for Dickie V to return tonight at 9! I love the fact that he went to the same throat specialist at Julie Andrews and Steve Tyler - the latter of whom I met during the publishing event of Walk This Way. That book is what used to be called a Lou Aronica special, in that it cost a million dollars, not inclusive of marketing and promotion.

My very first Duke-Carolina game was the last game played in Carmichael Auditorium in the 85-86 season when the two teams were ranked 1 and 2 in the country. This year (annoyingly) Memphis is unbeaten and thus ranked 1 (one can only imagine whether Coach Cal's notorious players actually go to class or will be there next year). Still, there is no doubt that everyone would prefer to see this game.

Picking Up the Pieces

There's always a sad empty feeling when the season ends, especially when your team should have trounced the Giants and instead wound up looking pitiful. Mike Lynch and Mike Dowling said it was almost as bad as when Aaron Boone hit that home run off Tim Wakefield in 2003. I can't help wondering if this is Tom's punishment for his behavior to Bridget but if so unfortunately he is not suffering alone. The media seems unwilling to blame Tom but are certainly eager to blame Belichick and certainly his leaving the field before time expired was classless.However, there is always something to look forward to - like Duke at Carolina on Wednesday night, and the long awaited return of Dickie V from throat surgery! If only I didn't have to worry about my nephews wearing Tarheel tee shirts in Virginia but I guess I can't blame my sister-in-law for wanting them to root for her school...

And let's not forget the Beanpot, where Harvard made the finals for the first time in ten years!