Last Books

Simon from Stuck in a Book started this but I couldn't stop with 10!

1. The last book I gave up on - probably The Underground Railroad for my book group.   I am sure it is well written and compelling but the first chapter was so violent and depressing I put it down until it was due at the lib.

2. The last books I reread – the entire Flambards series; how I love these books by K.M. Peyton.

Common Ground (A Pictorial Review)

When David C. Scheper, former Harvard center turned attorney, was in Boston recently, he told me Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas, was one of his favorite books, and asked me to describe how the Boston neighborhoods depicted in that book geographically relate to the parts of Boston with which he is more familiar.  Common Ground, a Turbulent Decade in theLives of Three American Families, won the Pulitzer in 1986 for its memorable depiction of three Boston families from very different backgrounds experiencing Boston school desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s.   My father, having worked with legendary judge W. Arthur Garrity in the U.S. Attorney’s Office (who later issued the decision that mandated school busing), was one of the first people Tony Lukas interviewed for the book, and I am very familiar with it.

Harvard at San Diego

Best Baby:  Willie Alford III

Best Band:  The makeshift band put together at the last minute by several Harvard alumni

Best Bar:  Clearly not in Old Town or at the hotel but it didn’t matter

Best Brothers:   Dave and Paul Scheper (Matt Foley was a no show, much to Jay's chagrin, so there was no competition)

Best Class:  1981

Best Cookie:  Saturday pregame tailgate (and there was no line)

Best Former Player I Hadn’t Seen in 32 Years:  Bob Woolway

Best Future Grandfather: Brian Hehir (checking that phone conscientiously)

Best Golfer:  I don’t think I heard who won but Tim Crudo assured me he was the worst

Best Hat:  Harvard hat with embroidery

Best License Plate:  My former roommate Loreen and I happened to park behind this car on Friday at a camera store miles from anywhere (see photo).  It turned out she knew the driver, a former baseball player named Dave Knolls.  He came to the party on Friday and the game on Saturday.  She also recruited him to be an alumni admissions interviewer!

Best Party:  Friday Night Reception

Best Plane/Adjacent Seat Companions:  Dan Mee going toward San Diego and Paul Brennan on the way back

Best Rate:  Marriott Courtyard (although I still think we need a hotel with a real bar - I liked the bar at the Marriott Coronado)

Best Roommate: Loreen

Best Score: Harvard 42-USD 20

Best Tee Shirt: See the onesie on Willie Alford III above (they should sell these at Dillon)

Best Trip for Golf: Paul Connors, returning to Atlanta for the Georgia Tech game

Best Victor: But I plan to continue calling him Orazio

Best View: From Wally Bregman’s infinity pool looking down into a valley (photo does not do it justice)

Best Weather: San Diego

Best Weekend: When can we do it again?  October 4, 2014 in DC

Harvard - Yale

It was cold but sunny day for the Harvard-Yale game with fellow Kirkland House alum, Lamar Flatt, and his lovely family. Yale's men fought to the end but Harvard won.

A Fellow Collector

Just came across this item that appeared in Shelf Awareness via BBC News back in December about former Harvard football player Pat McInally, who graduated in '74 and went on to a great career with the Bengals (I could add that his presence would elevate the current tone of the team but that might be unfair). I have always admired him from afar but never knew he also collected children's books! I would really like to know what inspired his collection. Although the Friends of Harvard Football needs money, I must say I sympathize with his desire to add to his Winnie the Pooh collection (and wonder if he dislikes the Disney version as my family does). I hope he comes to Cambridge some time so we can discuss our collections - although I can imagine the looks we would get. But how many former NFL players do you think read for pleasure, let alone collect rare books? Perhaps more than one would think . . .

Former Cincinnati Bengals football player and children's book collector Pat McInally will put several rare early editions of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland up for auction. The books, including a copy that once belonged to 10-year-old Alice Liddell herself, are "expected to fetch up to £90,000 (US$147,416)," BBC News reported.

"I think it is the most important children's book ever written... so finding a book given to Alice by Lewis Carroll was really exciting," said McInally, who is parting with his copies to make room for the real focus of his collecting--Winnie-the-Pooh books.

"I'm hoping to use some of the money I get from this sale on more books by A.A. Milne at a sale coming up soon in London," he added.

McInally is also renowned, in certain circles, for having achieved a perfect score on the Wonderlic test, which is given to NFL prospects.

Big Sports Weekend

This is one of those weekends where there simply isn't enough time to do everything:
tonight, the Harvard men's basketball team hosted Bryant, for the first time ever. Bryant is only in its second year in Division I, so I didn't think they would be able to put up much of a fight (but my niece and I admired two players in particular, Papa Lo from Sengal (a transfer from UMass) and Claybrin McMath from Australia)). Bryant hung with the Crimson early but then Harvard pulled away and eventually won 77-51. It was nice to see our new freshmen getting off the bench and into the game at the end. However, I was sorry to read earlier in the

When the basketball game ended, we dashed over to Bright Rink to catch the last ten minutes of the Harvard-St. Lawrence hockey game. St. Lawrence has a lot of Boston alumni and always has a sizable crowd of fans. Tonight they really had something to cheer about as their goalie apparently was amazing, and they won 3-2, although godlike freshman Louis LeBlanc had a great shot near the end we hoped would go in to tie it up. Saturday night, the Harvard hockey team is at home against Clarkson, and urgently needs to turn around its early season woes.

Tomorrow, of course, is the Harvard-Yale game. The Game is simply not as much fun in New Haven (except for the time I met Paul Wylie - I remain convinced that my good wishes resulted in Olympic Silver for him a few months later) plus my niece is performing in a local production of The Wizard of Oz, my younger nephews are in town, and I have several motions to draft for work. However, when you read stories like this one about senior Derrick Barker (written by the talented daughter of Cynthia and Mike McClintock) it makes you wish the Ivy League were eligible for post season play so that more people would know about our talented players.

Finally, on Sunday, the men's soccer team has a first round NCAA matchup against Monmouth (known primarily for its pretty location in NJ - no, that is not an oxymoron - and because my former department head George's children went there) at 1:00 in Allston. Monmouth has a great team this year - who knew?

The Game

It's time for The Game! It's the 125th Harvard-Yale game as well as the 40th anniversary of the famous 29-29 tie!

Football season approaches

Nowhere to go but up for Duke football, and Harvard and Yale are picked to dominate the Ivy League. Of course, Coach Murphy hates being considered a favorite so will downplay it all he can.

Annoyingly, I have to go to Dallas the week Harvard opens the season but I hope to be back by 9/19 when we play Holy Cross.

A Harvard player I don't remember named Andrew Hatch, a Mormon, who left Harvard to go on his mission, subsequently transferred to LSU and after sitting out a year is now vying to be the starting quarterback for the Tigers. I hope he can do it! The previous quarter back was kicked off the team for bad behavior but I doubt that will happen to Hatch. LSU's first game is on ESPN before a national audience - quite a change for this young man.

Hail to the real victors!

The buzz since Saturday has been all about Harvard's amazing victory over Big Ten opponent Michigan in basketball but the inimitable Paul McNeeley just sent an email with this amusing thought:

Why Harvard should get a shot at this year's college football national championship title . . .

Ohio State lost to Illinois
Who lost to Michigan
Who lost to Appalachian State
Who lost to Wofford
Who lost to Elon
Who lost to Furman
Who lost to Hofstra
Who lost to Northeastern
Who lost to URI
Who lost to Fordham
Who lost to Bucknell
Who lost to Cornell
Who Harvard beat handily 32-15

Simple transitive property!

(but shouldn't it be which instead of who?)

Opera and Football

Last week it was fun to meet Harvard football player, Noah Van Niel, who attended my own high school, Newton North. Ever since John Powers' front page Boston Globe story about Noah's aspirations as an opera singer, he has garnered delighted publicity from writers tired of Ivy League prospects interested in nothing but completing passes and heading for investment banks. Of course, I am now curious to hear him sing, and his mother mentioned that Noah is singing in Cosi Fan Tutte in February and invited me to attend.

And by the way, we killed Yale . . .