Strasburg returns on September 6

Just as I'm gearing up for football season to begin, I get wind of some great Nationals news: pitcher Stephen Strasburg will be returning to the mound as a Washington National on Tuesday, September 6!

This is great news for me, as the arrival of Strasburg last season provided the Nationals with a great boost in their talent—one that was badly needed. I was lucky enough to see his debut game in June of last year, as Will made an educated guess as to what game it would be—and lucky for us, he guessed right! I remember very well the unexpected influx of traffic that evening prior to the game (Nora got stuck in it, too, as she was driving to Riverhouse from Loudoun County), not to mention the comical wait for a cab following the game, but the energy during the game itself was fantastic. Rarely had I seen the Nationals fan base so alive and so energized at the prospect of great talent on our team, and lucky enough, Strasburg lived up to the hype.

Now that he's back after his long absence from surgery, I only hope he can bring with him the spirit and the energy that he brought with him the first time! Welcome back, Strasburg!

Happy birthday Sean Connery!

Today is Sean Connery's 81st birthday! To celebrate, here are two of my favorite Connery clips, from Never Say Never Again and The Untouchables, respectively. And of course, only Connery could deliver a fabulous James Bond line like that!

A new season is soon upon us!

Earlier this month, I lamented about what felt like my waning interest in Penn State football. I'm pleased to discover that it wasn't a permanent loss of interest, because with August steadily coming to a close and the arrival of September right around the corner—not to mention several mornings where it actually felt cool and crisp like fall!—my yearning for college football has been resurrected in earnest!

Some might consider this next statement sacrilege, but I don't really plan to attend any games this year, and I'm kind of glad. Like I mentioned earlier, the game-day experience in Happy Valley has become too intense for me in recent years, and now that I finally have Big Ten Network, I can watch the games from the comfort of my own couch! I haven't renewed my local chapter membership yet, but I'm still giving some thought to watching a game or two from a viewing site this year. The last time I went to one must have been in 2007 (I think it was a late September game at Union Jack's in Bethesda).

People ask me all the time if Joe's gonna hang it up, because at 84, he's obviously no spring chicken anymore. (In fact, one co-worker even circulated a hilarious Onion article to that effect.) I wonder the same thing frequently (if Joe will retire anytime soon), because I had the opportunity to see him exit the stadium by one of the loading docks last season, and he was visibly more frail and deliberate than I'd ever seen him. I hate saying this, but he looked his age. He looked old. Time will obviously tell with Joe, though it's obvious the university is planning ahead for his eventual replacement (vis-à-vis the very controversial STEP program).

In any case, it's only nine days by my count that Joe leads the Penn State football team out onto the field, and I can hardly wait!

An earthquake . . . in DC!

Yesterday afternoon, I experienced something that I never expected to, at least not on the east coast: an earthquake!

Close to 2:00 in the afternoon, I felt the office building I work in begin to shake a little bit. My first thought was a large truck passing by, because that's not an uncommon thing in Bethesda, and that the shaking would subside quickly enough. It did begin to subside momentarily, but then began to tremble much harder—enough that walls and windows in the office began to vibrate loudly. Since this was rather unusual, I stood up in my office cube and looked out some nearby windows, wondering if there had been some kind of large accident nearby. Gradually the trembling subsided, and without any reference to draw from, I began to wonder, "Did I just feel an earthquake?"

Other co-workers who sit near me were coming out into the hallway, looking as equally perplexed, and some of us even asked each other, "Was that an earthquake?"

I looked online really quickly, checking Facebook, CNN, and the Washington Post, and there was nothing on the news websites. Facebook, on the other hand, was starting to crop up with posts like, "I just felt an earthquake!" or "What the hell was that?" I thought of texting Nora telling her, with some humorous astonishment, that I had just felt an earthquake. She surprised me by texting me first, with essentially the same message! What surprised me, though, was that Nora and I live out near Dulles, and I sort of expected this particular quake to be somewhat localized to suburban Maryland. A quick check of Facebook again showed that people from Pennsylvania all the way down to North Carolina were posting about an earthquake! This was probably the first moment where I felt unsettled, because I didn't think an earthquake, even a big one, could be felt across several states like this.

A few minutes later, an announcement came over our PA system that we should leave the building and meet in our designated fire safety area outside. My initial response was laughter, simply because the event was over, though I could tell some co-workers were a bit jarred by the experience.

As I made my way outside, I overheard some people saying it was a 5.8, which I always thought was pretty big—especially for this area. The last earthquake for this area was about a year before this, when one hit in the early hours of the morning, and registered maybe only a 2 or 3 on the Richter Scale, max. So a 5.8 was definitely unusual for this area. We stayed outside for maybe 10 minutes before the all-clear was given to go back inside, but I did notice that many people (people who work in nearby buildings, that is) were getting into their cars and leaving.

Things seemed to return to normal once we went back inside, though Facebook and the news websites were on fire with the story.

All things considered, though, I made it through this okay, as did everyone else. I guess now I know what people in California go through on a more regular basis!

Nothing is sacred anymore (XII)

Last night I was watching a DVD of The Muppet Show, and this particular skit caught my eye.



At first I thought it was kind of cute seeing Link Hogthrob, a Muppet pig, holding a real pig. But for some reason, him singing "Sonny Boy" to it felt a little creepy. Though he missed a golden opportunity to make a "bringing home the bacon" joke! Perhaps the "you might be a football" joke was deemed sufficient enough by the Muppet writers?

Penn State reflections as football season approaches

With all that's being going on in the world, be it locally, nationally, even personally, one thing that completely escaped my notice was the fact that we're now less than a month away from Penn State football—the time of year that I most yearn for . . . well, one of them, if you count opening day for the Nationals (which was a real letdown this year, due to the weather).

Lately, though, I've been mentally assessing my role with regard to Penn State, and I find myself at a loss. It's been three years since I stepped down from the board of directors of DC's Penn State alumni chapter. My actual membership in said chapter expired at the end of 2008, and I've been looking back on my time as an active chapter member (a really active chapter member for a while, chairing two committees in 2007), and part of me wonders how so much time has passed . . . how so much of my youth has passed, because it feels like almost a thousand centuries ago that I was regularly editing the chapter newsletter, attending the Social Committee meetings, setting up and attending happy hours, watching the games at the viewing sites, reporting in at board meetings. I've been giving some thought lately to rejoining the chapter, though part of me feels like I've outgrown it, even though I'll always bleed blue and white.

It doesn't help, either, that I won't be going to the games again anytime soon. At the end of last year, my father did what was unthinkable in years past, but I feel is perfectly rational and logical now—he gave up his season tickets, in response to the STEP program . . . a program which, I feel, is little more than a blatant money-grab by the university under the guise of "fairness" to people pursuing season tickets. As a 30+ year season-ticket holder, my father was understandably upset by the dramatic uptick in ticket price, and gave up his seats as a result. I don't blame him one bit for this move; I would have done the same if I were in his shoes. But deep down, part of me is somewhat relived that he did so, because Penn State football Saturdays in Happy Valley have become more intense in the last several years, wearing even me out. Part of me will always yearn for a visit to Happy Valley to see a game some warm September Saturday, and I'll of course miss the great tailgates with family and friends. But since I have Big Ten Network at home now, I'll be able to watch all the games from the comfort of my couch, which is perfectly all right with me.

I don't know . . . am I just getting old? Are all these old Penn State traditions losing their luster for me after all these years? Or will I feel the blue and white course through my veins each fall, and all throughout the year as we promote Penn State pride in the nation's capital? Time will only tell.

But I take comfort in one thing, though: with Nora being an Ohio State fan, who's equally devoted to her Buckeyes like I am to my Nittany Lions, I can always look forward to the Penn State-Ohio State game each year, because we make it as fun and enjoyable as we can for each other, no matter who wins the day.

RIP Bubba Smith!

In need of a laugh (IX)

In Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson shows us the proper way to do a shot of whiskey.