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It may be "almost Heaven," but West Virginia doesn’t leap to mind as an Ivy League football hotbed. That said, two running backs from the state are mulling offers from Dartmouth as well as other schools in the Ancient Eight. Said one of the potential recruits:“(Brown’s) football facilities (are) just as good as their education."Green Alert Take: There are three possibilities. 1.) Brown Stadium has been replaced while we weren't looking. 2.) The kid is either very polite, or hasn't investigated the facilities at other schools. 3) A Brown education isn't very good.
Green Alert Take II: That's a little bit of a cheap shot. From everything I've heard the Brown practice fields and facilities are top notch. Brown Stadium, the last grass field in the league, the locker rooms and the press box? Not so much although the setting and the tailgating scene are pretty good.
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A loyal reader shared a New York Times Magazine featuring a story under the headline, Restarting America Means People Will Die. So When Do We Do It? Zeke Emanuel, vice provost for global initiatives and director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at Penn is quoted thusly:Larger gatherings — conferences, concerts, sporting events — when people say they’re going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think that’s a plausible possibility. I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest.
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It doesn't happen much these days that pro sports draft an Ivy League athlete near the head of the class but such was the case last night when Princeton forward Bella Alarie was the fifth overall choice of the Dallas Wings in the WNBA draft. (LINK) That's the fifth pick, not the fifth round.The 6-foot-4, daughter of former Duke and NBA first-round draft pick Mark Alarie, Bella helped Princeton to a 26-1 record this year. The only loss was a 77-75 overtime decision at Iowa, which is in the midst of a two-year, 36-game home winning streak.
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EXTRA POINTWhen I stepped up to the desk to start pulling together today's BGA Daily a few flakes were falling outside the window. Twice in the past week we awoke to a light snow covering and a couple of afternoons ago there was a total whiteout for 10 minutes before the snow blew threw.
But guess what? Spring is here and I know that because the ice is out on Joe's Pond, not that far north of here.
Leave it to a place with a place with such a pedestrian name as Joe's Pond to have an ice-out contest so technologically advanced that it features a clock tethered to a cinderblock or two that yanks out an extension cord to stop the clock when the ice gives way.
Check out the story and video on WCAX TV.
Proceeds are split 50/50 with the winners and the Joe's Pond Association, which sponsors an annual Fourth of July fireworks display. This year's winning guess was expected to return in the vicinity of $4,500.
In case you are wondering, the ice went out Wednesday at 6:07 a.m. and two people who bought $1 tickets predicted Wednesday at 6:05. Over the 33 years of the contest the ice has gone out earlier than this only in 2010, '12 and '16.