Check It Out

This was on the Dartmouth football Twitter account (LINK). I have no idea who did it, but it's well done and worth a look:

 

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The Dartmouth has a piece under the headline Moose, wolves, pine trees and kegs: A look into mascot adoption efforts that reprises the various efforts by some around the college to adopt a new nickname. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: A real mascot and/or nickname would absolutely benefit athletic recruiting, marketing and school spirit. But for a change to happen the college has to be willing to do what Lehigh did in 1995 when it introduced the Mountain Hawks nickname and bite the bullet despite what the "old guard" might think. I'm on record as supporting the nickname BackPackers (shortened on second reference to Packers) with North Stars, a close second. Both work for a the northernmost college in the Ivy League and the home of the "oldest and largest" college outing club in the country.

Green Alert Take II: Don't hold your breath waiting for a change.

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Dartmouth's weekly Woods Watch Party will stream the 2015 Homecoming game against Yale with Ryan McManus '15 and Will McNamara '16 doing the commentary. As always, the BGA Premium preview story from the Friday before the game will be posted on this site tomorrow and the BGA game story will be posted on Sunday.

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In pandemic news (never would have dreamed I'd be writing those words), Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence has tested positive and will miss this week's game against Boston College (LINK) and all Division III athletes have been cleared by the NCAA to have an extra year of eligibility regardless of whether they see action this year or not. (LINK)

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Interviewed by a writer for The Dartmouth for a story headlined Citing privacy, College maintains decision to withhold number of students sent home, Dean of the College Kathryn Lively offered a few more thoughts that may raise eyebrows. From the story:

Lively also said that more students have left on their own terms than have been asked to leave by the College, deciding they would rather not live on campus after finding the College’s COVID-19 guidelines “too isolating or too stringent.”

“That makes things confusing, too, if we then released that number, and then people start pointing fingers trying to figure things out,” Lively said.

And . . .

“I'm really at a loss as to why students and parents are so curious about how many people there have been whose privileges have been revoked,” Lively said. 

Here's why, from the same story:

(Paul Hager ’22) also noted that he thinks access to this data, particularly if it shows a high rate of student removal, could inform both conversations around the College’s enforcement strategy, as well as students’ personal decisions on D-Plans or whether to be on campus in the first place.

In an earlier story in The Dartmouth headlined, Unknown number of students removed from campus for violating COVID-19 rules, Lively told the paper (LINK):

“The bottom line is, this really shouldn’t be that newsworthy.”

Green Alert Take: If my daughter was still at Dartmouth I'd darn sure consider it newsworthy!

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EXTRA POINT

Each night after the evening news Mrs. BGA and I watch a recording of that day's Jeopardy and we chuckled earlier this week when this clue came up: "The Hood Art Museum is an attraction in Hanover, a college town in this state."

At the end of the recording of Jeopardy there's usually the first five minutes or so of Wheel of Fortune, at which Mrs. BGA is ridiculously good. (I'll stick with Jeop, thank you very much.)

Anyway, last night after watching Jeopardy and the first Wheel clue we went to "live" TV and Wheel was still on with a puzzle in the category "On The Map." When all that was revealed was this:

S — — — — —    — — — —  — —   — — —    — — — —  

Mrs. BGA shouted, "Sleepy Hollow New York."

Yup, she was right. She does it all the time. It's actually scary.

I've teased her that she should try out for the show and, as someone who is almost never embarrassed (a wonderful quality she inherited from her dad), she said she'd do it – although my guess is she never will.

Watching the first clue and introductions on Wheel, we laugh all the time at how contestants refer to their wonderful, handsome, marvelous, beautiful, incredible etc. spouse.

Mrs. BGA has promised that if she were ever to go on the show she'd refer to me as her "very mediocre" husband.

Win, lose or draw, that would make it worthwhile!