Sunday, July 16, 2023

Listen Up

Your call whether you want to buy a copy of the 2001 book The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession, but last month a short sample of the audiobook went online and it's worth a listen to get a very quick background the Ivy League's oversized impact on the sport of football:


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There are no double-sessions in the football preseason anymore. The big reason, of course, is the safety of the players. But beyond that, as Buddy Teevens explained numerous times, double-sessions used to be for getting the players in shape for the season. With winter conditioning, spring football and summer fitness programs, that basis for doubles simply doesn't exist anymore.

Don't believe it? Here's a look at some of what Dartmouth's players on campus this summer are doing. Click on the first to see the individual photos and then watch as Spencer Brown, Dartmouth's strength and conditioning coach, puts the players through their paces.

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Kudos to former Dartmouth defensive lineman Shane Cokes for using his new platform in Colorado to encourage his followers to attend the Devaughn Levy-Hagan Memorial Basketball Game For Mental Health & Suicide Prevention. (LINK)

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EXTRA POINT
From today's issue of Garrison Keillor's The Writer’s Almanac:

J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye was published on this date in 1951. It is Salinger's only novel. It's one of the most banned books in American history.

And . . .

Reviewers called the book "brilliant," "funny," and "meaningful." 

Now the reason for mentioning it here . . .

Salinger couldn't cope with the amount of publicity and celebrity the book gave him. He moved to a hilltop home in New Hampshire and lived the rest of his life in seclusion.

Salinger's "hilltop home" in New Hampshire was in Cornish, about 20 miles due south of Hanover. As widely reported, while may have lived "in seclusion," he was spotted at the occasional Dartmouth women's basketball game.

I never noticed him there, but one time we were buying plants at the old nursery that stood where Home Depot in West Lebanon is now and as we were heading to the register a fellow passed us with his purchase. The clerk whispered to us conspiratorially, "Do you know who that was? That was J.D. Salinger."

We turned for a look but he was driving away before we could catch a good glimpse.

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