That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Andrew Goldman has won the Washington Post Weekend section's annual Holiday Wrapping Paper Contest. "It was easy for the judges to see why his work is so popular," the Post intones. "The bold colors and well-executed details of his color-penciled snowmen and Christmas trees made it a top choice."
Also, we learn that Andy is 12. That explains a lot.
I stumbled across this discussion on the Washington Post's website on a familiar topic -- the Top Ten synonyms for "Awesome" that are no longer acceptable.
Query: Since when was "awesome" all that acceptable?
I mean, I know I overuse -- and therefore misuse -- the word, but c'mon.
For those of you who think that only big state schools have sports worth mentioning, take a look at a couple of Brown's latest accomplishments, courtesy of the monthly alumni email.
No. 1 Women’s Ruggers Roll at Northeast Championships
When the U.S. Naval Academy’s top-ranked women’s rugby team faltered three weeks ago, Brown took over the nation’s number-one ranking. The Bears proved they belonged in the top spot by dismantling two opponents to win the Northeast Rugby Union Championships.
Taekwondo Kicks Off Strong Season, Looks to Nationals
The Taekwondo Club has dominated two recent tournaments. At a Nov. 11 tournament in Lowell, Mass., the men swept the medals in the poomse, or forms, category, and the women dominated in the sparring event.
Home Cooking Boosts Men’s Basketball Past Northwestern
Thanksgiving is a good time to return home and be with family. Chicagoan Peter Sullivan ’11 did just that and more over break. His team-high 19 points helped the men’s basketball team to a 73-67 win over Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Since so many of our teams are playing in bowl games this year, how about some College Bowl Pick 'Em -- hereinafter known as "the First Annual PH4H Empanada Bowl."
This is easy -- pretty much all you have to do is pick who you think the winner of the bowl game is. It doesn't require extensive or exhaustive college football knowledge.
If you want to play, click here.
The first game is on December 20th, so you should probably make your picks by then.
So I just returned from a week in the Philippines, the 2nd of 3 business trips that also include last month's trip to Frankfurt and January's trip to South Africa. The trip went very well, but included a major delay coming home when my 4 hour layover in Beijing's airport turned into 20 hours when my plane, while taxiing to the runway, suddenly turned around and was escorted by fire engines to an isolated area of the airport. It turned out that the plane had a burning smell in the cabin, which was later diagnosed as an oil leak in the left engine. After four hours and an aborted bus ride back to the plane when they'd mistakenly thought they'd fixed the problem, United finally canceled the flight and put us up in a hotel overnight in downtown Beijing. It was quite the adventure! United wasn't very good at keeping us informed as to what was going on, and by the time we actually got to the hotel, it was 1:30am and nobody had eaten dinner. After a light dinner at 2am in the hotel's coffee shop, I finally got to bed at 2:30am. The hotel was decent though, and the next morning we discovered the hotel had a nice breakfast buffet and I was even able to take a quick cab ride to Tiannamen Square before the bus returned us to the airport. We finally landed at Dulles Saturday night after an uneventful 13 hour flight- a full 44 hours after my first flight had left Manila (from the time I left for the airport to the time I got home, it was nearly 50 hours of travel time).
I was chastised last night at the White Elephant party for knowing about this and not posting it on the blog. I had a moment of panic when I tried to find it and received an error message. But I did some detective work and managed to find the new site. So here it is. Enjoy.
For your Chanukah pleasure, some good Jewgrass music (look for December 4). Note: the music starts about 4 and a half minutes in. I hear they're looking for a fiddle player. Hmm.
That's right, the company that brought you Turkey and Gravy soda for Thanksgiving now has Hanukkah sodas.
Your flavor options...
- Latke
- Apple Sauce
- Chocolate Coins
- Jelly Doughnut
They have a Christmas pack too which contains, among other flavors, Christmas Ham. Just like Bacon Salt, it's kosher.
"[Dmitri] Young sees himself as someone who could teach a younger player the facts of life, both on and off the field."
—from this story
We take it back! You won! Since evidently losing to Missouri and not playing in the Big 12 Championship was the ticket to a better bowl at a better time against a better team. (Yes, I know you have one loss and we have two. When you beat Oklahoma, a team you didn't play this season, in the Big 12 Bonus Championship Showdown—we'll call it "BCS" for short—by all means, make that argument.)
There are other options, too. The Big 12 could cancel its championship game and have Missouri lose to a team with 7 losses, since that gets you to a better bowl too.
Or Missouri could switch to a weak conference, play a weak nonconference schedule and go undefeated. Another effective method.
The Cotton Bowl? A non-BCS bowl at 11:30 New Year's morning against a team barely in the top 25? As one who takes pride in my sportsmanship, let me say this: I hope Missouri wins by 70.
