It feels like forever ago now, but last Monday began a streak of four consecutive snow days ’round these parts. Franklin and I recorded an episode of Math and Musings every day.
This is the first.
Enjoy.
Reply
With a 3-0 shutout win yesterday my hometown NHL team (that would be the Washington Capitals) now sit half a dozen points against the next best team in the Eastern Conference. (That would be the New Jersey Devils, who’ve played two more games than the Caps.)
I’m feeling a bit spoiled these days, with football and hockey success, the recent four snow days in a row, and only a handful of days left in the Biden administration.
If the Wizards didn’t have the worst record in the NBA I’d actually be a little worried.
Doink.
It was the most beautiful sound I’ve heard in quite some time, the pleasant clang of a football careening off a goalpost, just right, to bring happiness to the nation’s capital.
My hometown NFL team (that would be the Washington Commanders) survived an incredible back-and-forth game last night in Tampa Bay, Washington’s first playoff win in 19 years.
We’ll call this one the luck of the uprights, following the luck of the Irish I witnessed last Thursday night as the college football team of my youth and beyond (that would be the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame) secured a spot in the finals of this year’s College Football Playoff.
Everything’s comin’ up Mikey!
Today on Math and Musings you’ll hear me and Franklin discuss a recent trip to Arizona, highlighted by our seeing a Notre Dame football win.
On TV.
And not the one last night.
Still a great win though.
And a great trip.
Enjoy.
Third snow day in a row is getting to be a bit much for Mr. O’Connell, to say nothing of Dad.
My boy though? Pretty excited.
And it’s all about the kids.
I often laugh at our local school district’s trigger-happy response to calling snow days when there are about three flakes of snow on the ground.
Yesterday afternoon when they called it there were zero flakes on the ground.
(Pause for effect.)
There are a lot more than that right now.
This one was legit.
On today’s episode of Math and Musings, Franklin and I discuss our “Christmas” in Binghamton.
Of course Christmas had already occurred by the time we visited, and by now we’ve long since returned, but as they say around Christmastime, it’s the thought that counts.
When I was a kid, New Year’s Day was one of my favorite days of the year. I wasn’t hung over or hurt up in the way that ruins January 1st for many folks; I just wanted to watch college football. When I was a kid New Year’s Day meant college football.
Over the past couple of decades, with the vast shifting sands of bowl games and championship series, New Year’s Day re: college football hasn’t been the New Year’s Day of my youth. This year, though, sort of by happenstance or some such thing, New Year’s Day is once again a beautiful day, to mix a U2 metaphor.
Highlighting it all for me is, of course, Notre Dame versus Georgia, the game that will finally show that Notre Dame belongs in the top tier that has eluded it most of this century. I’ll admit the Georgias and Alabamas of the world have been a notch above the Irish most of my life. But that ends today.
Let’s call it a New Year’s resolution.
[Editor’s note: Shortly after this column was posted tragedy struck New Orleans resulting in loss of life and postponement of football. I suppose January 2 can be a good day as well.]
One short.
Ninety-nine for one hundred on the Christmas Schedule this year. I’m calling it perfect with an asterisk.
The one I missed?
Wendy’s Peppermint Frosty.
Not my fault. This one’s on you, Wendy. Gotta bring that thing back.
When it came to Christmas this year I had 99 projects but a Peppermint Frosty wasn’t one.
Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I review our 2024.
As Frank Sinatra (among others) once said, It was a very good year.