Off to a good start
Good morning, and happy new year to everyone!
I'm actually taking the day off today, as I had planned to do so between Christmas and New Year's, but had scheduled a few events during that time that I could not easily move.
Anyway, as I write this, my watch tells me it's 1 degree here in Lexington, so what else is there to do but hunker down and share a few thoughts?
Yesterday was the National Hockey League's annual "Winter Classic," made so by an actual game played outdoors, usually in a baseball or football stadium. My wife doesn't much like hockey in general, but always enjoys this special event, and yesterday was no exception (and our grandson's entry into the sport a couple of years ago probably doesn't hurt, either).
Anyway, the New York Rangers hosted the Buffalo Sabres at the New York Mets' baseball park in Queens, Citi Field. Temperature was around 12 degrees when they began and the game actually lasted into overtime, when the home Rangers finally scored to win it 3-2. Lots of fun seeing these fellows who grew up playing hockey on frozen ponds and lakes playing outside. I suppose the equivalent would be to have an NBA game on an asphalt court in a park somewhere.
So that was fun. Perhaps even more fun was the see-saw Rose Bowl (also known as the National Semi-Final Playoff Game) between the University of Georgia Bulldogs and the Oklahoma Sooners. My wife commented somewhere along the way that the team who had the ball last would probably win, and she was right, because that game, too, went into overtime, with Georgia finally prevailing. It was the kind of game where even a casual observer felt badly that either team had to lose.
Georgia is the champ of the Southeastern Conference, throttled my own Kentucky Wildcats in their game in November and looked pretty much unbeatable most of the season. They'll now face Alabama next week, as the Crimson Tide disposed of defending champion Clemson last night in New Orleans.
I'll briefly mention that Kentucky's men's basketball team had a good weekend, winning convincingly against arch rival Louisville on Friday and then coming back Sunday to beat a tenacious Georgia squad. The Kentucky football team lost their bowl game to Northwestern by a point, also on Friday, with the game being affected by numerous questionable officiating decisions.
On to other things in the world....
Bravo to the Miss America pageant, installing 1989 winner Gretchen Carlson as its chairperson. This came after former leadership (men) were forced to resign after multiple e-mails surfaced in which pageant leaders disparaged the appearance and other attributes of winners and other contestants. Carlson, you'll remember, sued her former employer Fox News for sexual harassment, forcing the resignation of their chairman, Roger Ailes (who subsequently passed away in forced retirement) and gaining a $20 million settlement and writing a book about her experience. Who better to put things right in that organization than someone who was a part of it in the past?
I also give credit to NBC for realizing that the male-female morning anchor stereotype did not need to be followed, as this morning the network announced that Hoda Kotb will be the permanent co-anchor of the Today Show. NBC obviously had to do this now, as their splashy Winter Olympics coverage will land on Today, and they didn't want interim people in key roles with big ratings at stake. It's a good move, and the fact that ratings have actually been better since the dismissal of long-time anchor Matt Lauer probably made the decision easier.
Speaking of NBC and the Olympics, this will be the first Olympics broadcast on NBC without Bob Costas since 1992, as he passed the torch a few months ago to the capable Mike Tirico. And if you haven't been keeping track, the Russian Olympic team was banned from competing not long ago, due to continuing scandals in the area of blood test results.
Let me leave you with a funny story. As I've mentioned here, my wife and I have both been under the weather for a while, but are just about out of it. Anyway, after having our son and his family for dinner and presents Christmas Eve. we enjoyed a quiet day on Christmas Day, speaking with our daughter and other family members by phone. Toward evening I had mentioned to my wife that some Chinese food might be tasty, and she agreed (this was at the point I was wracking my brain to think of things she would enjoy eating, as I was concerned she wasn't eating enough). So I called our neighborhood place and was told that they were quite busy and that while they could fill my order, it would take about an hour. No problem, I said, and planned to make the quick trip there in about that time.
When I arrived the small vestibule was crammed with about twenty people, some waiting for carryout orders and others awaiting seating in the restaurant, which holds a considerable number of diners. The stream of people entering continued and so did the phone, with people attempting to call for either carryout orders or dinner reservations. During the 45 minutes I waited, I listened as the staff maintained calm and yet turned away one request after another, as they said over and over that they were doing well to serve those who were already in line. On top of everything else, they now accept online carryout orders from one or more food portals, which means that people had no way of knowing that they were in for a lengthy wait when they stopped by to pick up their food.
The staff handled this gracefully and with a sense of humor. A youngish man working there was patiently explaining to those dining in that it might be upwards of an hour before food would be ready for those just seated, and he smiled each time, saying "I just didn't want you to not know that before deciding to be seated." Likewise, the lady at the main desk said to no one in particular more than once that in the 30 years she had worked there it had never been this 'crazy.'
I left with food after about 45 minutes, as I mentioned, and our order was hot, fresh and exactly correct. Worth the wait!
Hope your new year gets off to a good (and warm!) start!
I'm actually taking the day off today, as I had planned to do so between Christmas and New Year's, but had scheduled a few events during that time that I could not easily move.
Anyway, as I write this, my watch tells me it's 1 degree here in Lexington, so what else is there to do but hunker down and share a few thoughts?
Yesterday was the National Hockey League's annual "Winter Classic," made so by an actual game played outdoors, usually in a baseball or football stadium. My wife doesn't much like hockey in general, but always enjoys this special event, and yesterday was no exception (and our grandson's entry into the sport a couple of years ago probably doesn't hurt, either).
Anyway, the New York Rangers hosted the Buffalo Sabres at the New York Mets' baseball park in Queens, Citi Field. Temperature was around 12 degrees when they began and the game actually lasted into overtime, when the home Rangers finally scored to win it 3-2. Lots of fun seeing these fellows who grew up playing hockey on frozen ponds and lakes playing outside. I suppose the equivalent would be to have an NBA game on an asphalt court in a park somewhere.
So that was fun. Perhaps even more fun was the see-saw Rose Bowl (also known as the National Semi-Final Playoff Game) between the University of Georgia Bulldogs and the Oklahoma Sooners. My wife commented somewhere along the way that the team who had the ball last would probably win, and she was right, because that game, too, went into overtime, with Georgia finally prevailing. It was the kind of game where even a casual observer felt badly that either team had to lose.
Georgia is the champ of the Southeastern Conference, throttled my own Kentucky Wildcats in their game in November and looked pretty much unbeatable most of the season. They'll now face Alabama next week, as the Crimson Tide disposed of defending champion Clemson last night in New Orleans.
I'll briefly mention that Kentucky's men's basketball team had a good weekend, winning convincingly against arch rival Louisville on Friday and then coming back Sunday to beat a tenacious Georgia squad. The Kentucky football team lost their bowl game to Northwestern by a point, also on Friday, with the game being affected by numerous questionable officiating decisions.
On to other things in the world....
Bravo to the Miss America pageant, installing 1989 winner Gretchen Carlson as its chairperson. This came after former leadership (men) were forced to resign after multiple e-mails surfaced in which pageant leaders disparaged the appearance and other attributes of winners and other contestants. Carlson, you'll remember, sued her former employer Fox News for sexual harassment, forcing the resignation of their chairman, Roger Ailes (who subsequently passed away in forced retirement) and gaining a $20 million settlement and writing a book about her experience. Who better to put things right in that organization than someone who was a part of it in the past?
I also give credit to NBC for realizing that the male-female morning anchor stereotype did not need to be followed, as this morning the network announced that Hoda Kotb will be the permanent co-anchor of the Today Show. NBC obviously had to do this now, as their splashy Winter Olympics coverage will land on Today, and they didn't want interim people in key roles with big ratings at stake. It's a good move, and the fact that ratings have actually been better since the dismissal of long-time anchor Matt Lauer probably made the decision easier.
Speaking of NBC and the Olympics, this will be the first Olympics broadcast on NBC without Bob Costas since 1992, as he passed the torch a few months ago to the capable Mike Tirico. And if you haven't been keeping track, the Russian Olympic team was banned from competing not long ago, due to continuing scandals in the area of blood test results.
Let me leave you with a funny story. As I've mentioned here, my wife and I have both been under the weather for a while, but are just about out of it. Anyway, after having our son and his family for dinner and presents Christmas Eve. we enjoyed a quiet day on Christmas Day, speaking with our daughter and other family members by phone. Toward evening I had mentioned to my wife that some Chinese food might be tasty, and she agreed (this was at the point I was wracking my brain to think of things she would enjoy eating, as I was concerned she wasn't eating enough). So I called our neighborhood place and was told that they were quite busy and that while they could fill my order, it would take about an hour. No problem, I said, and planned to make the quick trip there in about that time.
When I arrived the small vestibule was crammed with about twenty people, some waiting for carryout orders and others awaiting seating in the restaurant, which holds a considerable number of diners. The stream of people entering continued and so did the phone, with people attempting to call for either carryout orders or dinner reservations. During the 45 minutes I waited, I listened as the staff maintained calm and yet turned away one request after another, as they said over and over that they were doing well to serve those who were already in line. On top of everything else, they now accept online carryout orders from one or more food portals, which means that people had no way of knowing that they were in for a lengthy wait when they stopped by to pick up their food.
The staff handled this gracefully and with a sense of humor. A youngish man working there was patiently explaining to those dining in that it might be upwards of an hour before food would be ready for those just seated, and he smiled each time, saying "I just didn't want you to not know that before deciding to be seated." Likewise, the lady at the main desk said to no one in particular more than once that in the 30 years she had worked there it had never been this 'crazy.'
I left with food after about 45 minutes, as I mentioned, and our order was hot, fresh and exactly correct. Worth the wait!
Hope your new year gets off to a good (and warm!) start!
Comments
Post a Comment