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Season opener against St. Francis College Brooklyn! Takes me back two decades to walks along Brooklyn Promenade and hanging out on Amity Street…
Alonzo Mourning’s son and Reggie Williams’ son both on the court at the end of the game.
Yeah, buddy! Season off to a great start.
Not wanting to jinx the chance for a Baltimore-Washington World Series, I pass by that subject without comment…
What really interests me: The finalization of the Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball schedule!
I take great delight in the Hoyas desire to connect with their number-one fan. By playing multiple teams from southwest Virginia.
A game against Longwood College (ahem, Longwood University)? I could not make that up. And a game against Liberty University? Get outta here! But it’s true.
The Hoyas have scheduled contests with Farmville and Lynchburg, Virginia, opponents. These towns are beautiful satellites of my personal obscure Piedmont world. A scheduling miracle worked in my honor? Thank you.
But, I have a serious, a major, a huge beef with this schedule:
Also exciting in non-conference action: The prospect of the Hoyas competing in the Legends Classic “Tournament,” the finals of which will be played in the shiny brand-new Brooklyn Barclays Center!
Yes. You read that correctly. Even if Liberty manages to beat Georgetown, no one from Lynchburg will go to Brooklyn. The Hoyas will play in the semifinals anyway. Why? Because, otherwise, the t.v. ratings will plummet, supposedly.
You know what, college basketball? You are beginning to suck eggs. You already suck in March. But I used to believe in you from November to February. Now you suck in November, too.
It has been a month since the Monday evening that rattled me as much as I have been rattled in a long time. I think September 11, 2001, was the last time I sat in front of a televison in a state of such distress.
The Washington Metro opened when I was a little boy. My dad worked for the city then, and we rode on a special Metro ride for V.I.P.’s, the day before the system opened.
He was so excited about the Metro that he used to ride it one stop each evening, from his office at Farragut North to the end of the red line at Dupont Circle. Then he would catch the bus the rest of the way to our house (near Friendship Heights–only a shaded ‘future’ station on the map back then).
The Metro ride did not save him any time or trouble. He did it out of sheer excitement.
I guess children who grow up on farms have a special love for pigs and tractors. They do not like to see sick pigs or mangled tractors. For me, it is the Metro.
There was a deadly Metro crash in January, 1982–the same afternoon Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th-Street bridge and plummeted into the Potomac River. And a Metro operator was killed in a crash in 1996.
But I think the crash on June 22 is the event that will mark a turning point in Washington subway history equivalent to the turning point that was reached in New York City ten days before the end of World War I:
Have you ever been to Frederick Law Olmstead’s magnificent Prospect Park in Brooklyn? One of the exits of the park opens onto Empire Boulevard.
This street once had a different name. They had to change the name of the street, because the old name had become synonymous with death and horror. Empire Boulevard was once Malbone Street.
Click here for the New York Times account of the deadliest non-terrorist subway catastrophe in history, which happened in the tunnel outside the Malbone Street station on All Saints Day, 1918.
At least 93 people died. The crash occurred because a non-union scab with two hours of training was operating the Brighton Beach express during a strike. He took a six-mile-an-hour curve at 40 mph.
The responsible authorities were indicted for manslaughter.
The NYC subway bounced back. It became a professional operation. May the same happen here in Washington. And may all the dead rest in peace.
My teams are out.
Now I have to come up with more subject matter. Yikes.
…By a strange co-inky-dink, a priest friend of mine from the Pittsburgh area is visiting this week.
Soon, he will return to the land of gleeful Penguins people. He promised that he would speak to them about our pain.
Yes, the Penguins won the series fair-and-square. But it hurts. It hurts…
…Did you know that, back in the late 19th century, the borough of Brooklyn was thick with trolley cars?
There were so many trolley car lines in Brooklyn that Manhattanites called their Brooklyn neighbors ‘trolley dodgers.’
This is the origin of the name of Manny Ramirez’s team…
Another question I have is: Why does Notre Dame University hold its graduation ceremony on Sunday? I thought college graduations were customarily held on Saturday, Sunday being the sabbath and a holy day…
…Finally, let’s discuss:
Was St. Matthias the first to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders from someone other than Christ Himself?
Father Mark White Blog 