The Harvard Crimson has just entered two of the NCAA men’s basketball top 25 polls.
Next up: An Englishman wins Wimbledon; Harold Stassen delivers his inaugural address as the 45th President of the United States; and George Will admits his manifold errors.
You may consider this an open thread.
Image: Lovis Corinth, Wilhelmine with a ball, 1915.
burnspbesq
And the best part is that the upsurge in Harvard basketball is being led by a graduate of … Duke, a school which is customarily viewed with unjustified derision by the Ivies.
Let’s see how the Crimson do against UConnvict on Thursday night.
And since this is an open thread, check out this little beauty.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_12/the_harddrive_plot_thickens033924.php
peach flavored shampoo
I’m sure they’ll stay there all season, feasting upon the powerhouses of A Color, Dubya’s School, A State Capitol, and A Writing Utensil. Killer sked.
Where does their Chess Team and BMW Appreciation Club rank?
Linda Featheringill
I actually remember Harold Stassen. Oh, my.
In other news, Daily Kos has an interesting article on polling among Republicans about immigration.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/06/1042755/-Polls:-Iowa-Republicans-side-with-Newt Gingrich-over-Mitt-Romney-onimmigration?via=blog_1
In spite of what we see demonstrated by audiences at the debates, most Republicans might actually be decent human beings.
:-)
Roger Moore
Nah. When Army wins the BCS championship, the Cubs win the Series, or the Republicans nominate a sane, moderate Presidential candidate, we’ll know the end is nigh.
General Stuck
I do love that painting!
sralloway
I believe that leaves Brown as the only Ivy never to be ranked in the BB polls. Princeton hit the top 10 a time or two.
rb
“The Crimson becomes the first Ivy League team to be ranked nationally in a major poll since Cornell was rated No. 22 in the ESPN/USA Today poll during the 2010 season.”
Heh. Good show I suppose, but this sentence is unintentionally funny.
Poopyman
I see in his piece wherein he piles on the deserving Jon Meacham that Charlie Pierce used the DIAF term, though not in the way Cole usually does.
Also too:
is a keeper.
Raven
@burnspbesq: They were going to sweep to the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship?
Punchy
@Roger Moore: If the Cubs ever won, the entire city would run out of booze, the celebration parade would attract ~2-3 million peeps, and the manager could beat Rahm in the mayoral race.
Alas….it will never happen.
General Stuck
Iz our peeples learning?
Admiral_Komack
Remember, she’s not a sellout…she’s not a sellout…she’s not a sellout…she’s not a sellout…
Occupier gets an occupation
Wall Street firm hires protester
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/occupier_gets_an_occupation_o8x0D8DkpsWB60rSMhcEgP#ixzz1fmHXfOS4
She’s gone from Occupy Wall Street to occupying a job on Wall Street.
Down-on-her-luck protester Tracy Postert spent 15 days washing sidewalks and making sandwiches at Zuccotti Park — then landed a dream job at a Financial District investment firm thanks to a high-powered passer-by who offered her work.
“I never thought I would be doing this,’’ Postert admitted to The Post.
The Upper West Sider, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical science specializing in pharmacology, was unemployed and had all but given up on finding work in her preferred field of academia when she joined the movement in October.
She held signs that read, “Reagan sucks,” and, “I’ll vote after the
revolution.”
But she said she still needed to get a real job. So she made a new sign.
On the front, she wrote, “Ph.D. Biomedical Scientist seeking full time employment,” and on the back, “Ask me for my resume.”
It caught the eye of Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst for John Thomas Financial Brokerage. The exec wasn’t looking to hire, but he took Postert’s résumé anyway.
That was Oct. 22, Postert’s Day 10 as an Occupier.
The next day, Kaufman, impressed by her CV, sent her an e-mail asking if she’d like to come for an interview.
It wasn’t far — only two blocks from Zuccotti Park at 14 Wall St.
“I had been unemployed for so long, I thought why not?” said Postert, adding that she is in her 30s and has no background in finance or business.
Her last paying job was as a lab assistant at Touro College making $2,500 for the one semester she worked there, she said.
Kaufman offered her a job as a junior analyst evaluating medical companies as potential investments.
Postert said the decision to accept was painful.
But practicality won out.
The starting salary as a junior analyst is near minimum wage, but in time, she can earn a cool six figures, assured Kaufman.
Postert has now just completed her third week as a Wall Street geek.
She’s already studying for her exams to be a certified financial analyst.
“I want to get a perfect score,” she said.
Life has definitely changed for the former Occupier.
She’s in the office by 8 a.m., and she still has to get used to Kaufman’s rallying cry of “Go! Go! Go!” blaring over the speakers in the morning.
CEO Thomas Belesis said he believes Postert will be a great asset.
“She was ranting about Wall Street, and now she’s working on Wall Street. Banks are not so bad. I hope we have opened her eyes,” he said.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/occupier_gets_an_occupation_o8x0D8DkpsWB60rSMhcEgP#ixzz1fmGK6HRz
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/occupier_gets_an_occupation_o8x0D8DkpsWB60rSMhcEgP#ixzz1fm4hZZbI
Raven
Wow Wilhelmine played in the ABA!
Benjamin Franklin
Righties keep insisting Obama is ‘not that smart’, and he has shown some intemperance in the past, entering the fray before the chips stop falling.
He is getting a little tougher, as well. Color me ‘hopeful’. But, then, I am continually dogged by eternal hopefulness.
http://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/05/obama-resists-apologizing-to-pakistan/
“The White House and the military bloc are gambling that the lengthy investigation into the attack that killed 25 Pakistani troops will defuse popular Pakistani anger and that final report will allow the Obama administration to return to a more aggressive policy toward Pakistan in 2012. (On Sunday, Obama phoned Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari to offer “condolences” but stopped short on an “apology.”)
dance around in your bones
Late last night, after ::ahem:: a couple glasses of wine, I got a wild hair to change my handle.
Used to be ‘licensed to kill time’ but recently lost my license, sooooooo:
♫ ♬ It ain’t no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones ♫ ♬
burnspbesq
@Raven:
Stuff happens. Stanford is an awfully good team, and they played well. We get all eleven starters back and have a good recruiting class coming in, so there is ample cause for optimism going forward.
Also, I seem to remember that one of the teams that Duke hammered on route to the championship match was UGa.
Poopyman
@Raven: I was going to make a comment on that, but stopped to find out what the WNBA balled looked like. Nope, definitely ABA.
smintheus
A good rule of thumb in politics is that when you have to explain that you don’t think children should be forced to work in coal mines, you’ve lost the debate.
t jasper parnell
I too am shocked to find that one of the richest schools in the history of rich schools now has so much money laying about and so little to do with it that they can start investing in a new corrupt enterprise: college athletics.
Villago Delenda Est
@rb:
So, since last season.
Uh huh. Man, that’s just absolutely phenomenal!
Raven
@burnspbesq: I have NO idea what UGA women’s soccer does.
Raven
@Poopyman: Actually the ABA rock was Red White and Blue.
Villago Delenda Est
@Admiral_Komack:
Geez, I guess those occupy folks aren’t just dirty hippies taking bong hits and drumming in the park, eh?
Amazing, that.
burnspbesq
I love this.
http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/excited-mike-krzyzewski-duke-squad-hasnt-been-this,26794/
Just remember, haters: We revel in your hatred. We understand that it is the price we pay for consistent excellence, and it is a price we are happy to pay.
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est:
Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those dayglow freaks who used to paint the face
They’ve joined the human race
Some things will never change
Son you were mistaken
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street
mikeyes
Come on, this is not the first time Harvard has been in the NCAA top 25 even in this century. Of course we are talking hockey, squash, wrestling, and possibly fencing. Princeton made a final four several years ago and regularly scares the hell out of less disciplined teams when they get to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. (I really don’t have to say “men’s basketball” but you have to be PC.)
Benjamin Franklin
Interesting take on the iconic movie….
http://themoderatevoice.com/130926/pottersville-revisited/
“And yet… it turns out that director Frank Capra was a staunch Republican who routinely voted against FDR. Jimmy Stewartz, almost indistinguishable in real life from George Bailey except for his spectacular Hollywood career, was a veteran Republican, too. And let’s not forget that George Bailey himself was an active practitioner of private enterprise. So maybe It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t quite the anti-capitalist screed some of us have come to believe it is.
Here’s what I think Capra is telling us: there are good capitalists and evil capitalists… capitalists who enrich the community and capitalists who enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense. When the latter breed of capitalist is allowed to triumph, the result is Pottersville — in short, economic and spiritual devastation for the “99 percent.”
Moral of the story: The good capitalists — the George Baileys of the world — are indispensable bulwarks against the unrestrained greed and ruthlessness of the big-money interests. In short, the George Baileys have to prevail or we’re toast.”
Raven
@mikeyes: Princeton made the final 4 in 1965.
catclub
@burnspbesq: What I saw in the Onion: “Sasha Obama Keeps Seeing Creepy Bush Twins While Riding Tricycle Through White House”
mikeyes
To that I need to add soccer and the fact that Harvard has more Division One sports than any other school in the nation.
(Bias revealed,my father went to Harvard graduating in 1943.)
smintheus
@sralloway: The basketball gym is, or was, so far off campus that it had almost zero attraction for students. An even bigger disincentive to playing any sports at Brown back in my days was that so many of the head coaches were colossal jerks. The soccer coach was such a tool that the best players at the school refused to try out for the varsity team…we had the highest quality pickup games I’ve ever seen, though.
dance around in your bones
@catclub: Hahaha…and Dubya is that creepy bartender…
slag
@catclub: I liked: In Major Gaffe, Obama Forgets to Dumb it Down. In depressed times, it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come over the last four years in some areas.
DZ
@sralloway:
Iwent to Brown. Ain’t it the truth. Sigh
smintheus
Via Libby Spencer:
mikeyes
@Raven:
For me that is only a few years ago :grin:
JCT
Actually, much to my surprise, my high school senior son decided against applying to the two ivies on his college list because he wanted to play college-level baseball. He was probably good enough to play, but the time demands and intensity of sports at the Ivies turned him off. I was pretty surprised at this — reminded me of my thoughts about playing Pac-10 softball back in the day….
Origuy
No, it’s a Scotsman winning Wimbledon; then we’ll know that the blancmanges from the planet Skyron in the Andromeda Galaxy have invaded.
Kola Noscopy
As always, eternally, and en eternum perpetuam, my Jayhawks are in the thick of things…
Raven
@mikeyes: Me too fo sho.
Hill Dweller
@Benjamin Franklin: Insisting Obama isn’t smart is one part Rove’s attack your enemies strength strategy and one part denial.
Gingrich and Paul Ryan are what passes for intellectuals in wingerville.
Ancient Ivy
If you can redefine Englishmen to include all Europeans, then you’ll see them winning tennis tournaments quickly.
Harvard lowered admission standards for basketball players when the latest coach came on board and shockingly, they got better.
pete
@Origuy: Hey, the Scot has a chance … at least, a much better chance than any Englishman currently playing pro tennis
burnspbesq
Computer audio geeks may find this interesting.
http://www.audiostream.com/content/further-adventures-flac
Downpuppy
Beating Florida State 46-41 may have got them some votes, but clearly it was the 76-49 thrashing of MIT that will be remembered through the generations.
I’m starting a new NCAA pool : Which major program will have the next weird scandal? Everyone wants to pick BYU.
Pococurante
A reminder for Tom and Doug to cease confusing the two Goldbergs:
elmo
@mikeyes:
If I recall correctly, two of my Harvard classmates were on the Olympic hockey team in 1988, and we went to the NCAA championships in 1986. At least one of them I think went on to a career in the NHL.
gonzone
I was with you on the things that are remotely possible until you mentioned George Will. Totally un-possible.
Hill Dweller
Republicans filibustered another Obama Circuit Court nominee today(Caitlin Halligan), despite several members of the Republican caucus previously claiming judicial filibusters were unconstitutional.
Elizabelle
Obama speech coming up at 1:55 p Eastern. From Osawatomie, Kansas, site of Teddy Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism” speech.
C-Span 3 carrying it.
McClatchey: Obama to echo Theodore Roosevelt in a big thematic speech on Tuesday
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/05/132247/obama-to-echo-theodore-roosevelt.html
Poopyman
@Raven: Yeah, but close enough for
governmentart work.dance around in your bones
@Elizabelle:
Thanks….I had CNN on with Wulfie and it was already driving me crazy. Now on CSPAN3 :)
Elizabelle
dance/licensed:
glad to steer you right.
And I’m sorry for your loss. Late to that thread the other night.
dance around in your bones
@Elizabelle: Thank you, everyone was so very kind.
I am loving this speech :)
Tom Levenson
@Origuy: Actually — I edited that because I think Andy Murray has a chance. Not a great one, mind you, but a legit possibility.
You may think I’m napping, but…
Tom Levenson
@elmo: Harvard Men’s Hockey won the big dance in 1989.
Harvard doesn’t suck at all sports (see also crew), just the ones with the highest profiles. Which is fine. The library is number one (no kidding).
Jeff Fecke
I had the great privilege to meet Gov. Stassen while he was still alive; while he became a bit of a joke as a perennial candidate, his actual accomplishments (becoming the youngest governor in U.S. history, then quitting to serve in WWII, rising to the rank of Captain and an aide to Admiral Halsey, signing the UN Charter) pretty much dwarf anything any of us are going to do.
Bill Murray
@Raven: Penn made the Final Four in 1979, winning their four regional games by a total of 15 points
Davis X. Machina
@mikeyes: Ah, but the vocational school down the street has more teams at all levels, if you include club, than any school in the country.
burnspbesq
@Ancient Ivy:
Lowered them to the same level that every Ivy school has always used for football players. For shame!
burnspbesq
ETA: Harvard has been in the top 10 percent of all Division 1 men’s basketball programs in Academic Progress Rate every year since 2004 for which data are available. Neither Cornell nor Penn can make the same claim. Nor, for that matter, can Duke, Wake Forest, Cal, Stanford, or Vandy.
In fairness to Duke, Wake, and Stanford, their misses are a result of players going to the NBA early.
Paul in KY
@mikeyes: Is baccarat, polo, and ice sculpture making really sports?
serge
Harold Stassen…that reminds me of the many write-in votes I cast for Norman Thomas.