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I'm from a small town. I…

I'm from a small town. I went to watch an IM basketball game around that time. It was the first time I'd seen Division One athletes up close. My friend's team had a couple of defensive backs (Dave Arnold, if I recall correctly, was one) and it was amazing to see what they could do on the court.

Our HS debate coach liked to…

Our HS debate coach liked to recruit kids with good grades in math. He figured they'd have good logic skills that would transfer to debate. Not unreasonable, but of course that's only one dimension.

I passed on the opportunity but my younger sister gave it a go. Like me, she's better at thinking analytically than assimilating a bunch of information. I remember asking her how she did at an event. Her response: "I knew my opponent's point was screwed up but I couldn't remember why."

I've been a TTB countdown…

I've been a TTB countdown fan for a long time and highly recommend it. #130:

https://touch-the-banner.com/2024-season-countdown-130-grayson-dee/

Here's some obscure Dave…

Here's some obscure Dave Strack trivia: He was one of the founders of Huron Valley Swim Club, which is just west of Ann Arbor:

https://www.hvsconline.com/club-info.php#history

I believe that's almost…

I believe that's almost universally true. It brought to mind an instance from long ago (someone from my hometown who transferred from Michigan to Stanford, which was, and still is, a leap upward).

Based on my experience with…

Based on my experience with MTU grads (including my dad), I'd say you chose wisely.

Best wishes to everyone. I…

Best wishes to everyone. I have a younger relative who will be getting the news this afternoon.

Something for the back pocket: Two years ago a family friend probably -- based on numbers, AP classes taken, etc. -- just missed the cut. She wound up going to MSU, studying hard, clearing all the administrative hurdles, and gaining admission to UM during that first year. (As many probably know, the bar is a little lower for transfers.) It absolutely can be done and probably is hundreds of times every year.

Pluses and minuses, but a…

Pluses and minuses, but a great experience overall.

I can't imagine the weather being any better that time of year, especially pre-game. Echoing the OP, beautiful setting overall. I really appreciated the lack of piped-in music. Parking lot balloons were definitely a good idea.

I knew this going in, but the sight lines are poor, even worse than Michigan Stadium (another older bowl). What I didn't know is that the crowd control would also be bad.

Special thanks to numerous Pasadena residents who commented on various Reddit threads about parking free in Pasadena. I can confirm that it's possible and reasonable. You'll have to walk over a mile and (likely) uphill, but you'll eventually get to a region with no parking restrictions. We stayed for the post-game ceremony but managed to get to our spot and on the highway in well under an hour.

Eh, it's OK. I'm sure your…

Eh, it's OK. I'm sure your surroundings were more lively than mine. Other than some midnight fireworks (best guess, a handful of M-80s and firecrackers), I had a quiet night at the Holiday Inn Express in Chatsworth.

This (specifics to be…

This (specifics to be determined), as I'm traveling solo for a few days and don't feel like cooking:

https://biriyanikabobhouse.com/korea-town-menu/

Great news and very best…

Great news and very best wishes, Seth!

Question for you or anyone…

Question for you or anyone else that I posted in another thread: What is the optimal spot for a post-game pickup?

We're going to have a non-football person in our traveling party pick us up after the game. We're envisioning a walk of at least a mile in a to-be-determined direction (probably away from the SE vector) to meet them.

Where could a car get relatively (a mile+ from the stadium) close -- and then easily away -- after the game? The neighborhood to the NW looks interesting, as does the one to the NE, but I don't know much about post-game traffic patterns.

Interesting discussion…

Interesting discussion. Question for seasoned Rose Bowl travelers in this thread: What's the best post-game spot for a pick-up? We have (hooray) a member of our traveling party who's not interested in football. She plans on spending the game visiting friends in the area and will pick us up afterward.

All of us are open to walking a long distance (mile+) as necessary. North / east / south / west?

I guess I have the same question (drop-off before the game) on the front end, too. TIA.

One year in undergrad I had…

One year in undergrad I had two psych classes (100-level, 300-level).

The first had a bunch of football players. Some wound up being starters a few years later, but no big names. Lance Dottin (who, unless he was blowing smoke, was the third-leading all-time scorer in basketball at his high school behind Patrick Ewing and Rumeal Robinson) was one of them. There were several other varsity athletes in the class, including Sean Higgins. Everyone was pretty good-natured. I noticed that the football attendance was better than the basketball attendance!

Mark Messner and the hockey player Myles O'Connor were in the 300-level class. They seemed like good guys and participated fully in the class.

OP is about my age and…

OP is about my age and described the '89 UM atmosphere very well. I had a demanding major and -- lacking brilliance -- definitely did some computing-center and library time when others were partying.

I remember being in the South U. area right after the championship game and thinking "One more reason that this has been an awesome experience!"

A little off-topic: There…

A little off-topic: There are some pretty sweet seats available in the Sparty student section. I'm not sure I ever realized this.

I was there last night. Around halftime I left the UM nosebleed section (upper deck, SW corner, aligned with the back of the endzone) and relocated to best part of the student section, which by that point was sparsely populated.

We're talking 35-yard-line seats several rows up with good sight lines and no one near us to block the view. That's where I watched the rest of the game.

I'll be there. Here's what I…

I'll be there. Here's what I think we should do:

Before every play, point your phone in the direction of MSU's sideline if you're on the opposite side of the field. Everyone. They'll be intimidated by the size of the VAST NETWORK.

I plan to be there. I figure…

I plan to be there. I figure it will be like last year's Hawaii game with a few differences:

  • Road game (obv.)
  • Colder (also obv.)
  • Classier collection of well-past-their-drinking-prime drunks
  • Uglier stadium

I guess that's more than few.

A question related to some…

A question related to some other questions here, for anyone who's had the Nebraska football experience:

What residential streets / neighborhoods are the best bet for free parking for people who don't mind a long walk to the stadium? TIA.

Good to hear. I'll be making…

Good to hear. I'll be making my first-ever visit to Lincoln for a Nebraska game there.

I slept through pretty much…

I slept through pretty much the whole thing on the West Coast. (I was between jobs, so I didn't have to get up early that day.)

Looks like it's okay to go a…

Looks like it's okay to go a little off-topic here. Many years ago one of my HS classmates (someone you'd call a "jumbo athlete") was recruited by Sparty and some of the lesser Big Ten schools. (Michigan was not interested.) They all must've had visions of turning him into a left tackle. It made sense on paper (size, measurables).

Several of us advised him to choose Northwestern. He would've been at the low end there academically, but I think he would've survived.

He chose Sparty instead and barely saw the field. His big issue, which was apparently undiscovered in recruiting even though the film didn't lie, was that he had no taste for violence. :)

Very sorry! You wrote: …

Very sorry! You wrote: "Little by little, he left us before he left us, if that makes sense."

I went through this with my mom a few years ago and it makes perfect sense. Be well.

I have an ancient (2016)…

I have an ancient (2016) Motorola Moto G4 and will probably be upgrading sooner rather than later. (I get that it's a security risk.)

What percent of new models have Micro SD slots? I really like having that available.

Recommendation for no one in…

Recommendation for no one in particular: Get one of these.

https://www.amazon.com/3m-respirator/s?k=3m+respirator

I got one of the inexpensive ones ($15 or so plus a couple of "bayonet" P100 filters) during the early days of the pandemic when there was a chance I'd be yanked back to the office. This was well before the vaccines appeared and I would've been muzzled all day with something.

Haven't used it much since. It's way more comfortable than an N95/KN95.

WesternWolverine96, we may…

WesternWolverine96, we may have crossed paths around the turn of the century. I lived in Menlo Park around then and frequently passed through La Honda on cycling runs. Beautiful area, good memories.

Consider yourself fortunate…

Consider yourself fortunate. My speaker in 1989 was James Duderstadt. Looking back on that, all I can say is, "Really?! Did the original speaker back out?" The weather was lousy, too. Two siblings had George Bush and Hillary Clinton in the early '90s.

Congrats, OP!

Related story…

Congrats, OP!

Related story: Last year a family friend missed the cut and wound up going to MSU. She studied hard, reviewed what amounted to the transfer checklist, and recently learned that she was accepted for transfer to UM. Happiness all around .....

Cool (I think) and relevant…

Cool (I think) and relevant related story bro: I can't source this in the moment, but one of my cousins (playing CB on a rival team) once knocked Franco out of game temporarily when he was at Penn State. I'm told a rib (of Franco's) was fractured.

Seconded. Even my color…

Seconded. Even my color-blind self could appreciate the yellows and oranges on some TC-area maples this morning.

If the forecast holds it will make up for the wind and rain earlier in the week.

In a fairly large sample …

In a fairly large sample (and covering mostly the seven-year period with a couple of six-years) I never met a dissatisfied Flexie. The seven-year program seemed especially good. You could spread pre-med over three years and ease into the M1 classes.

For what it may be worth I thought they tended to be slightly more interesting than the average standard student, perhaps because they had a more relaxed (though truncated) undergrad experience.

1989 UM GRAD,…

1989 UM GRAD, congratulations to your daughter for scoring a North Quad room. From younger relatives I have the understanding that a central campus dorm set-up isn't a given for first-year students these days.

Out of curiosity (and for possible future reference), what's the deadline for choosing a roommate (rather than just rolling with random assignment)?

For the reasons you cited,…

For the reasons you cited, family members and acquaintances of mine in the Traverse City area always use buoys when swimming in Lake Michigan. (I would, too, but swimming of any kind will need to wait until I finish "working through something" with my shoulder.)

Deep and touching post, ypsituckyboy. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting, thanks. That…

Interesting, thanks. That definitely paints a picture. If we do CR I'll try to report back in a post-game thread.

We're thinking that we may…

We're thinking that we may as well see what CR has to offer at both ends of the trip (mid-day arrival Friday, late morning departure Sunday, so maybe lunch at the front end and breakfast at the back end). In-between, we plan to do everything in Iowa City, which is where we'll be staying. My only experience in the area is a quick fly-by many years ago, so I'm looking forward to a longer stay.

Based on the size and content of those towns, I'd expect the CR offerings to be better overall. (No idea if that's the case, which is why I asked.) I've found college towns to be curiously undemanding when it comes to restaurants. Students maybe aren't as experienced and faculty are maybe too busy chasing grants, etc. Not sure.

I plan to be there so I…

I plan to be there and I appreciate this thread. I'll be picking up people at the Cedar Rapids airport so I bothered to survey their restaurant scene.

Population is 130K+ and the dining options look pretty good. I'd be interested to hear what the locals (or seasoned Iowa travelers) think about it.

On-sub-topic: I've heard…

On-sub-topic: I've heard from younger relatives that there's a very popular S&C course at TC Central that makes use of that gym.

Second-hand information from…

Second-hand information from Traverse City: I heard that the team did some sort of workout at Traverse City Central High School on Monday. (Didn't get it directly from the source, who apparently saw the workout in person ...)

You're Dino, are you? When…

You're Dino, are you? When in Traverse City, eat at Dino's:

https://www.tcdinospizza.com/

I was at the game. I've…

I was at the game. I've never been in an outdoor (or somewhat outdoor, in this case) venue with worse air circulation. For most of the way I had a possibly counterfeit KN95 mask in place. Did it make a difference? Who knows? I'm pretty sure I didn't get the virus.

Almost lost my hearing, though. The speakers were turned up to 11.

Congrats to both of you!

I…

Congrats to both of you!

I find the idea of engineer-nurse pairing quite interesting. I'm several years younger than both of you and that may be important here. You'll see why in a second.

I've crossed paths with several engineers, nurses, and physicians professionally. I really struggle to see how engineers and nurses would mesh. The training is really different and they seem to think differently. Now, it did seem to me that the older nurses were a more diverse group and maybe more likely to have an analytical mindset that I found lacking in the younger group. (I realize it's not important to overlap everywhere with your life partner, but every little bit helps.) I wonder if that's because nursing attracted a more varied population back in the days when women were less likely to go into engineering or medicine. Does that make sense?

A doctor-nurse pairing makes more sense, but the medicine hierarchy makes it a little tricky. I know a bunch of doctor-doctor couples. A fair number of doctor-engineer ones, too.

 

I completely agree with your…

I completely agree with your first point. Side note: Some of the dumbest driving I've ever seen was on a trip from Vegas to LA.

Observation from Traverse City, MI, where I'm semi-permanently located: Every other vehicle up here is a fully loaded, late-model domestic pick-up. I'm guessing most of the drivers are just well-off and like pick-up trucks. Two smaller subsets of note are building trades people (obviously) and angry dudes.

This morning? I'm enjoying…

This morning? I'm enjoying the weather. The NW Lower Peninsula of Michigan has a California climate at the moment. 

I mean that in a good way (clear, dry, low 60s, very slight breeze).

It would be harder to have the off-season during the winter.

I can relate to this a…

I can relate to this a little bit. At the beginning of the pandemic I relocated from Chicago to the Traverse City area. (This was back when there were a lot more unknowns with COVID-19.) I've been WFH ever since and have been in the office only a handful of times.

There's still no clear end in sight for that arrangement, but if the brontosaurus at the controls decides that we all need to be there every day, I'll probably jump ship. (I might be classified as a "knowledge worker" and my work typically involves minimal interaction with others. At least in my case WFH beats the shit out of the office environment.) Would I bother returning to Chicago? Probably not. Relative risk (which has spiked significantly in the last couple of years) aside, I realize that the absolute risk of carjacking or armed robbery is still really low, but do I want to even bother thinking about that?

+1 for "Mrs. Boner."

+1 for "Mrs. Boner."

It does seem underrated. I…

It does seem underrated. I had a good time there on a visit last year.

I was going to say "Eat here!" but this place closed in February:

https://www.saltandforge.com/

Highly personal list here…

Highly personal list here and restricted to ones I saw in person, in chronological order:

  • Miami 1984: They were the defending national champs and it was my first game as a student, six rows back from the field, with one of my HS classmates. Sunny fall day. Two days into the term and work hadn't piled up yet. (It would eventually.) I think Michigan intercepted Kosar three times.
  • OSU 1985: This has been mentioned a bunch of times. Chilly day, saw the pass to Kolesar from high in the end zone.
  • (Skipping ahead several years ...) Washington 2002: Michigan _wins_ a last-second game. Wasn't used to that ...
  • Manningham, 2005
  • UTL #1: Amazing atmosphere, third straight year that Michigan came from behind to beat the Domers in the last minute.
Blue@LSU, I saw this the…

Blue@LSU, I saw this the other day:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct-food-chicago-michelin-starred-restaurants-2022-20220405-cioex6h3nbayrdrwgegepytk4i-story.html

I've been to a few places on the list and my experiences have been generally great. They don't all have break-the-bank entry points. Kasama and Galit look interesting. (Haven't been to either ...)

I think Russian Tea Time is pretty solid.

Because of the timing and…

Because of the timing and the event at the center of the travel, more than a few people here might relate to this story.

I went to the Michigan-Georgia game this year. My party and I were thankful to successfully reach Punta Gorda, FL from Traverse City on an Allegiant flight that landed a few hours before gametime. We all know how the game went. Still happy to have been there. Interesting side note: Our free parking lot was two rows wide by a mile long. (I'm not kidding.)

We spent a pleasant couple of days in South Florida and dined at the Punta Gorda Waffle House just prior to boarding our return flight which ... didn't happen. (Got the e-mail while waiting for the food.)

It was about 5 in the morning so we started driving north and checking flights. There wasn't anything for Tampa and Orlando that day and we planned to drive to Atlanta. It sounds crazy, but flights were being cancelled at multiple airports due to COVID, etc. We considered the remote possibility that we'd have to drive the whole way and wanted to get a good start. En route a family member found flights to Detroit from Jacksonville, so we angled up that way.

We ultimately arrived in TC around 1 A.M. Tuesday. (We'd expected to be home before the start of the workday on Monday.)

This source doesn't look…

This source doesn't look great, but it says that Crawford is the career leader in 4-point plays by a large margin:

http://ballislife.com/jamal-crawford-continues-to-add-to-his-untouchable-nba-record-for-4-point-plays/