Updates from everywhere

The Scotsman Hotel in Edinburgh wants us to know that the well-being of their guests and teams is their “absolute priority.”

The hotel will “adhere to the strictest possible terms of all advice issues by (the World Health Organization), as well as the protocols advised by local and international authorities.”

Furthermore, any employee returning from a country affected by COVID-19, or has been in close proximity with someone from one of those areas, has been asked to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Suns and Hornets weren’t much, unless you were there

Originally posted Feb. 1, 2012.

I read an article by Jeremy Gordon titled “I love mediocre sports teams” about going to a game early this season between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets. If he loved that one, he would have loved the game Suzi and I saw between the Phoenix Suns (who ended the year 33-33) and the then-New Orleans Hornets (who finished 21-45).

In all likelihood, you probably won’t even notice the Suns-Hornets game when you’re checking out the scores in the newspaper, or there will be a short recap on SportsCenter that you have to sit through while you wait for the news you really care about.

Tales of a bad basketball player

There’s a basketball sitting loose, and not enough people for a pickleball game on our side of the gym, so I pick it up, dribble a few times and try a layup.

<<Thunk>>

“C’mon now,” I think. “All I need to do is bounce the ball off the black line at the proper angle. It’s a layup!”

It takes me four tries to make one.

Basketball in tight spaces

I kicked a guy in the back.

He then turned around and elbowed me in the knee.

No, we weren’t fighting. We were getting settled in before the Connecticut-Ohio State women’s basketball game yesterday.

Apologies were exchanged. I said we were even.

Welcome to Gampel Pavilion.

Nope … not a mom, and my jumper stinks

I got an email at work today — “We all know those busy powerhouse moms that do it all! You may even be one of them!”

Said email also addressed me by name … my first name. Anyone know a woman named Bill? I don’t.

It was probably a testament to the wonders of mail merge or whatever automation is used to send out those emails, but humans haven’t always been great in this regard, either.

You want to debate dominance? Fine, let’s do it

Several years ago, my mother proclaimed that she wasn’t going to watch NASCAR anymore because “Jimmie Johnson won all the time.”

This, as I tried to point out to her, from a woman who was a fan of Jeff Gordon.

That tweet did not mean what someone thought it meant

You never know what it’s going to be when the little bell with a blue number at the bottom of Twitter has in store.

It could be a new follower. It could be someone liking or retweeting what you wrote. It could be a comment on how brilliant you are, or how stupid you are.

Meet Big Orange

A function of growing up a fan of Syracuse University and attending a college founded by and formerly a part of SU (Utica College) is that the opportunity to acquire lots of orange gear.

And I’m not talking burnt orange — that would be the University of of Texas — I’m talking bright, screaming, ultra-concentrated-orange-juice-orange.

Whatever keeps you from watching the UConn women, drop it

There is one thing the UConn women’s basketball team will never be able to do.

Be men.

Nashville travels: Looking for one open door at the stadium

Vanderbilt’s football stadium is directly behind the parking lot of the Holiday Inn my wife and I were staying at in Nashville.

This explains why the price was $300 per night with a minimum three-night stay when Vandy was home last Saturday, and why we stayed at a different hotel that night.

The football stadium, baseball field and Memorial Gymnasium are all clustered together, so while my wife was at a work meeting this afternoon, I was going to try to see them.