Let's play two!

It’s a new season. A new school year is like the beginning of baseball season. Baseball starts when winter ends and around here, the end of winter is usually celebrated.

I have been to most parts of this country and there is no finer place to be in summer than right here in Central New York. But here at SU, summer is like the winter before baseball season starts. At first you kind of look forward to the slower pace. You have some time to catch up on the things you couldn’t get to when the students were here. You take a little time off. The university’s shifts to “summer hours” which means starting and ending your day thirty minutes earlier than usual. It feels nice. For a while.

But like winter, you’re ready for it to be over. You want to get back to the excitement and energy that the new school season brings. It’s time to play ball. And speaking of baseball, today the Cubs are still on top of the National League in their division as well as having the best record in all of baseball. I mention that because the Cubs were Alex Taft’s favorite team and one of my favorite baseball players of all time is Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks. Banks loved baseball so much, any day was a good day to play baseball. So good in fact that he was often fond of saying, “It’s a great day to play ball, let’s play two!”

So as we begin the new semester and remember Alex and the Cubs, let’s play two!

Welcome back!

Last week, as a family, we spent a few days in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Our agenda was to just get away for a few days before school starts as well as take our very first “college trip.” My oldest daughter is 16 and will be a junior this fall in high school. She has her sights set on a drama career and there’s a good school in Boston we wanted to visit. So off to fight the traffic and visit Emerson College we go.

We are very early in this process so there really wasn’t any pressure to make sure this college was “the one.” The tour was good. Emerson has some very nice facilities. Since it was the dead of summer we couldn’t get a sense as to what the campus was like when school was in session but one thing we could understand right away was that it was an urban campus located in the heart of the Boston theatre district. Looking for ivy and a quad at Emerson? Forget it. But that said, for an aspiring actress it has a good feel. Anyway, we finished the tour and went off to Faneuil Hall for some lunch at “Cheers” and shopping.

Over lunch my wife and I compared notes about our tour. In the end we decided it was a good school and if Rachel felt that was where she wanted to go, and she could get in, she would be well served there. But afterwards, as I mulled over our discussion, I started to do the obvious comparisons to Syracuse.

Was it academically as rigorous? Did it have similar opportunities for students to learn and grow outside the classroom? How does our faculty stack up to theirs? Do they have a strong career center? In the spirit of professional courtesy, I won’t offer up a scorecard instead let me say something. I am deeply grateful that you are here and chose Syracuse. I do not take your decision to do so for granted. I love this school and truly believe your experience here can be enriching, fulfilling and successful. I also understand that I have a responsibility to help you achieve that success. I promise that I will do everything I can do to make that happen.

I can't wait to get started!

Ah, the French

My wife is a French teacher at a middle school here in Syracuse. She spent a year in France after high school as a Rotary student and then while in college, spent another year in France. One of her first jobs after college was working for French company that required her to travel to Paris frequently. She knows France quite well.

One of the things she most likes about the French is August. Seems that they don’t work in much in August. The entire country goes on vacation. Well, in honor of the French, I’m going on vacation today . . . . kind of. Next week I’m taking a few days off because we have good friends coming in from Chicago and then the week after that I’m going to Boston for a few days with my wife and children. So for the next couple of Fridays, the day I usually post my blog, I’ll be trying my best to be French.

So, until I get back you might want to check out a few other purveyors of TV and media wisdom. Check out:

www.shellypalmermedia.com
www.jackmyers.com
www.tvnewsday.com

When I return the start of the semester will be upon us and hopefully I’ll be ready to rock ‘n roll.

Au revoir!