12/17/18

Syracuse @ NYU (ACHA)/Penn State v. Princeton (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia) recap(s); etc.

A pair of Fridays ago, I was over at the Chelsea Piers at 23rd Street, right along the Hudson River in Manhattan, for an ACHA D1 (basically the first level below NCAA D1 and 3) matchup between Syracuse, which is, surprisingly, at a somewhat lower level of competition in hockey than basketball/football/lacrosse, and NYU, and, in doing so, I ended up at one of the wackiest games I, personally, had attended up until now!

Before I recap the game, though, as always with any places I've visited for the first time, here, now, is a little "background" on Chelsea Piers' "Sky Rink": it's actually a pair of rinks that initially opened back in the mid '90s, and is in a tricky location, as it's at 23rd Street/11th Avenue along Manhattan's West Side, basically requiring people to walk from whichever subway stop (most likely the "A/C/E" 23rd Street station) west, then up either an elevator, or a set of stairs from the parking deck below the facility, in order to reach the lobby leading to whichever rink!

There was a penalty against NYU just seconds into the game, and, as it would turn out, that very early penalty would end up "setting the tone" for the rest of the game, as Syracuse got off shot after shot during the following two minutes; NYU soon recovered, but not for long, since there were what seemed like a million hits, and a million more penalties against both teams later on, although, amazingly, despite Syracuse almost doubling NYU's shot totals then, the opening frame still ended in scoreless fashion, even after all those penalties!

The shots kept coming early in the following 20 minutes, although the penalties slowed down for about the first five minutes or so until NYU killed off another penalty against it, followed by another pair of penalties against Syracuse and yet another against NYU, on which Syracuse actually ended up opening the scoring when two of its shorthanded skaters beat one of NYU's defensemen followed by the goaltender; there was an argument from the NYU bench immediately afterward that the puck didn't entirely cross the goal line, which is the rule at pretty much every level of hockey/soccer; it only took Syracuse a little under another two minutes to double its lead, followed by burying a rebound of an initial two-against-none breakaway to give Syracuse a three-goal second period, and hold that lead through the intermission!

Even more penalties got the third period started, but it would be another against NYU that would end up giving Syracuse a 4-0 lead; again, it only took Syracuse about a minute or two to make it 5-0, after multiple penalties both ways, and last but not least, after going down two men, Syracuse got a "man advantage" goal to make it a 6-0 final score with just seconds remaining in the game, which, despite being very undisciplined overall, Syracuse still managed to rout NYU!

Syracuse recap (the only one available this time, apparently...)

Syracuse goals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), taken from the initial live feed of the game


The following week, it was Penn State v. Princeton at the Wells Fargo Center in the Philadelphia sports complex, which, as of the weekend prior, was officially a top-10 team vs. an unranked one, as (9) Penn State initially lost to (5) Notre Dame, then went and ripped them, 9-1, the following night, while Princeton got blown out by Arizona State, of all teams (after traveling cross-country), 4-0, before losing 3-2 in overtime; that set of results effectively eliminated the chance of both teams being ranked for the 12/15 game...

...in retail news now, Kmart/Sears might end up getting purchased out of bankruptcy restructuring, albeit by the company's duplicitous/sneaky former CEO/current chairman Eddie Lampert, and also not without closing even more locations in many more places throughout the country in the process:


...not Kmart/Sears-related, but retailers are increasingly going "cashless" now:


...also, there's a train rolling through MLS, initially departing from Atlanta, GA!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0E7zu5d-88
As mentioned above, I headed down to Philadelphia for another edition of Penn State v. Princeton, which, ironically, featured Princeton as the "home" team, being geographically closer to Philadelphia than State College, PA by about 2-2 1/2 hours', and about 150 miles', distance from Center City Philadelphia, in a game originally started by executives within Penn State's athletic department when its hockey program moved up from ACHA D1 to NCAA D1 back in 2012-13!

After departing the area mid-afternoon yesterday (Saturday) to arrive in Philly rather early, I ended up grabbing one of SEPTA's new "Key" smart cards (more on those later), after which I wandered around Philadelphia's annual "Christmas Village" for a bit, in what turned out to be quite dry and warm weather given last week's forecasts, before finding one of the many Wawa locations in Center City Philly - it's been said "one can barely 'throw stones' in Philly without hitting a Wawa" - just kidding; I completely made up that phrase, but, still, I had a meatball hoagie/sub/whatever, mac and cheese, and not one or two, but three pint-sized bottles of Wawa's (locally) famous dairy farm-produced chocolate milk, and dodged more than a few surprisingly/suspiciously still sober "SantaCon" revelers, specifically between the corner of S. Broad/Walnut Streets and City Hall, before heading down from there to the Wells Fargo Center!

Once again, the crowd was incredibly in favor of Penn State, although, surprisingly, there seemed to be even fewer Princeton fans in attendance compared to last time the teams met in Philadelphia, perhaps because Princeton entered the game having lost seven consecutive games heading into its last pre-holiday break game, although Penn State entered having gone 2 wins-3 losses-1 tie in its previous few, despite still scoring goals in bunches then!

Just like last time, the game itself started off very similarly, as Princeton opened the scoring only a little over a couple of minutes in, although, from there, the rest of the opening period pretty much belonged entirely to Penn State, as many Princeton turnovers early on led to Penn State almost instantly jumping out to a double-digit shots-on-goal advantage, and, in the process, a trio of Penn State goals that, despite one of them coming shorthanded, and another getting waved off for what appeared to be the puck not entirely crossing the goal line for what could've been yet another goal for Penn State, stood as an eventual 3-1 lead after 20, even with a surprisingly low amount of penalties during the first 20 minutes!

It only took Penn State the first quarter-minute or so of the middle 20 to stretch the aforementioned 3-1 lead after 20 minutes, also forcing a change "between the pipes" for Princeton, which seemed to at least start to change things back in favor of Princeton, as, suddenly, Princeton started being more careful with its passes, eventually starting up a series of breakaways that initially either got put over/wide of the net, or stopped by somebody on Penn State, be it a defender/multiple of them, or the goaltender, but, eventually, one such opportunity found the back of the net for Princeton to cut the score to 4-2 in favor of Penn State, which stood for another approximately 18 minutes or so of game time until a little "excuse me"-type soft wrist shot from along the Penn State goal line that just slipped into the net cut the Penn State back down to a single goal, at 4-3; Princeton then barely got started on its plans for the "extra attacker" situation a few minutes later before the game suddenly ended up tied, which stunned everybody in the crowd not wearing black and orange, and, despite a few glorious opportunities in the five-minute overtime, the game finished with a 4-4 tied final score!

The game itself actually seemed quite similar to your typical Philadelphia Flyers home game nowadays, from Princeton goals getting followed by the team's "goal horn", which, for however long that's been used, has produced a very unmistakably "deep" sound, and even featured the team's long-time PA announcer, Lou Nolan, who moved with the Flyers across the street from the now-demolished Spectrum after having announced there between 1972 and 1996; in contrast to how he usually works Flyers' home games, though. he seemed a bit more "laid back" this time around, even engaging in a bit of semi-joking commentary of the two "mini-games" during each of the intermissions featuring a pair of Princeton-based "mite" teams, and handing off non-game announcements (basically everything other than goals and penalties) to a different guy who mostly acted as a "host", of sorts, and announced promos for upcoming events at the Wells Fargo Center!

There were also a few - I guess one could consider them current Penn State students, who kept raising funds both pre-game and during each of the intermissions, at least from what I noticed, for pediatric cancer research efforts, which, regardless of the scope of the research they happened to be raising funds for, they could use all of those funds, and then some, since, sadly, nobody seems to have figured out any "permanent" cures for too many cancer types yet...

Back to what I mentioned earlier about SEPTA now, again, I got one of the agency's "Key" cards for myself this time, since it seems as if the agency is "phasing out" just about everything but those cards; unfortunately, tokens don't seem to be compatible with the machines dispensing those cards, since every one of those I checked only referenced nickels/dimes/quarters/etc., and tokens have been relegated to little "coin holes", if you will, in the booths inside SEPTA stations, which then open up the little gates in front of them upon being accepted; speaking of which, I like that all of the agency's current "fares" (cards/tickets/tokens) make the gates in all the stations make different noises upon being accepted, since that is an easy way to determine just which type of "fare" is being used; also, after the game, as I returned to 30th Street, somebody had apparently left a "Quick Trip" single-use ticket behind at the station near the sports complex, which, upon noticing, I gladly took and used, since I wasn't about to figure out how to work the "Key" card system once again when having very little time to get back there from the sports complex in order to be able to (eventually) get back up here that same night!





Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to propose a few changes to the specific formats of college sports postseason tournaments, since, as it stands currently, those tournaments are merely "winner-take-all" after each game (college basketball/lacrosse), multiple game "regional" series, followed by individual games (baseball/hockey), or many rather meaningless "bowl" games, followed by only the "top 4" getting a chance at the championship (football); on top of that, there appears to be no reason for the (eventual) third place teams in any of those sports' postseasons to keep going, if they even have to do so, after losses; given that "subjectivity" of how all those teams in all those sports get "seeded", I hereby propose the addition of "third-place games", of sorts, along the lines of various international tournaments such as the Olympics (various sports) and World Cup (soccer), which do have "third-place" games in every edition, to truly settle the "top 3", at the very least, in the various aforementioned college sports leagues!

...also, CBS Sunday Morning, that network's weekly "newsmagazine" show, aired a piece this morning about the downfall of Kmart/Sears:


Well, that's it for now, since Christmas is next week, with our celebrations of that holiday this year including some visitors from out in Colorado, although, after that (Sat. evening 12/29), I might head back to the Nassau Coliseum out on Long Island for Colgate v. Quinnipiac, except that game conflicts with this year's college football national semi-finals that same evening; regardless, I'll get back to you once again from MSG near the end of January, by then for Michigan v. Penn State in the Big Ten conference's annual basketball/hockey doubleheader; until that game rolls around near the end of next month, though; in all seriousness...
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11/28/18

Cornell v. Harvard (@ MSG) recap; more retail news

As mentioned over the past few days, I returned to MSG this weekend to catch Cornell against Harvard - the 153rd all-time meeting between the schools, but the first-ever one at MSG, as the teams had previously faced each other largely on their respective campuses, with the occasional game in either the old (pre-1996) Boston Garden, or Albany/Lake Placid, NY; they also met in Atlantic City, N.J. a few years ago, when the ECAC Hockey conference moved its conference championship weekend to the famous Boardwalk Hall building there, but, again, despite Cornell setting up a bit of a "residency" at MSG these past few years, they've faced BU every other year, and rather unfamiliar opponents (by Cornell's standards, at least, being an ECAC/Ivy League program) such as Michigan/New Hampshire/Penn State in the rest of those games, the scheduling of this weekend's Cornell-Harvard game at MSG, after over a hundred games between them historically from the late 1800s through the present day, sure set up quite the amount of anticipation going in!

It took Harvard the first five minutes of the game to register its first "official" shot on goal, although that's honestly part of the "human element" of sports statistics; meanwhile, Cornell opened the scoring about five minutes into the game on a shot through tons of traffic between the blue line and the Harvard net, maybe, even, off a skate or two on the way through, and, also, in a long-standing tradition in the rivalry, a fish got tossed into one of the corners of the rink, presumably leading to the fan(s) who did so getting removed from the arena, but after that goal, Harvard soon recovered to keep its opening period deficit at just that goal, along with just about evening up the shot totals through the first intermission; the "script" would get "flipped" later on in the game from the opening period, though, as you'll (most likely) end up noticing during the rest of this recap!

After a penalty each way early in the middle frame, first on Harvard, which ended up completely expiring, then another against Cornell, Harvard ended up tying the game as the two-minute Cornell penalty time kept ticking away, specifically on a rebound that popped way out from the crease to just about in between the circles in what was, during that period, the Harvard offensive zone, which got put "between the wickets" of a few Cornell defenders and into the back of the net, allowing Harvard to tie the game during its first "man advantage" of the night, and Harvard would use that goal as a "springboard", of sorts, the rest of the way, taking the lead on the scoreboard just about halfway through the period after killing off a full minor penalty via a little "pitch-and-catch" passing sequence that just beat out an unsuccessful diving attempt at clearing the zone by a suddenly desperate Cornell defense; after that, things mostly remained about even each way, although, by then, Cornell suddenly seemed to start taking "potshots" from wherever in an attempt to tie the game again, which would end up fruitless, as Harvard remained ahead 2-1 after 40 minutes!

The final 20 minutes, then, saw a mere continuation of Cornell's desperation, as it continued "peppering" the Harvard net with shot after shot, although that would eventually only lead to another Harvard goal, as one of those shot attempts saw just about everybody wearing white suddenly get caught "pinching" way too deep offensively, allowing a slow, yet steady, backhanded glide past everybody but Cornell's goaltender, which, indeed, ended up getting put home to double the Harvard lead, at 3-1, and, by then, as the crowd that had largely been rooting for Cornell started filing out of the stands, sensing almost nothing going right, Harvard suddenly went into what essentially amounted to a "prevent" defense, waiting for Cornell to pull the goaltender for an extra skater; after what seemed like a million icing calls against a Harvard group that simply seemed content by then to float the puck away as often as possible, and winding as many seconds off the game clock as possible, one of those attempts on the empty net ended up getting converted from just before the center-ice face-off dot, giving Harvard what would end up being its winning scoreline at 4-1!

I know I mentioned earlier that the crowd was largely pro-Cornell, but, at the same time, it seemed like Harvard actually got more of its fans at MSG than even most of its actual home games in Cambridge, MA, as even Arizona State, of all teams, got quite a few fans into Harvard's rink during a weekend doubleheader there last weekend; I guess there were quite a few Harvard alums and/or MA "ex-pats" close enough to Manhattan who were able to take more than a few of the (announced) 15,000+ sold seats, and, sure enough, they very much ended up making their presence felt late in the game, as all the Cornell fans started filing out once the Harvard lead became 3-1 late in the final period, and the Harvard band occasionally played throughout the game, as both the Cornell and Harvard bands traded a few play stoppages, with the rest, as always, being filled by the MSG sound system; now that I've returned there, and have a few other places to compare it to, I can positively state, I feel, that MSG might as well be almost like a "library" sometimes, with how quiet it can get when its "home" (Knicks/Rangers/St. John's college basketball/Cornell hockey this decade) teams fall behind, and even with all the technology "built-in" to the building after its renovations early this decade that make its sound/video systems about as modern as possible in just about every sense, from some "noise-cancellation" stuff sort of "muffling" the announcements/"pre-recorded" music that occasionally gets played (especially in contrast to places like Hartford and Princeton, which I believe I've already mentioned), along with the lights being dimmed during play to create an almost "Broadway show"-esque environment (another thing I believe I mentioned previously), and the video screens hanging from the middle of the roof/advertising displays in the middle of each end of the seating bowls being bright, yes, but not so much as to almost blind everybody but the most "sensitive" of people to those types of things, which I, for one, am thankful for!


Cornell highlights/recap

Harvard highlights/recap



...also, the Lord & Taylor location along 5th Avenue is up to 40-70% off now, with some items reaching up to 90% off, but the place, unfortunately, has more "liquidation signs" plastered all over the place now instead of "holiday displays", of which there are only three left in what has ended up becoming the last "holiday season" there after over a century, but, in better news, the "new" FAO Schwarz location in the former "NBC Experience" at 30 Rock just opened last week, and will, most likely, end up getting slammed by people there to see the famous Christmas tree all throughout the next month and "change"; it'll be open 9a-9p M-Th; 9-10 F/Sa., and 11-8 Su., creating some interesting situations with the NHL store being about two blocks away, and the Nintendo store being right next to the re-opened FAO location, in my opinion!

...in other retail headlines, watch out for these common scams; "cozy" sweaters are expected to be the most popular items this "holiday season"; the J. Crew and Lowe's websites were both down for "maintenance" this past weekend; Kmart/Sears and four other retailers will all face "critical" months/weeks ahead in the foreseeable future in order to ensure their survival beyond just these next few years!

Well, up next is Penn State v. Princeton at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia right at the middle of next month in what should still end up being a dual top-20 matchup, barring upcoming results, so I encourage you to "stay tuned"!
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11/13/18

RPI @ Princeton recap; more retail news

After originally considering doing an Army @ Sacred Heart (2 P.M.) and Dartmouth @ Yale (7 P.M.) doubleheader yesterday, I instead returned to Princeton to catch RPI visit central Jersey once more, and despite RPI knocking off Union twice late last month, once in each of Schenectady (@ Union) and Troy (@ RPI), this game ended up being that much more of a rout for a Princeton team that has seemingly been unable to not score tons of goals in any given game either late last season, during the conference tournament that followed, as you saw last March, when Princeton ripped Brown twice back-to-back, or this season so far!

After heading to the Wawa right in front of Princeton's rink as I just about always have done every time I've made the trip down there the past couple of years or so, and, naturally, consuming another pint's worth of Wawa's dairy farm-produced chocolate milk, everybody witnessed Princeton's "class of '19" soon-to-graduate hockey team members get honored, which I thought usually occurred at the end of regular seasons; after that, however, the rout was already on, as Princeton immediately jumped all over RPI's defense, and there was very little RPI seemed to even be willing to do about it, as the first of multiple Princeton goals in the opening period came after an initial penalty by RPI, soon to be followed by multiple penalties against each team, but Princeton ended up converting the last of those four penalties against both teams within only about three minutes to make it 2-0, but the goal had to endure a coaching challenge by the suddenly fuming RPI coaches, since they thought there was goaltender interference on the 2-0 goal; suddenly, the "old age" of Princeton's almost-100 year-old rink (1923-2023, so just a few years from now) factored into the proceedings, as "technical difficulties", according to the (fill-in) PA announcer, who initially forgot to mention that the 2-0 goal stood as originally called, meant that the officials couldn't review the play, but, in exchange, they let the RPI coaches keep their team timeout until either they ended up using it, or the game ended, whichever came first - anyway, Princeton made it 3-0 near the end of the period, and, naturally, that was how things ended up - with Princeton leaving the period ahead 3-0, but with many more shots on goal, as Princeton finished with a 23-3 advantage in that category after 20!

The second period mostly saw Princeton "coast" defensively, allowing RPI to catch up in terms of shots on goal as the period progressed, although Princeton made it 4-0 a few minutes into the period, and the only penalty in the period (against RPI) ended up expiring with very little happening offensively for Princeton, which, again, was suddenly up 4-0, so it's not like Princeton needed to do much more offensively that period to maintain a multiple-goal lead the rest of the game!

The final 20 minutes saw a change in what was a (relative) lack of hitting up until that point in the game suddenly change, though, mostly as RPI suddenly firing still more shots on goal in an attempt to close the gap on the scoreboard - an attempt that would come in vain, though, as RPI only managed a single goal to break the shutout; after that, not even the extra skater could help RPI, as Princeton suddenly "clamped down" defensively and dumped many an RPI chance back down into one corner or the other near the empty net, and, with that, Princeton took a 4-1 lead and, most importantly, a continued top-20 ranking nationally up to Colgate and Cornell next weekend; speaking of Cornell, the next game I'll be at will feature them and Harvard @ MSG right after Thanksgiving!





(...also, Penn State defeated Robert Morris this weekend 7-2 (Fri.) and 11-6 (Sat.), so between those two results this weekend - and Princeton defeating Dartmouth 7-1 a few weeks ago, along with scoring 4 goals in each of its other games except, ironically, for the Princeton @ Penn State game at the end of October (the season opener for Princeton) that Penn State ended up winning 4-2 - the game next month between both those teams at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia is shaping up to be absolutely epic, scoring-wise!)

As for retail, JCPenney apparently secretly named a new CEO a few weeks ago; more importantly, Lowe's just joined Kmart and Sears in terms of retailers shutting down locations - this time, Lowe's announced 51 closures of its 2,390 total locations, so that's not the biggest percentage of closures, but 31 of them will be up in Canada, affecting both Lowe's and its Canadian subsidiary, Rona, along with 20 here in the States, including both Lowe's locations in Manhattan (Broadway/W 68th; W 6th Ave. between W 19th and 20th St's); as for Kmart and Sears' latest closures, this round will see 40 locations fall, including one Kmart in Huntington out on Long Island, and also the last remaining (this is increasingly becoming a "theme" on retail-related social media) Kmart location in the entire Philadelphia region, and leaving only the Sears location at the Moorestown Mall in southern N.J. as the only location from either Kmart or Sears in that region!



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10/31/18

Maine @ UConn recap

After a bout of rain overnight Friday into Saturday, I headed off to Hartford, Connecticut that morning/afternoon to catch Maine @ UConn in a "matinée" college hockey matchup, and, in doing so, I found out just as much about the history of hockey in that city as I did about the "new generation" there!
The first period saw a scoreless, and rather uneventful, series of events, although UConn managed to kill off a 5-against-3 manpower disadvantage against it about halfway through, much to the delight of the crowd watching the game, but still missing on both of those opportunities of its own, one of which lasted about 15 seconds into the middle frame, again, making the first 20 minutes of the game entirely scoreless...

What that period lacked, though, the rest of the game more than made up for, as an ugly boarding incident injuring one of the UConn skaters along one of the ends of the rink led to a major penalty against Maine, along with the player making that hit getting ejected from the rest of the game; another pair of penalties each way suddenly led to a 4-against-3 advantage for UConn, during which time the opening goal of the game arrived, as UConn slowly, but surely, worked the puck closer and closer to the net to the point where a "point-blank" shot through a bit of traffic in front of the net was all that was necessary to convert and open up the scoring; UConn took advantage of another Maine penalty with just over 20 seconds remaining, passing the puck in a sort of "umbrella" formation between everybody, indeed, eventually, getting one of the five skaters wide open enough to be able fire home another goal to give UConn a 2-0 lead headed into the final 20 minutes!

The last period, however, was when things suddenly got even uglier between the teams, as it seemed like every stoppage early in the period featured some pushing and shoving between players, including a crazy sequence early on: two roughing penalties, one against each team; a high stick by one of UConn's players; a Maine player elbowing somebody on UConn; finally, four penalties all at once: a cross-check call against UConn, and roughing/slashing/tripping penalties against two separate Maine players, all of which resulted in another power play for UConn, which, ironically, seemed to give Maine more momentum to get on the scoreboard, and, indeed, that ended up happening just after the expirations of all but the major penalty against UConn, making it a 2-1 game, which stood until there was barely a minute remaining in the game, by which point Maine had pulled its goaltender for the extra skater; after everything that had happened within those 20 minutes, Maine had clawed its way back from being down 2-0, to being tied, 2-2, and headed to the overtime period with a chance to win, but despite the insanity of the third period, it seemed as if Maine was content to escape with the tie, while UConn was too "ticked" deep down inside at blowing said lead to be able to generate many chances within the extra five minutes of action to make the final score a 2-2 tie!


 As for the game presentation, I'm not sure about the past few years, but UConn's intros to the games this weekend seemed to set up a "theme" of sorts for the rest of the season, as they involved a short performance by the UConn band, followed by highlights, then the visiting team starting lineup intros, then more highlights, followed, lastly, by UConn's starters being introduced; unfortunately, at least to my ears, the whole thing seemed quite loud, and that never seemed to change once the game started, but, thankfully, despite the loud music volume during the game from both the band and the "pre-recorded" sound system itself, this tune remains in the same position with UConn hockey as it did when the NHL's Hartford Whalers still existed:


 ...in fact, from the very beginning of UConn's days inside the former Hartford Civic Center/current XL Center, as of the 2014-15 
season:

 ...but DYK there's even more history to the tune than just the Whalers?

 Meanwhile, the PA announcer definitely must "moonlight" as a comedian and/or movie trailer announcer when he's not announcing UConn hockey home games, as he definitely has the "deep" type of voice you might typically hear in movie trailers, and he cracked jokes during the game about ("A") fans in Halloween costumes, ("B") various moments in UConn sports history, ("C") the fans' knowledge of a few events that all occurred within a certain year, one of which involved one of UConn's on-campus venues, and ("D", immediately following "C") the Mensa society...

On a (pair of) more personal note(s), our old (basement) freezer started "de-frosting" on us earlier this month, forcing that thing to the "scrap heap" after about a decade, although that had replaced another unit that had run for at least 20 years before then, and requiring the installation of a new one in its place; lo and behold, we ended up getting a Whirlpool freezer from one of the Lowe's locations around here; also, my "stools" went from normal for the vast majority of this year, to spending this month showing up as being very dark, to suddenly being tiny, and then bloody once again later this past week, just like about a year and a half ago; in all honesty, I've never treated my body the best, with things such as occasional migraines and various pains lasting basically my whole life so far, so, maybe, just maybe, that's a sign that I should, probably, start making possibly "wholesale" lifestyle changes sooner rather than later, before those problems end up getting more frequent and/or severe later on in my life!

Well, that's it from me for now; again, "stay tuned", as always, for the next one of these recaps, most likely following Cornell v. Harvard @ MSG the weekend after Thanksgiving, along with a possible visit to the "new" FAO Schwarz toy store; before then, though, if you do nothing else in the immediate future, make sure to go out and vote wherever you happen to be registered to do so, since who knows whether or not something(s) might end up happening in the foreseeable future stopping us from doing so...?
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10/16/18

In *more* "mixed" retail news this week... (also, some sports updates)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/sears-is-now-a-penny-stock/ar-BBNFJJe?li=BBnbfcL

Sears Holdings, Incorporated (SHLD) recently dropped below $1 for the first time ever in the retail company's storied history (officially since 2005, when Kmart and Sears merged but unofficially since 1906, when the original 1886 company was publicly listed for stock trading); the news following headlines revealing CEO Eddie Lampert's declarations that (A) he was willing to "buy back" the Kenmore appliance line, reportedly valued, by itself, at $400M+, while the entire company has reportedly dropped to only about $100M, and (B) the company just missed one debt deadline, and faces another debt deadlines very soon, one of which requires the company's "reserves" to be above a certain amount, and another demonstrating that it would have been able to pay $134M in debt by mid-October, neither of which seems to portray the company as one capable of surviving beyond, say, sometime next year, and has certainly accelerated the company's continued decline from about 3,500+ locations at the time of the 2005 merger between Kmart and Sears to only about 800 now (a decline of 77+%) - surely, one would think that a pair of retailers that have been in and out of bankruptcy/rumors thereof ever since the end of Bradlees/Caldor/Jamesway/Montgomery Ward/Woolworth/etc. would just "pull the plug" already, and shut everything down once and for all, allowing its remaining employees to move on, its investors to "cut their losses" as much as possible, and its retirees to collect whatever they might be entitled to, while allowing the rest of us to figure out what the executives were up to!

Also, in a follow-up to that news from a few days ago, it looks like even more locations will get closed very soon, and some articles of clothing sold there caught fire:




Specifically, Toys "R" Us appears to be returning suddenly, just a few months after shutting down all of its locations in the U.S. after 70 years; the initial plan appears to be launching a supplier of toys to retailers such as Kohl's/Target/Walmart/etc. under the name "Geoffrey's Toy Box" in time for this year's "holiday season", before slowly bringing back the Babies "R" Us and Toys "R" Us names in the foreseeable future - incidentally, a few employees/executives seemed to have still reported to the company's final HQ in Wayne, N.J. these past few months, giving the appearance of "continuity" there the whole time, while the rest of us thought the company had folded after shutting down the last of its 700+ locations; a few of them reportedly traveled to the North Dallas Toy Show just a few days ago to make their "pitch" to the retail/toy industries...

Unfortunately, the CEO of MGA Entertainment, Isaac Larian, who tried to buy the (original) company out of its liquidation process back in the spring, says this revival effort is "dead to (him)"; therefore, he appears to be planning on basically "boycotting" supplying his company's products to the revived chain, regardless of how the asset management firms currently running (the remnants of) the chain, Angelo Gordon & Co., along with Solus Asset Capital Management, come to him with offers - cash; credit; etc.; it apparently no longer matters to Larian how, or even whether, they approach his company, but I think the rest of us reserve the right to call him a "party pooper" for reacting to the news so harshly, especially since I'm sure his company will still end up supplying the new FAO Schwarz location in Manhattan that is scheduled to re-open soon:


(in other news, even in Hong Kong, the N.Y.C. subways can't remain open!)

 As of this week, chapter 11 bankruptcy/restructuring, and possible chapter 7 liquidation/complete shutdown happened for Sears Holdings, the parent company of the Kmart (discount) and Sears department store chains - specifically, as early as this past Monday, when the company most likely missed a scheduled $134 million debt payment, and possibly also start shutting down 150+ more locations; unfortunately, the company no longer seems able to shift enough assets/cash between CEO Eddie Lampert's personal investment firm and its corporate structure, allowing Kmart and Sears to obtain slightly higher amounts of cash, as both the company and Lampert's firm seemed capable of doing in the past... I feel it should be remembered, though, that Kmart alone went through restructuring twice even before it merged with Sears (1995 and 2002), so, had it been up to me, that chain might very well have already become "history" by now, and, personally, I would've just left Sears alone and let outside investors figure out what they thought might have ended up best for the 3,500-4,000+ Sears locations that existed back in 2005!


Now, if you'll allow me to "reminisce" again, as I did with Toys "R" Us earlier this year, I've visited pretty much all of the Sears locations around here in my life so far, along with a few in other states, as well as some of the now-shuttered Canadian locations (especially the one along the back end of Toronto Eaton Centre mall); that being said, even when I was barely starting my K-12 years, nobody I ever headed to any Sears locations with seemed to use them as much more than "pass-through" places to get to malls such as Rockaway and Willowbrook (northern N.J.), although my father, being a mechanic/trucker practically his entire (working) life, always trusted Craftsman tools, but, aside from the occasional Levi's purchase there, again, we mostly just "passed through" those buildings to get into one local mall or another in order to be able to be "mall rats" elsewhere nearby!

Anyway, in other retail news these past few days:


Now, normally, in the past, I'd just up and head over there, but, with NJT completely ******** the bed these past few weeks in order to catch up on very overdue maintenance work, I'm debating whether or not to even bother with that whole "grand re-opening" (Fri. 11/16), since the risk of getting stuck aboard a disabled train seems infinitely higher right now; unfortunately, I won't have as much of a choice in the matter come the following weekend, though (Sat. 11/24), since I'll be headed off to MSG once again that night for Cornell v. Harvard, although, perhaps, I could fit both of those "return trips" in one right after the other - visiting the new FAO in the afternoon, followed by heading down from there (30 Rock, in the former "NBC Experience" location) to MSG that evening after checking that place out, although that day would no longer be the "grand re-opening" day/weekend for FAO!

Speaking of sports, I'm still debating which Maine @ UConn game I'll most likely be checking out in a couple of weekends' time; the problem with attending the Friday night game (7 P.M. 10/26), or any night games in Hartford, for that matter, will be me not returning home until at least 3 A.M., and, having already done so after the BU @ Northeastern game I attended back in November 2016, I do not want to have to randomly wander around the streets of Manhattan again, waiting for the trains to restart, so I'm still leaning toward that Saturday afternoon game (3 P.M. 10/27)!

On a more personal note, though, I was just barely able to even make this post, since we had just been without any Optimum cable/Internet/phone services for the past five days now, as of today (Tuesday), but, thankfully, Verizon FiOS services our area, so, if events similar to this outage episode keep happening, we might end up on the phone twice in the foreseeable future, once to leave Optimum after, personally, my entire life so far, and then again later in order to join Verizon FiOS!

To fill you in now on Cornell-Harvard @ MSG in late November, specifically the weekend after Thanksgiving, I'll be sitting in section 211 - don't know exactly where just yet, but at least I'll definitely be in a "center-ice" section for that game!


...also, it looks like the Colgate v. Quinnipiac game out on Long Island 12/29 will start at a bit earlier time than most other "neutral-site" college hockey games tend to start:


...even so, I might still end up there to close out this (calendar) year!

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9/16/18

recapping our recent European trip

Well, this is it now for this European trip, between Madrid, Paris, Rome, and Barcelona; honestly, Madrid reminds me of all those old images online of 1970s/80s N.Y.C., when the "Big Apple" was definitely "grittier" than now - even the main street in town, the "Gran Via", has a few vacant/vandalized storefronts, so if that place is (somewhat) run-down, then you should expect the rest of the city to still be (sort of) "gritty"! Despite the "grime" seemingly everywhere, though, and the people (mostly the locals, at least from what I noticed) not having any care for the concept of "personal space", it still seemed rather safe overall, especially when you basically heard just about every "major" language, including the main ones we ended up hearing within the following week and change (Catalan in Barcelona/possibly elsewhere in Catalonia, French in the Paris region, Italian in Rome/etc., and, obviously, Spanish, along with surprisingly large amounts of English, particularly down inside the train tunnels, considering the "tourism wind-down" season), only over the course of about 72 hours, those places had better be "safe"!

Upon connecting from the Brussels airport over the weekend, and hearing announcements in four different languages in the process, we started by checking into a hostel the likes of which was basically only reviewed positively for its "central" location, although, despite its age, I personally found it just fine for a couple of nights consisting mostly of just returning there after spending the day "out and about", then simply wandering around the city's downtown, both by taxi, and also on foot, although the taxi fares started piling on earlier rather than later - by then, though, we had gotten quite used to refilling various water bottles at various water fountains in several locations throughout the city, so, despite the (almost) 100 degree weather, we soon ditched the taxis and their rather high fares for what basically amounted to "survival mode" walking through the heat!

After getting accustomed to the boiling heat, we headed off to the old medieval town of Toledo via one of the Spanish "bullet trains", which made what might have otherwise been at least an hour's trip into only about 30-45 minutes' worth of one, and, from there, basically did a "loop" from the train station up a slight hill to the historic district in town; from there, it was off to the cathedral and an old metal-working room, which just so happened to have a shop right nearby, in which we bought some souvenirs, before heading back to Madrid, specifically the Royal Palace/museum!

The second full day, meanwhile, after originally planning on visiting Sevilla, then backing out of that whole plan due to it costing €300+, was spent in Segovia, which reminded me of a few small towns in both Mexico and Peru, complete with an impromptu group of musicians, brief downpours of rain, and a roasted pig dinner at an old restaurant in town, before trudging up the steps of this old castle on the outskirts of downtown; last but not least, we returned once more to Madrid to get everything "squared away" for Paris!

Personally, though, Paris was a rather large letdown, taking the "grime" of Madrid, and basically turning that up more than enough notches to truly remind one of the 1970s/'80s, especially in N.Y.C., which might very well have been the "crime capital" of the U.S. back then, at least among the largest cities in the country, if not world; in the more "touristy" areas, though, the city seems fine enough to wander around in, even rather late, although, honestly, that advice should probably be applied at every time, everywhere, since, even in some "smaller" places worldwide, there tend to be some rather "sketchy" neighborhoods...

To make matters worse with hearing/seeing more than a few reports of generally "sketchy" neighborhoods, though, was that we ended up in an incredibly old hotel in one such neighborhood, where reports of crime were generally higher than even some similar neighborhoods, although, for the most part, we ended up fairly isolated from all the alleged "commotion" outside, or at least as "isolated" as anybody could possibly be in such areas, and that the building itself was more than warm enough to combat the rather cold (by September standards, at least...) nights!

Shortly after arriving, and finding out that we unfortunately ended up finding lodging in a ****** neighborhood (in which we crossed paths with a cowardly taxi driver), we headed to the Eiffel Tower, and just made it partly up, to the second floor, since the tower was just a few minutes short of closing for the night; after that, we hung out fairly close to the tower, in a filthy, yet generally safe, food truck-filled area right below the tower!

The following day, we initially caught up with a relative who had recently moved somewhere between Paris and Versailles, before heading to the Louvre museum and wandering around there for part of the afternoon; once we took care of that massive museum, we headed up a few dozen steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, naturally capturing a few more images there, mostly of the city's skyline, and then just generally using the Paris Metro to find some other "touristy" neighborhoods to avoid spending so much time near the hotel; even so, we only ended up returning there after midnight, meaning that there was some drunkenness added on to the "seedy" nature of the neighborhood!

Day 2 started off in Versailles via one of the many French commuter trains; naturally, we braved the crowds there to visit the palace on said grounds, then headed back to the Notre-Dame cathedral before hopping aboard a so-called "Big Bus" tour vehicle to explore various neighborhoods by bus; upon reaching the "red light district" in town, though, we got off, walked up even more stairs to the Sacred Heart basilica, and only then explored the various "erotic" shops there before having dinner at a French "American-style" restaurant, called the "Buffalo Grill", right across from the historic/world-famous Moulin Rouge club!

Overall, though, again, it seems as if all of Paris seems somewhat "seedy" now, but, as mentioned, N.Y.C. (particularly Manhattan) was like that some 30-40 years ago, and it seems like not even catastrophes like 9/11 have stopped the city's "renaissance" from the 1990s through the present, so, even though it's on a different continent, hopefully Paris ends up experiencing a similar recovery sometime in the future, or else it'll basically end up being "segregated" between government officials and the worst-off local residents, economically!

(P.S.: as "seedy" as Paris seems now, there's another Disneyland theme park to the east of all the other main tourist attractions in the city; after seeing a commercial for the one in Paris, and having spent a summer right near the one in Tokyo a few years ago, I've become weirdly tempted to visit the "original" Disneyland out west suddenly, which I've yet to do, despite having visited Orlando twice in the past!)

Turns out, in the end, that our stay in Rome ended up being the shortest of all our stays in the various cities we stayed in during the month - only one full day, but, in the one day we spent in the so-called "Eternal City", I'd like to think I discovered (almost) exactly how places as modern as Tokyo came to be - it all started in (ancient) Athens, Greece/Rome, which was its own empire originally, and worked its way forward from ancient times to the present day!

To make as much out of the day as possible, we started over near the Forum dedicated to Julius Caesar (thankfully, not via Rome Metro line "B", which you can look up for yourself, since the images of those trains are too disgusting for me to even think about), along with the true "world's most famous arena", with all due respect to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, the Colosseum, which was larger originally, if you can believe it (approximately 50,000+ seats, if I recall), than the current StubHub Center, where the NFL's L.A. Chargers will play their home games until 2020 (approximately 30,000 seats, by far the smallest NFL capacity)! From there, we headed over to the Trevi fountain, which is surrounded by gelato places; after that, we headed to St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican, which are technically all part of their own "city-state" surrounded by Rome; upon finishing our visits to all of those ancient venues, we made sure to try all of the "big three" "gastronomic" items in the country: gelato, pasta, and pizza, and, in doing so, I'd like to think I discovered why those things became so popular internationally!

Barcelona reminded me tons, personally, of Montreal, the second-largest French city worldwide after Paris, except with the Catalan/Spanish languages, instead of English/French, and the more residential neighborhoods adjoining more business/entertainment-oriented districts, including some "high-end" lodging/shopping establishments, which every city seems to have, but Barcelona takes that to a whole new level, with all the Catalan-v.-Spanish language debates, along with being the "other" city in Spain, after the (non-Catalan) Spanish capital city, Madrid!

This time, instead of staying either in an ancient hotel (Paris), or along ancient streets (Rome), our hotel this time ended up being more of a "guest house", albeit a higher-end and more private one, with an almost "villa" look to the place, overlooking a corner of one of the city's main (and longest) streets; when we initially arrived late Tuesday night (local time, only after rather pointlessly connecting from Rome via Madrid), in fact, the street seemed almost so quiet that I thought we might get "jumped" at some point - almost like one of those "silent" scenes in movies/TV shows before something especially dramatic happens, but, in the end, we merely got a short tour of the street, along with an explanation of how to navigate the city, and that was officially our "welcome"!

Once night turned to day, however, and we got a look at the people starting their daily activities, we walked every which way through the streets of the city, eventually hitting the Sagrada Familia cathedral, the Parc Guell, Las Ramblas (the main shopping district), and a local seafood market, before meeting with another relative to find the Camp Nou stadium, where FC Barcelona plays its home games, and have a rather late dinner at her "side hustle" most days, a Peruvian restaurant in a relatively isolated neighborhood...

The second full day, meanwhile, started there, this time along with her husband and a few other "regulars" in the restaurant who showed up a few minutes later, before heading off to the beaches overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, heading to the site of the 1992 Summer Olympic games, specifically the 55,000+ seat soccer/track and field stadium (which also ended up getting used briefly by the "other" club in town, RCD Espanyol, which eventually moved to a smaller stadium in a different part of the city in 2010), then heading back to the sea front district to a mall, the port right behind it, and, lastly, a restaurant attached to the W Hotel, which we honestly probably wouldn't have gotten into anywhere else but a beachfront location, but, despite having waited until that afternoon, and doing so again in the evening, we still managed to squeeze a bit more "cuisine" into our bodies then!

Our last (full) day started with printing our boarding passes for Barcelona -> Madrid, and from there back home, before heading to a different beach in a more industrial area, which was definitely dirtier than the other one located near the W Hotel; after that, we headed back to Las Ramblas to find a bullfighting-themed restaurant in which my grandfather probably would've been very much "at home", even in Barcelona, and then to rest up for a very early flight back to the Madrid airport for the fourth time within the two weeks of our European vacation (from Brussels, going to Paris, connecting between Rome and Barcelona, and returning back home from Barcelona)!

Last but not least, I'd like to give you some more thoughts (albeit shorter) on each of the places we visited:

Madrid: seems to be, now, where N.Y.C. was back in the '90s: transitioning from very "rough" place to visit, and even tougher to live in; confusing public transportation system;

Paris: might very well have been considered "beautiful" way back when, but, unfortunately, is currently full of people trying to "pickpocket" others, and very run-down buildings - definitely stick to the "touristy" areas at all costs;

Rome: among the first cities on the planet, and it shows, with lots of ancient buildings, bumpy streets, and a pair of different train lines - one relatively clean, and the other just plain totally vandalized;

Barcelona: reminds me tons of Montreal, with two main languages historically; always a political "flashpoint" - lots of "colonial"-era architecture throughout...

Well, that's it for all these recaps; IDK what will happen soon (well, after this weekend, since I'm planning on using it to recover from these past couple of weeks in various places), but, regardless, you'll still hear from me, especially after sporting events I'll have attended!

A few more things now:

First off, the restaurant we ate at one evening in Paris:

https://www.buffalo-grill.fr

That chain reportedly has 361 total locations right now, of which 329 are in France, 6 in Spain, 2 in Luxembourg, and 1 in Switzerland, so, by and large, it's a French company, yet having a few establishments just outside of France...

...lastly, across from there, at the famous Moulin Rouge nightclub, circa 1940:

That image shows the beginning of what would end up being the interminable Nazi German occupation of Paris (and most of the rest of France, but especially Paris) from 1940 until 1944, and, above all else, what the image showed, at least to me, was Parisians' attempting to keep their lives as "normal" as possible, even as the dreaded black/red/white Nazi swastika flag suddenly replaced the famous French tricolor on basically every building:


Many more images where those came from, though, to remind us where people making the wrong choices for themselves can lead - to them being shut out from the rest of the world, and systematically murdered if they dare oppose the events unfolding around them:







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