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Week of February 21, 2005 - February 28, 2005 Thursday Night at the Races Canceled This Thursday night's race, which was to consist just of relays, has been canceled due to the bad weather today. Well, to be precise, today's meet at the Armory has been moved to Wednesday because of the weather, so Wednesday's meet got pushed to Thursday, and Thursday's meet lost out, although it may be rescheduled later this month. If you still want to race this week, there's the MAC Championships on Friday, starting at 7:00 pm:
Last Chance for Reduced-Price Tickets to Club Night This year's NYRR Club Night will take place on Thursday, March 31st at the Hilton New York. Email Alan Ruben at alan@montran.com by tomorrow morning (March 1st) if you wish to purchase tickets at the reduced rate of $58.50 per ticket. This will enable you to sit at the CPTC table(s). Send a check for $58.50 per ticket, payable to Alan Ruben to
Toronto Waterfront Marathon
Snowflake Run We had a strong turnout at the first points race of the year, with John Roberts 12th overall to lead the men (21:01, two days after running a 4:22 mile at the Armory) and Lauren Esposito 5th in the woman's race (23:59, just 7 seconds from making the Best Times list). Overall the men were 4th place Open, 3rd place Masters and 3rd place Senior Masters, while the women were 4th place Open, 3rd place Masters and 1st place Senior Masters. And now for what you really care about: photos from the race are posted. Indoor Track & Field Championships Up in Boston today the CPTC men (Filip Jagodzinski, Kobie Fuller, Yuri Nosenko and Amerigo
Kate's time is a PR by 4 seconds. Micah's time is a season PR, and a slight improvement over her current Best CPTC Time, but she's asked us to keep listing her open 400m there, and not the relay split. We've received no such request from Allison, so we're glad to list her time (which is also a season PR) as sixth on the 800m Best Time list. We'll give Frank Handelman the last word here: "This is a great moment for our team, and a tribute to a hell of a coach." Why We Don't Have Enough Gossip Here From our conversation with a teammate on Thursday:
And then, five minutes later, the same teammate prefaced a juicy, scandalous item with:
Not Enough Time A new study in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General finds that most people think they will have more money and time in the future. As the abstract puts it:
For those of you who, like us, got a headache from trying to read that, the Times summarizes it better as:
We suspect this might explain why we always think we'll get more work done on this site over the weekend than we actually do, and why we therefore usually don't have photos posted when we say we will. Alexandra Horowitz In response to the question about Alexandra Horowitz' whereabouts, the Webmaster Emeritus suspects she is planning to take over Canada. His evidence? The launching of our Northern neighbor's National Mitten Registry, which seeks to reunite cold Canuks with their lost gloves. However, while the article explaining this program does quote Ms. Horowitz extensively, there is no evidence that she runs the program, or that she is using this in an effort to conquer any part of the country. Our own suspicion is that, as an expert on both single gloves and "interspecies play," she is in California to either comment on, or appear as an expert witness in, the Michael Jackson trial. Reports from more reliable sources tell us that she's been injured, but is starting to run again. For more on unmatched gloves, see Mad Times' Lost Gloves Archive. Me Fail English?
That's Unpossible! An idiot on Let's Run asks "who cares about grammar!" We would have pointed out that the question should be "Who cares about grammar?" Luckily, someone beat us to it, and other people pointed out all the other errors in the original question. Sadly, we couldn't find any errors left to correct, so now we're stuck with this pent-up need to correct someone's grammar. Better Late Than Never Eventually, the Global Surveillance System finds all race results. But we find them quicker when the participants inform on themselves, like Sue Pearsall did with the Freezer 5K. She won that race, giving us our second road win of the year. Running Research
More on Thursday Night at the Races Ben Gutman and John Roberts also ran PRs in the mile, and John Affleck either ran a PR in the 800m, or just ran faster than he has since college. Either way, it's about a second and a half faster than he did last summer outdoors, which is pretty damn impressive. Oh, and that PR John Roberts ran? It was just one-tenth of a second away from landing him a spot on the Best Times list. We predict he'll pick up more than just that tenth of a second, and will be number seven on the list before the summer's over. We've also posted some unofficial splits from the race, courtesy of Coach Tony. Thursday Night at the Races As always, we're the first with results. We even have some unofficial splits, but we won't have time to post them until Saturday. There were a couple of nice PRs, including Sue Pearsall, Glen Carnes and Otto Hoering in the mile. Sue cut 6 seconds off her time! Even better, Frank Handelman made his return to racing after a long injury. And the race ended so early that we all managed to finish our dinner at Coogan's by 10:30. Diana Fitzpatrick Interview Endurance Radio has an interview with long-distance runner Diana Fitzpatrick. Back when she lived in New York, and was still Diana Nelson, she ran with CPTC, and is 12th on our best marathon list (2:55:33 in New York in 1989). The interview is at the top of the homepage, but you can also go directly to the transcript, stream in Windows Media or Real Player, or download an mp3. Hottest Athletes Sarah Rivlin noticed that we didn't seem interested enough in ESPN's Hottest Male Athlete Poll, so she sent us some thoughts on the contestants:
There's still time to vote in the first round. Meanwhile, over on the Women's Poll, the finals have come down to swimmer (and FHM covergirl) Amanda Beard and Ironman triathlete Lokelani McMichael (who's appeared in Esquire, Maxim, and numerous other magazines). Beard's definitely the better athlete, but we voted for McMichael this time. Although, if you can set us up on a date, either one would be great. At press time, Beard had almost two-thirds of the vote, but there's always a chance this could the gap could narrow. Wimps! Regarding the email canceling tonight's workout, Frank Morton asks:
Seriously. If there wasn't a race last night — and we still did the road workouts — we would have been at the statue at 7:00, and we're an expert when it comes to finding excuses not to run. First "The Gates," Now "The Path"? Toby has an idea for a new arts project in Central Park, in which he will paint the entire six-mile road loop yellow:
It sounds good to us, even if it's not orange. Club Night This year's NYRR Club Night will take place on Thursday, March 31st at the Hilton New York. Anyone wishing to sit at the CPTC table(s) should send a check for $58.50 per ticket, payable to Alan Ruben to
Checks must be received by March 1st. More Photos In addition to the photos from the Gates Run (see below), we also have photos from the Al Gordon 15K which took place later that morning. I'm Just Wild About After running articles on The Gates on and off for the last two years, and then every day for the past month, the Times has finally admitted that the color chosen by Christo and Jeanne-Claude looks nothing at all like saffron. It took the Food section to point out that dried saffron is a very deep red with just a hint of orange, while adding saffron to a dish makes the dish yellow. Restaurant consultant Ed Schoenfeld said the color of the Gates is "more like a persimmon that saffron." Our brother put it much better: "Unless you write for the J. Crew catalog, that color is orange." And it's easy to see just how orange it is when you notice how closely the color of the Gates resembles the color of our team jackets, in these photos from the Gates Run that we've finally posted. You'll notice that many of them aren't labeled, so if you can identify any people or places in the photos, or if you just have witty captions to suggest, send them to us and we'll add them in. Hottest Male Athlete As promised, we're not ignoring the men's side of ESPN's Hottest Athlete competition. We'll let you decide for yourself whether race car drivers qualify as athletes, but it's probably a moot point as the current leaders are Real Madrid star David Beckham, Houston Texans quarterback David Carr, Baltimor Orioles catcher Javy Lopez and tennis star Andy Roddick. Gossip We get a fair amount of letters from our readers, but we only share the good ones. Like this one, from an unidentified corresondent:
Actually, we have no real reticence when it comes to discussing the private lives of CPTC members. The truth is that we have no idea what Rae Baymiller or Alexandra Horowitz are up to, running or otherwise. If anyone can help us out with this — or any other gossip — we'd appreciate it. Armory Race and Post-Race Party The last regular Thursday Night at the Races is tomorrow night, so anyone not resting up for Saturday's Snowflake Race should head up to the Armory for a chance to run a mile, 400m, 800m or 2-mile race. Next week is a bunch of relays -- which look like fun -- but this is your last chance to do a solo race this year. And it's also your last chance to grab some dinner and/or drinks at Coogan's with your teammates after the meet. Yes, you could always go to Coogan's another time, but it wouldn't be after a Thursday night meet. Photos - For Real This Time! We've got photos from Thursday Night at the Races #2 posted. We were hoping to get the photos from the Gates Run done today as well, but then Sylvie Kimche sent us another set, and we didn't have time to get to them all. If any of you have more photos from the Gates run please send them to us as soon as possible. We're posting what we have tomorrow, and it's much easier for us do all the photos as once. Injuries to Young Athletes It seems a lot of the kids who aren't sitting around getting obese by watching television and playing video games are instead overtraining to the point of serious injury:
There's a lot more to the article. And it all makes us glad that we didn't even take little league seriously when we were growing up. That's Why They Call It the Big House Chris Leppard of Hastings, East Sussex, was forcibly taken to a mental hospital last week because he can't stop eating. Leppard suffers from Prader-Willi Syndrome, one effect of which is that he can't tell when his stomach is full. As a result, the 23-year-old already weighs 430-460 pounds (articles differ on this point). According to The Sun, Leppard was "dragged off in tears," although as MemeFirst points out "I would think that if he truly chose not to go that would pretty much put the matter to rest." Leppard was sent home on Monday, and said he planned to return to his controlled diet to prove that he can lose weight without enforced care. He also plans to sue social services for committing him. According to Jackie Waters, spokeswoman for the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association, commitiment "is only advised as a last resort when the measures we recommend and the doctors recommend are not working. It's quite rare but it certainly has happened before." Week of February 15, 2005 - February 21, 2005 Photos We promised you photos today. And we really meant to post them. But then a woman on the evening shift called in sick — like she does every time it snows — and nobody else was able to cover for her because of the holiday, so we ended up stuck at the office, where the only thing we can work on is journal entries, rather than getting home to post the photos. Hopefully the snow will melt enough for our colleague to recover and we’ll be able to get the photos done tomorrow, but we’re not making any promises yet. Free Theater From Evan Bass Zeisel:
Of course, this Thursday is also the big Thursday Night at the Armory, but all you roadies gearing up for the Snowflake 4-Miler will probably be skipping the workout anyway, so you should all go see the play for free.
At Least We’re Not Complaining About the Television Reviews Today Would it kill the Times to hire some writers who actually know something about New York City? They don’t need to do it for every position, just the people who’s job it is to write article about New York City. Especially, say, the people who write for the City section. Case in point: Anyone looking at the picture accompanying the article about the Chinatown Fair Arcade, would probably be curious about the words “WORLD FAMOUS DANCING & TIC-TAC-TOE” above the arcade’s entrance. But nowhere in the article will you find any information about the World Famous Dancing Chicken and World Famous Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken referred to in the sign, both of which were more interesting than any video gamers hanging out at the arcade these days. Both chickens have retired, but Calvin Trillin profiled them in The New Yorker back in February of 1999, for any of you who save all your old magazines. For the rest of you, check out Gawker and Connected Traveler for some info on the Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken, although neither one mentions the dancing chicken. Also in yesterday’s paper is “Growing Restaurant Row Enlivens Park Slope,” about all the restaurants to be found on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn. This one goes wrong right from the start:
Except that Al Di La was one block from Cucina — which had been deemed “worth a detour even from Manhattan” for nearly a decade at that point — as well as Aunt Suzie’s and Harry and Tonto. Also, while Seventh Avenue is the prime shopping strip in Park Slope, it has never been anyone’s avenue of choice for dining. Even today there are nearly as many memorable restaurants at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 12th Street as there are on all of Seventh Avenue. The article did get one thing right, though: a nice mention of Eric Goetze’s Blue Sky Bakery. New York Olympic Bid on WNYC Brian Lehrer will be discussing New York City’s Olympic Bid on WNYC (93.9 FM, 820 AM) tomorrow morning. We don’t know what time that discussion will be, but the show runs from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. A True Connoisseur of Snobbery Would Never Write Something Like That “Clearly anyone hoping to convey true snob appeal had better learn how to talk the talk.”
Five-Tool Player, Or Just a Tool? We’ve never been a fan of Alex Rodriguez, but even we were starting to feel that he was getting a little too much criticism from the Sox (which Murray Chass claims was mostly “at the urging of reporters eager to inflame the game to incendiary levels,” as if Chass is somehow separate from the rest of the sports media). Sure, Pay-Rod didn’t help his case by bragging about how he’s busy working out while other players are taking their kids to school, but that hardly makes him the only jerk in the game. And, really, the fact that he might not be a candidate for Father of the Year isn’t worthy of the attention that could instead go to such important baseball issues as the correct pronunciation of minor league pitcher Yusmeiro Petit’s name. Then he went and opened his mouth again, commenting on his karate chop at Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo in Game 6 of last year’s American League Championship Series:
Actually, it wasn’t brilliant, and it wasn’t just silly. It was cheap, dumb and costly. It stifled a Yankees rally and tarnished Rodriguez’ reputation immeasurably. Rodriguez should be apologizing for it, not bragging about it. And he should know that the way teams win in the playoffs is by not doing silly things. Is it any wonder that Jason Giambi is getting more support from his teammates than Rodriguez is? Snowflake 4-Mile Run and Party The first NYRR scoring race of 2005 is on Saturday, February 26th. This is a great distance for both our short-distance runners and people gearing up for a Spring Marathon, so we are encouraging a large turnout for this traditional rallying point of the early season for us. Our post-race party will be held at The Parlour (86th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue) from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm. Photos No, not ours. But photos of the Reservoir Run can be found over on Toby's site. As far as our own photos go, we've got roughly 100 from Thursday Night at the Races #2, 110 from Thursday Night at the Races #3, 70 from the Gates Run and Al Gordon 15K, and 20 from yesterday's Cherry Tree 10-Miler. And if we'd had a little more time this weekend we'd have posted some (or even all) of them. But we'll have some of them up tomorrow, and all of them (plus Thursday Night at the Races #4 and the Snowflake Run and Party)) by next weekend. Dude Looks Like a Lady Somehow we forgot to report on the bizarre story of Samukeliso Sithole, the 17-year-old Zimbabwean female track star who turns out to be male. Or, more acurately:
This being Zimbabwe, Solly Solinga, a spokesperson for Zimbabwean Television, accused Sithole of being a spy:
And for those of you who missed it, "The Simpsons" did this same story earlier tonight. Well, without the spying part or the faith healer, but you know what we mean. Running Shoes Sarah Rivlin reports that a reader who wishes to remain anonymous has written a check that will provide all the M.S. 45 runners with shoes. We're glad to hear it. Orange Two British mobile phone companies are fighting over which one has the right to use the color orange in its advertisements. Says Orange:
Replies easyMobile, part of the orange-colored easyGroup:
No comment from Home Depot, ING, the publishers of the Idiot's Guide series, the Syracuse University or the government of the Netherlands. We'd just like to remind both phone companies that the color orange belongs to the Central Park Track Club, and any corporate entities that want to use it are only borowing it from us. The Gates It's often been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (although we've always been partial to shameless appeals to our sharp wit, matinee-idol good looks, impeccable grammar, and general modesty). In that case, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were surely flattered to learn about The Sommerville Gates, a smaller-scale replica of the current Central Park art installation. And they're probably just as freaked out as we are by The Crackers. [Link courtesy of the Webmistress, who scooped the Times on this one.] Lose Weight Now! Forget eating right, or exercising more often. Can't Stop the Bleeding has figured out the secret to getting in shape:
[Link via Ugarte at Rick's Cafe Americain, which has got to be the coolest name for a blog out there.] Best Time Just two weeks after improving on his second place time, Amerigo Rossi has grabbed the top spot on the best mile list with 4:08.59 at the Husky Classic. Running Shoes My former college teammate, Debbie, has been doing Teach for America at a M.S. 45 up in the Bronx for the past two years. This year she started a cross country team for her kids and she has about 30 who come on a fairly regular basis. I've been helping out with the team for a few months now and the kids are great. And best of all, they LOVE to run. They're very competitive with each other and they get very excited every time they finish a run without walking. The problem is, they run in the Bronx, and they run only on concrete. Since none of them have proper shoes, they have all started getting shin splints and other little injuries. Debbie wrote an e-mail to NYRR, who contributed enough shoes for a bunch of the kids, but there are still some who don't have shoes. So, I figured I'd post a note to you folks. If you feel like contributing either money (we've estimated it will cost about $300 total to get the rest of the kids shoes) or shoes, please let me know. Also, if you know of a better way to raise funds, the information would be useful. Thanks a lot,
Ed Whitlock The Times profiles Ed Whitlock, who last year ran the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2:54:49 at age 72. In April, Whitlock will run the Rotterdam Marathon against Joop Ruter, who ran that race in 3:02:49 last year at age 71. Thanks to both Margaret Schotte and Scott Johnson for reminding us about the article. Hottest Female Athlete Semifinals Well, somehow golfer Natalie Gulbis (are golfers even athletes?) beat out swimmer Natalie Coughlin to move into the semifinals in ESPN's hottest female athlete poll. She goes up against triathlete Lokelani McMichael in one semi-final, while swimmer Amanda Beard matches up against soccer player Amy Taylor. John Scherrer thinks there are too many blondes in this competition, but he's probably happy to see that only two made it to the second round. We, of course, do not discriminate on the basis of hair color, although we happened to vote against both blondes this time. To pretend that we're not a total letch, we'll be reporting just as often on the men's poll next week, and we'll even try to make it sound like we care who wins. By the way, if Gulbis' boyfriend Ben Roethlisberger reads this page — and wouldn't it be awesome if he does? — we were kidding about that are-golfers-athletes crack, and we're sure Gulbis is a great athlete. Cherry Tree 10-Miler For those of you doing the Cherry Tree 10-Miler this Saturday who aren't used to navigating the wilds of Brooklyn, we present again our map from last year:
Map Key Remeber the race can also be done as a 3-person relay this year. See the website for more info, or go to Active.com to register (online registration closes Thursday night at 9:00). Hottest Female Athlete It's that time of year again, when ESPN's Page 2 lets us all vote for the world's hottest athletes. Voting for the men starts next week, but the women's poll is open now. Current leaders are swimmers Amanda Beard and Natalie Coughlin, triathlete Lokelani McMichael and Australian soccer player Amy Taylor. And it took us most of the day to realize that that last name is familiar because we went to high school with an Amy Taylor, and not because we've reached the point of sports geekdom where we can name the alternates on the Australian Olympic team. We're close, but we're not there yet. Club Night NYRR's Club Night will take place on Thursday, March 31. We're a little bummed about this, first because it conflicts with a workout, and second because it's going to be really awkward leaving the after-after-party at 8:00 am and going back to the office while still wearing a tux. On the plus side, ticket prices are lower than last year, and we scored the following nominations:
Ice Cream Since stories in The Onion have a tendency to become real, we're hoping that Ben & Jerry's really will introduce a new flavor called The Waffle Truth: premium vanilla ice cream with strawberries, chocolate-covered waffle-cone bits, and a hint of cinnamon. We don't care whether or not Michael Moore gets honored with his own ice cream flavor, but doesn't that combination sound tasty? Steroids Roundup We hate to have to report on this every day, but the story's not going away. Here's some of today's highlights:
Photos A couple people asked us when photos will be posted here again. And the answer is, this weekend, since we'll be too busy to get them done during the week. We promise they'll be worth the wait, though. Week of February 8, 2005 - February 14, 2005 Steroids ESPN Paeg 2 has a good article by Skip Bayless on steroids and Jose Canseco. Also, the Yankees have now confirmed that they removed the word "steroids" from Jason Giambi's contract during negotiations in 2001, although GM Brian Cashman would still have us believe that "the Yankees had no knowledge that there was any knowledge of steroid use with Jason Giambi whatsoever." Oregon Project USA Today has an interesting profile of Alberto Salazar's Oregon Project to develop young American runners. Thanks to John Affleck for the link. Olympics Rally From Toby Tanser:
New Arrival The Central Park Track Club is pleased to welcome Daniel Sidney Ruben, born at 7:28 pm today, and weighing in at 7 lbs, 15 ozs.
Juiced We haven't read Jose Canseco's new book, Juiced (it's not out until tomorrow), but we did catch him on 60 Minutes tonight, and between that and other news reports we've seen, we're not ready to dismiss his claims so quickly. Yes, Canseco had a credibility problem, but that doesn't mean he's lying. We do know this much: Canseco, by his own admission, used steroids; Jason Giambi used steroids (we're sure you're all familiar with his press conference last Thursday where he apologized for the "distraction" caused by his getting caught both using steroids and lying about the steroid use, although he didn't apologize — or even admit to — using steroids or lying about it); Mark McGuire used androstenedione, a steroid precursor illegal in many sports, and one that has since been banned by Major League Baseball; between five and seven percent of baseball players tested positive for steroids when testing began: and the leaders of both Major League Baseball and the players union, particularly commissioner Bud Selig and union head Donald Fehr, did their best to ignore the problem of steroids. We'd like to believe that McGuire, Rafael Palmero, Ivan Rodriguez, and all the other players named in Canseco's book are innocent. But nobody in baseball has much credibility when it comes to steroids right now, and too many of the counterarguments we've heard (like "Canseco's always been a liar" or "Canseco wasn't really friends with these athletes") don't instill any new confidence in us. But maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised on Wednesday, when 60 Minutes II broadcasts more on the story, including (hopefully) Major League Baseball's response. On a happier baseball note, pitchers and catcher report for Spring Training on Tuesday. They'll face a lot of questions about steroids over the next few months. We hope they'll take the issue seriously. The Gates We're happy not to have the mass of tourists in Brooklyn for the next two weeks, but that doesn't mean the city's best boro isn't getting in on all the Gates-related excitement. Jon Cane spotted this tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's project in Prospect Park this morning:
A Kiss Is Just A Kiss One of these days we'll just stop reading anything in the Times about television. It's not like we're going to watch any of the shows being reviewed anyway. At this point we just watch "The Simpsons," "The West Wing," "South Park," and "The Daily Show," and if we ever find ourself at home on a Tuesday rather that at a track practice, we might watch either "Scrubs" or "Veronica Mars." Beyond that we watch some documentaries and movies on cable, and a lot of sports. But getting back to the Times. There, on the front page of Thursday's Arts section was an article by Virginia Heffernan titled "It's February; Pucker Up, TV Actresses." The premise of the article was that television shows often feature two women kissing during February sweeps (although apparently not during November or May sweeps), and the point of it was — well, we're not really sure. Heffernan provides no evidence that these stunts have had any effect on ratings since Ellen DeGeneres came out seven years ago. Nor does she provide any evidence that anyone outside fans of the particular shows even care anymore. Oh, sure, the Parents Television Council might still get upset, but they file a complaint with the FCC anytime a character utters a word stronger than "drat." Outside of them, we doubt many people know that two women kissed on "One Tree Hill" last week. Until we saw this article, we thought "One Tree Hill" was just a song by U2. Yet, Heffernan tells us:
Then, just three paragraphs later she proves her claim wrong:
To summarize: most years one show will feature a lesbian kiss, usually during the February sweeps period. These kisses generally don't shock the show's regular fans, and go completely unnoticed by everyone else. And they usually have no effect on the ratings. We know the Times critics are always trying to establish some connection between the shows they watch and the broader zeitgeist. And we know that "Audiences Not Shocked by Sweeps Stunt" isn't a headline that is going to grab many readers. But if the evidence refutes your thesis, you have to toss out the original idea and write a different article. Oh, and you should never write something like "The O.C." is "winning props from fans." Newspapers like the Times should not be using slang terms like props (short for "proper respect"), and if they do, they should at least try to get the usage right. You get props; you don't win them. The critics at the Times might learn that, if they would ever write anything deserving of props. We Were Wondering What Happened to Jerome O'Shaughnessy John Prather directed us to this photo from Minsk, Belarus, at Yahoo news.
At Least They Still Get Its and It's Right From today's Times:
Are there no editors with any sense left at the Times? Homer Simpson is not a boar, and does not seem like one. For future reference: a boar is an uncastrated male swine; a boor is a rude or insensitive person, such as an uncultured dolt who doesn't care about the difference between homonyms even though he happens to be an editor at a prestigious newspaper; and a bore is a tiresome person, such as a blogger who is obsessed with spelling and grammar. More on Thursday's Races Andrea Haver moved up on the Best 800m list, there were a bunch of PRs that are now included in the results, and we have a 2-mile result for Stuart Calderwood. We Would Have Written About This Earlier, But We Got Distracted The Times delivers the shocking news that there are a lot of distractions while working at a computer. Are they reading this site? We wrote about the same thing last month. Meanwhile, Salon examines how having ADD can sometimes be a good thing. Thursday Night at the Armory Kate wins the 800m, Micah improves on her 400m time, but doesn't change places on the list, Felice gets some orange gear and makes it into the photos (to be posted as soon as we finish up the last set), Price complains that he couldn't get any work done because he was playing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all day, we make the mistake of meeting a friend for one drink (which turns out to be several drinks) after the race, and don't get the chance to post the results until this morning. We're off to work. More on all this later. Don't Panic Last week we were helping the parents clean some of our old junk out of their house, and we came across the box for the old Infocom Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure. The original disk was no longer in there (what would we do with a 5.25" disk containing a DOS program anyway?), although we did find the microscopic space fleet and the pair of Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, neither of which we could really justify keeping. But we did want to play the game again, since we never beat it (in our defense, we were 12 years old when we last played). So imagine our joy when we discovered an online version of the game. Even better, this version has a handful of cheap graphics, and an extensive — though not yet complete — series of hints. So that's one more thing to take up our already-limited free time for the next few months. We need to finish the game by May 6, though, because that's when the Hitchhiker's Guide movie comes out. We've got our towel ready. Round the Block Run We'd heard that Stacy Creamer had been supplanted as the top spot in the Urban Athletics Run Around the Block Challenge (possibly not it's official name). We're glad to see her usurper is another orange girl, track star Micah Adriani, who zipped around the block in 64.3 seconds. That's just one-tenth of a second slower than the top man, who is still Stuart Calderwood. Celebratory Orange Gates Run The Central Park Track Club is planning a run on Sunday, February 13th at 7:30 am, starting from the Daniel Webster Statue, to celebrate the 23 miles of Orange Flags (technically "saffron" colored, and officially known as The Gates) being installed in Central Park by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. This is a "once-in-a-lifetime,""not-to-be-missed" event for CPTC members dressed in as much orange as possible to form a "snake" which will run at a pace suitable for all, for 4-6 miles through the orange gates. Mileage freaks who want to run more can continue for longer. The Al Gordon 15K race is taking place that morning and if you are running that race this will provide a nice warm-up. Maysles Films is interested in filming part of our run for the official documentary of The Gates which they are producing. Maysles Films is the Academy Award Nominated documentary film company that has done previous documentaries on Christo and others such as The Rolling Stones (“Gimme Shelter”). If this isn't enough to get you interested, we will also be selling the limited-edition CPTC orange hats for $5 each to wear during the run. It promises to be quite a spectacle - do yourselves a big favor - DON'T MISS THIS! Running Partner Wanted Soon-to-be-member David Maurice is looking for running partners as he trains for a sub-3:00 marathon in May. If you'd like some company for long runs on the weekends, or regular runs on weekend mornings, email him at dmaurice@yahoo.com. Week of February 1, 2005 - February 7, 2005 Best Time Our eagle-eyed recordkeeper, Stuart Calderwood, noticed that Amerigo Rossi's 4:09.86 mile last weekend belongs on the best times list. It's the second fastest in club history, and moves Amerigo up not at all, since he already had the number two spot. Morning Runs Matthew Newman is looking to meet up with other CPTCers for weekday morning runs. If you're interested, email him at mnewman@greenwichbmw.com. Roommate Wanted If you've always wanted to live with the webmaster, or just need a new place to crash, here's your chance. Our rommate finally got her own place, and we need to replace her. Details:
It's Still Worth Every Penny To: CHRIS SOLARZ Due to an error in processing on our part, your credit card was overcharged US$ 10024 for your ING New York City Marathon 2005 entry. A US$ 10024 refund will be applied to your credit card account during the week of Monday, February 7. I apologize for the error and any inconvenience it may cause you. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I wish you the best of luck on November 6. Sincerely, Saul Zuchman Imagine How Much These Reviews Would Annoy Us If We Actually Watched TV Oh, Alessandra Stanley, why do you make our life so easy? Here we thought we'd have nothing to write about today, but the we read your review of "American Dad." You started so well that we were convinced you'd been replaced by your non-evil twin who actually knows something about television, popular culture, and the world in general. Don't get us wrong; the review still wasn't all that useful. You offer no help when you complain that some jokes are too dated and others are too topical -- especially when you hold up "South Park" (which is often more topical than "Saturday Night Live") and "The Simpsons" (which still has Dick Nixon to kick around) as examples of the best animated shows -- but don't tell us whether the jokes are funny. And speaking of "The Simpsons": while it's still one of the better shows on TV, it is not "as fresh and manically witty as ever." Go buy the DVDs of seasons 1-5, if you want need a refresher course on what top-flight humor is. But we were willing to overlook all that until we got to your closing paragraph, which just calls out for mocking:
First of all, while "The Simpsons" looks fine, it's still pretty simple animation. "American Dad" might be a step below, but it's not a very big step. Second, have you ever seen any Japanese anime? Yes, some of it is just as cheap as American afternoon cartoons. But then there are artists like Hayao Miyazaki, whose works are every bit as beautiful as Disney's. You might want to check some of them out. Being a television critic can't take up that much of your day. Why not use some of your free time to check out the other media that you so disparage. Or is there something else at work? A month ago Virginia Heffernan railed against comic books in her review of "Alias." Today it's anime. We're starting to think you guys got dumped by geeks back in high school and still aren't over it. (When one of you finds some way to insult "Star Trek" while reviewing the latest PBS movie, then we'll know for sure.) That's fine; some of our best friends are still bitter about things that happened to them back in high school. But we'd like you both to remember one thing: you're writing for The New York Times now, while he's working 120 hours/week as a computer programmer, and all his stock options were wiped out when the tech bubble burst. You've won. You're cooler than he is. You don't need to prove it any more. So when you write your next review, don't make it about him. Thank you. Saturday Race CPTC has received a special invite to participate in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational this Saturday at the Armory. Come cheer on your teammates in the Distance Medley Relay:
Los Angeles Marathon I'm a new member of the CPTC and want to see if anyone else is running the Los Angeles Marathon on March 6. This will be my second time running the LA Marathon and I know it really well, so if fellow members need some information about the race, etc. I can help out. Hopefully the race won't be as warm as last year when it was 90+ degrees!
Lynn Allah We are saddened to report the passing of Lynn Allah, wife of former teammate Sal Allah, earlier today. Condolences may be sent to the family at:
Wednesday Evening at Five O'Clock We got nothing today. Nada. Zippo. Oh sure, there's that new designer steroid, DMT, but so far it looks like nobody's been using it. And there's that rodent that predicts the weather saying that there will be six more weeks of winter, as if that's a shock. (There's always the possibility we'll have to relive this all tomorrow, and if that happens we'll say something nicer about the critter.) There's even that editorial on drunk dialing in the Times that's just begging to be mocked. But we're still too jet-lagged to get excited about any of them. So we're just going to share this photo of Kate Irvin and a plate of onion rings, taken last July, but only sent to us now. As we recall, the onion rings were just as tasty — and greasy — as they look.
Why Reporters Aren't Allowed to Write Their Own Headlines If it were a book or a movie — and who knows, it might well become one — the title would jump right out at you: "The Basketball Coach Who Was Screamed and Cursed At on the Bench During a Game by the Team Owner Who Then Had to Be Restrained and at One Point Was Removed from the Premises by Security Guards and Who Fired the Coach, or Is the Coach in Fact Fired?"
Central Park Orange Flag Celebratory Run The Central Park Track Club is planning a run on Sunday, February 13th at 7:30 am to celebrate the 23 miles of Orange Flags (technically "saffron" colored, and officially known as The Gates) being installed in Central Park by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. We will start at the Daniel Webster Statue and head up by some circuitous route along the paths to the Harlem Mere. We would like as many CPTC members dressed in as much orange as possible to form a "snake" which will run at a pace suitable for all, for approximately 6 miles through the orange gates. Mileage freaks who want to run more can continue for longer. Who knows? Some CPTCers might even want to cover the entire 23 miles, although they would probably have to run close to 40 miles to do so. The Al Gordon 15K race is taking place that morning and if you are running this race this will provide a nice warm-up. Please try to put this event on your schedule. It's not every day that the park is decked out in our favorite color and it promises to be quite a spectacle — well worth $20,000,000 of anybody's money. Fidget for Fitness A new study suggests that, for many people, the difference between thin people and fat people is not that thin people engage in more structured exercise (like running, cycling, weightlifting, etc.), but that thin people spend more time walking instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of waiting for an elevator, and generally fidgeting instead of sitting still. Unfortunately for the couch potato types, this appears to be a biological — and possibly genetic — trait, not a personality one, so changing from a non-fidgeter to a fidgeter isn't that easy. The non-fidgety types generally make more efficient use of energy, which would have come in handy at a time when humans had to worry about getting enough food to survive. But now that most Americans have to worry more about obesity than starvation, using less energy has become a liability. The best solution would be to reorient our cities and workplaces around walking and moving around, rather than driving and sitting at a desk. Since that isn't likely to happen anytime soon, non-fidgeters will just have to find a way to become more active. |
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