<p>Apparently Toad’s Place in New Haven was really hopping with Harvard and Yales students last night.</p>
<p>I really can’t stand to watch football but just love it when my team wins!</p>
<p>To a man holding a hammer, all life’s challenges appear to be nails.</p>
<p>I like exciting college football games and I like analogies that offer insight into daily life. Yesterday’s H-Y game may have provided both.</p>
<p>With Yale deep in its own territory, protecting a three-point lead with under 2 1/2 minutes to play, Yale coach Tom Williams had his team attempt a fake punt on fourth-and-22. The call, which would have been preposterous under normal circumstances, followed a celebrated gamble less than a week earlier on fourth-and-two by the New England Patriots’ coach, for which that coach has been excoriated in the media. Williams’ decision now extended beyond the preposterous to the unthinkable. Harvard scored its winning touchdown three plays after taking possession of the ball in Yale territory due to the failed fake punt. Incidentally, Yale has the top punter in the Ivy League, and he’d been having a career day.</p>
<p>Over a month earlier, Yale had run a fake punt against Lehigh, snapping the ball to the same linebacker who received yesterday’s fake punt snap. On that occasion, he ran 40 yards for the only score of the game in a 7-0 Yale win.</p>
<p>In the euphoria over that success, it would be hard to imagine Coach Williams not thinking “I’ve got to pull that off again in the Harvard game.” With two minutes to go yesterday, he’d yet to call his pet play and had only one remaining opportunity to use it. Perhaps the hubris of wanting to pull off a shocking surprise took precedence over assessing the course of action most likely to result in a Yale win. Sometimes it’s better to put that hammer back in the tool belt and go looking for the right tool for the task.</p>
<p>But thanks to that bizarre decision, when I called my D’s cell a few minutes after the game, she was jumping around on the field in the Harvard mob, having a blast!</p>
<p>^ I enjoyed your insight. This comes from someone who had to ask her husband and son over dinner what the heck this 4th and 22 (Harvard) and 4th and 2 (Patriots) were that were being talked about in the analysis after the game.</p>
<p>from the NY Times:
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/sports/ncaafootball/22yale.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=harvard&st=cse[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/sports/ncaafootball/22yale.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=harvard&st=cse</a></p>
<p>from the enemy’s paper:
[Yale</a> Daily News - The Nation’s Oldest College Daily](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/]Yale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/)</p>
<p>from the Crimson:
[Harvard</a> Stages Fourth-Quarter Rally, Beats Yale 14-10 in 126th Playing of The Game | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/11/21/football-thegame-recap-112109/]Harvard”>Harvard Stages Fourth-Quarter Rally, Beats Yale 14-10 in 126th Playing of The Game | Sports | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>gadad - I agree with your analysis. However, rather than the hammer analogy, I think the Yale coach simply over-reached himself. His team had outplayed Harvard all day long and was holding onto a lead with not a lot of time left. He had coached a great game and was heading for the biggest win of his career. He wanted to seal the deal by getting a first down using the razzle-dazzle Lehigh play and running out the clock from there - or maybe even scoring another touchdown as a triumphant, Crimson-killing exclamation point on his victory. His blood was up and he allowed it to cloud his judgment.</p>
<p>Yeah Crimson!</p>
<p>To my utter amazement son made it back in one piece and just texted his sister that he has been preparing all morning for a 2 pm section today so that his TF can head out early for the Thankgsiving break. It’s moments like these that make me think maybe, just maybe he really is maturing into an adult.</p>
<p>And then I start to feel sad about THAT.</p>
<p>Anyway, yeah Crimson!</p>
<p>On another note, my daughter called us today and said she’s bringing home two other students for Thanksgiving. They will be staying from Wednesday night through Sunday. Last year she also brought home two other students. This is her senior year and since she’s going to med school next year I don’t expect that this will happen next year. It will be something I’ll miss about her being at Harvard.</p>
<p>I got called today with Ds “Epic” story. Basically, she ran into problem after problem trying to get herself and her roommate back to campus last night and keep me from having to drive down. She handled it all and was back in her dorm at 7:45. She is quite proud of her “achievement” as typically her life skills have been somewhat lacking.</p>
<p>Son just sent a few pictures. How happy they all look - on the field celebrating!</p>
<p>No pictures yet. Still waiting for pictures from the ballroom comp two weeks ago. :(</p>
<p>At the end of today’s article about the H-Y tailgate, The Crimson writes: "Though messy, the event never truly got out of hand. “It’s pretty tame” said Sargeant Jay Jones from the Yale University Police Department adding, “It’s Ivy League.” "</p>
<p>Do you parents know how much time a student needs to get to Logan airport from campus on Wednesday afternoon (the day before Thanksgiving)? School offers bus ($8.00) to the airport at 1pm, 3pm and 5pm but told students that they should give about one hour travel time to get to airport. Our D may not be able to ride the bus becuase she wants to get to the airport at least two hours prior the departure.</p>
<p>My son says that he plans 2 hours if he takes the subway. It may not take that long, but it could. When I have taken cabs, it seems like it was about 40 minutes.</p>
<p>I would not set aside more than an hour to get to the airport from Harvard – it’s a straight trip on the Red Line to South Station, then a transfer to the (very frequent) SL1 bus to Logan. The MBTA trip planner estimates that it takes 37 minutes at mid-day, which I think would be totally reasonable, especially since the T will be running extra trains and buses at peak travel times tomorrow.</p>
<p>By all means take the subway. I believe it costs all of a dollar and it’s ridiculously easy and fast.</p>
<p>Just hope the planes are taking off and landing on schedule tomorrow . . . son says he has a ton of work to do over the break but it will be so nice to have him here for a bit.</p>
<p>I have been thinking about something ever since I left freshman parents weekend. One of the discussions was about how parents should stay out of their child’s business especially when it comes to them choosing a concentration. Apparently the counseling service will say to the students that this is your decision and your decsion alone. In light of this pervassive recession where there are 1 in 7 famililies with college graduates who bomerang back to live with their parents, I am not sure why parents should not have a say in what major their child chooses. I honestly do not want my child majoring in an area where she is unable to find a job and make a viable living when she is through or must go to graduate school and still may be unable to find a job when she is done. When she left for Harvard this year, my D was thinking about engineering but out of the blue after talking to someone at H, she is now thinking about a concentration which will have NO jobs. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want my kid in engineering to begin with. What concentration is she thinking about and what does she plan on doing with it. Lots of students major in unusual fields and end up on Wall st for example.</p>
<p>S took the the subway/bus combo yesterday (Tuesday) at 5PM to Logan. He said it was about 50 minutes total from Harvard yard to the airport–no problems at all.</p>
<p>I graduated with a degree in French during the recession in 1983. As I remember, the job market was terrible. I applied for jobs and got offers from a pharmaceutical firm (sales) and an insurance company (claims). No background in either, but offers because I was a college grad with a good GPA. Neither was what I expected to do, but I went into claims. (Later became a teacher…) It is indeed possible to get a job with a liberal arts degree, even French literature.</p>
<p>I personally would not get involved in my child’s major. If she asked, I would say, “Yes, I see you doing that.” or “Really? I don’t see that at all. What made you head in that direction?” Don’t they need to learn who they are and what they love? Not just what will get them the highest paid job the second they graduate. As long as my daughter is happy and making do, that’s fine with me. If she needs help and I can, I will. If not, she’ll have to live with/on her decision. (My daughter does not know yet what her concentration will be. She wrote unsure on her Harvard app and is still unsure.)</p>