Thursday, August 25, 2005

Band On the Run


Miss Madelyn Rose

First things first. Today was my niece's first day of Kindergarten. A bit of an exciting day. I talked to her on the phone and she said she got to run around the gym. Here's to a wonderful first year for her.

So I was walking to a meeting today, minding my own business and enjoying the unusually cooler weather we've been having lately. I noticed a posse on bikes coming toward me. They all appeared to be carring large oddly-shaped plastic cases. I quickly deduced that they were members of the Spartan Marching Band, which was then confirmed by many of the t-shirts that they were sporting. Bandos are fine, I was actually one myself back in the day, and I don't have a problem with them or what they stand for. But any group in numbers can make one uneasy. Afte I survived the encounter with the calvary, I noticed the ground troops approaching. These were considerably more in number and I noticed that they were taking up the whole sidewalk. Here I am, one person, trying to walk against this impervious force that is the marching band. Now when I walk on the sidewalk, I give plenty of space to those walking in the opposite direction and those fast-walkers who pass me. I also expect the same from them. Every once in awhile I will encounter a group like the one above who take up the whole path. This is not a time for one to give up position. We all have an equal right to walk on the sidewalk. I do my best to stay on the sidewalk and even hope (but don't try) that someone will run into me, just so they realize their stupidity, lack of common sense, and total disregard of sidewalk etiquette. So I'm holding my own, toeing the grass-line, but remaining on the path when all of a sudden I'm hit. The enemy has drawn blood. Well not real blood per se, but more of the proverbial kind. I quickly look and see it was a baritone-like instrument that caused the damage. The enemy offered a quick apology, but the damage was done. August 25, 2005 will go down iin infamy as the day I survived an assault from a band-geek.

So ESPN has some new "This is SportsCenter" ads out. The first couple I've seen I've enjoyed. One has some anchor (Scott Van Pelt?) in the office with his director giving him some advice, a la a manager going to the mound to calm down his pitcher. The 2nd one I just saw had Dan Patrick and Stuart Scott coming onto the set where 2 players in Jets paraphanalia. The anchors told the guys they were in their seats. The fans then refused to move and then left and said "you don't have to be jerks about it." These ads may be my favorite on-going commericals. Ever.

Last thought. I'm thinking about eliminating Anonymous Comments as I'm getting too much spam these days.

And now here is your Random Wikipedia Entry for the day.

4 comments:

Anne said...

how do you get rid of them? I have been getting lots o' spam too.

ekGreer said...

"The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died"

http://www.levitt.co.uk/v4.html

Glad you lived Mark. Remember, you were indeed one of them and I have photographic evidence (only cuase I was friends with so many of you).

Anonymous said...

Hi Mark.
I am still reading this :)
Your niece is really really really cute and you are really funny. Campus will soon be filled with bunch of people and you will see more of those who block the whole path!

Anonymous said...

Your niece IS really cute! And I thought it was very sweet of you to write up a sentence about her first of kindergarten. I am also relieve to hear you survuved the bando assult because this is kind of a bad week for me to be attending a funeral.