Archive for January, 2009
A Cool PSU Addition to the Inauguration
My computer tells me it’s currently 12 degrees and plummeting in State College — very much NOT ice cream weather, even for a Creamery fiend like me. But, if any event is big enough to justify an exception, the inauguration of a new president would seem to be it.
A spoonful of BaRocky Road. Mmmmm...
It’s not clear who actually came up with the idea, but Penn State is supplying 40 tubs (that’s 120 gallons) of ice cream for consumption at next week’s inaugural ball. The folks in Ag Sciences even came up with three new flavors: BaRocky Road (essentially Rocky Road with a whole bunch of extra gooey goodness mixed in), Obama White House (vanilla with cherries), and BidenBerry (vanilla with raspberry variegate).
Hopefully, this is one aspect of the inauguration that Penn Staters of all political stripes can be proud of. The only downside (for me, anyway): A call to the Berkey Creamery this afternoon confirms that these one-time-only batches will be enjoyed only by folks in D.C. next week. Don’t think I wouldn’t have walked across campus tomorrow in the single-digit weather for a scoop.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
LJ Stays
The Harrisburg Patriot-News and Fight on State are reporting that Penn State assistant coach Larry Johnson is staying put. Johnson reportedly had a lucrative offer on the table to join the Illinois staff, and the feeling among PSU beat writers was that the defensive line coach and ace recruiter would take the job.
I’m glad they were wrong — retaining an important assistant coach doesn’t guarantee on-field success, but losing one of Johnson’s reputation would’ve made it much more difficult to maintain the winning ways Penn State has returned to over the last four years. That frantic clicking sound you hear is joyous Penn State football fans sharing their relief on message boards everywhere.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
The Bobby Awards
One of many Penn Staters who are prominent in the news media is Bob Garfield ’77, who writes for Advertising Age magazine and also is co-host of the NPR show On the Media. We ran a Q&A with him in the magazine a few years back—a cover story, actually. Just recently I stumbled across the 2008 edition of his “Bobby Awards,” recognizing the best acting in TV ads from 2008. Apparently these were published in mid-December. (I am not always the most on top of things, I admit. But hey, a month late is better than not at all.)
From Garfield we learn, for example, that Jarlath Conroy is the actor who plays “the desk clerk at a fleabag hotel, who—with spooky intensity—warns a guest about the terrible wireless coverage in the rooms.” That Verizon ad is one of my favorites. Every time it comes on, I stop whatever I’m doing to watch it. Garfield goes on to say about Conroy’s performance: “When the guest says he’s on the Verizon network, the clerk brightens at once, chirping one last caveat: ‘Towels are kind of scratchy!’ Whoa—from Anthony Hopkins to Donald O’Connor in an instant.” Also be sure to check out Garfield’s comments on the hilarious talking-baby ads for E-Trade.
You might also want to watch the 10 ads Bob hated in 2008 and the 10 he loved. Also, Garfield annually rates the Super Bowl ads, so we have that to look forward to in a few weeks.
Tina Hay, editor
Who Remembers This Mac?
A couple of years ago we ran a feature-length Q&A with Penn State grad Steven Levy ’74g, chief technology writer for Newsweek, on his then-new book about the iPod. That was in our November-December 2006 issue. Since then, Levy has moved over to Wired magazine and continues to write about all things Apple, among other topics. In the current issue of Wired, he writes about the progression of the Apple Macintosh, which has now been around for 25 years.
Levy’s article also talks about “Apple’s long-running PC-versus-Mac ad campaign, with the nebbishy John Hodgman portraying the PC,” and how that campaign “has deeply unhinged Microsoft despite the company’s dominant market share.”
Seeing the photo-illustrated timeline that accompanies the article made me remember, with a laugh, my my first Mac, which looked pretty much like the one shown here. I got it—a Mac Plus—in 1987 in my previous job as the communications person for the College of Health and Human Development. The Mac Plus had a whopping 1MB of hard-drive space—the equivalent of, say, a single photo on my current Mac laptop.
Tina Hay, editor
Transition Games
You thought this was the “offseason” for Penn State football?
Nittany Lions past and present are all over the news this week, and for PSU fans, no story is bigger than that of defensive line coach and ace recruiter Larry Johnson Sr. considering a job offer (including a raise and a promotion) from Big Ten rival Illinois. Harrisburg’s Dave Jones (an Ohio State alum, which I reluctantly overlook because he tends to write great columns) breaks down the factors that might influence the decision, both for Johnson and for Joe Paterno. It’s a decision that could have massive implications for Penn State’s short- and long-term football future.
Larry Johnson is Penn State's No. 1 recruiter
Kerry Collins ’94 is weighing an offer, too, and he’s made it clear he’s got the ultimate leverage: Give him what he wants, or he’ll retire. Collins, an unexpected starter this season who led the Tennessee Titans to the best regular-season mark in the NFL, has made it clear he’d still like to play, but he has no desire to sit on anyone’s bench. If the Titans don’t want him to start next season, he’ll try to find a team that does. If he can’t, he’ll retire to his North Carolina farm.
Former Paterno assistant Jim Caldwell had no such choices to make. When Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy announced his retirement earlier today, Caldwell, the Colts’ associate head coach last season, was promoted to the top job.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
An Igloo Angle I Hadn’t Thought Of
This morning’s Daily Collegian has a front-page photo of that igloo that someone constructed on the Old Main lawn (see yesterday’s blog entry). As soon as I saw it, I wanted to kick myself. Why didn’t I think to get that photo?
I’ve spent a lot of time working on my photography skills over the years—in fact, as I stood on the Old Main lawn yesterday morning, I even called my brother, a professional photographer, on my cell phone for advice on how to compose the shot in order to catch a little artistic glare from the sun. (I didn’t have any success with that, as it turns out.) But in 20 minutes or so of shooting from various angles, it never occurred to me to crawl inside the freaking igloo and take a photo looking out. Luckily it occurred to the Collegian photographer, Andrew Dunheimer. Nice shot.
Collegian photo/Andrew Dunheimer
Tina Hay, editor
An Igloo Appears on the Old Main Lawn
A colleague over in Old Main (former Penn Stater magazine art director April Scimio ’84) e-mailed me this morning to say that an igloo had popped up on the Old Main lawn over the weekend. I went over with a camera and, sure enough, she was not hallucinating. Spring Semester classes didn’t start until today, so I’m guessing that the structure is the work of some students who had time on their hands after Saturday’s snowstorm. I’m also guessing they had to be engineering majors. Would you know how to create a hollow, self-supporting structure out of snow?
Tina Hay, editor
Alumni Center in Snow
I had to stop into the office briefly this afternoon, and the alumni center looked especially sweet, covered in snow in the late-afternoon light. So I took a shot with my iPhone. (It would look better without the car in the driveway, but oh well. And no, that’s not my car.) Click on the photo to see it bigger.
We got about five inches of snow yesterday. You can see an album of Public Information photos from the snowstorm here.
Tina Hay, editor
Camp Woodward Goes to China
You might remember the piece we did in our Sept-Oct 2008 issue on Camp Woodward, which is a mecca for the extreme-sports crowd (BMX, skateboarding, and the like). Today’s Centre Daily Times has a story on Woodward’s latest expansion—to China! Apparently Woodward owner Gary Ream ’76 is working with the Chinese government to open a facility near Beijing in July. This is in addition to the new Woodward facility that will open at Colorado’s Copper Mountain ski resort next month.
The CDT does a nice job of putting into context just how big a deal Woodward is in the extreme-sports world:
“The original Camp Woodward has hosted Tony Hawk, and prompted BMX gold medalists such as [X Games gold medalist Kevin] Robinson and Jamie Bestwick to settle in Centre County with their families. It inspired a reality show on Fuel TV and has corporate sponsorships with Target, Red Bull and PlayStation.”
And this new marketing development, which is pretty cool:
“Through a partnership with Kraft, Camp Woodward will be featured on boxes of Lunchables within the next six months.”
Tina Hay, editor
What Becomes of the Hijackers’ Remains?
This week’s issue of Newsweek contains a fascinating story called “Remains of the Day,” about what can or should be done with the remains of the 19 hijackers who died, along with their victims, on Sept. 11, 2001. At the center of the story is Penn State grad Robert Shaler ’66g, ’68g, who at the time of the terrorist attacks worked in the New York City medical examiner’s office and who oversaw the DNA analysis of victims’ remains in the years that followed. (We ran a profile of Shaler and his post-9/11 efforts in our Sept-Oct 2004 issue.)
The families of the 9/11 victims, understandably, did not want their loved ones’ remains mingled in any way with the remains of the attackers, but, the Newsweek article points out, “The blunt reality is that no matter how fastidious their efforts, the scientists will never fully sort the victims from the hijackers. The fragments are too small, too ruined and too scattered for bodies to be restored in their entirety.”
Robert Shaler (photo courtesy of Penn State)
In addition to reading the online version of the Newsweek story, you might want to check out the associated photo album, which includes a photo of Shaler, as well as a photo of Somerset County coroner Wallace Miller—who, as a side note, was a high school classmate of mine. I always knew him as Wally Miller, and it was odd to see him in the national spotlight in the days and weeks after Sept. 11.
In 2005, Shaler retired from the New York City medical examiner’s office and joined the Penn State faculty, to set up an undergraduate program in forensic science. More recently he’s also been involved with the TV series Crime Scene University, which is filmed largely at Penn State.
Tina Hay, editor
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