Posts tagged as:

NCAA basketball

LADY: a term used by some instead of the word “woman”

April 6, 2011

I have an on-going, jesting conversation with our son about the term “lady,” particularly as it refers to women who are athletes.  I think I can blame it on universities like Tennessee, who insist upon calling their very fine women’s basketball team “The Lady Vols.” For centuries the term lady has been used to designate [...]

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ERSATZ: a poor substitute

October 18, 2010

I remember a cartoon which ran in the newspapers in the 50′s which was called “ERSATZ.” I have searched the Google files for it, but to no avail.  (I would welcome some assistance.) I never knew the meaning of the character’s name; it didn’t seem important at the time. But now I have come to [...]

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DEFLATION: an economic disaster or an Orange fan’s mood today

March 26, 2010

It’s raining outside right now.  And it’s back to being early spring cool.  The forecast is for a mostly cloudy day.  It figures. The mighty have fallen and there’s no joy in Orangetown.  Syracuse University’s men’s basketball team’s season ended last night in Salt Lake City, Utah, (of all places!) where they were defeated by [...]

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MARCH MADNESS: dinner on TV trays for three weeks

March 8, 2010

You can tell that the NCAA basketball season has hit that magic period called March Madness by calling our house in the evening.  We may answer the phone, and we may even carry on a conversation.  But  in the background will be fast-talking sports announcers, crowds screaming, and…if it were possible…the scent of pizza or [...]

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FANATIC: a person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.

February 11, 2010

Yes, it is true that the word fan is derived from shortening the word fanatic. I can attest to the connect between the two words. More than 24,000 crazed, otherwise healthy people packed themselves into the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University last night to watch Syracuse sneak away with a basketball victory over The University [...]

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