Firsts and lasts

Ellen and I went to our first Dartmouth men's basketball game of the season yesterday, and not a moment too soon. Before the game, Dartmouth held its annual Senior Night ceremony, honoring the two graduating seniors on the squad for their four years of commitment and accomplishment. At first it looked like Dartmouth was going to send off its seniors in style with an upset win over Penn, as it took a thirteen-point lead into halftime. Unfortunately, Penn came back on the strength of some timely outside shooting and managed a victory that was much closer than the final score would indicate. It was a disappointing way to end the season, but Ellen and I enjoyed getting to go watch the game all the same.

Speaking of college basketball, Harvard's 79-67 defeat of Princeton last night guaranteed the Crimson at least a tie for the Ivy League title. The outcome of the Princeton-Penn game on Tuesday will determine whether Harvard wins the title outright (if Penn wins) or if there will be a one-game playoff between Harvard and Princeton (should Princeton win) to determine the recipient of the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. Seeing as Harvard is the only Ivy League team never to win an Ivy League championship, and the men's basketball team is the only one of thirty four Harvard teams never to win a league title, I suppose they were due.

I finished a book, the other day, Yasser Seirawan's Chess Duels, that Ellen had given me for Christmas. It was an excellent read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Seirawan, four times the U.S. champion and twice a contender in the World Championship cycle, details at length his interactions with and games against nine World Chess Champions. Chess players are nothing if not a colorful and engaging bunch, and Seirawan has a gift for textured, descriptive prose. What a great present this book was. Embarrassingly, though, this is the first book I have finished in 2011. By comparison, I had already completed nine titles by this point last year. I'm not sure what accounts for the difference, but I'm looking forward to catching up!

The Upper Valley has enjoyed a run of (relatively) warm temperatures of late. So balmy have the temperatures been, in fact, that the recent precipitation has taken the form of rain instead of snow. Quite a pleasant change for a summer-phile such as I, and seeing the mounds of snow shrink before my eyes has been further cause for glee. Sadly, though, winter is forecast to reassert itself this evening, with some reports calling for as much as ten inches of snow and sleet accumulation before tomorrow. I take comfort in the knowledge that winter's days are numbered, however. Spring (and more importantly, baseball) will soon be here.