The Girls of September '79
Happy birthday to The Watergirl! I've said it before & I'll say it again, it is absolutely astonishing that The Watergirl & I were in Ann Arbor at the same time & had so many overlapping friends but did not meet & become friends ourselves until much later. I was even once in her apartment, hanging out with her roommate. Astonishing, I say! The Watergirl is my favorite thing about Beantown, ahead of Wonderland (of which I am fond for complicated, B.T.W.-specific reasons). Happy birthday, Katie!

The Explorers Club
№ CCLIII - The Empire State Building, completed 1931.









The Victors
Michigan 31-3 Eastern Michigan
3-0, Big Ten 0-0

I didn't get to watch the game as I was in Delaware, Ohio, conducting a "friendly" (essentially, an intercollegiate scrimmage) with the Ohio Wesleyan debaters. It was an invaluable experience for the "junior varsity" members of our squad & a fun day overall, but missing even a by-the-numbers contest against a M.A.C. opponent was a cursedly steep price.

The good news is that Brady Hoke no longer has a losing record. With yesterday's victory, Coach Hoke's career head coaching record now stands at 50-50. This is improved from the record he held at the time he was hired, 47-50 (at Ball State & San Diego State), but not yet nearly so impressive as the 234-65-8 record (at Miami [Ohio] & Michigan) of the late Coach Schembechler (194-48-5 at Michigan) or the 122-40 record of Coach Carr (all at Michigan). Still, to be fair, all three of Hoke's jobs have been rebuilding efforts & he is 3-0 at Michigan. I refuse to be like my fellow Wolverines who wrote off Coach Rodriguez's chances before he even arrived; so, one Michigan man to another, I wish Brady Hoke all the success in the world.

The bad news is that the valiant Wolverines are now ranked, № 22 in the A.P. poll. Drat & double drat! Let us pray this does not lead to swelled heads around Schembechler Hall, lest pride cometh before a fall. The silver lining to the A.P.'s dark cloud is that both the dastardly Spartans (formerly № 15) & the hated Buckeyes (formerly № 17) dropped out of the poll altogether. Woo hoo! The dastardly Spartans, who were bested by the previously winless vile Fighting Irish, received more votes than any other non-ranked team, taking the valiant Wolverines' previous spot as the unofficial "№ 26."

Through three games, the valiant Wolverines are scoring an average of 33 1/3 points per game & allowing an average of 14 2/3 points. I'll take that. Next up: San Diego State, the epithetless Aztecs, the team from which we hired away Brady Hoke.

Go Blue!

Autobahn
The Goodwood Revival, the glorious past come alive again: Goodwood-link. I can't wait to see it for myself.

This Week in Motorsport
I finally got the chance to watch last Sunday's (11 September) Gran Premio d'Italia on Thursday last (15 September); it was one of the most thrilling grands prix of the 2011 F.I.A. Formula One World Championship! Over the "summer break" In August, the talk was of the resurgence of McLaren (Mercedes) & Ferrari & their having achieved parity with championship leaders Red Bull (Renault). Spa-Francorchamps, site of the Belgian Grand Prix, & Monza, site of the Italian round—the first two circuits after the break & the last two European rounds—, were not supposed to suit Red Bull's RB7s, cars that corner better than any other on the grid, but at the cost of much absolute speed. (To use the terms commonly applied to running backs in football, the RB7 is remarkably "quick," but it isn't all that "fast.") Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull won the Belgian Grand Prix a fortnight before Monza & started the Gran Premio d'Italia from the pole. He was passed at the start by double World Champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari ('05 & '06 with Renault), who flew off the starting line as if fired out of a cannon. A few laps later, as Alonso started to gap the field with Vettel glued to his gearbox, Vettel swung out to Alonso's left, to the wide side of the righthand Curva Grande corner (forgive the redundancy); briefly put two wheels off the tarmac into the treacherous grass, throwing up a cloud of dust & grass; & rocketed past the Ferrari in one of the most jaw-dropping passes I've seen in my two years as an F1 fan. It was an incredible move! Vettel soon "disappeared into the distance," despite the fact that during Saturday's qualifying sessions his had been the single slowest car in a straight line (such is the quick cornering ability of the man & his machine).

There were battles all up & down the field, including an irksome instance in which seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher of Mercedes was not punished for using some blatantly illegal blocking tactics against '08 World Champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, against whom it really does seem as if the stewards (referees) have a vendetta. Mark Webber of Red Bull, as gritty & outspoken as you'd expect an Australian to be, crashed out of the race after smashing his front wing to smithereens in a self-inflicted collision with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Webber's retirement was the first Red Bull D.N.F. (Did Not Finish) of the year, the first time that Red Bull hadn't had both its cars in the points (the top ten finishing positions). There were eight D.N.F.s in total, a full third of the twenty-four-car field failing to finish the full race distance. That level of attrition was common in decades gone by, but it very rare in modern Formula One.

As I wrote after Belgium, the rumors of Red Bull's demise were greatly exaggerated. So far in 2011 Sebastian Vettel has won more grands prix than the rest of the field combined, eight to their collective five (two by Hamilton, two by '09 World Champion Jenson Button of McLaren [then of the erstwhile Brawn], & one by Alonso), including dominant performances in the last two rounds. The F1 circus now heads back to the Far East, with the next four races in Singapore, Japan, Korea, & India. How soon will Sebastian Vettel clinch his second consecutive World Drivers' Championship? It is mathematically possible that it will happen as soon as Singapore, though that it only a remote possibility. Nevertheless, hope springs eternal. Vettel über alles!

This is my last word on the replacement at Lotus Renault of the veteran-but-winless Nick Heidfeld by the inexperienced-but-promising Bruno Senna, I promise: Heidfeld & his former teammate Vitaly Petrov are tied in the Drivers' Championship standings, with 34 points, even though Petrov has the benefit of having driven two grands prix more than Heidfeld. I hope we have not seen the last of "Quick Nick," whom I have adopted as a kind of mascot for lackluster chaps in their thirties being shoved aside & overtaken by young bucks in their twenties.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of New York of the Day
Billy Joel, "New York State of Mind" from Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (T.L.A.M.)