2009 SRAA Champions - St. Ursula's strikes again.

Congratulations to my favorite high school rowing team, St. Ursula's Crew, from Toledo Ohio, which captured the gold medal this year at the SRAA National Championships held in Princeton, New Jersey.

The eight rowed the 1500 meter course - fast and furiously in their boat, named DAISY'S HEROES, a reference to A Hero for Daisy, which was christened a couple of years ago by none other than the real Daisy. Capturing yet another piece of hardware to bring back to Todelo, St. Ursula's Crew is grinning in the photo above with coach Neil McElroy.

However, a special moment occurred moments after their win. Krysten French, a 12th grader, was the coxswain of this boat all season. However, a SRAA rule change concerning age prevented Krysten from competing - and rather than wallow in self-pity, she graciously handed the tiller over to junior Taylor McCollum, cheering and shouting herself hoarse for her team.

In an extraordinary gesture after the race, Taylor handed her championship gold medal over to her friend, Krysten French - - an act of remarkable generosity, compassion, and sportsmanship.

A true hero for Daisy.

Congratulations to Taylor, Krysten, Hollis Dana, Emma Miler, Megan Bodie, Tiffany Carnicom, Maggie Peatee, Erin Sheehan, Paige Myers, and Elyse Kortier.

Junior Mints and Bad Mothers

A new book has just come out on the crimes and misdemeanors of mothers.

I am so relieved to know that I am not alone.

Here's why.

The kids cycled downtown by themselves a few months ago. They returned, panting and out of breath. That afternoon, they complained of stomach aches and both were on the pot for most of the afternoon.

What did you eat, I asked?

Silence.

Kids: Um. Er.

Me: You didn't buy candy, did you?

Kids: Well, CVS had Junior Mints on sale. Two bags for the price of one!

Me: You know you're not supposed to do that. You didn't eat them all, did you?

Silence. Kids look down at their toes.

I retrieve the empty crumpled up bags out of a backpack. Turns out my little sweethearts bought very special candy. Two bags of laxatives for the price of one.

I have been chuckling for months.

Does this make me a bad mother?

Fire Engines and More

A big shout out to Brian McKeever of Soundtrack Boston today. Brian is working on our newest film, TEN 9 EIGHT, when a fire alarm emptied the building. Brian stayed behind to make sure he had all the sound files for the film, before dashing outside with an armful of hard drives.

Brian's quote? "Here at Soundtrack - we'd risk death by fire before we lose your project."

More to come on the film.

Apologies to my readers for being such a sporadic blogger. There has been so much in the news - but we are knee-deep in this film at the moment. Plus - my mother has been keeping me busy as she writes on my wall on FaceBook.

She does not yet realize that this makes me look very uncool.

Lenny Clarke

I am still grinning from my celebrity encounter the other day. Which made me an even bigger fan of comedian Lenny Clarke (in Rescue Me, Fever Pitch) since bumping into him at LaGuardia airport.

As I was waiting for my shoes to come thru the security scanner (and wondering if they would notice the bottle of shampoo I had forgotten to take out and put in a little plastic baggie), I noticed a man in a Fever Pitch jacket to my right - and knew he was from Boston. I was also thinking - hmmm - I wonder how that guy got that nice piece of Farrelly Brothers swag... when I saw his face.

"Lenny?" I stuck out my hand and introduced myself - and immediately he was asking, hey - you're from Boston? What are you doing here in New York? Hey, hon, that is a great jacket - where'd you get that? What do you do? What are you working on? It was like I had bumped into my uncle.

I was also struck by the fact that he was a man of the people. No pretense. He is who he is.

And that he flew coach.

I love that.

Rock on, brother.

Rutgers Football - Again in the News

Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin of the Star Ledger recently reported that a special university commission found that the athletic department at Rutgers University was allowed to operate without oversight by board of governors or the president of Rutgers.

You might remember that Rutgers recently eliminated 6 varsity sports (including sports which had yielded many an Olympian from Rutgers, including rowing) in its effort to create a football dynasty. The Star Ledger reports that the annual football program budget, which was $7.5 million in 2003, is now over $15 million and accounts for more than half of the total athletic department budget.

School officials, probably sheepishly, acknowledged that the football program (like 80% of all collegiate football programs according to the NCAA) still loses money. In addition - in an effort to keep coach Greg Schiano from leaving Rutgers, the University also rushed into constructing a $102 million dollar stadium, which is undergoing its own investigation by the comptroller for the State of New Jersey.

The Star Ledger outlines several expenses that the football team incurs, including the remarkable line item of having the football team sleep at a Hyatt Hotel before all home games. That's right, folks - home games.

Here is the irony. I remember being housed before the Olympic Games - in the Olympic Village in Barcelona. The Village had no air conditioning and was built over a highway. Swimmers (who had competed early) shouting at 2 in the morning.

No Hyatts for us.

Little Old Lady with Baseball Bat

You can not make this stuff up. This week's gold star has to go to 86 year old Sonia Paine.

Jonathan Saltzman, in yesterday's Boston Globe, wrote about the recent death of 92 year old Nick George Montos, the oldest prison inmate in Massachusetts, who at various times in his life, ended up on the FBI's Most Wanted List (mostly for armed robbery).

Montos had the misfortune of trying to rob Sonia Paine's Brookline Massachusetts antiques store in 1995 - at the age of 79. When he took out his gun, Sonia put on her glasses, assuming that he wanted to have it appraised. She was initially perplexed when he insisted on tying her up. Paine, who was 73 at the time, wriggled herself free - threw down the silent alarm, and then grabbed a baseball bat (which presumably she had handy for this sort of occasion).

Poor Nick George Montos, who was kneeling in front of the safe. He never saw it coming.

Paine, a grandmother of 6, was quoted as saying: "I wish he'd come in again. I'd beat the hell out of him."

See - life just doesn't stop after the age of 70...

Buffeted by Buffet

I felt a surge of hope this week with the election of Barack Obama, and not simply because a nation fractured for decades over issues of race could actually elect an African American as president, but because Barack has inspired and excited the likes of legendary investor Warren Buffet, Larry Summers (former secretary of the Treasury and briefly, president of Harvard), Eric Schmidt (co-founder of Google); and Anne Mulcahy (Xerox) - to roll up their sleeves and help solve the current issues facing the country.

I am not certain that the A Team would have been willing to go to work for John McCain.

On other notes - a shout out to my friends who jumped into my latest film project last week (about inner city kids), including Arthur Blank (co-founder, Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons); Wyc Grousbeck (owner - Boston Celtics); David Fialkow (co-founder General Catalyst); Kay Koplovitz (co-founder USA Networks); Ralph Schlosstein (co-founder, BlackRock); Tom Scott (co-founder, Nantucket Nectars, founder - Plum TV); Beth Westvold (Managing Director - BlackRock); and Ray Hamel (co-founder, Pure Encapsulations).

Thanks also to the Business Pundit for their kudos.