A brief Veterans Day conversation that stayed with me
November is moving quickly. Thanksgiving is just over two weeks away, which still feels a little hard to believe. It seems like summer ended about five minutes ago.
Today is Veterans Day, and I had a small exchange this morning that put the day in perspective. I stopped at a nearby café and saw three veterans having breakfast. One wore a hat that reminded me of the kind my grandfather used to wear.
I went over, thanked him for serving, and we ended up chatting for a few minutes. We joked about the seemingly endless coffee choices, had a laugh, then went our separate ways. Nothing dramatic happened. Still, I left feeling a bit better, and I hope he did, too.
It’s easy to get swept up in the busy, stressful parts of everyday life and overlook moments like that. But they can matter more than you expect.
Ice cream, football and a postgame fight
Since it’s National Ice Cream Sundae Day, I’ll say this: mint chocolate chip is the best ice cream flavor. I know not everyone agrees. I’m sticking with it anyway. The Juice Bar on Nantucket makes a particularly good version.
Now to college football. A postgame fight between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Grambling State led to 23 players being suspended. The Southwestern Athletic Conference announced that nine Pine Bluff players and 14 Grambling players would sit out. Both schools were also fined $25,000.
SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland said the conference was disappointed and would continue enforcing its policy against unsportsmanlike conduct. The fine may seem modest by major-college standards, but it’s a serious expense for these programs.
And then there was Tuesday night’s Mid-American Conference game. A short clip from the action made the rounds, and it was a pretty perfect snapshot of midweek MACtion: chaotic, entertaining and a reminder of what makes college football fun. We’ll miss these odd little moments when the season is over.
Playoff rankings and a little nostalgia
The latest College Football Playoff rankings are out, and I’m curious what people made of them. There’s plenty to debate, as usual.
Something else catching people’s attention online is a Roku channel that appears to run old television commercials. A few years ago, I told my wife that an endless stream of 1990s ads would make a great app. Apparently, somebody else had the same thought and got there first.
Honestly, I’d probably leave it on. Give me an old cartoon followed by a department-store commercial from 1997, and I’m happy. There’s something strangely comforting about seeing that stuff again.
Black Friday starts earlier every year
Someone joked that Black Friday used to mean people tussling over heavily discounted televisions, while now it’s a month of slightly cheaper towels. It’s funny because it feels pretty close to true.
I’ve been considering one of those frame-style TVs that look like artwork when they’re turned off. They cost around $1,000, so I figured I’d wait for Black Friday and see whether the price dropped. My brother pointed out that they were already on sale online. Sure enough, the deals had started weeks early.
Black Friday used to feel like an event. Now the sales stretch across the month, and the day itself doesn’t seem quite so special. I wonder how many people still head to a department store that morning, and what it’s like there these days.
