I Killed Dr. Ruth

When I worked at The Ohio State University, my organization created a speaker series. This series was a fundraiser from donors in the Columbus community since the speakers didn't really appeal to most 18-24 year old college students. For example, Ira Glass of This American Life was one speaker. I didn't know anyone at the time in that age range that listened to NPR. While I don't remember any of the other speakers, there was one exception of an individual who appealed to college students and beyond: Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

Dr. Ruth was exactly like she appeared on television. A small woman with a distinctive accent talking frankly about topics many people don't discuss openly. I don’t remember what she had to say (this was 20+ years ago), but she signed books after her talk. I mention this because I recently thought to myself that I would write a post about Dr. Ruth and the fact that I have a signed copy of her Sex for Dummies book (“For Dummies” books were a really popular genre back then) when she passed away. The book is in a box somewhere in my home, and I haven’t seen it or thought about Dr. Ruth in years. And just randomly, I thought about a potential blog post about this topic within the last week or two. 

So now, I feel somewhat responsible for her death. Therefore, I’m writing to apologize to Dr. Ruth’s family and friends. It seems like she lived a very full and fulfilling life. May her memory be a blessing.

Photo by Chris Delman/AFP via Getty 

Hello Columbus

The Ohio State University football team faces the University of Michigan Wolverines on Saturday in a battle between the #2 and #3 teams in the college football rankings. So this seems like a perfect time to share my experiences visiting Columbus and attending the Ohio State-Arkansas State game...in September...two months ago! 

For some background, I attended grad school at Ohio State and went to most of the home football games while I was there. I consider myself a Buckeyes fan, though I don't go out of my way to watch each game now. The team went 6-6 and 8-4 in my two years in Columbus. While this record might be fine in some places, this was unacceptable at Ohio State resulting in the firing of coach John Cooper, and I received emails about the coaching search process. The November 18th, 2000 game against Michigan (where the Buckeyes lost and I got hit in the back of the head by a Sprite bottle because someone was trying to hit a Michigan fan and missed) was the last time I attended an Ohio State football game. In addition, the last time I visited Columbus was for a friend's wedding when The Moose was only a few months old. He's 11 now.

For a few years, my grad school friends and I discussed having a reunion. It finally came together over the summer when we agreed to buy group tickets for a football game. Ohio State tickets are EXPENSIVE! There are no discounts for group sales. We got 20 tickets in groups of 2 and 3 several rows apart but all in the same section. My seats with The Moose and Pedro Tulo were located in the last row of the stadium. With only bleachers, the positive is that we were able to lean back against the wall. The negative is that The Moose is not a big fan of heights. When we went to Toronto this summer, he had no interest in going up the CN Tower. While I knew he didn't like heights, I didn't realize that he really didn't like heights, and I had no idea we were in the last row when we purchased tickets. He ended up being okay though he asked several times when we were leaving which was completely unlike him at a sporting event, and we walked down the steps very slowly when exiting the stadium in the fourth quarter.

* The Ohio State band is awesome. I can watch them do Script Ohio for days. They also performed a "karaoke" medley, so my friends who are Pitt fans will appreciate that they played Sweet Caroline.

* Switching away from football, while I didn't have the chance to show my kids everything I wanted to in Columbus, getting ice cream at Graeter's was a must. So good!

* Back to football, OSU wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. is really, really good. He had 7 catches for 184 yards and 3 touchdowns in the game.

* Wearing an Art Schlichter jersey is a bold move. For those of you not familiar with Schlichter, he was a 4-year starting quarterback at Ohio State before getting drafted #4 overall by the Baltimore Colts in 1982. He was a massive gambler well before sports gambling became legal and got suspended by the NFL. He has been in and out of jail throughout his post-NFL career and was just in the news again last month. Again, quite the bold move to wear his jersey.

* We had brunch before we left Columbus at The Original Pancake House. The waiter made a mistake with the order and gave The Moose an order of hash browns and eggs and buckeye pancakes. He had absolutely no chance to finish the massive amount of food!

Overall, the trip was fantastic. It was great seeing friends from grad school and meeting some of their family members for the first time. I hadn't seen most of them in over 20 years. I also stayed with and saw friends that I've known since elementary school and earlier. It's nice to reconnect with people from your past and who have known you for years. Oh, I also met some hedgehogs, so I'll give a plug to the Handful of Hedgies Facebook group for hedgehog rescue and services in central Ohio.

Go Bucks! Beat Michigan!

An Email From 2000

In January 2001, I was a full-time graduate student at The Ohio State University while also working multiple jobs. I was in the beginning of a long-distance relationship with my now wife, and I attended most of the home football games that fall. The team ended the season with an 8-4 record after a 6-6 record the season before, which was (and still is) unacceptable in Columbus. As a result, the school fired coach John Cooper. For no apparent reason, I was also sent the following email from Steve Snapp at the university’s Department of Athletics about the new coaching search:

FYI --  While the search for a new football coach is underway, I will be the primary contact for any of you who have questions. As you can imagine, both Andy Geiger and Archie Griffin are immersed in the search process and simply do not have time to respond to all the requests for interviews that they are receiving. I will make information available to you as it becomes available to me. All of us here understand that all of you have a job to do, but we are trying to get the best person available for the job and do not want to do anything that compromises the search process. Thanks for your understanding.

Spoiler: Ohio State hired Jim Tressel. The now late Snapp sent this email to dozens of radio, print, and television media members across the state of Ohio including Kirk Herbstreit, Dan Wetzel, Jim Lachey, and Tim Benz. Contacts at every major Ohio newspaper and television station received this email. I know this because every name and email address were listed in the “To” line. I didn’t receive any subsequent emails, but I saved this message apparently in case I wanted to contact Herbstreit to ask him about his thoughts on college football (and because I save everything).

Last week, I found this email and decided to send my own email to everyone on Snapp’s list. I was curious if any of the emails still worked 21 years later and if anyone would reply. I sent the message and then watched as undeliverable message after undeliverable message filled my inbox. The next day, I received a response from an individual who was the sports director at the OSU student radio. He shared his experiences and cool stories about his time at the radio station and mentioned that he later worked as a sportswriter for more than a decade. I’m amazed that I received a response and that someone (else) still has an email account from 20+ years ago.
 
Now, I’m curious if anyone else who worked in Ohio media in January 2001 still works in media and wants to reply. They can share their thoughts about the upcoming Ohio State football season, covering the Buckeyes in 2000-2001, the state of the Big Ten conference with the pending additions of USC and UCLA, or anything else.

Photo by Kirk Irwin

Update: Since Amy asked, here is the text that I sent to about 65 people:

My name is Sean [redacted], and I am a 2001 Ohio State graduate from the College of Education and Human Ecology. Over 20 years ago, the now late Steve Snapp of The Ohio State University's Department of Athletics accidentally copied me on an email to Ohio media members regarding the open football coach search. Spoiler: Ohio State hired Jim Tressel. That seemed to work out pretty well. 
 
For no apparent reason, I saved this email and now there might actually be a reason. I write a blog called Sean's Ramblings and thought I would try to make a post about Steve Snapp's email. Specifically, I'm curious to see how many of these email addresses still work. If you receive my email, thanks for making it this far. If you don't mind, please reply and let me know who this is and if you still work in media. Please feel free to share any thoughts about the upcoming Ohio State football season, the state of the Big Ten conference with the pending additions of USC and UCLA, or anything else.
 
Thank you for your time and consideration.

I Don’t Understand The Shipping Process (2018 Edition)

I don’t do much online shopping, so when I do, I’m repeatedly baffled by how items are shipped. Back in 2012, I wrote about how one of my purchases was shipping from Maryland to Oregon to Virginia. Three years ago, I shared my confusion about why the same order of cat food needed to be divided and shipped from both Saline, Michigan and Rensselaer, New York. Today’s post is similar to the last one.

Dick’s Sporting Goods recently had an advertisement selling college sweatshirts for $19.98, originally priced at $59.99. I generally don’t like buying clothes online because I prefer to try them on to make sure they fit before making a purchase. I don’t want to deal with the hassle of sending clothes back if they don’t fit. Of course, I rarely go clothes shopping since I don’t have any free time for this, meaning that much of my wardrobe has been the same for years. Anyway, the advantage of buying clothing from Dick’s is that there’s a store about 2 miles from my home, so if it doesn’t fit you must acquit (and I can return them directly to the store).

As a lifelong fan of the University of Pittsburgh, I purchased this Pitt pullover hoodie:

I really like these Pitt colors, especially the bright blue! In addition, as a graduate of The Ohio State University, I bought this "foundation hoodie" to show that I’m a Buckeye.

Now the fun part. The Pitt shirt was shipped from New Stanton, PA. Meanwhile the Ohio State gear was sent from Louisville, Kentucky. Do they only have Pitt gear in Pennsylvania and Ohio State gear in Kentucky? That seems unlikely. There's not a warehouse somewhere with both pieces of clothing? Apparently not.

Please be on the lookout for my next blog post about my bewilderment of the shipping process scheduled for late 2021!

Remembering John McCain

One of the unique things about being at The Ohio State University is that presidential candidates often visit campus. The student population is one of the largest in the country and being in a swing state makes the campus an attractive venue for candidates to share their message. Plus, Columbus has a fairly large media market, so candidates know that they will get coverage in central Ohio and throughout the state. As a graduate student in 2000, I was able to see Al Gore, John McCain, and Carrot Top (though I don't think the latter was running for president). With McCain passing away on Saturday, this post is obviously about him.

I don't remember if McCain used the "Maverick" label at the time, and I honestly don't remember anything about the speech. It may have just been me learning more about McCain, especially his time as a POW, but I came away from his rally being impressed. He seemed more honest and genuine than many other politicians. McCain ended up losing the Republican primary to George W. Bush, and it's interesting (that's one word to use) to have seen what would have happened if McCain won the 2000 election.

In my opinion, McCain realized that he had to go more to the right to get the Republican nomination. While I don't have a specific example of this off the top of my head, it seemed like he played more to the base between 2000 and when he ran again in 2008. This time, he successfully won the nomination, but lost the general election to Barack Obama.

Over the past few years, McCain has been one of the few Republicans willing to speak out against Donald Trump, even though he ended up voting for many of his policies. I'm actually not sure if I admire McCain or not for not stooping to Trump's level after the ridiculous statement that “[McCain] was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” While I disagree with many of his politics, I admire McCain for his service and being one of the seemingly few politicians willing to work with Senators and members of Congress from the opposing party. McCain dedicated his life to the United States and deserves respect and appreciation for this.

RIP Senator.


Photo from JohnMcCain.com.

Proof that McCain spoke at Ohio State on February 26, 2000 courtesy of The Lantern.

Update: Drew Magary of GQ has some thoughts on McCain that is worth checking out.