Hockey Intro

This one is for my brother, the hockey player.


It's the intro video for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks hockey team, the Nanooks; they play it on their scoreboard screen at the start of every home game.


Not only is there nothing cooler than an exploding digital polar bear on a 30 foot screen, but it brought up a memory from long ago.

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I was working on Martha's Vineyard the summer after I got my Master's as Program Coordinator for Northeastern University's Insititute for Writing and Teaching. We'd bring in elementary, high school, and college teachers from all over the country to classes on how to teach writing. My job as coordinator was way less impressive than it sounds -- I did things like pick up muffins from The Black Dog Bakery every morning, unclog the occasional toilet, and make sure guest speakers like Mike Wallace had a pitcher of water available on the table when he spoke to our students. (I mistakenly used a coffee pitcher for Wallace's water -- he took one sip of the water and made the slightest face -- always the professional -- but didn't touch the bitter, coffee-flavored water for the rest of the afternoon.)

Anyway, one man who came to take classes at the Institute was a man named Rick, who taught at Alaska-Fairbanks. For the month he was there, we razzed each other about all kinds of things. Periodically, he would challenge me to an ice cream eating contest at Mad Martha's, which had one of those deals where you could order a huge amount of ice cream -- 15 scoops, 8 toppings, bananas, whipped cream, the whole deal -- and if you could eat it all, you'd win a poster or something. Rick and I did finally meet at Mad Martha's near the end of the month, and we ordered the ice cream monstrosity, or whatever it was called. But we didn't have a contest -- we just shared it (he and I, plus Isabel, and Rick's wife and daughter).


As we enjoyed our ice cream, Rick mentioned that there were two openings in the English department at the University of Alaska -- Fairbanks, and that Isabel and I should consider applying. We weren't married yet, but I was up for the adventure. Isabel, however, was a little reluctant about living in Alaska.


"Why are there two openings?" Isabel asked Rick.


"It was a husband and wife," Rick said.

"Couldn't deal with the $8.00 a gallon milk?" I asked Rick.

"No," he said. "Murder-suicide."


Some looooooooong nights in Alaska.


Funny how an exploding polar bear can trigger a memory......