Owing to the details of life, today I took my second bike ride of the year. This makes me sad to even consider, which is something, I suppose. But travel interferes. Weather, other plans, the comfortable chair I’m sitting in at the time, whatever.
So, today, we ride. The Yankee got all set up and started her ride and I got all my various things together — shoes and helmet and water bottles and stretchy clothes — and chased off after her. She texted me just as I was leaving, so I knew where to follow. She had two miles on me and I wanted to get there. She made me work for it, too, but eight miles later — through the neighborhood, over the time trial and by the stores and up and over two hills and then through more shopping — I finally caught up to her.
Which meant I had to ride harder. But it all felt nice, through the old POW grounds and then up a slow, easy little mile-and-a-half hill where I actually increased my average pace. Then through a downhill segment where I kept the tempo high. Through there I increased my speed, but knew in every way — empirically and by feel and the sound of the wind and the hum of my tires — knew it was a pretty slow effort over familiar roads.
And finally those two last little molehills, those two slow rollers to get back home, something to grind and gasp over and feel your legs burning and “Why did I come home this way? Because I’m tired and I’m tired over a one hour ride. I really need to ride much, much more. I’ll ride tomorrow. It’ll rain tomorrow.”
You can think up a lot of things when you’re slowly, slowly making your way up a small hill.
Things to read … because that’s always downhill.
Inside the studio where ESPN is betting billions on the future of sports:
The new SportsCenter set is the crown jewel of the building: 9,700 square feet of space that will be used to broadcast the show on ESPN’s mass of channels. The revamped set was designed to make SportsCenter more personal, to show anchors moving around and interacting, but also to help the show move at the speed of the internet. ESPN has long been criticized for allowing news to break overnight while it ran repeats of the previous day’s shows; now the premier show in sports can update and broadcast in real time.
TV still matters at ESPN, and in every way DC-2 is wired for the future of TV. It’s capable of broadcasting in 4K and 8K, and if by some miracle 3D actually takes off, ESPN will be ready for that, too. TV is still where the network makes most of its money, and it will be for the foreseeable future. But when – not if, but when — that changes, ESPN says it will be ready. It has moved staff, built buildings, and overhauled how the company operates to make sure of that.
The strategy to keep ESPN on top breaks down along two broad lines. The first is an adjustment in how ESPN sees itself: the company has reorganized to promote more sharing across platforms, even launching the buzzword-friendly Content Sharing Initiative. ESPN the TV network, ESPN the radio provider, ESPN the magazine, ESPN the Instagram account, and ESPN the app maker are all becoming one.
The keys, for all of us, are to understand which of our audience needs what story, ascertain where those stakeholders are, give them that story in the best way possible in the format or with the tool they are using and then to ensure that you’re keeping the thematic elements in tune with your larger branding.
And then do it again and again and so on.
Here’s an effort, now: How 5 Major Publishers Plan to Use Snapchat’s New Channels .
This is a good read, What’s the Hardest Part About Being a Student Journalist?.
A video I showed in class yesterday:
From time to time an aspect of this topic comes up: being poor means different things across time. When Bread Bags Weren’t Funny:
I liked what Ernst said because it was real. And it reminded me of the old days.
There are a lot of Americans, and most of them seem to be on social media, who do not know some essentials about their country, but this is the way it was in America once, only 40 and 50 years ago:
America had less then. Americans had less.
If you were from a family that was barely or not quite getting by, you really had one pair of shoes. If your family was doing OK you had one pair of shoes for school and also a pair of what were called Sunday shoes — black leather or patent leather shoes. If you were really comfortable you had a pair of shoes for school, Sunday shoes, a pair of play shoes and even boots, which where I spent my childhood (Brooklyn, and Massapequa, Long Island) were called galoshes or rubbers.
Speaking of once upon a time, Leader of WWII’s ‘Great Raid’ looks back at real-life POW rescue:
Removing the prisoners — American, British, Canadian and others, who had dubbed themselves “Ghost Soldiers” — was an unexpected obstacle.
Conditioned by captivity, many POWs thought the raid a trick to kill them as they fled. Few recognized the green Ranger uniforms that evolved from blue or khaki uniforms during their years in captivity.
[…]
Rangers literally booted and shoved some POWs out. Rangers also removed their shirts to make stretchers to carry away sick and wounded prisoners and gave their clothes and boots to the emaciated, threadbare, barefoot men.
[…]
In the end, Allied casualties counted two Rangers dead and several wounded. No Filipinos died. More than 500 Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded. All 512 prisoners survived.
This is such welcome and good news, Saco station opens Monday after 9 years vacant:
Everything is original — from the gas pumps and retro Saco signs to the fake brown owl in the rafters used to scare off birds.
Even tall blue posts to the right of the station still extend into the sky, holding up a blue bell that previous owner Dick Salmon would ring after every Auburn football win.
After being vacant for nine years after Salmon was shot and killed inside the station’s lobby in 2005, the Saco station, on the corner of Dean Road and Opelika Road, is being revived.
Mike Woodham, owner of Woodham’s Full Service, which will operate in the Saco building, will open his business Monday, hoping to carry on Salmon’s legacy.
Craig Biggio takes the kind of tour we all want, or, if you want to tour the archives, all you have to do is get voted in, Biggio like a kid in the Hall of Fame:
Craig Biggio giggled and shook his head in disbelief. The Astros’ first Hall of Famer grabbed Babe Ruth’s bat and gripped it tightly, locking his hands on a handle that he quickly realized was much thicker than today’s models.
“No way! Babe Ruth’s bat,” Biggio said with a chuckle that served as a soundtrack for most of his tour through the National Baseball Hall of Fame. “Man, it feels good.”
The gritty, determined look Biggio carried to the plate during 20 years with the Astros was softened by a fan’s child-like giddiness Friday morning as he toured the Hall of Fame for the first time since he was elected to the Hall’s 2015 class earlier this month.
He chuckled with enthusiasm often, but he really cherished his visit to the climate-controlled collections area where he got to hold bats that once were used by Yankees legends Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
30 Healthy Habits for Triathletes: I’m pretty bad at most of these. Explains a lot about my triathlons, I’d guess.
