Hi everyone,

Right, we're back on track again with topics, in this weeks LfA (not, as someone pointed out, based on the Proclaimers song of the same name) as we focus on students coming back and all that it means.

Jason

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So this week I promised Football, and that is what you're going to get.  The weekend ten days ago was the opening of the college football season.  This is a major point on the US calendar and is surrounded by a lot of hype.  So, I decided it was a good idea to go to the opening game at BC (vs Northeastern) and I managed to get tickets and Becca came along too!

The first thing to note is the stadium.  During the week you can actually walk through it and onto the playing surface.  (It's between the lab and the nearest coffee shop so we do actually walk diagonally across it.)  The stadium itself is quite large and holds 44500 people, though many of them are housed on benches (we certainly were).  The playing surface is all artificial turf (suitably painted) which I found a bit odd.  It makes sense as while it is expensive initially, the playing surface has to survive through the frozen winter so it's more practical.  One of my colleagues insists that they water the grass - he claims he saw it after a long day at the office and was convinced he was loosing his mind.  But after speaking to the 'ground staff', the water apparently stops the grass from becoming brittle.

It's worth pointing out that the stadium is right next to the lab.  We are given instructions on the week of a home game about safety, not least because they don't want to have to evacuate the stadium.  No new reactions, no large scale process and no smelly chemicals (there goes our carbon disulfide reactions ...).

Before going too much further, it's important to explain the American term "tailgating".  Brought up to think this meant travelling a bit to close to the car in front, I am reliably informed that it's an American tradition - one I simply don't understand.  It involves going to a football game early, opening the boot (trunk!) of your unfeasibly large car (another rant for another time), and setting out a variety of food and drink (preferably BBQ and beer).  This often involves putting up some sort of marquee (which was particularly useful yesterday given it was bucketing down - I was riding through BC and there will still people doing it).  The crazy thing is that it continues after the game (and if it's a dull game, people leave to go back to it ...)

The next thing is that the home ground advantage is massive and the crowd amazingly partisan.  Going to an AFL match has nothing in terms of team support on this.  Everyone (and I mean everyone) is decked out in BC gear.  Not wanting not to fit in, I got some and even made Becca wear a BC shirt (the hat was of her own volition).   The stadium was literally a sea of gold and maroon - there was clearly a student section where they got cheap tickets and all wore what were (presumably) give away golden yellow t-shirts.  Along with the fact that the opposition had to compete with the whole crowd, the fact that the opposing team ran out from a tunnel directly under the packed student section didn't help ...

The cheerleaders and marching band were kind of fun to watch, particularly the latter.  Known as the Screaming Eagles (which I thought meant that they might be terrible players ... doesn't that name say that to you?) the band were a fixture of the intro and half time festivities.  While I'm sure marching on a field with line segments marked as they were is easier than normal, it's still pretty impressive.  It's also kind of fun because they have their own section in the stands and play periodically during the game.  In many ways, as with the baseball, it is more about entertainment than sport.

The game itself is actually quite fun to watch.  I'm not sure it's really a sport (goes with above), it's probably closer to some sort of chess with large men running into one another and a ball somewhat peripherally involved.  There are soooo many players though - it seemed like about 60 per side in various forms (obviouly not all at once).  I'm am reminded of Daniel Radcliffe's comparison of quidditch and cricket, describing both as "brilliant <but> needlessly complicated".  The latter definitely applies here but it's still quite cool.  Plus, BC were the home side and we were all kitted out so cheering and getting in the spirit was part of the fun.

The result was never in doubt as BC were the much more highly ranked team and they didn't disappoint.  It was pretty clear from the beginning as Northeastern had to punt the ball after being creamed in the first three downs only to have BC score on their first attempt.  Even with a rotation such that their third and fourth string quarterbacks were playing, the final result of 54-0 was still comprehensive to say the least.

I must say that the way college football championships and 'Bowl matches' are decided seems particularly arcane - it was described to me by the partner of a colleague that few Americans that have followed it all their lives understand it so I wasn't to feel bad.  Because there are soooo many teams and each only plays comparatively few games per year (13 or 14, I think), rankings are decided by polls!  This is complicated not only by results but by the fact that noone plays the same teams.  I'm not going to even attempt to understand further.

Lots of photos of the whole event can be found at ...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142619&id=570906321&l=b2c30ac8bf

[Though internet problems do seem to be restricting uploading at this time ...]

Outside football, another point of note this week was our efforts at trivia night.  Not so much with the results but with choice of team names.  In the first weeks that I was here, the team name had to stay the same as the team with the most total points after ten weeks won Red Sox tickets.  Since then we've been changing names, mostly aimed at causing difficult for the person reading out the scores.  The week before last we were "In the lead" (well it certainly worked and it caused no end of confusion).  This week, there were enough people we knew for three tables so we named ourselves after the three prizes for the evening ("$40 gift card from Joey's", "$25 gift card from Joey's" and "A free round of drinks").  It took him three attempts to read the final scores and prizes and half the bar were literally ROFL.  (If anyone cares, we were named after first prize and finished second.)

To finish off, this week some more chemistry geek humour for those of you who might appreciate it (and even those who might not).  If you have access to it (or if you don't and want me to send it to you), check out Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 4557 and look at the solvents used in Table 2.  My sending the last one off has caused several entertaining articles to come in (my boss here referred me to PAHs in doner kebabs in Ir. J. Agric. Food Res. 2008, 47, 187).  The one I'm really trying to chase up is from an old ACS publication (possibly J. Am. Chem. Soc.) which had a really complicated hand drawn picture of an apparatus (possibly a vacuum apparatus) and in one corner it had a stick-figure man fishing.  But to finish, just to prove that chemists (and all scientists) have a flair for hyperbole, see

http://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume15/v15i3/v15i3.html#holygrail

Next week:  Undergrads and College Pride,

-- 

Dr Jason Harper                                 Present Address:
School of Chemistry                             Merkert Chemistry Centre
University of New South Wales                   Boston College
Sydney NSW 2052                                   Chestnut Hill  MA 02467-3860
AUSTRALIA                                   USA
UNSW CRICOS Provider Code 00098G