The 10 things Halftime Snack did rather than watch SU football

Instead of watching the two teams work on punting the football, Halftime Snack found distractions elsewhere:

1. OK, we were following the football game on this wonderful invention called radio! The Syracuse radio station WTKW-FM (99.5) is the home of Orange sports, a place where Matt Park ’97, the “Voice of the Orange,” and former SU All-American Chris Gedney can be heard. “Boundary” Park made a dreadful first half less than a snooze, seemingly poking at Gedney to inject any type of analysis. There was nothing to analyze and Gedney saved his best lines for the “Professor Gedney” segment where he hands out grades for the different phases of the SU performance.

2. Before leaving the house, Halftime Snack washed the dishes, took out the garbage and shrunk our carbon footprint with some good old-fashioned recycling.

3. Put snow tires on the car. Halftime Snack has gambled thus far, waiting rather late in the season to make the switch to winter safety. All this warm weather is the calm before the big snow storm.

4. After the radio station faded out around Little Falls, N.Y. (once considered the linchpin for a travel in the Eastern United States), we threw in Pearl Jam’s newest CD, “Backspacer.” PJ closed down the Spectrum in Philadelphia over Halloween weekend, and thankfully Eddie Vedder and company went back to the alternative rock roots. We recommend the slow track No. 5, called “Just Breathe.”

5. Wrote an article for Advanced Writing 617 class about campaign financing. Took Professor Gingerich’s advice and took a national story (NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg), and paralleled it with a local story (the Syracuse three-horse mayoral race).

6. While writing the wonderful “document” story, Halftime Snack indulged in a podcast of “The Preston and Steve Show,” the top morning show in Philadelphia that is broadcast on WMMR-FM (93.3).

7. Upon arrival in Saratoga County, Halftime Snack clicked on the Ohio State – Iowa college football game with the sweet sounds of Newhouse alum Sean McDonough on the mic.

8. Went to dinner with Mother at the C&R Restaurant. Had the hot turkey sandwich with gravy and a Scotch whiskey on the rocks.

9. Played with two family dogs, ZuZu and Merlin. Everyone needs a canine in their life.

10. And finally, read Arthur Krystal's research article in the November 16 edition of The New Yorker on the screen-writing career of F. Scott Fitzgerald. A must-read for any student deep into graduate-level research project.