Last Thursday morning, I had the rare satisfaction that comes from using your foresight wisely, and was at just THE right time at just the right place.
In my case, I'd made it my business to be at the immigration forum sponsored by the Miami-Dade County Hispanic Advisory Board, which was held at the U-M's Bank United Center, in the Cane 100 Room, on the north side of the arena, not far from the court itself.
It was the first time I'd ever been at the arena, having last been around anything involving the U-M and roundball in the late '80's, when during a Christmas visit from D.C., I saw the 'Canes host the Gators at the Knight Center downtown with my then-brother-in-law, Mario.
Maybe it was because everyone else there knew what to expect and acted so blase, but I have to admit now that I was a little perplexed and thrown off-balance once we got in.
It seemed like we were watching a play or tennis match, since, due to the way the U-M basketball court was set-up, all the fans were on the same side of the court.
(That's definitely something that wouldn't have been safe for an IU-Purdue game, no matter how Purdue or the Hoosiers were, whether at home at Assembley Hall or even up Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, which is raised off the ground, like Vanderbilt's old court.
But it was was what "the U" had at the time, and I had a pretty good time, knowing it was far from what I'd been used to seeing from up-close in Bloomington.)
I'll have some posts soon on the forum itself and what I thought of the proceeding, but today, I wanted to share the first in as series of "golden" newspaper articles I dug up out of the Herald archives from the main Miami-Dade Library downtown's Florida room and that neverending insult to technology, microfilm machines.
I'd originally gone in to the library while waiting for the #93 Biscayne Max to whisk me back up towards the Aventura Mall, without the craziness of the 1,001 stops.
But two 93s in a row broke down, and I was getting pissed off as it looked like it was going to rain and I'd have to fight for space under cover with the crowd the Herald just discovered in their story on the horrendous state of downtown Miami.
I decided to make some good use of my time and try to track down some Herald photos from the late '70's of the All-Dade Gymnastics team, most of whom were friends or friends of friends, with one photo in particular in mind.
That was the one I had right near my dorm desk at Briscoe Quad my first two years at IU -the entire All-Dade team on a kid's playground apparatus.
It sounds dopey beyond belief, but it was cleverly executed by the Herald photographer.
Well, apparently, despite the fact that Doritos continues to be the snack choice of millions daily, Frito-Lay continues to tinker with them so they can be new and improved, something that can't be said for microfilm machines, with their blotchy screens, our link to the Guttenberg Bible, where you take your chances with being able to read something onscreen, much less print it correctly and have it not be all helter-skelter.
The first nugget I found and have placed here -thanks to the great guys at Transit Miami www.transitmiami.com ,for giving South Beach Hoosier some nice pub recently for the Macy's vs. Marshall Fields business, and my sense of how apathetic South Florida was about the name change- was from longtime Herald columnist Charles Whited on the upcoming rapid transit system in Miami!
Well, I rode the Metro for the first time in about 15 years -don't forget, I was in DC from1988-2003, using the DC Metro just about everyday- on the way from Government Center to University Station, opposite the Bank United Center.
I took note of fact that according to the information downtown, the northern route that will link the former Joe Robbie Stadium to the rest of the system will be operating in 2013, so I'll have some posts in a day or two on how that might effect Donna Shalala & Company's
impending decision in Coral Gables on moving U-M home games from the Orange Bowl to the former-JRS.
Frankly, I haven't seen anyone else mention this fact yet with regard to the decision, so if you have, please send me a link to the source, since I think it's an important aspect of the debate.
As time allows, I'll try to retype Mr. Whited's column here in case you can't read it easily from the attachment above, but suffice to say, if we only knew then what we know now...
Worse yet, it would give the city reason to tear down the historic Orange Bowl, presumably as a site to build the ill-conceived new home for the Marlins. What a disaster, while they work to bring transit to the northern fringe of the county, the team with 80 home games may move to an isolated new venue in a predominantly residential neighborhood...I hope UM decides to keep its tradition over the newer JRS, PPP, or whatever it is called these days. In 20 years or so, if they stay, they'll thank me for that decision, college isn't college without tradition...
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