Frostbite Falls

Many of my college classes were the same ones the basketball players took.

My roommate studied Petroleum Engineering, which was far more challenging. I don't believe any basketball or football players took a single one of those classes.

Perhaps this explains why my roommate makes so much more money than I do. And it may explain why there is still so much room in my head for learning new things. More about that in a moment.

Please don't think I'm insulting football and basketball players; I'm not. Heck, they all make a lot more money than I do, too. But in terms of general knowledge acquired from a college education, I think the statistics will support the theory that swimmers should have a more substantial breadth of book-learnin' than non-aquatic athletes.

When I was on the KU swim team, the aggregate GPA for swimmers was about 3.2 out of 4.0. The basketball team had a GPA of 2.1, and the football team's average hovered around 1.4. Based on that data, it would seem clear that we swimmers absorbed our collegiate lessons with some degree of success, at least as compared to athletes from other sports. But I'd bet we statistically outperformed the general campus population as well.

So, it always surprises me to find that I have NOT yet been exposed to the sum of all human knowledge. For example, I did not know that Raymond Bailey (aka Mr. Drysdale) actually did work as a banker in real life before succeeding as an actor. And I did not know that my favorite Little Rascal, Stymie, received his derby hat as a gift from Stan Laurel. And just this morning, I discovered that I did not know the meanings of two very cromulent words: paraprosdokian and mondegreen.

I shall endeavor to use them appropriately in future conversations. Anyway, these discoveries came about as part of the process I undertook to describe how insanely cold it has been the last couple of days. I wanted to compare Denver's current meteorological state to someplace that was mythologically frigid, and in the process, ran across an interesting article that chronicles Jay Ward's connections to the state of Minnesota.

The bottom line is that I shouldn't have gone out to shovel snow yesterday with only my thin running gloves. My finger still ache from the sub-zero exposure. I've got my big mits today, though, so I'm ready for whatever Mother Nature throws at me. It seems to be warming up, and I really don't have any reason to be outside...but I'm ready for it, regardless.

I hope you are staying warm and cozy throughout this cold snap. Enjoy the sunshine, and have a great day!