Do you still have a land-line telephone?

Oh, that's right. I just remembered I have your number.

 

  Hey, wait . . .

*Randy D frantically searches through his landline phone’s menu for the BLOCK feature.

Why did you capitalize 'internet'? 

It's a throwback to my days as a newspaper editor. We used the Associated Press Style Manual, which dictated that it be capitalized. Several years of experience in that job make it impossible for me to ever quit grammar policing; I once did it for a living!

I think it's something to remember a time when internet was capitalized. I'm glad I do. 

I once worked for a newspaper, too. I enjoyed it. 

I was a high school and college sportswriter for a while, and I covered a football game in 1995 between Ivy League rivals Columbia and U of Pennsylvania at Wien Stadium at Baker Field, Columbia's home field. It sits at West 218th Street and Broadway, which is Manhattan's northern tip - the stadium affords striking views of the Bronx as well as the Spuyten Duyvil, a Dutch name meaning Spouting Devil for the rushing waters at the confluence of the Harlem and Hudson Rivers.

Penn was dominant in the league at that time and came into the game with a 24-game winning streak, meaning the Quakers hadn't lost a game in more than two years. Columbia, on the other hand, is and has always been famous for having a crappy football team, even by the low standards of the Ivy League.

In 1995, however, the Lions roared on their way to an 8-2 record and an extremely rare winning season. So, lo and behold, Columbia rose up and beat Penn that day, and the small crowd went crazy.

In one of my finest moments in a brief sportswriting career, I penned the best story lede I ever created:

"Manhattan ends at Columbia's Wien Stadium at Baker Field, and so did Pennsylvania's 24-game winning streak."

I was working for Newsday, a tabloid like the Daily News and the Post, but I was sitting next to the guy writing for the New York Times. I showed it to him and asked what he thought. He replied, "That's a good one. I wish I had thought of it."

Very nice! 

Do you still write professionally on occasion? 

Once or twice a year, college hockey games are played at Madison Square Garden, and I cover them for US College Hockey Online. Cornell vs. Boston University last year and Cornell-Harvard in 2018. That's a bitter old rivalry that was depicted in "Love Story," if you remember the film from c. 1971.

Nice! 

I don't think I saw that film until I caught it on cable in the late 90s or early 00s maybe? I was pretty surprised that my mom didn't tell me about it when I was a teenager! 

I should probably watch it again soon and check my feelings-gauge. See how all that's doing. It's been a while. 

Let me know if you do. I will give you the link to the pregame feature I wrote, for which I interviewed Joe Bertagna. He was a freshman at Harvard and played goalie for the Crimson when the film was made. He talked my ear off about his experience being involved in the filming of the hockey sequences, one of which featured an apocryphal game between Cornell and Harvard.

https://www.uscho.com/2018/11/23/uscho-com-game-of-the-week-cornell-harvard-play-new-york-city-for-first-time-in-more-than-100-years/

'Why are you winking at that? I have feelings. Well, I used to. 

 

  Because I agree with what you wrote. I don’t capitalize the word “internet”, and it took several severe beatings of my AutoInCorrect over weeks and months to teach it to stop telling me that I should. 

~

Thanks for mansplaining MaryJane-splaining that to me. 

Are you sure it's a copper landline? Internet providers generally only offer VOIP.

 

  *Randy D: “I’ve been dialing this number for several months now, no, for over a year, and not once has Jane answered! I can’t even leave a message because the system says the voicemail is full.  I’m sure it’s the right number, so what gives?  This is frustrating, grrrrrrrrr.  Oh, well, I guess I’ll just have to try again today . . . ”

 

Isn't it redundant to have both?