Worth Noting
Do unto others ...
NBC usually closes its nightly news with a segment titled “There’s Good News Tonight.” After about 25 minutes of war, crime, disasters and other tragedies, it’s a welcome break. On Tuesday, a story about two firefighters from South Bend gave viewers a reason to smile and have hope in humankind.
After a recent wind storm in the region, the flag and pole on a local resident’s house blew off and ended up down the street. The next day, firefighters Bryan Haskel and Cody MacLeod saw the flag laying on a sidewalk and tracked down where it came from. They freshened it up, folded it correctly and then quietly placed it on the homeowner’s porch. The owner’s Ring camera “caught” them in the act and he let local NBC affiliate WNDU know who they are and what they did. NBC Nightly News then picked up the story to share nationally.
The simple return of the flag would be enough, but both Bryan and Cody also offered some words of wisdom for us all.
“With all the stuff going on in the world right now, it doesn’t hurt to help a neighbor,” Cody told the WNDU reporter.
Bryan added: “Doing that small act of kindness, or doing something good for somebody, whether anybody’s watching or not, if everybody did that, the world would be a much better place.”
Indeed it would. Good news from Good Samaritans.
You can watch the story at this link.
The Artemis II astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — have been on the publicity circuit, receiving well-deserved accolades on television morning shows, late-night talk shows and elsewhere. But they would be the first to say there are thousands of people behind the scenes who make a successful space mission possible.
One of those stars on the front lines was Kelsey Young (above, in mission control), who earned a bachelor’s degree in geological sciences from Notre Dame in 2009 and master’s and doctoral degrees in geological and earth sciences from Arizona State University in 2014. She is NASA’s first science officer and was the lunar science lead for the Artemis II mission.
As the astronauts looped around the moon, Kelsey was in communication with them, listening as they described the lunar landscape and captured images and made sketches of targeted sites. Since the conclusion of the mission, she and her colleagues have been able to take that eyewitness information as well as the photos, sketches and other data to gain greater understanding of the moon’s geology.
Kelsey was on campus two weeks ago to talk about her work on Artemis and took some additional time to speak with my former colleague Jenna Liberto on the Notre Dame Stories podcast.
You can listen in on their conversation at this link.
One other space-related note: A crescent moon, Mars and Saturn will be lined up just above the Eastern horizon about an hour before sunrise from May 12 to 14 (Tuesday to Thursday). Saturn will be a soft, steady light and Mars will have its usual red tint.
As a part of the Rockne: Life & Legacy exhibit at The History Museum of South Bend, Notre Dame assistant director of bands Larry Dwyer spoke Wednesday on the legendary football coach Knute Rockne’s association with the band, as well as the university’s alma mater, Notre Dame Our Mother, and fight song, Notre Dame Victory March.
As a student at the university, Rockne was a receiver on the football team, ran track, majored in chemistry and, surprisingly, played the flute in the orchestra. When Rockne died in a plane crash in March of 1931, the university’s president, Father Charles O’Donnell, and the director of bands, Joseph Casasanta, composed Notre Dame Our Mother in Rockne’s honor. Among a variety of apocryphal stories at Notre Dame is that the song was first performed at Rockne’s funeral. Larry’s research found, however, that the inaugural performance by the Glee Club and band was Oct. 7 of that year as part of the premier of the film Spirit of Notre Dame. The tradition of playing the alma mater after football games began in 1955.
The majority of Larry’s talk concerned the Notre Dame fight song as well as others, most notably the University of Michigan’s The Victors. He told of the first public performance of Michigan’s song in 1899 by the band conducted by John Philip Sousa, who called it "the best college march ever written.” That’s high praise from a legendary composer and conductor, but Larry pointed out that at the time there was only one other fight song to compare it to, Boston College’s For Boston, composed in 1885. There’s no telling what Sousa thought of Victory March when it was written by the brothers John and Rev. Michael Shea in 1908.
The late William Studwell, a professor at Northern Illinois University and co-author of the book College Fight Songs: An Annotated Anthology, rated Victory March No. 1, followed closely by The Victors.
He said Michigan’s march was “my personal favorite. It’s rousing and stunning; a very proud song.”
But he then added: “I’m not a fan of Notre Dame. Not a hater, just not a fan. But I couldn’t ignore the fact that the Notre Dame song is known nationally and perhaps the most borrowed.”
Here’s Studwell’s top 10:
Notre Dame Victory March, “Best known and perhaps the most borrowed.”
The Victors, Michigan, “Most rousing.”
On Wisconsin, “Smooth and much borrowed classic.”
Down the Field, Yale, “Another classic.”
Anchors Aweigh, U.S. Naval Academy, “Dynamic and uplifting.”
Stein Song, Maine, “Great melody.”
Fight on USC, Southern California, “Brilliant, sparkling and innovative.”
Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech, “Fine tune, great sense of humor.
The Eyes of Texas, unofficial, Texas, “Lots of sweep and energy.”
Across the Field, Ohio State, “Takes you pleasantly across the field.”
In 2011, Bleacher Report ranked The Victors No.1, followed by Ohio State’s Across the Field and then Victory March at No. 3. A 2019 ranking by Sports Illustrated had Victory March fourth behind The Victors, Boomer Sooner (Oklahoma) and Rocky Top (Tennessee).
A couple of additional notes:
A native of South Bend, sophomore Louis Elbel, composed The Victors.
The lyrics to the Victory March were modified in June 2022 to mark Notre Dame’s 50th anniversary of undergraduate coeducation. The original ending was: “While her loyal sons are marching, onward to victory.” It has been modified to: “While her loyal sons and daughters march on to victory.”
For locals, the Rockne exhibit will conclude on May 31.
The New York Yankees are as tradition-bound as any team in any sport, including what they wear on the field. They’re the only major league team that doesn’t have an alternate road jersey. For the Yankees, it’s always been white with blue pinstripes and the iconic NY on the left chest at home, and gray with New York in blue across the chest on the road.
But recently, players suggested to ownership that they, on occasion, wear an alternate jersey on the road. The jersey (above) is navy blue and virtually identical to their batting practice jerseys. They wore them in March when I attended a Cubs-Yankees spring training game and looked great.
As you can imagine, the purists among Yankee fans are up in arms about the possible change. Owner Hal Steinbrenner will be the final arbiter, though there doesn’t appear to be a timeline.
The issue reminds me of the consternation among some Notre Dame fans over the football team’s uniforms for the Shamrock Series, the home-away-from-home games the team plays most years and usually in NFL stadiums (this year’s is the first game of the season at Lambeau Field against Wisconsin).
Like the Yankees, Notre Dame is tradition-rich. For football, the uniforms are navy blue jerseys and gold pants at home, and white jerseys and gold pants on the road (though, to the dismay of some, white pants are sometimes worn). Also like the Yankees, Notre Dame does not have player names on the back, except for bowl and playoff games.
The Shamrock uniforms include odes to the site of the game and have been in a variety of blue, white, green and blue-ish/gray-ish color schemes. The helmets also have departed from the usual gold with no ND logo. The example above is from the 2013 game against Arizona State at the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas.
I consider myself a sports traditionalist/purist in many ways (spare me the Savannah Bananas, please!). But I’m good with the Yankees mixing it up a little, just like the Irish.
A few quick notes to wrap things up:
Things that make you go hmmmm: Coca-Cola was served for the first time in an Atlanta pharmacy on this date 140 years ago. According to numerous sources, the original recipe for the soft drink included cocaine in the form of extract from the coca leaf. So the first Coke was in part coke. At the time, cocaine was legal and used in medicines. The drink has been cocaine-free since 1929.
Don’t forget, Mother’s Day is Sunday. Here’s to all the moms, step-moms and second moms.
G. Robert Blakey served on the Notre Dame Law School faculty for 37 years and, in my work pitching faculty to the media, he was the most widely sought-after expert at the university. In addition to his teaching, he served in multiple roles within the federal government, including as chief counsel and staff director of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, investigating the murders of President John F. Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and as the principal author of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which has played a pivotal role in cases involving organized crime, gang activity, and other criminal acts. Anytime the assassinations or RICO-related matters were in the news, which is often, Bob was the go-to source for national media. He passed away this week at age 90.
Tony Kornheiser, the co-host of ESPN’s long-running talk show Pardon the Interruption, also has a thrice-weekly podcast. In addition to guests, he includes music from independent artists on the show to give them a bit of publicity. This past Monday, he featured Philip Martin and his song “Nobody Wants to Hear You Sing.” Two of the lines struck a particular chord with me:
“You look like a copy editor, nobody wants to hear you sing.”
“You look like a sportswriter, nobody wants to hear you sing.”
Those definitely apply to me, and I’m sure to a couple of my friends and one-time colleagues (looking at you, Jeff and Chuck).
Dennis Brown is the retired spokesman and assistant vice president for issues management at the University of Notre Dame. His weekly Worth Noting column is — usually — a compilation of notes, quotes and anecdotes on “stuff” happening in his bubble and around the nation and world.
Credits: NBC, WNDU, NASA, Notre Dame Stories, USA Today, Northern Illinois University, Getty, The New York Times, Notre Dame News, The Associated Press, Tony Kornheiser Show
Oh go ahead and sing Dennis. We’ll join in and you won’t hear any of us. :)
https://www.thephoenixreview.com/best-karaoke-spots-phoenix/