Fall

Yesterday I wrote about the ending of summer, but of course the end of one thing is also the beginning of another. The new season is a bit ambiguous here in the Northern California, where the trees don’t change color and the temperatures tend to go up, not down.

But it’s a new quarter of the year regardless, which back in my home state brings the opening of the college football season for my alma mater, the University of Michigan. Like many kids I grew up watching Michigan football with my father. It’s the winningest such program in the country.

That guaranteed that my first big achievement as a college journalist, serving as Sports Editor of the Michigan Daily, also was without a doubt my Dad’s proudest moment, especially since my other achievements until then included demonstrating against basically everything, smoking the occasional joint and living in what was at the time referred to as “sin.”

So back to sports.

Did you know that in the very first Rose Bowl game ever played, Michigan beat Stanford 49-0? That was in 1902. The second time the Wolverines played in the Rose Bowl was almost 50 years later, and they beat USC, 49-0 in 1948. For a long time afterward, 49 stood as the scoring record by a team in the grand Pasadena classic.

Michigan’s football teams since then have had many ups and downs, more ups than downs actually, but few as impressive as the past two seasons when they’ve routed their arch rivals, the Ohio State Buckeyes, won the Big Ten title and gone to the national championship playoffs.

Michigan is projected to be very good again this year; the team is loaded with talent.

Unfortunately, in recent years the college game has changed for the worse on many levels. It has become more like a professional sport in more ways than I can detail here. One consequence is there are no more Rose Bowl matchups between the Big Ten and Pacific Coast league champions as in the days of yore.

In fact there is hardly any Pac-Ten conference left at all while the Big Ten is bloated to a ridiculous extent. Now I don’t mind most change but not all change is good, you know. Then again, it’s fall and Michigan won its first game of the new season, so that’s a pretty good start.

So hail to the victors and welcome to autumn, and yes I buried the lede.

LINKS:

• India launches first sun-focused space mission, adding to lunar landing win (CNN)

• Nobel Foundation cancels Russia, Belarus, Iran invites to annual prize awards (Reuters)

• With wary eye on China, U.S. moves closer to former foe Vietnam (WP)

• Tens of thousands at Burning Man told to conserve water and food after heavy rains leave attendees stranded in Nevada desert (CNN)

• Court record shows Mark Meadows caught in a lie (MSNBC)

• Giuliani hits new low with Georgia indictment (The Hill)

• Abortion fight unites the left and rattles the right in key Wis. battleground (WP)

• A Montana Town Faces a Homelessness Problem Similar to San Francisco and L.A. (WSJ)

• Young climate activist tells Greenpeace to drop ‘old-fashioned’ anti-nuclear stance (Guardian)

• Taliban Sign Multibillion-Dollar Afghan Mining Deals (VoA)

• Pressure mounts on Gabon junta to relinquish power (Reuters)

• Judge: Trump-era rule change allowing the logging of old-growth forests violates laws (NPR)

• Plan for 55,000-acre utopia dreamed by Silicon Valley elites unveiled (Guardian)

• The Culture Wars Are Tearing the Close-Knit Country Music Community Apart (Rolling Stone)

• AI Hallucinations could usher in the next era of AI: cognitive AI (Fast Company)

• How artificial intelligence will affect the elections of 2024 (Economist)

• The Role Of Generative AI In HR Is Now Becoming Clear (Josh Bersin)

• Many workers are faking knowledge of AI to make sure they aren't left behind (TechRadar)

• How the AI Revolution Will Reshape the World (Time)

• Jimmy Buffett, enduring ‘Margaritaville’ singer turned mogul, dies at 76 (CNN)

• Increasingly Anxious Man Worried Order Confirmation Email Never Going To Come (The Onion)