sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to American Beer Day!
Today is American Beer Day! Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in the United States, where over 2,500 breweries produce more than 6 billion gallons annually. Breweries across America include large, well-known brands, regional beers, and increasingly popular craft breweries.
American beer is produced in a variety of styles, but the most popular is a pale lager. Other common styles include brown ale, IPA, porter, and stout. Fun fact: Americans drink more than 50 billion pints of beer each year—enough to fill 1 out of every 25 residential in-ground pools in the U.S.!
Celebrate American Beer Day with a nice, cold pint of your favorite American beer, a trip to the local brewery in your area, or a beer-themed free ecard!
SU News
ACC Basketball Media Day: Will Pittsburgh be same beast under new coach? (notes) (PS; Ditota)
When old Orange nemesis Pittsburgh visits the Carrier Dome on Jan. 7, Syracuse basketball fans will experience a strange sight.
Jamie Dixon, the Pitt coach who tormented Syracuse over the years, has moved on to TCU, his alma mater. In his place, the Panthers have hired Kevin Stallings, the former Vanderbilt coach.
"We're adjusting to it pretty well," Pitt senior Sheldon Jeter said. "After it was announced, a couple people had their guard up. But then you got to talk to him and meet with him — it was completely different from Coach Dixon but he connected with us and we really just picked up on what he was saying because we could just tell he believed in us and in everything he was doing."
Jeter's experience differed from his teammates in one significant way. He started his career at Vanderbilt while Stallings was the head coach. When Jeter requested a transfer after his freshman season (he wanted to return to Pittsburgh, closer to his home in Beaver Falls, Pa.), Stallings blocked the move.
Jeter was forced to transfer to Polk State (in Florida) for a season. He did not play basketball that year to preserve a season of eligibility, then finally transferred to Pitt to continue his career. He said Stallings called him after he was announced as Pitt's new head coach "to see what I was going to do."
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SU Hoops picked to finish 5th by ACC Media (cnycentral.com; Arrigo)
With the first exhibition game less than a week away, it’s time for Jim Boeheim and Syracuse basketball to take over the Central New York sports world.
Boeheim was in North Carolina along with Tyler Roberson and DaJuan Coleman for ACC media day Wednesday. The expectations are pretty high for the Orange this year for more than one reason, despite losing three of their top players. Roberson, Coleman, and Tyler Lydon bring experience and leadership to this Orange team. Plus highly coveted graduate transfers Andrew White and John Gillon, and one of the best recruiting classes Boeheim has ever had, has paved the way for Syracuse basketball to be one of the top teams in the country this year. Let’s not forget that 7’2” Paschal Chukwu is eligible to play now too.
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Pitt men's basketball picked to finish 12th in ACC (post-gazette.com; Meyer)
With four returning starters from an NCAA tournament team, but with a new coach in a league that figures to be as deep and competitive as any in college basketball history, Pitt was picked to finish 12th out of 15 teams in the ACC men’s basketball preseason poll released Wednesday at the conference’s annual media day.
The Panthers received 511 points in the poll, voted on by attending media, placing them 202 points ahead of No. 13 Wake Forest, but 112 points behind No. 11 Clemson.
Pitt’s leading returning scorer, forward Michael Young, was a second-team all-ACC honoree. Young, a Duquesne native, is coming off a junior season in which he averaged 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.
“He can score close to the goal, off the dribble, on the drive, he can pull up and shoot,” Pitt coachKevin Stallings said. “Apparently last year, people didn’t think he had 3-point range because he only took 12 3s. He’ll have taken 12 3s by our third game or fourth, at the most. And he’ll have taken them with my blessing. He’s probably shooting 36 of 37 percent and he’s probably taken 50 or 60 so far in practice.
“He is just wired to score. You can’t teach it and you can’t coach it.”
No Pitt player received votes for preseason ACC player of the year or rookie of the year. Those honors went to Duke’s Grayson Allen and N.C. State’s Dennis Smith, respectively.
With 85 of a possible 91 first-place votes, Duke was selected as the league’s preseason No. 1 team. Second-place North Carolina received the other six first-place votes while Virginia, Louisville and Syracuse, in order, rounded out the top five.
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A typical small-talk starter for SU fans could provide one hell of a story. (TNIAAM; McClusky)
Confession: For someone who works in radio and is essentially making a living off of using words verbally, I'm really bad at small talk.
"Hey, how are you?"
That's my opener, no matter what. Every. Damn. Time. Whether I know you or not, recognize you or not, I'm relying on the old classic: asking about your well-being. Guaran-damn-teed.
It's after that crutch of a greeting when I struggle to really find something, anything to say.
"Um. So, yeah. Well, that's good that you're doing well."
Essentially, if I don't talk to you on a daily basis, if you're not a family member or a close friend, I'll be begging you to pick up the conversation I so clearly dropped and watch shatter on the ground. It's not that I hate people or hate social situations, it's really the opposite. I love catching up with or meeting new people. It's just, on-the-fly in person, I either over think or just lock up mentally. I'm probably not alone here, either. But luckily enough for me, and anyone else in and around this part of New York, everyone's "team" is seemingly Syracuse basketball. In these parts, everyone can relate to it in some way.
Soon enough, the latest version of the team will be brought up in a way the weather is brought up in most other places. And it's not just this particular team or year. Any of them, throughout time. Every fall, or early winter, a stalled-out discussion is started back up again by an orange-tinted common Orange bond. Sometimes, for me, I'll talk about how I think the team is going to be great. Other times not so much. Regardless, SU hoops is always entertaining and always fodder for most of the inhabitants of the upstate section of New York (an area I consider anywhere north of Albany, and that's not even really open for debate).
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Other
Mack Bros. Boiler and Sheet Iron Works, 130 years on Syracuse west side (PS; Nett)
Stepping into Mack Bros. Boiler and Sheet Iron Works is like stepping back in time.
Mack, originally a manufacturer of boilers, was established in 1887 by James McNamara on Marcellus Street in Syracuse.
The company still has some of the machinery used in the early 1900s. Of course, the company also uses equipment that is more modern.
No longer making boilers, the company now does a great deal of steel fabricating, bending and forming steel for other applications.
Jim Hueber, president of the company he has worked at for 40 years, is the fourth generation in his family to run the company.
There are challenges being a smaller company with only five or six employees, he said. But those workers bring a lot of experience: Each has been with the company for more than 30 years.
He said the workers are skilled and can take on challenges. One difficult recent project was a set of stairs at the newly renovated Gere Building on Fayette Street.
His approach to being small? Hueber said he just makes sure the company doesn't take on more than it can deliver.
