You may think that not all that much goes on in that fly over state (miles and miles of back roads and highways
—Jason Aldean is right). And you're right. But for 10 days there were six sports statisticians (the boys) and two average sports enjoyers (the girls) and Charlyne, crammed around a cozy ring of tables in a big room, learning not to verbize and not to allow sentences that are, quite simply, Dumb.
So here's a brief record of what we did when we weren't having guest lectures from everyone from Penn State's Malcolm Moran to The Hartford Courant's Scott Powers (that sentence, I now know, includes a false range). For all you who weren't there, feel free to skip to the end of the post. But what I'm about to transcribe made me laugh probably more than I had all semester, so without further ado, here are a few Dow Jones News Fund sports copy editing training highlights:
- Going to a baseball game (UNL v. Wichita State) the first night we were all in Lincoln. Yes, UNL got creamed, but it was an all-American experience, complete with a little country music.
- Adventuring. Thanks to the group's natural curiosity (endemic among journalists) and our decadently long lunch "hour," we made it to:
- The UNL library
- The Nebraska History Museum
- A local ice cream place
- The Capitol building ("Ernie Chambers—he's a legend around here!")
- An art gallery ("Was that the ORIGINAL 'Migrant Mother'?")
- Visited Lloyd the mammoth statue
- Memorial Stadium (football and Heisman shrine)
- Yia Yia's and Lazlo's and Runza (I'm impressed by the local usage of end-of-the-alphabet letters)
- The old train station (with a lovely old caboose, similar to the one my family vacationed in once...but that is another story altogether...)
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| Nebraska with the boys |
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| Maine with the Dells |
- Finishing an ENTIRE round of "Cheers, Governor!" You go around in a circle counting up to 21, but each time you make it to 21 you replace a number with something else. If you mess up, it's back to uno. Here's our brilliant rendition:
- (Knock on wood)
- "Dos"
- "Five"
- "Four" (stand up)
- "Three"
- A preposition
- "Fourteen"
- (Flex)
- "God Bless America" or "Oh say can you see?" (sung)
- Roar
- "Chopsticks!"
- "Dos Equis"
- "Friday the Thirteen"
- "Seven"
- Somebody's name
- (Change the Pandora song)
- (Punch someone)
- "Would you like a pretzel?
- (Take a chocolate-covered pretzel)
- (Snap fingers)
- "Twenty-fun" CHEERS, GOV'NOR!
- Playing trivia at Charlyne and Denny's home. (Team Middle Earth won, thanks to the brilliance of Mike and Matt. My contributions were limited to the definitions of picador, phrenology and lepidopterist.)
- Giving roommate gifts to our new-found friends.
- Listening to Jackie's answer to a quiz question. Her answer went something like this: "Pistol Pete was a 1920s baseball catcher who got his nickname by showing up for his first game with a loaded pistol. It was his first and last appearance in a major league game. It was also his last appearance in public. His current whereabouts are unknown."
- Listening to music everywhere we walked, thanks to Matt's iPhone in his hood. ("You're the modern-day kid with a boombox on his shoulder!")
- Walking past the Famous Lincoln Arby's!
- Making a mirage ("Do you mean collage, Mike?" "No, I said mirage and I'm sticking with it.")
I was so blessed to meet each of the interns and faculty in the training program
—I wish you all the best, and I look forward to keeping in touch with each of you!
Now I'm home for a far-too-short seven days before actually starting my internship in Florida. I'm loving being around my family and church, soaking up as much of their focus and love as I can. Life is full of super-short chapters right now! But it's all exciting. I'll leave you with a few family photo shoot gems:
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| Elisabeth, Leah, Hannah, me, Jacob |
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| We take ourselves entirely seriously. |
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| I'll miss you! |
