Good for Berkman. I for one could never understand the mindset of older players hanging on, playing through injuries and pain, living out of suitcases, and being away from family when you have millions in the bank. Same as I don't understand people that don't quit their mindless retail/labour job when they win the lottery.

Man, the educational system does have problems if we're organizing schools by lazy plot device!

Hey, it works for Hogwarths!

More power to him. If I ended up with that kind of money (or anything like it), the first thing I'd do is go back and finish my Ph.D. at Washington U. here in STL. Rice is, if anything, an even stronger school. If you can handle classes at Rice, and have the cash to do whatever you please, well, "feed your head." The fact that you're a MLB baseball player doesn't cost you your status as a thinking being. As for being a student assistant, well, you get to combine the appeal of thinking about things with the appeal of baseball. Why not? - Brock Hanke

Hey, it works for Hogwarths!

Yeah, if you don't segregate all of the slightly bad kids, then they might not grow up to be evil.

speaking of Owls

(Frank) Ryan attended graduate school during the first part of his playing career, and in 1965, he earned his Ph.D. from Rice. His thesis was titled, "Characterization of the Set of Asymptotic Values of a Function Holomorphic in the Unit Disc." He started teaching at Rice during his career and, during his time with the Browns, held a position as an assistant professor at the Case Institute of Technology, teaching undergraduate courses and conducting research in complex analysis.

Ryan’s second career was fodder for many jokes by sportswriters. Red Smith wrote that the Browns' offense consisted of a quarterback who understood Einstein’s theory of relativity and ten teammates who didn’t know there was one. Ryan was somewhat put off by the focus on his academic life, as he considered himself to be a regular football player.

Yeah, if you don't segregate all of the slightly bad kids, then they might not grow up to be evil.

It's one of my pet peeves about the Harry Potter series. There's quite a tendency for characters to be labeled good guy/bad guy by the author simply putting them in an easily identifiable group. That and the tendency for Harry Potter to be the center of attention of every event, no matter how insignificant, and all events being relayed in the context of how they relate to Harry Potter. It makes late-1980s WWF usage of Hulk Hogan look conservative by comparison.

Ryan was somewhat put off by the focus on his academic life, as he considered himself to be a regular football player.

He was good enough to be a starter for several years, back when the NFL was much smaller than it is today.

If I had $100M I would do nothing. I would relax, sit on my ass all day, I would do nothing

I think college could be a nice way to transition from intense, purposeful activity to a more laid back lifestyle. Gives you something to do besides drinking at noon.

It's one of my pet peeves about the Harry Potter series. There's quite a tendency for characters to be labeled good guy/bad guy by the author simply putting them in an easily identifiable group. That and the tendency for Harry Potter to be the center of attention of every event, no matter how insignificant, and all events being relayed in the context of how they relate to Harry Potter. It makes late-1980s WWF usage of Hulk Hogan look conservative by comparison.

I think Rowling literally has no idea what would motivate someone to commit evil. The bad guys aren't really motivated by fear or greed or selfishness or anything else. They pretty much just want to be bad.

OH, yes, I remember Ryan. I majored in Math at Vanderbilt, tried one grad school course, and realized that grad school math was too abstract for me. Ryan has a Ph.D. in Math from Rice. I understand the first part of his thesis title, "Characterization of the Set of Asymptotic Values." The rest of it, "of a Function Holomorphic in the Unit Disc", is beyond me. I have no idea what "Holomorphic" or "The Unit Disc" might mean at all. And the guy was a good NFL quarterback. Makes me jealous. - Brock Hanke

Since this is the de facto Rice thread, I feel obliged to bring up the fact that Rice, the second-smallest school in D1 and one of the worst perennially in football, beat the University of Kansas today.

the second-smallest school in D1

OK, I'll bite. Who's smaller? Northwestern?

The old Southwest Conference was a pretty odd mix of schools. The state schools: UT and TAMU, Arkansas and Texas Tech and (new to the conference in my time), Houston. The big privates, with more or less sectarian tendencies: TCU, SMU, Baylor. And little tiny non-sectarian RIce.

I was there on that notorious day when the Owl football team beat the Aggies and the MOB (Marching Owl Band) made fun of the Aggies. They had to smuggle the band out of the stadium in food service vans to get them to safety.

OK, I'll bite. Who's smaller? Northwestern?

Wake Forest, I think.

When I went there, I was in Hufflepuff.


They've been making those same jokes for years about UC San Diego, which also "sorts" students into six colleges that are unrelated to major but do have themes.

Funny enough last year for First Friday the theme was Harry Potter and we had a big world of Harry Potter exhibit in the main Library and the Engineering school wrote the code of Dobby's skin.

Anyways one of the main things about the colleges is it lets you have a lot more say of your GE's since they are college specific.

OK, I'll bite. Who's smaller?

Somewhat surprisingly, Tulsa. (This is only counting undergraduates; all three military academies have more undergraduates than Rice but less total students.)