Being “More Beaver”

Every time I leave Corvallis I’m always kinda bummed, for myriad reasons probably, but mostly because, well, I  never see any beavers. I have a solution for that, for helping the Oregon State community be more beaver. The beaver is a darn fine mascot – underrated on many fronts – and it’s about time he transitions from his two-dimensional depiction on t-shirts and koozies to a role more in keeping with a rodent of his stature.

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Oregon State Should Be Asking The “Big” Questions

I have three boys who go to Oregon State. They’re hardcore football fans in every way. It’s totally genetic. They could care less about Beavers Football, have no interest in going to the games. It’s not only about wins and losses. The games aren’t any fun, the offense isn’t any fun. There’s no identity, no player or ideal or concept to identify with. There’s no high-level direction, there doesn’t seem to be a master plan. So OSU needs to be shopping for a lot more than a new head coach, it needs to be shopping for a vision, a football philosophy, a reason for being. And that will require starting from scratch – absolute ground zero – and asking the big questions.

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Fur. Feathers. Fins.

Fun Facts: Animals

Life is mostly about the pursuit of knowledge and, therefore, the collection of fun facts. All my fun facts were harvested personally…They started as a physical book purchase from Amazon, then moved to a Kindle download where I bookmarked them by hand; at the conclusion of a book they were transcribed into a Snoopy Moleskine, and finally, they appear here for your personal wonderment.
  • Albatross spend 95% of their lives over open oceans; wandering albatross have the longest wingspan of all birds, 12 feet tip to tip; they can fly four million miles over a lifetime.
  • The sperm whale that attacked and sunk the whaling ship Essex in 1820 (the real world Moby Dick) was an 85 foot long male, weighing 80 tons with a 20 foot wide tail.
  • Penguins can cool their stomachs (using them like little refrigerators) to a temperature that slows digestion, they can therefore regurgitate and eat the same food over the course of days.

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