A Super Weekend

This weekend is absolutely super, for more than one reason.

First of all, it is the XLII superbowl weekend. The match between the undefeated favorite Patriots and the underdog Giants was nothing short of being breathtaking, all the way to the last second. The two teams each had a fruitful first scoring drive during the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter. But the score was unchanged at 3:7 to Patriots' advantage for two quarters, giving the same colleague in our betting pool a rare double win for guessing correctly both the half time and third quarter score. The defense on both sides was truly remarkable. The fourth quarter saw the seesaw action between two teams, changing the lead three times in the last quarter, a superbowl record. To me, the single most impressive play in the winning drive was Giants' overhead reception for third down conversion under the sandwiching tackles from Patriots. TV commentators billed this superbowl as the best of all time, topping the previous best between Bills vs. Giants (19:20) in early 1991's superbowl XXV.

I could not help but noticing the coincidence between the two best superbowl games. I began to love watching football soon after I relocated to New Jersey from Buffalo. I was disappointed by Bills' narrow loss to Giants in the last four seconds of the XXV game, despite the fact that both were my home teams. Bills later entered into superbowl three more times in the 1990's but came back empty handed. Seventeen years later, two weeks after I relocated back to New Jersey from Cambridge, I witnessed another great superbowl match, again between two home teams. Sadly, Patriots lost their only and most important game of the season, again narrowly.

The second cause for a super weekend came from my children. My younger daughter came home Friday with a report card for the second marking period, maintaining all As (95-100). My elder daughter won second place in the county high schools' mile-long race for girls on Saturday. My son successfully defended his clarinet first chair title in the 6-county regional intermediate band tryout, besting some 70 clarinetists and outscoring his closest rival by ~8%. Needless to say, my wife and I take great pride in the academic, athletic, and musical accomplishments by our children. Heartfelt thanks go to their teachers and coaches.

Presidential contenders will find another reason for this super weekend. Their prospect of residing in the White House hangs in the balance of the fast coming Super Tuesday's primaries and caucuses in 24 states across the nation.