Proud To Be Orange

Every once and a while you read about a professional athlete making the news for something other than what they do on the field of play. Too often those news stories are about athletes who have used poor judgment and got into trouble with the law. Today when I read my monthly Orangebytes Newsletter from Syracuse University I learned about something Carmelo Anthony has done "off the court". Carmelo, as you may or may not recall, helped lead the Orange to the NCAA Basketball National Championship in 2003. He had some impressive stats that year. I pulled these from the SU Athletics web site:

• He led Syracuse to a 30-5 overall record and the National Championship.
• He was named second team All-America by the Associated Press and was a consensus pick for National Freshman of the Year.
• He was a unanimous selection for BIG EAST Conference Freshman of the Year and was first-team all-league as well.
• He was BIG EAST Conference Rookie of the Week a record 10 times during the course of the campaign.
• He averaged 22.2 points (16th in NCAA Division I, 4th in Big East) and 10.0 rebounds (19th in NCAA Division I, 3rd in Big East).
• He posted 22 double-doubles and led the Orange in scoring in 24 of 35 games.
• He led the team in scoring, rebounding, minutes played (36.4 mpg), field goals made and attempted and free throws made and attempted.
• Anthony was second on the club to fellow freshman Gerry McNamara in assists (2.2 apg) and steals (1.57 spg) and in three-pointers made and attempted.

But the stats that I now think are the most impressive are these:

• He only played on year of college basketball at Syracuse, and
• He has committed to donating $3 million back to the school

He's giving $3 million dollars to the school. He was only there for his freshman year before being drafted into the NBA by the Denver Nuggets. One year. One National Championship. $3 Million back to say thanks. $3 million to help the school that helped him out. I'm sure other athletes have given money to their schools, but I don't ever remember hearing someone give this much back. It is impressive to me.

I am used to hearing about business owners who have achieved financial success giving huge donations and having buildings named after them, but cannot remember a donation of this size from someone who made their success as an athlete.

I cannot say enough about my years at Syracuse. It was an invaluable experience for me. I am proud to say I have my BFA in Advertising Design from the College of Visual & Performing Arts at SU. And I am thrilled to be able to share this news about a Syracuse University athlete giving back.

Keep up the good work Carmelo and Go Orange!

Proud To Be Orange

Yellow Wallpaper

Yellow wallpaper is all you need to think about to be able to pee in public. I know it works. I can prove it too.

During my last year at Syracuse I lived in a house off-campus with five other guys. There was Andy, Collin, Mark, Dan, Chris and me. Chris was also called "“Duff" because his last name was Duffus and I guess it was easier to call him Duff than Duffus. So, yes there were two guys called Duff living in the same house. There were also two guys named Dan. It caused plenty of confusion trying to figure out whom anyone was talking about at a given time. Were the phone calls for "Dan"” for Dan Powers or Dan Duff? When conversations or stories involved "Duff"” was it Chris Duffus or Dan Duff that they were referring to? Confused? So was I. All the time. But I digress...now back to advice on how to pee in public...…

Anyway, one night we went to Chuck'’s, aka Hungry Charlies for a few pitchers of beer and general carousing with our fellow students. Somehow, someone mentioned that they had "“stage fright"” whenever they had to pee in public. You know, the inability to pee when other people were either waiting in line behind you or at the next urinal?

Mark shared with us that he no longer had that problem. Turns out that Duff had a bathroom at his home which had yellow wallpaper. Whenever he had to pee in a public bathroom, he would just think about the yellow wallpaper back at the bathroom at his family's house and he instantly was transported to a place of comfort where he never experienced "stage fright". Mark had heard about this from Duff and one time had a chance to travel to visit the Duffus household and see the yellow wallpaper for himself.

Mark wasn't sure if someone else's visual cue could help him or not until he was out at a bar and encoutered "“stage fright"”. He tested it out. He visualized the yellow wallpaper at Duff'’s house and the seal/dam/floodgates were broken. Peeing in public was never again a problem for Mark. So while it wasn'’t a memory of his own bathroom at home, he was able to adopt it for himself once he had seen the actual wallpaper.

When Mark shared this remarkable story with me I thought I'd try it myself. It was Duff'’s visualization of his own family'’s bathroom so that made sense that it worked for him. Mark had seen it and was able to adopt it as his own. So knowing that it worked for these two I decided to test it out for myself. Now I had never seen the bathroom, the shade, color or pattern of the wallpaper. But that didn't really matter, right? I knew that this worked for Duff and Mark, so all I had to do was imagine what the yellow wallpaper looked like and I could use this as my own escape tactic to avoid not being able to void.

Let me tell you it works. Every time. Like a charm.

I still have never seen the bathroom that helps me out. That's why I know this can help anyone. If you ever feel a bout of "“stage fright"” coming on while you are using one of the public troughs at a sports stadium, just think about yellow wallpaper. Any shade or pattern will do. Just know that it worked for Duff who grew up using that bathroom. It worked for Mark who saw it once, and it worked for me because I believed in its power.

How'’s that for free advice?

Yellow Wallpaper