Happy St. Patrick’s Day – guess what I am doing today….
A year ago, on March 11, Rudy Gobert returned a positive COVID-19 test, triggering the sports shutdown of 2020.
The backdrop: During the week prior, the U.S. had surpassed 100 cases (March 2), the world had surpassed 100,000 (March 6) and sports leagues had closed their locker rooms to media members.
On March 11, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, and by the end of the night the NBA had suspended play indefinitely.
By March's end every major sporting event — including the Tokyo Olympics — had been either postponed or canceled, and nothing but uncertainty lay ahead.
April: The NFL and WNBA held virtual drafts, the XFL filed for bankruptcy, and Professional Bull Riding beat everyone to the punch with a 140-person bubble event.
May: Starved for sports, this was the month the faucet really turned back on. UFC and NASCAR resumed, "The Last Dance" entertained, and a charity golf event provided a welcome reprieve.
June: Athletes spoke out following George Floyd's death, NASCAR drivers stood in solidarity with Bubba Wallace, the PGA Tour returned in Texas and the NWSL Challenge Cup kicked off in Utah.
July: The NBA, WNBA, MLS and MLB all began or resumed their seasons, as we transitioned from the "No Sports Era" to the "No Fans Era."
August: The NHL returned with a Canadian "double-bubble," while Big Ten parents protested the postponement of fall sports. On Aug. 26, sports came to a halt, marking a monumental day in American history.
September: The NFL kicked off its season, the Stanley Cup champion Lightning kicked off Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg's epic run of success, and Naomi Osaka won her second U.S. Open.
October: The West Coast completed the October sweep, with the Lakers winning the NBA title, the Dodgers winning the World Series and the Storm winning the WNBA title.
November: Sports venues became polling centers, Dustin Johnson won a Masters unlike any other, and college hoops tipped off.
December: The NBA returned, and the Ravens and Steelers played on a Wednesday — the seventh and final day of the week to feature an NFL game in 2020.
January: Nick Saban and Alabama won another national title, the NHL returned, and the NCAA announced plans for an Indiana bubble.
February: Tom Brady won another battle with time, Tiger Woods crashed his car, and the Australian Open provided a glimpse of normalcy.
As we begin Year II of this pandemic a few thoughts and observations:
After a year of Zoom, Gloom, and Doom – a lot has changed. 520,000 plus of our fellow citizens are no longer with us, we have a new government, just as screwed up as the last. Our institutions still have leaders who have no clue what the word transparency means to strategy and management.
I have saved more money but have not seen my Father in eighteen months. I have lost fifty pounds, one tooth, and two strokes off my golf handicap.
I like cats more than a year ago, I dislike all the cable news operations, I enjoy reading a newspaper even more now than a year ago. I miss sitting at a bar, going to a movie, going to church, and visiting friends.
I trust students more than a year ago, and distrust those who make decisions that affect me, my family, and friends.
The most important figures of all: More than 118 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported worldwide, and more than 2.6 million deaths. Around 316 million vaccine doses have been administered so far.
In the U.S. alone, there have been more than 29 million cases, nearly 530,000 deaths and around 94 million doses administered.
The U.S. government is set to spend over $5 trillion on rescue programs.
President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act into law in late March 2020.
After Stimulus Round #1, Americans saved a record 33% of their disposable income in April 2020 (up from 8.2% in February). That was largely thanks to stimulus checks and boosted unemployment.
A follow-up bill worth $900 billion was enacted in December.
After Stimulus Round #2, personal income rose 10% in January, thanks to a fresh round of (smaller) checks. And consumer spending jumped more than 2%.
Congress approved a $1.9 trillion package this past week.
In addition to the fiscal stimulus, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates and revved its money-printing powers to stabilize markets and support businesses. That nearly doubled its balance sheet, to more than $7.5 trillion.
The economic impact of the pandemic has been severe, most notably on the labor market: Despite recent gains, there are still 9.5 million fewer jobs in the U.S. than a year ago.
Over all, the economy has regained three-quarters of the sharp drop in output at the start of the pandemic, with forecasters expecting a full recovery later this year.
Rescue spending has blown out the deficit, which reached a record $3.1 trillion last fiscal year and is already running at more than $1 trillion five months into the current fiscal year.
All that spending has stoked fears about inflation, with a mountain of consumer savings bolstered by stimulus checks ready to be spent when businesses and travel reopens.
Expectations for a potential economic boom reflect the uneven impact of the pandemic, with some people and business prospering greatly and others seeing their incomes and revenue vanish overnight.
There were more than 600 big corporate bankruptcies last year, fewer than were recorded after the relatively milder 2008 financial crisis, according to S&P. Businesses already on the brink fell early on, like J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and Hertz, while others managed to hold on thanks largely to the Fed keeping debt markets open and propping up asset prices.
Take the airlines. Despite a near standstill in travel, no major U.S. carrier went bankrupt. Three rounds of aid gave the airlines a cushion worth tens of billions of dollars, and they raised even more in the private markets.
Stocks whipsawed early on during the pandemic — and then largely climbed, raising increasingly pointed questions about whether the markets were divorced from economic reality. (Bonds have turned jittery for their own reasons.) The S&P 500 is up 42 percent from where it closed a year ago, while the Nasdaq is up 62 percent. The past year also saw some unexpected booms: SPACs became the hottest trend on Wall Street, since blank-check funds can be raised quickly and remotely. Nearly 500 SPACs have raised approximately $156 billion over the past year, according to SPAC Research.
Bitcoin went on a roller-coaster ride, though investors eventually latched onto it as a hedge against inflation — or just a speculative bet. Its price is up more than 600 percent from a year ago.
Retail traders became a formidable force, piling into the markets through apps like Robinhood and collaborating on internet forums like Reddit. They helped propel the rise of so-called meme stocks like GameStop: The video game store chain’s shares are up over 6,000 percent since last year, with wrenching day-to-day volatility.
So, I move forward to Year II, with a positive outlook but taking cautious steps into the future.
COLLEGE CHRONICLES - One year ago, the University of Washington took what seemed then like the extreme step of sending its students home. Ultimately, it canceled the rest of the in-person semester, a decision that ushered in a new pandemic reality for colleges across the country. Since then, the pandemic has left more than 500,000 Americans dead and put millions of people out of work. It has also upended the most minute parts of everyday college life.
American adults with college degrees had a life expectancy three years longer than that of their peers without diplomas, according to a study by the University of Southern California and Princeton.
The pandemic has been enormously disruptive for all students. But for the more than one million international students enrolled in American colleges, it has been a vortex, flinging them to every part of the globe. Some, bound by academic obligations or blocked from returning home by travel restrictions, have remained in the United States, cut off from the support of family and longtime friends.
The challenges international students face is academic and financial, logistical and mental. Shifting visa policy has left students, both here and abroad, unsettled about their futures. Studying in a language other than their own, often — for those overseas — in the dead of night, compounds the challenges of remote learning.
New data show that undergraduate enrollment has dipped this term. After a federal advisory panel voted to revoke an accreditor's recognition, the agency's member colleges must make a tough choice. And one ed-tech company wants to help students avoid "performing poverty."
The spring term sees more enrollment losses.
New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, released on Thursday, provides an early look at enrollment in the spring semester, and reveals a trend that is now familiar in the wake of the pandemic: Fewer students are enrolled in college.
The preliminary data, which reflects enrollments as of February 11, show a 4.5-percent dip in undergraduate attendance this spring term, compared with the same period last year. Overall enrollment this term is down 2.9 percent.
Community colleges are still the most embattled sector of higher education, with a 9.5-percent decline in enrollment this spring, the same as last fall. There is a bright spot in graduate enrollment, which was up 4.3 percent this semester from the same time last year — despite a decline in international students — after seeing a 2.9 -percent increase last fall.
TAX SEASON BEGINS 2021 - The tax filing season opened on February 19, and with it comes a question different from other tax years: How will the stimulus payments and unemployment income affect taxes?
Because of the pandemic and the government’s relief program, millions of people received both types of payments — but they are treated differently for tax purposes.
The good news is that you don’t have to pay income tax on the stimulus checks, also known as economic impact payments.
The federal government issued two rounds of payments in 2020 — the first starting in early April and the second in late December. If you got the full amount in both rounds, and your income and family circumstances haven’t changed, you’re all set. You don’t need to include information about the payments on your 2020 tax return, the Internal Revenue Service says.
A refresher: The first payment was for up to $1,200 per person, plus $500 for each child. The second was up to $600 per person, plus $600 for each child.
Individuals with income of up to $75,000 ($112,500 for individuals filing as “head of household,” typically single parents) and married couples filing jointly with income up to $150,000 qualified to receive the full payment. People with higher incomes got smaller payments or nothing if their income exceeded certain caps.
If you were eligible for the payments but didn’t receive them for some reason — or didn’t receive the full amount — you can still get the money by claiming a “rebate recovery” credit on your 2020 tax return. You must file a return, even if you’re not otherwise required to do so, to claim the credit.
To determine the credit, filers complete a one-page worksheet (or walk through the steps on tax preparation software), then report the amount on their tax return. To do that, you’ll need to know the amount of any payments you received. You should have received a receipt — Notice 1444 for the first round and Notice 1444-B for the second round — detailing the payments.
Similarly, if you had a life change in 2020 — like the birth of a child, or if you are supporting yourself and are no longer claimed as a dependent on a parent’s tax return — you could be eligible for more cash by claiming the credit on your 2020 return.
If you didn’t receive the maximum credit and your income fell in 2020, it also makes sense to see if you qualify for the full credit. That’s because the stimulus payments were based on your tax information from 2018 or 2019, while the credit is calculated based on your 2020 income.
If you complete the worksheet and learn that your payments were higher than they should have been, don’t worry — you don’t have to return the extra money, the I.R.S. says.
Now for the (possibly) bad news. In addition to direct payments, government relief efforts included expanded unemployment benefits for people who lost their jobs in the pandemic.
Unlike stimulus payments, jobless benefits are taxed by the federal government as ordinary income, said Kelley Long, a consumer financial education advocate with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. (You won’t, however, pay Medicare and Social Security taxes on jobless benefits as you would with paycheck income.)
The extra taxes could come as a jolt to people who didn’t choose to have taxes deducted from their unemployment checks. You may end up with a smaller refund, or may even owe tax, Ms. Long said.
You should receive a form, 1099-G, detailing your unemployment income and any taxes that were withheld, which you enter on your tax return.
Ms. Long generally recommends that people getting unemployment benefits choose to have at least 10 percent withheld for taxes to avoid unwelcome surprises.
You’ll probably also owe state income taxes on the unemployment benefits, unless you live in one of the nine states that don’t have a state income tax or a few others that exempt jobless benefits, including California, Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Wisconsin exempts jobless benefits for state residents but taxes benefits paid to nonresidents, according to the Tax Foundation.
Here are some questions and answers about income tax season:
I don’t remember getting a receipt for my stimulus checks. How can I confirm the amount I received?
If you didn’t get a notice or have misplaced it, check your bank statements to jog your memory. Or, the I.R.S. says, you can find the amounts using an online taxpayer account. If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to create one at IRS.gov/account. This requires you to enter information including an email address and your Social Security number and typically takes about 15 minutes, the I.R.S. says.
Could my stimulus payments affect my state taxes?
Stimulus payments aren’t taxable, but they could indirectly affect what you pay in state income taxes in a handful of states, where federal tax is deductible against state taxable income, according to the Tax Foundation. At least six states — Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana and Oregon — allow deductions for federal income taxes paid.
Here’s an example, suggested by Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the foundation, of how a stimulus payment, taken as a recovery rebate credit, might affect tax liability in those states: An individual filer got a $1,000 stimulus payment in 2020 based on her 2019 income, but is actually eligible for the full $1,200 payment, based on her lower 2020 income.
The filer would claim the $200 difference as a credit on her federal 2020 tax return, on Line 30 of Form 1040. This would reduce her federal tax liability dollar for dollar, by $200. So if the filer had owed, say, $3,000 in federal taxes before the credit, she would then owe $2,800.
Absent the credit, she would have subtracted the full $3,000 from her taxable income on her state return, but instead can subtract just $2,800. That means a higher tax liability at the state level — but just on the $200 the filer claims on her federal return, Mr. Watson said.
Some states, like Missouri, have exempted the stimulus payments from having any impact on 2020 taxes, Mr. Watson said.
Will the timing of my 2020 tax return affect the size of my check in the next round of stimulus payments?
It could. President Biden’s third round of stimulus payments of as much as $1,400, as part of his pandemic relief plan.
The I.R.S. is likely to base the payments on either 2019 or 2020 income — whichever the government has available when the payments are issued, so people can get the money quickly.
Many people had significantly lower income in 2020 than in 2019 because of the pandemic, which argues for filing your 2020 return as soon as possible to maximize your stimulus payment. If you delay, your payment may be based on your higher 2019 income — which may mean a smaller payment.
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this weekend to Ursula Andress (85), Barbara Ball …famous Washington Insider, Michael Caine (88), Quincy Jones (88), Mike Love (80), Kurt Russell (70).
FOURTH QUARTER – Apple Computer (AAPL) (Transparency: Rink Rats is a shareholder) $111B in sales: It's the first time Apple has crossed the $100B mark for a single quarter. That's nearly 3X Facebook and Tesla's quarterly sales combined.
$28.8B in profit: Apple's mind-boggling quarterly profit is one of the largest in history for any company. Ever.
All eyes on iPhone (12)... iPhone sales consistently make up over half of Apple's total sales, but they fell in 2019 and 2020. Last quarter, sales for every single product category jumped by double-digit percentage points. And the star of the quarter was (finally) iPhone.
iPhone sales soared 18% to $66B, driven by the launch of iPhone 12 last fall. Apple's first 5G rectangle spurred a fresh wave of upgrades.
Apple made $10B more from iPhone sales last quarter than it did in the first quarter of 2020. That $10B extra = more than total Mac sales last quarter.
Honorable mentions: Services sales (think: App Store, Music) jumped 24% to nearly $16B, making it the 2nd highest-grossing category after iPhone.
iPhone = a profit today + a bonus profit tomorrow... Apple is the most valuable company on Earth, in part thanks to its self-serving ecosystem. Last quarter, iPhones accounted for 58% of Apple's total sales. But each iPhone anchors users into Club Apple's connected world. iPhone sales drive growth for other products, from AirPods to Apple Books. With the recent launch of the "Apple One" subscription, Apple might soon have us more locked in than ever.
AMAZON.COM – Amazon (Transparency: Rink Rats is a shareholder) is committed to investing in their employees by:
Starting employees at $15 an hour.
Offering health benefits on day 1 for employees.
Investing $700 million to give them skills to help move into higher-paying jobs in their communities. Business School please take note.
This week Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced that in Q3 of this year, he will transition to executive chairman of the company's board. Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy will take the CEO spot.
Bezos launched Amazon in 1994 and grew it from a humble online bookstore to a sprawling $1.7 trillion empire of which "the everything store" is just one part—Amazon is now a major player in cloud computing, tech products, streaming entertainment, and even physical retail with its purchase of Whole Foods and its cashierless stores.
In a letter to employees, Bezos wrote, "The question I was asked most frequently [in the beginning] was, 'What's the internet?'"
As for Jassy, he's been at Amazon since 1997 and built AWS from a minor offshoot of Amazon's e-comm operations to a cloud computing leader.
Oh and btw, Amazon had a record-smashing Q4
Sales topped $100 billion for the first time ever. The company has benefited from the Covid-19 pandemic perhaps more than any other, fueling a 38% spike in 2020 net sales compared to 2019.
But storm clouds are gathering:
The company is deploying its internal PR machine against a high-profile labor organizing effort in its Bessemer, AL, fulfillment center.
And yesterday it agreed to pay $62 million to settle charges around its failure to pay some Amazon Flex drivers their full tips (Amazon Flex = a service that pays people to drive their own vehicles for Amazon delivery).
Looking ahead...household-name tech founders, such as Larry Ellison and Bill Gates, often don't fully remove themselves from their companies when they scoot out of the CEO chair. Bezos wrote in his letter, "this is not about retiring," so it's an open question how involved he'll be after the transition.
SCIENCE 101 - When NASA's Perseverance rover landed on Mars February 18, a set of cameras captured the car-sized spacecraft's descent and landing on the Red Planet.
This is the first time this type of high-quality footage has been captured, giving an unprecedented view of Earth's neighbor.
Perseverance landed on Mars in much the same way as Curiosity landed on the Red Planet.
NASA made use of a supersonic parachute and a small rocket that slowed the rover's descent and used cables to softly lower it to the ground.
The rover landed in a crater thought to be one of the best places on Mars to hunt for signs of past life.
The cameras tasked with capturing the landing sent back about 30 gigabytes of footage to scientists on Earth.
“This video of Perseverance’s descent is the closest you can get to landing on Mars without putting on a pressure suit,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said in a statement.
Perseverance also recorded the first sounds — including wind and mechanical whirring from the rover itself — from Mars not long after making it to the surface.
"I hope it [the microphone] does survive long enough so that we can hear those wheels crunch over the surface of the planet," Matt Wallace, Perseverance deputy project manager, said during a press conference Monday.
The video and audio captured from Mars are more than awe-inspiring.
Engineers will be able to pore over the landing video from Perseverance to tease out exactly how the system worked on the Red Planet to build even more robust systems in the future.
Future rovers might carry other microphones to Mars that can be used as diagnostic tools, alerting scientists back on Earth to any strange sounds that might indicate an issue with the spacecraft, Justin Maki, Perseverance imaging scientist, said during the press conference.
Rink Rats has obtained the first photos taken at the Perseverance landing site, interesting to say the least:
OSCARS - Netflix banked 35 Oscar nominations — one of the biggest single-studio hauls ever.
The streaming giant spent an unprecedented amount on content, while traditional studios suffered theater closures.
Netflix's original film "Mank" received 10 nominations, including awards for best picture and best director — more than any other film.
Its other big title, Aaron Sorkin's "The Trial of the Chicago 7,” picked up six nominations.
Amazon received 12 nominations, a record for the studio, for "Sound of Metal," "One Night in Miami" and "Borat: Subsequent Movie Film."
A record nine actors of color were nominated for Oscars this year.
Steven Yeun (Troy, Michigan) became the first Asian American to pick up a Best Actor nomination.
The late Chadwick Boseman is a Best Actor nominee for "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom."
The big picture: Six Black actors are nominees this year, up from one last year.
Rink Rats Oscar picks in a few weeks, stay tuned.
MARKET WEEK – After a months-long back and forth in Congress, Stimulus Round #3 is (officially) here. The $1.9T bill landed on President Biden's desk on Thursday, when it was signed into law. It’s nearly as big as the first stimulus we got when Covid hit last March — and more than 2X as big as the 2009 financial crisis package. Some highlights:
$1.4K direct payments to Americans making up to $75K/year (and $150K for married couples). If you make over $75K but less than $80K, you'll get a smaller check. Deposits started hitting bank accounts this weekend.
$300 per week in extra unemployment benefits, extended through September 6. Also: boosted child tax credits of $3K/kid.
$360B in state and local government aid, $130B to help schools safely reopen, $120B+ for Covid-related aid, and $59B to small businesses.
Not included: A federal minimum wage increase.
Charge it to the room... The US govt has passed a ginormous $5.3T worth of stimulus during the pandemic — that's $43K per household. And that $$$ isn't coming out of taxes. It's adding to the $28T national debt, which is now larger than the entire US economy. Some fear that the huge cash infusion could lead to higher interest rates and soaring prices. But the Fed says it won't raise rates any time soon. And inflation has stayed (relatively) low for a decade.
This could turn a "Nike recovery" into a V-shaped recovery... Even without this stimulus, the economy has been healing. ~13M jobs have returned since April 2020 — but the pace of recovery has slowed. Last year, many expected recovery would take the shape of a Nike swoosh: sharp drop, slow rise. Now, economists predict a much faster recovery: this year, the US economy is expected to grow 6%, the fastest annual growth since 1983 — and 3M jobs are expected to be added. The US could finish 2021 with even higher growth than was projected pre-pandemic, thanks to Stimulus #3.
U.S. stocks were mixed last week as concerns about inflation impacted trading. Here’s a look at how sports-related stocks performed:
Up:
ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAC) gained 10.34%
Daktronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: DAKT) gained 5.15%
MSG Networks Inc. (NYSE: MSGN) gained 3.91%
Down:
Manchester United plc (NYSE: MANU) dropped 9.34%
Allied Esports Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: AESE) dropped 9.09%
Peloton Interactive, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTON) dropped 5.18%
MARCH MADNESS SEMI-BUBBLE - Indianapolis will host 68 teams over 67 games. Five hotels and six arenas will accommodate thousands of traveling players, coaches, staff, and fans.
To understand how we got here, let’s go back to the Maui Invitational in November. Other tournaments, like The Battle 4 Atlantis, played this year as the “Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic” in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the group of multi-team events at Bubbleville, all suffered cancelations. But the 2020 Maui Invitational in Asheville, North Carolina, proved that a COVID-free semi-bubble is possible.
“What they have to do for 68 teams, I only had to do for eight,” Tom Valdiserri, executive vice president of KemperLesnik and Maui Invitational tournament organizer, told FOS. “I think just the sheer detail and the communication to 68 schools is incredible.”
Add to that list a compressed time frame, and it’s easy to see how this March Madness might be the most complicated the NCAA has ever assembled.
Teams will arrive at one of five hotels in Indianapolis connected to the convention center. They will have tested negative seven consecutive times and traveled, masked and distanced, by bus or plane.
They’ll isolate and start daily PCR testing — and once they’ve been approved to leave quarantine, the dance begins.
Top seeds: Gonzaga, Baylor, Illinois and Michigan begin battle this weekend. We like a Gonzaga, Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois Final Four with Illinois winning it all. How about that Big Ten (14) fans.
Interesting in a little Bracketology? Check out the Rink Rats Bracket Challenge send an email to rick@rinkratshass.net if interested and we will send you the details.
DRIVING THE WEEK - The U.S. is on pace to get the biggest migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border "in the last 20 years," said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The European Medicines Agency said there is currently "no indication" that the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is responsible for the small number of blood clots reported in patients in Europe. Go deeper.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) restored the voting rights of 69,000 former felons through executive action.
U.S. intelligence: Putin authorized influence operations to hurt Biden's candidacy.
Russian authorities are prepared to block Twitter in a month's time unless it removes upward of 3,000 posts of banned content.
The “Revenge Economy" could be next... For a year, sweats have replaced shopping sprees and screens have replaced travel — and Americans have socked away $1.5T in excess savings. After Stimulus #1, Americans saved a record 33% of their disposable income in April 2020. While the pandemic is still inflicting pain, things are looking up. Now that people feel more secure in their savings, we're seeing leading indicators of the revenge spending economy. With a fresh round of $1.4K checks going out, we can expect more revenge spending in April.
OUT AND ABOUT – Rats recently received an update from long time RR reader Peter Hewitt (St. Lawrence ’76). Huey sold their Lafayette, CA. home after 33 years and moved to Scottsdale, AZ. His life is now golf, keeping up with his kids, and planning a SLU football reunion this fall in Canton – hopefully, we can combine that with a hockey reunion. If so, better call the National Guard now and prepare for extra troops come this fall in Canton, New York.
Another long-time reader Hugh Lappe (St. Lawrence ’76) is in touch with this writer weekly. Hank made up the famous dead last duo in off-ice training way back in another century. The other member of that duo, yours truly. In fact, I am still last today when it comes to work out training.
ON THIS DATE – March 6, 2021 Lou Ottens, the Dutch inventor who pioneered the compact disc and invented the cassette tape — the medium of choice for millions of homemade mix tapes — has died at a care facility in the Netherlands. Ottens was 94.
Ottens joined Philips, the Dutch electronics conglomerate, after studying engineering at university where he and his team developed the world's first portable tape recorder, according to Philips. But he became frustrated with the bulky reel-to-reel system that needed manual winding and so invented the cassette in 1962.
By 1982, music studios stopped shipping 8-tracks to retailers and cars removed the 8-track recorder from car models. The compact cassette is the main reason why 8-tracks were faded out from the electronics industry.
Can any of my readers remember Jethro Tull and Marvin Gaye? I can hear the cassette tapes now.
SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –
NBA Pick of the Week – Saturday 3/20, 3:00 PM (EDT), NBA TV: San Antonio Spurs (20-16) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (25-14). As always the Spurs are competitive under former Pomona College coach Gregg Popovich. They upset the Bucks in the Cream City: 110 - 105. (Season to date 3-6)
NHL Pick of the Week – Saturday 3/20, 7:00 PM (EDT), ESPN+: New York Rangers (11-12-4) vs. Washington Capitals (19-6-4). Rangers need to start winning some games or no playoff this year. Not this game, Caps win 5 - 2. (Season to date 6-1)
NCAA College Hockey Pick of the Week – Thursday 3/18, 5:00 PM (EDT), ESPN+: The ECAC season, which already had only four teams in it, now has three.
Clarkson, on the eve of the league's postseason, has withdrawn and canceled the remainder of its season. The school released no further information beyond a brief "thank you" statement on the team's web site.
But according to multiple sources, most of the members of the hockey team attended a party last weekend, in violation of the school's COVID-19 protocols.
Quinnipiac, the No. 1 seed, will not receive a bye into the March 20 championship game. Instead of two semifinals on March 18, there will now be just one, with St. Lawrence hosting Colgate.
St. Lawrence is in the midst of quarantine itself, and recently canceled the final four games of its regular season, which were all scheduled to be against Clarkson. St. Lawrence is expected to be ready by March 18.
Appleton Arena for the semi-final Colgate Red Raiders (6-10-5) vs. St. Lawrence University Saints (4-8-3). Saints win on Minor Street, 4 -3. (Season to Date 6-2)
NCAA March Madness Pick of the Week – Thursday 3/18, 9:57 PM (EDT), TBS: #11 UCLA Bruins (13-6) vs. #11 Michigan State Spartans (9-11). Unusual match-up for a play in game, two old school hoop powers. We like Sparty to win 65 – 58.
Season to Date (19-10)
Next Blog: Dear Rink Rats and Word of the Month
Until Monday March 22, 2021 Adios.
Claremont, California
March 17, 2021
#XI-29-435
5,426 words, ten-minute read
CARTOON OF THE WEEK – Sarah Kempa
RINK RATS POLL – How many cups of coffee do you drink each day?
___ None
___ One
___ Two
___ Three
___ Three +
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “The best teachers are also leaders, and the best leaders are also teachers.” - Professor Thomas DeLong
Rink Rats is a blog of weekly observations, predictions and commentary. We welcome your comments and questions. Also participate in our monthly poll. Rink Rats is now viewed in Europe, Canada, South America and the United States.
Posted at Rink Rats The Blog: First Published – May 3, 2010
Our Eleventh Year.
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