Buddy posted this on the bulletin board
after a number of people posted to say they had gotten their hats,
including Julio (thanks again!). This is an unlikely story,
but if Buddy tells it, we believe it (Jersey Mike, too, for that
matter). A side note - anyone who has the
CBS post-season tape of the '91 Final Four can see Julio and his little
brother as they slo-mo pan the crowd near the end (it's at the free
throw line). Note: A reader pointed out
that it's not that improbable, since WRAL, in Raleigh had the first HDTV
broadcast operation. They have been running several HDTV tapes
while mapping the area, including one loop of the NC Symphony, and a
story filmed on the beach. So apparently a football game is in their
passel of tapes as well. How did Raleigh, of all places, get this? Well,
it's almost always a question of Washington muscle, since (we assume)
the first license came from the FCC. So who from Raleigh has muscle in
Washington? Well, Jesse Helms - who, surprise, first made his name known
statewide through WRAL.   We don't know that that's the
case, but it's a logical explanation - and he unquestionably the
power to call Presidents and get things done. So now Buddy and
Mike know who is likely responsible: Jesse Helms!
Glad to hear the postal dudes are coming through with delivery. If a hat fails to arrive, just let me know.
Much thanks should also go to the nice Vermont embroidery folks...now that we're a major state (we just determined that we now have SEVEN (7) towns in Vermont with more
than 10,000 residents) we have access to world-class haberdashery. Hence the handsome chapeaux.
An amusing associated tale: My pal and major Duke/DBR fan Jersey Mike called the other day to thank me for his hats, and mentioned that he and his wife were wandering around
The Wiz in the Garden State, perusing air conditioners. Then they ambled over to the TV section where the new gigundo high-definition digital sets were being displayed. They were
showing a tape of some Marlin Perkinsesque outdoor stuff, so Jersey Mike asked if they could show him a sample of a sporting event. Sure enough, they clicked on the box and
came up with a football game. And what locale does one expect when the word "football" is mentioned? State College, Pa.? Ann Arbor? South Bend?
Nope. How 'bout Wallace Wade Stadium in Derm? And to make the tale that much more unlikely, the camera panned the crowd (it was the State game of two years ago) and
eventually came up with, yes, Jersey Mike himself, much to the shock of Mike, his wife, and the sales guy...who was not shocked enough to give him a free TV, I might add. I suspect
Deslok (whom I last saw with a bleeding Wildcat fan draped over him in the Meadowlands) can quickly calculate the odds against such an occurrence.