Bravo to Arizona for not saving daylight. Clocks around most of the country rolled back on Sunday to mark the end of daylight saving time, which might only exist to confuse us here in the Grand Canyon state. Even technology can’t figure it out, with iPhone users around the world reporting problems with their alarm clock apps not adjusting for the time change. In the U.S., Hawaii and Arizona are the odd states out, but we get along just fine without it, and the others would too. The biggest hassle here is trying to remember how many hours apart we are from everywhere else, and what effect that has on our television schedule. The biggest drawback this year? We’re still stuck watching Conan at midnight.
Boo to the Tempe towers deal falling through… again. It seems the potentially pricey, potentially student lodging at the Centerpoint Towers won’t be getting done this time around due to the project developer’s difficulty getting title insurance. We’ve had to watch this project get passed around and dropped like a hot potato since 2008, but the Tempe community developers remain optimistic. These things do happen, and these times are particularly hard. It’s just a bummer that most of us will already have kids and be living in the ‘burbs before the project cuts any ribbons. For now, though, they’re earning their place as the Tempe Tombstones, commemorating the life of the good times and reminding us that they’re dead.
Bravo to Veterans Day. Even if for most of us it’s a nice mid-week break and isn’t explicitly spent reflecting on the 21.9 million veterans in the U.S., what makes this Veterans Day so important is that it’s the first time in almost eight years that we haven’t been completely engrossed in combat missions in the Middle East. So, if you didn’t take a few minutes Thursday to think about those who have fought for our country, do so now. And who knows, maybe the person sitting to your left is one of the 1,767 ASU students or dependents attending school on the GI Bill. And when you go back to your home tonight, be thankful for the shelter, something that is not always a luxury for about 107,000 veterans. Even if you’ve never been in favor of any war or if you don’t know a single member of our military, engaging in the symbolic forces behind our liberty is more necessary than ever before.
Boo to another arrest on the ASU football team. Senior punter Trevor Hankins was arrested on suspicion of DUI a week ago and consequently missed ASU’s game against USC. Hankins doesn’t have a history of getting in trouble and did issue a remorseful apology Tuesday, but the fact that another ASU football player has gotten into hot water with Johnny Law is concerning. Is there a discipline problem within coach Dennis Erickson’s program? The team’s routine penalties would argue for such. We aren’t saying the ASU football team is all bad, as we know there are a lot of hardworking, upstanding players wearing the maroon and gold, but it’s unfortunate that the team gets a bad rap due to a few individuals’ actions.
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