Friendly Competition

I must be fixated on "oxymorons," just having written about them a few days ago.

Had it not been for a Tweet from Marek Fuchs of TheStreet.com regarding his attendance at a Fordham versus Harvard college basketball game in the Bronx, I'd never have known about the event, despite the fact that I'm an alumnus of both.

On the other hand, I did know that CNBC was broadcasting live interviews from within Goldman Sachs and was wondering whether a high school classmate, CFO David Viniar, would appear.

To his great credit, absolutely nothing untoward was ever said about him throughout the slew of slings and arrows directed at Goldman's higher offices. Sometimes, keeping a very low profile is a good thing, so it's not overly surprising that he didn't make an appearance.

Fuchs, who somehow finds the time between filming his entertaining and educational series "They Just don't Get...." for TheStreet.com and his parental responsibilities, Tweets with regularity. At last night's game his Tweets ranged from wanting his money back, despite the fact that his ticket was free and it being one of the most exciting games he'd ever seen.

He also was the halftime entertainment and penned an article for a local newspaper, while simultaneously putting out a fire in the Village of Tuckahoe.

Really. That's the name. Tuckahoe.

Oh, and did I mention that he was an author?

My guess is that somewhere along the line either the ecstasy kicked in or the game got competitive. I doubt that the halftime sermon alone would have moved him to hyperbole.

When I went to Fordham, there was a general understanding that Fordham alumni went, in disproportionate numbers into the service of the FBI and CIA and in turn, spent an inordinate amount of time investigating Harvard graduates.

Competition. Think G. Gordon Liddy and then think dirty competition.

Great mustache, just nasty competitor who believed that in order to protect our nation from its enemies you had to use the U.S. Constitution for personal rectal hygiene.

Friendly competition is more like the sort Inspector Clouseau engaged in with any of the adversaries that he faced, yet nonetheless, respected.

The adversaries, in turn, received amusement for their troubles.

I really don't know who won last night's competition, but I doubt that it was friendly.

There's a big schism between "The Bronx" and Cambridge. "Jenny from the Block" and William F. Buckley are reasonable poster children of their respective homes, just add some needle tracks to the former and ample elbow patches to the latter's images.

Whereas the stereotype of the Harvard man would have him asking "may I top you off, my good fellow?" the Fordham man was just as likely to ask "Yo, you gonna finish that least slice, or what, Mofo?"

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