{"id":421,"date":"2017-08-21T16:43:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T16:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/?p=421"},"modified":"2021-05-21T15:44:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T15:44:10","slug":"long-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/21\/long-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I stayed at home an extra day this weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may recall that I had ankle surgery at the end of last year, and today was what will likely be the last follow-up visit with the surgeon. The surgery was largely unsuccessful, even after seven months of serious rehab work. Bummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it meant I got to do something very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LSU has had a live tiger mascot since the 1930’s, and I have known all of them since Mike III. I would visit Mike III every time I came to campus, and he always came over and greeted me. Probably because I looked tasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike III died when I was about to start high school, so I had to develop a new relationship at an awkward time in life. Fortunately, Mike IV and I struck up a wonderful friendship. When I went to LSU in August of 1980 I lived in the football stadium. Mike’s enclosure was right outside my window, literally forty yards away. One of my favorite memories is when he would occasionally roar at night. I would frequently roar back. I spent many an evening sitting in my lawn chair outside his enclosure visiting with him, and we had many meaningful chats. I also took Peggy to meet him when we were dating. I know it was a lot of pressure, but Mike approved of her wholeheartedly. I think<\/em>\u00a0Peggy understood…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mike IV — one night when I was in school he got out of his enclosure. Can you imagine running across that in the middle of the night?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mike V had a glorious reign, including a football national championship and five baseball national championships. My visits with him were more limited since I lived so far away, but every time I came to see him he would meet me at the fence and roll for me. He also provided a personal highlight by “spraying” a group of obnoxious tourists who were yelling at him to come closer for a picture. He came closer, all right, and let ’em have it. Tiger justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My buddy Mike V<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mike VI may have been the most beautiful cat I have ever seen, and he had a wonderful personality to match. He was the mascot when I moved back to Baton Rouge, so he and I visited often. He oversaw a football national championship and a baseball national championship. He was extremely playful even when he became ill with the cancer that killed him. His death was a very sad day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mike VI “the Regal”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A lot of tiger history, but it sets up what happened today. Today was Mike VII’s first day on campus, and I got to be here to share it with him. He is just a baby — a 175-pound baby — but he walked right over to me, flopped and rolled for me. I told him that I had stuck around just to see him.  He is likely to be the biggest of all the mascots, but today he is still a kitten. I told him I would be back soon to visit. I think he was pleased, but it is hard to tell — we’re just getting to know each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mike VII — mascotting is hard work for a young man. He flopped at my feet and took a little nap…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stayed at home an extra day this weekend. You may recall that I had ankle surgery at the end of last year, and today was what will likely be the last follow-up visit with the surgeon. The surgery was largely unsuccessful, even after seven months of serious rehab work. Bummer. But it meant I … Continue reading Long Weekend<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1344,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/1344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}