‘You can be sure that the directors of other zoos have their tape measures out now.’

The Mercury News has a report on the oversight weakness at the nation’s zoos.

“With a wall only 12 1/2 feet high, he said ‘the tiger can almost stand up and reach it’ and would have little difficulty escaping ‘with a little bit of a hop.’”

In other words, tigers have been on good behavior at zoos and San Francisco’s inadequacies may or may not have been an exception.

Best opening to a non-fiction book I may have to read

Inside the white ghetto of the working poor

“73 virgins in arab heaven and not a dam one in this bar!”

—Men’s room wall, Burt’s Tavern

Faced with working-class life in towns such as Winchester, see only one solution: beer. So I sit here at Burt’s Tavern watching fat Pootie in a T-shirt that reads: one million battered women in this country and i’ve been eating mine plain! That this is not considered especially offensive says all you need to know about cultural and gender sensitivity around here. And the fact that Pootie votes, owns guns, and is allowed to purchase hard liquor is something we should all probably be afraid to contemplate. Thankfully, even cheap American beer is a palliative for anxious thought tonight.

Then too, beer is educational and stimulates contemplation. I call it my “learning through drinking” program. Here are some things I have learned at Burt’s Tavern:

1. Never shack up with a divorced woman who is two house payments behind and swears you are the best sex she ever had.

2. Never eat cocktail weenies out of the urinal, no matter how big the bet gets.

From Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War by Joe Bageant.

December 30th

The penultimate day of the year is the birthday

… of Bo Diddley. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 79.

Music historian Robert Palmer has described Bo Diddley as “one of the most original and fertile rhythmic intelligences of our time.” He will forever be known as the creator of the “Bo Diddley beat,” one of the cornerstone rhythms of rock and roll. He employed it in his namesake song, “Bo Diddley,” as well as other primal rockers like “Mona.” This distinctive African-based rhythm pattern (which goes bomp bomp bomp bomp-bomp) was picked up from Diddley by other artists and has been a distinctive and recurring element in rock and roll through the decades. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of Russ Tamblyn. Riff, “a Jet to his dying day,” is 73.

… of Sandy Koufax. The most dominant pitcher in the game in the early 1960s, the man who threw four no-hitters including a perfect game is 72.

… of Paul (Noel actually) Stookey. Paul of Peter, Paul & Mary is 70.

… of James Burrows. The director of “Taxi,” “Cheers” and “Will and Grace” is 67.

… of Fred Ward. The actor (Gus Grissom in “The Right Stuff”) is 65.

… of Monkees Michael Nesmith (65) and Davy Jones (62).

… of Patti Smith. Punk rock’s poet laureate is 61.

… of Meredith Viera and of Matt Lauer. The Today show hosts are 54 and 50.

… of Tracey Ullman. She’s 48.

… of Eldrick Woods. Tiger is 32.

… of LeBron James. He’s 23 today.

Have a Coke and a smile today.

It’s the birthday of the man who introduced us to Coca-Cola, Asa Griggs Candler, born in Villa Rica, Georgia (1851). He grew up during the Civil War and wanted to be a doctor, but his family was so poor that he could only receive an elementary school education before becoming a pharmacist’s apprentice. But Candler proved to be business savvy, slowly building his own drugstore empire, and in 1886 he bought sole rights to John Pemberton’s original formula of Coca-Cola and formed the Coca-Cola Company in 1890. Candler understood the importance of advertising. He used calendars, billboards, and posters to keep the Coca-Cola trademark prominent in the public’s mind. After selling the patent in 1919, he went on to serve as Atlanta’s mayor and funded a teaching hospital for Emory University’s Medical School.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Alfred Einstein was born on December 30, 1880.