Reconstructive knee surgery.
Month: June 2008
Take me out to the ballgame
This item was first posted here four years ago. I had found it at “Morning Briefing” in the Los Angeles Times.
There was an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on HBO in February in which Larry David, the show’s star, creator and executive producer, took a lady of the evening to a Dodger game so he could use the carpool lane on the freeway.
Footage shot at Dodger Stadium for that show, The Times and other media outlets reported recently, exonerated Juan Catalan, who had been charged with murder.
Outtakes, viewed by Catalan’s attorney, showed that Catalan, as he had maintained, was at the Dodger game last May at the time he was accused of committing the murder of a 16-year-old girl in Sun Valley.
As a result, a judge set Catalan free.
Where will you meet your Waterloo?
Napoleon met his Waterloo at the Belgian village of Waterloo on this date in 1815.
The BBC has a concise history of the battle beginning with this introduction:
The Battle of Waterloo was fought thirteen kilometres south of Brussels between the French, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and General Blücher from Prussia. The French defeat at Waterloo drew to a close 23 years of war beginning with the French Revolutionary wars in 1792 and continuing with the Napoleonic Wars from 1803. There was a brief eleven-month respite when Napoleon was forced to abdicate, exiled to the island of Elba. However, the unpopularity of Louis XVIII and the economic and social instability of France motivated him to return to Paris in March 1815. The Allies soon declared war once again. Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo marked the end of the Emperor’s final bid for power, the so-called ‘100 Days’, and the final chapter in his remarkable career.
Defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon’s reign. He was exiled to the island of St. Helena where he died in 1821 at age 51.
Best U.S. Open line of the day
“As for Tiger’s knee pains at the U.S. Open? Armchair surgeons suspect it’s either an anterior cruciate or a rocco mediate.”
Best line of the day
“The question in the NBA, and in life, isn’t whether or not you can shoot. The question is, can you get your shot?”
The late sportswriter Ralph Wiley in 2004. First posted here in 2004.
June 18th
Worldwide about 16½ million people have their birthday today, among them …
Lou Brock, who’s 69.
Recognized as one of the most gifted base runners in baseball, Lou Brock helped to revolutionize the art and science of this element of the game as he totaled 938 stolen bases during his 19-year career. A six-time All-Star selection, Brock also accumulated more than 3,000 hits to help lead the St. Louis Cardinals to three National League pennants and two World Series championships. Although his stolen base records have been eclipsed, the National League honors each year’s stolen base leader with the Lou Brock Award.
Paul McCartney. He’s 66.
Between his work with the Beatles and as a solo artist and leader of Wings, McCartney has written or cowritten more than 50 Top Ten singles. With and without Wings, McCartney has been extremely prolific, averaging an album a year since the appearance of McCartney. Moreover, he’s been eclectic as well, not only recording pop and rock but also dabbling in various classical forms and ambient dance music. In the post-Beatles era McCartney has cracked the Top Forty 35 times. When combined with the Beatles’ 49 Top Forty U.S. singles, it is a matter of statistical fact that Paul McCartney is the most successful pop-music composer ever and the second greatest hitmaker, behind Elvis Presley. Without question he is one of the most important musicians of the 20th century.
The first film critic to win the Pulitizer Prize for distinguished criticism, Roger Ebert is 66 today.
Best actress Oscar nominee Carol Kane is 56
So is Isabella Rossellini, the daughter of the two legends, Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman.
Not eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame until next year, Bruce Smith is 45 today. Smith was Virginia Tech’s first great football player.
George Mikan was born on June 18 in 1924. At 6-10 Mikan was the first “big man” in basketball leading the Minneapolis Lakers to five NBA titles in six years. The widening of the lane, the NBA shot clock and the rule against defensive goaltending were brought about by Mikan’s dominance. He was named one of the 50 best ever in the NBA in 1996. George Mikan died in 2005.
That’s Mikan with Abdul-Jabbar and Shaq.
Emmy-award winning actor E.G. Marshall was born on June 18 in 1914. Marshall appeared in more than 100 television programs, most famously for The Defenders.
The famed oil firefighter Red Adair was born on June 18 in 1915. A generation ago Adair’s feats were well-known enough to inspire a John Wayne movie, Hellfighters.
Bud Collyer was born on June 18 in 1908. Collyer was the voice of Superman on the radio 1940-1951, but known better now as one of the first TV game show hosts, in particular for Beat the Clock.
Aarrgghh
122 franchises in American professional team sports and the Boston Celtics are my 122nd favorite.
He always shows up to play
An excellent column from John Feinstein about Tiger Woods and the U.S. Open.
Feinstein gets off a couple of great lines and some valid criticisms, too — among them, you DON’T throw clubs.
Thanks to Jill for the pointer.
Myths about saving at the pump
Belief: Driving close behind a truck improves gas mileage because the truck cuts your wind resistance.
Reality: True, but it’s also dangerous.
Belief: Gasoline stations near freeway exits charge higher prices.
Reality: Generally true.
Belief: You get more for your money if you fill up when it’s cold because gasoline is denser at low temperatures.
Reality: Not really. Any difference would be insignificant and besides, most pumps correct for temperature.
Belief: Turning off the air conditioning saves gas.
Reality: True, but if you then roll down the windows, the increased wind resistance may eat up any savings.
Belief: Gas prices go up on the weekend, so fill up during the week.
Reality: Generally false.
Photo of the Day
A Remarkable Photo From Tornado Country
Thanks to Bob Ormond for the link.
Best line of the day, so far
“I thought I was working for the Jedi Knights and in reality I was working for the Sith Lords.”
Fired U.S. attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias on The Daily Show. Quoted at New Mexico FBIHOP.
Wrong hill, right cause
The first major battle of the American war for independence was fought on June 17th 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.
After the action at Lexington and Concord in April (Paul Revere’s ride, the shot heard ’round the world), the reinforced British were camped in Boston. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety decided to contain the British by occupying the heights of Charlestown north of Boston before the Redcoats did. The militiamen, however, did not yet have artillery to defend the heights once occupied.
By the morning of June 17, some 1,200 Americans were entrenched on Breed’s Hill in Charlestown — not the higher Bunker Hill, which might have been a better choice. Reinforcements increased the number to 1,500 by afternoon. They were bombarded by British cannon shooting uphill and without much effect. At around 3:30 some 2,200 British troops attacked the fortified position — uphill, carrying 125 pound knapsacks. The first two assaults were thrown back, but the third succeeded as American gun powder ran out.
Though the British took the hill, they suffered more than 1,000 casualties — “The dead lay as thick as sheep in a field.” American losses were less than 500.
The Battle of Bunker Hill encouraged the colonies. It proved that American forces could inflict heavy losses on the British. Washington assumed command in July and there was no major action again in Massachusetts.
An American officer, William Prescott, is said to have ordered during the battle, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”
Pick the Second Most Populous City
Another great trivia quiz from Mental_Floss.
NewMexiKen got 12 right out of 15.
Finally, a solution to my Sweeties gift-giving
Note: Website has audio.
Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em
As the Democratic primaries revealed, Barack Obama is having a hard time winning the support of blue-collar voters.
So here’s a piece of strategic advice for the candidate: Lose the Nicorette. Light up instead.
Consider these statistics, culled from studies of smoking patterns. Americans who make between $24,000 and $36,000 a year smoke at twice the rate of those earning $90,000 or more. The same applies to Americans with a high-school education rather than a college degree. Rural Americans smoke more than city-dwellers. As for race, there’s a close correlation between states with high rates of white smokers and those where Mr. Obama polled worst in the primaries. Leading the pack of smoking states are Kentucky and West Virginia; industrial states like Ohio aren’t far behind.
Bottom line: small-towners in the Rust Belt and Appalachia don’t cling to guns and religion so much as they do cigarettes.
There’s more.
I’m going to live forever
“Coffee drinkers, rejoice. While you might be using it for a ‘pick-me-up,’ coffee may also be extending your life.”
“Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan, researchers say in a new report that is likely to give impetus to the rapidly growing search for longevity drugs.”
June 17th
Barry Manilow is 65. He was born Barry Alan Pincus, but raised by his mother and grandparents named Manilow. Some sources say he is 62.
Thomas Haden Church is 47. Church was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for Sideways.
Greg Kinnear is 45. Kinnear was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for As Good As It Gets. Kinnear is a graduate of The University of Arizona (1985).
Venus Williams is 28.
M.C. Escher was born on June 17th in 1898.
Ralph Bellamy was born on June 17th in 1904. Bellamy was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for The Awful Truth in 1937. He received an Honorary Oscar in 1987. Bellamy starred in an early TV series, Man Against Crime.
John Hersey was born on June 17th in 1914. Hersey won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1945 for A Bell for Adano but is perhaps better known for Hiroshima.
After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, he was one of the first Western reporters to arrive and document the aftermath. In his reporting, he deciding to write about how individual persons were affected, and he focused his stories on the lives of six people in Hiroshima at the time of the explosion: a minister, a seamstress who had been widowed, two doctors, a minister, a Catholic priest, and a young factory worker.
The editor of The New Yorker decided to devote the last issue in August of 1946 to Hersey’s articles. Later, the collected articles appeared in book form, Hiroshima, published in 1946.
Best question of the day, so far
“There were no fewer than 1,004 mentions of Tiger’s knee surgery during the five days of coverage … but does anyone know what the surgery entailed? How come there was never any specific mention as to what kind of surgery he had?”
Watergate
As reported in The Washington Post in 1972:
Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. [Saturday, June 17] in what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee here.
Three of the men were native-born Cubans and another was said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerrilla activity after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
They were surprised at gunpoint by three plain-clothes officers of the metropolitan police department in a sixth floor office at the plush Watergate, 2600 Virginia Ave., NW, where the Democratic National Committee occupies the entire floor.
There was no immediate explanation as to why the five suspects would want to bug the Democratic National Committee offices or whether or not they were working for any other individuals or organizations.
Worst line to hear from your dentist
“I thought you had a high threshold for pain.”
The above was first reported here four years ago today. It was said to me.
Best line of the day, so far
“My wife and I had a fight this morning. I think it’s because the institution of marriage is weakened by California’s activist judges.”
Race or Gender
At a dinner party NewMexiKen attended Saturday evening there was a conversation about whether sexism or racism was the greatest obstacle to success. The women argued that women have faced more discrimination than minorities — and they gave some convincing personal examples. The men were, I think, less certain, but mainly argued that race was the greater hurdle.
I didn’t think to mention it at the dinner, but the first black woman in Congress, Shirley Chisholm, once said, “Of my two ‘handicaps’ being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.”
Yet, writing for The New Yorker this week, Hendrik Hertzberg makes the opposite case:
Competitions among grievances do not ennoble, and both Clinton and Obama strove to avoid one; but it does not belittle the oppressions of gender to suggest that in America the oppressions of race have cut deeper. Clinton’s supporters would sometimes note that the Constitution did not extend the vote to women until a half century after it extended it to men of color. But there is no gender equivalent of the nightmare of disenfranchisement, lynching, apartheid, and peonage that followed Reconstruction, to say nothing of “the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil” that preceded it. Nor has any feminist leader shared the fate of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Clinton spoke on Saturday of “women in their eighties and nineties, born before women could vote.” But Barack Obama is only in his forties, and he was born before the Voting Rights Act redeemed the broken promise of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Hertzberg adds that there are 16 women senators and eight female governors, but only two black governors and one senator.
NewMexiKen fears that even today, racism and sexism are more closeted than gone. The veneer of open-mindedness, even of political correctness, is paper thin.
In such a world, who has the steepest climb?
Best line of the day, so far
“Fox News is hopeless; you might as well get angry at mildew.”
The National Open Championship
NewMexiKen has been watching sports for at least 56 years that I can remember and while fully understanding the emotion that makes the contest du jour the event of the century, I must say that the past three days of U.S. Open coverage have been absolutely compelling. It just doesn’t get any better.
91st hole, sudden death. Woods putts for win, misses, then taps in. Mediate putts to tie (and continue the match).
P.S. The four most dramatic putts in memory (on 18) and the imbeciles who manage the local NBC affiliate run a programming crawl that cancels out the high definition picture, then forget to change back until Woods and Mediate have finished.
Moon Illusion
On Wednesday night, June 18th, step outside at sunset and look around. You’ll see a giant form rising in the east. At first glance it looks like the full Moon. It has craters and seas and the face of a man, but this “moon” is strangely inflated. It’s huge!
You’ve just experienced the Moon Illusion.
Click here to learn more from NASA.
Moonrise Wednesday in Albuquerque is 8:52 PM MDT.