Bah! Humbug!

A robber who claimed to “hate Christmas” made off with a red kettle full of donations for the Salvation Army on Saturday night outside The Andersons store on Illinois Avenue in Maumee, according to Maumee police.

The unidentified man approached the volunteer bell ringer about 6:25 p.m. He grabbed the kettle and tripod from which it was hanging. The bell ringer grabbed the chain, and the two fought for the kettle, according to Maumee police reports.

Maumee Police Sgt. David Tullis said the robber pushed the volunteer, and pulled the kettle away from her. He put the kettle and tripod in the back of a pickup truck after telling her, “I can’t stand you and your bell-ringing. I hate Christmas.”

Toledo Blade

I wasn't going to blog about this, but …

Jay Mariotti writes:

The public deserves to hear exactly what happened in the wee hours of Thanksgiving night outside his mansion in Windermere, Fla., suddenly a world-famous dateline when it didn’t have to be. Mind you, this is not the demand of a journalist protecting the right to know. No, this is the requirement of a consumer who has seen Woods polish up a supposedly spotless image for years while selling us cars, apparel, golfing goods, cereal, cameras, energy drinks, razors, credit cards and video games, all feeding into his unstoppable machine as the world’s first billion-dollar athlete. If Woods is going to market his image so aggressively and relentlessly, part of the deal is addressing a negative issue when it surfaces. He maintains his credibility that way, his believablity.

Do we deserve to hear exactly what happened? Or is it none of our business?

Best lines of the day

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

Dale Wimbrow, “The Man in the Glass,” 1934

Recited in full today by Al Groh, football coach, University of Virginia. The Cavaliers were 3-9.

Groh continued, “When I visited the guy in the glass, I saw that he’s a guy of commitment, of integrity, of dependability and accountability. He’s loyal. His spirit is indomitable. And he is caring and loving. I’m sure I will always call the guy in the glass a friend.”

And that was his whole press conference. Bravo Coach.

Update: The poetry didn’t help. Groh was fired. He was 59-53 for nine seasons.

November 29th

Vin Scully is 82 today. Scully started broadcasting Dodger games in Brooklyn in 1950.

Diane Ladd is 74. Ladd has appeared in more than 100 films and television programs and has been nominated for the best supporting actress Oscar three times including her portrayal of Flo in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and in a film with her daughter Laura Dern, Rambling Rose.

Garry Shandling is 60.

Joel Coen, the Joel of the Coen Brothers, is 55. (Ethan was 52 in September.) Films by the brothers include O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy, Miller’s Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man.

Rahm Emanuel is 50.

Don Cheadle is 45. Cheadle was, of course, nominated for the best actor Oscar for his performance in Hotel Rwanda.

Mariano Rivera is 40 today. He can’t pitch forever, right?

Louisa May Alcott was born on this date in 1832. The Library of Congress’s Today in History has a lot about Alcott.

If you are interested in football at all, watch this

From the The Fifth Down Blog:

NFL Films has been putting microphones on players since 1965. Its president, Steve Sabol, said recently that no player’s wiring had ever been as dramatic as Matthew Stafford’s in a comeback victory against the Browns.

The video, which has many memorable moments, culminates when Stafford, after sustaining a serious injury to his nonthrowing shoulder, eludes the trainers and runs back on the field for the final play. But words can’t do it justice; enjoy the clip.

The Grand Ole Opry

… began broadcasting on this date in 1925.

Soon after going on the air, National Life hired one of the nation’s most popular announcers, George D. Hay, as WSM’s first program director. Hay, a former Memphis newspaper reporter who’d most recently started a barn dance show on Chicago radio powerhouse WLS, joined the station’s staff a month after it went on the air. At 8 p.m. on November 28, 1925, Hay pronounced himself “The Solemn Old Judge” (though he was actually only 30 years old) and launched, along with championship fiddler, Uncle Jimmy Thompson, what would become the WSM Barn Dance.

Hay’s weekly broadcasts continued and proved enormously popular, and he renamed the show the Grand Ole Opry in 1927. Crowds soon clogged hallways as they gathered to observe the performers, prompting the National Life company to build an acoustically designed auditorium capable of holding 500 fans. When WSM radio increased broadcasting power to 50,000 watts in 1932, most of the United States and parts of Canada could tune into the Opry on Saturday nights, broadening the show’s outreach.

Grand Ole Opry: Introduction

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway

… were married on November 28th in 1582. He was 18, she 26. As with many facets of Shakespeare’s life, there is some confusion about the marriage. Among other things, Shakespeare received a marriage license with an Anne Whatley the day before. Secondly, relatives of Anne Hathaway (or Hathwey) posted bond so that her marriage to Shakespeare could proceed with only one reading of the bans. Perhaps the confusion is best resolved by noting that, six months later, on May 26, 1583, William and Anne’s daughter Susanna was christened. It appears the Bard had a shotgun wedding.

Best Thanksgiving lines of the day, so far

The turkey-pardoning is supposed to be a long-running national tradition, but it officially only goes back to George (the Good One) Bush and 1989. Since Thanksgiving is a holiday that’s particularly rich in long-running traditions, 20 years barely counts as an impulsive gesture.

If we want a political tradition, we can do better. Let’s all just gather around the family computer and watch that video of Sarah Palin discussing Thanksgiving in front of a bloody turkey abattoir.

Gail Collins

Best line of Thanksgiving Eve

“Today, I am pleased to announce that thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha — because I was planning to eat this sucker — ‘Courage’ will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate.”

President Obama, who went on:

“You know, there are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office. And then there are moments like this where I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland.”

Clicker

Katherine Boehret of The Mossberg Solution reviews Clicker. An excerpt:

This week, I’ve been testing Clicker, a free Web site that aims to be the TV Guide for all full episodes available to watch on the Web. It searches over 1,200 sources, so it can index some 400,000 episodes from 7,000 shows. Results include television programs as well as “Web originals,” or shows that are native to the Internet and are of broadcast quality. Clicker either plays the video on its site or links you to where this content is shown on another hosting site—like NBC or Hulu. If a show isn’t available online, Clicker tells you so you don’t have to keep hunting all over for it.

I like Clicker and found it to be a quick resource for finding all sorts of shows online.

Click above for the review.

Click here for Clicker.

Silent Night

“It’s so close you can taste it. In just a few hours time, we begin Holiday season–or, as we at the Law Blog like to call it, Establishment Clause season. Yes, it’s that time of year, kids, when we rejoice in our right to argue about the legality of religious displays in the public realm.”

Law Blog – WSJ

The Law Blog goes on to discuss a Third Circuit ruling in a case concerning whether prohibiting religious Christmas music was a violation of the neutrality toward religion required by the First Amendment. It isn’t.

Best judicial lines of the day

“The affirmative conduct exhibited by Plaintiff [IndyMac] at least since since February 24, 2009 (and perhaps earlier) has been and is inequitable, unconscionable, vexatious and opprobrious. The Court is constrained, solely as a result of Plaintiff’s affirmative acts, to conclude that Plaintiff’s conduct is wholly unsupportable at law or in equity, greatly egregious and so completely devoid of good faith that equity cannot be permitted to intervene on its behalf. Indeed, Plaintiff’s actions toward Defendant in this matter have been harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive to the extent that it must be appropriately sanctioned so as to deter it from imposing further mortifying abuse against Defendant.

Jeffrey Spinner, Suffolk County Supreme Court, quoted by Felix Salmon

According to Salmon, Judge “Spinner then voided the entire debt, leaving Yano-Horoski in full possession of 100% of the equity in her home, and the bank with nothing whatsoever.”

Go read Salmon’s whole excerpt.

Scary economic news line of the day

“Nearly 10.7 million, or 23 percent, of all residential properties with mortgages were in negative equity as of September, 2009. An additional 2.3 million mortgages were approaching negative equity, meaning they had less than five percent equity. Together negative equity and near negative equity mortgages account for nearly 28 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide.”

Via Calculated Risk

“The distribution of negative equity is heavily concentrated in five states: Nevada (65 percent), which had the highest percentage negative equity, followed by Arizona (48 percent), Florida (45 percent), Michigan (37 percent) and California (35 percent).”

So, two-thirds of the people with mortgages in Nevada owe more than their property is worth; nearly half in Arizona.

November 24th

Today is the birthday

… of Oscar Robertson, 71.

Whenever basketball discussions turn to naming the greatest player in history, Oscar Robertson’s name is always prominently mentioned. Red Auerbach, who coached a slew of Hall of Famers with the Boston Celtics, rates Robertson as the best, most versatile player he has ever seen. Most other basketball experts would agree: the “Big O” could do it all. He was an unstoppable offensive player; one who could score from every spot on the court and in any manner he saw fit. Robertson’s offensive prowess changed the point guard stereotype from simply a passer and “floor general” to a scorer and offensive weapon. Robertson truly had a presence on the court.

A three-time All-State selection at Indianapolis’ Crispus Attucks High School, the “Big O” was heavily recruited and opted to remain close to home at the University of Cincinnati. Robertson’s collegiate career (1957-60) was historic: he established 19 school and 14 NCAA records and led the Bearcats to a 79-9 record and two straight NCAA tournament third place finishes in 1959 and 1960. A three-time College Player of the Year and national scoring leader at Cincinnati, Robertson scored 2,973 points (33.8 ppg), placing him seventh all-time in NCAA history.

Basketball Hall of Fame

… of Pete Best, 68. Best was the orginal drummer in The Beatles, fired in 1962 to be replaced by Ringo Starr.

… of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Donald ”Duck” Dunn, 68.

The group came together in the early Sixties at Stax Records, a studio and record store on East McLemore Avenue in Memphis. By 1962, guitarist Steve Cropper, organist Booker T. Jones and bassist Lewis Steinberg were established session musicians at Stax. They were joined on a recording date … by drummer Al Jackson, with whom Steinberg had played in the house band at Memphis’ Plantation Inn. It was during some down time at the Riley session that this lineup recorded the classic Sixties soul instrumental “Green Onions.” The definitive version of Booker T. and the MGs (which stood for “Memphis Group”) was completed in 1963, when bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn – a former schoolmate and bandmate of Cropper’s who’d been touring with the Mar-Keys, another Stax backup group – replaced Steinberg. This lineup lent instrumental fire and uncluttered rhythmic support to countless soul classics. Particularly fruitful was their relationship with Stax’s biggest star, Otis Redding. In addition to playing on virtually all of his records, the band backed him at his legendary performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 (along with the Mar-Kays) ….

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

… of Stanley Livingston, 59. He was Chip, the original third son on My Three Sons. Later Stanley’s brother Barry Livingston played an even younger son (when oldest brother Mike played by Tim Considine left the show).

… of Katherine Heigl, 31. That’s Dr. Isobel “Izzie” Stevens to you.

Also born on November 24th —

Junipero Serra (1713-1784)

“A priest in the Franciscan order of the Catholic Church, Junipero Serra was a driving force in the Spanish conquest and colonization of what is now the state of California.” (PBS – THE WEST)

Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)

Northerners and Southerners disputed sharply whether the territories wrested from Mexico should be opened to slavery, and some Southerners even threatened secession. Standing firm, Zachary Taylor was prepared to hold the Union together by armed force rather than by compromise.

Born in Virginia in 1784, he was taken as an infant to Kentucky and raised on a plantation. He was a career officer in the Army, but his talk was most often of cotton raising. His home was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he owned a plantation in Mississippi.

But Taylor did not defend slavery or southern sectionalism; 40 years in the Army made him a strong nationalist.
(The White House)

Taylor’s early death probably delayed New Mexico’s entry into the Union by 62 years. It’s also interesting to compare this Virginian career Army officer’s thinking about the Union to another’s, that is, Robert E. Lee.

Cass Gilbert (1859-1934)

Gilbert designed the U.S. Supreme Court Building.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)

Rosa La Rouge - À Montrouge

Rosa La Rouge – À Montrouge (1886-87). Click to view larger version.

Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

The great Ragtime composer left no sound recordings, but he did make several piano rolls. It’s interesting to hear his tempo.

Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

“Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don’t put off being happy until some future date.”

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

Carlo Lorenzini (1826-1890)

As C. Collodi, he wrote a timeless story about a wooden boy named Pinocchio, whose nose grew with every lie and whose most ardent wish was to become “a real boy.”