SI’s Top 20 Venues of the 20th Century

1. Yankee Stadium
2. Augusta National
3. Michie Stadium (West Point)
4. Cameron Indoor Stadium
5. Bislett Stadium (Oslo)
6. Wrigley Field
7. Roland Garros
8. Lambeau Field
9. Fenway Park
10. Saratoga Race Course
11. Pebble Beach
12. Wembley Stadium
13. The Pit
14. Boston Marathon Course
15. Camden Yards
16. Lamade Stadium (Williamsport, PA)
17. Daytona International Speedway
18. Notre Dame Stadium
19. St. Andrews
20. Rose Bowl

Details

Road Trip!

Welcome to Road Trip USA

Detailed travel info for 11 road trips. Well done.

Besides, any web site that says this is OK with me: “Though it’s less than half the size of Phoenix, Tucson is at least twice as nice a place to visit. With a lively university community, and some of the most beautiful desert landscapes anywhere on earth, and more palpable history than anywhere in the Southwest outside New Mexico, Tucson is well worth taking the time to get to know.”

Joel Achenbach Unplugged

Unplugged: “True story: Several years ago, when Bethesda lost power for several days due to an ice storm, a highly educated lawyer discovered to his astonishment that a neighbor had made a cup of coffee. ‘How did you do that?’ he asked. She said she boiled water. But how did you boil water? he asked. She said she had a gas stove. Stunned, he said he had a gas stove, too, but noted that it had an electronic ignition to create a spark. She said, ‘I used a match.’ In a state of nature, this man would be eaten alive by field mice.”

Mars closer than ever; huge power outage — just a coincidence?

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

Opening paragraph, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, 1898.

The game about the game

Madden – Sports’ new arbiter of cool

To a new generation of football players, landing on the cover of the latest version of [Madden NFL] is a career-defining experience, the way an enormous shoe contract, or the Wheaties box, or the cover of Sports Illustrated once determined which sports stars had hit the big time. “I mean this is a dream come true, for me to be on the cover of Madden NFL and be part of the game,” this year’s cover boy, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, gushed to the Sporting News. “It’s something you think about as a kid, but you don’t think it will ever happen.” (Vick is 23, which means he was 9 when the original John Madden Football was released for the Apple II.)

NewMexiKen walked into Best Buy to purchase the new Eva Cassidy CD the other evening. A football game was in progress on a large screen TV near the front of the store. The depiction was so real I wondered who was playing, then realized it was Madden 2004.

Feast of the Assumption

Today, August 15, is the Feast of the Assumption, the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the feast celebrates both the “happy departure of Mary from this life” and the “assumption of her body into heaven.” That she “was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things” is a principle of Catholic dogma.

It is one of six Holy Days of Obligation. Catholics are obliged to attend mass today.

Fate

Stephen Boyd, best known for Messala in “Ben-Hur,” was cast in “Cleopatra.” When Elizabeth Taylor became ill and shooting was delayed, Boyd had to fulfill other commitments. The role of Marc Antony went to Richard Burton.

Desperado

J. L. Hunter “Red” Rountree allegedly walked into a First American Bank in Abilene, Texas, Tuesday, handed the teller a note demanding money and walked out with $2,000. A witness identified his license plate and he was arrested within an hour. All of the money was recovered. Mr. Rountree is 91.

This isn’t Rountree’s first bout with the law. In 1998, he received probation for robbing a bank in Mississippi. In 1999, at age 87, he was sentenced to three years in prison for robbing a bank in Florida. Rountree has said he harbors a general hatred of banks.

He faces a maximum of 20 years if convicted for the Abilene robbery.

Powerball

The Powerball Jackpot Saturday is $72,000,000 paid in 30 annual payments or $37,800,000 in cash. The Jackpot is occasionally more but something about $72 million appeals to me. I think I shall purchase the winning ticket.

Between a Rock and the Hardest Place

Mark Jenkins has a fine essay in Outside on Aron Ralston — the hiker who ultimately had to amputate his own hand to survive — and on what survival requires.

It’s not being dead that scares us. The most frightening thing is being a witness to our own death. Watching it come, knowing we are trapped, alone, with no one to call for help. Perhaps most of all, though, fearing we may have a choice but may lack the courage to fight, or the resolve to tell death to go screw itself — whatever the cost.

Why?

Consumer Reports says that the following car manufacturers have power window switches that are potentially dangerous: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chrysler and Dodge. Pushing down on the switch raises the window, which means a kid with his head out the window could be leaning on the switch. At least 25 children died during the past decade from injuries involving power windows.

These car manufacturers have switches that require you to pull up, and thus are considerably safer: Acura, Audi, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo. (Mazda, Isuzu and Saturn have both.)

Understandably this is a small problem and one should never leave kids in the car with the keys, but why aren’t American companies as careful as the foreign manufacturers?

A’s Pass Red Sox in Wild Card Race

And are just three back of the Mariners in the AL West. (Where are the Angels?)

Which brings me again to Moneyball by Michael Lewis, which I read last month. Lewis spent a lot of last season with the Oakland A’s front office, primarily General Manager Billy Beane. Lewis shows—convincingly—why the A’s can win 100 games a year with one of baseball’s lowest payrolls. It’s a fascinating insight into modern baseball, complete with enough baseball anecdotes to animate the story. Lewis is a superb writer.

A story I’ve told many times

Around 1980, when I was the regional archivist for the National Archives in southern California — and probably taking myself too seriously — I was driving along the San Diego Freeway with my son Ken, then 11 or 12. A California Highway Patrolman had pulled someone onto the shoulder and appeared to be giving them a ticket. Ken and I began to talk about the police officer and what he did.

Ultimately, Ken asked, “How much does he make?”
“Oh, about as much as I do,” I replied.
“That’s not fair Dad, he does so much more than you do.”