Day of Yore, October 23

Talk about a game changer. It was today in 2001 that Apple introduced the i-Pod. It was probably the death knell for many things: record stores, albums, independent radio and on and on. Nobody misses cds or buying an entire album for one song you loved, but everyone misses hanging out in record stores. At least a little, right?

Today in 1970 a man named Gary Gabelich drove a car called, The Blue Flame, 622 miles per hour, setting a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The car ran on natural gas, was rocket powered and always looked very bad ass near the front of, “The Guinness Book of World Records.”

In terms of going fast, not a lot did it better than Dale Earnhardt, who tied Richard Petty’s mark of 7 Nascar season titles today in 1994. It would be the last title for, “The Intimidator,” but he would finally win his Daytona 500 in 1998.

“Dumbo” hit screens today in 1941. Disney made the movie to make up for huge losses from “Fantasia,” and it worked, Dumbo was a huge hit and along with “Snow White,” was the only pre-1943 Disney film to turn a profit. “Dumbo ” was slated to be on the cover of TIME in early December, but was knocked off when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

Speaking of Dumbo, it was today in 2004 when Ashlee Simpson walked off the stage at Saturday Night Live when the wrong voice track started playing behind her.

1992 saw two very different movies come out today. George Strait starred in his one and only movie as Dusty Chandler in, “Pure Country,” which is one of those movies that people who love it, LOVE it. If nothing else it was the big  screen debut of Kyle Chandler.

“Let me tell you what ‘Like a Virgin’ is about. It’s all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song. It’s a metaphor for big dicks.”

Right from that opening line on, it was clear that “Reservoir Dogs” was going to be something completely different. Few writer/directors have shot to stardom as fast as Quentin Tarantino did with the release of this slick, fast talking heist flick that’s been borrowed from a million times since its release.

About as far away as you can get from “Reservoir Dogs” was a movie that came out today in 1998. “Life Is Beautiful” has been beaten up by some cold-hearted folks over the years, but like “Reservoir Dogs,” it stands as an all-time classic. Roberto Benigni won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a young Italian man who falls in love, gets married and has a son and then does his best to shield his wife and child from terrors of Nazi Germany.

Joe Carter become just the second player to end the World Series with a home run today in 1993.

— Bill Hubbell

 

 

IT’S ALL HAPPENING: 10/23, the “I Couldn’t Have Done It Without Myself” edition

Starting Five


1. Hunter, gatherer of bizarre hits. Houston Astro Philadelphia Phillie San Francisco Giant Hunter Pence hit a routine one-hopper base-clearing double to propel El Gigantos past the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the NLCS. Pence’s hit was not only a double, but as the replay showed, a double hit. The fans at AT&T Park appeared blithely uninterested, as if they were at a Yankee game.

Two Pence

2. Suh-mething Wicked This Way Comes: Ndamukong Suh, who probably should have won the Heisman Trophy in 2009, remains the scariest Halloween costume if you are Chicago Bear quarterback Jay Cutler. Suh’s sack of Cutler last night inspired the Sports Center staff to create a montage of bad-ass Suh assaults tackles of Cutler, none of which we thought were dirty. Suh’s just the classic example of a player who arrives at the QB in a very, very bad mood. If this were the Seventies, Lite Beer would already be crafting a TV commercial starring Cutler and Suh.

You’d love to know what Cutler is saying here, but then again, you can probably guess.

2. “Horses and bayonets?” “We have these things called aircraft carriers?” “The 1980s called and it would like its foreign policy back?” Was this the third presidential debate or a Saturday Night Live cold open? President Snippy Pants may have won the debate, but he appeared to be auditioning for a guest-hosting spot on SNL.

We all saw this coming…

4. Lynn Jennings rocks! The former three-time World Cross Country champion has traded strides for strokes (very nice, John. Why, thank you). Last Saturday Jennings, who won a bronze in the 10,000 meters at the Barcelona Olympics, won her age group (50-plus) at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. In fact Jennings, 52, set a new age-group record in the 3.2-mile race (20:54).

5. No dream is too far-fetched (in fact most are too near-fetched). A Seattle man waged a two-year campaign to have sneer-rocker Billy Idol play his birthday party, and last night Idol complied. I would’ve requested some of Idol’s earlier, true punk stuff from Generation X (so, no, Douglas Coupland, you did not coin the term).

Reserves

UPDATE: Reuben Foster, if you don’t know him, is a five-star linebacker who decommitted from Alabama to Auburn last summer in most interesting fashion. Foster played his junior season at Troup High in Georgia under highly successful second-year coach (and Troup alumnus) Charles Flowers. Last winter Flowers was sacked by the school district, inciting a walkout among his players, some of whom, such as Foster, transferred.

Today Flowers’ attorney, Atlanta-based Ruth Woodling, filed suit against the school district. This promises to become messy and racially charged. It’s a real-life John Grisham novel.

Former Troup coach Charles Flowers

In retrospect, do you find this Lance Armstrong Nike ad funny, sad, or some other adjective?

We have to ask: If Game 7 were deadlocked in the 9th inning last night instead of 9-0, would the umpires have ordered the grounds crew to pull out the tarps? Raining? The last time we saw a deluge like that Andy Dufresne busted out of Shawshank…

Wet and wild…

Country music artist David Allen Coe once wrote a song titled “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” in which he states that a perfect country & western song must include something about “mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk.” In similar fashion, the perfect college football moment should have at least one of the following: WAC-era defensive fundamentals, an over-the-top broadcaster, a crazy or ballsy play call, a player with a hilarious surname, an unlikely hero, a wild finish, and an unintentionally hilarious post-game quote. Thanks to the geniuses at Smart Football, we have located such a clip. Thank you, San Diego State backup quarterback Adam Dingwell, for providing us with the quote of the year and perhaps the mantra for this very site (Messrs. Hubbell and Oak, included, of course).

“I couldn’t have done it without myself”, from the Gospel According to Dingwell…

 

Coulter-geist: Ann Coulter refers to POTUS as a “retard.” Is now slated to star in Simple Jack II. 

You mmmmu-mmmuu-mmmu-make me happy

Taylor Swift shut down Times Square this morning to perform “Love Story” on Good Morning, America (this remains our favorite performance of that song). I’ll wait until Josh Elliot DMs me to confirm that the two are officially dating.

You’ve probably heard or read the term “Fantasy Slut League” in the past few days. What we found most intriguing is that this Bay Area high school, Piedmont, is the very same bastion of education that annually used to send its best students to perform bird calls on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. It was terrific humor, and about the only time all year our parents would allow us to stay up to watch Carson. (David Letterman later resurrected the routine). Piedmont, you need to return to emphasizing bird calls as opposed to mating calls (and, yes, we realize that most bird calls are mating calls).

 

Hey, Piedmont: More flocking and less….

Wild turkey(s): A Bay Area cyclist is in critical condition after pedaling into a flock of wild turkeys. Laugh now, birds. We will have our revenge in five weeks.

Oklahoma-Notre Dame: The story of “Play Like A Champion”  by Berry Tramel and the story of “Play Like A Champion Today” by yours truly.

This looks like one of those stories that will soon blossom into a bigger story. We sent our own Jeremy Schaap to investigate (even though it’s taking place in Wright Thompson’s backyard)

Speaking of cyclists, one of our very favorite columnists, Jason Gay of the WSJ, lands an exclusive interview with the newly crowned seven-time champ of the Tour de France.

Best wishes for a swift recovery to one of my closest friends in or out of the business, Mark Beech.

Day of Yore, October 22

Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity 
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Yo”

There’s crossing over and then there’s whatever Eminem did on this day ten years ago when “Lose Yourself” dropped on the world. He’d already grabbed an audience that went far beyond rap and hip-hop fans and when “Lose Yourself” hit the radio and television commercials for “8Mile,” he grabbed everybody else. I’d link to it, but it’s already on your I-pod. It’s hard to argue with anyone who says it’s a top 10 song of the ’00’s.

There’s college kids doing dumb things and then there’s McGill University student J. Gordon Whitehead, who sucker punched Harry Houdini several times in the stomach on this day in 1926. Whitehead had gone backstage at a theatre in Montreal after a show and asked if it was true that Houdini could stand any punch to the stomach. Houdini said yes and before he could ready himself Whitehead began pummeling away at Houdini’s stomach as Houdini was laying on a couch. Floyd Mayweather Jr. might think there’s nothing wrong with that, but everybody else does. Houdini would die nine days later of a ruptured appendix at just 52 years old.

Speaking of “pretty boy,” the original, Charles Arthur, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, was shot and killed by the FBI today in 1934. Floyd was 30.

While on the subject of punching and shooting and whatnot, it’s worth mentioning that today in 2000, Roger Clemens had one of the more famous public displays of ‘roid rage ever. In the Subway World Series, Clemens fielded a part of Mike Piazza’s broken bat and threw it at Piazza who was four or five steps on his way to first base. Clemens had hit Piazza in the head with a pitch when the teams played in July.

 

If you’re ever in an argument where you’re forced to compare and contrast the differences between Kanye West and Jean-Paul Sarte, you can note that today in 1964, Sarte was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and turned it down. Sarte didn’t believe in awards and said,  “a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution.” I’m going to side with Kanye here.

“We weren’t in love oh no far from it 
We weren’t searching for some pie in the sky summit 
We were just young and restless and bored 
Living by the sword 
And we’d steal away every chance we could 
To the backroom, the alley, the trusty woods 
I used her she used me 
But neither one cared 
We were getting our share”

Your write a song like that and you’re bound for the big time. Night Moves was Bob Seger’s ninth album, but his first with the Silver Bullet Band and it launched him to superstardom. The song went to #4 on the charts and the album climbed to #8. “Mainstreet” and “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” also charted as singles.

Bob Seger is good music to drink to and a good movie to drink to is “Sideways,” which came out today in 2004. It was nominated for five Oscars, won for best adapted screenplay and made visiting the wine country a lot more fun than anybody thought.

It was today in 1974 that the “next Willie Mays” was traded for “the next Mickey Mantle”. Both were great players, neither one of them came close to the comparison. You just don’t see trades like that anymore.

 

Today in 1975 the Cincinnati Reds finished off the Boston Red Sox in game seven of the World Series. The Red Sox rode the momentum of Carlton Fisk’s game winning homer in game six to jump to a 3-0, but couldn’t hold on. Tony Perez pounded a “Spaceball” (an Eephus pich) from Bill Lee over the Green Monster for a 2-run homer in the 6th and the Reds would add runs in the 7th and 9th innings to win one of the best World Series’ ever played.

Happy birthdays to both Ichiro and Robbie Cano, I wonder what they’ll wish for?

— Bill Hubbell

 

 

Posted in: 365 |

IT’S ALL HAPPENING! 10/22

Starting Five

1. Pariah: The UCI (which does not stand for “University of California, Irvine” but rather Union Cycliste Internationale) has agreed to strip Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and to ban him from cycling for life. This is not the same as “demonizing” him.

2. Which Blair Project? Paranormal Activity 4, which is not the story of a man paralyzed by polio who hires a sex surrogate to strip him of his virginity, tops the box office in its opening weekend.

The opposite of planking

3. Game Seven: The St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants meet tonight at AT&T Park to determine who will represent the National League in the World Series. This will be the sixth elimination game El Gigantos have played this month. Kyle Lohse (16-3, 2.86 ERA) faces Matt Cain of the Giants (16-5, 2.79 ERA, one perfect game). 

4. Pats top Jets in OT. The New York tabloids were all set to run their “Folk Hero” headlines after kicker Nick Folk struck two late-game 47-yard field goals for the J-E-T-S, but New England survived to win 29-26 in overtime.

 5. Timberrrr: Oregon falls. In a week in which the Ducks went up 43-7 in the game’s first 20 minutes, against a 5-1 opponent on the road, they still managed to drop one spot, from 3rd to 4th, in the BCS standings. It won’t matter, though, as the season continues. Especially not if neighbor Oregon State, which is 6-0 for the first time since Theodore Roosevelt was president, remains undefeated. 

Reserves

Oklahoma State quarterback J.W. Walsh is out for the season with a knee injury. We always have been huge fans of his work, especially in “A Few Good Men” and “Sling Blade.”

Katy Perry teams up with an autistic child, Jody DiPiazza, to perform “Firework” on the “Night of Too Many Stars” telethon from the Beacon Theater in my neighborhood New York City.

The live audience was treated to an encore performance of Aldous Snow’s “Inside of You”

The NFL had a nice PSA yesterday about what they are doing to promote player safety. The ad starred Tom Brady and a mother expressing concern about the welfare of her son, who loves playing football. In the closing reveal, we learn that the son is Baltimore Raven linebacker Ray Lewis… who last Sunday suffered a season-ending torn triceps injury. LULZ. 

In case you missed it, Saturday Night Live’s cold open, with a cameo appearance by that incorrigible F-bomber, Tom Hanks (or, as we like to refer to him, T.Hanks). 

Unfortunately, if you Google “Ohio and flatulence and teen dead”, you will come up with a plethora of hits. Ohio, it’s the Rust Belt Florida. 

A real-life Baywatch moment, as 284 wannabe lifeguards complete a 1,000-meter ocean swim just to pass the first of four stages of the Los Angeles County lifeguard test. Of those 284, only 120 moved on to Stage 2 (in-person interviews), although three of them are swimmers at Pepperdine University

The most pivotal game of the 2012 college football season? It may be the one that was canceled two years ago. No. 3 Kansas State was scheduled to meet No. 4 Oregon (BCS standings) last month, but Wildcat coach Bill Snyder called off the series in 2010. We don’t need a playoff. What we do need is 8-game conference schedules, max, and a mandate that FBS schools never 1) play FCS schools and 2) renege on scheduled contests. 

Speaking of ocean swims from last weekend that we were remiss in noting, the Ironman World Championships from Kona, Hawaii, were staged on October 13. Pete Jacobs of Australia won the men’s division (8:18:37)  while Leanda Cave of Great Britain (9:15:54) was the first female to finish the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. Unofficially, an ironman is No. 2 behind skydiving as the most popular “bucket list” item.

 And speaking of triathlons, you do realize that Lance Armstrong had already won two lesser-distance Ironmans in his nascent pro triathlon career? We may  be off here, but we think being banned from competing in such events in the future weighs more heavily on Mr. Livestrong than being stripped of his titles. After all, no one can erase the memories — but they can take away his future goals. 

The Indiana Fever won the WNBA title.

We admit, we were completely wrong on Vontaze Burfict. Then again, so were all 32 NFL teams that did not draft him. The former Sun Devil linebacker made plenty of plays for the Cincinnati Bengals in last night’s 24-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Our favorite moment, though, was when Cris Collinsworth quipped, “Burfict was undrafted out of Arizona State, just like you, Al.” Michaels, by the way, noted that in his day there was a different draft (Vietman) to be concerned about. We are wondering how come Al Michaels wasn’t drafted. 

We may be wrong, here, but we believe the last time Notre Dame met Oklahoma in Norman was 1966, a year in which a coach in his third season in South Bend led the Irish to a national championship (pipe down, Sparty). The Irish beat the Sooners 38-0 that day. Of course, the far better-known battle betweent these two in Norman took place nine years earlier, when an unheralded Irish squad ended the nation’s longest win streak, 47 games, with a 7-0 victory. We’d be surprised if the Irish won this Saturday and shocked, despite their having the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense, if they were to hold the Sooners scoreless. In fact, we guarantee that won’t happen.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING: THE WEAKENED EDITION, 10-20/21

Starting Five

1. The latest in fall fashion is the Collin Klein collection from Kansas State. Klein completed 19 of 21 passes for a career-high 323 yards, threw three touchdown passes and ran for four more in a 55-14 rout of West Virginia. Klein must now be considered your Heisman Red Grange Award frontrunner, while the Human Geno Project must be considered on life support.

2. Former U.S. senator, 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, and All-Aptly-Named Team all-timer George McGovern dies at the age of 90.

McGovern

McLovin

 

 

3. Florida pummels the OBC (Ol’ Ball Coach) and South Carolina, 44-11. In the last two weeks, the Gamecocks and Mountaineers have free-fallen into irrelevance while the Gators and Oklahoma have taken the greatest strides in the BCS. The Sooners have a chance to climb even higher with unbeaten, No. 5 Notre Dame visiting Norman next Saturday.

4. Justin Timberlake weds Jessica Biel in Anthony Fasano, Italy. We just want to 1.) see what guest Andy Samberg gave the couple as a wedding gift and 2) inquire if Rev. Eric Camden performed the service.

5. Ohio State wins a Purdoozie to remain undefeated, further underlining a point we made last year (in a video for The Daily) that the Buckeyes should’ve taken their bowl ban lumps last season.

Reserves

Best news we’ll hear all day? Probably this, that our beloved UWS neighbor Louis C.K. will host Saturday Night Live on November 3.

Sorry, Rece, but we may have to DVR College Football Final in two weeks

It was truly a bad weekend for the Human Geno Project. His Mountaineers were trounced for the second straight week, he threw his first two interceptions of the season, and Louisiana Tech’s Colby Cameron passed him on the list of Most Passes without an Interception, running his streak to 275 (this season) in a 70-28 win against Idaho.

Colby Cameron has a very “Johnny Football” look to him, wouldn’t you say?

The return of Stephon

“An abandoned whitefish factory in Little Israel…”

…and this sack by Stephon.

“South Bend’s hottest new nightclub is…”

West Virginia beat Baylor 70-63, West Virginia beat Texas 48-45, and Texas beat Baylor 56-50. Average score of this trio’s three meetings: 58-52. 

Shoppers: Beware of falling tuna cans. Retailers: beware of hyper-litigious octagenarian shoppers.

 If you have yet to see Washington high school senior Austin Rehkow’s 67-yard field goal, here it is. In the same game, which Rehkow’s Central Valley High School squad won in overtime, 62-55 (Rehkow’s boot tied the game at the end of regulation), opposing quarterback Brett Rypien of Shadle Park High School threw for a state-record 577 yards. Rypien’s dad is Mark Rypien, who led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXVI, a game in which he was named MVP.

 Mississippi State has won all seven games it has played this season and lost all seven pre-game coin tosses. The Bulldogs visit Tuscaloosa next Saturday. How come we get the feeling they are going to win the coin toss? 

Florida alum Ryan Lochte, asked for his celebrity pick between LSU and Texas A&M on “College Gameday”, chooses “Auburn.” We told you they should’ve gone with Andy Staples

By the way, Stanford and Cal play “The Big Game” yesterday (Cardinal cruise, 21-3), but it is the Tigers and Aggies who pay homage to the 30th anniversary year of “The Play” by reenacting it on the their contest’s final snap (we are still searching for the video, but it is good humor).

 Farewell to our favorite surname of the past few seasons: LUTZENKIRCHEN! Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen suffers a season-ending injury, while his coach, Gene Chizik, now owns college football’s hottest seat after the Tigers dropped to 1-6.
After Notre Dame edged BYU 17-14, CBS Sports’ Doug Gottlieb tweeted that “If you really think Notre Dame is the fifth-best team in the country, I think you don’t know football.” We’d agree that the Irish may not be the fifth-best team in the country, but they do deserve that ranking. Notre Dame is undefeated, after all, against a better schedule than any other unbeaten with the exception of Florida.

Day of Yore, October 19

Rolling Stone’s review said simply, “It’s the album we’ve all been waiting for – that is, if we were all Tom Petty fans, which we would be if there were any justice in the world”.

“Damn the Torpedos” was released today in 1979. It was the third album from the band from Gainesville, Florida and the first one with producer Jimmy Iovine on board. Five stars later from Rolling Stone and AllMusic and the Heartbreakers were no longer that band that was gonna be great– they were great. The album was a smash success, hitting number two on the album charts and producing top 10 hits, “Don’t Do Me Like That,” and “Refugee.” My personal favorite was always this one. For anyone who’s ever sat on a roof with a girl he liked, or sat anywhere for that matter, it’s an all-time classic.

The very same day in 1979 an unknown Minneapolis artist came out with his second album that proved he was going to be a game changer as well. Like Petty, he wouldn’t knock the door down until album three, but this one has some classics, particularly, “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” Seriously, what 21-year old has the stones to have this be their album cover?

A far better second album to be sure than Prince’s second effort came out today in 1993. “Ten” was a staggering debut for Pearl Jam, but they gave quick notice that they weren’t going to be one-album wonders. Pearl Jam decided to scale back their commercial push for “Vs.” but that didn’t stop it from selling more copies in its first week than any album ever. “Go,” “Animal,” “Glorified G,” “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” all live in the “classic Pearl Jam” category, but this is the song that became iconic.

It’s tough to say which scene I liked better when I first saw it from these two that were released today. The first one was like watching really entertaining idiots making a home movie and the second one is the most underrated of all the great movies set in Boston in the last 20 years.

“Clerks” came out today in 1994.

“Gone Baby Gone” came out today in 2007.

  

Believe it or not the 70’s had better luck with October 19 releases, at least according to the Oscars.

Today in 1973, “The Way We Were” came out and Barbara Streisand was nominated for Best Actress and the titular song won the Oscar.

1977 saw the release of “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” Tuesday Weld was nominated as Best Supporting Actress and Diane Keaton won a slew of awards as the lead, a school teacher by day who spends her nights in New York bars looking for depraved sex and drugs. The movie also introduced Richard Gere to the silver screen.

Today in 1979 not only saw the release of those two albums above, but also “…And Justice For All”  which got  Al Pacino up for Best Actor.

It was today in 2004 that Curt Schilling put himself in the “Man Hall of Fame” by pitching through an ankle injury to beat the Yankees and tie the ALCS at three games apiece.

 

Today in 1936 was the first time the AP College football poll ever came out– Minnesota was ranked number one.

— Bill Hubbell

IT’S ALL HAPPENING! 10/19

Starting Five


1. “Mowed Down in Motown”… as the New York Post wrote. The Yankees are swept in four straight by the Detroit Tigers, the first time that’s happened in the postseason since 1976. Worse, it was on the 35th anniversary of Reggie Jackson’s epic Game 6 in the 1977 World Series (three at-bats, three pitches total from three different Dodger pitchers, three home runs). Even worse, the only Yankee who hit a homer or triple  after Game One– and the only one to score in Detroit — was Eduardo Nunez, who was not on the roster when the ALCS began last Saturday. As our friend Jeff Bradley of the Newark Star-Ledger wondered aloud on Twitter, “Will any team in MLB history ever have 36 scoreless offensive innings again in a four-game series?” Maybe, but probably not one with at least four future Hall of Famers in the batting order.

2. Aaron Fisher, the courageous Victim One in the Jerry Sandusky trial, emerges from the pseudonym and is interviewed by ABC’s Chris Cuomo (the full interview will run tonight on 20/20). Fisher has published a book. Meanwhile, Armen Keteyian is probably still standing on Mike McQueary’s porch.

3. Webbed Feat: Oregon 43, Arizona State 7, in Sun Devil Stadium, after just 19:33 on national television last night. Having been weaned on college football via attending ASU games in the late 1970s, we can only imagine how Frank Kush would’ve handled the halftime speech. The Ducks stopped paddling and cruised home to a 43-21 win (weird stat: the Ducks had just 48 yards passing on 11 completions). Before the contest, Sun Devil coach Todd Graham told ESPN’s Samantha Steele that their field was known as “The Furnace” (a tradition dating back at least, what, six weeks now?) but speedy Oregon transformed it into a Fun Race.

Instead of surnames, Oregon backs should just have “See Ya” on the backs of their jerseys

4. We know that we should care about the NLCS — Marco Scutaro! — but we’ve just been too busy wallowing in the complete collapse of the Yankees. St. Louis leads 3-1, which means that we are just 27 outs away from reliving the 2006 World Series, which no one from outside of Detroit or St. Louis can recall.

5. Just two nights later, Obama and Romney return to New York City to clog traffic on the East Side speak at a charity dinner. The photo below will be blown up to life-size, framed, and occupy a meaningful space in our entry foyer (if, of course, we had an entry foyer).

And then they all went to see “The Book of Mormon”

 

Reserves

“Elephant Crushes Australian Zookeeper?” You’re gosh-darned right we’ll click on that.

Sports Illustrated names Paul Fichtenbaum as the managing editor of its sports group, while Chris Stone is named managing editor of the magazine (for as long as it continues to print, we assume). John Huey, for whom Time Inc threw a lavish (reported to cost $300,000) going away party back in the early 2000s in the midst of layoffs, only to not go away, made the announcement in a memo (we still have a cookie embossed with a photo of Huey’s face on it in our freezer if you’d like to come by and see it). “Fichto”, Stone and ESPN mag editor in chief Chad Millman all started out, as did this writer/waiter, as fact-checkers at Sports Illustrated… well, okay, we all started out as zygotes, but we chose to advance the story somewhat.

The best zingers at the Al Smith dinner (if only Jeffery Ross had been allowed to speak) goes to Governor Romney who, noting media bias, said that it would be played as “Obama embraced by Catholics; Romney dines with rich people.”

For the first time in at least two weeks, 1) Alex Rodriguez has the night off, 2) the Yankees are not playing and 3) A-Hole does not need to be out of town for a travel day. We wonder what a certain Australian bikini designer is doing tonight…

“Tell me again about that time the Yanks were trailing by six runs in the 9th inning and you hit a solo home run…”

We have no idea if he’d have even wanted the job, but Jack McCallum would have been a HUGELY popular choice within the masthead to succeed Terry McDonnell as managing editor. And Jack, as well as being immensely well-liked, has as much cache as anyone associated with SI in press boxes across the nation. Only Peter King may have a bigger personal brand.

Jack, even at age 63, would have made a great choice

Give Yankee manager Joe Girardi credit. He gave A-Hole an opportunity to redeem himself, pinch-hitting him for Raul Ibanez with the Yanks trailing 6-1 with two men on in the top of the sixth. An “A-bomb for A-Rod”, as Yankee play-by-play man John Sterling calls it, would have made it a game once again. Instead, A-Hole flied out to end the inning. Girardi gave A-Hole a chance to turn the narrative, but he failed. Again.

49ers 13, Seahawks 6. We miss the “What’s your deal?” era of Carroll and Harbaugh…

JDubs hands out his midseason college football awards

We know, we know. We are a little too obsessed with this story, but allow us to ask this question: How does TBS’ dugout reporter Craig Sager MISS THIS? We mean, isn’t that his job, to report about things happening on the field of play? He had the biggest scoop of at least his baseball career taking place right in front of him and he was likely too preoccupied looking at swatches of potential Game 2 blazer choices to notice? Imagine if he had attempted to break that story live. Would TBS have even allowed him to do so without 200% confirmation of its veracity? On the other hand, Sager is married to a former Chicago Bull dancer/cheerleader, so it’s not as if he never noticed a pretty face while on the job and acted on it, either.

Jon Stewart interviews POTUS. Although, the night before, this segment reviewing the second debate (“Now Including the President”) was more entertaining (catch the Romney eyebrow lift at 1:33). “Can you say it a little louder, Candy?”

So our pal Rick Reilly has another tough moment, courtesy of Deadspin. Riles was always very well liked, even loved, at SI, but he had a reputation among us fact-checkers as, well, you’d better triple-check every sentence. Combing over the details has never been his long suit, and in the age of fact-checking, that was not a liability. Today, when there are blogs out there just waiting for someone like Riles to stumble, it’s like Cicely Tyson fighting Mike Tyson. Wait, where have we heard that before?

Fantastic New York Times piece on one of the alleged ringleaders of the Benghazi attack, Ahmed Abu Khattala.

We’re going to give Paul Ryan a pass on the Colt McCoy/Brandon Weeden “Great job at Oklahoma State” mix-up. At least he got the school of one of the Browns’ quarterbacks correct, and let’s face it, if both players were black this would have been a HUGE gaffe.

We don’t care how long these four seventh graders in Anderson, Ind., are suspended for accidentally coming across a topless photo of their teacher on a school-issued iPad, they’ll still have smirks on their faces the day that they return.

Tom Hanks: Good F’in Morning, America!

If for no other reason than the title of the segment (“A Shucking Disaster”), you should watch Stephen Colbert’s report on The Corn Palace.

Cornutopia

Syria is, or should be, a much bigger Middle East-in-crisis story than Afghanistan or Iran or even Libya right now, no?

Did you ever wake up, sit straight up in bed and wonder, What’s the tallest building in the southern hemisphere? So have we! So we looked it up Googled it. It’s called Q1. Do you know where it is located? Answer below the photo.

“Oy, that’s HUUUGE.”

Located in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia, on what is known as the Gold Coast.

Day of Yore, October 18

Oh, he knew he was money, baby.

It was tonight in 1977 when Reggie Jackson became Mr. October. Three home runs on three pitches at Yankee Stadium to wrap up the World Series title against the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. After homering off of Bert Hooton and Elias Sosa, Jackson sauntered to the plate in the 8th to face Charlie Hough to the thunderous cries of “Reg-gie, Reg-gie.” Jackson golfed Hough’s first knuckleball 475 feet to cap off the most memorable performance in World Series history.

“Swingers” hit the big screen today in 1996. The movie was a huge hit and launched Vince Vaughn right past the Hollywood C and B lists and gave writer Jon Favreau a career making movies. The lines from the movie were ad nauseum for the next six months and then any utterance of them after that signaled you as a complete tool.

“West Side Story,” the most decorated movie musical of all-time, opened today in 1961. The modern take on Romeo and Juliet set in the world of NYC gangs won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The lead male role, Tony, was offered to Elvis Presley, but he famously turned it down, his management thought the material was too rough for Elvis’ image. Some said Elvis turned the part down because he’d already had an off-screen romance with the female lead, Natalie Wood.

Walt Disney pictures released “The Jungle Book” today in 1967. It was the last of the Disney cartoon to be produced by Disney himself, as he died just before the movie’s release.

In other animal news, “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville was first published in England today in 1851.

ESPN and it’s Game Day crew might have simply exploded on this day in 1924. Memorial Stadium in Illinois had its grand opening that day and Illinois star Red Grange took advantage of the spotlight against Michigan. Grange took the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and added touchdown runs of 66, 55 and 40 yards— all in the first quarter. Grange added another TD in the second half and threw in an interception to boot to lead the Illini to a rousing 39-14 win.

The same afternoon at the Polo Grounds in New York, Notre Dame upset top-ranked Army 24-7 on their way to an undefeated National Championship season. Grantland Rice wrote perhaps the most famous sports lede ever the next day in the New York Herald Tribune: “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again.” None of Notre Dame’s four backs weighed over 162 pounds.

The Rolling Stones released their last record before Ron Wood joined the group today in 1974, “It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll.”

The Bangles capped off a dominant five year run, releasing their third album, “Everything,” today in 1988. Dominant? How so, you might ask. Dominant over the GoGo’s. But the GoGo’s sold so many more records, the fake person I’m having this conversation with would chime in. Hipster cred, man, hipster cred. Wait, so the Bangles were hip? Ok, no…. but god, was Susanna Hoffs cute. “Eternal Flame” hit number one and “In Your Room” made it to number five on the charts. Friction drove the group apart as the other three were mad that Hoffs not only got to be the pretty one, but the talented one too. I would imagine the breakup went something like this.

The second episode of “Saturday Night Live” aired today in 1975 and the highlight was the icy reunion of Simon and Garfunkel. Though the two kind of hated each other at the time, they still crushed it, in one of the most iconic SNL musical performances ever.

— Bill Hubbell

 

 

 

Posted in: 365 |

IT’S ALL HAPPENING! 10/18

Starting Five

1. It is BANGladesh, after all. Bangladeshi national’s plot to detonate the Federal Reserve in New York City blows up in his own face when the FBI foils his plot. Ben Affleck has already purchased the film rights.

2. Is O.J. Simpson really attempting to sell the knife that did the deed?

3. Newsweek announces that it is going all-digital beginning in 2013. While that may not be the very first domino to fall, the quote from “Ghostbusters”  “Print is dead” is now true.

4. The woman who A-Hole targeted at Game 1 of the ALCS was identified as a 33 year-old Aussie by the New York Post yesterday (we will give her privacy here in terms of name identifcation, although it’s pretty much public domain by now). This morning she tweeted, “Ha, I’m 27 not 33.”

5. The Cardinals defeat the Giants, 3-1, to take a 2-1 series lead in St. Louis. The Freak, Tim Lincecum, gets the start for San Francisco in Game 5.

 

Reserves

“Oooh, ooh, Love hurts…”

A request: If you’re tweeting score updates of NBA exhibition contests, please stop.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the SI cover story about Tyrann Mathieu that many of us who don’t live in a parish may not have known — his biological father’s troubled past, for example. But this is the paragraph we found most curious:

Mathieu is also featured on a flyer for a Jan. 14, 2012, party at Club H2O in New Orleans. The flyers and videos may be a violation of NCAA rule 12.5.2.1, which says that anyone who “accepts any remuneration or permits the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind” is ineligible. A veteran compliance officer with no direct knowledge of Mathieu’s case says that any penalties would depend on how commercial the videos were, whether Mathieu knew what they were being used for and if he received any illicit benefits, which would violate a separate NCAA rule. “If this guy is in the video in an attempt to draw people to the place,” says the officer, “that’s not permissible.” LSU says the school, including coach Les Miles, is unaware of players using their images to promote events or receiving extra benefits.

There is, to us, something slightly unseemly about casting about for a way to link a player to this infraction while featuring a picture of him on the cover of your own nationally sold commercial product against his wishes, no? The Mathieu family are fighting back

So there was like this huge art heist in Rotterdam (yes, it is obligatory to use the word “heist” when it comes to thievery of paintings) in which works by Picasso, Monet and Matisse were stolen. But it turns out police do have a suspect

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby: “We are very close to getting this (playoff) really right.” Ah, HA HA HA HA HA. Lo, what fools these mortals be…