College Football Quiz: [AP Champs, no co-champs these years.]
1) 1984 / BYU: Name the QB and two of the top receivers. 2)
1985 / Oklahoma: Name the QB, the top receiver, and the top
rusher. [The QB was the second leading rusher.] 3) 1988 / Notre
Dame: Name the QB (who was also the top rusher), one of the
other top backs, and the top receiver. [Be careful with this last
one.] 4) Name the Miami QB on their 1983, 87, and 89 national
championship teams. Answers below.
Markus Wolf
You can skip down to the next story while I indulge myself.
Markus Wolf, former East German spymaster, died the other day
at age 83 and I felt compelled to review just how he helped lead
to the downfall of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in the
1970s, despite Brandt’s huge popularity in the West at that time.
So….I have in my vast library here “The Sword and the Shield:
The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB” by
Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, the 1999 book that
busted open some myths about the KGB and the other Eastern
bloc security services. Mitrokhin had been an archivist for 30
years at the KGB and for over a decade he smuggled out notes
and transcripts of highly classified information. Mitrokhin ended
up in Britain in 1996 with his treasure trove.
As for Wolf, who reveled in the moniker “The Man Without a
Face,” he rose through the ranks of East Germany’s secret police,
the Stasi, to head its elite foreign intelligence division,
overseeing 4,000 spies. Wolf was proudest of his “prolific use of
sex to gain secrets, whether in the form of brothels to trap
Westerners or by procuring wives and mistresses for loyal
soldiers or by cultivating ‘Romeo spies’ to target the lonely
office secretaries and bureaucrats who had access to important,
restricted documents. The intention was to steal hearts and then
secrets.” [Adam Bernstein / Washington Post]
It’s forever been thought Wolf was the inspiration behind John le
Carre’s espionage novels, though le Carre has always denied that
Wolf was Karla.
But to remind you of the painstaking manner in which the spy
world conducts its operations (at least successful ones), here is
the story of East German Gunter Guillaume.
“In 1956 Guillaume and his wife Christel, both HVA (East
German foreign intelligence) officers, had staged a carefully
orchestrated ‘escape’ from East Germany, set up small
businesses in Frankfurt to act as cover for their intelligence work
and become active, apparently staunchly anti-Communist,
members of the SDP (West Germany’s Social Democratic Party).
By 1968 Guillaume had become chairman of the Frankfurt SDP
and an elected member of the Frankfurt city council, thus
becoming the only HVA officer (as opposed to agent) ever to
hold public office in the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany). In
November 1969, three weeks after Willy Brandt became
chancellor, Guillaume gained a job in his office, initially as an
assistant dealing with trade unions and political organizations.
Hardworking and efficient, with a jovial down-to-earth manner,
he was promoted in 1972 to become the Chancellor’s aide for
relations with the SDP, as well as being put in charge of Brandt’s
travel arrangements. His reports were so highly rated in the
Centre that they were personally forwarded by (KGB chief Yuri)
Andropov to foreign minister (Andrei) Gromyko.
“The key intelligence requirement placed on Guillaume
concerned Brandt’s Ostpolitik, which he defined as having ‘a
threefold aim: improved relations with the Soviet Union, normal
relations with the east European states, and a modus vivendi
between the two parts of Germany.’ In his ‘Report on the State
of the Nation’ to the Bundestag at the beginning of 1970, Brandt
called for ‘cooperative togetherness’ between the FRG and GDR.
In the course of the year he became the first chancellor to visit
East Germany, and signed treaties with the Soviet Union and
Poland. ‘Through Guillaume’s judgments,’ writes (Markus)
Wolf in his memoirs, ‘we were able to conclude sooner rather
than later that Brandt’s new Ostpolitik, while still riven with
contradictions, marked a genuine change of course in West
German foreign policy.’ Moscow reached the same conclusion.
After Brandt’s visit to East Germany, however Karlshorst (E.
German base of operations in Berlin) reported ‘a noticeable rise
in his popularity,’ which caused some concern to the GDR
leadership. During his visit, as the crowds chanted, ‘Willy,
Willy!’ Brandt mischievously asked the East German prime
minister, Willi Stoph, whether the name being chanted was
spelled with a ‘y’ or an ‘i.’ Stoph remained stony-faced.
“With the Christian Democrats in open opposition to Brandt’s
Ostpolitik, the Centre was now concerned not to compromise
Brandt but to keep him in power.”
The Christian Democrats’ support rose and Markus Wolf decided
to intervene in the Bundestag.
“Shortly before a crucial vote of confidence (in Brandt’s
leadership), the HVA had recruited a corrupt Christian Democrat
deputy, Julius Steiner, as an agent with the codename SIMSON.
Wolf paid Steiner 50,000 marks to vote for Brandt. The no
confidence motion failed by two votes. At a general election in
November, Brandt won a more secure parliamentary majority,
with the SDP for the first time beating the Christian Democrats
in the popular vote. The HVA continued to run SIMSON as an
agent in the new Bundestag.”
Steiner would be paid a retainer of 3,000 marks a month to be in
the employ of the HVA. But soon afterward, Wolf learned
Steiner was also in contact with BfV, the West German counter-
intelligence agency, and thus useless as an agent.
“In June the Munich weekly Quick published a photograph of a
bank deposit slip showing that 50,000 marks had been paid into
Steiner’s account the day after the April 1972 no confidence
vote, thus provoking a public scandal which was quickly dubbed
‘Bonn’s Watergate’ or ‘Rhinegate.’ Steiner acknowledged being
recruited as an HVA agent but claimed that he had worked as a
double agent with the approval of the BfV, and said that the
50,000 marks had come from the SDP chief whip, Karl Wienand
– a charge denied by Wienand (who, it later transpired, was also
an HVA agent). A parliamentary inquiry decided that there was
no conclusive evidence of bribery.
“By the time of Brandt’s victory in the November 1972 elections,
Guillaume was at the peak of his career as a penetration agent,
attending all meetings of the SDP party and parliamentary
leadership. On May 29, 1973, however, Gunter Nollau, head of
the BfV, informed Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the interior minister,
that Guillaume was under suspicion of espionage and had been
placed under surveillance.”
The HVA learned of this and ordered Guillaume and his wife to
suspend their intelligence work. But at 6:30 a.m. on April 24,
1974 the Guillaumes were arrested at their Bonn apartment.
“In a curious breach of espionage tradecraft, Guillaume virtually
admitted his guilt. Dressed only in a bathrobe, he declared
defiantly, ‘I am an officer of the East German National People’s
Army!’ According to Genscher, ‘It was basically only
Guillaume’s own declaration which convicted him.’”
Sadly, Brandt, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for
his efforts with the Communist bloc states, was forced to resign
just two weeks later. The HVA, Wolf concludes, “unwittingly
helped to destroy the career of the most farsighted of modern
German statesmen.”
Wolf would later escape to Russia after the fall of the Berlin
Wall, though in 1991 he turned himself in to West German
authorities, expecting to be found innocent on trial. Instead he
was deemed guilty of treason, but Wolf launched a four-year
appeal, arguing it would be “victors’ justice” to punish him for
the same cloak-and-dagger activities carried out by western
agents. The sentence was overturned, though Wolf later received
a two-year suspended sentence on a separate charge.
Columnist Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post wrote an
op-ed on Wolf the other day, talking about how he toyed with the
emotions of women “who had been forced by the Nazi regime to
give up their blond, blue-eyed children…for adoption. Years
later, he arranged for fake ‘sons’ to get back in touch with their
long-lost mothers, and then set those women up as East German
agents, too.”
“And yet for all his preening,” Applebaum adds,” Wolf and his
comrades did not win the Cold War. Nor, for all the CIA’s ham-
handedness, did the agents of communism even win the
intelligence war. Invariably, Western agents received their best
information not through psychological manipulation and
complex schemes but through Soviet and East European
defectors who offered themselves up voluntarily. Col. Ryszard
Kuklinski, the Polish Warsaw Pact liaison, passed 35,000 pages
of mostly Russian documents to the West because he’d seen
plans for a Russian invasion of the West, during which Poland
would be destroyed. Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who
worked as a double agent for British intelligence, did so because
the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia had gutted his faith
in Soviet propaganda.
“In the end, what Wolf liked to call his comrades’
‘professionalism’ – and what might more accurately be called
cynicism, opportunism or cold calculation – wasn’t even
persuasive enough to win the allegiance of most East Germans.
Like the rest of the Soviet bloc, East Germany eventually fell
apart not so much because of Western military pressure but
because the loyalty of its people evaporated. As soon as they
could leave their country, East Germans left. And no wonder:
Who could feel affection for a regime led by men such as
Markus Wolf?”
Not for nothing, but as you read this tale how many of you had
the thought I did? With corruption rampant in the U.S.
Congress, just how tough would it be to buy off some key
congressmen or senators? As we learned in just the past year or
so, many have already proved pliable. There are all kinds of
close votes, after all, that come up with national security
implications and you can’t tell me some of the incredibly awful
representatives we keep sending back to Congress aren’t subject
to temptation. [Or employees at, say, the State Department,
where there’s already a long history of this kind of stuff, and they
give away our strategy on negotiating with Iran.]
—
Time magazine published a list of their all-time top 100 albums.
In the 1950s, two of the four selections were Frank Sinatra LPs,
“Songs for Swingin’ Lovers” and “In the Wee Small Hours,”
both super picks.
For the 60s:
Abbey Road – The Beatles
Bitches Brew – Miles Davis
Stand! – Sly & the Family Stone
The Band – The Band
Astral Weeks – Van Morrison
At Folsom Prison – Johnny Cash
Lady Soul – Aretha Franklin
The Beatles (“The White Album”) – The Beatles
Are You Experienced – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You – Aretha Franklin
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles
The Velvet Underground and Nico – The Velvet Underground
Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan
Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys
Revolver – The Beatles
Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan
Otis Blue – Otis Redding
Rubber Soul – The Beatles
A Love Supreme – John Coltrane
Live at the Apollo (1963) – James Brown
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music – Ray Charles
King of the Delta Blues Singers – Robert Johnson
Here’s what drives me up the wall. The Beatles had eleven #1
Billboard singles in 1964-65, but none of their early albums like
“A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” are ever mentioned. Nope,
couldn’t do that; they weren’t ‘artsy’ enough.
Also, notice there is nothing by the Stones from this decade.
They only had twelve top ten singles in the 60s, but I guess the
albums sucked. Four Tops? Temptations? Supremes? Not
good enough.
But let’s jump to the 80’s. These are Time’s top albums for this
decade.
Paul’s Boutique – Beastie Boys
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back – Public Enemy
Straight Outta Compton – N.W.A
Document – R.E.M.
Paid in Full – Eric B. and Rakim
Sign O’ The Times – Prince
The Joshua Tree – U2
Graceland – Paul Simon
Master of Puppets – Metallica
Raising Hell – Run-DMC
Legend – Bob Marley and the Wailers
Purple Rain – Prince
Stop Making Sense – Talking Heads
The Great Twenty-Eight – Chuck Berry
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Back in Black – AC/DC
Oh brother. What a dreadful decade. And when you look at the
whole list, which you can find on Time.com, can you believe
there is nothing by Steely Dan? They only put out the
consistently best albums of any group, period, in terms of
listenability. Nor is Boz Scaggs’ 1976 brilliant release “Silk
Degrees” on the list. This is criminal.
And what about Willie Nelson? “Red-Headed Stranger” is listed
as a top 100 entry, but not “Stardust.” Hell, I even bought
“Stardust” for my mother and she loved it.
Finally, nothing by The Doors, The Allman Brothers, or Curtis
Mayfield….no room for them because there are about ten
unlistenable rap albums instead.
Stuff
–Can Rutgers get to the BCS title game if it wins out, including
a final game against an excellent West Virginia team? Yes.
But…USC needs to lose to either California, Notre Dame or
UCLA.
But…Notre Dame needs to lose to USC, so USC needs to then
lose to Cal or UCLA. That would give both two losses.
And…LSU or Arkansas needs to beat Florida in the SEC title
game. And it would further help if Arkansas loses to LSU next
week.
And…the Ohio State–Michigan loser has to lose big and tumble
in the BCS standings.
Regardless, no one wants an Ohio State-Michigan rematch in the
title game, nor do I want to see USC in it.
But…it wouldn’t be all bad to have Rutgers finish #3 in the BCS,
get screwed, but win its bowl game, while the Ohio State-
Michigan winner loses in the BCS. Then you’d have an
undefeated Rutgers and a one-loss BCS champ. Ergo, the AP
could easily award the championship to Rutgers, we’d have split
titleholders, and college football fans get to debate it all for
months to come. Great for the pub industry.
–And now….your PICKS TO CLICK!
With my 11-13 record on the line, and readers now down
$500,000 each, it’s time to get back into the black with a clean
sweep of this week’s action.
Take Arkansas, giving 14 to Miss. State
Take Utah State, getting 37 ½ vs. Boise State [BS’s leading
rusher just suffered a collapsed lung…if the line changes
drastically, I may drop the game….but as of Wed. the line is
holding.]
Take Syracuse, giving 2 to UConn
And did you see that because of the shutout Wake Forest pitched
against Florida State, offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden, coach
Bobby Bowden’s son, has resigned. Wake forces out a coach on
the opposing team! Who wudda thunk it?
Lastly, Northeastern State (Okla.) is changing its nickname from
Redmen to RiverHawks to comply with the NCAA ban on
racially “hostile” nicknames. Personally, I kind of like the name
Ballrogs.
–It’s happened again. “A herd of elephants drunk on rice beer
has trampled three people to death…in the northeastern Indian
state of Assam.” [Jeremy Page / London Times]
“Residents of Teok Kathoni tried to scare them off using drums
and firecrackers, but the elephants consumed the remote village’s
stocks of rice beer, then charged through huts, killing a boy and
injuring his eight-year-old brother.”
Assam has 5,300 elephants and their land is being encroached
on. The result? In the past five years elephants “have killed 239
people in Assam, while 265 elephants have died” as the villagers
fight back with poison-tipped arrows and such.
May I suggest the folks try Heineken Premium Light, a civilized
beer that studies have shown elephants drink more responsibly.
–Animals Fight Back, Part II….Jeff B. passed along this horrific
story from upstate New York. As reported by the AP:
“A deer being kept in a pen attacked and killed his owner
Sunday, police said.
“The buck that killed Ronald Donah, 43, was among about a half
dozen deer penned up on his property in Ellenburg…
“Details of Donah’s injuries and what may have prompted the
attack were not available.”
I’m suspecting Donah wouldn’t let Rudolph join in any reindeer
games.
–Johnny Mac on the NFL.
“The NFL needs to wake up. If they have players who don’t
seem to give a damn who wins, why should we? The league has
handed down standards for celebrations, the players know these
rules and know that breaking them will result in a 15-yard
penalty, but it hasn’t deterred anyone.
“Last week, in a crucial division game, T.O. chooses to do his
little sleeping act in the end zone…15 yards. Then in the
Giants/Bears game, I caught two a-holes in action. First,
Brandon Jacobs puts the ball under his jersey, supposedly
because his wife is pregnant. Who cares?! 15 yards. Then Chris
Harris of the Bears picks off a pass in the 4th quarter and does
some silly dance. 15 yards. Remember, this isn’t some heat of
the moment thing, or a change in the rules that affects play (like
the “in the grasp” rules where you can understand that players
need time to adjust). This is a premeditated action done in
defiance of your employers’ rules with a prescribed penalty that
can lead to your team losing the game. And the worst part?
Nobody; not the owners, coaches, nobody, seems to give a hoot.
When is a coach going to bench one of these morons?
“The NBA is no better. The players are told bitching and
whining to the refs will not be tolerated and result in a technical
foul, yet these a-holes can not control themselves. A bucketful
of “Ts” have been called in the early going. Guess it’s cultural.
No wonder I like Division II sports.”
Amen, brother.
–David P. forwarded this story. It’s for mature audiences only.
Bono is at a U2 concert in Ireland when he asks the audience for
some quiet.
Then in the silence he starts to slowly clap his hands.
Holding the audience in rapt attention, he says into the
microphone… “Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa
dies.”
A voice from near the front of the audience pierces the silence…
“Fookin’ stop doing it then!”
–Update…and a critical one it is. Eva Longoria has shot down
rumors of a lesbian tryst with Beyonce on the big screen, a
female ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ I’d comment further but I don’t
want to lose my International Web Site Association license.
–Update, part II….and following up on the story of the rare
Inverted Jenny stamp found on an absentee ballot in Florida,
experts that have seen a photo of it say it’s a fake.
–On Monday the New York Knicks’ Stephon Marbury was 0-
for-6 from the field on his way to a two-point effort. His
backcourt mate Steve Francis was 1-for-4 and tallied 3 points as
the now 2-6 Knicks lost to Cleveland.
So you see an effort like this and it makes you want to review
some of the salaries these guys are making.
Marbury, who I gave credit to recently for his new below $20
sneaker, nonetheless is the most overrated guard in the history of
the league. Yet the Knicks are paying him $17.2 million this
year and are on the hook for $20.1mm and $21.9mm the two
following seasons. That’s guaranteed. I’ll let this sink in a while
…………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………..OK……….
Steve Francis, another total waste, is earning $15mm this year
and is guaranteed $16.4mm and $17.1mm for 07/08 and 08/09.
Of course the Knicks are also paying the retired Allan Houston
$20.7 million this season, plus, $6.4mm to Jerome Williams (no
longer in basketball), and $5.4mm to Jerome James (always
hurt…and overweight).
But wait, there’s more. Those last two also earn mega-bucks for
next season, plus this year the Knicks are paying Maurice Taylor
$9.7mm (to ride the pine elsewhere) and the great Shandon
Anderson (no longer in the league) $8.5mm. And the Knicks
are paying most of Jalen Rose’s salary, a cool $16.9 million.
Overall, the Knicks, quite possibly the worst team in the history
of basketball in terms of both record and unwatchableness (Bar
Chat ‘new word of the day’), lead the league in total payroll…
$139 million. #2 is Philadelphia at $96.2.
–Speaking of money, this whole deal over Japanese pitcher
Daisuke Matsuzaka is absurd. The Red Sox earned the right to
negotiate with him for $51.1 million. That’s not the projected
contract…just the right to try and come up with one, which most
expect is another $10 million a year.
That’s it. I’m going outside to work on my knuckleball.
–So here’s the deal concerning NASCAR’s last race of the
season at Homestead-Miami. Jimmie Johnson needs to finish
12th to win the Nextel Cup…or 13th if he leads just one lap. But
a lot can happen, sports fans. A crash and Johnson’s hopes could
go out the window.
Separately, a story by Nate Ryan of USA Today notes
NASCAR’s audience appears to have topped after a 15-year run.
Crowds have decreased at a third of the events this year and
fewer than half were sellouts. For example the Brickyard 400 at
Indy drew about 20,000 shy of the 260,000 estimated capacity;
the smallest turnout there in 13 years.
Some racers believe the season is simply too long. 36 events is a
lot, after all.
But next year marks the debut of Colombian Juan Pablo
Montoya, who has a huge Hispanic following. What NASCAR
could really use, however, is Danica Patrick…and perhaps Eva
Longoria and Beyonce, now that we know these two are
available.
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/13/76: #1 “Tonight’s The Night”
(Rod Stewart) #2 “Disco Duck, Part I” (Rick Dees & His Cast of
Idiots… either part should be employed when interrogating al
Qaeda) #3 “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon
Lightfoot….actually, you could get a lot of information out of
terrorists by just playing this one over and over and over and
over)…and…#6 “Rock ‘N Me” (Steve Miller) #7 “If You Leave
Me Now” (Chicago) #8 “Just To Be Close To You”
(Commodores…easily their best, especially with a few beers in
you) #9 “The Rubberband Man” (Spinners) #10 “Do You Feel
Like I Do” (Peter Frampton)
College Football Quiz Answers:
1) 1984 / BYU: QB – Robbie Bosco. Top receivers Glen
Kozlowski and tight end David Mills. But if you said Mark
Bellini that’s OK…he led the team in ’85 and ’86.
2) 1985 / Oklahoma: QB – Jamelle Holieway (also 2nd leading
rusher). Tight end Keith Jackson was leading receiver with 20
catches. Lydell Carr was the top rusher.
3) 1988 / Notre Dame: QB and leading rusher – Tony Rice.
Other two rushers were Tony Brooks and Mark Green. But
Ricky Watters was the top receiver. He moved to running back
the following season.
4) Miami QBs: 1983 – Bernie Kosar; 1987 – Steve Walsh; 1989
– Craig Erickson.
Next Bar Chat, Monday p.m.
