NCAA Football Quiz: 1) Who is Nebraska’s career leader in
receiving yardage? [1970s] 2) Who is the only 2,000-yard,
single season, rusher in Nebraska history? 3) Who is North
Carolina’s career rushing leader with 4,391 yards? 4) Who is
North Carolina State’s career rushing leader with 4,602 yards?
[No tricks, all familiar names.] Answers below.
The Battle for Moscow
Time for just a smidge of history, because I have to admit I just
learned something myself. On my flight back from Russia the
other day, I started a book by Andrew Nagorski titled “The
Greatest Battle” and read the following.
“The battle for Moscow, which officially lasted from September
30, 1941, to April 20, 1942, but in reality spanned more than
those 203 days of unremitting mass murder, marked the first time
that Hitler’s armies failed to triumph with their Blitzkrieg
tactics.” [Well, that I knew….but…]
“The battle for Moscow was arguably the most important battle
of World War II and inarguably the largest battle between two
armies of all time. Combining the totals for both sides,
approximately seven million troops were involved in some
portion of this battle. Of those seven million, 2.5 million were
killed, taken prisoner, missing or wounded badly enough to
require hospitalization – with the losses far heavier on the Soviet
than on the German side. According to Russian military records,
958,000 Soviet soldiers ‘perished,’ which included those killed,
missing or taken prisoner. Given the treatment they received at
the hands of their captors, most Soviet POWs were, in effect,
condemned to death. Another 938,500 soldiers were hospitalized
for their wounds, which brought overall Soviet losses to
1,896,500. The corresponding number for the German forces
was 615,000.
“By comparison, the losses for other epic battles, while horrific,
never reached those kinds of figures. In the popular imagination,
the battle for Stalingrad, from July 1942 to early February 1943,
is generally considered the bloodiest of those struggles. It was
huge but never approached the size of the battle for Moscow.
About half the number of troops – 3.6 million – were involved,
and the combined losses of the two sides were 912,000 troops, as
compared to the 2.5 million in the Moscow battle.”
Even the battle of the Somme in World War I, from July to
October 1916, German, British and French losses totaled about
1.1 million.
So why didn’t I, and I assume a few of you, know that the battle
for Moscow was the largest in the history of mankind? As
Nagorski writes, it “was marred by too many errors and
miscalculations by Stalin and raised too many unsettling
questions to be subject to the same level of attention. As a result,
it was often hastily dealt with in the history books and has never
attained the mythological status of the later victories. But it’s
precisely because of its crucial role in the early period of World
War II and what it reveals about the nature of the totalitarian
giants who faced off against each other that the real story of the
battle for Moscow has to be told, elevating this battle to its
proper place in the history of the war.”
Stuff
–Joe Drape of the New York Times had a front page story on the
growing scandal in professional tennis, as in match fixing.
“Tennis is a very easy game to manipulate,” said Patrick
McEnroe. “I can throw a match and you’d never know. A
trained eye can figure it out.” Evidently, more and more players
are stepping forward, such as Gilles Elseneer of Belgium, once
ranked as high as No. 97, who told Belgian television that he
refused an offer of about $140,000 to lose a first-round match at
Wimbledon in 2005.
Tomas Berdych, now ranked No. 14, “told reporters at the United
States Open that he had heard of several players who were
approached at events in Moscow and St. Petersburg.” Andy
Murray of Britain, ranked 11th, told BBC Radio “that although it
is difficult to prove who has ‘tanked’ a match, ‘everyone knows
it goes on.’”
Of course it’s all about these new online betting services I
haven’t a clue about. Who would want to bet on tennis? The
biggest target of the investigations remains Nikolay
Davydenko of Russia, the world’s No. 4 player, because of
betting patterns during a loss in Poland this summer. Davydenko
has refused to turn over phone records and denies any
wrongdoing.
–College Football Review
Wow…the greatest season ever only got better. It was just
yesterday some of us were thinking, well, LSU-Oregon would be
a great title game. Now? Missouri-West Virginia? That would
be a good one. But can Mizzou beat Oklahoma?
AP Top Ten
1. Missouri 11-1
2. West Virginia 10-1
3. Ohio State 11-1
4. Georgia 10-2
5. LSU 10-2
6. Virginia Tech 10-2
7. Kansas 11-1
8. USC 9-2
9. Oklahoma 10-2
10. Florida 9-3
11. Hawaii 11-0
BCS Poll
1. Missouri, .9781
2. West Virginia, .9713
3. Ohio State, .9192
4. Georgia, .8274
5. Kansas, .7918
12. Hawaii, .5835
As for Missouri’s 36-28 win over Kansas Saturday night, Mizzou
QB Chase Daniel had one of the best games, ever, given the
circumstances. 40 of 49, 361 yards, 3 TD passes…awesome.
As for Hawaii, I didn’t think they’d reach the 12th spot in the
BCS poll, thus making them eligible for a BCS game, but in
defeating a solid Boise State team, 39-27, Hawaii is the only
undefeated Division I squad remaining. And assuming they
don’t stumble against Washington this week, they are Sugar
Bowl bound. And for the record, quarterback Colt Brennan
became the all-time leader in touchdown passes, besting Ty
Detmer’s 121 and upping the mark to 126.
In losing to Colorado, Nebraska finished 5-7, only its second
losing season since 1962. In six of its contests the defense gave
up the following: 49, 40, 41, 45, 76 and 65. For the year it
allowed 37.9 per game, or over five points per game higher than
the previous worst way back in 1943. Coach Bill Callahan,
about to become the victim of a tractor pull contest, was instead
immediately fired. Former coach and interim athletic director
Tom Osborne said, “We used to be a team people hated to play,
because they felt it for two or three weeks.”
Unfortunately, Nebraska had re-upped Callahan through 2011 in
September before the firing of AD Steve Pederson, so they still
owe the loser $millions. I would suspect Nebraska will hire
former star QB Turner Gill, now the coach at Buffalo where Gill
did an outstanding job, going 5-7 this season. Understand,
Buffalo is perhaps the toughest job in Division I-A.
Drat…Stanford lost to Notre Dame, 21-14, and thus the Fighting
Irish finished 3-9, rather than 2-10.
And how about my Demon Deacons? In beating Vanderbilt 31-
17, Wake Forest is 8-4 and heading to another bowl game. This
is exactly the mark us fans were hoping for as a follow-up to last
year’s dream season. What a super job Jim Grobe has done.
Congratulations, coach. We couldn’t be prouder of you and the
program.
Speaking of Wake, and its starter on opening day last season,
Ben Mauk, what an amazing story he wrote this year to come
back from an absolutely devastating shoulder injury, transfer to
Cincinnati, become the starter there, and then lead the Bearcats
to a 9-3 record, capped by Mauk’s 431 yards and 4 TD passes in
Saturday’s 52-31 win over Syracuse.
Johnny Mac just passed along an item I would have missed
concerning our boy Danny Woodhead and his Chadron State of
Nebraska football team. Chadron defeated Abilene Christian 76-
73 in the second round of the Division II playoffs. The two
combined for 1,369 yards of total offense in the triple overtime
thriller. Abilene had a 35-14 halftime lead and was up 49-20
after three, when, incredibly, Chadron State outscored Abilene
36-7 in the fourth, including a 92-yard scoring drive that began
with 1:29 left. For his part, Woodhead rushed for 188 yards and
caught another five passes for 49.
And not for nothing, I finished a stupendous 24-13 in my football
bets. I’m shutting it down, having won over $62.6 million.
Children are also celebrating, having garnered upwards of $4.3
million for their college accounts thanks to my picks.
In my final 3-1 effort:
I had Colorado, giving 5 ½ to Nebraska…win, 65-51
I had Cincinnati, giving 19 ½ to Syracuse…win, 52-31
I had BYU, giving 4 to Utah…win, 17-10
I had UConn and 17 vs. West Virginia…loss, 21-66….oops.
Show me a ‘pay’ betting service that did better than 24-13 and
you get a lifetime subscription to Bar Chat….a potential savings
of over $34,000.
–Update: Smith Center High School Football, Smith Center, KS
Smith Center won another Class 2-1A title, running its winning
streak to 54, in defeating St. Mary’s-Colgan, 40-14. Yes, they
did finally give up some points, including 6 the week before.
But for the year, Smith Center outscored its opponents 844-20.
–Saskatchewan defeated Winnipeg for the Grey Cup. [That’s
Canadian Football’s Super Bowl, for those of you who don’t
follow such things.]
–The 16 that qualified for the 2008 European soccer
championship.
Russia, Sweden, Turkey, Portugal, Austria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland,
Romania, Spain and Switzerland
No England. No Ireland. No Westphalia. No Prussia.
–NFL
I just have to comment on the recent report concerning the
behavior of some Jets fans at the Meadowlands; Gate D,
specifically, where women are urged to expose their breasts.
I have been a Jets fan all my life and I’m on record as saying in
these pages that we are truly the worst fans in America.
Absolutely disgusting pigs. You wouldn’t believe the difference
between Jets and Giants fans, for example.
I remember when I was younger and the Jets still played in Shea
Stadium. It was unbelievably gross by halftime, as in the
rampways became a cesspool due to guys not understanding
there were men’s rooms provided by the designers of the place.
I was lucky, though. For the few years I had Jets season tickets,
which I gave up about five years ago, if I recall correctly, the
group around me was a fun, clean bunch. But on the whole, I’d
say at least 10-15 percent of those attending games are pure
scum.
David Picker of the New York Times wrote the piece last
Tuesday that sparked all the outrage in the area and there is one
18-year-old who was stupid enough to give his name, which for
various reasons I will not pass on myself.
He told Picker he was expecting to see more from the women
who were the targets of the chants. “Very disappointed,” said the
idiot, “because we’re used to seeing a lot.”
Then there is this one.
“Denisse (sic) R. (I’m not revealing her full name), a 23-year-old
from the Bronx, was on a first date Sunday. When she arrived at
the crowd at Gate D, several men pointed at her, signaling men at
all levels to chant in her direction. After a brief moment of
hesitation, she flashed them. Then she took a bow.
“ ‘I don’t care,’ Denisse said when told that video clips of
previous incidents, taken on cellphones, ended up online. ‘I love
my body and I like what I have, so let everybody share it.’”
That, my friends, is a moron. Good luck with the rest of your
life, Denisse.
–Well, as Johnny Mac told me after the Giants-Vikings game,
it’s official….Eli Manning is a bust. You just can’t play any
worse than he did on Sunday, with the Vikings returning three of
four interceptions for touchdowns.
But it’s also about Manning’s post-game reactions, as in this guy
is the furthest thing from a leader, which I thought was the
definition of the quarterback position.
Gary Myers / New York Daily News
“Eli Manning had just played one of the worst games ever for a
Giants quarterback, and it was even more embarrassing with big
brother Peyton watching from a luxury box. When it finally
came to an end after the Vikings nearly chased him right out of
the stadium, he displayed no anger, no disgust, no passion.
“He didn’t beat himself up. His coach did it for him.
“ ‘You know, just disappointed,’ Manning said.
“He’s got to do better than that. Could we see some fire? Can
he at least predict a sleepless night? Kids who lose video games
get more upset….
“The Giants have to be worried about Manning again, both for
the rest of this season and going forward. These performances
are inexcusable.”
–The Bears-Broncos contest was as good a regular season game
as you’ll witness this year. Ahem, and it was Wake Forest’s own
Desmond Clark with the clutch reception in overtime that sealed
Chicago’s victory. Clark also happens to be the most
underutilized talent in the league. This guy should be a lock All-
Pro. Get out of Chicago, Desmond!
But is Devin Hester unbelievable or what?! Ten returns for
touchdowns in less than two seasons. [6 on punts, 4 kickoffs.]
The NFL record is 13.
–Congratulations to Curtis Strange for his induction into the
World Golf Hall of Fame. He won 17 times on Tour, including
back-to-back U.S. Opens in 1988-89.
Strange was also a critical cog in Wake Forest’s own back-to-
back NCAA titles in 1974-75. I didn’t realize this, but as a Wake
freshman in ’74, he eagled the last hole to clinch team and
individual titles. Curtis also calls his Wake experience his
favorite golf memories.
“Without Wake, I’m not here,” he says of the Hall. Strange went
to Wake on an Arnold Palmer scholarship.
But as for the Hall itself, Curtis says, “I’m aware I was a bubble
boy. I might be under the same roof, but I’m not in the same
corridor as guys like Snead, Hogan and Palmer.”
I have a problem with the Golf Hall of Fame myself. They
should institute minimums like the women players have. Win a
certain number of events and you’re in. For the men, these days
20 Tour victories and/or three majors would signify an
outstanding career worthy of the Hall. I’d say you have to win at
least one major, as well, but then you compare that to players in
the Baseball Hall of Fame, deserving ones, who never won a
World Series, or a batting title, or a Cy Young award.
So we’ll go with 20 and/or three. Someone get me Tim
Finchem.
[Actually, just double-checked the induction criteria. For the
PGA Tour, ten Tour wins or two major or Players Championship
wins makes you eligible but doesn’t guarantee you get in. Still,
that’s pitifully low. And the women now have some kind of crazy
point system.]
–A-Rod will receive as much as $6 million each time he ties one
of the home run hitters in the top four – Mays, Ruth, Aaron and
then Bonds – plus another $6 million for the record, as part of his
new contract, worth $275 million over the next 10 seasons, plus
the bonuses. I have to admit I’m glad he’s sticking around, as
long as it wasn’t as a Met, because A-Rod is great fodder for Bar
Chat!
–I’ve watched bits of three Knicks games, all at home, just to see
the crowd reaction towards this dreadful group and their equally
despicable coach.
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“The Knicks officially have reached a rarefied spot in the New
York sporting pantheon. It isn’t just that they are a misshapen
collection of overpriced underachievers, never mind their 85-78
victory over the even-worse Bulls yesterday (Sat. to go 3-9) at
the Garden. It isn’t just that they lose, and that they’ve lost at a
ridiculous pace the past seven years, and at an almost comical
pace since Isiah Thomas received his extension last year.
“No, it’s more than that. We’ve had our share of bad teams in
New York City. Hell, we had the platinum standard for bad
teams here once, the ’62 Mets, who elevated losing to an art
form, who lost three out of every four games they played, who
once drove the great Casey Stengel to famously wonder: Can’t
anyone here play this game?
“No, most of the time, bad teams inspire one of the following
reactions in fans: apathy, antipathy, self-loathing, self-pity. Take
the Jets, who now sit at a relentlessly unremarkable 2-9 after
Thursday’s brutalization in Dallas. They do not inspire much of
anything within the souls of their fans. They’re just bad. Now
pass the potatoes.
“The Knicks? They inspire something else. They inspire anger.
They inspire hatred. Knicks fans have long since left their hand-
wringing on the table. There is an unmitigated loathing for the
team, for the men who run the operation, for several key
components on the roster. That’s when you know you’ve really
done something around here, when sadness turns to fury. Knicks
fans hate these Knicks. HATE them. Period.”
I love it!!!!
–I really couldn’t give a damn about high school sports polls, but
I do have to note that in Sports Illustrated’s top ten for boys
basketball this winter, three of the ten are out of New Jersey….
St. Anthony, St. Patrick, and St. Benedict’s.
–We note the passing of Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman and
coach Tom Johnson, who led the Boston Bruins to their last
Stanley Cup title in 1972. Is that possible? Goodness gracious, I
just looked it up to confirm. Yup. 1972. The Bruins have lost in
the finals five times since then.
Oh, but those were the days. Easily hockey’s best era. That
1971-72 Bruins team was a ton of fun, even for us Rangers fans.
Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Johnny Bucyk, Terry O’Reilly, John
McKenzie, Ken Hodge, Fred Stanfield, Don Marcotte, Mike
Walton, Garnett “Ace” Bailey, Dallas Smith, Ted Green, Derek
Sanderson, Ed Westfall, Ed Johnston and Gerry Cheevers
–Whooooooshhhh! Yes, that was the passing of Herbert Saffir,
90, the creator of the Saffir-Simpson scale for categorizing
hurricanes. [National Hurricane Center director Robert Simpson
expanded Saffir’s original work from back in 1969.]
–Uh oh…Chesapeake Bay crabs could be facing extinction. An
effort to save the crab, begun in 2001, is falling short according
to experts (and David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post). In
1993, there were about 852 million crabs in the bay, but now
only about 273 million, which may still seem like a lot but I just
steamed 184 million of them.
Of course pollution is the main culprit, though climate change
may have made the water too warm for a grass species the crabs
use as shelter. May I suggest carbon fiber….it’s sturdier yet
flexible.
And now…More Animal Chat!
–Here’s some good news. Congo announced the establishment
of a rain-forest preserve intended to protect the bonobo, one of
our closest relations. Actually, the bonobo is about 45 positions
ahead of us on the Bar Chat All-Species list.
A reserve larger than the state of Massachusetts is being created
by a private group in Washington as well as Congolese
conservation groups and government agencies.
I just glanced at my world map. Did you realize just how big the
Congo (formerly Zaire) is? Why it’s over three times the size of
Texas. And that’s your geography tidbit for today.
–At the San Diego Zoo, pandas Bai Yun and Gao Gao have been
a rather prolific couple, producing three cubs since 2003, which
is a great rate for the species. According to Allison Hoffman of
the AP, though, the key is the two are kept apart for all but two
days a year, when Bai Yun enters her fertile periods. Then Gao
Gao (Big Big) is sent in to, err, you know…………..anyway,
there’s gotta be a lesson here for the rest of us…………..really.
–You may have seen this one over the holidays. Very troubling.
“Northern Ireland’s only salmon farm was completely wiped out
by a freak jellyfish attack, the owners said Wednesday.
“More than 100,000 fish worth more than one million pounds
($2mm+) were killed in the invasion.”
Over seven hours, Tuesday into Wednesday, the jellyfish
swarmed and covered a sea area of up to 10 square miles and 35
feet deep! They just suffocated the salmon. NBC News had a
clip of it and it was incredible. A massive carpet laid across the
top of the water. Authorities blamed climate change and warmer
waters. I tend to see the attack as yet another prong of the final
assault on humans, coming in late 2008; salmon being known
friends of man because of their omega-3 fatty acids.
–The Sunday New York Times Magazine has a piece by Darcy
Frey on the bears of Whistler, British Columbia, who are far too
comfortable in this resort community. But that has presented
scientists with an opportunity to study them, as in:
“Wild bears so habituated to the presence of people (that
biologists) say they’ve never seen anything like it – bears that lift
the door handles of trucks to take possession of the cabs; bears
that manage to snag the bait from a trap with one foot while
holding the steel gate open with the other; bears that stroll
munificently through the crowds at the Canada Day parade; bears
in the pubs, the hotels, the day-care centers, the landfills, meat
lockers, grease vents, underground parking garages. In Whistler,
if a bear doesn’t get into something humans are guarding; it’s
usually because too many other bears got there first.”
But I was disturbed to see that “Of the estimated 900,000 black
bears in North America, on average only one causes fatal injuries
to a person each year.” How is an author such as yours truly to
make a living with this ratio?
Ah, but guess what? Whistler is hosting the 2010 Winter
Olympics! Can’t you see Bode Miller getting into a brawl with a
bear in a pub, and Miller going down? You just know word is
out in the bear community, as far east as New Jersey, that in less
than three years Whistler is party central.
–The Star-Ledger’s Fred Aun reports that the number of bear
complaints is down significantly in New Jersey this fall. Aun
asks:
“Does that mean all is well in Bear Country? Have the bruins
stopped reproducing? Are they finally learning to stay in the
woods and out of trouble?”
Maybe they’ve just been swept up in the college football season
like so many of us and are watching at home. But, Aun adds this
troubling tale.
“According to the Black Bear Unit report, wildlife officials were
called by a worried Newton farmer in late October. He was
reporting that several bears were entering and destroying his
corn.
“Bears tend to hang out in and around corn fields, so the Newton
farmer’s case would not have been unusual. However, the field
in question had been carved into a tourist attraction frequented
by kids.
“ ‘This field corn is also being used as a Halloween corn maze
and the farmer has chased several bears away from the cornfield
while children were in the maze,’ said the report.”
Holy cow! We almost had us a tragedy worthy of the best of the
Sci-Fi Channel’s straight-to-video productions. Stick Pamela
Anderson in there……..well, you know the drill.
–The November issue of Smithsonian magazine has a story by
Jeremy Kahn on the jaguar, the few that have been caught on
camera, or “treed” by hunters out for mountain lion, in the wilds
along the border with Mexico. Sadly, our efforts to control the
border from an illegal immigration standpoint may be preventing
the jaguars from finding their way to, say, Tucson, in any great
numbers and perhaps a Bar Chat tale or two…if you catch my
drift, not that we are after untold human suffering. But I loved
this little tale from 1996.
“In two separate incidents, mountain lion hunters stumbled upon
jaguars in Arizona and New Mexico – and reached for cameras
rather than rifles. Warner Glenn, whose hounds bayed a jaguar
on a cliff in the Peloncillo Mountains of southern New Mexico in
March of that year, says the thought of shooting the animal never
crossed his mind. ‘I tell you, it would have had to be a terrible
situation for me to kill one, because why would you? They are
so doggone rare, and that’s the first one I ever saw,’ says Glenn.
So he snapped away with his camera, edging ever closer to the
cat as he tried to retrieve his hounds. He got a little too close.
The jaguar charged him. In a split second, Glenn’s hounds leapt
between him and the cat, thwarting its attack. The jaguar slunk
away, and Glenn rode out of the canyon with the first photos ever
taken of a living, wild jaguar in the United States. Almost six
months later and 150 miles to the west, Jack Child and Matt
Colvin, two mountain lion hunters, treed a large male jaguar.
They, too, photographed the animal and called off the hounds.”
McCain and Childs immediately spearheaded an effort to launch
the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project, and they began putting
trail cameras in areas where jaguars had historically been
sighted. Very cool. The motion detection devices have indeed
captured some great images of at least three.
And there is this tale.
“One area where scientists have yet to look for jaguars is the
Animas Mountains in New Mexico. On February 20, 2006,
Warner Glenn and his daughters were leading a mountain lion
hunt there when one of his dogs, Powder, went missing. Powder
soon reappeared, but with a gaping hole in his neck and shoulder.
‘Something had whipped the dickens out of him,’ Glenn says. At
the same time, the rest of Glenn’s pack took off down the face of
a bluff after something.
“Glenn watched from the ridge as the dogs surrounded a cedar
tree across the canyon. Worried that his pack had struck out after
a feral hog, Glenn piloted his mule off the steep ridge, ‘sliding
mostly,’ he says. ‘The boulders were rolling and the brush was
popping.’ But when he got within 100 yards of the cedar, lo and
behold, he saw a big cat sitting there. In the shade, it looked
chocolate brown, and Glenn assumed it was a large male
mountain lion. Suddenly, the cat charged out into the sun after
the dogs, and Glenn saw it had dusky gold fur and spots. ‘I said,
my gosh, it’s a jaguar!’ Glenn recalls.”
Glenn had stumbled on his second cat in a decade, whereas
hunters can go a lifetime in the area without seeing one. But
there remains no real evidence of a breeding population in either
New Mexico or Arizona. For his efforts, however, we award
Warner Glenn with a “Bar Chat Lifetime Achievement Award.”
–From the Star-Ledger:
“As Jersey’s coyotes howl, officials pose two questions: How’d
they get so big, and how can we cut their numbers down to
size?”
I’m never going outside again. Recall, last spring two young
children in Monmouth County were attacked by coyotes, and it’s
estimated New Jersey has between 3,000 and 5,000. But…
“(Scientists) are tying to determine whether the East Coast
variety of coyote, which tends to be larger than its western
cousins, has been adapting to the heavily populated environment
through evolution or through mixed breeding.”
“They’re extremely adaptable. They eat almost anything,” said
one biologist.
And coyotes are not only known to be unpredictable, they are
“brazen, when it suits their purpose.” Just like the bears of
Whistler, coyotes can be found walking all over cities like Los
Angeles and Seattle. Or how about the one recently in Chicago
that just walked into a sandwich shop, right past all the people, to
cool off in a refrigerator?!
But here in New Jersey, coyotes have been found weighing 60
pounds! The wimpy western coyote is only 20-30 lbs.! [Coyotes
bring out the exclamation points.] Some say they are breeding
with wolves, which get to 80-100 lbs. Well where are the
wolves? And Jersey coyotes run in packs, like feral dogs, which
is unheard of out west.
One expert, though, says folks like me shouldn’t worry; as in it’s
safe to go into the driveway to get the morning paper.
“Coyotes established here now would choose to eat a dog. But
when their numbers were not as great, would they consider
mating with dogs or wolves in their move east?”
My word…you just know coyotes are chowing down on poodles;
the latter with their haughty attitude, almost asking for it.
–From the Sydney Morning Herald:
“Two teenage girls were forced to climb onto a shipwreck and
wait for half an hour to avoid a shark in Byron Bay.
“Jett Coates and Caitlin Robinson, both 14, told The Northern
Star they had to hang onto a part of The Wreck, a shipwreck
north of Byron Bay’s Main Beach. They had just climbed up
onto The Wreck and were about to jump off when Jett saw the
shark.”
I saw a picture of where the kids were standing. We’re talking a
very narrow pylon.
“It was so hard to stand all that time. I was shaking too much,”
Caitlin told the paper.
Best guess, it was a mako shark. They were saved when a surfer
approached them to find out the problem, but then he was chased
away by the shark. He was able to get help, though.
–So everyone is saying the Arctic cruise ship the Explorer was
sunk by an iceberg. But Bar Chat has EXCLUSIVE information
that it was really the work of megaladon, a prehistoric beast once
thought to be extinct for millions of years but which sources tell
us still plies the cold waters of the Antarctic. And who are these
sources, you might be asking? Just sources. That’s all you need
to know.
–Jeff B. and I had but one hope, that Dr. P. would be put on trial
for drug trafficking in “For Worse….” But now Michael has a
book signing for “Leaves of Grass,” or whatever his book is
titled. It would appear the only one buying this piece of garbage
is his sister. The rest are just standing around, acting like they
purchased it….a familiar ploy when dealing with family
members who write a book no one gives a damn about.
–So I’m looking at the latest Billboard Top 40 albums and I see
No. 25 is Puscifer’s “V is for Vagina.” If this isn’t a Sign of the
Apocalypse, I don’t know what is.
–The E Street Band’s Danny Federici has taken a leave of
absence from the current Bruce Springsteen and the E Street
Band tour due to melanoma. We wish him well.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/23/68: #1 “Hey Jude” (The
Beatles) #2 “Love Child” (Diana Ross and The Supremes) #3
“Those Were The Days” (Mary Hopkin)…and…#4 “Magic
Carpet Ride” (Steppenwolf) #5 “Abraham, Martin And John”
(Dion) #6 “White Room” (Cream) #7 “Hold Me Tight” (Johnny
Nash) #8 “Who’s Making Love” (Johnnie Taylor) #9 “Little
Green Apples” (O.C. Smith) #10 “Wichita Lineman” (Glen
Campbell…one of your editor’s top ten all time)
Oh, what the hell. Altogether now. Just get right out of your
cubicle and start singing the song.
I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main road
Lookin’ in the sun for another overload
I hear you singing in the wire
I can hear you thru the whine
And the Wichita Lineman, is still on the line
I know I need a small vacation
But it don’t look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south, won’t ever, stand the strain
And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
And the Wichita Lineman, is still on the line
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
ding ding ding ding ding ding….do do do do dooooo [repeat]
[Songwriter…the great Jimmy Webb]
NCAA Football Quiz Answers: 1) Nebraska’s all-time leading
receiver is Johnny Rodgers with 2,479 yards on 143 receptions.
Rodgers is hands down the greatest college football player I ever
saw. 2) Mike Rozier once ran for 2,148 yards for the
Cornhuskers on just 275 carries (a 7.8 avg.!) in 1983. Rozier is
also the career rushing leader. 3) Amos Lawrence is North
Carolina’s career rushing leader with 4,391 yards, 1977-80. 4)
Ted Brown is North Carolina State’s career rushing leader with
4,602 yards, 1975-78.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
