Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers Quiz (1890-1999):
1) Most hits, career? 2) Most RBI, career 3) Most HR, season?
4) Most RBI, season? 5) Most shutouts, season? Answers
below.
More Songs that Peaked at #4
Continuing our exclusive, in-depth study (according to the
Billboard Pop Charts). Date listed is when song first came out.
CCR – “Up Around The Bend” (5/70)
Deep Purple – “Hush” (8/68)
Deep Purple – “Smoke On The Water” (6/73)
The Delfonics – “La-La-Means I Love You” (2/68)
Dion – “Abraham, Martin And John” (11/68)
Drifters – “Under The Boardwalk” (7/64)
First Class – “Beach Baby” (8/74)…Tony Burrows was the
vocalist on not just this hit but also hits for Brotherhood of
Man, Edison Lighthouse and White Plains.
Four Tops – “Bernadette” (3/67)
Four Tops – “Ain”t No Woman (Like The One I”ve Got)” (2/73)
Samantha Fox – “Touch Me (I Want Your Body)” (12/86)
..Hey, how did this get in here?
Connie Francis – “Where The Boys Are?” (1/61)
Marvin Gaye – “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” (5/69)
Marvin Gaye – ” Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” (7/71)
Gerry and the Pacemakers – “Don”t Let The Sun Catch You
Crying” (6/64)
Grand Funk – “Bad Time” (4/75)
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds – “Don”t Pull Your Love”
(6/71)..another personal favorite
*Note: If you are new to the site, you may want to check out the
4/12 edition of Bar Chat. Click on archives below.
Earth Day, Part I / Western Expansion
We love the environment here at Bar Chat. During the day, I
prefer a bar with windows. At night, dimly lit is the atmosphere
of choice.
But as we approach the 30th anniversary of Earth Day (4/22), I
thought we”d take a look at some of the early leaders in the
environmental movement, as well as those responsible for the
Western expansion in this country.
Historian Richard White was interviewed about the expansion of
the West and conservation in the book “American Heritage:
Great Minds of History.”
Q: Looking back over presidential history as it relates to the
West, who were some of the outstanding presidents who had a
feeling for the West and saw it through to policy?
White: “Well, clearly, James K. Polk, whatever his limitations,
was the president who made much of the western part of the
United States. Polk was responsible for two things. First of all,
he was responsible for the annexation of what”s now the
Northwest – Oregon, Washington, and Idaho – which came in
from Great Britain. And secondly, he was responsible for the
Mexican War. He very much wanted to acquire territory from
Mexico, and he was willing to go to war to do it..He ended up
going to war to acquire the Mexican cession, including all of
California.”
“Without Polk, you might say the United States would have
acquired some of it anyway, but it”s hard to say we would have
acquired all of it, because these boundaries shift back and forth.”
Q: And yet, any time historians rate American presidents, Polk
ranks quite low.
White: “Well, he wasn”t a great president…but he was an
important president. You can”t understand this acquisition
without him.” [To paraphrase Pig Pen, “Kind of makes you want
to treat Polk with more respect!”]
White also commented on Teddy Roosevelt. He was important
for a number of reasons.
“First of all, he re-imagined himself as a westerner. Roosevelt
played to the western myth. He was the eastern dude who went
West and became a westerner and later became the cowboy
president…Roosevelt really made the federal government a
hands-on manager in the West.”
Historians Morison and Commager add that of the original 800
million acres of virgin forest, less than 200 remained when
Roosevelt came to the presidency; four-fifths of the timber in this
country was in private hands, and 10 percent of this was owned
by the Southern Pacific, the Northern Pacific, and the
Weyerhauser Timber Company.
In 1891, the Congress did pass a Forest Reserve Act authorizing
the President to set aside timber lands. Under this authority
Harrison withdrew some 13 million, Cleveland 25 million, and
McKinley 7 million acres of forest from public entry. But the
process of exploitation was going on more rapidly when
Roosevelt assumed office.
Roosevelt set aside almost 150 million acres of unsold
government timber land as national forest reserve and some 85
million more in Alaska and the Northwest. Under his leadership,
Roosevelt also transferred the national forests to the Department
of Agriculture and Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot undertook an
inventory of the natural resources of the nation.
Roosevelt was also the first to realize that the problems of
conservation were international in character, and he succeeded in
securing the co-operation of the other American states. [Source:
“The Growth of the American Republic, Vol. II]
And I just happened to like this discussion.
Q: How has the Marlboro Man, as an icon, hung on so long?
White: “Well, in the end, the great icon of the American West
ends up being the cowboy. The odd thing about the cowboy as a
cultural icon is that he emerges so late. He really didn”t become
very powerful until the end of the nineteenth century, when the
open-range cattle industry that produced the cowboy was dead.
So it”s an icon that emerged as the real cowboy vanished…
You had a figure who could encapsulate virtually all the figures
that have gone before him. He takes in the scout, he takes in the
pioneer. He really ended up becoming this strong, individual,
white male, who stands alone against the wilderness and all
dangers. The cowboy sums up American individualism. He
sums up this sense of a man who”s got to do what he”s got to do
and is capable of doing it…There are moments in everyone”s
life when you imagine taking your fate in your own hands,
depending on nobody but yourself and being out there against the
elements – and all of that is in the cowboy.”
“The interesting thing is that the historical cowboy often worked
for a corporation. He was hardly a lone individual – he worked
for a wage. One of the interesting things is that he”s the only
wage earner I know who”s become an iconic figure in the West.
And most of the time, he chased cows. I mean, it was not
particularly romantic labor.”
Top 3 songs for the week of 4/16/66: #1 “(You”re My) Soul And
Inspiration” (The Righteous Brothers) #2 “Daydream” (The
Lovin” Spoonful) #3 “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
(Cher).
Dodgers Quiz answers: 1) Hits, career – Zack Wheat (2,804)
2) RBI, career – Duke Snider (1,271) 3) HR, season – Duke
Snider (43, 1956) 4) RBI, season – Tommy Davis (153, 1962)
5) Shutouts, season – Sandy Koufax (11, 1963).
Next Bar Chat, Friday…More on Environmentalism. Rachel
Carson and Richard Nixon.
