NHL Quiz: 1) How many times did Wayne Gretzky score 200
points in a single season? He is the only one to do so. 2) Who
are the Top 3 all-time in assists per game? 3) Who is the all-time
leader in 30-goal seasons? Answers below.
First Ladies
So I”m at the Smithsonian the other day when I checked out the
“First Ladies” exhibit currently on display. Well, they have the
pictures of all of them (paintings for some, of course) and I did
what any normal person would have done, come up with my own
Top 3 Most Beautiful First Ladies.
#1 Jacqueline Kennedy #2 Laura Bush #3 Frances Cleveland.
And let me tell ya, that Frances Cleveland was one good-looking
woman. Of course, it helped that she was only 21 when she
married then President Cleveland!
As the Democratic candidate for president in 1884, Grover
Cleveland became part of one of the most famous mud-slinging
campaigns in history. His opponent was James Blaine, a former
Speaker of the House, U.S. senator, and secretary of state, who
had transactions in railroad stocks and bonds that were more than
a little shady. On the back of one letter to the brokerage firm that
handled his stock trades he had written, “Burn this letter!” Well,
that 1876 letter wasn”t burned and it surfaced during the 1884
campaign, thus giving Democrats their campaign song:
Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine,
The continental liar from the State of Maine,
Burn this letter!
The Republicans countered by calling Cleveland “the hangman
of Buffalo” because, while sheriff, he had personally hanged two
criminals rather than turn the task over to an assistant. Grover
Cleveland, you show me somethin”!
More importantly, Cleveland was found to have fathered an
illegitimate child. Mrs. Maria Halpin claimed that Cleveland
was the father of her son. While it wasn”t certain who the father
was, this was pre-DNA and stained dresses, after all, Cleveland
accepted responsibility. The Republicans then came up with:
Ma! Ma! Where”s my pa?
Gone to the White House.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Hey, it was 1884…pre-rap.
Blaine made a big mistake during the campaign when he had
dinner at Delmonico”s in New York with money titans Jay Gould
and Russell Sage, thus burnishing his image of a wheeler-dealer.
The next day Joseph Pulitzer (yes, the Pulitzer of the Pulitzer
Prize) wrote a piece for his New York World with the banner
headlines: “The royal feast of Belshazzar Blaine and the money
kings.and occasion for the collection of a republican corruption
fund.”
Alas, the election was super close. Cleveland won by less than
25,000 votes nationwide and just 219 to 182 in the Electoral
College.
But back to the First Lady. On June 2, 1886, the 49-year-old
president married Frances Folsom, “the tall, handsome, 21-year-
old daughter of one of his Buffalo law partners.” [Beschloss]
Cleveland was actually like her guardian since Frances was 11,
upon the death of her father.
“Mrs. Cleveland brightened Washington society and her
husband”s life. With her arrival, the president became far more
sociable, took more vacations, was generally less irritable, and
launched bolder legislative initiatives.” [Beschloss]
Well, that will do it, mused the editor. Of course Grover died in
1908 and Frances was around until 1947. They had 5 children,
the last of whom, Francis Grover, Cleveland fathered when he
was 66. Grover Cleveland, again, you show me somethin”!
[Sources: “The Presidents,” Henry Graff, editor; “American
Heritage: The Presidents,” Michael Beschloss.]
Some Other First Lady Tidbits
–Mary Todd Lincoln did not attend any of the memorial services
for the president upon his assassination. Nor did she accompany
his body to Springfield, Ill. Witnessing Lincoln”s violent death
was simply too much for her. And later on she was committed to
a mental hospital for a spell.
–Rutherford B. Hayes”s wife, Lucy, was the first to be a college
graduate (Wesleyan in Ohio). But she created quite a stir when
she refused to serve liquor in the White House, thereby placing
Lucy in the Bar Chat Hall of Shame.
–Ellen Wilson, Woodrow”s first wife, was First Lady in 1913-
14. She was one of the first “activists” in her role, supporting the
“Slum Clearance Act” for housing reform in D.C. So the
legislation passed just before she died and the slums were cleared
of dwellings and turned into parks, except there was one
problem. No provisions had been made to find or build new
housing for those who were displaced! Dohh!!
–Lou Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, created quite a stir when
in 1929, she invited the wife of Oscar DePriest to the White
House. DePriest had just won election to Congress from
Chicago, thus becoming the first African American in Congress
in 28 years. Mrs. Hoover ended up being a staunch advocate of
many black causes. [I”ll have more on DePriest for Black
History Month. He”s an interesting character.]
–And finally, did you know that Eleanor Roosevelt gave a
national radio address the evening of December 7, 1941? She
rallied American mothers who had sons in our armed forces and
were understandably concerned about what was to come. I just
find it interesting that the First Lady was doing this. But I must
say, having listened to the address, it was very effective.
Antonio Stradivari…just a little culture
Seriously, one of the things I found most fascinating at the
Smithsonian was looking at some of Stradivari”s violins.
Antonio Stradivari (the name was later Latinized to Stradivarius),
born in 1644, became an apprentice to Nicolo Amati. Amati was
a descendent of the great family that is credited with establishing
the design of the violin as it is today. Andrea Amati (1520-1578)
founded the Cremona school of violinmaking that Stradivari and
all the masters of the craft worked from.
But Antonio didn”t enter his prime period of violinmaking until
he was 56. He is estimated to have built 1,100 instruments
(including some cellos) and today, reportedly only 630 survive.
So now you know why to have a Stradivarius is such a big deal.
Going further, however, only 11 of his violins are decorated with
inlaid designs of ivory and mother-of-pearl. [Don”t worry guys,
I”m not going soft on you. I wouldn”t know mother-of-pearl if it
whacked me in the face. I do know, however, all about Earl the
Pearl.] These 11 are deemed to be priceless and the Smithsonian
has 4 of them. Now I was the only one in the room where these
were stashed and the exhibit was kind of off the beaten path, so if
we jimmied the window open and let a rope down.about where
all the homeless guys were gathering.
*Bill Clinton”s saxophone is in the Smithsonian…ughh. And I
got a kick out of glancing at all of the china that has been
donated by presidential administrations past. The only reason
why I bring this up is because we now all know that the Clintons
left nothing to give the museum! Hell, they could have taken
some stuff that Andrew Jackson had used!
Top 3 songs for the week of 1/27/68: #1 “Judy In Disguise”
(John Fred & His Playboy Band) #2 “Chain Of Fools” (Aretha
Franklin) #3 “Green Tambourine” (The Lemon Pipers…great
tune, written by my friend Shelley Pinz).
Dire Straits and the Dinosaur
On the island of Madagascar, scientists have discovered a small,
meat-eating dinosaur with unusual snaggle-teeth and have named
it Masiakasaurus knopfleri, after Mark Knopfler, guitarist and
songwriter for Dire Straits.
One of the paleontologists said that the name had nothing to do
with Knopfler”s own appearance but rather that when his team
played Dire Straits while they were at work, “we had good luck
finding fossils of this dinosaur.” [Source: Guy Gugliotta /
Washington Post]
NHL Quiz Answers: 1) Gretzky scored 200 or more points 4
times…205, 208, 212, 215. To put this in perspective, this year
it looks as though the leading scorer will end up with only about
120. 2) Assists-per-game, career: #1 Gretzky, 1.32. #2 Mario
Lemieux, 1.18. #3 Bobby Orr, 0.98. 3) All-time in 30-goal
seasons is none other than Mike Gartner with 17. Gordie Howe,
Marcel Dionne, and Wayne Gretzky are next with 14.
*Refdesk.com: I have added this link to the “News and Sports”
category for the site. Secretary of State Colin Powell was giving
a talk to his new charges when he mentioned that the one web
site he accessed more than any other was refdesk.com. So I
checked it out myself and I thought, hey, let”s add it to mine.
Voila! If you didn”t know about it before I think you”ll be
impressed. And, of course, I hope most of you access it through
StocksandNews.
Heineken
On December 16, 1863, 22-year-old Gerard Adriaan Heineken
bought De Hooiberg brewery at the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in
Amsterdam. At the time this brewery, founded in 1572, was
Amsterdam”s largest. Heineken and Co. was born. After about
six brews, amaze your friends and correctly pronounce the
above.
You”re reading Bar Chat. Next one, Friday…Winter weather
tidbits.
