Winter Sports Quiz Week (Olympics, Skiing and Figure Skating)
1) What nations hosted the Winter Olympics from 1968 through
1998? 2) What nation has won the most Gold Medals in Winter
Olympic competition? 3) Jean-Claude Killy of France was the
World Cup skiing title holder in 1967 and 1968. Who
won the following two championships? Answers below.
*Not for nothing, but that was a great golf tournament on
Sunday. And I had just finished reading an interview with Tiger
Woods”s swing coach, Butch Harmon, who commented that the
only thing holding Phil Mickelson back is the fact he can”t drive.
Ain”t that the truth. And he still won!!
SHARK!!!
Well, I”m sure you all saw the latest worldwide shark tally for
2000. But, for the archives, shark attacks rose from 58 to 79
around the world last year. And fatalities climbed to 10 from 6.
Now of the 79 attacks, 34 were in Florida which also had the lone
fatality in the U.S. But in Australia, while there were just 7
attacks, 3 were fatal. [The other 6 deaths occurred in Tanzania
(2), Fiji, Japan, New Guinea, and New Caledonia.]
Said one official in Australia when asked to comment on the high
kill ratio in his country, “There is a much better chance of getting
struck by lightning than being attacked by a shark.” And the man
has a point. Remember, just a few weeks ago, 14 died after being
struck by a single bolt in South Africa.
But as I was going to write this piece, I noticed that in Sunday”s
New York Times, there is an article written by John Shaw. Shaw
describes an attack on an Aussie man, Richard Butler, who
received a huge gouge in his calf (requiring 80 stitches) at the
hands (or fins) of a six-foot bull shark. OK, nothing unusual
there.
However, Shaw also writes that Butler survived, “Unlike five
other men – 3 surfers and two fishermen – who have been mauled
to death since August.” All in Australia. But I thought just 3
died!
Shaw also says that over the past 30 years, the average annual
shark toll in Australia is just one, but “the last six months have
been the bloodiest period ever recorded.”
Perhaps it”s a good time to move on to.
WOLVERINES!!!
So I”m reading this Reuters piece the other day on a controversial
wolf hunt currently taking place in Norway, where the
environmentalists are upset that 9 wolves are going to be allowed
to be taken down. This didn”t sound too bad to me, but I further
learned that of 2.2 million sheep in the country, 33,000 are killed
by predators.
But only 800 of those are by wolves. The rest are killed by lynx
and…wolverines!!! [You can check our archives for further
stories on this wicked creature.]
COUGAR!
Johnny Mac passed along this other Reuters story about John
Nostdal, who was riding down a dark road near Port Alice,
British Columbia, the other night when he told police he heard “a
clicking noise behind him.” He had no idea, however, that it was
a cougar until the cat jumped on his back and knocked him to the
ground.
A Royal Canadian Mountie said, “The cougar probably saw the
bicyclist leaned over with a pack on his back and thought he was
a deer. He saw him as fair game.”
No way. Now that we”ve just learned the lowly fruit fly has
about as many genes as we do, surely the cougar knows the
difference between a deer and a man on a bicycle. But back to
our story.
From Reuters, “A motorist spotted Nostdal…fighting with the
cougar, and used the bicycle to knock the cat off him. The men
then jumped inside the vehicle but the cougar refused to leave
until the car drove away.” Nostdal”s injuries were not life
threatening. But a lifetime of bad, Stephen King dreams awaits
him.
OWL!!
I”m tellin” ya, it”s payback time for the animal kingdom. In this
week”s Parade Magazine, there are a number of animal tales. In
one case, near Colleyville, Texas, a large owl attacked three
residents last summer. “Content to grab the baseball caps from
the heads of its two male victims, the owl sunk its talons into the
scalp of the female, who was bareheaded.” Aagh!!!
Charles Schulz
It”s amazing to think that it has already been one year since
Schulz died, the day before his last strip was published (2/13).
Because of the incredible popularity of Peanuts, I know I can”t be
the only person who thinks of him, and his creation, almost every
day. No, not from reading the “Peanuts Classics” strips that are
still found in many newspapers, but rather through observations
of everyday life.
For instance, about once a week my travels take me past a school
yard that looks just like the background for one of his television
shows, like in a “Charlie Brown Christmas.” Certainly, no other
comic strip has that kind of impact.
But as big a fan as I was, it wasn”t until after Schulz announced
his retirement in December 1999 that I began to really appreciate
him. Some of the interviews were terrific, and I”ll never forget
the description of him as being an “unreconstructed Eisenhower
Republican.” In many respects, that”s me…and I appreciate you
all putting up with it.
Charles Schulz was more than that, however. He was one
complex person, and a rather melancholy, gloomy one to boot.
But hey, that”s the way life itself often is. Especially for kids.
Author George Saunders recently commented that for many of us
growing up, reading those early Peanuts compilations was the
first time our childhoods had been represented in art. Schulz
himself once remarked:
“Being a kid is not easy. It”s a fearful world out there, and the
playground is a dangerous place. Going to school every day is
not easy. If it isn”t the teacher, it”s the bully. Most adults forget
about these struggles and ignore the problems little kids have. As
an adult, you learn how to get around these problems and how to
survive. But little kids are struggling with that survival.”
Schulz remembered waking up one night thinking, “Good grief,
who are all these little people? Must I live with them for the rest
of my life?”
Actually, that brings up little Sally Brown, who said, “Daytime is
so you can see where you”re going. Nighttime is so you can lie in
bed worrying.”
And Schulz had this comment on loneliness.
“The most terrifying loneliness is not experienced by everyone
and can be understood by only a few. I compare the panic in this
kind of loneliness to the dog we see running frantically down the
road pursuing the family car. He is not really being left behind,
for the family knows it is to return, but for that moment in his
limited understanding, he is being left alone forever, and he has to
run and run to survive.”
From his writing, you knew there were lots of downers in Charles
Schulz”s life. You had the real life case of Donna Johnson, who
turned down his proposal for marriage, and then became the little
red-haired girl. And of the divorce to his first wife, he recalled,
“I don”t think she liked me anymore, and I just got up and left one
day.”
And not to be overly maudlin about one of my favorite people of
all time, there is also no doubt that Charles Schulz was a defender
of the little guy. He said his philosophy was best embodied in the
Gospel of St. Luke:
“It was better for him that a millstone were hanged about his, and
he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little
ones.”
Linus: “After you”ve died, do you get to come back?”
Charlie Brown: “If they stamp your hand.”
I don”t know if Schulz wanted his own hand stamped.
Assorted Stuff
–With Derek Jeter just signing his 10-year $189 million contract,
it”s interesting to note that in January 1922, Babe Ruth signed a
5-year $260,000 contract, tripling what any other Yankee was
receiving at that time. Then in 1930, Ruth received a 2-year
$160,000 deal, thereby surpassing the $75,000 salary of President
Hoover.and you all know the rest of that story. By the way, in
1930 Lou Gehrig was making about $8,000.
Then in 1949, Joe DiMaggio earned $100,000, the first player to
do so. He retired a few years later at that level. Finally, in 1963
Mickey Mantle earned $100,000 for the first time. For 33 years,
the top salary in the game essentially remained unchanged.
–On Friday in Lubbock, Texas, Donald Boone died when he fell
through a hole into a vat of unheated vegetable oil and drowned
at the Frito-Lay plant.
–I hope my Jesuit priest friends don”t read this, but I have certain
opinions about the death penalty. When I read that Chad Knight,
a 17-year-old standout point guard for a school in Chicago, had
his leg amputated after a drive-by shooting last week (the bullet
severed a major artery), the only thought I had was that whoever
did it deserves the chair. Tell me I”m wrong…time”s up.
–President Bush had Karl Malone and his family over to the
White House this weekend. Did I ever tell you how much I like
the Mailman?
–And then everyone, including yours truly, makes fun of
President Bush and his inability to speak the English language.
Well, on Sunday I found someone else to pick on.
On “Meet the Press,” Republican Congressman Bill Thomas of
California, the new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee
(meaning he”s suddenly very big stuff), was going on about
tax policy when the conversation shifted to a discussion of
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. Thomas said, “Alan Granspan,
err, Granspeen.” Oh brother.
–Mount Washington, New Hampshire had a wind gust of 158
mph this weekend.
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/14/70: #1 “Thank You
(Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) / Everybody Is A Star” (Sly & The
Family Stone) #2 “I Want You Back” (The Jackson 5) #3
“Raindrops Keep Fallin” On My Head” (B.J. Thomas).
Winter Sports Quiz Answers:
1) Winter Olympic locations: ”68 Grenoble, ”72 Sapporo, ”76
Innsbruck, ”80 Lake Placid, ”84 Sarajevo, ”88 Calgary, ”92
Albertville, ”94 Lillehammer, ”98 Nagano.
2) Norway has won 83 golds. The USSR is second at 78. U.S.
third with 59.
3) Karl Schranz of Austria won the World Cup title in 1969 and
1970.
Next Bar Chat, Wednesday. Earl Lloyd.
