NHL Quiz Week Continues: 1) Name the five in the 700-goal
club. 2) 3 of the Top 4 all-time in career shutouts played at least
part of their career in the 70s. Who are they? [Hint: In all three
cases this was at the end of their career.] 3) What goalie had 15
shutouts in the 1969-70 season? Answers below.
Winter
Before we get to our feature story, following are a few winter
weather tidbits. Oh, let”s start out with a quiz. In the following
two groups, which city has the lower average maximum
temperature for the month of January? Answers below.
Group A – London, Tehran, or Tokyo?
Group B – Seoul, Kabul (Afghanistan), or Geneva?
–Lowest temperature ever recorded in North America, minus 81
degrees F. in the Yukon.
–Lowest temperature ever recorded in Florida, minus 2,
Tallahasee (2/13/1899).
–Lowest temperature ever recorded in the world, minus 129!!!
at the Soviet Antarctic station of Vostok on 7/21/83. [The
windchill must have been minus a grillion.]
–“The Great Snow” occurred in 1717 when the New York /
Boston corridor was buried by 3-4 feet with 25-foot drifts. This
was pre-snowplows, of course.
–During the “Blizzard of 1888,” a mile”s worth of passenger
trains headed for New York were trapped for two days in drifts
exceeding 20 feet. A total of 400 lost their lives, overall, in this
storm. But what is the true significance of this weather event,
boys and girls? Glad you asked. Because of the catastrophic
above ground transportation problems, the larger cities on the
East Coast decided that they ought to give below ground transit a
shot, thus the idea of subways was created. Boston was actually
the first to have finished, usable track (1897), while New York
followed in 1904. [Some stories say that New York was
experimenting back in the 1870s, true, but the Blizzard of ”88
was the main catalyst to complete the idea.]
And now our feature story…The Donner Party
[The following contains scenes of cannibalism. Reader
discretion is advised.]
It was back in 1846 that Illinois farmer George Donner decided
to lead a group of settlers to California. Donner was 62-years-
old and desired to see Disneyland before he passed on. So he
convinced over 70 adventuresome sorts to load up the wagons,
far too much, by the way, and they then proceeded to make just
about every other mistake possible. For starters, they started way
too late in the year and the elder Donner was none too good at
directions.
In their attempt to take a shortcut to California, the group was
crossing the Wasatch Mountains in Utah when Donner got lost.
Having just picked up another 13 Mickey Mouse fans, the group
numbered 87 and now they were forced to backtrack on their
“shortcut.” Of course, this cost them precious time as the winter
of 1846-47 was fast approaching. [In the annals of American
weather, seriously, this was to be one of the worst.]
Eventually, the Donner party crossed the range and started across
the desert leading to the Great Salt Lake. They ended up losing
over 100 oxen while traversing this arid land and they had to
abandon several of their wagons that were loaded with supplies
as well. At one point, tempers flared as the group began to
realize just how stupid this all was. One of the leaders of the
party killed a young teamster (Jimmy Hoffa? Is this where he is
buried?) and the fellow was expelled, leaving his wife and
children behind.
By the time the settlers reached the Truckee Pass, the last
mountain range before the Sacramento Valley, it was tension
city, so to speak. They had to cross the pass before a major
snowfall hit. Alas, that was not to be. It began to snow.and it
snowed and snowed and snowed.for two weeks. By the time it
was all over, there were 40-foot drifts and the Donner party was
trapped in two separate camps.
It was early December and when the remaining settlers (now
numbering 81, with half of them children) looked around at their
supplies, they realized there was only enough meat to last
through the month.
At this point, 17 of the stronger members of the party decided to
make a break for it and they attempted to cross the pass, only to
be trapped by more snow. Two of this group died of exposure.
One, Uncle Billy Graves, urged his daughters (who must have
been the original ESPN fitness bombshells), to eat his body.
“Yuck!” they reportedly said. But the next day the two chowed
down. When two more died, they too were eaten. Only 7 of this
group of 17 were to make it to Sacramento. After dealing with
the rolling blackouts that were to be the norm in California, the
survivors put together 4 search parties to go back and look for
the rest of the Donner party. [I imagine many of these folks were
like, hey, no power, no future.]
Meanwhile, back at Alder Creek and Truckee Lake, the survivors
had slaughtered and ate the last of the livestock. When the
rescuers finally made it, in April, 13 of the Donner party that had
been left behind had perished and the rescuers saw that
cannibalism was rampant. One pioneer noted in his diary that,
“Mrs. Murphy said here yesterday that she thought she should
commence on Milt and eat him. It is distressing. Saturday the
27th a beautiful morning.” [Tindall and Shi]
And this story had an even more tragic ending when, as the final
47 survivors were led over the pass, George Donner had to stay
behind because he was too weak. His wife stayed with him
while he died.
[Source: “America: A Narrative History,” by George Brown
Tindall and David E. Shi. Don”t bother trying to make the
numbers add up. I didn”t see an accounting of each death.]
*In 1873, Alferd (sic) Packer and a bunch of gold trekkers were
traversing the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado when
they were trapped in severe weather. Packer was the only
survivor. But when the bodies were eventually discovered they
were found to have been cannibalized. Packer (no relation to
Billy) was actually tried and convicted for devouring his mates.
Assorted Stuff
–A New Jersey bear update is necessary, as the official damage
report has come in for 2000. 22 livestock kills, 42 kills of
domestic rabbits (silly wabbits), and 34 break-ins into private
homes. We eagerly await spring. [Source: Howard Brant / Star-
Ledger.]
–What Are YOU doing? A New Jersey woman lost her thumb
when her boyfriend bit it off during a fight after the Super Bowl,
though it doesn”t appear that the quality of the game had
anything to do with this incident.unless it was the
announcement that Ray Lewis was the MVP.
–From USA Today comes this blurb. Thousands of Nigerians
are paying $3 to $12 for a visa to the nonexistent Republic of
Lomar. Supposedly up to 70,000 have been duped into thinking
that holding a Lomar visa will gain them admittance to the US or
Canada. Now there is an actual web site, which I checked out oh
so briefly. www.republic-of-lomar.org. Of course, I was just
trying to see if I should do any advertising there.
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/5/66: #1 “My Love” (Petula
Clark) #2 “Barbara Ann” (The Beach Boys) #3 “No Matter
What Shape (Your Stomach”s In) (The T-Bones).
Sports Bits
–High School heavyweight wrestler Eddie Guy (Fair Lawn, NJ)
recently pinned an opponent in 4 seconds, establishing a new
state record. In his previous bout, he pinned another guy in 8
seconds. Now the all-time national high school record is just 2
seconds, established by Bay Thamarath of Rockford Jefferson in
Illinois back in 1991. [One thousand one.one thousand two.
seems impossible.] [Source: Star-Ledger]
–Former major leaguer Curt Blefary died a few days ago, just
one week after Tommie Agee passed on. The significance of this
is that Blefary was the A.L. Rookie of the Year in 1965 and Agee
won the same award in 1966.
Back in an era when 20 homers was a big deal, Blefary burst on
the scene as a 21-year-old with the Orioles and hit 22 dingers
with 70 RBI in his rookie year. He followed it up with 23 and 22
homers in his next two seasons but then he gradually faded away,
out of baseball at age 28.
NHL Quiz Answers: 1) 700-goal club: Wayne Gretzky, 894;
Gordie Howe, 801; Marcel Dionne, 731; Phil Esposito, 717;
Mike Gartner, 708. 2) Goalies in the Top 4 for career shutouts:
Terry Sawchuk, 103 (1949-70); Glenn Hall, 84 (1952-71);
Jacques Plante, 82 (1952-73). [George Hainesworth had 94,
playing from 1926-37.] 3) Tony Esposito (brother of Phil) had
15 shutouts during the ”69-”70 campaign.
Weather Quiz Answers: Group A – London (44 degrees),
Tehran (45), Tokyo (47). Group B – Seoul (32), Kabul (36),
Geneva (39).
Next Bar Chat, Monday. In recognition of Ronald Reagan”s 90th
birthday, I”m going to have a bit on his career in the 1960s.
