NFL Quiz: 1) Name the top ten all time in receptions. 2) Who
holds the record for most consecutive games played at 282?
Answers below.
**I’m overseas in Ireland, so I thought I’d reprise some old
tales, mixing a little history with music. I also had to write this
up on Tuesday, in case you’re wondering why I missed some
more recent events.
A Human Tragedy
Between 1845 and 1849, the Irish Potato Famine took about one
million lives and drove over a million more to emigrate. It was
one of Europe”s worst natural disasters. But to a great extent it
was also preventable. So first, let”s take a look at some
legislation that helped lead to the tragedy.
In 1815 and 1828, the British Parliament passed a series of laws
known as the “Corn Laws.” These acts imposed a sliding tariff
on imported wheat (then known as corn). The impact is best
described by John Merriman in his book, “A History of Modern
Europe”:
“When the price of wheat produced in Britain fell below a certain
level, import duties would keep out cheaper foreign grain.
Foreign grain could be imported virtually free of import taxes
when the price of wheat stood at or above a certain level. The
laws protected landowners, but were detrimental to the interests
of businessmen who imported or sold imported grain, and, above
all, to consumers, who were forced to pay higher prices for
bread. The bad harvests of 1839-41 came when an expanding
population had created an increased demand for food, even as
parishes were cutting back on their allocations to the poor.”
In 1839, it was argued that the repeal of the Corn Laws would be
a major step toward political democracy. A man by the name of
John Bright warned the aristocracy: “Until now, this country has
been ruled by the class of great proprietors of the soil. Everyone
must have foreseen that, as trade and manufactures extended, the
balance of power would, at some time or other, be thrown into
another scale. Well, that time has come…We have been living
through a revolution without knowing it.”
[I write this preamble because it is interesting that the debates on
trade really haven”t changed over the centuries, only the product
and governments in question.]
The Corn Laws were repealed in June 1846, after the famine in
Ireland had begun. It should have helped the situation. It didn”t.
In the Middle Ages, Ireland had been a place of fabulous
agricultural fertility. In an article for Irish America magazine,
author Thomas Cahill describes the period.
“The early Irish monks and nuns, who tried for a time to be as
strict with themselves as the hermits of the Egyptian desert,
found that it was just about impossible to starve properly in
Ireland, because the country abounded in delicious food of all
kinds – ‘leeks from the garden, poultry, game, Salmon and trout
and bees,’ as a salivating monastic poet of the seventh century
put it.
“But by the 18th century, Ireland had become a Third World
country, a colony of England, in which all the good land had
been taken from the Irish by English planters – a place where
everything from seed to salmon streams was owned by others,
and the Irish had become unwanted poachers and vagrants on the
rich soil that had once been theirs.”
The Irish nobility, understanding there was no future for them,
took flight. They left behind a dispirited population of peasants
who could do nothing but watch their world come to an end.
In the 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville toured Ireland three
years after his American travels. He wrote to his father:
“You cannot imagine what a complexity of miseries five
centuries of oppression, civil disorder, and religious hostility
have piled on this poor people….[The poverty is] such as I did
not imagine existed in this world. It is a frightening thing, I
assure you, to see a whole population reduced to fasting like
Trappists, and not being sure of surviving to the next harvest,
which is still not expected for another ten days.”
Tocqueville wrote this in 1835, ten years before the famine
began.
Pushed further and further away from their ancestral plots, most
of the farmers had to make due with pitifully small ones. And
in the western counties, like today”s Clare County, the soil isn”t
as hospitable. As Cahill writes:
“Dispossessed of their property because of their race, deprived of
all civil rights because of their religion (including the right to
object to anything that was being done to them), the ‘mere Irish,’
as the conquerors were fond of calling us, had sunk as low as
possible.”
Former American slave Frederick Douglass visited Ireland in
1845 to rally support for the campaign to abolish slavery in
America. He wrote of his experience.
“Never did human faces tell a sadder tale…these people lacked
only a black skin and wooly hair to complete their likeness to the
plantation Negro. The open, uneducated mouth – the long gaunt
arm – the badly formed foot and ankle – the shuffling gait…all
reminded me of the plantation, and my own cruelly abused
people.”
It was in such circumstances that the miraculous potato had made
existence possible.
In the 6 decades after 1780, Ireland”s population had exploded by
300% as compared with 88% in England and Wales. But there
was little industrialization to absorb the surplus numbers. With
this background, the little potato, first brought to Cork by Walter
Raleigh, became the staple for the rural population. Rich in
vitamins and protein, it grew easily in the Irish soil, even the
stony ground of the western counties.
But in 1845, the Irish peasants had no security and little incentive
to work. Left with this choice they frequently joined the British
army. The Duke of Wellington once said, “Ireland is an
inexhaustible nursery for the finest soldiers.”
For those who spent their days just struggling to survive, the
poverty was incredible. Large families lived in mud huts with no
furniture and the company of pigs.
In the first year of the famine, the poorest of the peasants
sold whatever they could – overcoats, fishing gear, the family
cow, Chieftains albums – to buy grain. The next year, as the
famine returned, they had nothing left to sell. The fishermen, if
they hadn”t already sold their gear, were too weak to row.
People combed the beaches for shellfish until every beach in the
West was stripped bare. And to top it off, food prices began to
soar.
In July 1846, there was a new person in charge of famine relief,
Charles Trevelyan, a man who believed that government must
never interfere with the hidden hand of the market. According to
author Cahill, Trevelyan felt that “if the Irish were starving, it
must be their own fault; and God himself had sent the potato
blight for the ‘moral and political improvement’ of the Irish
people. They must take control of their own lives and stop
abusing British charity.”
So the stage was set for the worst year, 1847. Only 2 million
tons of potatoes were produced, versus 15 million tons in 1844,
the year before the famine began. Cahill writes:
“The Irish obliged Charles Trevelyan”s ideals for them by dying
in droves, whole villages becoming ghost towns overnight.
Serious riots broke out at ports, where hungry people could not
bear the sight of abundant Irish grain and meat being loaded on
ships for export. Her majesty”s government, which refused to
commit the sin of interfering with the market, had no scruples
about protecting the market”s many export ships with the full
force of British firepower.”
Private charities, such as Quaker soup kitchens, were
overwhelmed. Bands of walking skeletons began to roam the
countryside. There were corpses in the fields and children dying
in the workhouses, the latter being hellholes where even small
children could be deprived of food and placed in solitary
confinement. A Quaker wrote of the time:
“We entered a cabin. Stretched in one dark corner, scarcely
visible from the smoke and rags that covered them, were three
children huddled together, lying there because they were much
too weak to rise, pale and ghostly, their little limbs perfectly
emaciated, eyes sunk, voice gone and evidently in the last stages
of starvation.”
In 1848, the crop failed again, people gathered what little
strength they had and left to walk to the ports. Norman Davies,
in his book, “Europe: A History,” writes, “They collapsed on the
roads, perished in the overcrowded steerage holds, and died in
droves on the docks of New York and Montreal. They landed
racked with fever, stomach cramps, and ‘Anglophobia.’” A poet
wrote:
A million a decade! Calmly and cold
The units are read by our statesman sage.
Little they think of a Nation old,
Fading away from History”s page:
– Outcast weeds by a desolate sea
Fallen leaves of Humanity!
In conclusion, a minister wrote, “The Almighty indeed sent a
potato blight, but the English created a Famine.”
[The fungus that caused the blight was a microscopic organism.
The spores traveled through the air with lightning speed
whenever the weather was warm and wet (in other words, 95%
of the time in Ireland), attacking crops, decimating whole fields
within hours, and rotting the potatoes to a foul-smelling mush.
As Cahill wrote, “The sickening odor, carried on the breeze of
late summer, became the perfume of death itself.” Finally, in
1885, a commercially salable pesticide was developed.]
Thin Lizzy
Well, I really didn’t intend a pun here, but Thin Lizzy happens to
be one of Ireland’s better known hard-rock groups. Formed in
1969 by two classmates from Dublin, Phil Lynott and Brian
Downey, it is probably safe to say that for all of their potential,
they had a disappointing career.
Lynott was an interesting character. The illegitimate son of a
Brazilian father and an Irish mother, he was a black musician-
poet who grew up in the working class sections of Dublin with
his grandmother. Downey was the drummer. The rest of the
members came from various bands in Ireland and England.
Thin Lizzy spent most of their early years touring in Northern
Ireland, covering Hendrix tunes. They didn”t have their first
decent album until 1975, “Fighting,” but when they were about
to go on tour, Lynott (the lead singer) contracted hepatitis. Of
course the fact that he was a heavy drug user probably didn”t
help much.
Lynott recovered and in 1976 they toured North America with
headliners Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Some critics say Thin
Lizzy “blew them away.” But the tour was cut short by Lynott
contracting hepatitis again. Geezuz, man. Get a ‘hold of
yourself.
However, in July of ‘76, the group struck it big with the song
”The Boys Are Back In Town” from the album “Jailbreak.”
Now you have to admit that if you know this song, there is
probably no better air guitar anthem. The other big hit from this
album was “Cowboy Song.” Thin Lizzy should have really been
on its way to superstardom. But they weren”t.
Long-time guitar player Brian Robertson severed the tendons in
his hand from a brawl at London’s Speakeasy club and was
unable to play for months. The group still managed some
success in Britain, but not elsewhere. [They had a #2 album in
the U.K., “Black Rose,” that only reached #81 in the U.S. In the
U.K., “Black Rose” was beaten out for the top spot by “The Very
Best of Leo Sayer.” They should have disbanded on that news
alone.]
The group waited until 1983 before they finally split. In ‘85, a
Dublin judge found Lynott guilty of a narcotics possession
charge and prophetically said, “As long as (Lynott) is only using
these drugs himself and not giving them to others, he is only
destroying himself.”
Lynott died of a drug overdose on January 4, 1986, after being in
a coma for 8 days.
U2 / Bloody Sunday
U2 was formed in 1978 in Dublin. Paul Hewson (Bono), Adam
Clayton, Larry Mullin and Dave “The Edge” Evans began
rehearsing while students at Dublin”s Mount Temple High
School after Mullin placed a note on the school message board
asking for volunteers to form a band. They originally called
themselves “Feedback” and then “The Hype.”
As you can imagine, they started out playing local gigs and early
on there was an ad in a local newspaper.
“Manager seeks the whereabouts of The Hype after amazing
Howth gig. [Howth is a beautiful suburb of Dublin, where Bono
and others now have homes.] Please ring Brian. It was great
lads.” The ad was placed by Adam Clayton in the hope that it
would get the band more appearances.
After a slow start in the album biz, U2 took off and by 1985
Rolling Stone proclaimed the group “Band of the 80s.” Around
this time they made an historic appearance at Live Aid.
U2 was known early on for tackling social and spiritual issues.
Their third album, “War,” cemented their reputation as a
politically conscious band. Addressing “the troubles” in
Northern Ireland, they introduced a tune, “Sunday, Bloody
Sunday,” at a concert in Belfast.
Bloody Sunday was one of the more tragic, and controversial,
events of the conflict in the North. On January 30, 1972, there
was a large civil rights march in Derry. The march had been
banned. Suddenly, British soldiers began to fire on what had
been a peaceful demonstration of Catholic disenchantment with
British (“Home”) rule. When it was over, 13 unarmed protesters,
6 of whom were 17-years-old, died (a 14th died later from their
injuries).
There were 29 guns that were believed to have been fired by
British soldiers on Bloody Sunday. Despite instructions to
safeguard them, 16 have been destroyed and 10 sold to private
companies. A few years ago, a ballistics expert concluded that
part of the massacre was pre-meditated. But it will be difficult to
prove this without all of the evidence being intact.
But back to U2. In 1987, the group hit superstardom with the
release of the album, “The Joshua Tree,” which topped the charts
for weeks and spurned the #1 hits “With or Without You” and “I
Still Haven”t Found What I”m Lookin” For” (my personal
favorite). Joshua Tree won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
Just a tidbit or two concerning U2 concert gigs. Way back in
1981, they were the supporting attraction at a Miss Wet T-Shirt
night in Dallas, TX. In 1992, during a concert at the Palace in
Auburn Hills, MI., Bono ordered 10,000 pizzas to go from
Speedy Pizza. An hour later, 100 arrived with 3 delivery men,
each of whom received a $50 tip. And, here”s some trivia, U2
was only the second concert act to ever perform at Yankee
Stadium (1992). Billy Joel was the first.
Bono has always been known for being levelheaded, despite his
incredible stardom. Early in his career, he said to an interviewer,
“We may well be the future of rock but so what? When I go
back to Dublin, to my girlfriend it”s more of a distraction that
I”m in a band than any big deal – and my old man still shouts at
me for not doing the dishes before I go to bed.”
Stuff
–I forgot the other day to acknowledge the great Misty May of
the U.S. Women’s Beach Volleyball #1 squad. And here’s to the
U.S. girls in soccer and softball, hopefully to be followed by the
women’s basketball team. Certainly they put some of the guys to
shame.
–But speaking of the U.S. men, how about 400-meter gold
medallist Jeremy Wariner? I was waiting for NBC to state what
every single American watching was thinking at the time. “This
is one white boy who can run!” In fact, Wariner was the first
Caucasian American to win the event since 1964. Fourth-place
finisher Alleyne Francique of Grenada said, “I’ve never seen a
white guy run that fast.” [M.A. Mehta / Star-Ledger] Wariner’s
teammates, Otis Harris and Derrick Brew, also seemed like super
guys.
–Since you’re going to hear a lot about the marathon this final
Olympics weekend, I thought I’d add a few tidbits of my own.
Now you all should be aware by now that in 490 B.C., the
Athenians were kicking the Persians’ butts in the Battle of
Marathon, despite being heavy underdogs going in.
The story goes that afterwards, Pheidippides ran from Marathon
to Athens, “in full armor and undoubtedly low electrolytes, to tell
the city folks.” [Stephen Rodrick / Runner’s World]
Pheidippides completed the run, proclaimed “We have won,” and
then promptly collapsed and died of exhaustion.
But, his story didn’t appear until about 600 years later, so was he
real? Well, you make the call. Herodotus (c.485-c.425) had
written that “a runner was dispatched from Marathon to Sparta to
enlist the army’s help, and he ran the 150-mile round trip in 490
B.C.” [Liz Robbins / New York Times] But Herodotus makes no
mention of Pheidippides’s running to Athens after the victory.
The legend took off in 1896 after the Greek’s decided to recreate
the race for the Games that year in Athens.
Anyway, did you know that the modern marathon distance of 26
miles 385 yards dates from the London Olympics in 1908? It’s
true…it’s really true. This was the distance from Windsor Castle
to the White City Stadium.
And here are some other sports from back in ancient times that I
didn’t realize existed. There was the ‘hoplitodromia,’ a 400-yard
sprint in full armor, while the long jump performers wore
weights.
Until reading a piece by Tony Perrottet in Smithsonian, I also
didn’t realize that in the violent ‘pankration,’ the more brutish
participants tore their opponents’ intestines out.
Finally, the torch wasn’t added until Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Games,
and the Greeks didn’t have a word for amateur. The closest was
idiotes…ignoramus.
–Johnny Mac is furious with ESPN2. Like many of us he tuned
in Sunday to catch a few holes of the U.S. Amateur golf
tournament, but there is the ‘duce,’ showing the results of the
Olympics on its scrawl, including that evening’s 100-meter final.
Now as Johnny points out, you’d think that its core audience
wasn’t looking to get the results ahead of time, so they ruined it
for their base. If you flip on ESPN News or the web site, well,
you’re looking for results. You think they’d have done this if
ABC was televising the Games?
–Johnny also had to pass along the fact that Barry Bonds has
more intentional walks than anyone in the American League has
total walks. His walks to strikeouts ratio is 7.3 to 1 (176 vs. 24…
as of Sunday). To put this in perspective, Ted Williams has a
career ratio of a little under 3, which is excellent for anyone let
alone a slugger.
–New horror flick idea… “Alien vs. Svetlana Khorkina”
–For you younger folk out there, you’d be proud of me. I just
picked up Franz Ferdinand’s new CD in my ongoing attempt to
stay somewhat hip. Great single in “Take Me Out,” which is
now the featured play in my 5-minute commute to the office.
[These guys are a new U.K. band.]
–My man Randy Travis and Foghat are going to be touring this
October in their own effort to counteract Bruce Springsteen’s
pro-Kerry tour. You have to admit there is no one in the world
who can surpass Travis for just pure coolness. And now that I’ve
mentioned Foghat, time to find “Slow Ride,” one of the great
songs of 1976 (though it peaked at just #20 on the Billboard
charts).
–There’s an oldies station out of Morristown, N.J., 1250 AM,
that is outstanding and the other day I’m listening to Bobby
Darin’s 1960 #20 tune “Artificial Flowers.” You’d all recognize
this one. But when was the last time you paid attention to the
lyrics? Geezuz, it’s depressing. Basically, a 9-year-old kid
freezes to death in her tenement, left alone after her parents died.
So…we hereby put “Artificial Flowers” in the editor’s “top three
all-time most depressing tunes,” alongside Peggy Lee’s “Is That
All There Is” and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again
(Naturally)”. Don’t listen to any of these if you’re looking to have
a good day.
Top 3 songs for the week of 8/25/73: #1 “Brother Louie”
(Stories) #2 “Live And Let Die” (Wings) #3 “Touch Me In The
Morning” (Diana Ross…wicked woman)
NFL Quiz Answers: 1) Top ten receptions –
Jerry Rice…….1,519
Cris Carter…….1,101
Tim Brown……1,070
Andre Reed…….951
Art Monk………..940
Irving Fryar……..851
Larry Centers……827
Steve Largent……819
Shannon Sharpe..815
Henry Ellard……814
Actives: Marvin Harrison, 759; Kennan McCardell, 724; Jimmy
Smith, 718,
2) Jim Marshall, one of the “Purple People Eaters,” has the
record for consecutive games played at 282, almost all with
Minnesota.
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
