Nextel Cup Quiz: The Daytona 500…Sunday! So, to celebrate
the start of a new season of stock car racing…name the seven
who have won at least three Nextel (Grand National, Winston
Cup) championships since 1949. Answer below.
Shark Scandal………..Another Bar Chat Exclusive…
I’ve had it, sports fans. Once again, the supposedly definitive
International Shark Attack File out of the University of Florida is
providing the world with bad data. The other day these folks
released their official report on 2005 and said there had been
only four fatalities in the world…two in Australia, one in the
Pacific island chain of Vanuatu and one in the United States.
That’s wrong.
Bar Chat 6/9/05
“On Monday, another spear fisherman was killed by a great
white shark in the waters off of Cape Town, South Africa, the
second such incident in the past 19 months. Henri Murray
attempted to fend off the beast with his spear gun before the
shark ‘snatched him in its jaws.’ Murray’s partner shot the shark
with a spear but to no avail.”
Bar Chat 6/30/05
“Folks, this is a Bar Chat Exclusive. The shark deaths reported
by the University of Florida and its International Shark Attack
File (ISAF) are severely undercounting the number of shark
fatalities. And how can your editor make such a claim? Stick
with me….
“From 1925-2004, the ISAF says that of the fatalities around the
world, about half were a result of Great White attacks, with the
other half being victims primarily of Tiger and Bull sharks.
“To cite a few examples of country death tolls, there were 134
fatal attacks during this time period in Australian waters and 25
fatal attacks in Papua New Guinea. That’s what the ISAF data
tells us.
“But when it comes to Vanuatu, where the 7-year-old girl was
killed by a possible great white last week (Bar Chat 6/28), the
ISAF says there has been only one fatal attack here, until last
week’s, since 1925 and that one was in 1997.
“So here’s what you won’t find anywhere else….putting two and
two together.
“From the New Zealand Herald, 6/25/05:
“ ‘A teacher in Vanuatu says he twice warned the family of the
New Zealand girl (Alysha) killed by a shark not to get into the
water…
“ ‘Mr. Tilison had paddled out in a canoe to Alysha’s parents’
yacht just after it pulled into the attractive white, sandy bay
where he lived, shortly before lunchtime on Wednesday.
“ ‘“They had just dropped the anchor and jumped in for a swim,”
he said. “I went out and introduced myself and told them it was
not safe to swim in the sea.”’
“ ‘Mr. Tilison said he made it clear that fishing boats came into
the bay to wash down, and the strong smell attracted sharks…
“ ‘“I told them not to swim because here we do not swim in the
salt water. We swim in the fresh water, not on the beach.”…
“ ‘(Tilison) said there were local children in the water but they
were close to shore where it was safe….
“ ‘(Tilison) heard Alysha ask her mother if she could go for a
swim.
“ ‘Her mummy said, “It’s not safe” ….but she went for a swim
…after 10 minutes the shark attacked.’….
“ ‘Mr. Tilison said just two days earlier locals saw a great white
shark in the area. “It was a very big one…they thought it was the
same one.”’”
“But here’s the clincher….Mr. Tilison told the New Zealand
Herald’s Angela Gregory, ‘this was the fourth death he
remembered, the last three years ago.’”
“What?! Go back to the ISAF data. I thought Vanuatu had only
one fatal attack since 1925 and it was in 1997!
“You know what this means, folks….the international tourism
industry, in paying off the ISAF, is hiding the true facts. The
death toll is considerably higher. No one should be leaving their
home, let alone come within 10 miles of the water. If we were
told the truth, the coastal real estate market would collapse,
banks would go under, and the world would be plunged into
depression.
“Yes, I’m on the case, sports fans. We will not let this issue die.”
Bar Chat 7/19/05
“By the way, I did send a note last week to a Dr. Burgess at the
International Shark Attack File to get him to look into his
institute’s understating the carnage in Vanuatu, per a recent Bar
Chat. Dr. Burgess has yet to respond. He gets one more week to
do so or he”s immediately inducted into the Bar Chat Hall of
Shame.”
[He never did.]
So here we are…seven months later…and once again Dr. George
Burgess and the University of Florida are pulling the wool over
our eyes. How could they not include the attack in South Africa?
That wasn’t a grouper that killed the poor sap, though giant
groupers aren’t to be messed with…as anyone who’s been to a
decent aquarium knows.
This joker, this Burgess fellow, should be shut down and a full
congressional investigation, nay, a trial in Karachi, needs to be
conducted in short order.
🙂 _]
–Olympic News Brief…
Well, looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of snowboarder Gretchen
Bleiler in the future…and at the end of the day that’s not
necessarily a bad thing. Teammate Hannah Teter, gold medalist
in the event Bleiler took silver, said “I wanted to go off for
everyone.”
From the men’s figure skating short program:
“Quad toe! Triple toe!!!!” Aarghhh!
“You have to triple…you have to rotate.”
[Upon hearing this one, I thought of Charlie Brown, directing the
Christmas play. “You have to pay attention…you have to follow
directions.”]
Letter from Birmingham Jail
[Note: The following is serious. Each year for Black History
Month I try to do one piece that acknowledges our shared
American experience and in perusing the current issue of The
Atlantic Monthly came across this famous letter from Martin
Luther King Jr., first published in the Atlantic in August 1963. It
proved to be “one of the classic documents of the civil-rights
movement.” After watching a bit of Coretta Scott King’s
funeral, and seeing how it was hijacked by some for blatantly
partisan purposes, perhaps the following is a more fitting tribute
to the King legacy than the rants of Rev. Joseph Lowery, for one.
It’s harsh…but these were harsh times. It’s also part of our
history.]
Martin Luther King Jr.
[In response to a public statement by eight white religious
leaders of the South expressing concern and caution over his
activities in Birmingham]
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across
your recent statement calling our present activities “unwise and
untimely.” Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my
work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that
cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in
the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive
work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and
your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer
your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable
terms.
I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham,
since you have been influenced by the argument of “outsiders
coming in” …
I am in Birmingham because injustice is here…I am cognizant of
the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit
idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in
Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects
one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to
live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone
who lives inside the United States can never be considered an
outsider…
We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for
our God-given and constitutional rights. The nations of Asia and
Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political
independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward
the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. I guess it is
easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of
segregation to say “wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs
lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and
brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen
curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and
sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of our
twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of
poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly
find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you
seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go
to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on
television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is
told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the
depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental
sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by
unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people;
when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son
asking in agonizing pathos, “Daddy, why do white people treat
colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-country drive
and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the
uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will
accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by
nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first
name becomes “nigger” and your middle name becomes “boy”
(however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and
when your wife and mother are never given the respected title
“Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the
fat that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never
quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears
and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a
degenerating sense of “nobodyness” – then you will understand
why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the
cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be
plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the
bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand
our legitimate and unavoidable impatience…
You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break
laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so
diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of
1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather
strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws.
One may well ask, “How can you advocate breaking some laws
and obeying others?” The answer is found in the fact that there
are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust
laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “An unjust law is no
law at all.”
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one
determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-
made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God.
An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral
law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law
is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any
law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades
human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust
because segregation distorts the soul and damages the
personality…
There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust
in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge
of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong with
an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the
ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the
First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful
protest, then it becomes unjust.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil
disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Sadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar
because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced
superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry
lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before
submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a
degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates
practiced civil disobedience.
We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was
“legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in
Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew
in Hitler’s Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in
Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my
Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a
Communist country today where certain principles dear to the
Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate
disobeying these anti-religious laws…
I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham,
even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach
the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation,
because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned
though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of
America. Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here.
Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history
the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were
here…If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us,
the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our
freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal
will of God are embodied in our echoing demands…
Never before have I written a letter this long – or should I say a
book? I’m afraid that it is much too long to take your precious
time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I
had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there
to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a
narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange
thoughts, and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of
the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg
you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an
overstatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a
patience that makes me patient with anything less than
brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King Jr.
—
Stuff
–One of the biggest surprises of the college basketball season is
Seton Hall, now 7-4 in the Big East after an upset of West
Virginia on Tuesday. But while the Big East is easily the best
conference in the nation, some have said it deserves to have 8 go
to the NCAAs. For the record, I’ll submit they receive only 6…
Villanova, UConn, West Virginia, Georgetown, Pitt, and Seton
Hall.
–I said I wouldn’t talk about my alma mater, by name, the rest of
the season but after getting our butt kicked by Duke, 93-70, on
Tuesday, I need to make an exception.
Wake Forest’s program has fallen so far, so fast, all of us alum
are numb…and obviously the players and coaching staff are even
more so. Wake is 1-10 in the ACC! And it bears repeating,
because even national commentators have been saying what I
noted long ago, that Trent Strickland’s missed dunk in the first
Duke contest was the turning point and never in the history of
basketball can you pin a single early season play for the
misfortunes of the entire season like you can in this instance.
Phil W. was in the stands in Durham the other night and noted
the Duke fans chanted “You can’t dunk” every time Strickland
touched the ball. I also loved the chant “NIT, maybe, NIT,
maybe.” Coach K. admonished the Duke students to behave.
Why? Sounds clever to me.
By the way, Wake should play a Division III schedule next year,
or, at the very least the NCAA should come down hard on Wake
for impersonating a major college program.
–Separately, but related to the above, Duke’s J.J. Redick, hands
down “Player of the Year,” set the new national career mark for
three-point field goals against my Deacons. The record of 413
had been held by Virginia’s Curtis Staples. Ironically, both are
from Roanoke, Virginia. And now Redick needs just 61 points
to become the ACC’s all-time leading scorer…a record held by
Wake Forest’s Dickie Hemric at 2,587. Johnny Dawkins is #2.
–This is sad. Oklahoma State basketball coaching legend Eddie
Sutton, just six wins shy of 800, has been forced to ask for a
leave of absence for the remainder of the season after being cited
for driving under the influence on Friday. Sutton has been taking
painkillers for severe back pain, but witnesses report alcohol may
have been a factor as he struck an SUV from behind. It’s not
known whether OSU will take him back next year. In the
meantime his son Sean is taking over.
–Bucknell is #24 in the AP poll! Go get ‘em, Allen H. I
suspect, though, they only get a #9 seed come tourney time,
assuming they run the table the rest of the way.
–Olympic News Brief…
My brother on the snowboarders. “Someone should note that
this event owes everything to those California kids from
Dogtown who first went wild on skateboards inside empty
swimming pools.”
The Washington Post’s Mike Wise on the end of Michelle Kwan.
“She goes home like the Deadhead who spent his life following
Jerry Garcia’s band, wondering why his room is unchanged since
1970.
“Arrested adolescence, that’s what figure skating became for
Kwan. She wanted to be 15 forever. She found out 25 feels like
45 in her child-labor sport. The grand dame of the dysfunctional
toe-pick universe, that’s who Kwan was five years after her 20th
birthday….
“Now she will attempt to move on, one hopes to something more
whole and enriching than finding the approval of others for a
living. But it will be difficult. There is a reason they call a
skater’s time on the ice a ‘program.’ From early childhood,
that’s what most of these little girls without work permits are:
programmed.
“To smile. To emote. To perform just so, for fussy and spare
adults who care nothing for their often-warped childhoods.
Young figure skaters are programmed to commit themselves to a
life about pleasing others more than themselves. And no one
was better at pleasing than Kwan….
“The knock on Kwan was always that judges were more
influenced by her artistry and 200-kilowatt grin than her skating.
That Kwan didn’t have the physical talents of a powerful skater
like (Sasha) Cohen, and yet when she hit a big jump – when that
spiral move began at the end of her program, when that nubile
leg stretched way over her head and the final spin began – the
judges didn’t need to see more.
“In hindsight, they should have just called her Obi-Wan Kwan,
so good were her Jedi mind tricks.
You will give me another 6.0
Yes, we will give you another 6.0
“There was a somberness to the news conference that was almost
depressing, as if Kwan’s life were over….
“ ‘She’s a real loss to all of the United States Olympic
Committee and to the United States of America, and I think to
the world,’ said Peter Ueberroth…
“But the true loss for Kwan is that it appears she didn’t have
much in the way of a life outside skating….[Sarah Hughes
reportedly is doing fine as a sophomore at Yale.]…
“Her life was filled with the strenuous business of being
Michelle Kwan, showing up for every photo shoot and doing
myriad commercials and being who America wanted her to be.
Being America’s ice princess demanded her total fidelity.”
Boy, who pissed off Mike Wise in Turin, eh? Here’s my bottom
line. Michelle Kwan was overrated and I always liked Nicole
Bobek better.
–I hadn’t watched Bill O’Reilly in weeks until I caught him on
Monday night when he had a segment on Wayne Gretzky, who
O’Reilly, the great hypocrite, said was innocent in the gambling
scandal that has enveloped his wife and how wrong it is that the
press jumps to conclusions….blah blah blah….this from a guy
who convicts on hearsay all the time, let alone his problem with
women in the office.
Anyway, I prefer to listen to the likes of the New York Post’s
Mike Vaccaro.
“What Wayne Gretzky is learning now, late in the game, is
something everyone who’s ever courted fame, and earned it,
eventually discovers. The millions of dollars in your bank
account don’t serve as a bullet-proof vest. The thousands of
anonymous good deeds you do don’t always dive in the way
when life gets messy, like a defenseman sprawling on the ice,
trying to absorb a slap shot with his ribs….
“Gretzky wants (his free pass). He wants to be able to close his
eyes and click his heels and have all of the questions disappear.
He wants the world to go back to the far simpler place it was at
the start of last week, before his best friend and best girl were re-
cast as dumb-and-dumber players in a gambling-ring plot line
that seems as if it’s been retrieved from the scrap pile of
‘Sopranos’ outtakes.
“ ‘There’s nothing for me to talk about,’ Gretzky tells a packed
news conference… ‘I’m not involved.’
“And because he is Wayne Gretzky, the best there ever was, the
best there is ever likely to be, he believes that will be enough….
“It’s Gretzky’s right to maintain his silence if he wants to, to
follow what is surely a carefully-laid out strategy presented him
by a team of lawyers and advisers. It’s his right to live in a
world that’s more make-believe than Neverland Ranch, a world
where being Wayne Gretzky grants you immunity from The
Question, and all the attendant questions.
“But the world has its rights, too. Its right to know. Its right to
interrogate. Its right to not give a damn that Team Canada’s
leader has the Olympics on his mind. And its right to remind
Wayne Gretzky that being the greatest hockey player of all time
doesn’t grant him lifetime immunity outside the rink. It can be a
rough place, the world. Even for the Greatest among us.”
–My brother, in commenting on my mention of Smokin’ Joe
Frazier the other day, reminded me Philadelphia erected a statue
to a fictional white boy who clawed his way to the top of the
boxing world; yet never acknowledged a real life, home grown
hero who was black and clawed his way to the top of the boxing
world and became heavyweight champion of the world.
Good point, Bro. Home version of “Bar Chat: The Game” on the
way once you and I develop it…over some premium beer, of
course.
–Congratulations to Lonnie Billiter Jr. (LBJ to his friends, I
imagine) of Colerain Township, Ohio, who bowled a perfect 900
series in an event sanctioned by the U.S. Bowling Congress.
According to USA Today, while it hasn’t as yet been officially
sanctioned, LBJ would become just the 8th person to achieve this
feat.
Billiter, 24, said he averages 220-230 and has rolled “13 or 14”
300 games in the past but never consecutively. I’m assuming he
stayed away from the alley hot dogs…which any bowler knows
can be deadly. Heck, the draft beer can kill you too. Better to go
around the corner and order a pizza and smuggle in a six-pack…
but now I’m rambling and I really don’t have the facts on the
location of the place where LBJ bowled the other day.
By the way, the women’s record for a three-game series is 878
set by Karen Rosenburg (no relation to Ethel….who spelled her
name differently anyway) of Rolla, MO.
–“I don’t think I got in.” Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben
Roethlisberger, on whether he scored on that controversial play
in the Super Bowl.
I saw this in Newsweek and it didn’t mention in what forum
Roethlisberger made the comment. But how stupid can he be?!
Geez, say you scored, Ben.
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/12/72: #1 “Let’s Stay Together”
(Al Green) #2 “American Pie” (Don McLean) #3 “Without
You” (Nilsson)…and…#4 “Precious And Few” (Climax) #5
“Never Been To Spain” (Three Dog Night) #6 “Hurting Each
Other” (Carpenters) #7 “Down By The Lazy River” (The
Osmonds)…don’t recognize #8…so…#9 “Brand New Key”
(Melanie) #10 “Day After Day” (Badfinger)
Nextel Cup Multiple Champs: Seven who won at least three –
Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty…7
Jeff Gordon…4
David Pearson, Lee Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough…3
*If you got Lee Petty, you’re good….treat yourself to some
Dixie Beer!
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday. A few words on Jake LaMotta and Abe
Lincoln…if you keep it where it is.
