Wimbledon Quiz: 1) On the men’s side, post-1920, name the
four to win at least 4 singles titles. 2) Who did Arthur Ashe
defeat for his lone title in 1975? 3) Who am I? I won the men’s
title in 1991 and my initials are M.S. 4) On the women’s side,
post-1920, name the three to win seven or more singles titles. 5)
Who am I? I won the women’s title in 1998, initials J.N.
Answers below.
George Carlin, RIP
Born to a single mother in the Morningside Heights section of
Manhattan in 1937, George Carlin was a cut-up in school and
dropped out in the ninth grade, joining the Air Force at the age of
17. After being discharged in 1957, he briefly went into radio
and then the exciting career of marketing peanut brittle (I
wouldn’t be good at this because I’d eat up all the inventory).
Carlin began to work on comedy routines, developing characters
such as sportscaster Biff Barf and Al Sleet, the “hippie-dippie
weatherman.” [“The weather was dominated by a large
Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high.
Tonight’s forecast…dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning
to widely scattered light in the morning.”]
In 1960, Carlin and buddy Jack Burns moved to Hollywood to
perform in nightclubs as a comedy double act and were invited to
appear on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. Carlin then made
his first solo appearance on Merv Griffin in ’65 and appeared
numerous times on Ed Sullivan and Tonight.
But his act was beginning to change and where once he sought to
emulate the gentle humor of childhood hero Danny Kaye, he
developed an edgier style courtesy of Lenny Bruce and Bob
Newhart. At first, upon unveiling his now foul-mouthed act,
bookings plummeted, but within a few years the transition paid
off, culminating in his 1972 landmark performance in Milwaukee
where he featured a routine titled “Seven Words You Can Never
Say on Television.” [If you forgot what they are, check out
Wikipedia.] Carlin was arrested for disturbing the peace and
when the material was later broadcast on New York radio station
WBAI, the station was censured and fined by the FCC, with the
ruling making its way to the Supreme Court in 1978, which as
reported in Time magazine “upheld the FCC ban on ‘offensive
material’ during hours when children are in the audience.’”
Carlin kept using the bit and was arrested several times on stage.
Carlin would end up hosting the first ever broadcast of “Saturday
Night Live” in 1975, while high on cocaine after a week-long
binge, he later admitted, and he would end up appearing on the
Tonight Show 130 times.
Ironically, Carlin had just found out he was scheduled to receive
the John F. Knnedy Center’s prestigious Mark Twain Prize for
American Humor this coming November.
But I have to admit I wrote in my “Week in Review” column on
11/24/01 that I couldn’t stand his HBO special of that time (he
would do 13 of them) because of its endless vulgarity.
Some Carlin bits:
On baseball and football… “Baseball is a 19th century pastoral
game. Football is a 20th century technological struggle. Baseball
is played on a diamond, in a park – the baseball park! Football is
played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier
Field or War Memorial Stadium.”
“Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid
someone will clean them?”
On dying and getting older… “ ‘Older’ sounds a little better than
‘old,’ doesn’t it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer…
I’m getting old. And it’s OK. Because thanks to our fear of
death in this country I won’t have to die – I’ll ‘pass away.’ Or
I’ll ‘expire,’ like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the
hospital they’ll call it a ‘terminal episode.’ The insurance
company will refer to it as ‘negative patient care outcome.’ And
if it’s the result of malpractice they’ll say it was a ‘therapeutic
misadventure.’”
Editorial / USA Today
“How could anyone stay funny for 50 years? Part of the answer
might be that Carlin was driven as much by a desire to question
authority as to get laughs. He took on religion, government and
other powerful institutions as zealously as an entrepreneur might
pursue wealth, or a politician might seek higher office. If his
jokes didn’t make people chuckle, they made them think.”
Jerry Seinfeld / New York Times
“You could certainly say that George downright invented
modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every
comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number
of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and
someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian
would say, ‘Carlin does it.’ I’ve heard it my whole career:
‘Carlin does it,’ ‘Carlin already did it,’ ‘Carlin did it eight years
ago.’
“And he didn’t just ‘do’ it. He worked over an idea like a
diamond cutter with facets and angles and refractions of light.
He made you sorry you ever thought you wanted to be a
comedian. He was like a train hobo with a chicken bone. When
he was done there was nothing left for anybody….
“I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell. Like death,
they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me
even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever
tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through,
in that moment I will still have to think, ‘Carlin already did it.’”
Joan Rivers / New York Post
“(Carlin) was a skinny Catholic kid when I first met him in the
Village in 1961, back when Lenny Bruce was our god….
“In the beginning, George was very much in the group, but
slowly he began to break away. We both went to Las Vegas and
were thrilled to go, but that’s when things started to change.
“When we were playing at The Frontier, George refused to wear
a dinner jacket during his show and they fired him for it. ‘That’s
not what I wear on stage anymore,’ he told them.
“I remember standing there under the marquee, thinking, ‘My
God, he has just ruined his career.’ I was wrong.
“He was fearless. He had absolutely the most important attitude
a comedian should have, which is: If you don’t like it, don’t
listen….
“George made his own niche. He went on HBO before it was
HBO. He did that instead of a network show, which he was
always being offered, so he could say what he wanted.
“He was a thinker and a plotter and a worker. He wasn’t the one
you wanted to have coffee with.
“Comics are all manic depressives. When someone is a cutup at
a party, it ain’t gonna come out on the stage.
“George was smart, but he wasn’t dinner-party smart.
“He was so head and shoulders ahead of everybody. He wasn’t
sentimental, but don’t kid yourself – he would have loved all the
attention he’s getting right now.
“Just don’t say that he ‘passed away.’
“ ‘Passed to where?’ he would ask.”
Stuff
–Hero Pig!
From Vivian Wu in the South China Morning Post:
“The Sichuan earthquake has created a long list of heroes, but the
latest also has to be the least likely – a one-year-old pig that
survived 36 days under the rubble in Pengzhou and lost 100kg
through its ordeal.”
The pig was found under the rubble of the home of its owner,
Wan Xingming, who sold it to a Chengdu museum entrepreneur
who is caring for him.
Mr. Wan said he and his wife did not expect their only pig would
still be alive, and the animal “wept when it was rescued.”
“He was crying, tears welled up in his eyes!” Mr. Wan said
during a visit to the pig at its new home. The pig was unhurt
though weighed only 25kg, down from 125. It is now in good
condition and a veterinarian, who gave Porky a check-up, said it
“could live for at least 15 years,” or until such point as someone
plans a pig-picking, whichever comes first…at least that’s my
thought.
–It makes perfect sense…the story concerning Big Brown after a
photo of the early stages of the Belmont Stakes clearly shows the
horse had a loose shoe. Co-owner Michael Iavarone told
Newsday, upon receipt of the photos from a freelance
photographer, Russ Melton:
“The picture shocked me. When the shoe spread, a nail could
have been pinching him. Or he could have been stepping on a
hot nail, which would have been worse. I’m guessing the nail
went back in but not in the same spot. Or it could have been a
loose shoe, which would be like trying to run with a wobbly
cleat.”
But as ESPN reports, in an interview last week with the
Thoroughbred Times, the primary veterinarian for Rick Dutrow
confirmed the horse had raced with a loose shoe but minimized
the impact it might have had on the Belmont performance. But
now the vet, Greg Bennett, has told Newsday:
“When a shoe comes off, it does throw a horse out of balance,
but it depends how traumatically it happens and at what stage of
the race. A couple nails can loosen up, which can cause a lot of
problems and affect a horse’s performance.”
–Following the end of World War II, zones of western Germany
were turned over to Britain, France and the U.S. to administer,
and these became democratic West Germany. The Soviets got
what became East Germany. But while Berlin was inside the
Soviet sector, it was still divided among the four powers.
Joseph Stalin then decided to try and squeeze the West out of
Berlin and he blockaded all rail, road and ship traffic into the
city, with the only access thus being by air.
And so it was that on June 26, 1948, the Berlin airlift began.
Over the next 15 months, American, British, Canadian,
Australian, New Zealand, and South African pilots flew some
278,000 flights to Berlin, carrying some 2.3 million tons of food,
coal, medicine and other supplies. The busiest day would prove
to be April 16, 1949, when nearly 1,400 planes touched down,
nearly one every minute. [David Rising / AP]
–I was watching the Mets game Monday night and it was funny
how the announcing team was slamming Willie Randolph’s style
vs. interim manager Jerry Manuel’s. “This isn’t a knock on
Willie….” “Oh no….this isn’t a knock on Willie but….” “This
isn’t a knock on Willie………..”
–Indy 500 champ and current IndyCar Series points leader Scott
Dixon called Danica Patrick “a menace” on the track at last
week’s race at Iowa Speedway. Another driver, Ed Carpenter,
blasted Patrick for her blocking tactics. Here at Bar Chat,
however, we still love Danica. You go, girl!
–Attention anglers on the Russian and Kenai rivers south of
Anchorage. Leaving your gear unattended is against the law and
offenders could receive a ticket of $125 to $175. The reason?
Grizzlies. As reported by Kevin Klott of the Anchorage Daily
News:
“Bears drawn to the river by salmon carcasses left by anglers
hang around the confluence of the two rivers and begin to
develop a tolerance for humans, said an area biologist….Once
that happens, it isn’t a big step for them to get close to an angler
who gets scared, runs off and leaves a stringer of whole fish.
“Once the bears discover they can in this manner get whole fish,
they’re every bit as hooked as drug addicts.”
The tickets are for those who bring bear attractants “like fish,
food, beer [Grizzly Beer in particular], soda and even
sunscreen.”
The salmon season just began but already tons of bears have
been seen mingling with hundreds of anglers, which means one
thing, sports fan….the potential for more Bear Chat.
After all, “The Russian (River) has been the site of numerous
close encounters and one near deadly attack. In July 2003, Dan
Bigley nearly died when a bear grabbed him by the face and
crushed most of the bones in the front of his skull. The young
angler lived thanks to rescue efforts, but he is blind.”
Yet another reason to order your wild salmon online, as we do
here at StocksandNews.
–Speaking of one’s eyes, there was this headline on Wednesday:
Poke in Gator’s Eye Frees a Severely Injured Teen
“A Florida teen who was attacked by an 11 ½-foot alligator lost
his arm, but managed to escape with his life after poking the
animal in the eye.
“A sheriff’s office report says Kasey Edwards was hanging out
with friends beside a canal in Okeechobee County on Sunday
when he decided to go swimming.
“Halfway through the swim, an alligator clamped down on his
left arm. Edwards says he fought back by grabbing onto a buoy
line and not letting go. He then poked the animal in the eye to
get free.
“As Edwards began to swim away, he noticed that his left arm
was missing. Friends pulled him to safety and he was taken to a
hospital for treatment.”
–Talk about irony, on Tuesday, Major League Baseball said it
would begin testing bats following a slew of reports on those
made of maple, which have been splintering at an alarming rate.
Then that night, in a game between Colorado and Kansas City,
plate umpire Brian O’Nora was hit in the head by a shattered
piece of Miguel Olivo’s bat, one made of maple. As reported by
the AP, “With blood pouring down his face, O’Nora rushed to
Kansas City’s dugout, where Jose Guillen quickly covered the
umpire’s head with a towel.” Turns out he had just a small cut
on his forehead but the incident spells the death of maple, it
would seem.
Those who like maple syrup, however, should not be alarmed.
–Tiger Woods had successful knee surgery…or so the doctor
would have us presume.
–The Yankees are playing the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh for
the first time since 1960 and Bill Mazeroski’s historic Game 7
home run off Yankees reliever Ralph Terry. The Bucs blasted
New York 12-5 on Tuesday. More importantly, Pittsburgh
hasn’t finished .500 since 1992 but is hanging in there this
season at 37-40.
–As expected, former New York Giant Michael Strahan signed a
multi-year contract to become part of Fox Sports’ NFL pregame
team, where he will join Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy
Johnson and Curt Menefee. But get this. Estimates of Strahan’s
deal range from $1.5 million to $2.3 million per year. Goodness
gracious.
–Eliot Spitzer’s gal, Ashley Dupre, has thanked all of us on her
MySpace page for our support, saying she was overwhelmed by
the response.
“Your words have touched me and I thank you for that…with all
my heart, I love you guys!!! Thank you all so much for taking
the time to send me a bit of strength and inspiration via e-mail or
comment.” [Dave Goldiner / New York Daily News]
You’re welcome, Ashley.
Top 3 songs for the week of 6/26/76: #1 “Silly Love Songs”
(Wings) #2 “Get Up And Boogie (That’s Right)” (Silver
Convention) #3 “Misty Blue” (Dorothy Moore)…and…#4 “Sara
Smile” (Daryl Hall & John Oates) #5 “Shop Around” (Captain
& Tennille) #6 “More, More, More” (Andrea True Connection)
#7 “Afternoon Delight” (Starland Vocal Band) #8 “Love
Hangover” (Diana Ross) #9 “I’ll Be Good To You” (The
Brothers Johnson) #10 “Kiss And Say Goodbye” (Manhattans)
Wimbledon Quiz Answers: 1) Four or more men’s titles, post-
1920: Pete Sampras, 7; Bjorn Borg and Roger Federer, 5; Rod
Laver, 4. 2) Arthur Ashe defeated Jimmy Connors. 3) Michael
Stich defeated Boris Becker in ’91. 4) Women’s singles titles:
Martina Navratilova, 9; Helen Wills Moody, 8; Steffi Graf, 7. 5)
Jana Novotna won in 1998.
Next Bar Chat, Monday….from Eugene, Oregon and the
Olympic Track and Field Trials.
