Olympics Quiz: In the 2004 Athens Games, how many of the top ten countries in total medals can you name? Answer below.
Stuff
–Brett Favre was reinstated by the NFL on Sunday and will be at Packers training camp on Monday. Green Bay has supposedly offered him $25 million over ten years doing promotional work if he would just freakin’ retire! But alas it would appear instead that the team is going to hold an open competition for the starting QB position.
–Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, commenting on how paparazzi have become less of a problem recently, explained:
“If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank God, and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don’t seem to have much of an issue.”
Well Lohan, who has been making the rounds with gal pal Samantha Ronson, took exception.
“Police chiefs shouldn’t get involved in everyone else’s business when it comes to their personal life. It’s inappropriate.”
But is she gay?
–The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous, Schlitz, is back! Yours truly used to drink a lot of this until recipe changes and other mistakes made it undrinkable. Now, Schlitz owner, Pabst Brewing Co., is recreating the old formula.
It’s hard to believe that Schlitz was the best-selling beer in America much of the first half of the 20th century. As reported by the AP:
“In Milwaukee, the comeback is creating a buzz. Stores are depleted of their stock within days, they’re taking names for waiting lists and limiting customers to just a few six- or 12-packs each.”
Put my name down! Except thus far Schlitz is limited to Minneapolis, Chicago and western Florida, aside from Milwaukee.
It was a strike in the mid-1950s that opened the door for Anheuser-Busch, which has held the top spot ever since. But the big mistake Schlitz made was in the recipe.
“Brewery control shifted from immediate family members to more distant relatives, who wanted to expand the business. With demand high, the new owners wanted to make more, so they shortened the fermenting process. And they let customers know it through heavy marketing. There were also quality control issues for barley, so the beer went flat quickly. Customers associated the flatness with the quickened brewing time, and they weren’t pleased. To fix the flat problem, the brewers added a seaweed extract to give the beer some foam and fizz. But after sitting on the shelf for three or four months, the extract turned into a solid, meaning drinkers got chunky mouthfuls.” [I got a few of these.]
But instead of pulling it off the shelves, Schlitz kept selling it and by 1981 the brewery was forced to shut down, with the owners selling it to Stroh’s, which in turn sold it to Pabst.
So if you’re wondering how I could remember drinking this when I turned 18 (the legal age in my youth) back in 1976, it was because in Winston-Salem, home of Wake Forest, we had a Schlitz brewery that we frequented as many Fridays as possible. You’d take the tour, hit the Brown Bottle Room, and drink responsibly, of course.
–SHARK! From the AP:
“A man surfing off the southern coast of Australia said a well-timed wave saved him from a shark attack.
“Aaron Seare, 31, was surfing alone on Wednesday morning at a beach near Warrnambool in Victoria state when he spotted something suspicious about 30 meters away.
“Suddenly an (8-foot) shark came straight at him, he said, sinking its teeth into the rope thethering his foot to the surfboard.
“But as he felt the shark tugging on the rope, a wave picked him up and washed him back to the beach, where he saw that the rope had been chopped in half.
“ ‘I really freaked out,’ he said. ‘I realized that was pretty close.’”
Seare doesn’t plan on going out to the same beach anytime soon.
–This one is awful….almost as bad as the decapitation on the Canadian bus, a story I’m not telling in this space.
From Todd Venezia and Ginger Adams Otis of the New York Post:
“A Long Island fisherman has died after a freak accident in which a weighted lure hit him in the eye and lodged in his brain.
“Jaime Chicas, 21, was angling on some rocks at Jones Beach at about 8 p.m. Friday when his line snapped back and a 3-ounce sinker recoiled violently, penetrating his eye socket and hitting his brain.
“Chicas’ brother-in-law Jose Gonzalez, was about 30 feet away when he heard Chicas groaning.
“ ‘We were just sitting there. It was pretty tranquil, kind of getting dark,’ Gonzalez told The Post. ‘We didn’t see anything, but then my cousin and I both heard him groaning. We ran to him and he was down, lying on the rocks.’”
It gets worse, but I’ll leave out some of the other details. Suffice it to say, he was pronounced brain dead.
–Moving right along………scientists engineered a device for capturing live fish from the very deep. From the hot vents of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a bunch of shrimp were pulled from a depth of 2,300 meters, a record. You see, the key is allowing the recovery of live animals under their natural pressure. The previous record was 1,400 meters, according to the BBC.
Dr. Bruce Shillito explained: “At depths of over 1,000 meters, it is difficult to recover animals alive. Catching with no pressure is as good as catching dead. Fish are the most fragile – even a fisherman with a 100m line will probably reel in a catch whose gas bladder is in its mouth.”
Good god. What a way to go.
–Last week, an alligator bit off the arm of an 11-year-old boy who was messing around in a body of water at a subdivision 20 miles northeast of New Orleans when the gator pulled him under. The alligator was known as “Big Joe” by the locals, some 10- to 12-feet in length. Authorities then found and shot Big Joe, after which the severed arm was retrieved from the stomach about 3 ½ hours after the attack and, believe it or not, was reattached to the boy’s arm. As of this writing, there has been no word on the condition of the kid, including whether or not the incredible surgery had a chance at being successful.
Just last month another boy lost his arm when an 11-foot gator attacked the kid while swimming in a Florida canal. Geezuz, kids. Stay the hell out of dark, fetid, murky water.
–Regarding the All-Species list, reader John S. wondered why I didn’t put the giraffe on it. Well he’s on, John…at No. 72…I just didn’t list those between 26 and 96. Hammerhead sharks, for example, are No. 34, while donkeys check in at No. 84.
–But regarding the ferret’s placement at No. 98, one behind “Jets fans,” Johnny Mac pleaded his case for a much higher ranking, noting a Dec. 1948 story from Time magazine on “Freddie the Ferret.”
“Freddie, a ferret, is five years old, which is getting along, for a ferret. Freddie lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and enjoys comparative fame and security as one of the very few, if not the only ferret anywhere with a steady job as an electrician’s assistant.
“Freddie’s job is comparatively simple, for a ferret. His bosses tie a length of fishing line to his collar; to the fishing line they attach another length of electrical wiring. Then, while Freddie is held at one end of a piece of pipe designed to protect wires, another man, with a dead rabbit and an air compressor, goes to the other end.
“The air compressor wafts the scent of the dead rabbit down the pipe to Freddie’s eager nose. Released, Freddie scuttles up the pipe in pursuit of the rabbit, and, simultaneously, lays the wiring. In one morning recently, Freddie laid wiring in 60 pipes, the longest of which was 130 ft. By hand, the job would have taken a human electrician a month and cost $300.”
The employer did have to deal with the electrical workers union, but after much discussion, Freddie was made a union member. Also, to prevent total frustration, Freddie was given the rabbit at the end of each day’s work.
So while we’ll have to wait at least another six months for the next All-Species List to make it official, I’m thinking ferrets do deserve placement ahead of Jets fans, maybe as high as No. 89.
–The discussion concerning the New York Giants’ new football stadium, opening in 2010, and the “personal seat licenses” the team is requiring season ticket holders to take down is as big a topic in the New York area as we’ve had in years. For the best seats, the Giants are asking for $20,000 to secure a seat, payable in four installments. That’s $20,000 for one seat. Actual game prices will be an additional $700…per ticket.
So if you had a box of four, held by the family for, say, two generations, as is the case with so many who go to Giants games, out of nowhere you have to shelve out $80,000!
If you had a standard upper deck seat, your PSL is $1,000. I was tailgating at last week’s Springsteen concert with some folks who are decades-long Giants season ticket holders and the discussion basically boiled down to this. $4,000 for their child’s education or $4,000 for a PSL, let alone the per game ticket, transportation, parking, food and beverage charges.
The Jets, who will share the stadium, are announcing their PSL plan shortly.
–A 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $1.62 million at auction in Chicago on Sat. The record price for a card is $2.8 million for a 1909 Wagner card.
–Manny Ramirez has certainly put himself in the running for “Jerk of the Year.” “Manny Being Manny” got old very quickly in Beantown this season. “Mental peace has no price, and I don’t have peace here,” he said before being unloaded to the Dodgers. His teammates were totally sick of his act.
–Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera, arguably the greatest ever, has nonetheless given up six runs in his eight appearances when he has entered with the score tied this season, four single runs in his last six, compared to the one run he has allowed in his 26 consecutive save opportunities.
–Can you throw a baseball? Are you between the ages of 16 and 80? Can you supply just two references, including your parents or other close relative?
THEN SEND IN YOUR APPLICATION TODAY TO BECOME A NEW YORK METS RELIEF PITCHER!
Earn $400,000 or more, maybe $millions! Travel first class, mess around with groupies! It’s all yours. The New York Mets, an official Major League Baseball Club, desperately need your help, particularly for the 7th, 8th and 9th innings.
Were you a star in Little League? Did you once fan your friend playing wiffle ball on the beach? Did you strike out your 4-year-old niece or nephew in the backyard during a family picnic? Did you once toss a rolled up piece of paper into the garbage can at work? When a neighbor’s boy accidentally hit a baseball into your yard, could you throw it back?
THEN SEND IN YOUR APPLICATION TODAY TO BECOME A NEW YORK METS RELIEF PITCHER!
Never again will you have to sit in that rocking chair when you’re 85, thinking, ‘Why the hell didn’t I just send in the app back in 2008 when the New York Mets needed relief help?’
So act now…you won’t regret it.
–Former Wake Forest alum and Dallas Mavericks’ forward Josh Howard is now an “Idiot of the Year” candidate for getting caught drag racing in Winston-Salem. Howard was doing 90mph+ on Interstate 40 near campus. And he actually graduated.
–The Chicago Bears’ Devin Hester, the greatest return man of all time, signed a $40 million contract extension, $15 million guaranteed, but the Bears want to make him their No. 1 receiver. I may be in the minority on this, but to me this is nuts. He’ll either wear down and not be as effective as a return man, or he could get hurt. I know, I know. Why not give him as many touches as possible? Let’s just see what happens.
–Vijay Singh won his 32nd PGA Tour event by winning the World Golf Championship event in Akron, Ohio. But it’s really been tough getting fired up about golf without Tiger in the picture, especially with the last major, the PGA, coming up this weekend at Oakland Hills.
–Michelle Wie tried for an 8th time to play a men’s PGA Tour event and for an 8th time missed the cut, shooting 73-80 in Tahoe. Yoh, Michelle. What’s the point?
–Andrew Giuliani had a 74.5 average in three fall events for Duke University in 2007, 12th best on the 14-player roster that new coach O.D. Vincent wanted to pare down to 10, while during his three seasons on the Duke golf team, Giuliani had a 76.35 average. Given the Dookies were returning four of five starters for 2008-09, Andrew had little chance of playing his senior year. Thus we’re left shaking our head as to why Giuliani sued the university and the coach.
–When I was at the Olympic Track and Field Trials I told you how the best event was the men’s 800 meters, won by Nick Symmonds. So I saw in Runner’s World the following from the Nickster.
“I have a burger every Tuesday night and pizza on the weekends. Saturday night I’ll have three or four beers.”
A man after my own heart. Of course you know when someone says three or four, they really mean six. It’s like when I have to fill out the long questionnaire before taking a physical. For ‘beer intake’ I’ll say…………………………………..actually, I’m not going to tell you. Wouldn’t be prudent.
–Nearly 200 scientists and support staff will screen 4,500 samples for performance-enhancing drugs at the Beijing Games, with the top five finishers in each event being tested.
–Generally speaking, there are three main air pollutants, as measured by the experts; particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SD), and nitrogen dioxide (ND). Here’s how Beijing’s average day measures up against a few prior Summer Games cities.
Montreal (1976)…19 PM, 10 SD, 42 ND
Los Angeles (1984)…34 PD, 9 SD, 74 ND
Beijing (2008)…89 PM, 90 SD, 122 ND
–Johnny Mac pointed out the following top five at this weekend\’s Women\’s British Open.
Ji-Yai Shin, Yani Tseng, Eun-Hee Ji, Yuri Fudoh, Ai Miyazato.
As Johnny notes, we desperately need more Natalie Gulbis.
–We note the passing of long-time Braves announcer Skip Caray. He was just 68. Caray and Pete Van Wieren have been broadcasting Braves games since 1976 and gained a national audience thanks to TBS.
–Interesting question for those of you quaffing a beer at the 19th hole bar. As posed in Golf Digest, “Where would a pro on the PGA Tour finish on the money list if he shot even par every round he played?”
Well, par would suck for just about any tour event…except the majors. Par, for example, won the 2007 Masters by a stroke over Zach Johnson, and the 2007 U.S. Open by five strokes over Angel Cabrera. In 2008, if Par played every week, for the first six months, his best finish would have been third place in the U.S. Open, a stroke behind Tiger and Rocco. In 26 tournaments, Par also missed four cuts. At the midpoint of this year, Par had earned $1,933,762, putting him 15th on the money list. But no one plays 26 tournaments in 26 weeks. The top 100 played an average of 16 events in the first six months, which would have given Par earnings of $1,190,007, putting him 44th.
–And get this. Also from Golf Digest:
“Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, found that golfers who regularly walked when they played lived, on average, five years longer than the general population, regardless of sex and social group….
“Now the bad news: Two American researchers concluded that the swing mechanics of golfers who walk tend to deteriorate as a round progresses. ‘The study suggests that golf mechanics change, and performance might decline the longer the golfer walks and swings,’ said a researcher.”
Being a walker, my main problem late in the round is brain cramps on the greens. Then again, I increasingly have brain cramps in everything I do these days. Could be the effects of the Schlitz I had as a youth. Clumpy beer leading to clumps of brain cells clogging up the blood flow. [Yikes…I just realized drinking Schlitz could lead to a stroke.]
–Your editor won his first match Sunday in his club’s D Flight Championship, 7-5. Next up, Larry O’Reilly. Mr. O’Reilly, a great guy, won the first three holes of our match last year and proceeded to beat me 4-3 because I refuse to warm up. My idea of golf is you should be teeing off the 1st before your car engine cools down once you enter the parking lot. But I have a new attitude this year. I now do 15-20 seconds of stretching between getting out of the car and the 1st tee. It worked this week.
–Eleven climbers were feared dead on K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, following an ice slide this weekend. 17 climbers are thought to have been caught in the avalanche as an Irishman who has been in contact with a friend on the mountain said the clear, warm weather had turned against them, loosening the ice and contributing to the avalanche. “The moving river of ice broke loose and the six lines put in place for the climbers were wiped from the face so everyone climbing down will have to go on to the treacherous ice and come down without support.” A dangerous helicopter rescue for the survivors is under way.
–In "For Better or For Worse" on Monday, El\’s friend Connie really looks like Karl Malden.
–Finishing up his three concert stint at Giants Stadium last week, Bruce Springsteen clocked in at 3 hours 15 minutes in his final effort.
Top 3 songs for the week 8/1/70: #1 “(They Long To Be) Close To You” (Carpenters) #2 “Make It With You” (Bread) #3 “Mama Told Me (Not To Come)” (Three Dog Night)…and…#4 “Band Of Gold” (Freda Payne) #5 “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” (Stevie Wonder) #6 “The Love You Save” (The Jackson 5) #7 “Spill The Wine” (Eric Burdon and War) #8 “Ball Of Confusion” (The Temptations) #9 “Tighter, Tighter” (Alive & Kicking) #10 “O-o-h Child” (The 5 Stairsteps…great tune)
Olympics Quiz Answer: Top ten countries in medals.
1. United States…35 gold…39 silver…29 bronze…103
2. Russia…27-27-38…92
3. China…32-17-14…63
4. Australia…17-16-16…49
5. Germany…14-16-18…48
6. Japan…16-9-12…37
7. France…11-9-13…33
8. Italy…10-11-11…32
9. South Korea…9-12-9…30
10. Great Britain…9-9-12…30
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
