Sully

NFL Quiz: OK, if you read the latest Sporting News, you may have a shot at this one. Otherwise, it’s very hard. Philadelphia’s Brian Westbrook became one of only seven players in NFL history to rush for 30 TDs and catch 25. Name the other six. 

Of course you’ll get some major help, but it’s still virtually impossible. I’ll give you their playing years.  

Other hints: One was later seen a bunch on television, one has three names, and two have a last name beginning with ‘B’. Answer below. 

Arizona-Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl 

Chesley Sullenberger III 

From The New York Post: 

“Just after US Airways Flight 1549 took off from La Guardia co-pilot Jeff Skiles, who was at the controls, caught a glimpse of a pack of Canada geese off the right side of the nose of the plane, ‘perfectly lined in formation.’ But it was too late. 

“Pilot Chesley Sullenberger looked up to see his window covered with the ‘big, dark brown birds,’ Skiles told National Safety Board members yesterday. 

“ ‘His instinct was to duck, but he didn’t,’ agency spokeswoman Kitty Higgins said. 

“The geese, which never appeared on the radar of the air-traffic controller who cleared the jet for takeoff, slammed into the Airbus A320 with a devastating thud that destroyed both of the plane’s engines. 

“A silence ‘like being a library’ spread throughout the cabin along with the smell of ‘burning birds’ and singed electronics. 

“Hurtling towards the earth from more than 3,000 feet above the Bronx Zoo, Sullenberger took the controls from his first officer. 

“ ‘Aaah, this is Cactus 1549, we hit birds,’ he radioed in. ‘We lost thrust in both engines. We’re turning back towards La Guardia.’ 

“Despite rapidly losing altitude, the quick-thinking ‘Sully’ lowered the nose of the plane in a desperate attempt to stay airborne. 

“But he soon realized he didn’t have enough juice to make it back. 

“ ‘No, too low. Too slow. Too many buildings. Too populated an area,’ the captain told the tower. 

“Sullenberger also nixed the idea of flying to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey saying, ‘it was farther away’ and he ‘didn’t think he could make it.’ 

“All the while, Skiles was desperately trying to restart the damaged engines, while checking off emergency landing procedures on a three-page list that the crew normally begins at 35,000 feet. But there wasn’t enough time. 

“ ‘We can’t do it,’ Sullenberger radioed in his final transmission to the tower. ‘We’re gonna be in the Hudson.’ 

“ ‘He was concerned if he didn’t make it. It was a populated area,’ Higgins said. ‘The consequences would have been catastrophic if he didn’t make it.’ 

“Sullenberger nimbly guided the 123-foot-long jet over the George Washington Bridge, scanning the water below for a spot with boats that might be able to help rescue his passengers. 

“ ‘Brace! Brace! Head down!’ the flight attendants screamed to the 150 passengers. 

“Just six minutes after the 3:24 p.m. takeoff Thursday, the plane plowed into the icy water. 

“In the midst of the chaos, the crew didn’t have the chance to throw the aircraft’s ‘ditch switch’ – which seals off vents and holes in the fuselage to make it more seaworthy. 

“But the quick-thinking flight attendants kept the low-lying rear doors closed, helping to keep the plane afloat long enough to safely unload everyone on board the Charlotte, NC-bound flight.” 

The New York Daily News: 

“The former Air Force fighter pilot remained cool, calm and collected both before and after successfully ditching his US Airways flight into the Hudson River. 

“ ‘That pilot is a stud,’ said one police source. ‘After the crash, he was sitting there in the ferry terminal, wearing his hat, sipping his coffee and acting like nothing happened.’…. 

“ ‘Brace for impact,’ he warned the passengers before ditching the plane, a voice of lone calm in the seconds before they crashed. 

“Sullenberger wasn’t done once his plane was down. He undid his safety belt and walked the length of the plane to make sure all the passengers were safely outside, Mayor Bloomberg said….” 

Family friend Jim Walberg said being called a hero isn’t likely to please Sullenberger. 

“ ‘Sure, he’s a hero, but he’s also a humble man,’ said Walberg. ‘Hero isn’t a name he’ll take to very easily.’ 

“One of the first rescuers on the scene said Sullenberger seemed impervious to the chaos around him. 

“ ‘He looked absolutely immaculate,’ the rescuer said. ‘He looked like David Niven in an airplane uniform. He looked unruffled. His uniform was sharp. You could see him walking down the aisles making sure everybody got out.’” 

Sullenberger was well known in the industry before Thursday, as it turned out, being not only an Air Force graduate, but also in holding two masters degrees and having served as safety chairman for the Airline Pilots Association. 

“Although flanked by worshiping cops, firefighters and city officials after the crash, Sullenberger remained detached and low-key. 

“ ‘That guy is one cool customer,’ said a police source. ‘He was a rock star. He had saved everybody and was behaving like it was just another day at the office.’” 

I love this headline in the New York Post, Saturday, in light of the incident involving US Air Flight 1549. 

“HEY, GEESE, GET THE FLOCK OUT!” 

“That’s the sure answer to eliminating the potentially deadly Canada geese that threaten air travel around New York, says wildlife biologist Steve Garber…. 

“The engines of the downed plane, an Airbus A320, are designed to withstand a 4-pound bird passing through the turbines, according to a spokesman for the manufacturer. 

“But Canada geese can grow to more than three times that size. 

“A hit from a bird that large can shatter the blades inside the engines, triggering serious vibrations that can shake the turbines loose from the wings.” 

From 1990 to 2007, U.S. pilots reported 1,109 strikes by Canada geese, half of which caused serious damage to aircraft. 

But here’s the deal. You can recognize this is going to be a big story over the coming months…what to do with these flying sewage dumps…but while I knew Canada geese were protected, I didn’t realize there are FOUR international treaties, let alone other federal and state laws. 

Hey, I’m a bird lover. In fact I’m about to take out a cat that one of my neighbors keeps leaving outside because I’ve seen the cat swallow a little bird. [Just kidding, cat lovers. Don’t worry, it will not be harmed, at least by me.] But there is a huge difference between a lone hawk, a sparrow, or a cardinal, and a freakin’ flock of Canada geese that aren’t even from Canada anymore. I mean it’s not like we have to worry about extradition treaties. We should be able to do what we want with them. 

But back to our story. Mr. Garber says it would be easy for New York’s Port Authority “to round up and net geese in June and July, when they’re molting and unable to fly.” 

Ah ha! I forgot about the ol’ molting factor. Normally that time of year I’m thinking of the Mets and golf, not molting geese. 

“Once they’re caught, they could be taken to a new habitat far from the city – or killed for their meat, which could be donated to homeless shelters,” Garber added.  

“If you keep on doing that, you will get the whole breeding population. In a short period of time, you will have fewer breeding birds.” 

Actually, Mr. Garber goes on to suggest “shooting them, poking holes in their eggs, shaking their eggs so the embryos are destroyed, wrecking their nests…” 

And there are loopholes in the law. “Airport workers generally can take geese between April 1 and Sept. 15; they can take their eggs or nests between March 1 and June 30.” 

So there is a solution, kids. However, while Port Authority officials have permits letting them kill Canada geese year round, they’re only for actual airport grounds. And get this. 

“Killing a Canada goose without a permit can bring a $15,000 fine and up to six months’ imprisonment per bird.” We obviously need to find some middle ground and quick. 

Chaos at the Inauguration! 

As you watch the coverage on Tuesday, undoubtedly, no matter what network you are watching, they’ll bring up the chaos at the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. So I might as well throw in my own work on the topic. 

From “The Growth of the American Republic” by Morrison, Commager, and Leuchtenburg 

“Washington had never held such crowds as assembled there on 4 March 1829 to see the people’s champion installed. It was their day, without pomp or pageantry, scarcely even a uniform to be seen. General Jackson, a tall, lean figure dressed in black, with the hawk-like frontier face under a splendid crest of thick white hair, walked from Gadsby’s Hotel up Pennsylvania Avenue, unescorted save by a few friends, to the Capitol. There, at the top of a great stone stairway to the east portico, he took the presidential oath and read his inaugural address. With difficulty he pushed through the shouting masses, all eager to shake his hand, to where his horse was waiting; then rode to the White House at the head of an informal procession of carriages, farm wagons, people of all ages, colors, and conditions. Since it would have seemed unbecoming for democracy’s chieftain to make distinctions of persons, the White House was invaded by a throng of men, women, and boys who stood on chairs in their muddy boots, fought for the refreshments, and trod glass and porcelain underfoot. ‘I never saw such a mixture,’ said one observer. ‘The reign of ‘King Mob’’ seemed triumphant.’ The crowd was finally drawn off like flies to honey, by tubs of punch being placed on the lawn.”  

From “America: A Narrative History” by George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi 

“Inauguration day, March 4, 1829, was balmy after a bitterly cold winter. For days before, visitors had been crowding the streets and rooming houses of Washington in hope of seeing the people’s hero take office. When Jackson, a sixty-one-year-old widower, emerged from his lodgings, dressed in black out of respect to his late wife Rachel, a great crowd filled both the east and west slopes of Capitol Hill. After Chief Justice Marshall administered the oath, the new president, plagued by a persistent cough and severe headaches, delivered his inaugural address in a voice so low that few in the crowd of 15,000 spectators could hear it. It mattered little, for Jackson’s advisers had eliminated anything that might give offense. On the major issues of the tariff, internal improvements, and the Bank of the United States, Jackson remained vague. Only a few points foreshadowed policies that he would pursue: he favored retirement of the national debt, a proper record for states’ rights, a ‘just’ policy toward Indians, and rotation in federal offices, which he pronounced ‘a leading principle in the republican creed’ – a principle his enemies would dub the ‘spoils system.’ 

“To that point all proceeded with dignity. Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the spectacle, declared: ‘It is beautiful, it is sublime!’ After his speech Jackson mounted his horse and rode to the White House, where a reception was scheduled for all who chose to come. The boisterous party that followed evoked the climate of turmoil that seemed always to surround Jackson. The revelers pushed into the White House, surged through the rooms, jostled the waiters, broke dishes, leaped onto the furniture – all in an effort to shake the president’s hand or at least get a glimpse of him. Surrounded by a group of his friends, the president soon escaped through a side door and went back to his lodgings for the night.” 

As noted in “The Growth of the American Republic,” “Washington society thought of the French Revolution, and shuddered.” 

One other inaugural note, from a trip last spring to the American Museum in Washington and a Bar Chat I did then, there was an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln’s final days, including his second inaugural.

It turns out that on March 6, 1865, following his inaugural address, Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln prepared to party down. In fact at the reception held in the very building where the American Museum of Art is now housed, 4,000 to 6,000 attended, with the Lincolns not showing up until 10:30 in the evening and not leaving until 1:30 a.m. As an old friend of mine, Tony D., might have said, “Abe, you show me everything!”

An extensive buffet was served at midnight and this, however, turned into a bit of a disaster. Picture thousands mobbing the one long table, about 125 feet in length. As an article in the New York Times described the next day, the scene was “particularly frightful to behold” as all manner of food (including lobster salad, pre-Red Lobster, it goes without saying) found the floor. 

Looking for a little extra income, folks? As Nadja Brandt and Daniel Taub of Bloomberg report, more and more Los Angeles homeowners are leasing their homes out for shooting porn flicks. Actually, it doesn’t just have to be for porno; you can lease your house for commercials or feature films as well, and in L.A.’s signature 90210 zip code, the daily fee paid is usually $2,000 to $3,000. I don’t know what the moviegoer or DVD buyer cares about the zip code, especially for an interior shot, but whatever works, I always say.  

Marilyn Bitner of L.A.-based Plan A Locations said she’s getting a dozen calls a week, which I imagine after the Bloomberg article is more like 50. I mean $2-$3,000 ain’t too shabby. 

One problem. Sometimes cosmetic changes are required. One client went bonkers when he saw his living room had been painted DayGlo yellow. But then on the non-porno front, there’s always the chance to meet a real star. [Or on the porno front. Personally, I don’t know any.] 

And I didn’t know this. “Income from residential filming for fewer than 15 days a year isn’t subject to federal taxes, according to the IRS.” 

Then there’s the case of Jerry Mendoza of Burbank. He built his home in 2006 and it didn’t sell for the $1.3 million he was seeking, so he began leasing it for filming. The most he received was $1,300 a day. “So he posted an Internet notice that the property, which has an eight-person hot tub, was available to the adult-film industry, which he had heard pays as much as $5,000 a day.” 

Mendoza adds, a few months ago “I probably would’ve said, ‘You want to do what in here? That’s reserved for me and the missus.’” Today, it’s a different story. 

–Wake Forest weathered another potential jinx, a glowing New York Times piece on the basketball program, Saturday, a few days after USA TODAY had a similar story. But we beat undefeated No. 9 Clemson at their place, while Louisville handed No. 1 Pitt its first loss, so, voila! The Deacs are the only undefeated team left in college basketball. 

At the start of the season I was writing we had potential, and hoped by the end of the year we would prove ourselves, get in the tourney, and then take it from there. I figured we were a top 25 team, maybe top 20, but this team was really built for next year, not this one. After all, the starting five is two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman, with a solid bench.  

Wake seems to have the right attitude about it all. There is a long ways to go and at this point I think most of us would be ecstatic with a 12-4 ACC mark. Take it one game at a time, though, boys. After Virginia Tech on Wednesday, it’s Duke…#1 vs. #2. 

–So I’m reading this article in the Wall Street Journal by Reed Albergotti on my main man, Cardinals’ wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and he writes: 

“On paper, Mr. Fitzgerald is not an extraordinary athlete. He’s not the tallest receiver in the NFL or the best leaper. His 40-yard dash time of 4.63 seconds at the 2004 NFL scouting combine is mediocre for the position. To explain his 1,431 yards receiving this season and his ability to haul in footballs with one hand or hold on to them while being pounded by defenders, most analysts say he must have soft hands, great timing or excellent body positioning. 

“But after 20 years of studying the eyes of elite athletes, and after taking into account two unusual opportunities Mr. Fitzgerald had as a child, one prominent researcher believes his catching talent has less to do with his hands and feet than his eyes and brain.” 

Joan Vickers, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Calgary, studies the eye movements of elite hockey goaltenders, baseball hitters, and tennis players and after watching Fitzgerald she said receivers like him have to operate their eyes like a camera: opening the shutter, holding the lens steady and taking a snapshot with the longest possible exposure. 

Fitzgerald has a “quiet eye,” which is the ability to lock down on an object, such as a football or a hockey puck, longer. 

It turns out that when Fitzgerald was a boy, his grandfather was the founder of an optometry clinic in Chicago and he set out to make sure his grandson had “visual dominance,” and during summer visits, “would take him to the clinic and have him stand on balance beams and wobbly boards while doing complicated hand-eye drills."

Fitzgerald says this early training definitely helped him later on. Dr. Vickers says that after scanning a newly thrown ball with his quiet eye, “he turns on the microprocessor in his head and downloads every similar pass he’s seen until he’s made a calculation about where this ball is likely to land.” Pretty remarkable stuff. 

Heck, there are some pictures of the guy where he is making a spectacular catch even as his eyes are closed! 

–Gotta love my Jets. They can’t even get Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to be their head coach, when for starters you figure not having to leave the area would be quite an attraction for him. [New Jersey does have some very nice places to live, after all.] So Spagnuolo instead signed a four-year, $11.5 million contract to be the St. Louis Rams next head coach. Oh well, the Jets will end up with Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, who sounds fine. As for Brett Favre, he’s just sitting back… mulling over his future. Good grief. 

–This past year was pretty awesome in college football, but I’m already psyched about next season, though we have some business in a few other sports to take care of first. 

After all, superstar quarterbacks Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, and Colt McCoy are all returning. Crazy, I tell ya. But what’s up with USC’s Mark Sanchez? I’m sorry, he’s just not that good yet. I agree with Pete Carroll, who was more than a bit adamant Sanchez should stay in school for his senior year. 

Sports Illustrated’s 2009 Top Ten was built on Sanchez returning. 

–Sporting News’ draft expert has Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry and cornerback Alphonso Smith as being among the top five in having the highest chance of making an immediate impact in the NFL next year. The other three are USC linebacker Rey Maualuga, Texas DE Brian Orakpo, and Georgia Tech DE Michael Johnson. 

–Zach Johnson gained his 5th career PGA Tour victory in taking the Sony Open in Hawaii. 

–I consider myself an amateur art critic…as in I have zero tolerance for 99% of the abstract art I come across. I’m a realist kind of guy. But while I’ve been to Andrew Wyeth’s Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., a beautiful spot, incidentally, I can’t say I really know as much about Wyeth, who passed away the other day at 91, as I should.  

But I imagine the vast majority of you are at least familiar with Wyeth’s 1948 work “Christina’s World,” which is featured prominently in the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the crippled girl in the painting, who was Wyeth’s Maine neighbor at the time, is trying to drag herself toward a farmhouse. In 2006 Smithsonian Magazine decreed that only Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” and Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” were comparable works of the era. 

A large segment of the art world was jealous of Wyeth’s success and popularity, belittling his work at a time when abstractionism was coming to the fore. President Kennedy, however, presented Wyeth with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, while President Nixon later hosted a dinner at the White House for him and toasted Wyeth as an artist whose painting “has caught the heart of America.”  

Back in 1981, a ’64 Wyeth work titled “Marsh Hawk” sold for $420,000, then a record for a painting by a living American artist, and in 1976, he became the first living American artist to be given a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

And of course you had the 1986 revelation that for 15 years, he had been secretly painting his neighbor, Helga Testorf, many of them nudes. I partly bring this up because I just can’t believe it was 23 years ago. Geezuz, now I’m all depressed. I imagine Helga is too, if she’s still around. 

The real bottom line on Andrew Wyeth, like with any substantial artist, is that some are fans, others are not. How’s that for a summation? I am, after all, the one who came up with “Monet good…Manet bad.” 

–The Washington Post reports that troubled Nationals outfielder Elijah Dukes is facing a $40,000+ debt and has one week to pay it to avoid jail time. You see, Dukes has neglected to make his monthly child-support and alimony payment of $6,527 since October after missing payments last offseason as well. Dukes, who has All-Star ability but as you can see from the preceding is a real jerk, made the major league base salary of $394,000 last year, yet has no car or house, sources told the Post. Dukes does have three children by his ex-wife, however. No word on how many others may exist. 

The Washington Nationals have a full-time employee, an ex-cop, who monitors Elijah, but part of the problem is Dukes, like all ballplayers, is only paid between April and September. But aside from the $78,000 he is responsible for, that still leaves another $150,000 or so after taxes. Most of you could live on that, I imagine. 

–We note the passing of two class actors, Patrick McGoohan, 80, and Ricardo Montalban, 88…both of whom I learned of after I posted the last Bar Chat. 

McGoohan is a cult favorite for those who were fans of the 1960s British Sci-fi series “The Prisoner,” in which he plays a former spy that is held captive in a small enclave known as The Village. McGoohan also played King Edward Longshanks in “Braveheart,” which I’m going to have to watch again soon. British ITV, by the way, is evidently remaking The Prisoner with Jim Caviezel (of “The Passion of the Christ” fame) in McGoohan’s Number Six role, while Sir Ian McKellen will play controller Number Two throughout the series, which is slated to be aired later this year in conjunction with AMC. Now that could be good. 

As for Ricardo Montalban, the man who did all those commercials for the Chrysler Cordoba, with optional seats “available in soft, Corinthian leather,” as well as his star role in “Fantasy Island,” a good friend of his said the other day, “He was exactly how you’d imagine him to be” off camera. “A very courtly, modest, dignified individual.” Montalban was a real groundbreaker as he was a star in Mexican movies when MGM brought him to Hollywood in 1946, where he was first cast opposite Esther Williams in a few pictures. 

–This is awful. Polish authorities have unearthed the remains of 1,800 bodies, victims of the final days of World War II, from a mass grave discovered by accident in the town of Malbork, which during the war was known as Marienburg. Construction workers were laying the foundation for a new hotel when they found some 30 bodies, but when they kept digging, the figure mounted rapidly. 

It was early 1945 when Hitler’s army was withdrawing from Malbork in March. The Soviet Red Army then entered the town on March 17. The region became part of a reconstituted Poland after the war, under Soviet control. A city official said “These people were buried in an appalling and inhuman manner. It was a serious shock to us…We are trying to exhume the remains in the most humane way possible and to ensure them a respectable burial.” 

They literally know nothing about the grave or the victims because there are no personal effects, and thus far no witnesses have come forward. 

This got me thinking of my trip to Treblinka ten years ago, where over 250,000 Jews from Warsaw were exterminated. The camp was dismantled as the Allies approached, but I bring it up because the above story of Malbork reminded me that as my tour guide and I drove to the village, we passed a number of farm houses where old women were standing in the doorway, staring at us as we drove by.   They weren’t friendly. This was 1999, and they looked to be in their 70s, so in other words they knew what was going on back then as the trains entered the forest. It was spooky. 

–So…how do I change the topic gracefully after the preceding? I think I can pull it off. 

Jan. 19, 1809. Edgar Allan Poe was born. He only lived 40 years, but he had quite an influence on the literary world. Poe is basically the inventor of the detective story. 

Poe grew up in Richmond, Va., and then spent his time between there and Philadelphia, for the most part, ending up in Baltimore, where he is famously buried and the Ravens play ball. Get it? The Ravens? 

Richard Kopley, who authored a book on Poe, says without the man, Sherlock Holmes might have been very different because it was Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin, who influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Baker Street sleuth. 

Diane Cole of U.S. News & World Report writes: “Poe was orphaned by the age of 3 and as a young adult was disinherited by a foster father. One by one, everyone he loved (including his foster mother, his older brother, and his young wife, Virginia) died before him. The cause of death was almost always consumption, lending the presence of blood –and the color red (as in his story ‘The Masque of the Red Death’) – a particularly chilling resonance throughout his work.” 

Richard Kopley says Poe made just $6,200 from his writing, which is another reason why the guy was probably so pissed off. 

Anyway, in September 1849, Poe left Richmond for New York – but instead went to Baltimore, where he was found six days later, severely ill and delirious, at a tavern. He was dead within days, but no one ever resolved the chain of events that took him there, though he did have a home in town. And so that’s how he came to be buried in Baltimore. 

But this other Poe scholar, Edward Pettit (no relation to hurler Andy Pettitte, as you can readily see from the spelling, plus we all know Pettitte is hardly a scholar), has issued a threat to dig up Poe’s remains and move the body to Philadelphia, where Poe lived for a spell. Leave Poe alone, I say! 

–Barry Bonds is seeking to prevent former mistress Kimberly Bell from testifying at his March trial. Bell, you’ll recall, claims Bonds admitted to her during their nine-year relationship that he used steroids to recover from injuries. Bell saw all the physical changes that turned Bonds from a singles hitter to the Incredible Hulk, capable of launching a baseball 850 feet into the misty air of a town where Tony Bennett left his heart.   

–Congratulations to Pollock, S.D., for hitting a record 47 below last week. 

“In a scene straight out of the movie ‘A Christmas Story,’ a 10-year-old boy got his tongue stuck to a metal light pole. Police said the unidentified fourth-grader was able to tell them that a friend dared him to lick the pole Wednesday night. Temperatures in Hammond were around 10 degrees at the time. 

“By the time the ambulance arrived, the boy was able to yank his tongue off the frozen pole. 

“Police said ambulance personnel explained to the boy’s mother how to care for his bleeding tongue. 

“The 1983 movie is set in a fictional city based on Hammond, the hometown of author Jean Shepherd.” 

“Natalie Dylan, the 22-year-old who’s selling her virginity online, says there’s just one celebrity she’d want to deflower her: Kim Kardashian. 

“ ‘She’s really beautiful,’ Dylan told The News’ Nancy Dillon, before adding, ‘but…I’m heterosexual. I just admire her beauty.’” 

Good for you, Natalie. “As of Wednesday, bidding on the San Diego resident’s virtue had reportedly reached $3.8 million. But that won’t be her only revenue – she just inked a book deal with the David Black Literary Agency.” 

Good lord. There are a ton of people who will actually buy that, too. 

“Scientists have found that the pleasure women get from making love is directly linked to the size of their partner’s bank balance.” 

Huh. I used to have a big bank balance, but then 2008 came along, you see, and, well, it’s not quite as big, and so…..oh, never mind. 

The study out of Newcastle University is controversial because it suggests “women are inherently programmed to be gold-diggers.” 

–From the London Times’ Daniel Foggo: 

“British hunters, including a prominent Harley Street surgeon, have been paying the Zimbabwean authorities thousands of pounds each to take part in a mass elephant cull…. 

“Rumors that Zimbabwe was culling its population of 80,000-100,000 elephants have been circulating for some time, but definitive proof that foreigners have been paying to be involved has emerged only now.” 

Now to attempt to be fair, Zimbabwe probably can’t handle this many elephants, and its largest game preserve is said to be double its capacity. But in light of the upcoming revision to the All-Species List, the timing isn’t good. If you thought humans were cracking the Top 25, you might be sadly disappointed.  

–Tippi Hedren turns 79 today.  It was over 45 years ago that she survived a bird attack.  And goodness gracious, Dolly Parton is celebrating her 63rd birthday!

–The 2009 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are Run-DMC (another stupid selection), Metallica (fine), Jeff Beck (already in with the Yardbirds…’sup with the solo stuff?), Bobby Womack (alright, I guess), and Little Anthony and the Imperials. Now this last one definitely deserves it.  About a week ago I was humming one of their tunes, wondering if they’d ever get in. 

Little Anthony always struck me as just being a really good guy. So it’s time to quaff another beer, because that’s what we do around here. 

–Britney Spears sold 705,000 copies of her CD “Circus” in the first two weeks. As Ronald Reagan would have said, “Not bad…not bad at all.” 

–I just saw songwriter Clint Ballard Jr. died.  Among the hits he was responsible for were "The Game Of Love" and Linda Ronstadt\’s "You\’re No Good."

–I’m lovin’ what I’ve read so far about U2’s new album, “No Line on the Horizon,” due out March 3rd. 

–And Springsteen’s “Working on a Dream” is slated for January 27th. So what three songs is he doing for the Super Bowl? It’s only 12 minutes, after all. 

Top 3 songs for the week 1/18/75: #1 “Mandy” (Barry Manilow) #2 “Please Mr. Postman” (Carpenters0 #3 “Laughter In The Rain” (Neil Sedaka…cracks my personal top 50)…and…#4 “You’re the First, The Last, My Everything” (Barry White) #5 “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” (Elton John) #6 Boogie On Reggae Woman” (Stevie Wonder) #7 “Junior’s Farm” (Paul McCartney & Wings) #8 “One Man Woman/One Woman Man” (Paul Anka with Odia Coates) #9 “Morning Side Of The Mountain” (Donny & Marie Osmond) #10 “Never Can Say Goodbye” (Gloria Gaynor) 

There is absolutely no way I would have gotten this one myself. Timmy Brown never would have entered my mind.   Brooks is another who had a great career but didn’t really get going until his fifth season so his career totals aren’t up to elite levels. 

Next Bar Chat, Thursday. The All-Species List…and why the Obama presidency has been a failure…..just kidding!!!