Sports Illustrated Sportsmen of the Year Quiz (waited until the recent issue had cleared the stands): 1) Who were the two golfers selected in the 1960s? 2) Who was the only selection from track and field in the ‘60s? 3) What auto racer was selected in the ‘70s? Answers below.
Congratulations to the UConn women’s basketball team for winning their 89th consecutive game on Tuesday. But after win No. 88 on Sunday, Coach Geno Auriemma stupidly blasted the press, and some of us guys, for not supporting his girls.
“I just know there wouldn’t be this many people in the room if we were chasing a woman’s record. The reason everybody is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men’s record, and everybody is all up in arms about it.”
You see, for those of you who have been doing an excessive amount of Christmas shopping and not watching or reading the sports page the past year, the Lady Huskies have now bested the 88-game streak of the John Wooden UCLA Bruins from 1971-74. It’s a super achievement for the girls. But in no way can you compare these two records!
“All the women are happy as hell and they can’t wait to come in here and ask [err, answer, coach] questions. All the guys that loved women’s basketball are all excited, and all the miserable bastards that follow men’s basketball and don’t want us to break the record are all here because they’re pissed. That’s just the way it is.”
Well I guess I’m one of those “miserable bastards” Auriemma is referring to, only I’m not. Like any true sports fan I gave the UConn women their due over the years. Nothing more…nothing less. And before anyone calls me, or others of my ilk, a sexist, boy, you haven’t noticed over the years how much attention I’ve paid to other female athletes, particularly in the sports of track, skiing and swimming. Any fair-minded sports fan, as I am, has treated women in these fields with the same respect as the men.
But because Auriemma has been such a jerk, and because I just can’t get into women’s hoops, I’m sorry. Count me now as one who couldn’t give a damn about the Lady Huskies…for one reason. Geno Auriemma.
The sad part is it should be about the girls, not him. But on Sunday, with win No. 88, he continued:
“Because we’re breaking a men’s record, we’ve got a lot of people paying attention. If we were breaking a women’s record, everybody would go, ‘Aren’t those girls nice, let’s give them two paragraphs in USA TODAY, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let’s send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.”
Oh, shut up, Geno! And by the way, I watched the game when you broke the women’s record! But enough about me.
Here’s what we can celebrate. The UConn women have beaten their opposition by an average 33 points during the streak. With the defeat of No. 22 Florida State to set the record, UConn is 31-0 against Top 25 competition during this time as well. Remarkable. But then there’s Geno.
“Geno Auriemma is an entertaining guy. The brash, amusing UConn coach has been great for women’s basketball.
“But what he did on Sunday wasn’t great for women’s basketball.
“He used his hard-earned spotlight to pout. He took a sacred moment for his sport as an opportunity to whine. He turned his team’s grand accomplishment into a petty gender war.
“It was shrill. His divisive and combative approach to a revered moment wasn’t necessary.
“You almost wonder if he heard some talk show host trying to stir up controversy by badmouthing UConn and took the bait. Does he really think Bryant Gumbel, the host of HBO Real Sports who recently seemed loathe to speak of UConn and UCLA’s accomplishments in the same breath, is the arbiter of all basketball taste? Is he lowering himself to reading the Neanderthals’ comments posted online about women’s hoops?
“Here’s the truth: very few people are ‘up in arms’ about a women’s team breaking the UCLA streak. The ones who don’t appreciate it (the ‘miserable bastards’ that Auriemma refers to) are actually just ignoring it….
“But the majority of people understand the grand accomplishment. Most sports fans admire what UConn is about to do. Women’s basketball fans appreciate the excellence. Sports fans who don’t regularly pay attention to women’s basketball understand that something rare and significant is happening….
“(But) if Auriemma is bent out of shape because he doesn’t think his team is treated with the same reverence as UCLA, maybe he needs to wait three or four decades and see how it’s viewed. If Auriemma wishes he was treated with the same admiration as Wooden, perhaps he needs to invent a pyramid of success, mellow out on the sideline and become beloved. When Auriemma retires, he’ll be considered a legend, a quotable one at that. But he and Wooden are polar opposites in terms of personality….
“The streak is a testimony to excellence, day in and day out. Every sports fan can appreciate that.
“When UCLA’s streak was over, Wooden told his team to handle it professionally. He said, ‘Winners do the talking, losers keep quiet.’
“Auriemma seems to have taken that advice to heart. He won. He did the talking – too much talking. And he sullied his otherwise grand moment.”
“In terms of true collective achievement, there is little to quibble with regarding the now-historic Connecticut women’s basketball streak as it relates to any other across the decades.
“The Huskies have won 89 straight games. Their players tend to graduate. ‘If you value those things, I don’t see any debate,’ (UConn star) Maya Moore said.
“If there is one legitimate objection to the UCLA-busting streak, it has nothing to do with men and is hardly the fault of Connecticut. The Huskies took on all comers leading to their 93-62 victory over Florida State on Tuesday. But the run did exclude the opponent Connecticut has most enjoyed beating during the Geno Auriemma era.
“That would be Tennessee, which just happened to excuse itself from the Connecticut schedule for the 2007-08 season – the one before the streak began – after a 13-year series that defined the best of the women’s college game.
“The fracture occurred with the fierce recruitment of Moore, who scored a career-high 41 points against No. 22 Florida State, in 2006. Tennessee Coach Pat Summit was said to believe that Connecticut’s tactics were unsavory. The Huskies were cited by the NCAA for arranging a tour of the nearby ESPN studios, a so-called improper benefit akin to a traffic violation.
“Summit never publicly aired her grievances….
“On the day before she would win her eighth national title, or one more than Auriemma has, Summit was asked if she would agree to a normalization of relations between the rival superpowers. ‘At this point, I don’t really see it happening,’ she said.”
Well, it turns out Summit’s own players aren’t happy about the decision not to play UConn. Imagine the scene in Knoxville if the two had gone up against each other during the streak?
“ ‘You’re talking about history – that’s just unbelievable what they’ve done,’ Summit told reporters recently. Unfortunately, none of the naysayers Auriemma recently referred to with some colorful language devalued the Connecticut streak more than its most credentialed female coach did by surrendering her chances to end it.
“In the weeks leading into the Huskies’ big night, there were as many grievances about perceived affronts from women’s sports advocates as there were deserved tributes to Auriemma and his program. But comparing the cultures of women’s and men’s sports is a complicated and largely futile effort, as much so as differentiating between vastly different eras.
“So the debate was really much ado about nothing, and nobody knew this more than Auriemma….
“As Auriemma said in quoting Wooden, the one common area across the decades – and the gender lines, too – is the drive to compete and succeed. To that end, Connecticut has gone out of its way to play the best teams, regular season or postseason, and won those 89 games by an average margin of 33 points.
“That is the only marker the Huskies should be judged by, and applauded for, and not by the quality of the men’s teams they will never play. Or the rival they used to play before their mythical match and takedown of UCLA.”
As I wrote the last chat on Sunday night, it was impossible to note all the post-mortems on the Giants’ historic collapse against the Eagles, up 21 with 8:17 to play. Unless you’re from the New York area, though, it’s hard to imagine just how big the game was, but the fact remains the Giants still earn a wild-card berth with a win at Green Bay on Sunday. The Pack, of course, has an incentive to prevent this, seeing as how their own playoff future is on the line.
The issue is, however, can the Giants recover emotionally? The players and coach Tom Coughlin were still in a state of shock 24 hours later…and 48…and 72….
I mean consider that Eagles quarterback Michael Vick had 215 total yards in three touchdown drives to tie the game. And consider that Coughlin didn’t put his “hands team” on the field for the Eagles’ onside kick, even though Coughlin said later he was anticipating the Eagles would do just that (and had warned the coverage team to be on the lookout for it). And consider that rookie punter Matt Dodge didn’t execute the order to kick that last punt out of bounds. It ended up being the first time in NFL history a player had scored the winning touchdown on a punt return on the final play of regulation.
“A few days before what the Giants knew would be their biggest game of the season, Justin Tuck was asked the key to finally beating the Eagles and taking control of the NFC East.
“ ‘Finished’ might be a better characterization of the Giants chances of winning the division after the events that transpired Sunday, as a rousing victory over a hated rival devolved into one of the worst losses in this proud franchise’s history, and that takes in a load of bitter defeats.”
“From joking on the sidelines to choking on the field. From first place to disgrace, in a matter of eight fourth-quarter minutes they will remember for the rest of their lives.”
The Wall Street Journal had a story that “The 13 other teams that have blown fourth-quarter leads of 18 points or more went 8-5 the following week. Technically, Sunday’s meltdown was the fifth-worst in the NFL since 1970, but none of the others came with the division lead at stake in December.”
The Journal could have added that of the eight wins following big collapses, only one…one… was after Oct. 21.
“OK, we should line up the half-full glasses first. And here goes:
“The Giants can recover from the Houdini-like gizzard punch they absorbed Sunday afternoon. There are examples that you can cite if you’d care to scour history and make yourself feel better between now and Sunday in Green Bay, if you don’t want to allow a dark cloud to hover over Christmas dinner.
“Remember the Heidi Game? Besides the fun backdrop of the story, it was a horrific loss for the Jets, the kind that would’ve been given a ‘Same Old Jets’ label if it had been invented yet. Yet the Jets never lost again that season.
“Remember that awful game Eli Manning had back in 2007, four picks against the Vikings, three returned for touchdowns, and the growing notion he’d never amount to much as an elite quarterback? Exactly 70 days later, he was lifting a Super Bowl MVP trophy over his head.
“But you have to understand something: It’s good to be optimistic. It’s a fan’s prerogative – actually, a prerequisite – to believe in the craziness of sports. Otherwise how do the 1969 Mets happen? How do the 2007 Giants happen? If sports proceeded logically all the time, that would take a lot of the fun away. Only there’s one problem with that:
“Most of the time, if your gut tells you you’re toast, you’re extra-crispy toast.
“Most of the time, if you are the Red Sox and the ball trickles through your first baseman’s legs, you really do have no shot at winning Game 7….
“Most of the time, if you’re Carlos Beltran and keep the bat on your shoulder, you’re only granting a preview of the horrific autumnal realities to come….
“Momentum is a funny thing: It inspires people – sports fans especially – to go to great lengths to minimize it. In baseball they use the hoary chestnut that momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher. In the NFL, they tell you your next opponent doesn’t care what your last opponent did. It sounds good. It’s the way sports are supposed to sound.
“But momentum is real. It’s organic. It lives. It breathes. It’s why basketball coaches call time out in the midst of 10-2 runs, it’s why baseball managers call team meetings, it’s certainly why Manning stood up yesterday and addressed his teammates for the first time in his career, why Jets coach Rex Ryan nearly had a tear-stained sequel talking to his troops Saturday night.
“Put it this way: Very few things in sports surprise me anymore. But this surely would.”
“Eli Manning was the only speaker at a players-only meeting he called Monday in a desperate attempt to save a season that is now virtually beyond repair. The colossal collapse against the Eagles was so depressing that Tom Coughlin went home Sunday night and sat in a room with the lights out for two-and-one-half hours.
“Manning did his best at damage control Monday. But the damage has been done. The adversity they created is too much to overcome. The Giants transitioned from legitimate Super Bowl contenders to a team that can’t hold a three-touchdown lead at home when the division is there for the taking.
“Manning spoke to his teammates in his typical matter-of-fact tone. No emotion, no yelling or screaming – he didn’t get in anybody’s face. That was left to Coughlin humiliating rookie punter Matt Dodge on the field after the game….
“The positive for the Giants is they will clinch a wild-card spot if they can beat the Packers at Lambeau Field on Sunday. The bad news is they are fooling themselves if they think they won’t have a Philadelphia hangover from the epic meltdown. These things don’t get flushed away just because they say they are going to flush them away.
“ ‘Just remind everybody of our situation and tell everybody to keep their head up and that we’re in a good position, we’re in a good spot, we’re kind of in charge of our own destiny,’ he said. ‘We’re going to write the ending to this story and not anyone else.’”
1. Duke
2. Ohio State
3. Kansas
4. UConn
5. Syracuse
6. Pitt
7. San Diego State
8. Villanova
9. Missouri
10. Georgetown
22. Notre Dame
24. UCF
Here’s the deal with SDSU. They appeared in a lone preseason top 25 poll, at No. 25, but your editor in reading some scouting reports spotted the fact the entire starting five was returning and alarm bells went off. ‘This is what I’m looking for,’ I mused, not expecting anything from my alma mater, the Wake Forest Passive Deacons. ‘I need another team, just for this year.’
And so I told you before the season started that San Diego State would win it all. I told you how when I was at Pearl Harbor I came across an alum wearing an SDSU shirt and told him, ‘You guys are going all the way,’ and he was quite amused by it all.
But I sure as heck didn’t think the Aztecs would be No. 7 this early! One thing seems certain at this point. They aren’t going to lose more than 3 regular season games (as I get bolder) and will be a 4-seed at the very worst. If they’re still undefeated after the BYU game on Jan. 26 in Provo, heck, we could be talking a 2-seed for real.
Meanwhile, as for Wake Forest, on Tuesday they lost to Presbyterian by two. Presbyterian!!! Like a true idiot, just that day I sent in my pledge card for the Deacon Club. When I actually send in the check there will be a nasty note attached. The whole freakin’ athletic program is in freefall, starting with our pathetic postseason flameouts in NCAA basketball play, though it’s safe to say we won’t have to worry about that next spring! I mean the baseball team was dreadful, football went 3-9, soccer suddenly fell on its face, golf has sucked for years, and now this hoops fiasco with a new coach. Fan support, starting with a small student body and alumni base, has always been fragile, but imagine what it’s like now. If I was a student today, why the hell would I go? When I was at Wake I missed one football game in four years and probably one basketball game, if that, and we had some awful teams (as well as a few good ones). But the big thing even when the hoops program was down was we beat the teams we were supposed to! That’s what makes this b-ball edition so upsetting. I mean in the last two years we had three NBA first-round draft selections and have four now playing in the NBA off those two squads, but now we’re losing to Presbyterian, Stetson, Winthrop and UNC-Wilmington?! Man, you won’t catch me with Deaconwear on for a long, long time.
“Mommy, why is that man wearing Deaconwear? I thought they sucked.”
“Stay away from him, Bobby. And who taught you to use that kind of language?”
–Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski tied Dean Smith for No. 2 as the all-time winningest Division I men’s basketball coach in a win over Elon on Monday. Coach K commented afterward.
“When Dean left the game, he could’ve won more games if he had lingered. Somebody like him or somebody like me will not linger, because we didn’t get in this to linger. We got in it to go for it.
“When Dean did retire, I said for him to be as competitive at that high a level for that length of time is unbelievable. It’s just unbelievable. I hope as long as I’m coaching, I will be as competitive as I can be, and not linger.”
At 879 wins, Coach K trails Bobby Knight by 23. He commented further on his relationship with Dean Smith.
“Look, I love Dean, and we competed really hard against one another, but I think the ultimate thing one competitor can say about another competitor is that he respects him 100 percent. I really value our friendship.
“When two teams that are coached by two guys who are as competitive go after one another, you have to make each other better. And, in that respect, it made the ACC one hell of a conference. I mean, no one’s done a better job in the ACC by far than Dean. We’ve done our share, but what he did was set a standard that the league had to adopt or else you dropped by the wayside.”
What Phil W. (a fellow Wake Forest alum) and I agree on these days is that the Deacs are doing everything they possibly can to ensure the ACC, excepting Duke, is a laughingstock this season. Not exactly what Dean and Coach K had in mind.
–Thank god Oregon’s Chip Kelly won coach of the year over Auburn’s Gene Chizik. The Duckwear is washed and ready.
–A survey by USA TODAY found that 26 assistant coaches in Division I-A football are pulling down $400,000 or more, double the number making that much in 2009. Four defensive coordinators in the SEC are earning at least $700,000! That’s absurd.
–I’m posting this column before Boise State’s bowl game against Utah, Wednesday, the Maaco Bowl, and it’s just another reminder that were it not for kicker Kyle Brotzman, the Broncos would be in the Rose Bowl, which would have been worth $8 million for the WAC ($3 million of that to Boise), but instead the school will probably take home about $300,000 after the conference takes its cut for the Maaco extravaganza, meaning Boise probably breaks even after accounting for travel and tickets they’re on the hook for.
–I’m also posting this before I’ve had a chance to spend any time on the Rex/Michelle Ryan foot-fetish fiasco…actually, I’m just tired of all the crap coming out of Jets camp. C’mon, Rex. Think of your boy over at Summit High School (a ½ mile from my office) and all the unnecessary grief he has to take over his mother and father acting like jerks. Focus on your job, Coach!
–For a blowout, the Monday night game between the Vikings and Bears was entertaining and of course the weather had a lot to do with it, which is why here at Bar Chat we are excited by the prospect for lots of cold weather playoff football, what with New England, Pittsburgh (and/or Baltimore), Kansas City, Philadelphia and Chicago being in line to host one or two games. Now if indoor Atlanta would only cooperate and exit early, we’d be in even better shape.
Anyway, back to Monday, for the archives I have to note Devin Hester’s record-breaking 14th career touchdown return (10 punts / 4 kickoffs) with his 89-yarder for a score. And we note that it probably didn’t help Brett Favre any to have his head slammed onto cement as it was.
But I got a kick out of the story that since there was no alcohol served at the Univ. of Minnesota stadium which was pressed into service, as the New York Times reported, “A liquor store a block away had sold about a thousand flasks an hour before the game, according to the owner, George [‘Doc’] Medich.” What a pleasant Christmas surprise for him, eh? A little extra cash for presents for the Missus, or Mistress.
–Can you believe the Dolphins this year? 1-6 at home, 6-1 on the road, for what would be a NFL record differential of five. No team has ever won five more games on the road than it won at home. Ya think Miami season-ticket holders are pleased?
–Goodness gracious, a game-worn Sandy Koufax Brooklyn Dodgers jersey, hand signed by him, sold for $80,000. It’s just one of two known to have been worn in a game by Koufax that are available. A glove used by New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson in his 1969 rookie year sold for $54,000 at the same Lelands auction. [You buy that one, Brad K.?]
–Uh oh. Maryland’s racing commission voted to reject a proposal by the owners of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park to conduct live racing next year, meaning there won’t be horse racing at either track unless an agreement is reached.
That means no Preakness! Racing was to begin Jan. 1 at Laurel Park for a three-month winter meet. More than 300 backstretch workers and 1,500 horses live at Laurel and the Bowie Training Center.
Two years ago there was a similar disagreement between the state and the tracks’ owners and it was resolved, but time is wasting. The Preakness is about six months away!
–Time for your World Cup Ski update. American Ted Ligety has won three straight giant slaloms (an amazing achievement) and leads the overall men’s Cup standings, ahead of Switzerland’s Silvan Zurbriggen. And three-time overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn is once again in the overall lead over her friend Maria Riesch. Last weekend, Vonn won the downhill and then the next day the super-G at Val d’Isere. “U-S-A…U-S-A…U-S-A…” [Rowdy Americans at the bottom of the slope after a day drinking premium.]
–We note the passing of actor Steve Landesberg of “Barney Miller” fame. He was 65. An obituary in the New York Times said his agent “did not have details of where and when Mr. Landesberg passed away,” so I’m assuming he was eaten by a shark.
But…just double-checked Landesberg’s obit in the Los Angeles Times and it says he died early Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and that “He was believed to be 74”!
WTF?! Well, at least rumors he was killed by a shark aren’t true.
–Just in time for the Animal of the Year and All-Species voting….
“A police dog caught a brazen crook who allegedly burgled a home in Sydney’s east after clambering onto its first floor balcony while its owner slept inside.
“Police said the man got inside the home on Anzac Parade in Kingsford, using a sliding door, and grabbed a laptop and mobile phone about 2am today.
“But a 23-year-old woman woke up and spotted him.
“She rang triple-0 and a police dog latched onto the scent of the man, finding him hiding at a unit block in nearby Houston Road.
“As the dog approached him [Ed. flashing his badge no doubt], the man fled, jumping a number of fences.
“The dog found him again, this time hiding in a nearby garage, and police arrested him.” [Sydney Morning Herald]
As Johnny Mac commented: “And, dogs never get the ‘blue flu’ and call in sick, while the pension plan is simply milk bone biscuits. All in all, a good deal for us.”
Owner Ramona Wegemann is thrilled, but exhausted, as Etana, a purebred Rhodesian Ridgeback (pre-Mugabe), gave birth to 17 and thus far all are doing well thanks solely to Ms. Wegemann, who fed them with a bottle because Etana wouldn’t have been able to handle 17 doing what puppies are prone to do. As soon as one puppy was finished drinking from the bottle, the next one was ready, and thus poor Ms. Wegemann got no sleep for about a month.
It took Etana 26 hours to give birth, or the equivalent of about 13 college basketball games, or four Yankees-Red Sox contests.
Wegemann gave all the puppies African names beginning with the letter ‘B’. It would have been easier to go the George Foreman route and call ‘em all “George.” She’s hoping to get about $1,300 per dog, which would be a very small profit of about $200 after all the expenses she is incurring. The dogs are only being placed with families that have young kids.
From Army Times and the topic of “Big bird decoys.”
“Feel free to buy expensive, molded plastic snow goose and tundra swan decoys, but if you’re hunting in fields, basic white garbage bags make excellent dekes.
“Virginia is one of only a couple of states where hunters can enter a lottery to draw a permit to harvest a tundra swan. My first time hunting the big birds, our hunting party placed the trash bags over sticks that we stuck in the ground. When we were finished, the group organizer said, ‘How do you like my $1.99 decoy spread?’
“Everyone filled their tag as birds landed among the bags.”
Yikes, the tundra swan is an idiot! Who knew?
–Update: To be fair, further articles on the possible pardon of Billy the Kid since my comment last time that they aren’t mentioning then territorial governor Lew Wallace was the author of Ben-Hur are indeed now stating this. But they aren’t mentioning he was also the disgraced general at Shiloh, which is a major reason why Wallace wrote the book, or so some say.
—Shakira gave a show at London’s O2 Arena the other night and the London Times reviewed it thusly.
“What an amazing entrance. Arriving at floor level at the back of the huge venue, Shakira simply walked through the thick of the crowd while singing Pienso En Ti, a delicate, almost religious-sounding song. Wearing a pink dress with a huge bustle, the Colombian superstar radiated an inner serenity as she touched hands with people in the densely-packed crowd, many of them in a state of barely suppressed hysteria.
“Eventually she reached the stage, and within a matter of seconds had stripped down to a pair of sprayed-on-slick black trousers and a skimpy gold top and launched into the grinding, bouncing arena-rock routine of Why Wait. Why indeed?….
“But the star of the show was Shakira’s midriff. Never far from the action and helpfully magnified on the screens around the stage, this slender yet generously undulating part of her anatomy seemed to have a mind of its own.”
Yes, with ongoing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it’s never a bad time for a little Shakira, right guys?
Top 3 songs for the week 12/22/84: #1 “Like A Virgin” (Madonna…virgin what? Olive oil? I don’t understand) #2 “The Wild Boys” (Duran Duran) #3 “Out Of Touch” (Daryl Hall & John Oates)…and…#4 “Sea Of Love” (The Honeydrippers…eh) #5 “Cool It Now” (New Edition) #6 “We Belong” (Pat Benatar) #7 “I Feel For You” (Chaka Khan…among the few acts worth a damn in those days…Chaka Khan…Chaka Khan Chaka Khan…) #8 “No More Lonely Nights” (Paul McCartney) #9 “All I Need” (Jack Wagner) #10 “Valotte” (Julian Lennon…I’m sorry, goin’ back to the 60s next time…speaking of Julian’s father)
Sports Illustrated Sportsmen of the Year Quiz: 1) Two golfers in ‘60s: Arnold Palmer, 1960; Ken Venturi, 1964. 2) Track and field in ‘60s: Jim Ryun, 1966. 3) Auto racing in ‘70s: Jackie Stewart, 1973.
And now our annual Christmas special….I added a new one, the Ross Cameron op-ed.
Apollo 8
Growing up, one of the more dramatic memories as a kid was staying up Christmas Eve 1968 to follow the remarkable voyage of Apollo 8.
If ever a nation needed a pick me up, it was America in ’68, after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, with the ongoing war in Vietnam and the dramatic Tet Offensive, and after LBJ’s sudden withdrawal from the presidential race, the turbulent Democratic Convention, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Yes, we were ready for a little space adventure.
Apollo 8 would be the first manned mission to orbit the moon. Commanded by Frank Borman, with James Lovell, Jr. and William Anders, it was launched on December 21 and on Christmas Eve the three began their orbit. What made it all even more dramatic was the first go round to the dark side of the moon, when all communication was lost until they reemerged at the other side. It was the middle of the night for us viewers, at least in the Eastern time zone, and I remember that Apollo was sending back spectacular photos of Earth.
Borman described the moon as “a vast, lonely and forbidding sight,” and Lovell called Earth, “a grand oasis in the big vastness of space.” The crew members then took turns reading from the Book of Genesis / Creation:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
James Lovell would later say, “Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus.” And Borman concluded with, “Merry Christmas. God bless all of you, all of you on the Good Earth.”
The story of Phil Spector’s “A Christmas Gift for You,” as told by Ronnie Spector in her book “Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness…or…My Life as a Fabulous Ronette”.
“One record that did feature all three Ronettes – and just about everyone else who worked for Phil – was Phil’s Christmas album, A Christmas Gift for You. Phil is Jewish, but for some reason he always loved Christmas. Every year he would spend weeks designing his own special Christmas card, which he would send to everyone in the business. In 1963 he took that idea one step further and recorded an entire album of Christmas music, with contributions from all the acts on his Philles label. All of the groups got to do three or four songs each. The Ronettes did ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,’ ‘Sleigh Ride,’ and ‘Frosty the Snowman.’
“We worked on that one forever. Phil started recording it in the summer, and he didn’t leave the studio for about two months. We’d start recording early in the evening, and we’d work until late into the night, sometimes even into the next morning. And everybody sang on everyone else’s songs, so all of Phil’s acts really were like one big, happy family for that one album.
“While he was recording it, Phil told everyone that this Christmas album was going to be the masterpiece of his career. And he meant it. We all knew how important this project was to Phil when he walked into the studio on the last day of recording and announced that he was going to add a vocal himself. The final song on the record is a spoken message from Phil, where he thanks all the kids for buying his records and then wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, while we all sing a chorus of ‘Silent Night’ in the background. A lot of people thought the song was corny. But if you knew Phil like I did, it was very touching.
“But then I always did have a soft spot for Phil’s voice. There was something about his phrasing and diction that drove me crazy. It was so cool, so calm, so serene. Phil wasn’t a singer, but when he spoke he put me in a romantic mood like no singer could. He was the only guy I ever met who could talk me into an orgasm. [Ed. oops…how did that get in there?]
“Of course, he wasn’t doing that back then. Not yet, anyway. Phil and I were still just sweethearts in those days. We spent lots of time together, and we were very romantic, but we still hadn’t slept together. Maybe that’s why we were so romantic.
“A Christmas Gift for You finally came out in November of 1963. But in spite of all the work we put into it, the album was one of Phil’s biggest flops. It was reissued as The Phil Spector Christmas Album in the early seventies, and nowadays people talk about it like it’s one of the greatest albums in rock and roll history. But nobody bought it when it first came out.
“President Kennedy had been shot a few days before it was released, and after that people were too depressed to even look at a rock and roll record. And they stayed that way until well into the New Year of 1964, when – thank God – four long-haired English guys finally got them to go back into the record stores.”
—–
The Gospel According to Luke
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
—–
Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
A famous letter from Virginia O’Hanlon to the editorial board of the New York Sun, first printed in 1897:
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
Dear Editor –
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
—
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
—–
A Visit from St. Nicholas
By Clement C. Moore [Well, he really stole it, but that’s a story for another day. This is the original version.]
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap;
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof –
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes – how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
—
World War I – Christmas Truce
By December 1914, the war had been picking up in intensity for five months. Ironically, the feeling during the initial phases was that everyone would be home by Christmas, though little did they know it would be Christmas 1918.
On Christmas Eve 1914, along the British and German lines, particularly in the Flanders area, the soldiers got into conversation with each other and it was clear to the British that the Germans wanted some sort of Christmas Armistice. Sir Edward Hulse wrote in his diary, “A scout named F. Murker went out and met a German Patrol and was given a glass of whisky and some cigars, and a message was sent back saying that if we didn’t fire at them they would not fire at us.” That night, where five days earlier there had been savage fighting, the guns fell silent.
The following morning German soldiers walked towards the British wire and the Brits went out to meet them. They exchanged caps and souvenirs and food. Then arrangements were made for the British to pick up bodies left on the German side during a recent failed raid.
Christmas Day, fraternization took place along many of the lines, including a few of the French and Belgian ones. Some joined in chasing hares, others, most famously, kicked around a soccer ball. British soldier Bruce Bairnsfather would write, “It all felt most curious: here were these sausage-eating wretches, who had elected to start this infernal European fracas, and in so doing had brought us all into the same muddy pickle as themselves. But there was not an atom of hate on either side that day; and yet, on our side, not for a moment was the will to war and the will to beat them relaxed.”
In the air the war continued and the French Foreign Legionnaires in Alsace were ordered to fight Christmas Day as well. Plus, most of the commanders on both sides were none too pleased. Nothing like the Christmas truce of 1914 would occur in succeeding years (outside of a pocket or two) and by December 26, 1914, the guns were blazing anew.
[Source: “The First World War,” Martin Gilbert]
“May You Always”
From 1959-2002, Harry Harrison was a fixture on New York radio, the last 20+ years at the great oldies station WCBS-FM. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire, which ticked off many of us to no end, but he will forever be remembered for a brilliant greeting titled “May You Always.” Enjoy.
As the holiday bells ring out the old year, and sweethearts kiss,
And cold hands touch and warm each other against the year ahead,
May I wish you not the biggest and best of life,
But the small pleasures that make living worthwhile.
Sometime during the new year, to keep your heart in practice,
May you do someone a secret good deed and not get caught at it.
May you find a little island of time to read that book and write that letter,
And to visit that lonely friend on the other side of town.
May your next do-it-yourself project not look like you did it yourself.
May the poor relatives you helped support remember you when they win the lottery.
May your best card tricks win admiring gasps and your worst puns, admiring groans.
May all those who told you so, refrain from saying “I told you so.”
May all the predictions you’ve made for your firstborn’s future come true.
May just half of those optimistic predictions that your high school annual made for you come true.
In a time of sink or swim, may you find you can walk to shore before you call the lifeguard.
May you keep at least one ideal you can pass along to your kids.
For a change, some rainy day, when you’re a few minutes late,
May your train or bus be waiting for you.
May you accidentally overhear someone saying something nice about you.
If you run into an old school chum,
May you both remember each other’s names for introductions.
If you order your steak medium rare, may it be so.
And, if you’re on a diet, may someone tell you, “You’ve lost a little weight,” without knowing you’re on a diet.
May that long and lonely night be brightened by the telephone call that you’ve been waiting for.
When you reach into the coin slot, may you find the coin that you lost on your last wrong number.
When you trip and fall, may there be no one watching to laugh at you or feel sorry for you.
And sometime soon, may you be waved to by a celebrity, wagged at by a puppy, run to by a happy child, and counted on by someone you love.
More than this, no one can wish you.
Ross Cameron / Sydney Morning Herald…I first read this in December 2009.
“Jesus is easily the most influential person in history, and the most universally loved….
“Of his early life, the record is almost blank; we are left with a few fragments….
“He was deeply literate in Jewish scriptures but silent on writings outside that tradition. We may assume he lived his entire life within 160 km of his birthplace – he never describes a foreign custom or place. After a major spiritual moment under the influence of John, he launched into local prominence as an itinerant preacher at age 30. Tradition holds that Jesus was a public figure for three years but modern scholars strongly believe a single year is more likely….
“Riding a wave of fame and popularity, Jesus moved the road show to the heavily garrisoned provincial and religious capital of Jerusalem, entering the city in the lead-up to the most holy day of the Jewish year. The Roman authorities are not known for their tolerance of burgeoning mass movements. Jesus fairly quickly found his way to the agony and humiliation of public torture and execution by order of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate – famous for casual brutality. It was a routine event in a typical day in a Roman occupied city.
“History’s great riddle followed. His supporters immediately claimed Jesus rose from the dead. The four biographies of Jesus often contradict each other on minor details but nowhere so much as in the resurrection narratives. The difficulty with dismissing the claim altogether, however, is how otherwise to explain the instant, unprecedented explosion of the Jesus movement across the Mediterranean. The willingness of so many sane first-century beings – many of them witnesses – to suffer death rather than deny the central tenet of their faith, is also cause for reflection….
“We are left to ponder how one year in the life of a seeming nobody could transform the Roman Empire and the entire planet. The reason for the triumph of this nobody is to be found in his first recorded words. ‘Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.’ Jesus is specially kind to the weak and the outcast – to women, the poor, children, a madman in chains and a hated tax collector.
“In the pre-Jesus record, in virtually every human society, vast faceless classes of people were less valued than domestic animals. The world’s second-greatest philosopher, Aristotle, while writing the 101 course of every academic discipline, fervently endorsed the keeping of slaves as natural and desirable to good order. Slavery continued for centuries after Jesus but the impulse to end it was Christian. Beyond the Jewish scriptures, to which Jesus gave a megaphone, no one cared about those on the margins. Jesus establishes the sublime idea that everyone matters.
“Today that single thought has transformed our sense of what it means to be human. Major political parties of the earth, whether left, centrist or right wing (with the possible exception of the Greens) agree the welfare of the whole human race is our common goal. ‘Blessed are the meek’ evolved into ‘All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’
“From whatever perspective we come, thinking people ought to be able to agree, the birth of Jesus was a good day for mankind. I suspect I may never quite shake the childlike hunch that there is some uniquely divine imprint on the central individual of the human story. Happy Birthday, Jesus.”
—
[From Army Times]
Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army was in a dire situation during the frigid winter of 1776. His army had been defeated and chased from New York, and forced to set up winter camp for his remaining 5,000 troops at Valley Forge, Pa., only miles from the capital city of Philadelphia. With morale at its lowest point of the war and enlistments coming to an end, Washington desperately needed a victory to secure reenlistments and draw in some new recruits. The outcome of the revolution was at stake.
On Christmas night, Washington’s troops began to gather on the banks of the Delaware River at McKonkey’s Ferry. His plan was to cross the partially frozen river by midnight, march to Trenton and surround the garrison of Hessian troops (Germans fighting for the British) in the city in a predawn attack.
Before the Army had even launched a boat across the river, it began to rain, then hail, then snow. Washington was behind schedule. Remarkably, the force crossed the river without a single casualty. At 4 a.m., Dec. 26, the ill-equipped army began to march toward Trenton, some with rags wrapped around their feet instead of shoes.
Washington had achieved complete surprise with the dangerous crossing. The battle began when the Army encountered a group of unprepared Hessian sentries at about 8 a.m., and by 9:30 the garrison had surrendered. The Army had killed 22, injured 83 and taken 896 prisoners.
By noon, Washington had left Trenton, having lost two men in the battle, and returned to camp at Valley Forge. He had won a major victory, inspiring the needed reenlistments. News of the battle drew new recruits into the beleaguered Continental Army. The revolution would live to fight another day.
Linus [From “A Charlie Brown Christmas”]
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them. And they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
