NFL Quiz: [From the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino] What team has the best nine-season span without a Super Bowl win? For example, the Patriots are in the midst of one, 2005-13, with a 108-34-0 record (prior to Sunday’s contest), .760, that places them third, behind second-best Minnesota, 1969-77 (96-29-1, .766) Answer below.
1. Seattle 12-3
2. Carolina 11-4
3. Philadelphia 8-6
4. Chicago 8-6
5. San Francisco 10-4 (play Monday night against 4-10 Falcons)
6. New Orleans 10-5
7. Arizona 10-5
1. Denver 12-3
2. New England 11-4
3. Cincinnati 10-5
4. Indianapolis 10-5
5. Kansas City 11-4
6. Miami 8-7
7. Baltimore 8-7
8. San Diego 8-7
9. Pittsburgh 7-8
So Miami and New Orleans own tie-breakers. Miami hosts the Jets, New Orleans hosts Tampa Bay. Win they’re in.
–Great job by Arizona in staying in the hunt with a win at Seattle, handing Russell Wilson his first loss at home (14-1), 17-10.
–Bengals defeat Vikings behind Andy Dalton’s 4 TD passes and 136.5 rating.
—Tony Romo gets it done against Redskins (3-12) in Washington, 24-23, with dramatic fourth down touchdown pass late. I don’t like the Cowboys, but I like Romo.
–Carolina with big 17-13 win over New Orleans, as Saints go 3-5 on the road.
—Peyton Manning bested Tom Brady’s single-season TD pass mark, throwing four against the pathetic Texans (2-13…13 in a row) in a 37-13 victory. Manning, now with 51, of course has one more game to extend the record.
–Here’s the thing about the Jets. I had them winning two games and wasn’t necessarily alone in this regard. Today, with really little talent, they are 7-8 and a successful road trip to Miami away from finishing .500. Coach Rex Ryan deserves to come back to fulfill the final year of his contract.
The Jets had a solid 24-13 win over Cleveland (4-11) as Geno Smith performed well at QB. But word is Ryan told his troops on Saturday night he was going to get fired at year end. To a man, though, the team loves playing for him.
–From 1982 to 1992, the Washington Redskins were in the playoffs 8 of 11 seasons, with four Super Bowl appearances, winning three. From 1993-2013, 21 seasons, they have made the playoffs but four times.
–I feel sorry for the Giants’ Victor Cruz, who just two yards shy of a third consecutive 1,000-yard season was shelved for the remainder of the season with a knee issue.
Cruz underwent a knee “debridgement,” a term most of us had never heard of until this week. So as a sports medicine doctor told the Star-Ledger, it is basically a “cleanup.”
–Don’t worry, Jets fans. Santonio Holmes will not be back with the team despite his pleadings this week that he’d be willing to take another pay cut to remain, Holmes finishing the third year of his five-year, $45 million deal.
By releasing Holmes before March 1, the Jets would see approximately $8.25 million in cap savings for 2014.
–Pretty amazing to some of us the Super Bowl is only six weeks away, seeing as we’ve been talking about this one for years. If it were held today, well, you saw what the weather was like in New York/New Jersey. Record high temps. Chances are, however, this won’t be the case, Feb. 2. Nope, far from it.
So those putting on the Super Bowl gathered this week to assure the public they were prepared for a giant storm, with 440 salt spreaders, six plows and 30 front-end loader tractors available to clear the stadium parking lot. More than 1,000 workers will be involved, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The record high for Feb. 2, by the way, as measured at Newark Airport, 14 miles from the Meadowlands, is 62, set in 1973, while the all-time low is 2 degrees below zero, set in 1961.
–Finally, funny piece (or not so funny, depending on your stance) in the New York Post by Susan Edelman.
“A wife furious with her football-obsessed husband dropped a dime on a Staten Island gin mill – sparking a rare raid that shut down $600,000 in Super Bowl pools last week.
“ ‘How can the SLA allow a $1 million illegal football pool at Talk of the Town?’ the angry spouse wrote the State Liquor Authority on Nov. 13.
“ ‘My husband spends all his money on these pools and not on our children.’”
So the place was busted. Granted, one of the pools was for $2,000 a box ($200,000), two were worth $100,000 each and four at $50,000. But this is what the Super Bowl is all about, Charlie Brown! I have friends playing these high stakes boxes all the time. Personally, I look forward to playing a $20 one each year run by my barber.
Then again, The Post found a place in the Bronx last year that had a pool for $500,000, or $5,000 a box. That’s a little hefty.
By the way, no word on how the marriage is going following the bust.
I haven’t had a chance to note a piece in the Star-Ledger the other day by Amy Ellis Nutt. For those who think football would be better off abandoning helmets, or wearing leather ones, like in the old days, think again.
“It was chilly and the shadows were lengthening on the football field on a late fall afternoon when 17-year-old Albert Wibiralske lost his life. Hundreds of fans had come out to Essex County Park that Friday in November to watch West Orange High School and its star player take on Manhattan’s Trinity School.
“In the second half, with the home team comfortably ahead 17-0, Albert took a handoff and rushed toward the opponent’s goal. At the 30-yard line, a Trinity player tackled him low and the halfback fell hard on his head – and didn’t get up. Unconscious, he was rushed to West Orange Memorial Hospital, where he died about 8:30 that night.
“Five days earlier, Archer Christian, 18, a halfback at the University of Virginia, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage when he was knocked down on a play. He quickly fell into a coma and died the next day at Georgetown Hospital.
“Two weeks before that, West Point cadet Eugene Byrne was paralyzed from the neck down during a game against Harvard and died the following morning.
“And a month prior, midshipman Earl Wilson fractured his spine when Navy played Villanova. He would linger for months and eventually undergo surgery but would never leave the hospital. He died the following April.
“The year was 1909 and, according to a 1910 issue of Outing magazine, the death toll from the gridiron that season numbered 31. (The total fluctuates depending on the source.)”
Football was under intense pressure from the public and the press over safety and the need for rule changes. Proponents argued football encouraged physical and moral growth. And it was a money maker that helped support other high school and college sports.
“In the 10 years between 1905 and 1914, 145 men and boys died from football injuries, according to unofficial records.
“The Washington Post wrote in the midst of the 1909 mayhem, ‘Does the public need any more proof that football is a brutal, savage, murderous sport? Is it necessary to kill many more promising young men before the game is revised or stopped altogether?’”
In the end, it was none other than Teddy Roosevelt, a fan of the game, who urged changes to rules and tactics that may have saved the sport.
–Joel Sherman of the New York Post points out that when it comes to the 2014 Yankees, they will be depending on first baseman Mark Teixeira, who turns 34 in April and will be the third-oldest starting first baseman in baseball. Plus he’s coming off a significant injury.
Brian Roberts, 36, is projected as the third-oldest starting second baseman and he’s been constantly hurt the past four years.
Derek Jeter, 39, is 4 ½ years older than the next-oldest likely starting shortstop, Jimmy Rollins. Jeter missed essentially all of last season due to injury.
If Alex Rodriguez is allowed to play, he would be the oldest starting third baseman at age 38. If A-Rod can’t play, Kelly Johnson, 32, takes the job.
With the signing of Carlos Beltran, who turns 37 in April, the Yankees will have three of the four oldest outfielders in the game (assuming Raul Ibanez is used as a DH with the Angels); Ichiro, 40; Alfonso Soriano, 38 in January; and Beltran. Vernon Wells, 35, makes it four of six.
Meanwhile, Beltran, who officially signed his 3-year, $45 million deal this week, said he was still bitter at how the Mets treated him in his final seasons with the club.
–Texas signed Shin-Soo Choo to a staggering seven-year, $130 million deal, assuming he passes his physical. I like Choo a lot and dreamed of the Mets signing him, but for something like $40 million over three years, at best, which I knew these days was totally unrealistic. But the guy can’t hit lefties, .243 lifetime vs. .309 against righties. [.215 against lefties last season.]
–It seems clear Masahiro Tanaka will not be released from his Japanese team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, to pitch in the majors this season. Rakuten, it is believed, wants to keep him one more season.
–The average big league salary rose 5.4% this season to a record $3.39 million.
The Yankees had the highest average for the 15th consecutive season at $8.17 million. The Dodgers were second at $7.82 million.
Houston had the smallest average, $549,603, the smallest since the 1999 Kansas City Royals.
–In their last three games, the Knicks failed to use a foul they had to give, and then forgot to call timeout in the final 20 seconds of a one-point loss; Andrea Bargnani inexplicably took a shot with 13 seconds to go in the next contest when he could have milked the clock, but the Knicks managed to win in overtime; and then on Saturday, the Knicks were defeated by Memphis 95-87 as they were outrebounded 55-29 and fell to 8-18. Why would you pay to watch this team?
Then there are the Brooklyn Nets, 9-17 and my “Pick to Click” this season. Well, even I will now concede it’s over in terms of that selection. All-Star center Brook Lopez broke his foot again and is probably out for the season. The guy is just 25, but already he has broken his right foot twice and if he doesn’t play again this year, that will mean the last three seasons he has averaged just 32 games. During the last three seasons the Nets are 55-41 with Lopez in the lineup and 25-53 without him.
–The Lakers lost Kobe Bryant a second time, in this instance for at least six weeks with a fractured kneecap. But all is not lost.
“Now the Lakers can tank without tanking.
“Now the Lakers can finally begin their inevitable rebuilding process and maintain their dignity while doing it.
“Without Bryant, the makeshift remaining team can play hard enough to entertain while losing enough to drop into next summer’s rich draft lottery.
“Without Bryant, the Lakers finally have the excuse they need to speed up this renovation by trading Pau Gasol.”
Of course the bad part is the Lakers had just extended Kobe’s contract for another two seasons and $48.5 million.
–I watched just a snippet of USC’s 45-20 win over Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday, but enough to see Trojans receiver Marqise Lee flash his stuff. Would love for the Jets to draft him, assuming he decides to come out.
At the same time, not a great game for Fresno QB Derek Carr, who has been rocketing up some draft boards; just 217 yards on 54 pass attempts.
But kudos to USC interim coach Clay Helton, who worked the gap between Ed Orgeron and incoming Steve Sarkisian. USC thus played under its third coach of the season, the first being Lane Kiffin. Helton was awarded for his efforts by being named offensive coordinator under Sarkisian following the win.
But Sarkisian could face penalties, including suspension, if the stories prove true that a former assistant coach of his at Washington paid for private tutoring and online classes for a recruit.
Under new rules just adopted last year, which USC Athletic Director Pat Haden, ironically, helped craft, a head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of an assistant, unless the head coach can prove he promoted an atmosphere of compliance.
–I did not see any of Colorado State’s come from behind win over Washington State, 48-45, as CSU erased a 22-point deficit in the Billy the Kid Bowl in New Mexico. Washington State lost two fumbles in the final three minutes to give CSU the opportunity.
–In the FCS, Div. I-AA final on Jan. 4, it will be Towson vs. North Dakota State, Towson having defeated Eastern Washington 35-31 in one semi while North Dakota State manhandled New Hampshire 52-14 in the other.
–In the Division III final, for the eighth time in nine years it was Wisconsin-Whitewater vs. Mount Union. Wisconsin-Whitewater won for a fourth time, and five of its last six meetings with Mount Union, in the Stagg Bowl, 52-14. Go Warhawks! Johnny Mac and I sport our Warhawkswear from time to time. Actually been my favorite black t-shirt lately. Mount Union was national champion last year when the Warhawks failed to make the postseason.
The sport is always lost this time of year amid the coverage surrounding college football and the NFL, but this is setting up to be an outstanding regular season and March Madness promises to be terrific, even if it’s dominated by power conferences. I’ve seen a fair amount of games involving top teams and there is a lot of talent out there, while the quality of play early on has overall been solid.
Of course come January the real season begins, conference play, so sit back and enjoy.
Meanwhile, how do you figure North Carolina? Actually, stop trying to figure them out. They almost got shocked again on Saturday before pulling it out in overtime against Davidson.
But on Friday, Carolina announced the career of P.J. Hairston was over at Chapel Hill, coach Roy Williams calling it “probably the most difficult and saddest thing I’ve gone through as a head coach.”
Hairston led the Tar Heels in scoring last year at 14.6 points per game before having all manner of off-the-court issues in the spring and summer, including use of multiple rental cars provided by third parties, in particular Haydn “Fats” Thomas, a felon and party promoter.
Hairston is no saint, but he was totally jerked around by UNC, having practiced all season with the team and being on the bench for each home game. It was expected he would return after Christmas.
But in the end the school felt it didn’t have enough information to apply for his reinstatement.
Hairston, who has NBA potential, could apply for the draft or re-emerge at another school.
–While I’m pleased Wake Forest is 10-2, I caught the second half of their 59-51 win over UNCG and it was a pretty dreadful display. The crowd was pathetic, for starters, and the two teams combined to hit 3 of 29 from downtown. Wake made only 13 of 30 free throws!
–My Pick to Click, VCU, finally got its act together with an 82-52 pasting of Virginia Tech. The Rams’ swarming defense led to 27 Hokie turnovers (to just seven for VCU). The Rams move to 10-3 but are going to have to go on a nice run to climb back into the top 25.
“This is the bottom line: It has never been this depressing to be a New York sports fan. There have been other bad eras. The year 1966 has always stood out as an especially sordid time, since the Giants bottomed out at 1-12-1, the Yankees finished 10th (last for the first time in 54 years), the Mets were actually ninth (though they lost six more than the Yanks), the Knicks were 30-50, the Rangers 18-41-1.
“But in 1966, it was hard, damn near impossible, to buy a ticket to any of those teams, any of those games, for more than $10, which, factoring inflation, translates to around $72 today. And the overwhelming majority of seats could be had for at least half that much. A Yankee Stadium bleacher seat cost $1.25. You could get away with taking your kids to watch the kid quarterback at Shea – Joe Namath – for less than $40.
“The teams may have been awful. But you didn’t feel held up. And so even if you griped about Allie Sherman or Walt Bellamy or Wes Westrum on the drive home, you probably weren’t nearly as bitter about it.
“This is what our nine professional teams paid their players in 2013: $1,101,343,905.
—Lindsey Vonn had a scare on Saturday, missing a gate at the World Cup downhill in Val d’Isere, France. She clutched her surgically repaired knee but hours after announced there had been no new damage done to it. Vonn said “my knee just completely gave out,” but she said she would give herself plenty of rest and race again “probably sometime in January” as she follows a light program before the Olympics.
Boyfriend Tiger Woods was on the scene Saturday, lending his support. [Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden of Switzerland won the race, her first career victory.]
Meanwhile, Bode Miller placed fifth in the WC downhill at Val Gardena, Italy, won by Erik Guay of Canada.
And on Friday, Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal won the super-G at Val Gardena, increasing his overall World Cup lead. It was his 24th career win and third this season. Svindal will be the overall star of the Sochi Games, says your editor. [Though I’m hoping it ends up being the U.S. hockey team.]
–Give LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan a lot of credit. When he took the job in January 2010, the LPGA was in serious trouble. During his second year on the job there were only 23 tournaments, the fewest since 1971. This coming year there will be 32, four more than 2013.
–Shout out to my high school alma mater, Summit HS, for finishing No. 18 in the state in football, a huge accomplishment for a small school, with the top five basically all prep schools, while the cross country team had its best year ever, No. 14 in the state with a sectional title. We won two conference championships when I was running way, way back (ughh) but never sniffed state honors.
–From Susannah Cahalan / New York Post
“Only 2% of elephants in captivity live past the age of 50 (which is closer to their life expectancy in the wild). In captivity the life expectancy of an Asian elephant is 18.9 years, while an African elephant fares worse at 16.9 years.”
–According to Erick Ritter of the Shark Research Institute, “sharks know exactly what they are doing when they attack people, and he believes he has the data to prove it.”
As reported By The Economist (which doesn’t list authors of their pieces):
“Anecdotal evidence suggests sharks generally take swimmers from behind. This would make sense from the shark’s point of view, since its approach would not be detected. But it does depend on its knowing what ‘behind’ means when applied to such an oddly shaped creature as a human. And if that is the case it implies there is no mistake in the animal’s mind about what its target is.”
Ritter conducted a test with divers and reef sharks, who rarely attack divers, at a site in the Bahamas and the evidence was overwhelming. At least some sharks “know perfectly well which part of a human being is the front and which, if they wish to remain undetected, is the back.”
Kind of makes you want to treat sharks with more respect, doesn’t it? And another reason why the Great White is in the All-Species List top ten.
But, in a story by the Wall Street Journal’s Justin Gregg, we learn that dolphins, who have never been in the top ten, may not be as smart as we were led to believe, especially those of us who grew up watching “Flipper.”
It was back in 1961 that a neuroscientist named John Lilly made a name for himself popularizing the idea dolphins had their own language, “as well as a kind of super-intelligence that rivals our own,” writes Gregg. Carl Sagan was actually involved in some of Lilly’s early work.
But today, “Evidence for a dolphin language – dolphinese – is all but nonexistent. Dolphins do possess signature whistles, which function a bit like names….but it is the only label-like aspect of dolphin communication that we’ve found.”
And “We now know that dolphins can be just as unfriendly and aggressive as any other complex social mammal. They are by no means the kind of New Age pacifists portrayed in Lilly’s writings.”
–Reed Tucker in the New York Post has a list of Christmas songs he never wants to hear again and it’s topped off by “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” Band Aid II, 1989. OK, I don’t have a problem with this.
But then he has the Beach Boys’ “Little Saint Nick” as the fourth worst. ‘Sup wit dat? What’s wrong with this tune? Tucker calls it a “cheap novelty song.” Gimme a break. It’s quality.
–Liz S. passed along a piece by Nick Gillespie in the Daily Beast titled “The Great Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Swindle.”
“I’ve got two main objections about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one more ideological and one more philosophical…
“As a libertarian, I’m opposed to using tax dollars to fund non-essential functions of government, a category that surely describes rock music. Yet taxpayer dollars helped to build the Hall, which just ain’t right. If rock and roll is doing its job, it should be an enemy of the state, not the recipient of its largess. Indeed, one of the greatest things about rock – and let’s use the term as broadly as possible, to cover virtually all forms of popular music – is that it didn’t need NEA grants or state-supported artists’ colonies to shake, rattle, and roll….
“The main reason that the Hall is located in Cleveland is precisely because elected officials back in the 1980s generously pledged to blow $65 million in other people’s money on the museum….
“My philosophical objection is related though distinct from my ideological one. If rock shouldn’t be supported by the state, it also doesn’t need anything like an official hall of fame… Rock provided the very soundtrack for the baby boom generation’s long, tedious slog against the regimented, bourgeois expectations of their parents. Tune in, turn on, drop out, and all that. And yet it’s the baby boomer…who felt a need to create the ultimate arbiter of establishment value.”
But I’ve been to the Hall and I’ve discussed in this space it’s a terrific museum. In retrospect, that’s what it should have been, a museum, not a Hall of Fame.
NFL Quiz Answer: Oakland has the best nine-season span without winning a Super Bowl, 1967-75, 95-24-7 (.782), ties counted as half a win. Source: Stats LLC.
*No Bar Chat this week. Next one Dec. 30…our yearend award ceremony…
And now our annual Christmas special. I added a new story this year…involving NORAD.
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.”
“NORAD’s tradition of tracking Santa’s sleigh began with a wrong number.
“Right before Christmas in 1955, Sears ran an ad offering millions of toy-hungry girls and boys the chance to talk to the big man himself. In Colorado Springs, the retailer published the local phone number to the North Pole as ME2-6681.
“There was only one problem: The number was one digit off.
“And that wrong number rang on the desk of a high-ranking officer in a bunker at the Continental Air Defense Command – the predecessor of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which has the less-than-festive mission of detecting and defending the continent against nuclear attack.”
Col. Harry Shoup took the first call on the command’s red phone. In an interview with the Post, Shoup’s daughter, Terri Van Keuren, recalled:
“ ‘The phone rang, and he picked up. ‘This is Colonel Shoup, commander of this combat station. Who is this?’”
Silence on the other end. Shoup repeated himself, then “a meek little boy’s voice came over the line.
“ ‘Is this Santa Claus?’ he murmured.
“Worried there had been some kind of security breach, Shoup again demanded the caller’s name. He heard crying, and another query came through the tears.
“Shoup recognized he was in a moment that could destroy the little boy’s faith in Santa.
After the two talked a while, Shoup asked to speak with the boy’s mother.
“ ‘He asked her: ‘Do you have any idea who you’ve called?’’ Van Keuren said. ‘She told him to take a look at that day’s newspaper.’”
So the calls flooded in and Shoup directed his men to answer as Santa.
Weeks later, Shoup, on vacation, dropped in on his men and spotted a sleigh on the huge plexiglass map of North America in the room. A subordinate was afraid he had just lost his job.
Instead, Shoup said, “There’s something good we could do with this.”
And so Col. Shoup called a local radio station with the news the command center was tracking Santa’s sleigh. Ever since then, NORAD has been tracking Santa.
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.
“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.
