Here’s a tune in honor of the 40th anniversary Monday of the United States putting men on the moon (or a Hollywood soundstage, or the Mojave Desert … whatever you believe).
Not that the song is related, really, but it’s fun.
Archive for the History Category
Man on the Moon
Posted in History, Music with tags Bruce Springsteen, Moon, REM on July 19, 2009 by macmysteryRandom stuff: Someone liked my gas
Posted in History, Humor, Music, Odd, Politics with tags Claiborne Pell, Cooking, Dire Straits, Economics, Indigo Girls, Parkinson's Disease, Pell Grant, Rhode Island, Romeo and Juliet on January 2, 2009 by macmysteryYesterday, New Year’s Eve, before Brooke went to work in the morning, she told me there were four pork chops in the refrigerator thawing.
“Cook them anyway you want to,” she said, “and eat one for lunch. You can take another to work for dinner and leave two for us.”
So, after feeding Ella lunch, I took my pork chops, which I had lovingly marinated in Italian dressing, outside to toss them on the grill.
I reached down to crank on the gas … and there was none. I mean none as in someone had stolen the entire tank right off my grill that sits right next to my house.
I think I was a little too shocked to even be angry. I was just flabergasted.
Brooke was more surprised than me when I told her about it. I grilled on Christlas Eve, so someone took the tank in the last week.
I’d like to think someone needed it really badly. For heat. Or money. Or because they had no electricity and needed to cook. But I doubt it. Likely some no good loser (like maybe my neighbor’s adult slacker son … can I say that?) who wants to save the money of buying his or her own tank.
So I guess we’ll refrain from grilling for a while, untile we get a new tank.
By the way, the pork chops were excellent baked.
Thank you, Mr. Pell
Former Democratic Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell died New Year’s Day at the age of 90 after a long bout with Parkinson’s Disease.
Among Pell’s accomplishments was the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program, which passed in 1972 and provided direct aid to college students … better known to you and I as Pell Grants.
Millions of low- and middle-income Americans (including this one) were assisted in attending college because of Pell’s grants.
I, for one, would like to say thanks to Mr. Pell and say a prayer for him and his family.
Sharing gas (and other bodily functions) with the ones you love
I came across this story today about how different couples/families are open … or not so open … with each other when it comes to normally private bodily functions.
Enjoy.
“You and me, babe, how about it?”
The radio station I got hooked on this past summer in Reno, Nev., — KTHX 100.1 FM, The X — just played the Indigo Girls’ version of Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet.”
That never happens.
Never.
First time I’ve ever heard it on the radio anywhere.
Remember they said it
MSNBC.com has put together a wrap-up of the five dumbest things said about the economy in the past two years by political and financial leaders.
Interesting.
Thank you R.C. Edwards
Posted in History, Sports, Uncategorized with tags Army Corps of Engineers, Bob Bradley, Clemson, Donald McKale, Hartwell Lake, Harvey Gantt, James Meredith, R.C. Edwards, Seneca River, University of Mississippi on December 5, 2008 by macmystery
R.C. Edwards sees Clemson football coach Dabo Sweeney off before the Tigers game with South Carolina one last time.
Dr. R.C. Edwards passed away on Thursday at the age of 94. He’ll be missed.
Anyone who has a degree from Clemson University, as I do, owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Edwards.
As an editor for Clemson’s student newspaper, I was lucky enough to meet a few people in my time at the school that most students wouldn’t without a little extra effort.
Among those, my two favorites were easily former sports information director Bob Bradley, God bless him, and former University president R.C. Edwards. And though I spent a year as news editor, I met Edwards during my time as sports editor. There may have been no bigger Clemson sports fan than Dr. Edwards.
As a student, I was admittedly unaware of just how much Edwards meant to Clemson. What I knew was he had been president for a long time (21 years) and was quite popular.
And just by watching how those with influence at Clemson acted around him, it was clear how much respect he garnered.
When you understand what he did for the school, it makes sense.
“Except for Thomas Green Clemson himself, the founder of the university, Bob Edwards was the single most important person in the history of the school,” Donald McKale, Clemson’s Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of History, and my professor for a summer school World War II in Europe class, told the Greenville News.
He entered the school as a 15-year-old freshman, graduated in 1933 with a B.S. in Textile Engineering, returned to the school in 1956 as a vice president and became president in 1958.
He retired in 1979. Those 21 years were quite eventful in American history, and it was no different at Clemson. Edwards was president through three major turning points in Clemson history.
Edwards oversaw the transformation of the University from an all-male military academy to a co-ed university.
He took on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1950s when they initially wanted to flood 9,000 acres of Clemson’s campus and force the school to move in order to construct the Hartwell resevoir. Not only did Edwards win, but he convinced the Corps to actually re-route the Seneca River in the process.
And possibly the most impressive feat … Edwards facilitated the peaceful, if not downright uneventful, integration of Clemson University in 1963 at a time when it certainly wasn’t the norm (Just prior to Harvey Gantt’s enrollment at Clemson, James Meredith’s enrollment at the University of Mississippi at Oxford in the fall of 1962 had forced the use of federal troops to quell violence).
According to the book, “Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University,” Edwards and Gantt both showed admiration for the way the other handled himself during the process.
Of Gantt, Edwards said: “If Harvey Gantt had not been the great person that he was and is, the situation at Clemson would have been a lot different.”
When Edwards retired in 1979, Gantt returned the compliment, telling the press, “President Edwards was very fair to me. He seemed to be singularly interested in making sure the change was peaceful.”
By the time Edwards retired, he had personally handed out more than 70 percent of the diplomas given at that point in the history of Clemson University.
When Edwards retired he didn’t go away. He was always around and approachable, even to a student who didn’t enroll until more than a decade after he had left office.
Here’s the statement on Edwards from current Clemson president James Barker:
R.C. Edwards was a giant in the history of Clemson University. No president will ever surpass his dedicated service to his alma mater nor his impact on all aspects of life at Clemson. Dr. Edwards was my President and he has always been a part of my Clemson experience, from the day I first walked onto campus to today. When he shook my hand at graduation in 1970, it was one of the proudest days of my life. I still stand in awe of all that he accomplished as president. He led Clemson through the transition from a small, all-male military college to a major co-educational, integrated university. He presided over an era of enormous, much-needed change with strong, steady and visionary leadership. He will always be remembered.
Edwards did what was best for the University, even if it wasn’t the most popular option, and he could do so because no one could question his love of Clemson.
Many people graduate from college, and as time passes, the school they attended becomes just that, where they went to school. But many who leave Clemson never get over the feeling that there is something special in those hills and about the family they are forever a part of. And for that, we owe a lot to Dr. Robert C. Edwards.
Thank you R.C. Edwards, you’ll be missed.
Farewell, lady of the Bronx
Posted in History, Sports with tags Babe Ruth, Baseball, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium on September 22, 2008 by macmysteryEighty-five years is a good life by almost any standard.
When you’ve seen the action Yankee Stadium has, it can’t be described as any thing but great.
The New York Yankees defeated the Baltimore Orioles 7-3 Sunday night, Sept. 21, 2008 in the final major league game in The House That Ruth Built. The Stadium, as New Yorkers (I’m not one) and the Yankees players refer to it, was opened nearly 85 years before – April 18, 1923. Babe Ruth homered that day and the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 to open their run for the first of their ridiculous 26 World Series crowns.
Julia Ruth Stevens, the 92-year-old daughter of the Babe was present Sunday. There was a 65-minute pregame ceremony. Virtually every great living Yankee, and many not living, was honored. Longtime public-address announcer Bob Sheppard, sometimes referred to as the voice of God, made a taped appearance. Derek Jeter was removed with two outs in the ninth, getting the ovation he deserved as the Stadium’s all-time hits leader, and Mariano Rivera was on the mound for the final out – the way it should be.
In 85 seasons, the Yankees went 4,135-2,430-17 at the Stadium. The Yankees took part in 37 World Series at the Stadium, winning 26.
The stadium got a facelift in the mid 1970s, and while it wasn’t nearly the same as the old Stadium, the new Yankee Stadium still had that “something.”
When the Yankees announced Sunday’s attendance, the number they gave was 151,959,005 – the total number of fans who passed through the turnstiles in the Stadium’s 85 seasons. I’m proud to say, though I’ve been to New York City but three times in my life, I accounted for two of those 151,959,005.
My first trip came in 1997. I’ll never forget it. My girlfriend at the time made sure I got to go, and I’m forever grateful.
I’ve heard my dad talk about my grandfather’s wish to see the Indianapolis 500 once in his lifetime. That was Yankee Stadium for me.
We sat near the back on the first base side, and the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays. I visited the monuments and took a ton of pictures (though, I’ve managed to post none here). Although I can’t recall if anyone noticed, I’m certain I cried.
The trip home after the game was as interesting as the game. We followed the subway directions my girlfriend’s sister had provided to get to the Stadium, and it all went smoothly. But she didn’t know that one of the trains we needed to take home, by her directions, didn’t run on the weekends. So as we sat in the station after a night game in the Bronx, waiting for a train that would never come, the crowds disappeared, and soon we were alone with a small crowd people that I’ll just call unruly. Eventually, someone gave us the correct directions, but for a few minutes, we were a little concerned.
I’ve since returned for another game, a couple of years ago on a baseball trip with three friends I love, yet see far too little. But the first time is the trip I remember best. And I can always say I was there.
I’m sure the new Stadium will be amazing. But it just won’t be the old Stadium, even the remodeled one.
I’ve been to a lot of major league baseball parks (27) and seen games in a lot better places to see a game, particularly Fenway Park in Boston. But even as great as it is, it won’t be as big a deal when it hosts its last game. The history just isn’t there.
Farewell, Yankee Stadium.
A little irony
The stadium opened in 1923 with a game against the Boston Red Sox. That was appropriate since it was the Red Sox that sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees and effectively allowed the two American League clubs to swap their fortunes.
But the Yankees have a history with Baltimore, whose Orioles were the final team to visit the Stadium on Sunday night. First, Babe Ruth, the star who got his stadium, was a Baltimore native. Secondly, the New York Highlanders, as the Yankees were known until 1913, were originally the Baltimore Orioles, before moving to New York in 1903. The Orioles’ name didn’t again surface until the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954.
Raising Two Americans 