The best of all time, or are they?
If you want to start a spirited discussion among men (and some women), ask them who was the best at a sport. They will agree on a few names, but if asked to name the best 25 or 50 of all time, the lists will not be identical. In fact, they might not even be close.
One reason for this is that the three major sports in the U.S., baseball, basketball and football have been around for a long time. Although the current National Football League was founded in 1920, pro games were being played before that. Players were being paid money to play football as far back as 1892. The National Basketball Association didn't come into being until the late 1940s but there were professional teams playing back in the 1920s. The current National League, the first formally structured major professional baseball league was founded all the way back in 1876. In 1893 the American League was formed and the World Series has been played continuously since 1905.
Sports are all about statistics but as we know, numbers don't always tell the entire story. Search the net for a list of the greatest running backs of all time and you'll get a bunch of lists. But there appears to be a bias toward modern players, no matter who is creating the list. Every single list of the top ten running backs of "all-time" that I looked at had only one name on it for a player born before 1940. That was the great Jim Brown. Most consider him to be the greatest running back of all time. He rushed for more yards in fewer games and seasons than any other player before or since on a per rush basis. But was he? If you look at a list of the top rushing leaders of all-time based on yards per attempt, quarterbacks actually hold the top five spots. Number six is a man named Marion Motley, who only serious football fans know about. He played between 1946 and 1955 and rushed for 5.7 yards per attempt. Jim Brown is a distant 15th on this list with "only" 5.1 yards per carry.
So was Marion Motley better than Jim Brown? By that statistical measure he was, but not in the minds of the masses. When it comes to quarterbacks, they are measured by a rating system. If you look at the top 10 QBs by rating all-time, why is it that seven of the ten are still active players? I'd put it down to inflation of the ratings. Especially since the present rating system has been in use since only 1973. Then again, maybe the fact that some quarterbacks stay around past their prime is relevant. His ratings during his final five seasons definitely lowered his all-time average. Brett Favre sits at #16 on the all-time list at a rating of 86.0. He's tied with a guy named Trent Green whose 11 year career earned him the exact same rating. So are we to conclude they are at the same level of greatness?
Baseball is even more difficult. The same as played in the first part of the 20th Century looks a lot like the same game but it is not. Until 1938, there were no night games. Until 1953 there was only one National League team west of the Mississippi so travel was nowhere near as difficult as it is now. There were fewer games per season.
There were great pitchers in the early decades, but on a whole hitters were better than pitchers back in the day. The career batting average leaders dating back all the way to the founding of the major leagues has only one name in the top 25 who played the game after 1965. Not a whole lot more names who played the game into the 1940s.
The other reason I'm thinking about this is because the world has a new chess champion. Magnus Carlsen just won the title at the tender age of 22. Bobby Fischer was 29 when he won the title back in 1972. Carlsen's "rating" is higher than Fischer's. In fact it's the highest of all time. Is Carlsen better than Fischer was? Hard to say and maybe too soon to say. Back in 1976, noted chess author Irving Chernev wrote down his all-time top ten and Fischer was only 4th, behind Capablanca, Alekhine and Lasker. Names you've never heard of unless you're really into chess.
So what is the point? The point is you can't compare apples and oranges. Ask me who the greatest baseball player of all time was/is and I'll say Babe Ruth. Why? Because he was the greatest pitcher in the game before he quit pitching and became the best hitter in the game; in his era. No other player in history belongs in the Hall of Fame for both his pitching, and his hitting.
But I won't make that subjective judgment about football or basketball. I can make lists of the greatest players, but I have trouble even picking a starting five for the best of all-time in the NBA. Do you put Wilt Chamberlain at center? Bill Russell? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Shaq? What about George Mikan?
It is a great thing to spend time talking about though, especially in a sports bar with good friend.
* * *
I'm so sick and tired of the audio on my cable service cutting out that I am just letting it be silent. Instead, I'm listening to some music on my computer. Rather than boot up my old laptop with who knows how many songs on it, I'm just listening here, via YouTube. So far I've played "Point of Know Return", "Hold Your Head Up", "Time of the Season", "Beginnings (the album version at 7:50)" and who knows what's next. I'd talk about how awesome Terry Kath's guitar and Lee Loughnane's trumpet are on Beginnings, but I don't want to start another "who's the best" thing.
I worked today. Expected it to be quiet except for one client who was scheduled to come in and go over an IRS letter. Instead the phone rang a lot, I had a walk-in client and all of a sudden four hours went by in an instant. Now I have to go in on Monday and call the IRS on behalf of both of today's clients.
I'm trying to take it as easy as possible. I'm still a bit under the weather and getting over these sinus infections (or upper respiratory infection if that's what it is) just doesn't go as easily as it used to.
I'm feeling old right now. All the reminders of the day JFK was killed yesterday (and still going on), reminding me that I have a clear memory of something that happened a half-century ago; and then the fact that I'm so much older than most of my friends.
They've hired a new manager for my office. She's got the right management experience and background, but once again I'm going to have a boss who is in their first year as a tax professional. In fact, she was one of my students for a bit. It will be fine. It will also be interesting.
Tomorrow I'm going to read the paper at breakfast, run out and see a movie, run two errands and then I'm going to take it very easy the rest of the day.
* * *
This current craze of the "knockout game" is disgusting. If it is a real game and not just a bunch of random acts of violence and the ability of the media and internet to work together to make an urban myth into a reality.
Almost every reported incident where the attacker was caught has resulted in denials that the assault was part of an organized "game". But the more we hear about it, and the more that people talk about how frightened they are of becoming the next victim, the more likely it is someone will organize a game and get people to start playing it.
Most trace the origin of this potential myth to an incident in Pittsburgh back in October of 2012. A 50 year old teacher was walking down the street when he passed by a group of teens. A 15 year old suddenly hit him and the teacher fell face first to the sidewalk. The teens just walked away. However, the attack was caught on video and the 15 year old has been charged with assault.
Just a reminder. Be alert when you're out there, anywhere, in public. Keep track of those around you. If someone comes close, be aware.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I hear a lot about the disparity in wealth causing problems in this country (and I don't disagree) but I'm starting to wonder if we aren't also seeing a rising trend of greed. A second incident of people who sold someone a winning lottery ticket and then proceeded to scam the purchaser out of their winnings is being reported.
Is the new Hunger Games film another commentary on the 1% versus the 99%?
Good for the Paul Allen Foundation for donating almost $3 million for research into Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). It's very appropriate as the namesake of the foundation is the owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.
I was channel surfing today and college football was on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and five different sports cable networks, all at the same time. Seems like overkill.
The more I read about the continued improvements in so-called cyber attacks by hackers, particularly targeted at small businesses, the more I'm tempted to limit my web use to fewer and fewer sites. I won't click a link in an email even if I know the sender, unless I can verify what it is they are sending to me first.
The touchdown pass caught by Daniel Rodriguez in today's college game between Clemson and The Citadel was meaningless in the score of the game. Clemson won 52-6 and Rodriguez's touchdown made the score 52-3 at the time. But considering Rodriguez is a 25 year old Army veteran with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, who hadn't played for seven years when he walked on with Clemson in 2012, it's a really great thing.
Allowing use of cellphones on planes is a bad idea, unless the usage is limited to texting and surfing the web. Talking on cellphones in mid-air is just going to piss off those who are trapped next to the talker.
Per capita, Boston has more donut shops than anywhere else in the U.S., and the world's record for eating a jelly-filled donut without using your hands is 33 seconds.
Why in the world is Michael Strahan going to appear on the WWE's Monday Night Raw this coming Monday night?
Considering that the GoldieBlox video "Girls" is designed to sell toys, it is almost certainly a copyright infringement of the music of the Beastie Boys.
That Zumba instructor who was running a prostitution operation out of her fitness studio in a small town in Maine got out of jail early, for good behavior. Wonder if she was given an early release in return for teaching actual Zumba classes while behind bars?
Mel Gibson and Eddie Murphy appear to be the two top procreators among major entertainment industry stars, with 8 kids each. But the late Charlie Chaplin makes them look like pikers, as he fathered 11 children.
I'm not a big fan of the changes to the game of bowling brought about by technological advances, but the PBA's new idea of using blue dye to show how the oiling of the lanes makes it tougher for the professionals to score well is a really good one.
* * *
November 23rd in History:
534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character onstage.
1174 – Saladin enters Damascus, and adds it to his domain.
1248 – Conquest of Seville by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile.
1499 – Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England.
1510 – First campaign of the Ottoman Empire against the Kingdom of Imereti (modern western Georgia). Ottoman armies sack the capital Kutaisi and burn Gelati Monastery.
1531 – The Second war of Kappel results in the dissolution of the Protestant alliance in Switzerland.
1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.
1733 – The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in what was then the Danish West Indies.
1808 – French and Poles defeat the Spanish at battle of Tudela.
1810 – Sarah Booth debuts at the Royal Opera House.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins – Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and counter-attack Confederate troops.
1867 – The Manchester Martyrs are hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.
1876 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Magear Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
1889 – The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
1890 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to succeed him.
1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden.
1914 – Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair.
1918 – Heber J. Grant succeeds Joseph F. Smith as the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1924 – Edwin Hubble's scientific discovery that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula within our galaxy, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe, was first published in a newspaper.
1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
1936 – Life magazine is reborn as a photo magazine and enjoys instant success.
1940 – World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1943 – World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
1943 – World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces.
1946 – French bombing of Hai Phong, Viet Nam, kills thousands of civilians.
1955 – The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia.
1959 – French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals".
1963 – The BBC broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who (starring William Hartnell), which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama.
1971 – Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.
1972 – The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at successfully launching the N-1 rocket.
1974 – 60 Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government.
1976 – Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment.
1979 – In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
1980 – A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 3,000 people.
1981 – Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1985 – Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.
1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1993 – Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.
1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
2001 – The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.
2003 – Rose Revolution: Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
2004 – The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated.
2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country.
2006 – A series of bombings kills at least 215 people and injures 257 others in Sadr City, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.
Famous Folk Born on November 23rd:
Edward Rutledge
Franklin Pierce
Billy the Kid
Henry Bourne Joy
Boris Karloff
Harpo Marx
Donald Nixon
Gloria Whelan
Johnny Mandel
Robert Towne
Steve Landesberg
Luis Tiant
Franco Nero
Susan Anspach
Andrew Goodman
Joe Eszterhaus
James Toback
Tom Joyner
Chuck Schumer
Bruce Hornsby
Dominque Dunne
Snooki
Miley Cyrus
Movie quotes today come from "Sling Blade" (1996) for no reason other than I love that film:
Doyle: Hey is this the kind of retard that drools and rubs shit in his hair and all that, 'cause I'm gonna have a hard time eatin' 'round that kind of thing now. Just like I am with antique furniture and midgets. You know that, I can't so much as drink a damn glass of water around a midget or a piece of antique furniture.
Linda: Doyle, you're awful. You shouldn't be that way.
Doyle: I ain't saying it's right, I'm just telling the damn truth. He'll make me sick. I know it.
#2
Linda Wheatley: Karl, you know what? Melinda here was voted employee of the month at the dollar store last February. Isn't that something?
Karl: Yes ma'am, I reckon.
Melinda: Well, when you like pricing items as much as I do, it's just bound to happen sooner or later, I guess.
#3
Karl: I don't reckon you have to go with women to be a good daddy to a boy. You been real square-dealin' with me. The Bible says two men ought not lay together. But I don't reckon the Good Lord would send anybody like you to Hades. That Frank, he lives inside of his own heart. That's an awful big place to live in. You take good care of that boy.
[walks off]
Vaughan Cunningham: I will. Karl?
#4
Doyle: Believe in the Bible, do ya Karl?
Karl: I don't understand all of it, but I reckon I understand a good deal of it.
Doyle: Well I can't understand none of it. This one begat that one and that one begat this one, and lo and behold someone says some shit to someone else - just how retarded are you?
One reason for this is that the three major sports in the U.S., baseball, basketball and football have been around for a long time. Although the current National Football League was founded in 1920, pro games were being played before that. Players were being paid money to play football as far back as 1892. The National Basketball Association didn't come into being until the late 1940s but there were professional teams playing back in the 1920s. The current National League, the first formally structured major professional baseball league was founded all the way back in 1876. In 1893 the American League was formed and the World Series has been played continuously since 1905.
Sports are all about statistics but as we know, numbers don't always tell the entire story. Search the net for a list of the greatest running backs of all time and you'll get a bunch of lists. But there appears to be a bias toward modern players, no matter who is creating the list. Every single list of the top ten running backs of "all-time" that I looked at had only one name on it for a player born before 1940. That was the great Jim Brown. Most consider him to be the greatest running back of all time. He rushed for more yards in fewer games and seasons than any other player before or since on a per rush basis. But was he? If you look at a list of the top rushing leaders of all-time based on yards per attempt, quarterbacks actually hold the top five spots. Number six is a man named Marion Motley, who only serious football fans know about. He played between 1946 and 1955 and rushed for 5.7 yards per attempt. Jim Brown is a distant 15th on this list with "only" 5.1 yards per carry.
So was Marion Motley better than Jim Brown? By that statistical measure he was, but not in the minds of the masses. When it comes to quarterbacks, they are measured by a rating system. If you look at the top 10 QBs by rating all-time, why is it that seven of the ten are still active players? I'd put it down to inflation of the ratings. Especially since the present rating system has been in use since only 1973. Then again, maybe the fact that some quarterbacks stay around past their prime is relevant. His ratings during his final five seasons definitely lowered his all-time average. Brett Favre sits at #16 on the all-time list at a rating of 86.0. He's tied with a guy named Trent Green whose 11 year career earned him the exact same rating. So are we to conclude they are at the same level of greatness?
Baseball is even more difficult. The same as played in the first part of the 20th Century looks a lot like the same game but it is not. Until 1938, there were no night games. Until 1953 there was only one National League team west of the Mississippi so travel was nowhere near as difficult as it is now. There were fewer games per season.
There were great pitchers in the early decades, but on a whole hitters were better than pitchers back in the day. The career batting average leaders dating back all the way to the founding of the major leagues has only one name in the top 25 who played the game after 1965. Not a whole lot more names who played the game into the 1940s.
The other reason I'm thinking about this is because the world has a new chess champion. Magnus Carlsen just won the title at the tender age of 22. Bobby Fischer was 29 when he won the title back in 1972. Carlsen's "rating" is higher than Fischer's. In fact it's the highest of all time. Is Carlsen better than Fischer was? Hard to say and maybe too soon to say. Back in 1976, noted chess author Irving Chernev wrote down his all-time top ten and Fischer was only 4th, behind Capablanca, Alekhine and Lasker. Names you've never heard of unless you're really into chess.
So what is the point? The point is you can't compare apples and oranges. Ask me who the greatest baseball player of all time was/is and I'll say Babe Ruth. Why? Because he was the greatest pitcher in the game before he quit pitching and became the best hitter in the game; in his era. No other player in history belongs in the Hall of Fame for both his pitching, and his hitting.
But I won't make that subjective judgment about football or basketball. I can make lists of the greatest players, but I have trouble even picking a starting five for the best of all-time in the NBA. Do you put Wilt Chamberlain at center? Bill Russell? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Shaq? What about George Mikan?
It is a great thing to spend time talking about though, especially in a sports bar with good friend.
* * *
I'm so sick and tired of the audio on my cable service cutting out that I am just letting it be silent. Instead, I'm listening to some music on my computer. Rather than boot up my old laptop with who knows how many songs on it, I'm just listening here, via YouTube. So far I've played "Point of Know Return", "Hold Your Head Up", "Time of the Season", "Beginnings (the album version at 7:50)" and who knows what's next. I'd talk about how awesome Terry Kath's guitar and Lee Loughnane's trumpet are on Beginnings, but I don't want to start another "who's the best" thing.
I worked today. Expected it to be quiet except for one client who was scheduled to come in and go over an IRS letter. Instead the phone rang a lot, I had a walk-in client and all of a sudden four hours went by in an instant. Now I have to go in on Monday and call the IRS on behalf of both of today's clients.
I'm trying to take it as easy as possible. I'm still a bit under the weather and getting over these sinus infections (or upper respiratory infection if that's what it is) just doesn't go as easily as it used to.
I'm feeling old right now. All the reminders of the day JFK was killed yesterday (and still going on), reminding me that I have a clear memory of something that happened a half-century ago; and then the fact that I'm so much older than most of my friends.
They've hired a new manager for my office. She's got the right management experience and background, but once again I'm going to have a boss who is in their first year as a tax professional. In fact, she was one of my students for a bit. It will be fine. It will also be interesting.
Tomorrow I'm going to read the paper at breakfast, run out and see a movie, run two errands and then I'm going to take it very easy the rest of the day.
* * *
This current craze of the "knockout game" is disgusting. If it is a real game and not just a bunch of random acts of violence and the ability of the media and internet to work together to make an urban myth into a reality.
Almost every reported incident where the attacker was caught has resulted in denials that the assault was part of an organized "game". But the more we hear about it, and the more that people talk about how frightened they are of becoming the next victim, the more likely it is someone will organize a game and get people to start playing it.
Most trace the origin of this potential myth to an incident in Pittsburgh back in October of 2012. A 50 year old teacher was walking down the street when he passed by a group of teens. A 15 year old suddenly hit him and the teacher fell face first to the sidewalk. The teens just walked away. However, the attack was caught on video and the 15 year old has been charged with assault.
Just a reminder. Be alert when you're out there, anywhere, in public. Keep track of those around you. If someone comes close, be aware.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I hear a lot about the disparity in wealth causing problems in this country (and I don't disagree) but I'm starting to wonder if we aren't also seeing a rising trend of greed. A second incident of people who sold someone a winning lottery ticket and then proceeded to scam the purchaser out of their winnings is being reported.
Is the new Hunger Games film another commentary on the 1% versus the 99%?
Good for the Paul Allen Foundation for donating almost $3 million for research into Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). It's very appropriate as the namesake of the foundation is the owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.
I was channel surfing today and college football was on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and five different sports cable networks, all at the same time. Seems like overkill.
The more I read about the continued improvements in so-called cyber attacks by hackers, particularly targeted at small businesses, the more I'm tempted to limit my web use to fewer and fewer sites. I won't click a link in an email even if I know the sender, unless I can verify what it is they are sending to me first.
The touchdown pass caught by Daniel Rodriguez in today's college game between Clemson and The Citadel was meaningless in the score of the game. Clemson won 52-6 and Rodriguez's touchdown made the score 52-3 at the time. But considering Rodriguez is a 25 year old Army veteran with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, who hadn't played for seven years when he walked on with Clemson in 2012, it's a really great thing.
Allowing use of cellphones on planes is a bad idea, unless the usage is limited to texting and surfing the web. Talking on cellphones in mid-air is just going to piss off those who are trapped next to the talker.
Per capita, Boston has more donut shops than anywhere else in the U.S., and the world's record for eating a jelly-filled donut without using your hands is 33 seconds.
Why in the world is Michael Strahan going to appear on the WWE's Monday Night Raw this coming Monday night?
Considering that the GoldieBlox video "Girls" is designed to sell toys, it is almost certainly a copyright infringement of the music of the Beastie Boys.
That Zumba instructor who was running a prostitution operation out of her fitness studio in a small town in Maine got out of jail early, for good behavior. Wonder if she was given an early release in return for teaching actual Zumba classes while behind bars?
Mel Gibson and Eddie Murphy appear to be the two top procreators among major entertainment industry stars, with 8 kids each. But the late Charlie Chaplin makes them look like pikers, as he fathered 11 children.
I'm not a big fan of the changes to the game of bowling brought about by technological advances, but the PBA's new idea of using blue dye to show how the oiling of the lanes makes it tougher for the professionals to score well is a really good one.
* * *
November 23rd in History:
534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character onstage.
1174 – Saladin enters Damascus, and adds it to his domain.
1248 – Conquest of Seville by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile.
1499 – Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England.
1510 – First campaign of the Ottoman Empire against the Kingdom of Imereti (modern western Georgia). Ottoman armies sack the capital Kutaisi and burn Gelati Monastery.
1531 – The Second war of Kappel results in the dissolution of the Protestant alliance in Switzerland.
1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.
1733 – The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in what was then the Danish West Indies.
1808 – French and Poles defeat the Spanish at battle of Tudela.
1810 – Sarah Booth debuts at the Royal Opera House.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins – Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and counter-attack Confederate troops.
1867 – The Manchester Martyrs are hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.
1876 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Magear Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
1889 – The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
1890 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to succeed him.
1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden.
1914 – Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair.
1918 – Heber J. Grant succeeds Joseph F. Smith as the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1924 – Edwin Hubble's scientific discovery that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula within our galaxy, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe, was first published in a newspaper.
1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
1936 – Life magazine is reborn as a photo magazine and enjoys instant success.
1940 – World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1943 – World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
1943 – World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces.
1946 – French bombing of Hai Phong, Viet Nam, kills thousands of civilians.
1955 – The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia.
1959 – French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals".
1963 – The BBC broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who (starring William Hartnell), which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama.
1971 – Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.
1972 – The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at successfully launching the N-1 rocket.
1974 – 60 Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government.
1976 – Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment.
1979 – In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
1980 – A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 3,000 people.
1981 – Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1985 – Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.
1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1993 – Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.
1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
2001 – The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.
2003 – Rose Revolution: Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
2004 – The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated.
2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country.
2006 – A series of bombings kills at least 215 people and injures 257 others in Sadr City, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.
Famous Folk Born on November 23rd:
Edward Rutledge
Franklin Pierce
Billy the Kid
Henry Bourne Joy
Boris Karloff
Harpo Marx
Donald Nixon
Gloria Whelan
Johnny Mandel
Robert Towne
Steve Landesberg
Luis Tiant
Franco Nero
Susan Anspach
Andrew Goodman
Joe Eszterhaus
James Toback
Tom Joyner
Chuck Schumer
Bruce Hornsby
Dominque Dunne
Snooki
Miley Cyrus
Movie quotes today come from "Sling Blade" (1996) for no reason other than I love that film:
Doyle: Hey is this the kind of retard that drools and rubs shit in his hair and all that, 'cause I'm gonna have a hard time eatin' 'round that kind of thing now. Just like I am with antique furniture and midgets. You know that, I can't so much as drink a damn glass of water around a midget or a piece of antique furniture.
Linda: Doyle, you're awful. You shouldn't be that way.
Doyle: I ain't saying it's right, I'm just telling the damn truth. He'll make me sick. I know it.
#2
Linda Wheatley: Karl, you know what? Melinda here was voted employee of the month at the dollar store last February. Isn't that something?
Karl: Yes ma'am, I reckon.
Melinda: Well, when you like pricing items as much as I do, it's just bound to happen sooner or later, I guess.
#3
Karl: I don't reckon you have to go with women to be a good daddy to a boy. You been real square-dealin' with me. The Bible says two men ought not lay together. But I don't reckon the Good Lord would send anybody like you to Hades. That Frank, he lives inside of his own heart. That's an awful big place to live in. You take good care of that boy.
[walks off]
Vaughan Cunningham: I will. Karl?
#4
Doyle: Believe in the Bible, do ya Karl?
Karl: I don't understand all of it, but I reckon I understand a good deal of it.
Doyle: Well I can't understand none of it. This one begat that one and that one begat this one, and lo and behold someone says some shit to someone else - just how retarded are you?
posted by me at 7:29 AM
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