Here’s Jason Whitlock’s latest asinine column on Fox Sports.com, which actually began well with a theme about how different athletes write the final chapters of their careers, or have them written for them…
And here’s my review of said column on Twitter…
1. It is BANGladesh, after all. Bangladeshi national’s plot to detonate the Federal Reserve in New York City blows up in his own face when the FBI foils his plot. Ben Affleck has already purchased the film rights.
2. Is O.J. Simpson really attempting to sell the knife that did the deed?
3. Newsweek announces that it is going all-digital beginning in 2013. While that may not be the very first domino to fall, the quote from “Ghostbusters” “Print is dead” is now true.
4. The woman who A-Hole targeted at Game 1 of the ALCS was identified as a 33 year-old Aussie by the New York Post yesterday (we will give her privacy here in terms of name identifcation, although it’s pretty much public domain by now). This morning she tweeted, “Ha, I’m 27 not 33.”
5. The Cardinals defeat the Giants, 3-1, to take a 2-1 series lead in St. Louis. The Freak, Tim Lincecum, gets the start for San Francisco in Game 5.
“Oooh, ooh, Love hurts…”
A request: If you’re tweeting score updates of NBA exhibition contests, please stop.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the SI cover story about Tyrann Mathieu that many of us who don’t live in a parish may not have known — his biological father’s troubled past, for example. But this is the paragraph we found most curious:
Mathieu is also featured on a flyer for a Jan. 14, 2012, party at Club H2O in New Orleans. The flyers and videos may be a violation of NCAA rule 12.5.2.1, which says that anyone who “accepts any remuneration or permits the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind” is ineligible. A veteran compliance officer with no direct knowledge of Mathieu’s case says that any penalties would depend on how commercial the videos were, whether Mathieu knew what they were being used for and if he received any illicit benefits, which would violate a separate NCAA rule. “If this guy is in the video in an attempt to draw people to the place,” says the officer, “that’s not permissible.” LSU says the school, including coach Les Miles, is unaware of players using their images to promote events or receiving extra benefits.
There is, to us, something slightly unseemly about casting about for a way to link a player to this infraction while featuring a picture of him on the cover of your own nationally sold commercial product against his wishes, no? The Mathieu family are fighting back…
So there was like this huge art heist in Rotterdam (yes, it is obligatory to use the word “heist” when it comes to thievery of paintings) in which works by Picasso, Monet and Matisse were stolen. But it turns out police do have a suspect…
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby: “We are very close to getting this (playoff) really right.” Ah, HA HA HA HA HA. Lo, what fools these mortals be…
“So the Dodgers brought in Debbie Gibson, now if only they had Kirk Gibson.”
So said Bob Costas after pop-star Debbie Gibson sang the National Anthem before game one of the World Series in 1988. The injured Gibson, of course, came off the bench to pinch hit in the bottom of the 9th and hit one of the most dramatic home runs in baseball history. (And Jose Canseco wants me to remind you that he hit a Grand Slam in his first World Series at bat earlier in the game.)
A year later on October 15, another Los Angeles athlete made history, when Wayne Gretzky, now with the L.A. Kings was in Edmonton to play the Oilers. With the Kings down a goal late in the third period and their goalie pulled, the great one scored a goal to surpass Gordie Howe as the NHL’s all-time leading point scorer. Gretzky, as he was wont to do, then scored the game winner in overtime after a lengthy celebration of his milestone. Almost unimaginably, Gretzky was only 28 years old at the time.
Just two years before Gibson’s dramatics the New York Mets beat the Houston Astros 7-6 in 16 innings in one of the best League Championship Series games ever played.
It was today in 1764 that English writer Edward Gibbon saw a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome and it inspired him to write, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
Proving how far the American Empire had come, it was today in 1951 that CBS debuted the “I Love Lucy” show.
In what might have been an episode of, “I Love Lucy,” it was today in 1917 that Mata Hari, the Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan, was executed by a French firing squad outside of Paris after being found guilty of spying for Germany in World War I. She was 41 years old.
It was today in 1999 that 20th Century Fox released, “Fight Club.” I’d tell you more about it, but, well….
Today in 1996 saw the last gasp of one of the great “alternative” bands of the 1990’s. The Lemonheads dropped, “Car Button Cloth,” before disappearing for years. The album was the third straight excellent outing for Evan Dando since he’d signed with a major label, but he never got the fame predicted for him when they first broke. Listen to this song to get a sense of how good Dando was, and listen to this one to hear how damn funny he could be. (My favorite Lemonheads verse starts at 1:50)
The Refreshments were far too good of a band to just go away after their two albums in the 90’s and thank god for us they didn’t. Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers bowed today in 1999 with, “Honky Tonk Union.” HTU has a lot of great songs, but my favorites are, “Beautiful Disaster,” which sounds like if a Bruce Springsteen song had a baby with a Tom Petty song, the title track, and this one, one of the better ballads of the last 20 years.
Roger Clyne and his band of Peacemakers started today in 1999
Happy birthday to the sixth and last of Charlie’s Angels, Tanya Roberts, who replaced Shelley Hack in the fifth and final season of the show.
“What do you mean, why wouldn’t a private eye be wearing this top?”
— Bill Hubbell
“Live from New York…. it’s Saturday Night!”…. words first uttered… um, well, I have no idea when. “NBC’s Saturday Night” debuted tonight in 1975. It wouldn’t be called “Saturday Night Live” until 1977. Why? Because none other than Howard Cosell had the rights to that name in 1975. George Carlin hosted the first edition and opened with his monologue comparing baseball and football. The musical guest was Janis Ian and she sang her horribly depressing, “At Seventeen.”
Not so depressing were the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, the zany band that was the first cast of SNL. Led by Dan Akroyd, John Belushi and Chevy Chase, the show was like nothing anyone had ever seen before on television and it was an instant hit. Chevy Chase left after one year and was replaced by Bill Murray. Sort of like pinch-hitting for Alex Rodriguez.
Best musical performance ever on SNL? Obviously up for debate, but I’ll go with this one.
Best Male Performer: Will Ferrell Best Female: Kristen Wiig
Michelle Wie turns 23 today, wasn’t she supposed to be a thing by now?
Today in 1984 Mario Lemieux made his NHL debut. First goal came on his first shot during his first shift. That’s pretty much how it went for Super Mario.
— Bill Hubbell
“Bond. James Bond.”
“Let my people go!”
“That’s right. I’m just CRAZY about Tiffany’s!”
“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road. Fuckin’ hell kind of era is that?”
“To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf.”
“It’s such a nice sounding word for what it means: a fortunate accident.”
October 5 has been a big day for movie releases over the years: 1956 brought us Cecil B. DeMille’s last movie and his crowning achievement, “The Ten Commandments.” DeMille is the narrator of the story of the book of Exodus. If you haven’t read it, the good guys win in the end.
Four years later brought us “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and the adventures of NYC socialite Holly Golightly, played by the legendary Audrey Hepburn.
James Bond movies turn 50 years old today, as “Dr. No” came out today in 1962. Who’d have thought there would be 22 sequels? (To date)
Not much to say about this 1979 release, so just look at the picture.
2001 brought us two great movies on October 5th and they couldn’t have been more different:
The crown jewel of REM’s album catalogue came out today in 1992 (argue amongst yourselves, but I’m not alone, both Peter Buck and Mike Mills agree.) “Automatic For The People” If “Everybody Hurts” is arguably the sixth best song on the album, you’ve pretty much hit it out of the park. My rankings would go: 1. Nightswimming 2. Find the River 3. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight 4. Man on the Moon 5. Try Not to Breathe 6. Everybody Hurts 7. Sweetness Follows 8. Drive
A distant second for best album ever released on October 6 would go to this one:
It was among the first rock ‘n roll albums around in the Hubbell house and I still no every word from side one by heart.
“Cats In the Cradle” and “Magic Carpet Ride” were released as singles today in 1975 and 1968. The debut song from John, Paul, George and Ringo came out today in 1962.
They did well, but not quite as well as guys who were born and died today: Ray Kroc was born today in 1902 and Steve Jobs died in 2011.
— Bill Hubbell