“The pain, the outrage, the loss – these never fade. The amount of journalism, however, must.” So wrote Margaret Sullivan this morning as the Public Editor of the New York Times. Sullivan is right, of course, how can she not be? Remember the 2,977 victims. If you’re old enough, you remember where you were and how you felt. We honor the victims by occasionally remembering what it means to be alive and to act accordingly.
Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island on September 11, 1609, and the native people living there. While Hudson was the first to map the island, Andre Agassi was the first to conquer the island as an unseeded player, winning the 1994 U.S. Open final on this day over Michael Stich in straight sets. It was a strange tournament that saw 13 of the 16 seeded men gone by the fourth round. It capped the first of quite a few “comebacks” in Agassi’s colorful career. The middle picture below is Andre circa 1994.
Savannah State (I mean Canada) declared war on Germany on this day in 1939. Canada was also unseeded in the World War, but came out on the winning side.
Pete Rose slapped a single to left center field today in 1985. It was the 4,192nd hit of Rose’s career, passing Ty Cobb on the all-time hits list.
Speaking of Savannah State, the Florida Marlins lost their 100th game on this day in 1998. Savannah State, however, didn’t win the national championship the year before. The Marlins, or what was left of them, became the first team to say, “we can’t afford to to try to win again,” and completely dismantled the 1997 World Series champs.
Birthday wishes go out to many today, including football coaching legends Bear Bryant and Tom Landry, as well as Brian De Palma and Harry Connick Jr. However, we’ll give the birthday picture to our first legitimate crush, who turns 50 today. By legitimate crush, I mean that in my 14-year old brain she and I were a legitimate possibility. There had been crushes before, but the Farrah’s, Cheryl Ladd’s and Olivia Newton-John’s were too old and wise for me. This crush, at least I thought, needed only a couple of dominoes to fall to actually happen.
She was the “it” girl in the spring of 1980 and it seemed on the cusp of huge stardom. Alas, she got tagged as a “troubled actress” soon after and her career and my crush were derailed. A decade later she was diagnosed as bipolar, and earlier this year she came out as a lesbian. Oh well, I’d still fight Canada.
– Bill Hubbell