Tom McMahon

A Quiz To See If You've Been Paying Attention

1. In what city was Teddy Roosevelt shot in 1912? answer
2. Who brought chewing gum to America? answer
3. What was Harold Stassen known for? answer
4. Who killed Trotsky? answer
5. Where was Ronald Reagan born? answer
6. Which President wrote a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem? answer
7. What was the fastest-selling record album ever? answer
8. Who were the last consecutive two-term Presidents? answer
9. Who was on the first color cover of Time magazine? answer
10. What Illinois politician died with $800,000 in his shoebox? answer
11. Who was the first black sports writer? answer
12. Who was the first black actor to become a millionaire? answer
13. What's the name of the northern Wisconsin lodge made famous by John Dillinger in the 1930s? answer
14. What Sheboygan all-girl group sang Mr. Sandman? answer
15. What Wisconsin city built 54 submarines during World War II? answer
16. Name the 5 Sausages who race at Miller Park? answer
17. What Left-Wing terrorist has been on the run for 37 years? answer
18. Who played Lurch on the original Addams Family? answer
19. What is a Fair Catch Kick? answer
20. Who was the first black player on the last major league baseball team to be integrated? answer
21. Who managed the same Major League Baseball team for 50 years? answer
22. Who held the all-time home run record before Babe Ruth? answer
23. Who was the only President to know Superman's secret identity? answer
24. Who sang the 1970 hit song Mill Valley? answer
25. Who did Aunt Bee the juror save from a wrongful conviction? answer

Arthur Mole's Living Portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, Made With 21,000 Troops In 1918

Arthur Mole's Living Portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, Made With 21,000 Troops In 1918

An excerpt from Louis Kaplan:

Almost a century ago and without the aid of any pixel-generating computer software, the itinerant photographer Arthur Mole (1889-1983) used his 11 x 14-inch view camera to stage a series of extraordinary mass photographic spectacles that choreographed living bodies into symbolic formations of religious and national community. In these mass ornaments, thousands of military troops and other groups were arranged artfully to form American patriotic symbols, emblems, and military insignia visible from a bird’s eye perspective. During World War I, these military formations came to serve as rallying points to support American involvement in the war and to ward off isolationist tendencies.

Close-Up Of Arthur Mole's Living Portrait of President Woodrow Wilson

More of Mole's amazing work here and here.

Russell W. Porter: Artic Explorer, Cutaway Artist, And Builder of the 200-Inch Palomar Telescope

Russell W. Porter (1871-1949) is one of those really interesting guys that few people have ever heard of. He first got interested in the Artic in 1892:

Porter caught what he would call Arctic fever when, in 1892, he attended a lecture by Robert Peary, who described his latest explorations in northern Greenland, which he had proved to be an island. The next year, the scientist Frederick Cook came to Boston to advertise a summer cruise up the coast of Greenland. Porter negotiated passage on Cook's voyage by offering to serve as surveyor and artist.

This would be the first of Porter's eight northern adventures over the next 15 years. The first ended above the Arctic Circle, when the small steamship was first damaged on a reef and then collided with an iceberg. The crew was rescued by Eskimos and returned to Boston by fishing boat.

Eskimo Boy, Umanak, Greenland, 1896, Watercolor

Porter's turn-of-the-century Artic sketches are fascinating. After his Artic fever had cooled, Porter became the "Father of Amateur Telescope Making":

It all began on August 17, 1920 when fifteen men and one woman signed up to learn how to grind their own mirrors and make powerful reflecting telescopes. Most of the men were machinists, tool makers or pattern makers at the Jones and Lamson Machine Company in Springfield. The lone woman was a school teacher.

Their instructor, Russell W. Porter, was well prepared to guide them through the demanding though rewarding steps which required them to work to accuracies one-thousandth as large as they were used to in their daily precision machine work. Porter had spent years on the Maine coast teaching himself the art and science of building telescopes. This practically nonexistent hobby he took up to satisfy a drive which had slowly grown during his eleven years as an arctic explorer with Perry, Cook, Fiala and others. That drive was to learn more about astronomy.

Today the Springfield Telescope Makers are still going strong at their world-famous Stellafane Observatory.  And Porter went on to play a pivotal role in the construction of the 200-inch reflector telescope at Mt. Palomar:

Porter Cutaway Drawing of Mt. Palomar

Just how good were Porter's drawings?

Famed artist Maxfield Parrish was quoted as saying the following about Porter's drawings: "If these drawings had been made from the telescope and its machinery after it had been erected they would have been of exceptional excellence, giving an uncanny sense of reality, with shadows accurately cast and well nigh perfect perspective; but to think that any artist had his pictorial imagination in such working order as to construct these pictures with no other mechanical data than blue prints of plans and elevation of the various intricate forms is simply beyond belief."

I've known about Russell Porter ever since I was a kid. And now you do too!

A Green Irish Santa Holds The Little Baby Jesus For Mary And Joseph

A Green Irish Santa Holds The Little Baby Jesus For Mary And Joseph

While the purist would find this wrong on soooo many levels, your average American seems to love this veritable slurry of mixed metaphors: this little gift item is completely sold out. This is undoubtedly the most jaw-dropping Christmas item I've seen all season.

Why America Is The Greatest Country On Earth

Why America Is The Greatest Country On Earth

Only in America would a man feel free to think the thought: New Flavor: Same Big Bold Taste! Only in America would a man feel free to speak this thought out loud, at work, in front of his boss. Only in America would his Boss think it's a Great Idea, and print it out on thousands and thousands of bottles. And see that little dot right by the exclamation mark? Yes, only in America would we be confident enough, nay proud enough (and being a product of Kraft, lawsuit-wary enough) to make New Flavor: Same Big Bold Taste! a Registered Trademark. Until the Chinese get the knack for this, they'll always be second rate.

Plumbing By Al-Jazeera

Plumbing By Al-Jazeera

This is one of the pipes in our new UltraGlobalMegaCorp parking structure that opened this spring. Evidently Al-Jazeera Tube Mills is not connected with the Al-Jazeera TV network we've come to love from watching all those hostage beheadings and such. Business can be such an adventure when you specify the low bidder!

President John F. Kennedy With Hitler Bunker Pilot Hanna Reitsch

President John F. Kennedy With Hitler Bunker Pilot Hanna Reitsch

This one's really, really strange. Hanna Reitsch was a German test pilot who at one point in her career, flew a normally-unmanned V-1 rocket to work out some of the bugs the Nazi's were having with the danged things. She also championed the possibility of adapting the V-1, which was designed to be a pilotless robotic bomb, to a kamikaze vehicle. But she's best known for the bizarre trip she made with General Robert von Greim to Hitler's Bunker in the very final days of the war in Europe. An excerpt from WWII History Magazine:

Greim steered the little spotter plane at treetop level across the outskirts of the capital in order to avoid Soviet fighters. Looking down, he and Hanna saw a hellish landscape of fire, smoke, and street fighting. “From the ground, out of the shadows, from the treetops themselves, leapt the very fires of Hell,” Hanna reported. “Below, Russian tanks and soldiers were swarming among the trees.” Dogfights raged above the Storch as it droned steadily onward.

The plane was rocked by Soviet antiaircraft bursts as it flew eastward over the Tiergarten toward the Brandenburg Gate and the Chancellery. An armor-piercing shell crashed into the underside of the Storch, and a gaping hole appeared in the cockpit flooring. Greim slumped over with his right foot shattered. As the plane began to dive out of control, Hanna reached over and grabbed the stick. She managed to right the craft as it was showered with shell splinters. Then she calmly steered downward to a safe landing, as planned, on the broad Charlottenburger Chaussee near the Brandenburg Gate. She flagged down a passing German staff car, and the pair rode to the Chancellery.

They both got out of the bunker on April 29, 1945, just one day before Hitler's suicide. According to Wikipedia, she died in 1979, but not before visiting JFK as his guest in the White House in 1961. I'm not sure which one of those ladies is supposed to be her in the photograph above. It would be interesting to learn more about that visit and what it was all about. Like I said, this one's really, really strange.

The Discipline of Kindness

Nathaniel Branden in his Self-Esteem Every Day:

Many years ago, early in our relationship, my wife, Devers, said something that impressed me profoundly. "You are very kind, generous, and caring -- when you stop long enough in what you are doing for it to occur to you. What you have never learned is the discipline of kindness. This means kindness that is not a matter of mood or convenience. It means kindness as a basic way of functioning. It is in you as a potential, but it doesn't happen without consciousness and discipline."  "The discipline of kindness" -- I have learned to love that phrase. When I mention it in lectures, everyone seems instantly to know what it means -- just as, I suspect, you do now.

The One Stop Site to Find Your Combination Chinese and Western Astrology Signs

At Suzanne White's Horoscopes. I'm an Aquarius Snake. But for all these years I thought I was a Horse, since every placemat at every Chinese restaurant told me so. So I feel Sheepish now! I guess it does pay to go to a professional. Now, if I could only find out whether it matters that I'm on the cusp of being a Capricorn. Hey, maybe I'm a CASH: Capricorn Aquarius Snake Horse. And they said I'd never amount to anything . . .

The Infamous Interleaf Dear Bill Letter

The Infamous Interleaf Dear Bill Letter

At one time Interleaf, Inc. was the biggest deal in high-end desktop publishing software back when high-end desktop publishing software was a really big deal. Back then I was a Publications Manager and I was considering the purchase of a rather pricey content management system from Interleaf. This is the actual header of an actual proposal letter I actually received from Interleaf which marked the end of my consideration of their system. A True Classic.

Fair Catch Kick

A little-known football rule, just like the drop kick. Here's the short explanation:

You call for a fair catch. Rather than run a play, you may choose to execute a free kick from the line of scrimmage established by the fair catch. And by free kick, we mean a kickoff-type kick in which the defense is not on the line of scrimmage.

The free kick after a fair catch has to be either a placekick (without a tee) or a drop kick (there's that drop kick again). Wikipedia has the details:

A team can only make a fair catch kick immediately after making a successful fair catch. If time expires while the ball is in play before a fair catch is made, the receiving team may extend the period with a fair catch kick.

When a team wants to make a fair catch kick, the ball is placed at the yard line where the fair catch was made. Both teams line up as if it were a normal kickoff, with the defense lined up 10 yards away from the ball. The ball must be put in play by placekick or dropkick, punting is not allowed as in a safety kick. Like the safety kick, the kicker cannot use a tee. But if he kicks the ball between the uprights of the goal posts, he scores a field goal.

As it turns out, I saw the last successful NFL fair catch kick on TV in a game between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers in 1968. So when would you use it?:

Team A has a one-point lead and possession of the ball at their own one-yard line. There are three seconds left in the game, but it’s fourth down and Team A is going to punt, fearing that a kneel-down will leave a second left on the clock and a ‘run-around-until-the-clock-runs-out’ strategy exposes the risk of a sack in the end zone.

Now, since the clock starts on the snap on a punt, the act of kicking the ball away is likely to take up the remainder of the game time. The receiving team, Team B, would be forced to run the punt back for a touchdown in order to avoid defeat, right?

Well, maybe not. Let’s say the punt comes down at the 40-yard line. If the return man executes a fair catch, Team B could elect to use the fair catch kick option. League rules specifically state that the receiving team can still try a kick after time expires, but they cannot run a play from scrimmage. And here’s the beauty of it: Team B can choose to kick from a kickoff formation, without a defense challenging them at the line of scrimmage. In addition, the kick would be from the spot the ball was caught, not from seven or eight yards back after the snap. So, if the return man caught the ball at the 40, we’re talking about a 50-yard field goal, without any potential blockers in the way.

So now you know. Coming this summer: The Infield Fly Rule.

Best Of TM: Humor

• The Ten Magic Phrases of Journalism
• Rules For Cops
• Funny And Strange Baseball Cards
• The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
• Metrano’s Accidental Comedy

And much more for your browsing pleasure at http://www.tommcmahon.net/humor/

Best Of TM: History

• The Great Chicago Fire
• Lucky Strike Green Has Gone To War
• The BBC World War Two Website
• How to Use the Dial Phone
• Wochenschau-Archive
• The Four Chaplains
• Zarah Leander

And more at http://www.tommcmahon.net/history/index.html

Best Of TM: Paper Models

Some ideas to keep the kids busy over the Christmas vacation:

• Cassini-Huygens Paper Model
• Adolf Hitler Folding Puzzle
• The Entire World Trade Center Complex
• Montgolfier Balloon Paper Model
• Grumpy Goat Paper Animation Kit
• Ancient Chinese Official Paper Model
• Edmund Fitzgerald Paper Model
• A Paper Neuschwanstein Castle
• MiG-15 Flying Paper Airplane Model

Best of TM: Games

• Animated Checkers Problems
• Nine Men's Morris
• Pillars of Plato
• Luffarschack
• The Telescope Game

And many more games at http://www.tommcmahon.net/games/

Sixty Years Ago: A Toast To The World By Ronald Colman

I propose a toast to the world. A world which has just survived the bloodiest and costliest of all human conflicts. A world which was so nearly led back to the Dark Ages of oppression and slavery by cruel and greedy men who traded in Hate. It seems impossible that there could be any more suffering than Mankind has just endured. But it is possible and it will happen if we lose sight of the lessons so bitterly learned. Let us remember that Men everywhere are our neighbors and their right to Life and Freedom is as precious to them as ours is to us. So here's a toast to all the people in the World: May we, by working together for a lofty purpose and with God's Help, achieve The Goal that Mankind for twenty centuries has striven for: "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men".

Ronald Colman, December 23, 1945, on The Jack Benny Show

As eloquent and elegant as it was when first spoken 60 years ago today.

1934 Jamestown Red Sox Autographed Jersey

1934 Jamestown Red Sox Autographed Jersey

From Pitchblackbaseball.com:

This uniform is an exact reproduction of the jersey worn by the integrated '34 Jamestown semipro team. In the 1930s many towns in North Dakota hired Negro Leaguers who were quick to jump for more pay during the depression. One of the greatest of these teams was the '34 Jamestown team featuring the "colored quartet" of Double Duty Radcliffe, Bill Perkins, Barney Brown and Steel Arm Davis. Radcliffe, as pitcher, catcher and manager, led the Red Sox to a record of 38-15 and bragging rights as the top team in North Dakota. Double Duty batted .355 and had a record of 17 wins, 3 saves and 3 losses. Brown had a record of 14-6, Davis belted 18 homers in 188 at bats, and Perkins batted .422 with 16 homers. ...

After the regular season, the Red Sox faced the Earl Mack Major League All-Stars featuring Jimmie Foxx, Heinie Manush, Pinky Higgins, Doc Cramer, Ted Lyons and Earl Whitehill. Jamestown won 3 straight games.

The State of North Dakota at the forefront of integrating Our National Pasttime. You learn something new every day, eh?

Big Hitter, The Dalai Lama

From a terrific ESPN feature on the movie Caddyshack:

In Reel Life: Carl tells a caddie that he once carried clubs for the Dalai Lama in Tibet. "So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddie, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself ... So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one -- big hitter, the Lama -- long, into a 10,000 foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? 'Gunga galunga, gunga -- gunga galunga.'"

In Real Life: The Dalai Lama's not a golfer. But when the Tibetan leader visited the United States last year, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura asked him if he'd ever seen "Caddyshack." He told Ventura he hadn't seen the movie. But, Ventura said, "Before he [the Dalai Lama] left, he looked at me and said, 'Gunga, gunga la-gunga'."

Paul Powell: The Illinois Democrat Who Died With $800,000 In His Shoebox

Paul Powell: The Illinois Democrat Who Died With $800,000 In His Shoebox

OK, OK, there was really more than just one shoebox. I'll let Seth explain:

Paul Powell was born in Vienna, Illinois on January 21, 1902. He was a big wheel in the Illinois Democratic Party since WWII. Eventually, he became Illinois Secretary of State during the same year I was born, 1965. In 1966, his office was investigated for corruption; he was exonerated, but his chief investigator was indicted for theft of state funds. He was still in office when he died in Rochester, Minnesota on October 10, 1970. Shortly thereafter, a shoebox full of money was found in his room at the St. Nicholas Hotel here in Springfield—the infamous cache.

The famous Paul Powell shoebox was actually more than one box, and not all were shoeboxes. There were also metal boxes, briefcases, and envelopes. This treasure trove—roughly $800,000 in cash—was discovered two days after he died, when Powell's staff and his estate executor gathered his belongings from the hotel room and storage area. The other, less famous findings included 49 cases of whiskey, 14 transistor radios, and two cases of creamed corn. This guy was prepared; for what, I don't know.

Outrage? Hardly. An excerpt from The Southern Illinoisan:

"We just assume politics is corrupt and a little bit of corruption is the cost of doing business," said Kent Redfield, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield. That was certainly the attitude toward former Secretary of State Paul Powell, owner of the mysterious cash-stuffed shoeboxes.

"Paul did a lot of good things for southern Illinois, including helping to build the university I work at," said Mike Lawrence, the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

So when those shoeboxes were found in Powell's home when he died in 1970, it raised some eyebrows but not much ire. "People were surprised about the amount of money," Lawrence said of the cache that neither Powell nor anyone else ever explained. "But there was sort of a sense if he gave us our share, what's wrong with him getting his share."

Paul Powell of Illinois: A Lifelong Democrat

Robert E. Hartley has written a book on this caricature of Illinois politics, published by the Southern Illinois University Press:

Powell never earned a state salary of more than $30,000 per year, yet in the last year of his life, his federal income tax return showed an income of more than $200,000. At his death his estate totaled $3.2 million, and, when settled in 1978, was worth $4.6 million, including nearly $1 million in racetrack stock.

My hometown of Belvidere, Illinois was heavily Republican (the newspaper was named the Belvidere Daily Republican) yet a number of folks would vote every election for Paul Powell for Illinois Secretary of State. They knew he was corrupt and wanted him in office when he was finally found out (obviously, he never was). I got my first drivers license in 1970 and I still remember my father making out the check to . . . well, let me make this a quiz:

• Illinois Drivers License Bureau
• Illinois Secretary of State's Office
• Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell
• Paul Powell

That's right: "Paul Powell". Now are you surprised he ended up with $800,000 in those shoeboxes?

My Other 2005 Christmas Card

My Other 2005 Christmas Card

I'll send this one to my aunts and uncles.

But It's Alright: The Late MTV VJ J.J. Jackson Was NOT J.J. Jackson The Singer

Left: The Late MTV VJ J.J. Jackson
Right: J.J. Jackson The Singer

Mick Jagger got them confused too. By all accounts JJ The VJ was a nice guy. Some background about him from About.com:

J.J. Jackson had a successful career as a DJ long before his days with MTV. From 1968 - 1970, he was one of the seminal on-air personally for the legendary Boston radio, WBCN. During that time he emceed for rock legends, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and The Who (who personally requested Jackson.) He moved on to work with Los Angeles radio station KLOS in 1971 and stayed there until 1979, when he became the original "Rock Reporter" for the LA television station KABC television, Channel 7 Eyewitness News. It was here he did "first ever" television news profiles on artists like Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and Aerosmith. Moving once more before his MTV career to work with Los Angeles radio station "KWEST" - KWST, he became one of the first DJs to interview and support U2, Pat Benatar, The Pretenders. When J.J. stepped into the camera's view in 1981 to join MTV, there was no mistaking he commanded respect for his experience, amazing knowledge and his support for fledgling bands.

The best synopsis of JJ The Singer is the one I found on dustbury.com:

Two notes, then four and then two notes, then four and then — but then you know this one already, with an opening riff "strong enough," said rock writer Don Waller, "to levitate a bloc of communists." Exactly how and when Jerome Louis Jackson became "J. J." is unclear, but he started recording around 1961, and wound up at the New York independent label Calla in the middle Sixties. "But It's Alright", which Jackson cowrote with Pierre Tubbs, rocks amazingly hard without ever losing its soul credentials; the horn section plays off that murderous guitar riff with style, and how Jackson got so much gravel in his voice at the tender age of twenty-five is a mystery to us all. What's more, "But It's Alright" was a British recording, which makes its soulfulness even more remarkable; guitarist Terry Smith and tenor saxman Dick Morrissey eventually formed a jazz-rock group called If. J. J. charted with two more singles for Calla over the next year: "I Dig Girls", which made it onto his one and only LP (Calla 1101, 1967), and "Four Walls", which didn't. "Come See Me (I'm Your Man)", another album track, apparently dates from an earlier time; the Pretty Things had cut a version for the A-side of their sixth British single. Warner Bros. eventually bought control of the Jackson catalogue, and reissued "But It's Alright" in the spring of '69 (WB 7276), which climbed to #45 the second time around. By this time, Jackson had relocated to England, where he still performs today, and no, he did not take a few years off to come play VJ for the nascent MTV; that was some other J. J. (not even J. L.) Jackson.

And yes, you can get his CD on Amazon:

JJ Jackson: But It's Alright

A 30-Year Radio Era Ends, A 30-Year Television Era Begins

On September 30, 1962, the Golden Age Of Radio that started in 1932 came to an end with the final broadcasts of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. The next day, October 1, 1962, Groucho Marx introduced Johnny Carson to the nation's late-night television audience as the new host of The Tonight Show, beginning his 30-year run. Amazing how one day could span 60 years, eh?

Junior The Outlaw Raindrop

Junior The Outlaw Raindrop

How did Junior go from such a cute kid to a cruel, heartless gangster? Poor Watershed Management. When will they ever learn? (via Bibi's Box )

The Discipline of Kindness

Nathaniel Branden in his Self-Esteem Every Day:

Many years ago, early in our relationship, my wife, Devers, said something that impressed me profoundly. "You are very kind, generous, and caring -- when you stop long enough in what you are doing for it to occur to you. What you have never learned is the discipline of kindness. This means kindness that is not a matter of mood or convenience. It means kindness as a basic way of functioning. It is in you as a potential, but it doesn't happen without consciousness and discipline."  "The discipline of kindness" -- I have learned to love that phrase. When I mention it in lectures, everyone seems instantly to know what it means -- just as, I suspect, you do now.

The Bat Masterson Hot Dog Recipe

The Bat Masterson Hot Dog Recipe

From Extremely Old Recipes:

Out of the old west comes this recipe, from a stubby gunfighter named Bat Masterson, who was a close friend of Wyatt Earp during the heyday of Dodge City, KS.  Later on, he moved to New York City and became, of all things, a sports writer.  This recipe was one he invented that became popular all over cowboy towns of the western expansion.

Prairie Dog

Take a wiener and split it lengthwise. Rub the insides of the wiener with ground sage, and broil until done. On one side of a bun, spread mustard and cover with thinly sliced dill pickle. On the other, sprinkle with Worcestershire. "It makes the usual catsup and mustard wiener sandwich taste very poor in comparison"

Ryne Duren

Ryne Duren

John Collins tells the story of one of the most interesting characters in baseball:

Ryne was the coke-bottle-glasses wearing reliever who is best remembered for his time with the Yankees, from 1958 - 1961. Made fun of because of his glasses, and supposed lousy vision, Duren used this to his advantage during warmups when he would uncork a 95 mph fastball over the catchers head and into the screen, making a frightful loud noise and giving the batters the impression that he had no idea where the ball was going. He was the best reliever in baseball for a couple of years (saved 20 games in '58 -- a lot for back then), but then it all fell apart, and he was then traded around the majors. His lifetime record is 27 wins, 44 losses, and 57 saves. He did strike out 630 men in 589 innings though, and was known for being one of the fastest pitchers in the game. For much of his career, Ryne was a serious alcoholic, but he eventually went to therapy and recovered and is now a substance abuse counsellor. Ryne was the namesake of future hall of famer Ryne Sandberg, and shares my birthday of February 22. An interesting character and a great guy, with no chance of ever making the real hall.

Ryne is just one of the members of The Baseball Hall of Mediocrity, chock full of interesting characters.

World Premiere: President Gerald Ford On The April 1942 Cover Of Cosmopolitan

World Premiere:
President Gerald Ford On The April 1942 Cover Of Cosmopolitan

OK, "World Premiere" is a bit overblown for a 63-year-old magazine cover. But this is the first time it's been on the internet. I've been looking all over the internet for this graphic and couldn't find anything that showed Gerald Ford's work as a male model in his younger days. So I wrote to the Gerald R. Ford Library, and Archives Technician Brooke L. Clement was kind enough to respond very promptly:

According to Carole Conover, in her book Cover Girls, President Ford also posed with Ms. Brown for a Cosmopolitan cover, issued in April 1942.  I am attaching a photo of this cover (we do not have the cover at either the Gerald R. Ford Library or the Gerald R. Ford Museum).  However, we at the Library cannot confirm or deny that it is President Ford in that cover.

Just between us, let's say that it is future President Ford in that cover illustration, OK?  Many thanks to Brooke and the entire Gerald R. Ford Library for their help uncovering this artifact!

Oh by the way, you might enjoy this story from a couple of years ago as well.

After 800 People Died on The SS Eastland, They Just Re-Painted It And Renamed It The USS Wilmette

After 800 People Died on The SS Eastland, They Just Re-Painted It And Renamed It The USS Wilmette

Over 800 passengers perished on the Eastland on July 24, 1915 in Chicago, when it capsized along the pier. The reborn ship (OK, OK, they did a little bit more than just re-paint it), chistened the USS Wilmette, became a Navy training ship. At one point the USS Wilmette took FDR on a cruise to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan before being scrapped in 1947.

Introducing McMahon's Law

Here, for the first time anywhere, I present to you McMahon's Law:

Whenever a blogger posts at length about a hateful e-mail he has received instead of responding to the legitimate arguments advanced by the other side, that blogger has lost the debate.

Here's a generalized example of how I have seen this played out over and over on the web:

1. The Blogger asserts His Viewpoint on The Issue of the Day.
2. The Opposition responds, and the usual back-and-forth ensues for a couple of rounds.
3. The Blogger is unable to respond to the strongest points made by The Opposition, and is starting to lose the debate.
4. It will be at this point that The Blogger will reveal in a very lengthy post that he has received hateful e-mails from members of The Opposition. Generally, these hateful e-mails will disparage The Blogger's puppy, sick child, or dead beloved parent/grandparent.
5. Immediately The Supporters of The Blogger will flood the post with comments about what a Wonderful Person The Blogger is, and how Evil the members of The Opposition are.
6. The Blogger will then respond in kind, telling The Supporters what Wonderful People they are, and then revealing some heretofore unmentioned Wonderful Quality about the Puppy, Sick Child, or Dead Grandmother.
7. Immediately The Supporters of The Blogger will flood the post with another round of comments about what a Wonderful Person The Blogger is, and how Evil the members of The Opposition are.
8. The Blogger will then mention how traumatized he has been by the hateful e-mail sent by The Opposition.
9. The Supporters will then offer ritual forgiveness of The Opposition, admonishing them with some biblical phrase about Not Judging People.
10. If a member of The Opposition attempts to re-start the debate, this is immediately trumped by comments of the "Haven't You People Done Enough Already To The Poor, Traumatized Blogger?" variety.
11. The whole thing winds down, with The Supporters pleased at what Wonderful People they are. The arguments advanced by The Opposition are never addressed.

Sound familiar? What a bunch of crud. If You Can't Stand The Heat, Stay Out Of The Kitchen. Weird, odd, or hateful e-mails and comments are just part of the territory when you blog on controversial topics -- I get that kind of stuff all the time. Everybody does. It's like comment spam or offers from Nigerian banks. It's the stuff you brush off, not something you use when you don't have an effective rebuttal. And from this point on, anyone who does this will have forfeited their debate to their opposition. Clear enough?

Propaganda Swing: Dr. Goebbels Jazz Orchestra

Propaganda Swing: Dr. Goebbels Jazz Orchestra

From wfmu.org:

The idea was to lure the masses in with the irrestible tonic of swing music and then slyly work in the anti-Jewish, American and British lyrics after the second or third verse. The broadcasts of Charlie and His Orchestra were not available in the Fatherland proper, but that only enhanced their legend, and they picked up an underground following in Germany as well.

Be sure to check out the Nazi rendition of Indian Love Call, the same song that saved Earth from the Martian invasion in Mars Attacks. It will give you a new appreciation and respect for Slim Whitman, I guarantee it. (via the very essential PCL Linkdump)

Best Of TM: Other Categories

Why not browse around some of these previous posts?:

• Television
• Wisconsin
• Art/Design
• Slice o' Life
• Kids
• Travel
• Games
• Food and Drink
• Health

Best Of TM: E-Cards

Why send be the first to send one of these E-cards in 2005?:

• Spam
• Monopoly   
• Peter Max
• YPL's Insensitivity Cards
• Monk E-Cards
• Tick E-Cards
• Virtual Chocolate E-Cards

Still more at http://www.tommcmahon.net/ecards/index.html

Best Of TM: Humor

• The Ten Magic Phrases of Journalism
• Rules For Cops
• Funny And Strange Baseball Cards
• The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
• Metrano’s Accidental Comedy

And much more for your browsing pleasure at http://www.tommcmahon.net/humor/

Best Of TM: History

• The Great Chicago Fire
• Lucky Strike Green Has Gone To War
• The BBC World War Two Website
• How to Use the Dial Phone
• Wochenschau-Archive
• The Four Chaplains
• Zarah Leander

And more at http://www.tommcmahon.net/history/index.html

Best Of TM: Why I Have An Annual Special Personal Thank You to the Ayatollah Khomeini Every Year . . .

. . . and other stuff about me at http://www.tommcmahon.net/tom_mcmahon/index.html

Best Of TM: Paper Models

Some ideas to keep the kids busy over the Christmas vacation:

• Cassini-Huygens Paper Model
• Adolf Hitler Folding Puzzle
• The Entire World Trade Center Complex
• A Helpful George W Bush Downloadable Paper Action Figure 
• Montgolfier Balloon Paper Model
• Grumpy Goat Paper Animation Kit
• Ancient Chinese Official Paper Model
• Edmund Fitzgerald Paper Model
• A Paper Neuschwanstein Castle
• MiG-15 Flying Paper Airplane Model

Best of TM: Games

• Animated Checkers Problems
• Nine Men's Morris
• Pillars of Plato
• Luffarschack
• The Telescope Game

And many more games at http://www.tommcmahon.net/games/

He Spared The Corporal's Life

From Michael Ledeen

Consider the story of Henry Tandey, a British infantryman in the Duke of Wellington Regiment in the First World War. On September 28, 1918, Tandey participated in an attack against enemy trenches near the small French town of Marcoing. The British carried the day, and as they advanced, Tandey Cautiously peered into a trench. He saw an enemy soldier, a corporal, lying bleeding on the ground. It would have been easy for Tandey to finish off his enemy, as he had killed many that day; Tandey had played an heroic role in the battle and later was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest wartime decoration, for his great courage. But he felt it was wrong to shoot an injured man, and he spared the corporal's life.

Yep, you guessed it. Did he do the right thing?

Bruce Woolley, The Lost Buggle

Bruce Woolley, The Lost Buggle

Bruce Woolley, Trevor Horn, and Geoffrey Downes wrote Video Killed the Radio Star, broke up, Woolley formed the Camera Club, Horn and Downes formed The Buggles and went on to trivia immortality as the performers of the first video ever on MTV. Too bad. I've always agreed with Trouser Press which called The Buggles' work "technically stunning, reasonably catchy and crashingly hollow." But lucky for us aging baby boomers that they've re-issued the 1979 album by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club. My favorite album of all time.

The Hidden Door Company

The Hidden Door Company

(via J-Walk)

Classic College Football Rivalries

The most comprehensive list I've seen. Here are just a few, along with the trophies they play for:

• Indiana vs. Michigan State: The Old Brass Spitton
• Indiana vs. Purdue: The Old Oaken Bucket
• Washington vs. Washington State: The Apple Cup
• California vs. Stanford: The Stanford Axe
• Michigan vs. Minnesota: The Little Brown Jug
• Minnesota vs. Wisconsin: Paul Bunyan's Axe
• Carleton College vs. St. Olaf: The Goat Trophy

A Toast To The World By Ronald Colman

I propose a toast to the world. A world which has just survived the bloodiest and costliest of all human conflicts. A world which was so nearly led back to the Dark Ages of oppression and slavery by cruel and greedy men who traded in Hate. It seems impossible that there could be any more suffering than Mankind has just endured. But it is possible and it will happen if we lose sight of the lessons so bitterly learned. Let us remember that Men everywhere are our neighbors and their right to Life and Freedom is as precious to them as ours is to us. So here's a toast to all the people in the World: May we, by working together for a lofty purpose and with God's Help, achieve The Goal that Mankind for twenty centuries has striven for: "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men".

Ronald Colman, December 23, 1945, on The Jack Benny Show

As eloquent and elegant as it was when first spoken almost 60 years ago.

Uncle Fester Was Married To Betty Grable?

 

Yes

Know Your Enemy

From the commencement address by columnist William Raspberry at N.C. State University:

I'll be happy if you will remember just one thing from my remarks. Please listen carefully. Here it is:

Learn the difference between problems and enemies.

He articulates my philosophy better than I ever could. A timely message.

Celebrity Math Tutoring

Danica McKellar

Q: Hi Danica, my advanced calculus prof asked us to prove that the square root of 2 is not a rational number. Any suggestions about where to start? Also, I really loved your Wonder Years show, and I’ve seen you on West Wing, too. Thanks a bunch.

Danica Answers: Thanks! Okay- as with most “disprove this” proofs, start by writing down the hypothesis (as if the thing you are trying to disprove were true) and then work with the equation until you get a contradiction. Here the hypothesis is that the square root of 2 is a rational number, and we’re going to show that it’s a faulty hypothesis. In “math language” this is equivalent to saying that you can write the square root of 2 as a fraction of whole numbers. We can assume that this fraction looks like p/q where p and q do not divide each other; that is, they share no common factors. In other words, we are assuming the fraction is written in reduced form. This is an important detail, which is used very often in “proofs by contradiction.” ALWAYS assume that your variable fractions are written in reduced form.

Now it’s time to work with the expression and hope for a contradiction to appear. So, let’s square both sides of the equation:

Sqrt(2) = p/q and we get: 2=p²/q².

But if q does not divide evenly into p, then q is not a factor of p. (the fraction was already reduced). Then q² cannot be a factor of p², either. Then p²/q² cannot be a whole number, so it can’t be equal to 2! There’s the contradiction we needed, which tells us that our original hypothesis was false. We proved it!