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The Daily Dose/August 3, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
Notes - and lots of them - from around the Human Experience...
GOD, WE LOVE THE 21ST CENTURY: The first ticketing scandals of the Beijing Games are surfacing, as both the International and US Olympic committees are in federal court in an attempt to shut down a fraudulent site that had accepted money but has yet to deliver tickets.
Marching Orders: If www.beijingticketing.com is still up and running when you read this, go check it out. It's a pretty slick site, and, if you're not on your toes, it would be easy to think you were dealing with an official Olympic site.
But you're not. Though the phrase 'Beijing 2008' is used, and there is a fancy, stylized logo similar to the official Beijing logo, neither are the official logos for the Games. Also, the Olympic rings aren't used, which should itself be a clue you're not dealing with an official Chairman Mao approved agency.
FunFact: In July the USOC successfully had www.beijing-tickets2008.com shut down
WHOOPS, MY BAD: The United States' gold medal winning 1,600 meter relay team was stripped of their gold medals from the 2000 Sydney Games this week, three months after member Andrew Pettigrew admitted he was doped up at the time.
This was not a bulletin. Pettigrew had turned back his medal in June, and brings to six the total number of medals US athletes from the Sydney Games have lost because of doping violations. Three gold and two bronze medals were returned after Marion Jones admitted she was doped up at Sydney.
Why Do We Even Bother? As usual, we renew our call to let athletes put whatever they want into their body. It is hypocritical of us to demand athletes get bigger, stronger and faster so they can show us how wonderful we are and what losers we are and then tell them "No, sorry, we demand all this and insanely reward those who succeed, but we are going to punish you for using everything at your disposal to get the most out of your body. We hold this carrot out, but we are not going to allow you to extend you arm the whole way to try and collect it."
A CLARIFICATION: In our last column we mentioned that baseball is leaving the Olympics after Beijing, and, for a variety of reasons, it's probably a good thing.
Softball is leaving, too, booted out with baseball in 2004, and this is not so good. Unlike baseball, whose best players are playing in the major leagues right now, there is not a similar professional softball league - or at least one that anyone one pays any attention to - to occupy the world's best softball players during the summer. So it's no problem rounding up the worlds top players, especially 99 percent of them live in the US.
On the downside, while softball is a popular recreational sport, it is not all that popular a spectator sport. I mean, who the hell has ever watched a softball game they or a relative wasn't playing in? Still though, officially we here at the Writer's Shack are 'Displeased' that softball was kicked out of the Games. It's a great international forum for the sport, though US domination - they won the first three gold medals and there isn't really anything standing in their way of the fourth - probably didn't help matters either.
WRITE IF YOU FIND ANYTHING: On this date, in 1492, Italian explorer Christopher sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain on his first voyage to what would turn out to be the New World. The voyage culminated a seven-year effort to obtain funding, and, would be the first of four voyages to the New World.
Having Fun, Wish You Were Here: The first letter from North America was sent on this date in 1527. John Rut, an English mariner selected by King Henry VIII to find the Northwest Passage, wrote to His Majesty from St. John's, Newfoundland. Growing tired of the cold, he and his crew later became the first snowbirds, spending time on the east coast of Florida before returning home the following year.
Win One For The Gipper: On this date in 1852 the nation's first intercollegiate sporting event is held as Harvard beats Yale in a two-mile rowing race on Lake Winniesaukee, New Hampshire. The second Harvard-Yale regatta would be held three years later, and the two have raced annually, except when interrupted by war, since 1859. Harvard leads the series 88-54, and has won 21 of the last 25.
Editor's Note: To celebrate the centennial anniversary of the last Chicago Cubs World Series title, we are pleased to take a look back at the Cubs 1908 championship season!
City Of Brotherly Smack Downs: The Cubs open their four game set at Philadelphia with a 5-1 victory over the Phillies. Mordecai Brown goes the distance for the Cubs scattering six hits, as the Cubs break a scoreless tie with four in the fifth.
Break Up The Cubs! The Cubs have won six of seven and eight of their last ten.
High Water Mark: This will be the Cubs last win in Philadelphia until late September.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: The Cubs remain is second place in the National League, still a game-and-a-half behind Pittsburgh, who beat Boston 7-4. The Doves made it interesting by getting four in the ninth, but left the bases loaded. The Giants remained two back behind Hook Wiltsie's one-hitter in a 6-0 victory over the Reds.
I Do Solemnly Swear: Taking the presidential oath administered by his father by kerosene lamp because it was almost three in the morning and the family home in Vermont did not yet have electricity, Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th President of the United States, on this date in 1923. Coolidge replaces Warren G. Harding, who had died of natural causes the previous day in California. Coolidge would be elected President in 1924, but chose not to run in 1928.
Heil Hitler! On this date, in 1936, American Jessie Owens wins the first of four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, winning the 100 meters. German Fuhrer Adolph Hitler does not congratulate Owens, but Hitler, after congratulating German athletes only the first day, wasn't congratulating anyone after that, anyway, though some over the years have accused Hitler of ignoring Owens because he was black.
Nautilus: 90 North: On this date, in 1958, the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571), under the command of Commander William R. Anderson, becomes the first watercraft to reach the North Pole.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation. - Thomas Bracket Reed
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Prior to baseball and softball being booted out in 2004, the last sport to be voted out of the Olympics was polo, which was left off following the 1936 Summer Games.
Today's Stumper: Did anybody but us here at the Writer's Shack find yesterday's blurb about the new baseball tie breaker even remotely interesting? We're just curious. - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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