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The Daily Dose/January 15, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
Notes from around your Human Experience, leading off with the a strike we can all get behind, an update on Charles Chatman, who was relased from prison earlier this month after serving over a quarter-century for a crime he did not commit, plus some historical context on wrongful convictions, On This Date, plus Congress stepping up to the plate to take its cuts, plus Trivia and the Column Four Foto: the always lovely Brooke Shields!
OH, THANK GOD: In the best news yet to come out of the Hollywood writer's strike, four major studios have cancelled production and development contracts with writers for new shows for the remainder of the tee vee season.
Dry, Technical Matter: Based on the amount of research we were willing to do in this matter - not a lot - this appears to be a formality, since they weren't in an danger of getting new shows anyway because the writers are on strike and not writing anyway.
Brass Tacks: We're not entirely sure what this will ultimately mean - again, we cite the low amount of research the staff here was moved to do - but offhand it appears the American pubic will be spared new, lousy, lowest common denominator shows for the rest of this tee vee season and may well be spared new crap later this fall!
CATCHING UP: In the two weeks since he was released from prison after serving 26 years for a crime he didn't commit, Charles Chatman has gone shopping and gotten his hair cut and moved in with his nephew. He has also consulted with an attorney and is considering a suit to take advantage of a Texas law that authorizes payment to the wrongly convicted of $50,000 for each year he was incarcerated, which for Chatman would come out to $1.3 million.
Sad But Probably True: As a black man in an America (and in Texas, no less) that is still fairly racist, $1.3 million is probably more than he would have made had he actually been free and working.
Funfact: Chatman was the 15th innocent person freed in Dallas County since 2001, a figure that is the highest in the nation for a county.
Yeah, Well, You Know: It should be noted that Dallas County leads the league in freed innocent people because the lab they use keeps DNA samples forever so that they are available two and a half decades later when the system finally gets around to letting the innocent plead for their freedom.
To Review: Chatman was convicted of aggravated sexual assault based on the victim having picked him out of a police lineup and identifying him in court, despite the fact he had witnesses that said he was at work at the time of the attack.
Through The Years: Convicting the innocent is hardly a recent or an exclusively American phenomenon. It's been going on as long as man had been passing judgment. France convicted Joan of Arc of hearsay and executed her in 1431 and the Colonies got into the act in 1692 with the Salem Witch Trials, which wrongly convicted and executed 19 people, with another executed because he wouldn't confess.
Aichiwawa!: Our personal fave is the story of two Spanish men in the early 20th century who were convicted of murder and served their sentences, only to have the man they were convicted of killing turn up alive after their release.
ON THIS DATE: In 1885, in Jericho, Vermont, Wilson Bentley took the first photograph of a snowflake.
In 1892: One month after playing the first game, Dr. James Naismith publishes the first rules for basketball. He was a teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts at the time and had been asked to whip a diversion that could be played indoors. Naismith's rules made no provision for dribbling, there was a jump ball after each basket and when a ball went out of bounds the team to retrieve it was awarded possession. Naismith would later, among other things in his long, useful life, be instrumental in the development of the football helmet and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
How Come There Are Five Sides If There Are Only Four Branches Of The Service?: On Jan. 15, 1943 the world's largest office building, The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, is dedicated. The building has five stories and two basement levels, covers 29 acres, has 6.6 million square feet of floor space and over 17 miles of corridors.
Hut, Hut, Hike: On Jan. 15, 1967 the Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the first game that would later become known as the Super Bowl. Back then it was known as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The game was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and is the only Super Bowl that didn't sell out.
GEE, THIS IS GREAT: Congress began butting in to the baseball steroids fiasco as hearings began Tuesday, hearings attended by Commissioner Bud Selig, players union head Donald Fehr and George Mitchell, author of the Mitchell Report. It has even asked the Justice Department to investigate former American League MVP Miguel Tejada lied to congressional staff members when he was interviewed about Rafael Palmeiro alleged steroid use in 2005.
Congress, Listen Up: Butt out of baseball! One, the fans have decided they don't really care about juiced up players, because they are still paying their way into stadiums in large numbers. A record 79,502,524 did so last year, a 4.5 percent increase over 2006. Eight teams set attendance records. If fans really cared about players juicing up they would have found something else to do with their time. And, honestly, if baseball and its players and the media who cover it cared, they would have done something about it ten years ago. If four of the four concerned parties don't care, why should you?
One More Thing: Two, you have other things to worry about. Honestly. We appreciate your interest in this matter, but we are at war and we are still convicting people of crimes they did not commit and I am still paying $3 a gallon for gas. So stop worrying about what baseball players are doing.
Stop Me If You've Heard This Before: The Writer's Shack - not for the first time - issues a call for all governing bodies to legalize whatever athletes want to put in their bodies. They're doing so anyway and current testing procedures aren't keeping up with advances in performance enhancing drugs.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: In 1792 Thomas Paine was elected to the French National Assembly, despite not speaking a word of French.
Today's Trivia Question:Who was the halftime performer at Super Bowl I? - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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