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The Daily Dose/December 18, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
Notes from around the Human Experience, with rare, exclusive On This Date action...Aishwarya Rai makes her debut in the Column Four Foto!
Editor's Note: Today's Daily Dose is the first to be written while it is snowing. It wasn't written outside, of course, but we are watching it fall from the office window. It's the first snowfall at Writer's Shack headquarters here in Las Vegas since the Blizzard of 2003 dumped three inches on us.
COME SAIL AWAY: On this date, in 1620, the Mayflower lands in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, about a month after initially anchoring off of Cape Cod, where they had set the tone for future New World relations with the Indians by stealing corn and desecrating graves. After suffering through a disease-riddled winter that decimated about half the passengers and crew, the remaining 53 pilgrims returned to England the following April.
Dry, Technical Matter, Special Pilgrim Edition: The Mayflower's original destination had been the mouth of the Hudson River in what was then considered northern Virginia.
More Great Moments In Exploring: On this date, in 1642, a type of carnivorous marsupial goes a long way towards getting a common name when Abel Tasman of the Netherlands becomes the first European to land in New Zealand. In November he had made the first European sighting of the Australian island now known as Tasmania.
FunFact: New Zealand is home to official Writer's Shack fave the All Blacks, their national rugby union squad.
This Sure Didn't Leave Many Shopping Days Till Christmas: On this date, in 1777, the United States celebrated its first Thanksgiving holiday. It had been declared by General George Washington, to celebrate the American's victory over the British at Revolutionary War battles at Saratoga, New York on Sept. 19 and Oct. 7.
We The People: New Jersey became the third state to ratify the US Constitution on this date in 1787. On Dec. 7 Delaware had become the first state to ratify the Constitution, and it would take effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it the following June.
I Do: A year-and-a-half after his wife died, President Woodrow Wilson becomes the second US president to become a widower and remarry while in office, when he marries Edith Bolling Galt on this date in 1915.
Hut, Hut Hike: One of the most significant games in NFL history is played on this date in 1932 when the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans play a game to break a tie for first in the NFL.
Dry, Technical Matter: The game was not an official NFL Championship Game. Since its founding in 1920, the league had simply awarded its championship to the team with the best regular season record. The Bears and Spartans had finished the season tied for first and the teams decided to play a game to break the tie.
The Rest Of The Story: The NFL waters were rather muddied at the end of the 1932 season. Chicago had finished the season 6-1-6 and Portsmouth at 6-1-4 withGreen Bay - winners of the last three NFL titles - finishing at 10-3-1.
That Was Then, This Is Then: Under rules then in effect ties were not counted when figuring a teams winning percentage, (now, they count as half a win and a half a loss.) so Chicago and Portsmouth were tied for first place with a .857 winning percentage, both better than Green Bay's .769 mark. Had current rules been in effect, the Packers would have been awarded the NFL championship with a .750 winning percentage, with Portsmouth in second at .727 and the Bears in third .692.
Game Day: A blizzard - probably similar to the one Writer's Shack HQ is experiencing right now - the week of the game left nobody too excited about playing outdoors at Wrigley Field, so the teams agreed to play indoors at Chicago Stadium, then home to the Chicago Blackhawks. The game is significant not because the Bears beat the Spartans 9-0, but because rule modifications made in deference to the smaller playing field at Chicago Stadium led to significant changes in the professional game the following season.
The first was where the ball was placed after a play. Under rules at the time, the ball was put back in play where the ball carrier had been brought down, or one yard inbounds if the ball had gone out of bounds. In deference to the narrower field, the teams agreed to bring the ball ten-yards in from the sideline for every play.
The goal posts were also moved to the goal line, field goals were not allowed and only one set of goal posts were put up. Since there wasn't a 40-yard line, teams kicked off from the ten-yard line and after a kickoff return the ball was moved back 20 yards. Touchbacks were brought out to the ten-yard line.
Seeing how successful their playoff was (see that NCAA?) the NFL made some changes for the following season. One, hashmarks were placed on the field ten-yards in from each sideline.
Are You Really That Desperate For Material? Our research was inconclusive on when the NFL moved hashmarks from 10 to 15-yards from the sideline, but in 1945 they were moved to 20 yards fro the sideline and in 1972 they were moved to their present distance apart, 18 feet, six inches.
For the 1933 season the goal posts were moved to the goal line (they would me moved back to the end line before the 1974 season) and a forward pass was allowed anywhere behind the line of scrimmage, instead of five-yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Super Sunday…Well, Sort Of: The NFL also realigned into Western and Eastern divisions for the 1933 season, with divisional champions meeting in the NFL Championship Game at the end of each season.
Oh Yeah: The Portsmouth Spartans became the Detroit Lions after the 1933 season.
Thought For The Day: The case against Clevenger was open and shut. The only missing was something to charge him with. - Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The Wright brothers signed their first contract with the US Army to provide aircraft in 1908 and delivered their first plane in 1909.
Today's Stumper: Who was the first US president to become a widower and remarry while in office? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
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