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The Daily Dose/July 31, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
This will surprise you, but today we have notes from around the Human Experience for you! Leading off, great news for freedom lovers everywhere from Beijing, plus the usual crap we foist off on you: On This Date, our 1908 Cubs, the popular, new Thought For The Day and Trivia! Plus Lea Thompson is the Column Four Foto!
YEAH, THIS IS A BULLETIN: Chinese authorities, the same authorities that supervised the smackdown of Tibet this past March and are authors of untold Communist atrocities over the years, announced that journalists covering the Olympics in Beijing will not have unlimited, uncensored use of the Internet.
Let The Games Begin: The great news is the International Olympic Committee is falling right in line with these measures. And why should they care? Their rights-fee and licensing checks for these games were deposited long ago and they have already made about all the money they are going to make off these Games.
Great Work Guys, Thanks A Lot: The head of the IOC's press commission, Kevin Gosper, admitted that "…IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered games related."
Well, Great: A government is deciding what information is and is not appropriate for journalists to view. Among the sites deemed unacceptable are Amnesty International's site, any site with Tibet in the URL, the BBC's Chinese language service, the site of a German public broadcaster and newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. No word on whether The Writer's Shack made the cut. With our plans to rank Beijing Tech in this year's Bottom Ten, who knows?
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: Everybody at the IOC associated with this should be ashamed of themselves, and should go stand in the corner. Or, better yet, a corner of Tibet.
To Do List: Those rascals at Reporters Without Borders came out with a list of suggestions for reporters to attempt to curtail Chinese attempts at a free press. Among them are installing anti-firewall programs; password everything including your electric razor; presume your phone calls and emails are being overheard or read by someone other than the intended recipient; and report any hindrance of freedom of movement and interviewing who you want to your embassy. A legal hotline and email address has been set up by Chinese lawyer Li Baiguang for journalists who run afoul of the authorities, which shouldn't be too hard to do, frankly.
FunFact: Any reporter interested in accessing the Reporters Without Borders site had better do so at home because that site, too, is blocked in China.
Official US Reaction: None, as we write this. We will probably grab the bull by the horns and strongly condemn them, though. Watch out Beijing!
Thought For The Day: Ours is but a small matter in the great deeds of this time. - J.R.R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings.
GOING BACK, AWAY BACK: On this date, in 1790, the first US patent was issued. Noted inventor Samuel Hopkins was issued a patent for a process to improve "…in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process." Both are used in the manufacture of glass, soap and fertilizer.
One Down, Seven Million More To Go: In lieu of a patent office, the patent was signed by President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Patents number two and three would also be issued that year, for a new candle making device and new flour milling machinery. Details of these exciting inventions are beyond the scope of this column. If they truly interest you, you probably get invited to fewer parties than we do.
Editor's Note: To impress upon everyone, especially Cubs fans, that it has been an entire century since the Cubs last World Series victory, On This Date is pleased to take a look back at the 1908 Cubs championship season.
Home Away From Home: The Cubs moved to 7-0 at South End Grounds in Boston this season with a 3-1 victory over the Doves. Our Cubs have won five in a row and seven out of eight and remain a half-game back of those pesky Pirates, who beat Brooklyn, while the Giants remain two back with a 9-2 victory over the Cardinals. Everyone else in National League is more or less out of it. Philadelphia is 6.5 back, the Reds 9 back, while Boston, Brooklyn and St. Louis are 16, 21.5 and 24.5 games back, respectively.
You Can't Beat The Hours: The game took an hour and 48 minutes, a little below average for games of that era.
They Don't Write 'Em Like That Anymore: This from the AP's account of the game: Not until the Cubs chased the third run across in the last inning did the bird of victory feel at all secure on its perch atop the Cubs coop.
Escape From Alcatraz…Sort Of: On this date, in 1945 John Giles - serving a life sentence for attempted robbery of a mail train and for murder, attempted to escape from Alcatraz. Wearing an army sergeants uniform he had stolen from the laundry, he boarded an army launch that was headed back to the mainland. A soldier count revealed an extra soldier, and the count of prisoners showed one too few. Giles actually walked off the boat, but as detained by an alert officer of the day, who noticed Giles uniform wasn't entirely correct and that his passes were forged. He was back at Alcatraz before lunch.
Get Out Your History Books: On this date, in 1954, Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves became the sixth major leaguer to hit four home runs in a game, as the Braves beat the Dodgers 15-7 at Ebbets Field. He also has a double, and his 18 total bases establish a Major League record that will stand until Shawn Green gets 19 total bases in a game in which he hit four home runs in 2002. Adcock's 25 total bases over two games ties a record established by Ty Cobb in 1925 and tied by Green.
Dry, Technical Matter: Cobb established the Most Total Bases In Consecutive Games record on May 5 and 6, 1925. On May 5, while managing the Tigers on the road against the St. Louis Browns, Cobb had three home runs, a double and a single (15 total bases) in a 14-8 Tiger win. The next day, also at St. Louis, Cobb had two home runs (eight total bases) as the Tigers won 11-4. History is unclear as to whether Cobb got his last two total bases on a double or two singles.
Uh, Can We Move On To Something Else, Please? Yeah, just sec. Cobb also became the second major leaguer to hit five home runs in consecutive games. The first was Cap Anson in 1884. The feat has been accomplished many times since.
Uh, Anybody Seen Dad? On this date, in 1975, Jimmy Hoffa was reported missing, one day after last being seen in the parking lot of a suburban Detroit restaurant on his way to meet to Mafia leaders. To this day, nobody knows where he is, though he is presumed dead.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The three delegates to the Second Continental Congress who never signed the Declaration of Independence were Robert Livingston, who got tired of the insufferable Philadelphia weather and returned to New York before the August 2 signing, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania who refused to sign because he was a snot and thought such a Declaration premature, and Thomas Lynch of South Carolina who couldn't sign due to illness, and would, in fact, die later in the year.
Today's Stumper: Of the 34 inmates who attempted to escape from Alcatraz, how many remain unaccounted for? - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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