Did You Know (or Care): Inspired by a Colt, not a pistol

Contrary to popular belief, Colt 45 malt liquor wasn’t named after the famous handgun.

Peter J. Marcher Jr., master brewer for the National Brewing Company (in Baltimore, MD) and developer of the Colt 45 formula, named his beverage after a running back named Jerry Hill. Selected by Baltimore in the third round of the 1961 NFL draft, Hill (pictured) played for the Colts from 1961-1970 and was a member of their Super Bowl V-winning team.

And just to confirm the obvious, Hill wore the #45 jersey during his playing days.

Source: The Baltimore Sun

Did You Know (or Care): The pre- and post-Paterno era

c/o Kristin

Penn State was recently defeated by Houston in the TicketCity Bowl, 30-14. It was the Nittany Lions’ first bowl game without longtime head coach Joe Paterno in a nearly a half-century. Such an unprecedented run got me curious about Penn State’s last postseason appearance without the legendary “Joe Pa” at the helm. What I found damn-near brought a tear to my eye.

The 1962 Gator Bowl (played on December 29 in Jacksonville, Florida) pitted Penn State against the Florida Gators. Led by head coach Charles “Rip” Engle, the Nittany Lions – ranked #9 nationally and winners of nine out of 10 games – were openly disappointed to be playing a second tier bowl game against a team that had struggled to a mediocre 6-4 record.

Feeling slighted by these ruffians from way up north, the Gators responded by placing a Confederate Battle Flag decal on the side of their helmets. The Lions reportedly mocked the sentiment before kickoff, but they were whistlin’ Dixie afterward. The heavy underdog Gators defeated Penn State, 17-7.

Coach Engle steered the Lions for 16 seasons, leading PSU to a respectable 104-48-4 record during his tenure. His retirement in 1965 led to the promotion of a young assistant who ultimately earned two national championships (should’ve been three) and victories in 24 bowl games en route to setting the all-time wins record on the highest level of college football.

Paterno’s departure may have been tenuous at best. But his legend is incontestably permanent.

Sources: The Helmet Project & The Florida Times-Union

Did You Know (or Care): From thriving to surviving

Various sources arrive at slightly differing conclusions. The figures below are somewhere between approximate and exact. Feel free to compare your numbers to mine.

Since Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20, 2009, our national debt has swelled by just over $4.4 trillion – virtually the entire amount it rose during George W. Bush’s eight years in office. That’s an average increase of more than $4.24 billion per day since Obama took the presidential oath, which suffice it to say, is the majority reason for the 239% upsurge of this behemoth liability since the turn of this still young century.

On a more parenthetical note, who is our 44th President to call anyone “soft”? Perhaps no candidate ever benefitted more from such soft handling (by the press and media at large) than Obama during his “historic” run to the White House.

You’re not what most people wanted you to be, Mr. President. And nothing you do over the next year will erase your performance over the previous three.

Did You Know (or Care): Trusting your gut

c/o Exclaim

Even those who have reached the pinnacle of success can make the most inexplicably wrongheaded decisions regardless of how evident the right choice might seem. Such is the case acknowledged recently by one of the foremost luminaries of the Rock/Metal genre.

As the story goes, über movie director Quentin Tarantino approached Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich some 10 years ago with the intention of featuring a couple of songs from Metallica's eponymous fifth album for a movie he was writing called Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

According to Ulrich, the cinema maven ". . .had written and choreographed the two main fight scenes in the film to the Metallica songs 'Enter Sandman' and 'Sad but True'. Fists would impact faces on accents. Kicks would land on cymbal hits. Bodies would twirl along with the rhythm of the music. Tarantino's next-level movie magic married to Metallica music, all turned up to 11."

The mind of your average red-blooded American male immediately twists with the imagery of what could have been, as the mishmash of an extraordinarily violent movie set to the rhythm and melodies of perhaps the heaviest mainstream band of its era invokes the unavoidable contemplations of that which could have been even greater than it ultimately was.

Ulrich continued: "Page by page, I realized that most of this was written in a language that was outside of my realm of understanding. I had never encountered a narrative like this, set in, to me, a very foreign culture of martial arts and Asian myths. I just couldn’t wrap my thick Danish head around it. . . . Over the next few weeks the whole thing fizzled out as I continued not trusting my instincts. In the end, I never got back to him. Probably the single biggest mistake I've made in the creative department."

One might contend that Metallica's recent off-putting collaboration with former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed has proven an even greater artistic gaffe. But don't feel bad for Lars. His legendary band has done just fine. And so has Tarantino, whose two Kill Bill movies combined for an impressive $332 million domestic box office take.

Did You Know (or Care): Al can make you tap

c/o Michael Pomerleau

Sometimes people think they know an actor by a role that he/she plays on television or in a movie.  Here's an example of how wrong than perception can be.

Ed O'Neill, perhaps best known for playing the perpetually demoralized "Al Bundy" on Married... with Children for 11 seasons, is, in real life, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under the direct tutelage of original UFC founder Rorion Gracie. (Here's a brief clip showing his promotion from brown to black belt in 2007.)

BJJ is different from most other martial arts, as it often requires no less than eight years of hardcore training before one is considered proficient enough to meet the requirements necessary for advancement.  In fact, O'Neill himself needed more than a decade to rise from the white, blue, purple and brown belt ranks before he achieved the coveted black belt status.  And that's pretty much par for the course.

Just remember y'all – it isn't usually wise to judge a book by its cover.  That sad looking couch potato is possibly capable of making you squirm. 

Did You Know (or Care): S'more about the South

I've never been one to mince words about my region.  I embrace every bit of the South and accept it as being equal, at the very least, to the culture of all others.  Expanding any further on this point would invite a diatribe that most wouldn't bother reading anyway.  With that in mind...

* The Depression-era gangster George Kelly Barnes – aka, "Machine Gun" Kelly – was born here in Memphis to a wealthy family in 1895.  He graduated from Central High School and attended Mississippi State University for a time before dropping out.  Perhaps the most infamous criminal during the time of Prohibition, he spent the final 21 years of his life in prison, including a 17-year stint in Alcatraz.  He died on his 59th birthday.

* Beauregard, Alabama is a town of nearly 15,000 people located near Auburn University.  Named for General Pierre G.T. Beauregard ("The Hero of Fort Sumter" and the fifth-most senior general in the Confederate Army), both Auburn and Beauregard are situated in Lee County, which, of course, is named for General Robert Edward Lee.  And this, at present, is the only positive thing I have to say about Auburn.

* For over 60 years, before the mascot for Elon University became the Phoenix, Elon College in central North Carolina was fronted by the Fighting Christians.  The name change, accoriding to Wikipedia (via an uncredited source), resulted in 1999 because "many did not feel that the nickname was universal enough for a team making the transition to Division I athletics."

Translation: Any delineation of the Christians who founded the school, like most of the institutions of higher learning in our nation, are no longer acceptable because multiculturalism, and their ideological philosophies, now rule the roost.

To hell with their stupid labels.  I'll gladly root for the Christians.

Did You Know (or Care): A bit more about the South

c/o Beauvoir

Kevin Levin of Civil War Memory is an example of one who scorns the individual who is perceived to cling to an unsubstantiated illusion that legitimizes certain perspectives which may not fit well within the box of the more easily accepted mainstream.  Indeed he has rejected the following story as a neo-Confederate fantasy solely intended to challenge the public image of Southerners' universal disdain for those of African descent.  So for those who think that we blindly hate everyone, here's an interesting piece I recently caught from History.com --

"Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina fostered a slave child during the war.  On February 16, 1864, the Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut wrote in her journal that, while visiting the Confederate executive mansion in Richmond, she saw a 'little negro Mrs. Davis rescued yesterday from his brutal negro guardian.  The child is an orphan.  He was dressed up in Little Joe's [one of the Davises' sons'] clothes and happy as a lord.'  The mulatto boy's name was Jim Limber, and he and young Billy Davis became friends.

"In her memoirs, Varina Davis said her husband 'went to the Mayor's office and had [Jim's] free papers registered to insure Jim against getting into the power of the oppressor again.'  When federal forces caught the fleeing Davises in May 1865, they gave the boy to an old family friend, Union General Rufus Saxton.  'He quietly went,' Varina Davis wrote, 'but as soon as he found he was going to leave us he fought like a little tiger and was thus engaged the last we saw of him.'"

Original source: The Seven-Day Scholar: The Civil War by Dennis Gaffney and Peter Gaffney

Did You Know (or Care): Athletes and their families

Former University of Nebraska cornerback and New York Giants first round selection Prince Amukamara has five sisters.  They are named Passionate, Peace, Precious, Princess, and Promise.

Also, a recent feature about Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko – a dead ringer for Ivan Drago – and his unbelievable back tattoo (pictured) led me to an ESPN magazine story from 2006 about Andrei’s wife Masha, who allows her husband to have sex with another woman once per year.  Says Masha, "Male athletes in this country are extremely attractive.  They get chased by women.  It's hard to resist.  It's the way men are by nature."

Fascinating, I suppose.

Did You Know (or Care): Martial Arts

The belt system used in most martial arts is relatively new.  For centuries, students were only given a white belt.  Through years of training the white belt would become soiled with dirt, grime and blood, becoming darker in the process, eventually becoming a black belt.

Although considered a racially insensitive term here in America, Sambo is an abbreviation of the Russian term Samozaschita Bez Oruzhiya, which means "self-defense without a weapon."  Developed for the Russian military, Sambo was heavily influenced by Judo and indigenous Russian wrestling.  It also features a military-inspired uniform, including belt loops on the fighting jacket.

Its most well-known practitioner is Fedor Emelianenko, a mixed martial artist nicknamed "The Last Emperor" who did not suffer a legimate loss for nearly 10 years.

Source: Taekwondo-Network.com

Did You Know (or Care): Online double life

According to the most recent edition of Windows magazine, one-in-five people lie about their marital status on social networking websites.  Additionally, 17% of people fib about their age and 22% are misleading about their current occupation, all of which is in direct correlation to the 94% of online users who would accept a friend request from a profile with an attractive photograph without knowing the person at all.

Did You Know (or Care): MMA done right

Photo by Scott Petersen via mmaweekly.com

Dana White runs the Ultimate Fighting Championship perfectly, which is why the UFC has remained the gold standard of the mixed martial arts world for over a decade.  Thus, in keeping with some of the intriguing match-ups for tonight's UFC 128, I found this rather interesting...

Last December during the UFC's Ultimate Fighter 12 finale, multi-black belt stylist Nam Phan connected on nearly twice as many strikes (122-to-66) as his fellow featherweight opponent, Leonard Garcia.  But to this dismay of virtually everyone who saw the fight, the judges awarded Garcia the split decision victory.  Unmoved by the result, Dana White gave Phan the $8,000 "win bonus" anyway.

Additionally the match itself was named "Robbery of the Year" by Sherdog.com, the industry's most authoritative and well-established website.

Source: Fighters Only, March 2011 (p. 24)

Did You Know (or Care): More about Charlie

Charlie Sheen is a train wreck who needs a lot of prayer.  Thus I found this somewhat interesting...

© NYDailyNews.com

Born Carlos Estévez, actor/stark raving lunatic Charlie Sheen took his stage name from his father, actor Martin Sheen (born Ramón Estévez) who himself adopted the name from Fulton J. Sheen, a Catholic archbishop who is considered the first televangelist.

Did You Know (or Care): A lapse of otherworldly proportions

The Star Wars franchise is predominantly defined by characters with whom people throughout the entire world have held a special affinity for over three decades.  Although never infatuated like the myriad of devotees I've encountered since childhood, understanding its cult-like allure was somehow never difficult.

Science fiction has maintained a following since the earliest days of cinema, but the unyielding enthusiasm (and resulting mass appeal) inspired by the vision of one George Lucas is, in and of itself, a love story between the practitioners of what ultimately grew into a pseudo-religion and their idealized heroes who live "in a galaxy far, far away" for which the mere fantasy of their existence makes these noble knights quite real to the hardcore loyalists whose hankering for more is never satisfied.

Among the most revered of these benevolent warriors, by far, is Obi-Wan Kenobi.  And like Master Yoda, his counterpart on the Jedi Council, little was known of Obi-Wan's home planet.  But that all changed last August during Celebration V in Orlando, Florida.  While being interviewed by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, George Lucas revealed that Obi-Wan Kenobi's home is now known as "Stewjon" -- a tuckerization of Stewart's name.

As if Lucas purposely intended to anger even the most nostalgic fans, a man for whom money is no longer an issue threw his own franchise under the proverbial bus and named Obi-Wan's home after a guy who is best known for making strange faces and profanity-laced jokes.  And from this, I don't know what else there is to add to the story.

Did You Know (or Care): A comparison among the U.S. & the rest

Although differing slightly from World Bank estimates, the 2009 edition of the CIA World Fact Book, per the International Monetary Fund, lists the United States GDP (Gross Domestic Product: market value of all goods and services) at just over $14.6 trillion, which is surpassed only by the combined $15.9 trillion GDP of the 27-nation European Union.  Yet perhaps most interesting is how individual American States stack up against the rest of the world.

California, for instance, with a statewide GDP of over $1.9 trillion, would be the ninth-ranked economy in the world -- nestled on the list between Italy and Brazil -- if it stood as an individual nation.  You've probably heard that somewhere before.  However you likely didn't know that Texas and New York, with GDPs around $1.1 trillion each, rank 15th and 16th respectively, ahead of Mexico and South Korea, and just behind Spain and Australia.

Other States in the international top 50 include Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland and Indiana, each of whom boast of GDPs anywhere between $265-735 billion.  With GDP's ranging from $245-263 billion, Minnesota, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Missouri just missed the top 50.  Yet they ranked well ahead of international powers such as Finland, Portugal, Ireland, Israel and the Czech Republic, among many dozens of others.

Did You Know (or Care): More from the Civil War

My lengthy piece last Sunday about the War Between the States led to me uncover something that I put together for later use about a year ago, the initial sources of which have been regrettably lost:

President Lincoln once proposed emigration for freed slaves to Central America, seeing it as a more convenient destination than Liberia.  One of the first attempts was on a small island off the coast of Haiti called Île à Vache, which at the time was owned by a developer named Bernard Kock.

Kock claimed he had approved a Black American colony with the Haitian government.  No one ever substantiated this claim, and following a smallpox outbreak on the boat ride down, hundreds of Black colonizers were abandoned on the island with no housing prepared for them, as Kock had promised.  Additionally the soil on the island was too poor to produce any serious vegetation.  Thus in January 1864, the U.S. Navy rescued the remaining survivors as the tide of the War began to turn and the use of Black soldiers in the Union army became more common.  Once Île à Vache fell through, Lincoln never spoke of colonization again.

Did You Know (or Care): An unforgivable waste

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Los Angeles County spends $600 million yearly on entitlements for illegal aliens.  Nationally, the bill for our government exceeds $113 billion (equal to the bailout Ireland received from the European Union).  And yet, unbelievably, some people still don't understand the problem.

Did You Know (or Care): Ballin' chicks

I am probably among the few men who would admit to being fascinated by this, but I have to give credit where credit is due.  Happy New Year, y'all --

Led by the Italian-born Geno Auriemma, the University of Connecticut Lady Husky basketball team recently had its record-setting win streak snapped by the Stanford Lady Cardinal, who were also the last team to have beaten UConn prior to their unprecedented 90-game run.

The Lady Huskies have not lost back-to-back games since the end of the '92-'93 season.  Since that point, they have amassed an unbelievable 573-44 record (prior to 2010-2011) en route to 15 seasons of at least 30 wins, and their seven national titles are second only to the eight won by their chief rival, the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers.

Did You Know (or Care): Long lost brew dog

A recently discovered crate from Ernest Shackleton's 1907 expedition to the South Pole was opened by archaeologists.  Inside, they found 11 untouched bottles of whiskey.  Samples will be sent to Whyte & Mackay (current IWSC Global Distiller of the Year) in Glasgow, Scotland, where master blenders will try to reconstruct the original recipe for the rare Old Highland malt, which had been lost.

Source: Esquire, December 2010; p. 124.  More can be read here.

Did You Know (or Care): Michael Jackson

According to Yahoo.com music columnist Paul Grein, Michael Jackson's Thriller debuted, not at #1, but at #11 on the Billboard chart in December 1982 (released on November 30).  "The Girl Is Mine," a duet with Paul McCartney, was the lead single, but sales did not take off until "Billie Jean" was released as the follow-up.  Despite the slow start, Thriller has sold no less than 65 million copies worldwide en route to becoming the biggest selling album of all-time.

Sunday's Quote/Did You Know (or Care): Elvis

There are a variety of notable topics to address, and I'll get to each issue in the near future.  In the meantime, a recent Beatles documentary on the History Channel got me to ponder a relatively famous quote about Elvis Presley from perhaps the most important member of the Fab Four.  Hence the customary Sunday's Quote is preceded by a Did You Know:

Initially broadcast via satellite on January 14, 1973, Elvis Presley's "Aloha from Hawaii" is believed to have reached over a billion viewers worldwide, which included 40% of the Japanese television audience and at least 90% of the available audience in the Philippines.  An estimated 51% of the American television audience watched when it aired in the United States for the first time on April 4, 1973.

Sources: 1, 2

"Elvis was the king.  No doubt about it.  People like myself, Mick Jagger and all the others only followed in his footsteps."

-- Rod Stewart, one of the best-selling artists of all-time with over 100 million records sold worldwide
 

"A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."
-- Jackie Wilson (1934-1984), inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987
 

"Before Elvis, there was nothing."
-- John Lennon (1940-1980), co-founder of some group called The Beatles