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[CigarBanter]

Orange you glad I didn't say banana again?

[LSUFAN]

Good morning guys.

[LSUFAN]

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York's Kennedy Airport--and "Beatlemania" arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with "I Want to Hold Your Hand." At Kennedy, the "Fab Four"--dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts--were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil.

Two days later, Paul McCartney, age 21, Ringo Starr, 23, John Lennon, 23, and George Harrison, 20, made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular television variety show. Although it was difficult to hear the performance over the screams of teenage girls in the studio audience, an estimated 73 million U.S. television viewers, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, tuned in to watch. Sullivan immediately booked the Beatles for two more appearances that month. The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, the Beatles returned to England.

The Beatles' first American tour left a major imprint in the nation's cultural memory. With American youth poised to break away from the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the Beatles, with their exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift. Their singles and albums sold millions of records, and at one point in April 1964 all five best-selling U.S. singles were Beatles songs. By the time the Beatles first feature-film, A Hard Day's Night, was released in August, Beatlemania was epidemic the world over. Later that month, the four boys from Liverpool returned to the United States for their second tour and played to sold-out arenas across the country.

Later, the Beatles gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative studio recordings, such as 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a masterpiece of popular music. The Beatles' music remained relevant to youth throughout the great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius of the Lennon-McCartney team. In 1970, the Beatles disbanded, leaving a legacy of 18 albums and 30 Top 10 U.S. singles.

During the next decade, all four Beatles pursued solo careers, with varying success. Lennon, the most outspoken and controversial Beatle, was shot to death by a deranged fan outside his New York apartment building in 1980. McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his contribution to British culture. In November 2001, George Harrison succumbed to cancer.

[LSUFAN]

In London on this day in 1775, Benjamin Franklin publishes An Imaginary Speech in defense of American courage.

Franklin's speech was intended to counter an unnamed officer's comments to Parliament that the British need not fear the colonial rebels, because "Americans are unequal to the People of this Country [Britain] in Devotion to Women, and in Courage, and worse than all, they are religious."

Franklin responded to the three-pronged critique with his usual wit and acuity. Noting that the colonial population had increased while the British population had declined, Franklin concluded that American men must therefore be more "effectually devoted to the Fair Sex" than their British brethren.

As for American courage, Franklin relayed a history of the Seven Years' War in which the colonial militia forever saved blundering British regulars from strategic error and cowardice. With poetic flare, Franklin declared, "Indiscriminate Accusations against the Absent are cowardly Calumnies." In truth, the colonial militias were notoriously undisciplined and ineffective at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. New Englanders, unused to taking orders and unfamiliar with the necessary elements of military life, brought illness upon themselves when they refused to build latrines and were sickened by their own sewage. During the American Revolution, Washington repeated many of the same complaints spoken by British officers when he attempted to organize American farmers into an effective army.

With regard to religion, Franklin overcame his own distaste for the devout and reminded his readers that it was zealous Puritans that had rid Britain of the despised King Charles I. Franklin surmised that his critic was a Stuart [i.e. Catholic] sympathizer, and therefore disliked American Protestants, "who inherit from those Ancestors, not only the same Religion, but the same Love of Liberty and Spirit."

[LSUFAN]

On February 7, 1938, automotive industry pioneer Harvey Samuel Firestone, founder of the major American tire company that bore his name, dies at the age of 69 in Miami Beach, Florida.

Firestone was born on a farm near Columbiana, Ohio, on December 20, 1868. As a young man, he worked as a salesman for a buggy company and later became convinced that rubber carriage tires would provide a more comfortable ride than steel tires or wooden wheels. Around 1895, Firestone met a young engineer in Detroit named Henry Ford, who was developing his first automobile. Firestone sold Ford a set of rubber carriage tires, an event that marked the start of an important business relationship and friendship between the two men. In 1900, believing that the horse-and-buggy era was ending and the auto age beginning, Firestone incorporated the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. (Akron, which would come to be known as the world's rubber capital, was also home to Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, founded in 1898, and B. F. Goodrich, established in 1870.) Firestone began producing its own tires in 1903 and three years later sold 2,000 sets of detachable tires to Henry Ford, in what was then the world's largest tire order. In 1908, Ford launched his first factory-built Model T cars. (By the time production ended in 1927, more than 15 million Model T's had come off the assembly line; it was the all-time best-selling car until 1972, when it was surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle.)

By 1910, Firestone's profits passed $1 million for the first time. The following year, the winner of the inaugural Indianapolis 500 auto race, Ray Harroun, drove a Marmon Wasp equipped with Firestone tires. By 1926, Firestone was manufacturing more than 10 million tires each year, which represented approximately 25 percent of America's total tire output. Around this time, Firestone established its own rubber plantations in Liberia, Africa, in order to break free of Britain and the Netherlands, who controlled the rubber market through production in their Asian colonies.

Harvey Firestone retired in 1932 and died in 1938. In 1988, the Firestone company was acquired by Japan-based Bridgestone Corporation, a leading global tire manufacturer founded in 1931.

[dwgbryant]

good morning Chip.

[LSUFAN]

On February 7, 1970, Louisiana State University basketball star Pete Maravich scores 69 points in a game against Alabama, setting a Division I record that would stand for 21 years.

Peter Press Maravich was born June 22, 1947, in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. As a child, he learned to play basketball from his father, Press Maravich, a former professional player with the Basketball Association of America. Press became the head coach at LSU in 1966, the same year his son Pete entered the school as a freshman. Maravich dazzled crowds with his performance on the freshman team (at the time, NCAA rules prevented first-year students from competing at the varsity level), scoring 43.6 points per game. During his three years as a member of LSU’s varsity squad, Maravich continued to impress and set a number of NCAA records, some of which still stand today, including most career points (3,667) and highest career scoring average (44.2 points per game). Nicknamed “Pistol Pete,” he was known for his big numbers and his incredible ball-handling skills and showmanship, as well as his droopy socks. Maravich was named College Player of the Year in his senior season.

In 1970, Maravich was the third overall pick in the NBA draft and signed with the Atlanta Hawks for the then-astronomical sum of $1.9 million. He played for the Hawks from 1970 to 1974, the New Orleans/Utah Jazz from 1974 to 1980 and spent the final season of his career, 1980, with the Boston Celtics. During his 10 years in the NBA, Maravich was a five-time NBA All-Star and averaged 24.2 points per game. In 1977, he led the league in scoring, with an average of 31.1 points per game. In February 1977, Maravich scored 68 points in a single game against the New York Knicks, led by superstar Walt Frazier.

Despite the impressive numbers he racked up throughout his career, Maravich never played on a championship team during college or the NBA and critics claimed he put himself above his team. He retired from the NBA in 1980 and was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. Maravich died of a heart attack at age 40 on January 5, 1988, during a pickup game of basketball in California.

[LSUFAN]

Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor who performed medical experiments at the Auschwitz death camps, dies of a stroke while swimming in Brazil—although his death was not verified until 1985.

Mengele was born on March 16, 1911, in Gunzburg, Germany. His father founded Frima Karl Mengele & Sohne, a factory that produced farm machinery, in Bavaria. In college, Mengele first studied philosophy, imbibing the rascist theories of Alfred Rosenberg—who posited the innate intellectual and moral superiority of Aryans—and then took a medical degree at the University of Frankfurt am Main. Soon thereafter he enlisted in the SA, the paramilitary force of the Nazi Party. Mengele was so enthusiastic about Nazism that in 1934 he joined the research staff of the Nazi Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene.

When war erupted, Mengele was a medical officer with the SS, the elite squad of Hitler's bodyguards who later emerged as a secret police force that waged campaigns of terror in the name of Nazism. In 1943, Mengele was called to a position that would earn him his well-deserved infamy. SS head Heinrich Himmler appointed Mengele the chief doctor of the Auschwitz death camps in Poland.

Mengele, in distinctive white gloves, supervised the selection of Auschwitz' incoming prisoners for either torturous labor or immediate extermination, shouting either "Right!" or "Left!" to direct them to their fate. Eager to advance his medical career by publishing "groundbreaking" work, he then began experimenting on live Jewish prisoners. In the guise of medical "treatment," Mengele injected, or ordered others to inject, thousands of inmates with everything from petrol to chloroform to study the chemicals' effects. Among other atrocities, he plucked out the eyes of Gypsy corpses to study eye pigmentation, and conducted numerous gruesome studies of twins.

Mengele managed to escape imprisonment after the war, first by working as a farm stableman in Bavaria, then by moving to South America. He became a citizen of Paraguay in 1959. He later moved to Brazil, where he met up with another former Nazi party member, Wolfgang Gerhard. In 1985, a multinational team of forensic experts traveled to Brazil in search of Mengele. They determined that a man named Gerhard had died of a stroke while swimming in 1979. Dental records later revealed that Mengele had, at some point, assumed Gerhard's identity and was the stroke victim.

[LSUFAN]

On this day in 1914, the silent film Kid Auto Races at Venice premieres in theaters, featuring the actor Charlie Chaplin in his first screen appearance as the “Little Tramp,” the character that would become his best-known onscreen alter ego.

Born on April 16, 1889, in England, Chaplin became a professional performer by the age of 10. In 1908, he joined the Fred Karno pantomime troupe, earning special notice for his portrayal of a character known as “The Drunk.” The troupe was touring the United States in 1913 when Chaplin was signed by Mack Sennett, whose Keystone Studios was becoming known for its short slapstick comedy films. In his first Keystone comedy, Making a Living, Chaplin played a swindler, complete with a sinister mustache and a monocle. The performance wasn’t as funny as expected, but Sennett gave his newest comic another chance, casting him in Kid Auto Races at Venice.

In preparation for filming, Chaplin reportedly combed through the Keystone costume closets to create the now-famous look of the Little Tramp. “Pants baggy, coat tight…hat small, shoes large,” as he later described it in his autobiography. To disguise the character’s age, he added a brush-like mustache over his lip. “I had no idea of the character,” he wrote, “but the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was.” In Kid Auto Races at Venice, the Little Tramp goes to a children’s cart race held in Venice, California, where he interferes with the race and gets in the way of the cameraman trying to take pictures of the contestants. Chaplin later refined the character, which to many became inseparable from the actor and filmmaker himself. Kid Auto Races at Venice captures the Tramp’s essence as a part-comic, part-tragic figure with a shuffling walk, expressive face and exaggeratedly polite manners. Upon its release, the film was an immediate hit and the Tramp was a sensation, making Chaplin the most famous actor in Hollywood.

After 35 Keystone comedies, Chaplin moved on to ever-more lucrative contracts with Essanay Studios, Mutual and First National before founding the United Artists studio in 1919 with his fellow actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford and the director D.W. Griffith. Chaplin would not always technically play a tramp, but his characters invariably had a bit of the Tramp in them, whether working as a waiter (1916’s The Rink), a janitor (1918’s Triple Trouble) or a gold prospector (1925’s The Gold Rush, considered by many to be Chaplin’s masterpiece). The Tramp himself made memorable appearances in a number of acclaimed hits, including The Tramp (1915), The Kid (1921), The Circus (1928) and City Lights (1931).

After the movies converted to sound in the late 1920s, Chaplin held out for a while but finally gave his Tramp a voice in Modern Times (1936); he covered his British accent by singing nonsensical fake Italian lyrics. Though Chaplin would make other films, including The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952), Modern Times marked the last appearance of his immortal alter ego.

[LSUFAN]

On this day in 1812, the most violent of a series of earthquakes near Missouri causes a so-called fluvial tsunami in the Mississippi River, actually making the river run backward for several hours. The series of tremors, which took place between December 1811 and March 1812, were the most powerful in the history of the United States.

The unusual seismic activity began at about 2 a.m. on December 16, 1811, when a strong tremor rocked the New Madrid region. The city of New Madrid, located near the Mississippi River in present-day Arkansas, had about 1,000 residents at the time, mostly farmers, hunters and fur trappers. At 7:15 a.m., an even more powerful quake erupted, now estimated to have had a magnitude of 8.6. This tremor literally knocked people off their feet and many people experienced nausea from the extensive rolling of the earth. Given that the area was sparsely populated and there weren't many multi-story structures, the death toll was relatively low. However, the quake did cause landslides that destroyed several communities, including Little Prairie, Missouri.

The earthquake also caused fissures--some as much as several hundred feet long--to open on the earth's surface. Large trees were snapped in two. Sulfur leaked out from underground pockets and river banks vanished, flooding thousands of acres of forests. On January 23, 1812, an estimated 8.4-magnitude quake struck in nearly the same location, causing disastrous effects. Reportedly, the president's wife, Dolley Madison, was awoken by the tremor in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, the death toll was smaller, as most of the survivors of the first earthquake were now living in tents, in which they could not be crushed.

The strongest of the tremors followed on February 7. This one was estimated at an amazing 8.8-magnitude and was probably one of the strongest quakes in human history. Church bells rang in Boston, thousands of miles away, from the shaking. Brick walls were toppled in Cincinnati. In the Mississippi River, water turned brown and whirlpools developed suddenly from the depressions created in the riverbed. Waterfalls were created in an instant; in one report, 30 boats were helplessly thrown over falls, killing the people on board. Many of the small islands in the middle of the river, often used as bases by river pirates, permanently disappeared. Large lakes, such as Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee and Big Lake at the Arkansas-Missouri border, were created by the earthquake as river water poured into new depressions.

This series of large earthquakes ended in March, although there were aftershocks for a few more years. In all, it is believed that approximately 1,000 people died because of the earthquakes, though an accurate count is difficult to determine because of a lack of an accurate record of the Native American population in the area at the time.

[LSUFAN]

1943 - Gareth Hunt, English actor (d. 2007)
1944 - Berend baron van Voorst tot Voorst, Dutch foreign state sect (CDA)
1944 - Berry [AH] Esselink, Dutch MP (CDA)
1944 - Michael A Andrews, (Rep-D-TX, 1983- )
1945 - Gerald Davies, British rugby player
1945 - Pete Postlethwaite, actor (The Boxer)
1945 - Ian Jack, Scottish journalist
1946 - Hector Babenco, director (Ironweed, Kiss of the Spider Woman)
1946 - Lawrence Ascott, rocker (Isotope)
1946 - Sammy Johns, rocker (Politics, Religion & Her), (d. 2013)
1947 - Joe Shea, American journalist
1948 - Jimmy Greenspoon, LA Cal, rock organist (3 Dog Night-Joy to the World)
1949 - Alan Lancaster, bassist (Status Quo-Down Down, On the Level)
1949 - Sunil Wettimuny, cricket (Sri Lanka open batsman 1975-79 World Cups)
1949 - Paulo César Carpegiani, Brazilian footballer and coach
1950 - Burt Hooton, baseball player
1950 - Marilyn Cochran, Burlington Vt, skier (Olympics-1972)
1951 - Benny Ayala, baseball player
1951 - Manfred Schumann, German FR, bobsled (Olympic-silver/bronze-1976)
1952 - Vasco Rossi, Italian singer
1953 - Robert Brazile, NFLer
1953 - Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player, born in Santa Monica, California, (d. 1998)
1954 - Miguel Ferrer, actor (Robocop), born in Santa Monica, California
1954 - Dieter Bohlen German composer
1954 - Brian Morton, Scottish writer
1955 - Charlie Puleo, baseball player
1955 - Rolf Benirschke, NFL place kicker/TV host (Wheel of Fortune), born in Boston, Massachusetts
1955 - Mario Coutinho, Brazilian physician
1956 - Emo Philips, American comedian
1956 - Mark St. John, American musician (Kiss) (d. 2007)
1957 - Carney Lansford, baseball player
1957 - Damaso Garcia, baseball player
1957 - Richard Cook, British jazz writer (d. 2007)
1958 - Manuel Mijares, Mexico, spanish vocalist (Maria Bonita)
1958 - Michele Drake, La Jolla CA, playmate (May, 1979)
1958 - Matt Ridley, British science writer
1959 - Brian Travers, rock saxophonist (UB40-Red Wine)
1959 - Sammy Lee, British soccer player
1960 - James Spader, actor (Endless Love, Wall St, Mannequin), born in NYC, New York
1960 - Steve Bronski, rock synthesizer (Bronski Beat-Smalltown Boy)
Country Music Singer and Songwriter Garth BrooksCountry Music Singer and Songwriter Garth Brooks (1962)
1962 - Garth Brooks, Tulsa Oklahoma, country vocalist (No Fences, Double Live)
1962 - Alan Sippy, cricketer (dashing Bombay lefty batsman of 1980's)
1962 - David Bryan, rock keyboardist (Bon Jovi-You Give Love a Bad Name)
1962 - Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
1963 - Heidemarie M Stefanyshyn-Piper, St Paul Minn, Lt Cmdr USN/astronaut
1963 - Roland Lefebvre, cricket pace bowler (Glamorgan & Holland)
1964 - Cynthia "Sippy" Woodhead, Riverside California, swimmer (Olympic-silver-84)
1964 - Dona L Speir, Norwalk California, playmate (March, 1984)
1964 - Gretchen Magers, Pittsburgh PA/San Antonio TX, tennis star
1965 - Jason Gedrick, actor (Heavenly Kid, Class of '96), born in Chicago, Illinois
1965 - Kristal Parker-Gregory, Columbus OH, LPGA golfer (1995 Hawaiian-20th)
1965 - Reginald Thal, soccer player (MVV)
1966 - Chris Rock, comedian (SNL, CB4, Boomerang)
1967 - Joseph Tilford Leigh Greene, Dayton Ohio, long jumper (Oly-br-92, 96)
1967 - Richie Burnett, Welsh darts player
1967 - Cheung Man, Hong Kong actress
1968 - Ashely Allen, San Antonio TX, playmate (Aug, 1992)
1968 - Martin Sinner, Koblenz Germany, tennis star (1990 Pretoria)
1968 - Michael Stich, Germany, tennis star
1968 - Peter Bondra, Lutsk Ukr, NHL right wing (Washington Capitals)
1968 - Sully Erna, American singer (Godsmack)
1969 - Bucky Richardson, US football quarterback (Houston Oilers)
1969 - Fiona Robinson, Collie Western Aust, basketball player (Oly-bronze-96)
1970 - Chris Gardocki, NFL punter (Indianapolis Colts)
1970 - Denis Chasse, Montreal, NHL right wing (Winnipeg Jets)
1970 - Stanley Roberts, NBA center (LA Clippers, Minn Timberwolves)
1971 - Andrew Currey, Australian javelin thrower (Olympics-96)
1971 - Marvin Graves, CFL quarterback (Montreal Alouettes)
1972 - Aftab Habib, cricketer (Leicestershire righty batsman 1996)
1972 - John Slaney, St John's, NHL defenseman (LA Kings)
1972 - Essence Atkins, American actress
1972 - Alex Bassi, American race car driver
1972 - Robyn Lively, American actress
1973 - Billy Baumhoff, St Louis MO, soccer midfielder/forward (Oly-gold-96)
1973 - Juwan Howard, NBA forward/center (Washington Bullets/Wizards)
1973 - Kristin Godridge, Traralgon Aust, tennis star (1993 Futures-Singapore)
1973 - Leanne Schuster, Mesa Az, WPVA volleyballer (National-9th-1995)
1973 - Sonia Paquette, St-Janvier Quebec, hurdler (Olympics-96)
1973 - Tim Bowens, NFL defensive tackle (Miami Dolphins)
1974 - Ryan Phillips, linebacker (NY Giants)
Basketball Player Steve NashBasketball Player Steve Nash (1974)
1974 - Steve Nash, Johannesburg South Africa, Canadian NBA guard (Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, LA Lakers)
1974 - Emma McLaughlin, American novelist
1975 - Alexandre Daigle, Montreal, NHL center (Ottawa Senators)
1975 - Marika Lehtimaki, ice hockey center (Finland, Oly-98)
1975 - Wes Borland, American guitarist (Limp Bizkit)
1976 - Hrafnhildur Hafsteinsdottir, Miss Universe-Iceland (1996)
1976 - Terry Battle, running back (Detroit Lions)
1976 - Sreto Ristić, German footballer
1977 - Christine Scheels, New Berlin Wis, speed skater (Olympics-1994)
1977 - Hillary Wolf, extra lightweight judoka (Olympics-96), born in Chicago, Illinois
1977 - Mariusz Pudzianowski, Polish strongman competitor
Actor Ashton KutcherActor Ashton Kutcher (1978)
1978 - Ashton Kutcher, Cedar Rapids Iowa, American actor (That 70s Show)
1978 - Daniel Van Buyten, Belgian footballer
1978 - Endy Chávez, baseball player
1978 - David Aebischer, National Hockey League goaltender
1979 - Cerina Vincent, Miss Nevada Teen USA (1996)
1979 - Jon Leicester, American baseball player
1983 - Christian Klien, Austrian racing driver
1983 - Teshome Getu, Ethiopian footballer
1983 - Georgios Gougoulias, Greek footballer
1985 - Tina Majorino, actress, (Waterworld, When a Man Loves a Woman)
1985 - Clara Bryant, American actress
1986 - Deanna Casaluce, Canadian actress
1986 - Michael Orozco, American footballer
1988 - Ai Kago, Japanese singer
1988 - Matthew Stafford, American college football player
1989 - Louisa Lytton - British actress
1990 - Steven Stamkos, Canadian ice hockey player
1991 - Rachel Sibner, American actress
1992 - Miguel Andres Matienzo Guerra, Mexican athlete
1992 - Maimi Yajima, Japanese singer
1993 - David Dorfman, American actor
1993 - Philip Wiegratz, German actor
1996 - Mai Hagiwara, Japanese singe

[LSUFAN]

What causes arthritis?
-------------------------

A man who smelled like a distillery flopped on a subway seat
next to a priest. The man's tie was stained, his face was
plastered with red lipstick, and a half-empty bottle of gin was
sticking out of his torn coat pocket. He opened his newspaper
and began reading. After a few minutes the disheveled guy turned
to the priest and asked, "Say, Father, what causes arthritis?"

"My son, it's caused by loose living, being with cheap, wicked
women, too much alcohol, and a contempt for your fellow man."

"Well, I'll be damned," the drunk muttered, returning to his paper.

The priest, thinking about what he had said, nudged the man and
apologized. "I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to come on so strong.
How long have you had arthritis?"

"I don't have it, Father. I was just reading here that the Pope does."

[LuvTooGolf]

Morning Chip, Dean.

[LSUFAN]

Morning Chip, Dean.

Good morning Dave.

[LSUFAN]

good morning Chip.

Good morning Dean, you snuck in on me.