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All Things Are Relative

“All things are relative.” 

Or..so the sages would have us believe.

I once had a teacher who loved to say, “All things are as they should be.” (However, a close friend tells everyone he meets, that the word “Should"...‘should’ be removed from our language, since it just causes angst and anger among those of us who over-use it.)

Here are some example, in my opinion, of things that just “shouldn’t” be...or are "as they should be."


1.  Do you know that not one single every produced and released by the Beatles, has ever sold more copies than “Tik-Tok” by Ke$ha? This was her debut single. Here’s where the “all things are relative” comes into play. There are more people “acquiring” (including ‘purchasing’) music today, than in the late ‘60’s – therefore numbers can be relative. But, God help me…more than any Beatle’s single? This just seems against the laws of nature.

2.  In 2012, one out of every seven Americans had at least 10 credit cards.  Are you kidding me?! With all the hue and cry about the economy, it appears that lots of people haven’t either felt enough pain…or…they are continue the personal laissez-faire financial attitude that helped drive us off the fiscal cliff.

 

Considering that these millions of American don’t see how they are trivializing their own finances, I therefore think this fact falls in the trivia category.

3.  NY Yankee first baseman, Joe Pepitone (the first professional ballplayer to bring a hair dyer into the clubhouse) was born in Brooklyn on October 9, 1940. Big deal? However, another baby born on the same day, across the pond in Liverpool, UK, turned out to be John Lennon (the first pop singer to be assassinated).

 

Now that’s an interesting coincidence. Or, perhaps it is “as it should be.”

4.  Most people know that Edgar Allen Poe
is associated with dark themes, death and lost love. He’s considered the originator of the detective crime novel. But, few – even deep admirers – know that he was considered somewhat of an expert on sea shells. due to a constant need for money, Poe produced an updated adaptation “A Manual of Conchology,” that was released in 1839, under the title “The Conchologist’s First Book.”

For his effort, Poe was paid $50. In today's economy, that would be worth $1,190.50. 

Poe’s novel, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” (which was never very popular) gives readers insight into his love of sea shells. And Poe followers have found a mild influence (by the novel) on Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.

Mr. Poe seems to have been more than a heavy drinking novelist and poet who lived in the dark shadows in which his characters typically resided. He also worked in "other" modes of expression, to pay the bills. He might have been the Jack Kerouac of his day. But, like modern writers, there is more to them, than their popular novels. J.D. Salinger worked as the entertainment director of a cruise line. Kurt Vonnegut managed a car dealership for Saab. And, John Steinbeck hated his work as a construction worker on Madison Square Garden.

5. Did you know that zucchini isn’t a vegetable? Now, what it is came as a verbal surprise. I didn’t expect to hear/read the following. It is actually an immature fruit – the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower. Well…OK. I can live with that. Speaking of food, what’s with the ever-growing number of reality TV cooking shows? My wife won’t appreciate this, but the cooking programs, while they allow cat fights to occur between warring chefs (or chef wannabes), that often display down-and-dirty back-stabbing and self-acclaimed ego dysfunction leading to melt-downs and sobbing, the food produced is a hell of a lot more entertaining and intellectually mouth watering than anything Project Runway produces. So…what are the top 5 reality cooking shows (as of January 2013)? Is it “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Iron Chef America,” “Sweet Genius,” “Top Chef,” “MasterChef,” “The Next Iron Chef,” “Chopped,” or “Restaurant Wars?” Yes, we listed 8. Three didn’t make the top 5 list. Here goes: #1 goes to “Top Chef.” The Quickfire and Elimination challenges are very popular with viewers. Winners can walk away with $200,000 and a feature in “Food & Wine Magazine.”

 

#2 on the list is “MasterChef,” which features amateur cooks. Starting off with 100 wannabe chefs, who prepare what they call their signature dishes, only 14 make the final competition. Three judges, including Joe Bastianich, Graham Ellio and the infamous (yet sedated) Gordon Ramsay, make the final decision. #3 goes to the often-wild “Hell’s Kitchen.” If you’re into verbal abuse and lots of “bleeping out” of cuss words, this is the show for you. Gordon Ramsay runs a tight ship with brutal truths – even devastating assessments that leave competing aspiring chefs in the dust – and on the floor. #4 on the list is “The Next Iron Chef.” It appears the student has surpassed the teacher. While a spin-off of “Iron Chef America,” this show has moved its parent to a lower position on this list. Two contesting chefs go head-to-head in “Kitchen Stadium,” coming up with recipes that often include some off-the-wall key ingredients. And finally…there is the #5 TV cooking shows. And the honor goes to ”Chopped.” If you recall the reality show, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” you’ll recognize the host of “Chopped” – Ted Allen. Starting out with four chefs, elimination rounds, revolving around mystery ingredients in wicker baskets, provide enough culinary challenges and opportunities for one winner to eventually emerge. Each episode features all new contesting chefs, who prepare their dishes for a panel of three experienced chefs and food reviewers.

 

The other shows mentioned, didn’t make the Top 5 List. Who cares?! I don't. Maybe you do. I find too many of these shows seem frightenly similar. Perhaps they are all “relative,” and their repetitiveness “as it should be.” But I find them a definition of hell. - - - - Just a few thoughts. They be "as they should be," or perhaps they "shouldn't" have happened. I’ve been wrong before. But, I do know that they are trivial.

Happy New Year from GT

Picking the “Person of the Year” Isn’t All that Easy or Flawless

Happy New Year! We at Guerrilla Trivia wish you and yours the very best for a great 2013.

Back in 1927, TIME magazine initiated a tradition that has survived criticism and adulation. The first selection of “Man of the Year” was the young dashing pilot, Charles Lindbergh. Over the years, the selections have typically been a single person. However, groups and multiple individuals have been chosen.

So…many Americans were pleased to see President Barack Obama selected as the TIME “Person of the Year” (for the second time).  Of course, there were plenty who weren’t. You can’t please everyone.

It must be a tough job, filtering out pros and cons, trying to fathom successes and failures, deciding who fits the definition of what qualifies one to be that special person.  So, what are the qualifications?

Back in 2001, Jim Kelly, TIME editor, interviewed on the Web, gave this classic definition of who qualifies: “…the person who most affected the events of the year, for better or for worse.” In 1938, Adolf Hiter made the cover (published Jan. 2, 1939) “before all his crimes became known to the world. When Hitler made ‘Man of the Year,’ the illustration was of him playing the Organ of Death with skeletons all over it. It was not meant to be an honor to Hitler. The reaction to it was surprisingly mute.”

The selection of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 was controversial, and a few hundred people canceled their subscriptions. Women have been Person of the Year: Wallace Warfield-Simpson, who married the King of England; Queen Elizabeth has been Woman of the Year; Madame Chaing Kai-Shek and Cori Aquino also made the cut. In 1975, all American Women were the choice.

Here’s the list of the chosen few:

1927	Charles Augustus Lindbergh
1928	Walter P. Chrysler
1929	Owen D. Young
1930	Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1931	Pierre Laval
1932	Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1933	Hugh Samuel Johnson
1934	Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1935	Haile Selassie
1936	Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson
1937	Generalissimo & Mme Chiang Kai-Shek
1938	Adolf Hitler
1939	Joseph Stalin
1940	Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1941	Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1942	Joseph Stalin
1943	George Catlett Marshall
1944	Dwight David Eisenhower
1945	Harry Truman
1946	James F. Byrnes
1947	George Catlett Marshall
1948	Harry Truman
1949	Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1950	American Fighting-Man
1951	Mohammed Mossadegh
1952	Elizabeth II
1953	Konrad Adenauer
1954	John Foster Dulles
1955	Harlow Herbert Curtice
1956	Hungarian Freedom Fighter
1957	Nikita Krushchev
1958	Charles De Gaulle
1959	Dwight David Eisenhower
1960	U.S. Scientists
1961	John Fitzgerald Kennedy
1962	Pope John XXIII
1963	Martin Luther King Jr.
1964	Lyndon B. Johnson
1965	General William Childs Westmoreland
1966	Twenty-Five and Under
1967	Lyndon B. Johnson
1968	Astronauts Anders, Borman and Lovell
1969	The Middle Americans
1970	Willy Brandt
1971	Richard Milhous Nixon
1972	Nixon and Kissinger
1973	John J. Sirica
1974	King Faisal
1975	American Women
1976	Jimmy Carter
1977	Anwar Sadat
1978	Teng Hsiao-P'ing
1979	Ayatullah Khomeini
1980	Ronald Reagan
1981	Lech Walesa
1982	The Computer
1983	Ronald Reagan & Yuri Andropov
1984	Peter Ueberroth
1985	Deng Xiaoping
1986	Corazon Aquino
1987	Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1988	Endangered Earth
1989	Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
1990	The Two George Bushes
1991	Ted Turner
1992	Bill Clinton
1993	The Peacemakers
1994	Pope John Paul II
1995	Newt Gingrich
1996	Dr. David Ho
1997	Andy Grove
1998	Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr
1999	Jeff Bezos
2000	George W. Bush
2001	Rudolph Giuliani
2002	The Whistleblowers
2003	The American Soldier
2004	George W. Bush
2005	Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, & Bono
2006	You
2007	Vladimir Putin
2008	Barack Obama
2009	Ben Bernanke
2010	Mark Zuckerberg

Did you notice which U.S. Presidents made it twice?

How quickly we all forget. Do you remember the cover selection for 2011?

Who would have been your choice for 2012?

George Armstrong Custer – A Few Guerrilla Trivia Perspectives:

Described as hard driving and hard headed, George Armstrong Custer was also known dunderhead. Is that a fair description? Let’s look at a few events and facts. You can make your own conclusion – the Lord knows: historians have reached all kinds of conclusions about him.

As the son of an Ohio blacksmith, George lived a sparse existence. He actually met, Elizabeth, his future wife, while attending a school near the home of an aunt he was sent to live with, when his family couldn’t afford to support him. Elizabeth’s father, Judge Bacon, permitted George to work odd jobs around his property, but never permitted the boy into his home. Later, when George wanted to be a lawyer, the necessary funds weren’t available, so he got himself an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

He still had to pass the entrance exam, when he arrived at West Point in June, 1857. At the time, there were 107 other cadet candidates, but after taking the exam, more than one third of the young men were eliminated. Along with 67 survivors, George began his undignified stint at the school. By the time he graduated in 1861, there were only 34 cadets left – and he ranked 34th. Not too distinguishing.

When the Civil War began, Custer was with General George Brinton McClellan’s staff and participated in the combat at Bull Run and Antietam in 1862. His star really rose during action at Gettysburg a year later. Some have credited his cavalry escapades with turning the tide of the battle and possibly the tide of the entire war. He even showed up at the surrender of Robert E. Lee to U.S. Grant at Appomattox. All of this combined to create an aura around the formerly floundering young man, and at the ripe old age of 23, George had risen to the rank of brigadier general.

Let’s skip ahead thirteen years to June 25, 1876. Here we find the still hot headed, driven and often flakey cavalryman, now in charge of the 7th Cavalry. Although he was no longer a brigadier general, and was lucky to be a lieutenant colonel, Custer was about to make real history – not necessarily the kind people look forward to making.

     Photograph of Custer’s 7th Cavalry as they rode toward disaster.

Just a week or so before the U.S. birthday party – the Centennial – was to kick off in Philadelphia, Custer and his force left Fort Lincoln and rode along the Little Big Horn River. Nine days before the high jinks began with fireworks in Philly, our hero rode along the banks of the Little Big Horn River. His objective was to locate the amassed Cheyenne and Sioux warriors gathered there and keep them from getting away, so that other cavalry forces could circle around and take their village.


                            Drawing made in 1930 by a survivor, Big Beaver, that shows the village and the approaching troopers.

Some 4,000 warriors thought differently than Custer, and took true guerrilla tactics to defend themselves. Custer, in his own feverish mind, could not wait for reinforcements and assumed a take-no-prisoners attitude.

Portrait of George Custer as Commander of the 7th


Yes, there were other names that are part of the story: Benteen and Reno are the two most obvious. Their side of things are for another day.

An isolated Custer found himself singled out for the total outrage of the Sioux and Cheyenne. Having crossed the Little Big Horn River, the troops were driven back. They took refuge on a small piece or real estate today called ‘Last Stand Hill.’ When Reno and Benteen’s reinforcement attempts proved unsuccessful, the warriors obstructing their efforts were supposedly observed riding with flags taken from Custer and his command. This meant the fight was most likely already over – over so quickly.

To make the story shorter, not only did he get himself killed on the field of battle, known as the Little Big Horn, he also got his two brothers, Boston and Tom, killed. But that wasn’t the end of familial death. John Calhoun, his wife’s brother, and Autie Reed, his young nephew, rode into the valley of death with him. This really was a family affair. To round out the losses on the battlefield, there were five companies of troops, totaling 227, not including the four soon-to-be-dead family members.

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There have been arguments for generations about possible survivors of the massacre. There have been books written and movies made that offer up tales about survivors. HOWEVER, there really was one true and agreed upon survivor. Here’s his photograph. His name: Camanche.

What happened at ‘Custer’s Last Stand’ will remain one of those historic events that will always continue to spark argument, spark the imagination and continue to remain outside the complete understanding of us.

In an attempt to ‘understand,’ while celebrating the heroic bravery of Custer, Walt Whitman wrote “A Sonnet for Custer.” Here is a copy of the poem in Whitman’s own hand.

Many illustrated versions of the ‘Last Stand,’ and Custer’s heroism, were produced over the decades to follow. Here is one such example (even if the village of tents weren’t there – and Custer’s famous locks had been cut before leaving Ft. Lincoln).

 
Perhaps the most popular of all illustrations of the “supposed” event was produced by the Anheuser-Busch brewery and could be found in pubs and taverns and bars across North America.

The story (the truth, the fiction, the hoped-for tale) of George Armstrong Custer will continue to be unraveled and/or revealed, as time goes by. These are just some of the facts (not the fictions). Trivial bits of truth, here and there, make the Custer legend more and more attractive.

D-Day

How’s Your D-Day History?

Watching the Hatfields and the McCoys the other evening on the History Channel, I found myself wondering about the accuracy of the characters – their clothing, the way the cabins were furnished, the weapons used, the dialogue. All of us can think of Hollywood flicks that made for great viewing, yet were slim on accuracy.

D-Day has been the subject of motion pictures, virtually since the end of World War II. Some were more accurate than others. Some were dramatically wrong in so many ways. None have been completely accurate.

Let’s take a look.

The most recent example of a great movie, full of drama and action, with a compelling storyline is: Saving Private Ryan.

Do you recognize this guy?

Well, his name is Sergeant "Fritz" Niland -- a member of the 101st Airborne's 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, and was one of those that made the drop into Normandy on June 6, 1944. He landed southwest of Carentan in Raffoville, and he was eventually able to make it back to his unit on his own.

Niland's three brothers served in other units; Lieutenant Preston Niland served in the 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division (died on June 7), Technical Sergeant Robert Niland was a paratrooper in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division (killed on June 6), and Technical Sergeant Edward Niland was a pilot in the Army Air Force (went MIA).

Niland was the real-life version of Private Ryan. Unlike the fictional Ryan, there was no need to send out a rescue mission (led by the like of Tom Hanks) to find him. When a chaplain of the 501^st, Father Francis L. Sampson, learned that two of Niland's brothers were dead, and that a third was presumed dead, he began the paperwork necessary to send Niland home – which worked.

What about another popular D-Day movie: The Longest Day (released October 4, 1962 by 20th Century Fox and shot in France).

Do you recognize the guy with arm raised?

Well, he isn’t a real military hero. He’s actor Robert Mitchum and he’s portraying the highest ranking officer on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 – Colonel Norm Cota.

Cota is best known for personally directing the attack, motivating the shell-shocked, pinned-down survivors of the beach landing into action, and opening one of the first means to get off the beach.  He supposedly made two well-known commands (quotes) that day:

*  When coming upon the commander of the 5^th Ranger Battalion, Max Schneider, Costa asked: “What outfit is this?” When some unknown soldier yelled back: "5th Rangers!" Cota is remembered for screaming: “Well, goddamn it then, Rangers, lead the way!”.

BTW: "Rangers lead the way" became the motto of the 75th Ranger Regiment.

*  Mistakenly Cota has been quoted as saying to his troops, "Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed."

The 1962 film, The Longest Day, mistakenly portrays Cota giving troops a verbal kick in the ass, which history shows us was actually the encouragement of Colonel George A. Taylor. Here’s what was said by actor Robert Mitchem – and not by the real Col. Cota:  "There are only two kinds of people who are staying on this beach -- those who are already dead and those that are gonna'die. Now get off your butts, you're the fight'in 29th!"

- - - - - - - -

Speaking of Hollywood, there’s another way to look at D-Day and a Hollywood actor.

Do you recognize this guy?

Sure, he’s in uniform, but it isn’t one he wore on D-Day.

Here is a photo of actor James Doohan  -- known as "Scotty" on Star Trek.

Back on June 6, 1944, Doohan landed in Normandy with Allied troops. He was a member of the Third Canadian Infantry Division that hit Juno Beach in the first wave, where he took out a couple of German snipers, before being wounded in a leg and right hand by a machine gunner. In his biography, “Beam Me Up Scotty,” he wrote of losing his right middle finger, which has been mangled in the firefight. His wounds did not remove him from the war. He was retrained and became an air observation pilot, based out of Holland.

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These are just three stories about D-Day and Hollywood. There are actually many more. Hope you enjoyed these examples.

GT

Trifling with Trivia Ain’t Funny