This Date in History - September 9

 

Happy birthday to Angela Cartwright.  Boy, did I have a crush on her during those "Lost In Space" days.

9:  ARMINIUS' ALLIANCE OF SIX GERMANIC TRIBES AMBUSHES AND ANNIHILATES THREE ROMAN LEGIONS OF PUBLIUS QUINCTILIUS VARUS IN THE BATTLE OF THE TEUTOBURG FOREST.

The only thing I care about here is the fact that this was the last single digit year we ever had.

337:  CONSTANTINE II, CONSTANTIUS II, AND CONSTANS SUCCEED THEIR FATHER CONSTANTINE I AS CO-EMPERORS.

Naming your kids all the same thing?  Tacky.

1087:  WILLIAM RUFUS BECOMES KING OF ENGLAND, TAKING THE TITLE OF WILLIAM II.

Clever.  How did he ever come up with that?

1488:  ANNE BECOMES SOVEREIGN DUCHESS OF BRITTANY, BECOMING A CENTRAL FIGURE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INFLUENCE THAT LEADS TO THE UNION OF BRITTANY AND FRANCE.

I see London, I see France, I see Brittany's underpants.

1543:  MARY STUART, AT NINE MONTHS OLD, IS CROWNED "QUEEN OF SCOTS."  

Well, don't expect her to do much yet.

1776:  THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS OFFICIALLY NAMES ITS NEW UNION THE UNITED STATES.

Back when we really were united.

1791:  WASHINGTON DC, THE CAPITAL OF THE US, IS NAMED AFTER PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON.

I guess they never bothered to change it under Obama.

1850:  CALIFORNIA IS ADMITTED AS THE THIRTY-FIRST US STATE.

Mexico became the thirty-third.

1850:  THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 TRANSFERS A THIRD OF TEXAS' CLAIMED TERRITORY (NOW PARTS OF COLORADO, KANSAS, NEW MEXICO, OKLAHOMA, AND WYOMING) TO FEDERAL CONTROL IN RETURN FOR THE US GOVERNMENT ASSUMING 10 MILLION DOLLARS OF TEXAS'S PRE-ANNEXATION DEBT.

And, in 2015, they still want to be their own country.

1890:  KFC FOUNDER COLONEL SANDERS IS BORN.

From which side of the rat do you get dark meat?

1914:  DURING WORLD WAR I, THE CREATION OF THE CANADIAN AUTOMOBILE MACHINE GUN BRIGADE AS PART OF THE BRITISH ARMY.

Later to be sold to Elliot Ness and the Untouchables.

1926:  THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY IS FORMED.

Bum bum bum.

1932:  ACTRESS SYLVIA MILES IS BORN.

She looked old when she was young.

1940:  GEORGE STIBITZ PIONEERS THE FIRST REMOTE OPERATION OF A COMPUTER.

Where's the control-alt-delete function?

1941:  SINGER OTIS REDDING IS BORN.

Sittin' on the dock...oh, never mind.

1942:  DURING WORLD WAR II, A JAPANESE FLOATPLANE DROPS INCENDIARY BOMBS ON OREGON.

Oregon???  How did they get that far?

1947:  FIRST CASE OF  A COMPUTER BUG BEING FOUND - A MOTH LODGES IN A RELAY OF A HARVARD MARK II COMPUTER AT HARVARD.

So the first computer bug was really a bug.

1952:  ACTRESS ANGELA CARTWRIGHT IS BORN.

National holiday in my house.

1956:  ELVIS PRESLEY APPEARS ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW FOR THE FIRST TIME.

From the waist up.

1965:  THE US DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OPENS.

Yeah, a fat lot of good they've done.

1971:  THE FOUR-DAY ATTICA PRISON RIOT BEGINS, EVENTUALLY RESULTING IN 39 DEAD, MOST KILLED BY STATE TROOPERS RETAKING THE PRISON.

1975:  ACTOR JOHN MCGIVER DIES.

A fellow Fordham graduate.

1993:  THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES ISRAEL AS A STATE.

Sure they do.

1997:  BASEBALL STAR RICHIE ASHBURN DIES.

An original Met.

1999:  ACTRESS RUTH ROMAN DIES.

If I'm not mistaken, she was a survivor of the Andrea Dorea shipwreck.

2009:  THE DUBAI METRO, THE FIRST URBAN TRAIN NETWORK IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA, IS CEREMONIALLY INAUGURATED.

Now there's a train I will never ever be on.

2012:  A WAVE OF ATTACKS KILL MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE AND INJURE 350 OTHERS ACROSS IRAQ.

What kind of attacks?  Terrorist?  Gall bladder?  More info please.

2024:  ACTOR JAMES EARL JONES DIES.

I wonder if the helmet fit into the coffin.

Dinner last night:   Grilled beef sausage.

My Kingdom for a Toothpick

 

Such a small, inconsequential item.   I remember my dad always had one in his mouth after a meal...emulating former baseball manager Dusty Baker.   

As for me, I did all the other things one does to clean teeth.   Oral-B.  Mouthwash.  Dental floss.  But those are tough to do when you are out and about in public.   In those moments, a toothpick is needed.

Try to find one.

Okay, a little back story.   Back of my mouth, particularly.   There's some long term movement of teeth going on in my advanced age.   What is happening has resulted in some pronounced space between two teeth in the left back side of my mouth.  As a result, food gets wedged in there pretty snugly.  And I keep feeling it with my tongue that just makes me even more annoyed.

Now if I am home, there is no issue.  Oral B.  Mouthwash.  Dental floss.  But when I'm out at the movies or at Dodger Stadium or really any public place for that matter, food connects to that area and doesn't move.

A perfect role for a handy toothpick.

Okay, try and find one.

Bartenders don't have them.

Waiters don't have them.

Concession stands don't have them.

Suddenly, you're spending most of your fun evening out in a futile attempt to get a piece of a hot dog out of your mouth.

Last week at the ballpark, I bummed some dental floss off the woman who runs the souvenir stand near me.   That helped but I'm hoping that someone in our society will find reason enough to bring back this little but handy device.   I mean, there are many other uses.   

How does a kid finish his school project which is a piggy back made of toothpicks?

Dinner last night:  Leftover pizza.

Dinner last night:

Monday Morning Video Laugh - September 7, 2026

 Because she is on my mind.

Dinner last night:  Pepperoni pizza at Pizzanna.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - The Labor Day Twinbill

 

"Let's play two!"

Or, in the case of this famous photo from 1964, let's play three or four.   The Mets and Giants had already played the first game of a Sunday doubleheader.   The second game went twenty three innings and lasted till about 11:30PM.   This prompted Bennett Cerf, a panelist on the live broadcast of "What's My Line" on CBS, to mention what was happening on another channel in New York.  

This stuff doesn't pop up anymore because doubleheaders just don't exist anymore unless there are rainouts.  Even then, if they need to play two games in one day, they do it with separate admissions.   

Back in the day, doubleheaders on Labor Day and other holidays were the norm in baseball.   Much to the delight of the Chicago Cubs' longtime hero, the late Ernie Banks, who always wanted to "play two."  This classy guy never played in a World Series game, but certainly you didn't hear a whole lot of whining from him about that. He was simply content to put on a uniform and play America's pastime from sunrise to sunset. And that included a bunch of doubleheaders in Wrigley Field, which didn't even have lights until 1988.

Of course, Ernie would be much annoyed if he was still hitching up the stirrups as an active player in 2026. Because doubleheaders as we used to know them no longer exist. Those Sunday or holiday afternoons devoted to two games, usually starting at 1PM and then winding up around 7PM. These days, the Yankees and the Red Sox usually play a single game in that same time frame. But, back then, this was one neat day at the ballpark. Tons and tons and tons of baseball. Two games for the price of one. Such a deal.

I went to a few of them when I was a kid and they were still regularly scheduled. Armed with my scorebook and a brown bag filled with two Taylor Ham sandwiches, I was neatly tucked away for a day full of memories. I craved a double bill and my father reluctantly complied for a while. I figured he saw a bargain with two games offered for the price of one ticket. Eventually, his participation fell to the hands of that dreaded four word declaration. 

"Too long to sit." 

My dad would ultimately adapt this time-honored phraseology into other great excuses. 

"Too hot to stand." 

"Too far to drive." 

"Too crowded to go." 

He turned it into a science. But, soon enough, I was old enough to battle them by simply going off to enjoy said event with my neighborhood friends. And that most certainly included a baseball doubleheader.

I remember a bunch of them. There was one on a long ago Independence Day when, in the first game, the Mets' Tom Seaver once again flirted with a no-hitter until the Padres' Leron Lee broke it up with one out in the ninth inning. 

There was another late August one in 1984, prompted by a rainout, where the Mets swept the Padres and showed their fans that years of suffering were paying off thanks for the efforts of Dwight Gooden and Keith Hernandez. 

Indeed, I go back deeper into my annals for a doubleheader I didn't attend. When the Yankees hosted the Minnesota Twins one hot Father's Day in the non-refurbished Yankee Stadium for the first ever Bat Day. Despite my pleading, that one was denied to me via a festival of Dad's excuses. 

It was too hot to stand. 

It was too far to drive. 

It was too crowded to go. 

The hat trick. What made this even more devastating to me was that the fact that most of the other kids in my crowd went. All summer long, I was the only one playing baseball without a Tom Tresh bat.

You don't get these opportunities anymore. Whereas teams used to regularly schedule seven or eight of these Sunday doubleheaders every season along with the impromptu twi-night double dips precipitated by early season rainouts, we are denied now the chance to enjoy six or seven hours of baseball for one admission. Teams now don't want to give up single games of ticket, hot dog and beer sales for the sake of playing two games for one admission. And, now, you don't even get this via a rainout. 

Because, in these greediest of days, major league franchises have now discovered the wonderful financial gluttony of a day-night doubleheader. There's one game in the afternoon. Then the crowd files out, the stadium is allegedly cleaned, and then you have to buy a completely new ticket to see the game at night. Every franchise does this now. And it sucques.

Despite the double admissions, there are other financial benefits that teams enjoy as a result. A few years back, I was at the daytime first game of one of these travesties at Shea Stadium. I engaged an usher in a conversation and he also explained to me that state labor laws are constructed so that the employees do not get overtime on these days. So, essentially, they are working two games in one day, but getting less money than they would if they were attending to a traditional doubleheader. Another buck saved so we can pay that overrated fifth starter 10 million dollars a year.

Time passed and there is only an illusion of progress. We can gripe all we want, but nothing changes. I adapt my father's adage one more time.

"Too frustrated to complain."

Just don't look for a doubleheader on Labor Day.   

Dinner last night: The pre-game buffet at the Dodger Stadium Club.

Classic TV Commercial of the Month - September 2026

 I hated it.  Didn't you?

Dinner last night:  BLT sandwich at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Mugs of September 2026

 

 Yoda's brother?

 I have a dermalogist I can recommend.

 You can make the same appointment as well.

 Wait till your father gets home.

 It's a look.

 Somebody was wearing a wide brim hat at the beach.

 I wonder if you can buy chins at Amazon.

Hair dye should be applied equally.

 Earth to planet, Earth to planet.  Come in, planet.

 Badly in search of an 80s hair band.

 Man, woman, whatever?   Send your guesses in now.

I need the story on why he's wearing a sun dress.

Dinner last night: Hot dog at Holy Cow.

Morons of the Month - September 2026

 

The laughs never stop.

Now, as a little background, I learned about this group called "The Visibility Brigade" by watching from afar the antics of a former work colleague.   I actually wrote about her several months ago.  I used the name "Marisol."   I had become concerned because her social media showed me she had fallen down the rabbit hole.   A confirmed far-leftist, Marisol has gotten a case of Trump hatred that has overtaken every element of her life.

At the time, I wrote that I hope she was going to get help.   Indeed, it's gotten even worse.   To that point, I sincerely think she might physically harm somebody who didn't agree with her politically.   And, because she has gone deeper into darkness, I will occasionally look at her social media postings.

And that's how I became familiar with this group of which Marisol is a card carrying member.   They like to hang around overpasses like this to get their message out.

And what are those messages?   Welp, the federal government is evil.  The powers that be are particularly targeting women.   Their right to choose.  Their right to vote.  Their right to live.  

Most of their rantings are as crazy as you would find either on CNN or Fox.   But the anger is abundant and I have an idea of where it comes from.

Take a look at the gals prominently displayed on social media.   Older.  Single.  I would bet my last dollar that they all have cats.

But they are promoting the resistance because fascism is everywhere.   In their super markets.  In their closets.   Under their beds.  If only these loons would realize that there is plenty of corruption on both sides of the aisle.   

Indeed, none of these people have the foggiest idea what it's like to be persecuted against.   They're all mad and that's that.

At the end of the day, though, none of their lives are challenged negatively in any shape or form.   In fact, as I have noticed previously, Marisol goes on vacations to resorts a lot.   

How is this possible in such a fascist society?

Dinner last night:  Salad and sandwich.