Friday Blog

April 5th is the 107th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Sobek, a professional tennis and handball player who invented racquetball in 1950. His new game incorporated aspects of paddleball, squash and handball. The popularity of Sobek’s game sport skyrocketed in the 1970s due to that decade’s fitness boom. Racquetball’s growth was aided by the existence of thousands of handball courts which could also serve as racquetball courts at YMCAs and Jewish Community Centers. As the game became popular, entrepreneurs started building racquetball clubs. By 1980, it seemed like everyone was playing the sport and the Olympic Committee recognized it as a “developing” Olympic sport. By the mid -1980s, investors realized that they could reap bigger profits by converting space reserved for two racquetball players into rooms that could facilitate aerobics classes or exercise equipment. Many players switched to other physical activities. This had a multiplier effect since racquetball enthusiasts started losing their partners.  Finding new participants had many obstacles including high membership costs and the fact that many people prefer outdoor sports. Another challenge was that many novices were intimidated by the speed of the game and potential for injury. The number of racquetball participants peaked at 12 million in the early eighties. Today there are supposedly 3.5 million players but if you find one, please let me know. New Phenomenon The newest craze is pickleball, a sport that is very appealing to former racquetball and tennis players.  Pickleball has less movement, a smaller court and is easier on aging bodies. The sport was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington as a backyard game for children. Joel Pritchard and a couple of his golfing buddies created the game utilizing spare equipment from several sports: a badminton court, paddleball paddles, a net the height of a tennis net, and a wiffleball.  Pritchard’s wife, Joan, explains that “The name of the game became Pickle Ball after I said it reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats.” Pickleball has been named the fastest-growing sport in the United States for four consecutive years. There are approximately 20 million participants in the U.S, an almost 50% increase from 2023. The 25-34 age group has the most players (4.6M) while seniors over 65 were the second largest bracket (3.8M). Major League Pickleball (MLP) and the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) generate significant revenue from various television networks including Pickleball TV. Professional players with the MLP and PPA tours collectively earn in excess of $30 Million per season, more than the WNBA and the Premiere Lacrosse League. Contrast those numbers with the ill-fated, once extremely popular racquetball. Unlike pickleball which is played in bright sunshine, television networks found that racquetball didn’t translate to the screen because of the dark, confined space in which it was played. And as if racquetball doesn’t have enough problems, Kevin Klipstein, CEO of U.S. Squash has announced that his organization is going to “quickly and aggressively” cannibalize America’s racquetball courts in order to grow participation in squash. Using pickleball’s current threat to tennis as an example, Klipstein vowed to mount a similar takeover of an existing player base and court inventory. Klipstein stated, “Racquetball once did the same thing to handball” The Survivors Squash is as popular as ever due to organized programs at many high schools and colleges. There are approximately 20 million participants spread across 130 countries. An estimated 1.5 million players enjoy squash in the U.S. And what about the sport that was supposedly supplanted by racquetball? Surprisingly. handball’s popularity estimates are almost identical to those of Squash -an estimated 20 million participants worldwide, 1.5 million of whom live in the U.S. The good news is that if you want to stay physically fit and mentally alert there are plenty of sports from which to choose. So far, I have avoided the siren call of the pickleball court. However, I expect it will be around for a while because unlike racquetball it is outdoors (usually), inexpensive and relatively easy on aging bones. Now if I could only find an alternative to golf! Have a great weekend.   .

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Like many baby boomers, I always  looked upon Dwight D. Eisenhower as a boring, uninteresting  leader particularly when compared to his charismatic successor John F. Kennedy. However I recently decided to give ‘Ike” a more detailed look when I learned about his “D-Day Letter”. In 1944, General Eisenhower directed the successful D-Day invasion which led to the liberation of Western Europe from the Nazis. One month later, aides discovered a letter that Ike had written which was to have been released if the invasion failed. The key line was “The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”  Imagine a leader with that type of humility and character. So, who was this man? Born in 1890 in Denison, Texas, and raised in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower was the third of seven sons born to parents of German and Swiss descent. His deeply religious and stern parents lived by the motto “Sink or swim – survive or perish”. His humble upbringing would later make it easy for the future General to easily relate to the soldiers he commanded. Although his parents were pacifists, Dwight developed an interest in military history and managed to get accepted to West Point. During World War I, the newly minted West Point graduate was tasked with training troops stateside. He climbed the ladder to General and was eventually appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force by Army Chief of Staff Geoge Marshall who valued Ike’s leadership and organizational skills. Ike supervised the successful Noth Africa campaign of 1942-1943.  The success of the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, resulted from his ability to unite and coordinate the efforts of numerous allied nations. Ten months after D-Day, Eisenhower led a delegation of generals on a tour  of the Ohrdruf concentration camp. Eisenhower entered a shed that housed 30 emaciated corpses, even though the sight and odor was so horrific that other officers including George Patton were unable to enter the room. A horrified Eisenhower vowed that the crimes of the holocaust be made public so they could not be denied or forgotten. He ordered that the gruesome sights be photographed, and he invited American media and politicians to visit the camp and witness the heinous crimes. After the war, Eisenhower became President of Columbia University.  He was not embraced by the faculty, but janitors and other workers loved him especially after he told them to just call him “Ike”. Eisenhower left Columbia in 1951 when President Truman named him Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which had recently been launched because of  the growing tensions of the Cold War. Mr. President In 1952 Ike succeeded Truman as President and continued to oversee American interests in the Cold War. Although his presidency is often considered unremarkable Ike quietly accomplished some great things: Balanced the federal budget in 1956, 1957, and 1960 despite increasing military expenditures. Inspired by his experiences driving the German Autobahn during WWII, Ike led the construction of The Interstate Highway System. It was one of the largest infrastructure projects in American history and transformed the way Americans travel and do business. Demonstrated his commitment to Civil Rights and the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision by deploying federal troops to ensure the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Established NASA in 1958 in response to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik In his farewell address on January 17, 1961, Eisenhower warned about the influence of defense contractors saying, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence … by the military industrial complex”.  His warning still resonates today. No Pretense I am currently enjoying “How Ike Led” written by his granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower. In addition to detailing his accomplishments she summarizes his leadership as: “No pose, no pretense “ but simply “realistic, practical and disciplined”. To paraphrase Paul Simon: ‘Where have you gone Dwight D. Eisenhower? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you” Have a great weekend.

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Today marks the 257th anniversary of the birth of French mathematician Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier.  He is best remembered for his 1822 publication “Théorie analytique de la chaleur” in which he argued that the flow of heat between two adjacent molecules is proportional to the extremely small difference of their temperatures. I have absolutely no idea what that means but apparently mathematicians love Fournier’s stuff. Accordingly, scholars have honored him with appellations including The Fourier Series, Fourier Analysis, and Fourier’s Law of Conduction. So, in honor of the inimitable Frenchman, let’s have some fun with numbers: Prime numbers are numbers that are divisible only by themselves. And, if you add up the squares of the first seven prime numbers, you get 666. Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, is an irrational number with an infinite number of digits. The volume of a cylinder is Pi times the radius squared, times height, Therefore a pizza with radius “Z” and height “A” would have the volume of… PI * z * z * a. There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 ways to scramble a Rubik’s Cube. There are 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856, 403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 ways to arrange a deck of cards. Therefore, if you shuffle a pack of cards properly, chances are that exact order has never been seen before in the entire history of the universe. There are zero zeros in Roman numerals. The Latin word “nulla” was used to represent the concept of zero. The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey typing randomly on a typewriter will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. This theorem has been used to illustrate the concept of infinity and the power of chance. When asked to name their favorite number from one to one hundred, 9.7 percent of respondents picked the number 7. Seven is a significant number across religions and cultures. There are seven colors in the rainbow, seven days in a week, seven notes on a musical scale, seven seas, and seven continents. The most popular two-digit number among the respondents was surprisingly the number 13 (selected by 5 percent of respondents). Some of the reasons 13 is considered superstitious include the 13 attendees at the last supper, a witches’ coven generally had 13 members and a traditional gallows had 13 steps,. The term, “googol “represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. A googolplex is the number 1 followed by a googol zeroes. It is theorized that if you tried to write that huge number out and printed  it in a series of volumes, the books would weigh more than the entire planet. I sincerely hope I never experience the temperature of Minus 40 degrees. However  “40 Below” has the distinction of being the only temperature that is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius    The Birthday Problem How many people do you think would need to be in a room in order for there to be a 50% chance that two people share the same birthday? The answer is a surprisingly low 23 people. You can find numerous lengthy explanations online. This birthday problem is used to illustrate the power of probability and the importance of considering all possible outcomes. Today’s Math Joke An Indian chief decided it was time he created children and accordingly took three wives. He made one wife a teepee made of deerskin and one a teepee made of bearskin. For the wife he liked the best he went all out and imported a teepee made of hippopotamus hide. When he returned from the long autumn hunt he visited the first two wives and was very pleased that both were expecting babies. He was even more happy when the wife in the hippopotamus teepee told him she was expecting twins. However he was puzzled that his favorite wife was expecting twins while the other two were each having only one child. He went to the medicine man for his opinion and the wise man said, ‘It is old tribal saying – The sum of the squaw of the hippopotamus equals the sum of the squaws of the two adjacent hides.”   Have a great weekend and Happy Spring.

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Great Movie Lines The film classic “Casablanca” produced an amazing number of iconic quotes including “I am shocked, shocked!” and “Round up the usual suspects”. Most lists of memorable movie lines include “Here’s looking at your kid” at the very top. The origin of the line was from the Casablanca cast’s penchant for playing poker during filming breaks. Humphrey Bogart taught Ingrid Bergman how to play and used the phrase to explain a poker hand where the King, Queen, and Jack all look at you. Bogart went on to improvise the line in the movie.  So, let’s look at the background of some other memorable movie lines. Clark Gable was allowed to utter the word “damn” in Gone with the Wind” because one month before filming, an amendment was made to the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code that allowed the use of “hell” or “damn” if the word’s usage was deemed “ essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context.” Marlon Brando was depressed throughout the filming of “On the Waterfront”. Brando thought his performance was embarrassing and he objected to much of the movie’s dialogue. He was so critical of the script for his classic back seat scene with Rod Steiger that director Elia Kazan stood back and allowed the two great actors to direct themselves. And thus, “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” “Taxi Driver” screenwriter Paul Schrader claimed that there was no specific dialogue for the scene where Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) talks to himself in the mirror. De Niro used a routine that he heard at a New York comedy club and voila “You talking to me?” The “Mad as Hell” speech delivered by Peter Finch in “Network” was filmed in just one and a half takes. Finch was too  exhausted to do any more. Soon after, Finch appeared on The Johnny Carson show to promote “Network”. The next day, Finch suffered a fatal heart attack but was eventually awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.   Roy Scheider’s most famous line from “Jaws”  was an inside joke. The movie’s producers were extremely cheap and ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat,’ became a catchphrase for anytime anything went wrong such as filming being compromised by turbulent waters or lunch being late. Because of his thick Austrian accent, the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) had difficulty saying the word “I’ll”. He asked director James Cameron to change ‘I’ll be back” to “I will be back.” Cameron refused and Schwarzenegger required multiple takes to master the line which became Arnold’s catchphrase for all Terminator sequels. In “The Sixth Sense”, Haley Joel Osment tells Bruce Willis “I see dead people”.  It was meant as a hidden clue to the eventual revelation of the film. The camera focuses on Willis as he listens to the little boy’s confession which was meant to signify that Willis’ character was dead. The producers worried that the line gave away too much too soon. However, the clue was surely missed by me and everyone else I know that needed to immediately rewind the DVD and watch the movie a second time.   Hit and Miss Director Stanley Kubrick tried to remove  Jack Nicholson’s classic improvised ‘Here’s Johnny” line from “The Shining”.  Kubrick resided in England and didn’t understand that Nicholson was mimicking Ed McMahon’s famous introduction of Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show”.   “The Wizard of Oz” gave us numerous iconic lines such as “We’re not in Kansas anymore”. Interestingly, the producers tried to remove ‘Over the Rainbow’” from the film because they thought that it was too long and depressing for young audiences. It’s difficult to imagine the movie without Judy Garland’s signature song especially since her vocal abilities were the reason she was chosen for the lead role instead of Shirley Temple. Finally, you probably know this, but the words “Play it again Sam” were never spoken in “Casablanca”. Frankly, I don’t give a damn. Have a great weekend. I’ll be back !

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By this point in your life, you probably no longer believe the story that George Washington once threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River. You may have also come to terms with the fact that he never cut down a cherry tree as a boy ( It was a myth created by author Mason Locke Weems, ten years after Washington’s death). Are you also aware that Washington was not born on February 22, 1732, the date you needed to memorize in history class? The father of our country was actually born on February 11,1731. When Washington was born, England and its colonies followed the Julian calendar, which was instituted in 46 B.C. by  Julius Caesar. By that calendar, Washington was born on February 11, 1731. Washington’s official birthdate changed in 1752 when England switched to the Gregorian calendar. Points of Interest Here are some additional factoids about the man without whom we would be speaking with silly accents, drinking tea instead of coffee, and watching endless reruns of Mr. Bean.   In 1789, President Washington’s annual salary of $25,000 represented 2% of the national budget. Today, that translates to over $80 billion a year. Washington is the only president to unanimously win the electoral college (he did it both times). He is the only independent candidate to win the presidency (he refused to join a party). At 6’2” Washington towered over most of his contemporaries as the average height for men in the U.S. was around 5’7”. He was an extraordinarily rugged man. As a young surveyor in the backwoods of the Ohio Valley, Washington made rafts out of trees with his bare hands in below-freezing temperatures. His job required that he ford impossible rivers, and hack paths through perilous woods. Washington mastered almost every sport of his day  including archery, swimming, and wrestling. According to Thomas Jefferson, Washington was “the best horseman of the age”. While fighting for the British in a battle against the French and Indians, the fearless Washington had two horses shot from under him. After the battle it was discovered that four musket balls had pierced his jacket but none reached his body. The episode gave Washington and everyone else the belief that he was invincible. Washington had a strong constitution that allowed him to power through numerous illnesses including diphtheria, smallpox, dysentery, malaria, pneumonia, and carbuncle (it sounds like a card game you would play with your grandmother but it’s a cluster of boils under the skin). Washington’s second inaugural address was only 134 words and took less than two minutes to deliver. Alexander Hamilton helped Washington write his farewell address which is still hailed for his urging American leaders to avoid foreign entanglements. Recognition and Honors Washington earned mythical status across the globe and was particularly revered in France. As the French Revolution began in 1792, Washington was made an honorary French citizen despite the fact he didn’t speak French and had never visited the country.   After becoming our second President in1797, John Adams became fearful of a possible French invasion. Although Washington was enjoying life as a gentleman farmer, Adams appointed him commander-in-chief of the military. It was a largely ceremonial appointment to bolster recruiting efforts.   When Washington died in 1799, Napoleon immediately called for ten days of official mourning in France. British officials had the Royal Navy lower its flags to half-mast. One of many reasons I am glad I didn’t live in the 1700s are the medical practices of the era. In 1799, after catching a simple cold the ex-President was subjected to four rounds of bloodletting. Washington  lost an estimated forty percent of his blood before he expired. Kudos Keep Coming In 1976, Congress awarded George Washington a new military rank: General of the Armies of the United States. It was further decreed that nobody will ever outrank him. A 2012 poll of British citizens rated Washington as the greatest military officer to ever face the British Empire.   Take that, Napoleon!   Have a great weekend- By George.

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February 14th is not only Valentines Day but it is also the anniversary of the birth of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. Born in 1859 in Galesburg, Illinois, George received an engineering degree from  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in1881. After spending a few years in the railroad industry, he started a Pittsburgh-based company that tested the integrity of steel structures. The Exposition In late 1890, renowned architect Daniel Burnham began plans for the 1893 World Exposition in Chicago. Burnham was determined to make the event more memorable than the1889 Paris Exhibition, the centerpiece of which had been the magnificent Eiffel Tower. Burnham assembled a team of designers and gave them one directive: “Make no little plans.” One designer envisioned a tower garlanded with rails to distant cities, enabling visitors to toboggan home. A second proposal put forward a gigantic tower from which riders would be propelled by rubber bands, a forerunner of bungee jumping. Gustave Eiffel himself proposed an even taller tower but Burnham was not interested. As the Exhibition’s opening date approached Burnham implored the designers to come up with “something novel, original, daring and unique”. George Ferris, whose company was responsible for inspecting the steel used by the exhibition, was struck by a brainstorm. He proposed an enormous revolving steel wheel which was held together by tension wires, just like a bicycle wheel. After several redesigns, his wheel was finally approved by Burnham, just four months before the exhibition’s opening. Ferris had already spent $25,000 of his own money on safety studies and redesigns. Now, Burnham told Ferris that he was responsible for all of the construction costs. Undaunted, Ferris raised funds, procured 45 tons of steel and had the wheel up and running by June 11,1893 – not in time for the opening, but still an amazing feat. There had never been anything like it and1.5 million curious people paid fifty cents admission to ride on the wheel. The 34-year-old Ferris was now America’s most famous engineer.   The Exposition committee and Ferris’s company argued about the distribution of profits. Ferris not only lost the legal battles but suffered Ill-health because of the pressures of the litigation. He became despondent when the city dismantled the wheel after the exhibition closed. Adding insult to injury, George’s wife left him. In 1896, he contracted typhoid fever and died at the age of 37. A wrecking company bought the wheel and sold it to the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Two years later, it was dynamited into scrap metal, ending the life of the original Ferris Wheel. Wheeling Around the World Prior to Ferris’ invention, the world’s largest tension wheel was 30 feet high. The Ferris Wheel rose 264 feet off the ground giving riders in the 30 gondolas a view further than anyone in Chicago had ever experienced. It has inspired numerous imitations. The five tallest Ferris Wheels today are: At 820 feet, “Ain Dubai” is three times the size of the original wheel. It features 48 luxurious, air-conditioned capsules that each accommodate 40 passengers.  The 550 foot “High Roller” in Las Vegas is the largest Ferris Wheel in the Western Hemisphere. Each of the 28 glass-enclosed cabins can hold forty people. Guests can enjoy interactive video and music during their 30 minute rotation. At 525 feet, “The Star of Nanchang” held the title of the world’s tallest Ferris wheel from 2006 until 2008. Located in Nanchang, China, It features 60 capsules, each seating eight passengers.   “The London Eye”, standing at 443 feet, provides spectacular views of all that the magnificent city has to offer. The wheel features 32 capsules, each representing one of London’s boroughs. The “Redhorse Osaka Wheel” stands at 404 feet. The glass floors in the capsules create an exhilarating experience for thrill-seekers. If your bucket list includes riding the world’s tallest Ferris Wheels know that you’ll need a large travel budget. Of the tallest eighteen Ferris Wheels, eleven are in Asia ( six in China, four in Japan and one in Taiwan). The Texas Star in Dallas is the only American wheel outside of Vegas to make the top eighteen. Safe travels.

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