Lucy Van Pelt, MAGA Stooge

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving premiered on CBS on November 20, 1973. Again, Lucy Van Pelt, the resident fussbudget of Peanuts, the comic strip written by Charles M. Schulz from 1950 until his death in 2000, is shown pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, as she had been doing in the strip since 1952.

In 2021, having watched the special for around the 20th time, I noticed something for the 1st time. When Peppermint Patty suggests that the kids have their own separate Thanksgiving meal at Charlie Brown's house, Lucy doesn't get invited. Her brother Linus does, and, in the spirit of the holiday, helps Charlie Brown with the "cooking." But Lucy isn't invited. Serves her right. (She doesn't crash the dinner, either.)

I guarantee you, despite once claiming to have been a "New Feminist," Lucy is a MAGA. She's mean. She hits (as she puts it, "slugs") anybody who dares to disagree with her. She bullies her little brother, and mocks his emotional-support object (his security blanket).

She commits fraud, both with her excuses for why she won't pull the football away from Charlie Brown this time, even though she always does, and with her psychiatric practice. She hates dogs. She has body-shamed Charlie Brown for being bald and Pigpen for his hygiene issue.

And she's just arrogant enough to not only sell out her fellow women, but to believe that being white will protect her from the harm that Trump's policies cause.

In her defense, she does charge only 5 cents for a session. And, unlike Trump, she has never been racist toward Franklin, and has never been homophobic toward Peppermint Patty and Marcie (who are much likelier to be a gay couple than Bert and Ernie).

November 29, 1934: The 1st NFL Game On National Radio

Detroit in the dark (blue) jerseys, Chicago in the white

November 29, 1934, 90 years ago: For the 1st time, an NFL game is broadcast nationwide on radio. In fact, that's why it's played at all: To sell radios.

George A. Richards owned Detroit radio station WJR, 760 on the AM dial, an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network, which later became ABC. He bought the NFL's Portsmouth Spartans, who had momentary success by reaching the 1932 NFL Championship Game, but losing it to the Chicago Bears. But they could never get fans in Southern Ohio.

So Richards bought the team, brought them to Detroit, and renamed them the Lions, to tie in with the city's baseball team, the Tigers, and because the lion is "the king of the jungle," and he wanted to build a team that would be "the king of the NFL."

At first, it worked. Their opener, on September 23, at the University of Detroit's Dinan Field, was a 9-0 win over the New York Giants, who had been in the 1933 NFL Championship Game. The Lions ended up winning their 1st 10 games, before losing on November 25 to the Green Bay Packers.

Next up, on Sunday, December 2, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, was a game against the team that had won the  last 2 NFL Championship Games, the previous year against the Giants and the year before against the Spartans/Lions. It was the Chicago Bears, with 2 legends in their backfield, Harold "Red" Grange and Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski.

Richards knew that Thanksgiving was coming up, the ultimate family holiday. When everyone would be gathered around the radio. (No television in those days.) Maybe if there was a special program on the day, more radios would be sold, and Richards would make more money.

So he talked to Bears owner-coach George Halas about adding a game between the teams, on Thursday, in Detroit. (Up until 1940, Thanksgiving Day was always on the last Thursday in November. Since then, it's been the 4th Thursday in November, which is not necessarily the last Thursday of the month.) Halas, having played and coached in several Thanksgiving Day games over the years, and hardly opposed at the time to playing games so close together, liked the idea. He didn't care about selling radios. He did care about a visiting team's share of the gate receipts. And he certainly cared about selling the Bears (to fans, not to any one person) and selling the NFL. So he talked the other NFL owners into allowing it.

It worked like a charm: One of the biggest national audiences in radio history was tuned in, and over 26,000 fans crammed into the small stadium. And it looked like the Lions were living up to their responsibility, taking a 16-7 halftime lead, thanks to 2 touchdowns by LeRoy "Ace" Gutowsky.

But Jack Manders, so accurate he was known as "Automatic Jack," kicked 2 field goals in the 3rd quarter, enabling Chicago to close within 16-13. And in the 4th quarter, Joe Zeller intercepted a pass from Glenn Presnell and returned it to the Lions' 4-yard line. You wouldn't expect Nagurski to pass for a touchdown, but he did, to Bill Hewitt. Despite being held to 116 rushing yards, the Bears beat the Lions, 19-16.

There were 2 other NFL games that day. The Chicago Cardinals beat the Packers, 6-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. And, in a football version of the great baseball rivalry (but different organizations in each case), the New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 27-0 at Ebbets Field.

Three days later, at Wrigley, the Bears beat the Lions again, 10-7. The Lions had started 10-0, but ended 10-3. In contrast, the Bears finished the season at 13-0, and as Western Division Champions. This time, though, they lost the Championship Game, to the Giants.

The Bears would go undefeated and then lose the Championship Game again in 1942. It would take until the 1972 season for a team to have an undefeated regular season and then win the NFL Championship, as the Miami Dolphins won Super Bowl VII.

But in spite of the 3-game collapse, the Lions turned Detroit on to pro football, after the failure of 3 different NFL teams: The Heralds (who changed their name to the Tigers for their 2nd season) in 1920 and '21, the Panthers in 1925 and '26, and the Wolverines in 1928. In 1935, the Lions were less impressive in the regular season, going 7-3-2, but beat the Bears on Thanksgiving, and then beat the Giants to win their 1st NFL Championship.

The Lions continued to play on Thanksgiving until 1938, playing the Bears each time, then resumed in 1945, and have played on the day every season since. Counting their 2023 loss to the Packers, they are 37-45-2 on T-Day. Of their 84 games, 22 have been against the Packers, and 19 against the Bears.

November 29, 1924: The Montreal Forum Opens

November 29, 1924, 100 years ago: The Montreal Forum opens. The Montreal Canadiens, holders of the Stanley Cup, defeat the Toronto St. Patricks, 7-1. Billy Boucher scored the arena's 1st goal. And its 2nd. And its 3rd. In addition to this hat trick, Aurèle Joliat scored 2, and Sylvio Mantha and Howie Morenz each scored 1.

The only Toronto goal against the Canadiens' Georges Vézina was scored by Jack Adams, later to be the longtime head coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. The St. Patricks wore green, but in 1927, they would be renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs, and switch to blue. They and the Canadiens have been the NHL's greatest rivalry ever since.

Originally, the Forum wasn't meant to be the Canadiens' home. It was meant to be the home of the Montreal Maroons, a newly-founded team, while the Canadiens continued to play home games at the Mount-Royal Arena. The Maroons' 1st game at the Forum came on December 3, but they lost to the Hamilton Tigers, 2-0.

The Maroons won the Stanley Cup in 1926. For the next season, the Canadiens moved in, and the Forum was busier than ever: Its 9,300 seats played host to the Canadiens or the Maroons every Thursday and Saturday, the Quebec Senior Hockey League on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Quebec Junior Hockey League on Mondays, the Bank League on Tuesdays, and the Railways and Telephone League on Fridays.

The Canadiens' famed "CH" logo has confused people for over a century. It is short for the team's official name, le Club de hockey Canadien. Madison Square Garden president George "Tex" Rickard, boxing promoter and founder of the New York Rangers, probably without knowing the truth, told a reporter that the "H" stood for "Habitant," a term used to describe farmers in early Quebec. Ever since, the Canadiens have been known as Les Habitants, or the Habs for short. The chant became, "Go, Habs, go!"

The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1916 and 1924, before the Forum opened. They won it in 1930 and 1931, led by Morenz, the man eventually known as "the Babe Ruth of Hockey." In 1937, Morenz broke his leg during a game, was hospitalized, and died of a heart attack in the hospital. A benefit game was played at the Forum, between a combined team of Canadiens and Maroons against a team made up of players from the rest of the League. A few months later, at the end of the 1937-38 season, the Maroons went out of business due to the Great Depression.

In 1942, Maurice Richard arrived on the Canadiens' roster. "The Rocket" led them to 8 Stanley Cups. In 1953, along came Jean Béliveau, and he led them to 10. Richard's last 5 and Béliveau's 1st 5, from 1956 to 1960, were the only instance ever of 5 straight Cup wins.

They followed the 1955 season, in which an incident in Boston led to Richard's suspension for the Playoffs, which led to a riot inside the Forum that spilled out into the streets. French-Canadians, for whom the Canadiens, and Richard in particular, were a point of pride were angry at Clarence Campbell, the NHL's Anglophone President, suspending him, thinking he was trying to fix the Cup for an Anglophone team. Richard went on radio and told the fans to stop, that he would take his punishment, support the team to win the Cup this time, and play to win it in the future.

They lost the Finals to the Detroit Red Wings, but with Richard joined by his brother Henri, Béliveau, defenseman Doug Harvey and goalie Jacques Plante, won those next 5 Cups. Henri actually topped his brother, and Béliveau, by being a member of 11 Cup-winning teams. In all of North American sports, only Bill Russell of the NBA's Boston Celtics matched Henri Richard's 11 World Championships.

In 1968, the Forum was seriously renovated, and expanded, to a seating capacity of 16,259, plus 1,700 in standing room, for a total of 17,959. The support poles were removed. One thing that was retained: Whereas most arenas used a horn to signal the end of a period, the Forum used a high-pitched siren, which was kept after the move to the Bell Centre.

In 1972, the Forum hosted the 1st game of the 8-game "Summit Series" between Canada and the Soviet Union, which the Soviets won in a 7-3 shocker. Canada would win the series with dramatic wins in Moscow in Games 6, 7 and 8.

From 1976 to 1979, the Canadiens had a run of 4 straight Cups, led by a slew of Hall-of-Famers: Forwards Guy Lafleur, Yvan Cournoyer, Steve Shutt and Jacques Lemaire; defensemen Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe; and goaltender Ken Dryden.

Between them, Morenz, Maurice Richard, Béliveau and Lafleur were, effectively, the Mount Rushmore of hockey. They were a foursome that could only be matched in North American sports by the Yankees' Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. (The Celtics? Bill Russell and Larry Bird, but who are the other two? Bob Cousy and John Havlicek? Not the same. No football team can match it, either.)

From 1956 to 1979, the Canadiens won 15 of the 24 available Stanley Cups. Their 1979 Cup was their 22nd, matching the Yankees for the most World Championships in North American sports. They won a 23rd in 1986 and a 24th in 1993. The Yankees didn't win their 24th World Series until 1998, surpassing them with a 25th in 1999.

In the 1976 Olympics, the Forum hosted basketball, boxing, volleyball, handball, and gymnastics, including Nadia Comaneci registering the 1st perfect 10 in Olympic history -- 7 of them.

The Beatles played the Forum on September 8, 1964. Other notable concerts there included Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975, Bob Marley in 1978, and, all in separate shows in 1981, Rush, Queen, and the Jacksons.

But there was only so much that could be done with a 1924-built arena. So the Molson Centre, now the Bell Centre, was built a mile to the east, in Montreal's downtown (Centre-ville). On March 11, 1996, the Forum's final game was played, a 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars. They were chosen as the opponent because their Captain was as former Canadiens' Captain, Guy Carbonneau. Maurice Richard, Béliveau and Lafleur participated in a ceremonial puck-drop with Carbonneau and Canadiens Captain Pierre Turgeon.

In the Canadiens' locker room, replicated at the new arena, the lockers were topped by the faces of the team's members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. On each side, one in English and one in French, are words from Canadian Army doctor John McCrae's World War I poem In Flanders Fields: "To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high." After the game, a symbolic torch was passed from the earliest living Canadiens Captain, Butch Bouchard, to each succeeding Captain, including both Richards, Béliveau and Carbonneau, up to Turgeon.

Over the next 4 years, a construction company owned by 1950s Canadien Hall-of-Famer Dickie Moore converted the building into retail space, including a shopping mall and a movie theater. A small bleacher section, and a bench with a statue of Maurice Richard, are roughly where center ice was. 

The Forum remains an entertainment destination at its Centennial. 

It Might Not Have Mattered

A month ago, at the latest, was the time that Americans should have realized the truth. But it might not have mattered, because too many of them are unwilling to listen. 

They don't want someone to tell them the truth. They want someone to tell them, "Vote for me, and I will give you what you want."

And what they want is to be treated as better than nonwhite people, because they are white; as better than women, because they are men; as better than people of other religions, because they claim to be Christian; and as better than people who are on the LGBT spectrum, because they are not. 

They wouldn’t care if grocery and gas prices remained high for others, as long as you say, "Vote for me, and those prices will come down for you." 

They are so angry and desperate that they won't even consider that the candidate is lying. And they won't consider that his record is the office -- and he does have one -- proves that he doesn't know how to do it.

But it wasn't just people in the majority categories:

2011: Trump demands to know where President Black Man was born.

2016: Trump runs for President on calling Mexicans criminals and banning Muslims from entering America.

2017, 2018 and 2020: Trump appoints the Supreme Court Justices that overturn Roe v. Wade.

2024: White women, black men, Hispanic men and Muslims forget these things.

The cry of every conservative, eventually, is, "But I didn't think the Republican I voted for was going to hurt me!"

It's like the old line about the trees voting for the axe, because its handle was made of wood, and it told the trees that it was one of them.

Buyers' remorse? Am I supposed to have sympathy for these people? I do not.

“Mad Men” vs. “Modern Family”

Donald Trump (left) and Jon Hamm as Don Draper on Mad Men

On November 12, 2012, 6 days after President Barack Obama was re-elected, with 51.1 percent of the popular vote, I read that an unidentified pundit wrote that the "Mad Men" found out that we are living in a "Modern Family" America; and that, unless the Republican Party reexamined its reckless hard turn to the right, it would render itself unviable for years to come.

Translation: The Republicans wanted a country like the one America was at the beginning of the 2007-15 AMC TV show Mad Men, set in 1960, when men were dominant, and could do what they want: Eat like a horse, smoke like a chimney, drink like a fish, and screw like a rabbit, with no consequences.

Meanwhile, women stayed in their place: The house, especially the kitchen. And, if they dared venture into the workplace, it was only in a few jobs that were "woman's work," and faced sexual discrimination and harassment -- again, without consequences for the men.

By the time the show ended, it was 1971, and things had changed tremendously. As a previous Democratic President, Bill Clinton, put it, "If you thought the 1960s were good, you're probably a Democrat. If not, you're probably a Republican."

In contrast, the American people followed the lead of Obama and his Democratic Party, wanting a country like the one America was on the then-current ABC show Modern Family. The patriarch might have been a bit set in his ways, but he was learning, faster than Archie Bunker ever did on the 1970s CBS sitcom All in the Family. He even married a Hispanic woman and treated her son as his own.

Meanwhile, his actual kids? His daughter was a working woman, with a goofy but supportive husband, and 3 kids; and his son was gay, and married to a gay stereotype who was nonetheless a former high school football star who became the local high school's coach. And they adopted a daughter from Vietnam, the country where the patriarch had once fought for his country. He had to adjust to all of this, starting with the show's beginning in 2009 (it took place in the present day); and, by the time it ended in 2020, he had done fairly well at it.

It's also worth noting that Mad Men was a drama, with some humor; while Modern Family was a situation comedy, with a lot of drama, but a very optimistic show in general.

So the election, and the re-election, of Obama, the nation's 1st black President, and a very liberal one, was proof that America was more like Modern Family than Mad Men, right?

But that was before 2016, just 4 years later, when Donald Trump brought to the Republican fold millions of voters who had never voted before, because no Republican nominee had ever been bigoted enough for them to come out to vote.

Put these people -- as Hillary Clinton called them, "deplorables" -- together with all the people who had always voted Republican, no matter what, even for somebody as bad as Trump is on so many levels, so long as they get their tax cuts, their deregulation, and their right-wing judges. Trump was able to realign the country, and give the Republicans enough voters to, if not outvote the Democrats, then get them enough votes in the right States to win the Electoral College -- 2 and nearly 3 times out of 3.

America is not going to elect a woman as President, not for at least another 20 years. That is damning for our country. But not as damning as voting for Trump, who, on top of all the other reasons that make him unacceptable to rational people, actually has a record on the job, and he failed spectacularly.

But Americans wanted a man. Instead, they voted for a 78-year-old TV addict with a 14-year-old bully's way of looking at the world.

Not a Mad Man, not a "Madison Avenue" advertising executive.

A madman.

November 25, 1934: The NFL's 1st 1,000-Yard Rusher

November 25, 1934, 90 years ago: The Chicago Bears beat their crosstown rivals, the Chicago Cardinals, 17-6 at Wrigley Field. They move to 11-0 on the season.

Beattie Feathers, a rookie running back out of the University of Tennessee, rushes for 42 yards, giving him 1,004 rushing yards on the season. This makes him the 1st player in the NFL's history, 15 seasons thus far, to rush for more than 1,000.

Unfortunately, Feathers was injured in the game. He would miss the Bears' Thanksgiving Day win over the Detroit Lions, their season finale against the Lions, and the NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants, which the Bears lost, ruining what had been, up until then, an undefeated season.

William Beattie Feathers was born on August 20, 1909 in Bristol, Virginia, on the State Line with Tennessee. He led Tennessee High School to a State Championship, but turned down Virginia, Virginia Tech, and every other football-playing college in the Old Dominion to play for Bob Neyland at the University of Tennessee.

He played with the Bears from 1934 to 1937, with the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 and 1939, and with the Green Bay Packers in 1940. He was the head football coach at Appalachian State University in 1942; coached football at North Carolina State from 1944 to 1951, and also coached their baseball team in 1945; was head baseball coach and assistant football coach at Texas Tech from 1954 to 1960; and, at Wake Forest University, was assistant football coach from 1961 to 1977, and head baseball coach from 1972 to 1975.

He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. He died on March 11, 1979 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, near the Wake Forest campus.

The NFL would settle on a 12-game schedule in 1947, expanding to 14 in 1961, 16 in 1978, and 17 in 2021. The number of yards a player has had to average per game to reach 1,000 for the season has dropped to 84, then to 72, then to 63, and now to 59. As a result, 1,000 yards rushing in a season, so long a benchmark for an elite running back, now has very little meaning.

To put that into perspective: Jim Brown set a record in 1963, with 1,863 yards; O.J. Simpson raised it to 2,000 in 1973; and Eric Dickerson raised it to 2,105 in 1984 -- thus, Brown averaged 133, Simpson averaged 143, and Dickerson averaged 132, and to break his record in a 17-game season, a player would have to average 124 per game. 

November 23, 1984: Doug Flutie's Miracle In Miami

November 23, 1984, 40 years ago: It is the day after Thanksgiving, and this was the early days of retail treating it as "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day of the year, which has come to, traditionally, set the tone for the Christmas season: Either they will make big profits, and be "in the black"; or they will be wearing black for mourning.

Thanksgiving weekend is also a time for football. The day before, many high school games were played, much more so than are played today. I was a sophomore at East Brunswick High School in Central New Jersey, and my Bears came back from a 27-13 deficit to beat Colonia High School of Woodbridge, 33-27, and clinch the Championship of the Middlesex County Athletic Conference and an undefeated regular season. It's often regarded as the greatest football game in the school's history. Unfortunately, we lost the Central Jersey Group IV Final, costing us a "State Championship" and an undefeated full season, something, to this day, we've never had.

There was only one college football game that Thanksgiving Day, a minor rivalry to everyone but those connected to the schools playing: Miami University of Ohio beat the University of Cincinnati, 31-26 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, was founded in 1809, 8 years before Ohio gained Statehood. In contrast, the University of Miami, in suburban Coral Gables, Florida, wasn't founded until 1925.

In the NFL, both of the traditional home teams won: The Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers, 31-28 at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan; and the Dallas Cowboys beat the New England Patriots, 20-17 at Texas Stadium in Irving.

There was only one college game played on the day after Thanksgiving, on CBS. So anybody who wanted to watch a football game at that point was watching it. At the time, there was a Big East Conference, but they did not sponsor a football competition. If they did, this game would have decided its Championship. The fact that both teams involved have since moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) should not attract from what that meant.

The University of Miami were the defending National Champions, having shocked the University of Nebraska in the previous season's Orange Bowl game, in the stadium of the same name, which was the Hurricanes' usual home field.

Bernie Kosar quarterbacked them as a freshman, and now, as a sophomore, had led them to an 8-3 record. They had won the Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands, beating then-Number 1 Auburn. They beat Number 17 Florida on neutral ground in Tampa. They beat Number 16 Notre Dame away. But they had lost to Number 14 Michigan away, losing the Number 1 ranking in the process. They had lost to Number 15 Florida State at home.

And, in their last game before this one (they had a week off in between), they lost an embarrassing one: They led Maryland 31-0 at the half, and lost, 42-40. For many years thereafter, it was the biggest comeback in NCAA Division I-A (now FBS, the Football Bowl Subdivision) history. The Maryland quarterback was Frank Reich, substituting for the injured Boomer Esiason. In the 1992 NFL Playoffs, subbing for the injured Jim Kelly -- who had played at Miami -- Reich led the Buffalo Bills to what is still the biggest comeback in NFL history, from 35-3 down to beat the Houston Oilers, 41-38 in overtime.

Their opponents for this game would be Boston College. BC had some good teams in the 1930s and '40s, but hadn't done much since. In 1981, they were struggling, losing to the University of Pittsburgh, ranked Number 2 in the country, and coach Jack Bicknell turned to a 5-foot-9 3/4-inch freshman quarterback from nearby Natick, Massachusetts, and said, "Okay, Flutie, see what you can do."

And Doug Flutie went in, and nearly pulled the upset. They ended the season 5-6. The next season, Sports Illustrated noted that Flutie would be the starting quarterback, and whoever was writing the article finished with, "Good luck, Flutie."

Flutie made his own luck, leading BC to an 8-3-1 record. Their non-wins were all against then-ranked teams: A tie away to Number 16 Clemson, and losses away to Number 16 West Virginia, home to Number 8 Penn State, and to Number 18 Auburn in the Citrus Bowl. It was their 1st bowl game in 39 years.

As a junior in 1983, Flutie led them to a 9-3 season, losing at home to Number 12 West Virginia, away to unranked Syracuse, and in the Liberty Bowl to Notre Dame. On October 29, in a game too big for their 32,000-seat on-campus Alumni Stadium, they played defending National Champion (but, at the time, unranked) Penn State at Sullivan Stadium, home of the NFL's New England Patriots (later renamed Foxborough Stadium). Before a crowd of 56,605, and millions more watching on ABC, the Eagles beat the Nittany Lions, 27-17. Flutie, already the classic "local boy makes good," became a national star.

BC were 7-2 going into their game with Miami. They had beaten Number 9 Alabama in Birmingham, but had lost 2 games, away to Number 20 West Virginia and away to Penn State -- by a combined 8 points. BC were ranked Number 10, Miami Number 12. In spite of these rankings, Miami were a 6-point betting favorite. (Keep in mind: In football, home-field advantage is traditionally said to be worth 3 points.) Flutie was the favorite for the Heisman Trophy, although Kosar was also a contender for it. The winning quarterback would get his Heisman vote totals boosted significantly.

The game was played at the Orange Bowl, in a driving rainstorm throughout. It was almost as if there was a real hurricane going on. It kicked off at 2:30 PM Eastern Time, and BC jumped out to a 14-0 lead. Miami scored a touchdown before the 1st quarter ran out, and tied the game with a touchdown early in the 2nd quarter.

BC scored on a run by Flutie, then Miami scored on a Kosar touchdown pass, then BC did so on a touchdown pass from Flutie to his college roommate, Gerard Phelan. At halftime, the score was Boston College 28, Miami 21. So there had already been as much action as in most full games.

In the 3rd quarter, Miami scored another touchdown, and the teams traded field goals. The quarter ended with the game tied, 31-31. BC kicked another field goal to make it 34-31, but Melvin Bratton broke off a 52-yard run to make it 38-34 Miami. It seemed like Miami had the game won. Flutie led a drive that ended with a touchdown, and it was 41-38 BC. But Kosar led a drive that ended with another touchdown run by Bratton, and it was 45-41 Miami.

BC got the ball back with 28 seconds left in regulation, on their own 20 yard line. Flutie got the Eagles to the Hurricanes' 48-yard line. There were 6 seconds left. Time for one more play. A field goal wouldn't have helped, it would have been 65 yards anyway, and the weather and the wet grass would have made it a tricky proposition regardless of how close it was. There was no choice: The play had to result in a touchdown.

Before the play, CBS announcer Brent Musberger said, "One thing is certain: Those brave folks who sat out here in the Orange Bowl, and put up with this terrible weather, saw a whale of a football game, and they should give both teams a rousing ovation when this one is over." His broadcast partner, former Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian, whose career included a 10-10 tie with Michigan State in 1966, known as "The Game of the Century," followed this with, "This is one of the better ones that I've seen."

Flutie called "55 Flood Tip": No running backs, and all eligible receivers run straight routes to the end zone. He was flushed out of the pocket by the Miami defense, and had to scramble. He had to attempt his 46th pass of the game, on the run, throwing from his own 37-yard line, meaning the ball had to fly at least 63 yards, into a 30-mile-per-hour wind, and through the rain.

Flutie heaved the ball. Since a Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson play in the 1975 NFL Playoffs, such a pass had been known as a "Hail Mary." Some Catholics find the expression offensive. In this case, given that Boston College is a Catholic school -- specifically, Jesuit -- it might have been appropriate.

Three Miami defensive backs blanketed receiver Kelvin Martin. There would be no way he could catch the ball. Phelan was behind them. It would require perfect placement of both man and ball for him to catch it. He did. Boston College 47, Miami 45. Ballgame. No chance to try for an extra point, with everyone running onto the field, and no need for it.

"Caught by Boston College!" Musberger yelled. "I don't believe it! It's a touchdown! The Eagles win it! I don't believe it! Phelan is at the bottom of that pile!" The entire team piled onto Phelan. As Musberger noted, "Jack Bicknell is the only person over there on the sidelines! He couldn't get the headset off fast enough! Doug Flutie has done it! And your heart goes out to Bernie Kosar. He did everything he could."

Kosar had passed for 447 yards, then a school record, with 2 touchdowns. And Bratton had run for 4 touchdowns. It was all for naught, as Flutie passed for 472 yards, becoming the 1st major college quarterback with 10,000 career passing yards. He also threw for 3 touchdowns. Miami punted only once all game; BC, just 3 times.

The game became known as the Miracle in Miami, and if there was any doubt before the game that Flutie would win the Heisman Trophy, that doubt disappeared into Phelan's hands. Ohio State running back Keith Byars finished 2nd. Robbie Bosco, who quarterbacked Brigham Young University to a controversial National Championship, finished 3rd. Kosar was 4th. Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley State, who went on to become the greatest receiver in football history, finished 9th. Bo Jackson of Auburn, who would win it the next season, did not finish in the Top 10 this season.

Miami went on to lose the Fiesta Bowl to UCLA. Kosar would have a good pro career with the Cleveland Browns, before winning a Super Bowl ring as Troy Aikman's backup on the Dallas Cowboys.

Flutie's last college game was in the Cotton Bowl, and BC beat the University of Houston. But NFL teams passed on him due to his lack of height. This was so dumb. How dumb was it? Well, let's absolve the following teams, because they drafted Hall-of-Famers: The San Francisco 49ers, Rice; the Buffalo Bills, Bruce Smith; and the Minnesota Vikings, Chris Doleman. And, besides, the 49ers had Joe Montana, while the Bills had the rights to Jim Kelly. And several other teams drafted All-Pros. But lots of teams needed a quarterback, and didn't draft Flutie, and struggled for years to come.

Flutie signed with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, and led them to the Playoffs. When the USFL folded, the Chicago Bears signed him, against the wishes of head coach Mike Ditka. Ditka refused to start him over an already-injured Jim McMahon, and the Bears haven't won a Super Bowl since. In 1987, the Bears traded Flutie to his hometown New England Patriots, but they kept him as a backup to Tony Eason, and didn't get too far, and released him after the 1989 season, and got even worse.

Flutie signed with the Vancouver-based BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. In 1992, he was traded to the Calgary Stampeders, and he led them to the CFL Championship, the Grey Cup. He did the same for the Toronto Argonauts in 1996 and '97. All 3 times, he was named the game's Most Valuable Player. He was named the CFL's Most Outstanding Player 6 times in 7 years from 1991 to 1997.

Finally, at the age of 36, the NFL could ignore him no longer. With Kelly having retired after the 1996 season, the Bills signed Flutie, and he led them to the Playoffs, made the Pro Bowl, and was named the NFL Comeback Player of the Year. He got them back into the Playoffs in 1999, but coach Wade Phillips benched him for the Playoff game against the Tennessee Titans, in favor of Rob Johnson. The Bills lost, and didn't make the Playoffs again for 18 years.

Flutie played 4 years for the San Diego Chargers, and closed his career with the Patriots, as a backup to Tom Brady. In his last game, against the Miami Dolphins, on New Year's Day 2006, he did something no NFL player had done since 1941: He converted a dropkick. It was good for a point-after-touchdown, and the Patriots won.

Doug Flutie is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is, quite specifically, not "The National Football League Hall of Fame." It includes a few players who would not have made it if not for their performances in the All-America Football Conference (1946-49) and the 1960s version of the American Football League, including Billy Shaw, who played 9 seasons for the Bills, all in the AFL, and never played a down in the NFL.

Still, voters for it tend not to consider CFL statistics. There are really only 2 NFL players who are not in the Hall whose qualifications would be noticeably boosted if their CFL tenures were included, and they're both quarterbacks: Joe Theismann and Doug Flutie. Another quarterback, Warren Moon, is the only player in the Hall with significant CFL performance, although Bud Grant won 4 Grey Cups as a coach in Winnipeg before becoming a Hall of Fame coach in Minnesota.

Oddly, for all the exposure BC got from the Flutie years, their Alumni Stadium wasn't expanded to its present 44,500 seats until the 1994 season.

November 21, 1964: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Opens

November 21, 1964, 60 years ago: The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge opens, connecting the New York City Boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, via Interstate 278. It is the last great road project of New York's "master builder," Robert Moses. And, for the next 17 years, it is the longest suspension bridge in the world. In 2024, it remains the longest in the Americas.

On April 17, 1524, 500 years ago, Italian (Florentine) explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano became the 1st European to sight the land that would become New York City, and its bodies of water, including the Hudson River (named for the later English explorer Henry Hudson) and "The Narrows," the strip of water between Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Up until the 1920s, Staten Island was isolated: Its only connections with any other land were by the Staten Island Ferry system, connecting it with Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the New Jersey cities of Bayonne, Elizabeth and Perth Amboy. In 1928, the Outerbridge Crossing was built, connecting it with Perth Amboy, and the original Goethals Bridge (replaced by the current bridge in 2017) connected it with Elizabeth. In 1931, the Bayonne Bridge opened. But this didn't help people trying to get to and from the rest of New York City.

A "Liberty Bridge" and tunnel connecting the Subway system to Staten Island were proposed around this time, but federal funding for these projects was blocked by a Congressman from The Bronx -- Fiorello La Guardia, who was elected Mayor in 1933. He believed that a public necessity should not be provided by private interests. (The controversy over the Ambassador Bridge, built around that time between Detroit and the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario, shows that he was right.)

In 1947, Moses was ready to try again, and got the federal government to approve a plan for a bridge, despite angry opposition from the people of Bay Ridge, the neighborhood where its Brooklyn anchorage would be. Considerably more people would be displaced on Staten Island, but, overall, the people of that Borough understood the benefits of having the bridge, and supported the idea. The Bay Ridge opposition led to the decision to put it, instead, at the uninhabited Fort Lafayette, so no houses would have to be demolished.

Still, it took years for the construction to be approved, and it did not begin until August 14, 1959. About 10,000 men worked on the construction. Three died: Paul Bessett, 58, who fell off the deck and struck a tower in 1962; Irving Rubin, 58, who fell off the bridge approach in 1963; and Gerard McKee, considerably younger at 19, who slipped off a catwalk in 1963. His death led to a strike by workers, demanding safety nets under the deck. After 5 days, they got the nets, and resumed work.

The opening ceremony was held on November 21, 1964, with a gold ribbon being cut by Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and Borough Presidents Abe Stark of Brooklyn and Albert Maniscalo of Staten Island. (Stark had been a clothing store owner, who advertised on the right field wall at the Dodgers' Ebbets Field: "HIT SIGN WIN SUIT.")

The towers are 693 feet high, making each of them, easily, the tallest structures in their respective Boroughs at the time. Since 2019, 2 buildings higher than the bridge's towers have been constructed in Brooklyn. 

The towers are are 4,290 feet apart. In 1981, this world record was broken by the Humber Bridge in Hull, Yorkshire, England. In 2022, the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, in the city of the same name in Turkey, opened, and set a new record of 6,637 feet.

There is no direct passenger rail connection between Staten Island and the rest of the City. The Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) rail line goes from the St. George Ferry Terminal (St. George to South Ferry in Manhattan has long been the last remaining Staten Island Ferry) down the east and southern coast of the island to Tottenville, and is technically part of the City's Subway system. But the only way to get from it to the Subway proper is via the Ferry.

A bus line on Staten Island's Victory Boulevard was extended over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to the 95th Street terminal of what's now the R Train in Brooklyn, but, unlike most Subway-to-bus (or vice versa) transfers in the City, this one is not free if done within 2 hours.

The Verrazzano -- the full name is rarely used -- is best known for 2 things: The highest tolls of any bridge or tunnel in the New York Tri-State Area, and being the starting point for the New York City Marathon. Since part of the idea for the Marathon was that it would use all Five Boroughs, the closest point between Staten Island and any other Borough was an easy choice, made even easier by the toll plaza being wide enough to accommodate thousands of runners. 

November 21, 1934: The "Business Plot" Is Exposed

Smedley Butler 

November 21, 1934: The New York Post and the Philadelphia Record break the story of what came to be known as "The Business Plot," a rich men's plan to launch a military coup and take over the American government.

The story is broken by Paul Comly French, a reporter who had once been the private secretary of Smedley Butler, a retired Major General (2 stars) in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Smedley Darlington Butler was born on July 30, 1881, in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania. His father, Thomas Stalker Butler, was a Republican Congressman. His maternal grandfather, Smedley Darlington, had previously held the same seat in Congress. Three earlier Darlingtons had served in Congress. Smedley's aunt, Isabel Darlington, was the 1st woman to practice law in Chester County.

He enlisted in the Marines, and served with distinction in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Campaign and the Boxer Rebellion. His participation in the so-called "Banana Wars" in Central America caused him to look at war and its conduct differently.

He received his 1st Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the American occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in 1914. He offered to return it, saying he had done nothing to earn it. He was ordered to keep it. He received a 2nd Medal of Honor for his role in repelling an ambush during the American occupation of Haiti in 1915.

He received his General's stars during World War I, and was appointed commanding officer of the Marine barracks at Quantico, Virginia, now the "home base" of the Corps (and of the FBI). In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge gave him leave from active duty so that he could become Director of Public Safety for Philadelphia.

He said, "Cleaning up Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in." He brought crime down significantly, but his tactics were a bit heavy-handed. Still, there were many people who liked that, and they remembered it, thinking that Butler was their kind of man. He held the job for 2 years, returned to the Corps, and retired from the service in 1931.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 1932, but, with the tide turning against Prohibition, which he supported, he lost the Republican Primary. He opposed the Bonus Army in a public statement that year, and there were many people who liked that.

That year, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, a Democrat, was elected President of the United States. His "New Deal" lifted millions out of poverty, increasing taxes on rich people in order to do it. America's wealthiest men were furious, and some were not willing to wait until November 3, 1936, the next election, to do something about it.

In November 1934, Butler testified before a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He told them that he was visited by Gerald P. MacGuire, a prominent Connecticut businessman. MacGuire had visited Germany and Italy, and saw how veterans' groups had aided the Fascist movements there, movements that had stopped Communist uprisings. He told Butler that he viewed FDR and his advisors, the so-called "Brain Trust," as Communists, and said they had to be stopped.

He told Butler that a group of businessmen had $50 million to spend, and a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers, many of them members of the American Legion, ready to march on Washington, to remove Roosevelt from power, and establish a Fascist dictatorship. MacGuire told Butler that the group wanted him to be the dictator.

Butler said that he later met with Robert Sterling Clark, an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Clark told him about some of the other men backing the plan:

* Irénée du Pont, head of the DuPont Corporation, which had recently bought the Remington Arms company, which would produce the weapons and the ammunition for the coup.

* Thomas W. Lamont, running J.P. Morgan & Company on behalf of J.P. Morgan Jr., son of the company's founder, and an adviser to every President since Woodrow Wilson, including FDR, thus giving the group an "inside man." 

* Grayson Murphy, a director of Goodyear Tire, Anaconda Copper, and Bethlehem Steel, all companies capable of supplying the coup effort with necessary materiel.

* And the last 2 Democratic Party nominees for President before FDR: John W. Davis, a former Congressman from West Virginia and U.S. Ambassador to Britain, who was always more conservative than the mainstream of the Party; and Alfred E. Smith, who was also FDR's predecessor as Governor of New York, had lost very badly to Herbert Hoover in 1928, saw FDR beat Hoover even worse in 1932, and was intensely jealous of FDR's early success and popularity as President.

About all of this, Butler told French, whom he trusted due to his service. French did some digging, and found evidence that the plot was real, not just MacGuire and Clark blowing off steam at a President they hated. Armed with this knowledge, Butler met with MacGuire again, and said, "If you get 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more, and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home." And then he went to Congress, and spilled the beans.

French broke the story in the New York Post and the Philadelphia Record on November 21. On November 22, The New York Times wrote about it, calling it a "gigantic hoax." All the parties alleged to be involved publicly said there was no truth in the story, calling it a joke and a fantasy. Roosevelt's reaction to it is not known to have been recorded.

If the coup ever got beyond the talking stage, it was doomed without a leader -- or, more likely, a figurehead. It has been alleged that Hugh S. Johnson, a retired Army Brigadier General who had been running the National Recovery Administration for FDR, and had been named Man of the Year for 1933 by Time magazine, had also turned the plotters down.

In 1935, Butler published a book titled War Is a Racket, comparing what Dwight D. Eisenhower would later call "the military-industrial complex" to organized crime. He wrote, "I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business... a gangster for capitalism" who "might have given Al Capone a few hints." That book, all by itself, showed that the big business boys were looking to the wrong man for their goal.

Plaque honoring Butler, Philadelphia City Hall:

"He enforced the law impartially,

he defended it courageously, he proved incorruptible."

MacGuire died of pneumonia shortly before Butler published his book. Grayson Murphy died in 1937, Smedley Butler in 1940, Hugh Johnson in 1942, Al Smith in 1944, Thomas Lamont in 1948, John W. Davis in 1955, Robert S. Clark in 1956, Paul French in 1960, and Irénée du Pont in 1963.

In 2018 and 2022, Thomas Lamont's great-grandson, Edward Miner Lamont Jr., a.k.a. Ned Lamont, was elected Governor of Connecticut -- as a liberal Democrat. He has conducted the office very differently from what his ancestor would have hoped.

This month, Donald Trump won -- or, perhaps, "won" -- the Presidential election, needing only business lords like Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk to re-shape public opinion for him. He won't need a respected General to be a figurehead for him. After all, he still believes what he said in 2015: "I know more than the generals do."

November 19, 2004: The Malice at The Palace

November 19, 2004, 20 years ago: The most notorious brawl in the history of North American sports breaks out. In the tradition of giving rhyming names to big prizefights, it quickly became known as "The Malice at the Palace." 

The Detroit Pistons were playing the Indiana Pacers, at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Auburn Hills is in the suburbs of Detroit, 33 miles northwest of Cadillac Square, and far from the city's notorious ghettos. The Pistons had been playing there since 1988, after playing the previous 10 seasons at the Silverdome, 4 miles to the south in Pontiac.

They were the defending NBA Champions, and had previously won back-to-back titles in 1989 and '90, when they were the roughest team of their generation, "the Motor City Bad Boys." A member of that team, Joe Dumars, was now the general manager, and he had assembled a strong team, coached by Larry Brown. Having coached the University of Kansas to the National Championship in 1988, Brown became the 1st coach to win both NCAA and NBA Championships. Through 2022, he remains the only one.

The Pistons' starting center and Captain was Ben Wallace. Forward Rasheed Wallace (no relation) was considered the most aggressive member of the team. He had been acquired from the Portland Trail Blazers, who, at the time, were not only very aggressive on the court, but got into legal trouble off it, leading to the nickname "the Jail Blazers."

The team also included guards Chauncey Billups, Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Lindsey Hunter; forwards Antonio McDyess and Tayshaun Prince; and newly-acquired center Derrick Coleman, once on the verge of superstardom with the New Jersey Nets, but had worn out his welcome with 4 different teams, and was trying a comeback with his hometown team.

The Pacers were coached by Rick Carlisle, the coach that Dumars fired in order to get Brown. Their general manager was Larry Bird, an Indiana native who led the Boston Celtics to 3 NBA titles, including in 1986 with Carlisle as a bench player. They were led by guard Reggie Miller, one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, but he was injured, and did not play in this game. Their next-most-notable player was a forward known for his bad behavior, Ronald William Artest Jr., then using the name Ron Artest.

There wasn't much history between the Pistons and the Pacers. They were in the same Division, in adjoining States, but the Pistons had always considered the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers to be their biggest rivals. The Pacers also considered the Bulls to be their rivals, and, to a lesser extent, due to a pair of difficult Playoff series between them, the New York Knicks.

They had played each other in the 1st Round in 1990, and, although this was the height of the Pistons' Bad Boys era, there were no incidents. In 2004, they played each other in the Conference Finals, so they were very familiar with each other by the following November; but in that May series, there were no incidents.

ESPN televised the game nationally, which helped embed the incident in fans' minds more than ESPN just replaying it endlessly on SportsCenter and its other shows could have done. By the 2nd quarter, the Pacers had jumped out to a 20-point lead, and the game never got close. Artest ended up scoring 20 points for the Pacers, and Jermaine O'Neal had 20. Hamilton scored 20 to lead the Pistons.

With 46 seconds left in regulation, the Pacers were up 97-82. Ben Wallace attempted a layup, but Artest slapped him on the back of the head. (Note: As Rasheed, despite his reputation, was not one of the principals in the brawl, hereafter, when I say, "Wallace," I mean, Ben.) Wallace shoved Artest in the face. Both benches emptied, with Prince being the only player not to get up.

The officials separated them, and, at first, that looked like the end of it. If it had been, the incident would have been chalked up as just another end-of-game scuffle involving a frustrated player on a losing team and a player on a winning team who should have left well enough alone.

Donnie Walsh, president of the Pacers organization, had told Artest that, to calm down and avoid trouble in a volatile situation, he should walk off the court, and lay down on the scorer's table. Whether the people at that table, or the Pistons, or the officials knew about this, I don't know. If that had been the end of it, it might have been chalked up as the kind of weird thing that some athletes did, such as Artest's contemporaries, baseball star Manny Ramirez and football star Terrell Owens.

But Wallace escalated the situation, throwing a towel at Artest. Artest got up to retaliate, but was held back by Pacer coaches. Then, a spectator, later identified as John Green, threw a plastic cup with soda in it at Artest, hitting him in the chest. Artest went into the stands, and grabbed the man he thought responsible, yelling, "Did you do it?" But it was the wrong fan, identified as Michael Ryan, who said, "No, man, no!"

Pacers broadcaster Mark Boyle tried to hold Artest back, but Artest knocked him backwards and stepped on him, resulting in 5 fractured vertebrae. Boyle was the only person Artest ever apologized to over the incident.

Another fan, William Paulson, threw another drink in Artest's face, while Artest was restrained. The Pacers' Stephen Jackson went into the stands and punched Paulson in the face. Players on both sides, including Miller and Rasheed Wallace, and even Pistons broadcaster Rick Mahorn, known in his playing days as the "baddest" of the Bad Boys, went into the stands to get their own players out. When the situation is so bad that Rick Mahorn is trying to ply peacemaker, that's historically bad.

Somehow, Green, the initial drink-thrower, got to Artest, and twice punched him in the back of the head. Artest was finally led out. But 2 fans who had gotten onto the court, Alvin Shackleford and Charlie Haddad, got in Artest's face, and Artest punched Shackleford in the face. Anthony Johnson of the Pacers punched Haddad. O'Neal did the same. Coleman, in a mature act that would have surprised Nets fans 10 years earlier, stood by Larry Brown and the Pistons' ball boy to protect them.

NBA Commissioner David Stern remembered watching all of this on television, and saying, "Holy shit." O'Neal later said, "As bad as it looked on TV, it was at least 20 times worse in person."

The referees and the Auburn Hills police cleared the court. With the Pacers leading by 15 with 45.9 seconds on the clock, the referees declared the game over. The Piston fans threw more objects at the Pacers as they left the court for their locker room, including a steel folding chair that nearly hit O'Neal. Brown took the public address announcer's microphone, and told the fans to stop. They didn't. He threw the microphone down. Nine fans were injured, 2 seriously enough to be taken to a hospital.

It still wasn't over. O'Neal yelled at Carlisle for making the coaches restrain players who were only trying to defend themselves, and was ready to fight him.

The next day, the NBA suspended Artest, Jackson, O'Neal and Ben Wallace indefinitely. When the punishments were finalized, Artest was suspended without pay for the rest of the season, which, counting the Pacers' Playoff games, amounted to 86 games. It remains the longest suspension for an on-court incident in NBA history. He lost almost $5 million in pay.

For the Pacers: Jackson was suspended 30 games, O'Neal 15, Johnson 5, Miller 1. For the Pistons: Ben Wallace was suspended 6 games, and Billups, Coleman and Elden Campbell were each suspended 1. A 1-game suspension is standard for a player who leaves the bench during a brawl, but is usually not applied if it can be shown that the player was trying to break the fight up.

In criminal court, Artest, Jackson, O'Neal and Harrison were sentenced to 1 year on probation, 60 hours of community service, $250 fines, and anger management counseling. Johnson was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

Green, Haddad and Shackleford were banned for life from attending any future events at The Palace. So were Bryant Jackson, identified as the fan who threw the folding chair at O'Neal; and David Wallace, no relation to Ben or Rasheed, who was sentenced to one year of probation and community service for punching Pacer player Fred Jones.

Green and Haddad had season tickets, which were revoked, with refunds for the cost of the remainder of the season. Green had a rap sheet longer than a 3-point shot, and was already on probation from a DUI conviction. He was acquitted of the assault charge for throwing the cup, but convicted for punching Artest in the stands. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 2 years' probation. Jackson pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge, and was sentenced to 2 years' probation.

The brawl had no long-term effect on the Pistons, as they returned to the NBA Finals in 2005, but lost in 7 games to the San Antonio Spurs. They have not been back since. In 2017, the Pistons and the NHL's Detroit Red Wings moved into the Little Caesars Arena, at the northern edge of downtown, a short walk from Comerica Park, the new home of MLB's Detroit Tigers, and Ford Field, the new home of the NFL's Detroit Lions. And so, for the 1st time since the Lions last played at Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving Day 1974, 43 years earlier, all 4 of Detroit's major league sports teams were playing in the city.

Rick Carlisle remained the Pistons' coach until 2007. He coached the Dallas Mavericks for 13 seasons, winning the NBA Championship in 2011. The Pacers have not been a serious NBA title contender since 2004.

The Palace was also the site of a brawl between the WNBA's Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks on July 22, 2008. This fight was dubbed "The Malice at the Palace II." The Sparks won the game, 84-81. Despite winning WNBA Championships in 2003, '06  and '08 -- hence the mailing address of The Palace was "Six Championship Drive," having previously been "One... " and counting upward -- the Shock moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2010. The Shock moved again in 2016, becoming the Dallas Wings.

Without a tenant, The Palace became most useful for the suburban land on which it stood. It was demolished in 2020, after only 32 years. General Motors bought the land, and is planning to build an electric-car assembly plant on the site.

After bouncing around the league, in 2010, Ron Artest won an NBA Championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2011, to help improve his image, he legally changed his name to Metta World Peace. He explained that "Metta" is a Buddhist word that means "loving kindness and friendliness towards all." In 2020, having married Maya Sandiford, he changed his name again, to Metta Sandiford-Artest. He now runs The Artest Management Group, which helps athletes with real-life issues, including tax preparation. He seems to have found peace, if not world peace.

His son, who goes by Ron Artest III, has also played pro basketball, for two teams in the National Basketball League of Canada.

Winners of the Popular Vote in Presidential Elections

Bigger than anyone ever has.

But he felt he couldn't run again.

Note: Up until 1824 or so, popular vote totals are pretty much unreliable, and didn't matter much, anyway. But with the Adams-Jackson race being the 1st true divergence, from that point onward, it matters:

1964 Lyndon Johnson 61.1 (no one has topped this)

1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt 60.8

1972 Richard Nixon 60.7 (no one has topped this since)

1920 Warren G. Harding 60.4

1984 Ronald Reagan 58.8 (no one has topped this since)

1928 Herbert Hoover 58.1

1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt 57.4

1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower 57.4

1904 Theodore Roosevelt 56.4

1872 Ulysses S. Grant 55.6

1828 Andrew Jackson 55.5

1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower 55.2

1864 Abraham Lincoln 55.1

1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt 54.7

1832 Andrew Jackson 54.2

1924 Calvin Coolidge 54.0

1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt 53.4

1988 George H.W. Bush 53.4 (no one has topped this since)

2008 Barack Obama 52.9 (no one has topped this since)

1840 William Henry Harrison 52.9

1868 Ulysses S. Grant 52.7

1900 William McKinley 51.6

1908 William Howard Taft 51.6

2012 Barack Obama 51.1 (no one has topped this since)

1896 William McKinley 51.0

1876 Samuel Tilden 50.9 (lost Electoral Vote)

2020 Joe Biden 50.8

1836 Martin Van Buren 50.8

1852 Franklin Pierce 50.8

1980 Ronald Reagan 50.7 (3-man race)

2004 George W. Bush 50.7

1976 Jimmy Carter 50.1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

2024 Donald Trump 49.9 (several minor-party candidates)

1960 John F. Kennedy 49.7 (several minor-party candidates)

1948 Harry Truman 49.6 (4-man race)

1844 James K. Polk, 49.5 (3-man race)

1996 Bill Clinton 49.2 (3-man race)

1916 Woodrow Wilson 49.2 (several minor-party candidates)

1884 Grover Cleveland 48.8 (several minor-party candidates)

1888 Grover Cleveland 48.6 (several minor-party candidates, lost Electoral Vote)

2000 Al Gore 48.4 (3-man race, lost Electoral Vote)

1880 James Garfield 48.3 (3-man race)

2016 Hillary Clinton 48.2 (4-candidate race, lost Electoral Vote)

1848 Zachary Taylor 47.3 (3-man race)

1892 Grover Cleveland 45.9 (3-man race)

1856 James Buchanan 45.3 (3-man race)

1968 Richard Nixon 43.4 (3-man race)

1992 Bill Clinton 43.0 (3-man race)

1912 Woodrow Wilson 41.8 (3-man race)

1824 Andrew Jackson 40.5 (4-man race, lost Electoral Vote)

1860 Abraham Lincoln 39.7 (4-man race)

Lost Youth, the Wrong Parts Regained

Somebody once said that Nostalgia was a longing for a time that you didn't think was so great the first time around.

We're going to have an elderly, insane Republican as President, filling his administration with corrupt religious zealots who are completely unqualified for their positions.

The music and the cars are horrible.

And the Yankees can't win the World Series.

They say you can't regain your lost youth. Well, it sounds like my youth, or at least my adolescence of the 1980s, is back in full force, just without so many of the stores I liked, and with higher prices (which, of course, are not the Democrats' fault).

*

I haven't done a countdown in over 6 months. Here goes:

Hours until the next Rutgers University football game: 6, today, at 6:00 PM, away to the University of Maryland. If the Big Ten Conference and the TV networks were as smart as they think they are, they would have these 2 Northeastern outposts/newcomers in the league become big rivals.

Days until the next game of the U.S. National Soccer Team: 2, this Monday, 8:00 PM, vs. Jamaica, at Citypark, home of new MLS team St. Louis City. This past Thursday night, they beat Jamaica, 1-0 in Kingston. It was the 1st game under their new manager, former Tottenham and Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Days until the next Arsenal match: 7, a week from today, Saturday, at 10:00 AM New York Eastern Time, home to East Midlands team Nottingham Forest.

Days until the next New York Red Bulls match: 7, a week from today, Saturday, at 5:30 PM, vs. New York City FC, at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, in the MLS Cup Eastern Conference Semifinal. This is the 1st Hudson River Derby match to be a Playoff match.

Days until the Red Bulls again play a nearby rival: See the previous answer.

Days until the New Jersey Devils again play a local rival: 37, at 1:00 PM on December 23, against the New York Rangers, a 2-days-before-Christmas Monday matinee at Madison Square Garden.

Days until the next North London Derby: 60, on January 15, 2025, at 3:00 PM, at the Emirates Stadium. Exactly 2 months. This past September 15, Arsenal won, 1-0 at Tottenham. It is unusual that the game at Tottenham comes first, but, this time, it did.

Days until the Yankees open the 2025 regular season: 131, on Thursday, March 27, at 3:05 PM, home to the Milwaukee Brewers. A little over 4 months.

Days until the Yankees' next series against the Boston Red Sox begins: 195, on Friday night, June 6, 2025, at Yankee Stadium. Under 7 months.

Days until the next East Brunswick High School football game: Unknown. The 2024 season began earlier, and ended earlier, than ever before, as we went 2-8. If the schedule works out the same way as this season, then the opener will be on Friday night, August 28, 2025. That's 285 days, or a little over 9 months.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Game: Unknown. If the 2025 schedule is a reverse of the 2024 edition, with the teams flipping to the other's home field, it will be at home on September 26, 2025. That's 314 days, or a little over 10 months.

Days until the next elections for Governor of New Jersey and Mayor of New York City: 353, on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. Just under a year.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: Unknown. With the expansion of the Big Ten Conference for this 2024 season, these 2 schools did not play each other. They are set to play each other in 2025, but a date has not been set. Since Rutgers entered the Big 10 in 2014, the Penn State game has usually been on the 3rd or 4th Saturday in November. If that holds true, then it will be on November 22, 2025, at 12:00 Noon, in Piscataway, at what's currently named SHI Stadium. (The naming rights could be sold to someone else by then.) If that turns out to be when it's played, that's 371 days, or a shade over 1 year.

Days until the next Winter Olympics open in Milan, Italy: 447, on Friday, February 6, 2026. Under a year and a half, or under 15 21 months.

Days until the next World Cup opens: 569, on Monday, June 8, 2026. A little over a year and a half, or a little over 18 months. I wonder what team Trump will be rooting for: Ours, or Russia's.

Days until the World Cup Final in New Jersey: 610, on Sunday, July 19, 2026. A little over a year and a half, or a little over 19 months.

Days until the next Summer Olympic Games: 1,336, on Friday, July 14, 2028, in Los Angeles. A little over 3 1/2 years. What shape America will be in at the time, God only knows.

Days until the next Presidential election: 1,452, on Tuesday, November 7, 2028. A little under 4 years. This, of course, presumes that the Trump Administration doesn't suspend the Constitution of the United States and cancel all future Presidential elections.