Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Andy Griffith -- A Tribute in Cards and More

It was reported today that TV icon Andy Griffith has died at age 86. I grew up watching "The Andy Griffith Show" and still enjoy it to this day. As a tribute here are some cards featuring Andy as well as some pictures and videos that I posted recently on Andy's birthday.

Blow Out the Candles July 3 I'm With Coco

Sorry. it's not Conan's birthday. I was thinking of another Coco.

Jose "Coco" Laboy is celebrating his 72nd birthday today.

Coco began his professional career at age 18 but didn't make it to the Show until he was 28. The newly minted Montreal Expos took him from the St .Louis Cardinals with the 54th pick of the 1968 expansion draft. He had a nice rookie season hitting .258 with 18 home runs and 83 knocked in. After a sophomore slump in 1970, a Winter League knee injury effectively ended his career and he played his final major league game on May 16, 1973. According to Wikipedia, Coco "returned to his native Puerto Rico and got a job with the government, which he served for 27 years, eventually becoming director of the commonwealth's athletic programs."

Monday, July 2, 2012

Selebrating Santo 1996 Cubs Convention Autograph

Only 20 days now until my boyhood hero Ron Santo is inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.

This recent addition to my Santo collection is also now one of my all-time favorites. It's from a set issued at the 1996 Cubs convention. I love the photo but I'm having trouble figuring out the year it was taken. Can anyone help? #27 is on the mound presumably throwing batting practice. The 4 x 5-3/4 inch card features a great example of the Santo signature that's almost 3-1/2 inches long. Icing on the cake is that I won this for about $12 shipped.

Blow Out the Candles July 2

Chicago Blackhawks star Ken Wharram is celebrating his 79th birthday today.

1994-95 Parkhurst #23

1994-95 Parkhurst #150

1994-95 Parkhurst #137

2003 Parkhurst #OS-KW

March 20, 1967

Wharram, Mikita and Mohns made up the last version of The Scooter Line.

Ken was a member of the 1960-61 Black Hawks Stanley Cup Champions.

Kenny retired suddenly after having been diagnosed with myocarditis in September of 1969.

Comedian Larry David is 65 today.

Larry with Seinfeld co-creator Jerry Seinfeld. Love the hair, Larry.

The Seinfeld gang.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry on PBS

Larry starred in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works".

Nobel Prize winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska who passed away earlier this year was born in Prowent, Poland on this date in 1923.

Here are a few of her poems:

Some Like Poetry

Some -
thus not all. Not even the majority of all but the minority.
Not counting schools, where one has to,
and the poets themselves,
there might be two people per thousand.

Like -
but one also likes chicken soup with noodles,
one likes compliments and the color blue,
one likes an old scarf,
one likes having the upper hand,
one likes stroking a dog.

Poetry -
but what is poetry.
Many shaky answers
have been given to this question.
But I don't know and don't know and hold on to it
like to a sustaining railing.

Wislawa Szymborska

The admirable number pi:
three point one four one.
All the following digits are also initial,
five nine two because it never ends.
It can't be comprehended six five three five at a glance,
eight nine by calculation,
seven nine or imagination,
not even three two three eight by wit, that is, by comparison
four six to anything else
two six four three in the world.
The longest snake on earth calls it quits at about forty feet.
Likewise, snakes of myth and legend, though they may hold out a bit longer.
The pageant of digits comprising the number pi
doesn't stop at the page's edge.
It goes on across the table, through the air,
over a wall, a leaf, a bird's nest, clouds, straight into the sky,
through all the bottomless, bloated heavens.
Oh how brief - a mouse tail, a pigtail - is the tail of a comet!
How feeble the star's ray, bent by bumping up against space!
While here we have two three fifteen three hundred nineteen
my phone number your shirt size the year
nineteen hundred and seventy-three the sixth floor
the number of inhabitants sixty-five cents
hip measurement two fingers a charade, a code,
in which we find hail to thee, blithe spirit, bird thou never wert
alongside ladies and gentlemen, no cause for alarm,
as well as heaven and earth shall pass away,
but not the number pi, oh no, nothing doing,
it keeps right on with its rather remarkable five,
its uncommonly fine eight,
its far from final seven,
nudging, always nudging a sluggish eternity
to continue.

A Few Words On The Soul

We have a soul at times.
No one's got it non-stop,
for keeps.

Day after day,
year after year
may pass without it.

Sometimes
it will settle for awhile
only in childhood's fears and raptures.
Sometimes only in astonishment
that we are old.

It rarely lends a hand
in uphill tasks,
like moving furniture,
or lifting luggage,
or going miles in shoes that pinch.

It usually steps out
whenever meat needs chopping
or forms have to be filled.

For every thousand conversations
it participates in one,
if even that,
since it prefers silence.

Just when our body goes from ache to pain,
it slips off-duty.

It's picky:
it doesn't like seeing us in crowds,
our hustling for a dubious advantage
and creaky machinations make it sick.

Joy and sorrow
aren't two different feelings for it.
It attends us
only when the two are joined.

We can count on it
when we're sure of nothing
and curious about everything.

Among the material objects
it favors clocks with pendulums
and mirrors, which keep on working
even when no one is looking.

It won't say where it comes from
or when it's taking off again,
though it's clearly expecting such questions.

We need it
but apparently
it needs us
for some reason too.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

What Do Baseball Cards and High School Yearbooks Have in Common?

Guys like this:

Blow Out the Candles July 1

Rangers all-time great and Hall of Famer Rod Gilbert is celebrating his 71st birthday today.

1971-72 Topps #123

1972-73 Topps #80

January 30, 1967

Rod's #7 jersey was the first to be retired by the Rangers organization. He is still their career leader in both goals (406) and points (1021).

Actor Jamie Farr is celebrating his 78th birthday today.

If you're a Dick Van Dyke Show fan you might remember Jamie as a delivery man who brought food to the gang at the Alan Brady Show. Of course he's best known for his role as Corporal Max Klinger on M*A*S*H.