11 27 24 California sports talk California sports talk-----the St Louis Browns owners almost moved to LA, NFL desegration and other things.

11 25 24 1904 the shamefulness of the 1904 Olympics, world's fairs, subways

11 11 24 1918 talk, Armistice Day the evolution of Veteran's Day

1906 Talk Believe it or not, Springfield, Ohio is in this talk from 1906 but it is a positive for mankind, Football, earthquakes and they are going to put me in the movies.

09 18 24 1992 The 1992 talk and well Cosell, Tyson, the campaign, I kind of lived it.

09 13 24 1907 talk not exactly the dark ages

09 07 24 censorship talk Let's see, who did I disparage? No one wait, Will Hays, Ron DeSantis (there is an Ivy League guy and Harvard Law School guy (they really turn out creeps there and of course Dershowitz, Epstein's pal taught there)but not legacy who had to read books growing up and yet wants to take books away from kids, from libraries with his political allies and a very shady group of mothers. Bill Paley. Tiffany network? Hardly Paley loved censorship as did Camel cigarettes parent company RJ Reynolds and Joseph Breen. And what they did to Eddie Cantor, Joe Franklin's favorite performer. And other original William Cosby.

08 20 24 1908 talk lets play turn back the clock to 1908 and how two Harvard law school grads want to make America great again by curbing immigration or how there literally were lynching parties and the average worker made 222 cents an hour ($7.51 today which would be more than the present minimum wage). And was Take Me Out to the Ball Game really about baseball?

08 18 24 1909 talk let's see lynching's, Yiddish speaking Lower East Side women, teenagers, upend the garment industry, Taft is President, the Yale law school grad says women are too emotional to vote. Yep, another Yale lawyer, where do they come up with their thoughts at Frank Pepe's pizza in the Have? Oil is discovered in Persia and boy would that change America's relationship with Persia/Iran. NAACP is founded. Guess 1909 was a consequential year.

07 24 24 1910 talk wait, a President who thought women were dumb, a Yale Law School grad who didn't like blacks, immigration problems. Its 2024? nope 1910. My things don't change much do they?

07 08 24 1912 talk

06 01 24 1915 talk

 

The NCAA’s Real March Madness Is Keeping Players From Unionizing

The fight over the student-athletes’ status continues.

It is March and in the sports world that means March Madness and the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament is about ready to start. But the real madness is that National Collegiate Athletic Association members still don’t want to pay their performers, the people who perform on the court or on the field and earn money for the NCAA. The NCAA has a problem with Dartmouth University. NLRB Regional Director Laura Sacks has decided that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school and that means that the Dartmouth players can vote to create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes.

In September 2023, the 15 members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team signed a petition in September asking to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union. If the players do vote to join a union, it will give the players power. The players would become partners with the school and would collectively bargain with Dartmouth officials for salary and working conditions which would include practice hours and travel. Dartmouth associate vice president for communications Diana Lawrence put out a press release which explained that the school would be seeking a review of Sacks' decision. Needless to say, the school is not pleased with Sacks. “Dartmouth has a long and proud history of productive relationships with unions on campus, always negotiates in good faith when appropriate, and respects the rights of workers to unionize. However, we do not believe these students are employees," said Lawrence in the statement. The Sacks decision probably has infuriated college poohbahs who through the NCAA President Charlie Baker has been pleading with Congress to help the sports organization to keep the status quo. Keep the athletes in the student-athlete category and make sure they don’t get paid from the schools and make sure they are not employees.

 

 

Women Pioneers of American Television

Wednesday, March 06
6:30pm - 7:30pm

 

Main Library

Backroom, Adult Zoom

AGE GROUP: | Adult |

EVENT TYPE: | Virtual | Movies/Film | Instructional (includes lectures and workshops) |

TAGS: | |

The early days of TV was dominated by men on the small screen but a surprising number of women left a mark. Betty White was the last woman standing of a group that included Gertrude Berg, Hazel Scott, Dagmar, Faye Emerson, Martha Rountree, and Lucille Ball. Attend in person or online.

The early days of TV was dominated by men on the small screen but a surprising number of women (unusual for its time, the late 1940s and early 1950s) left a mark.

 

 

Olympians Should Be Seen And Not Heard

Watch your mouth!

Dear boys and girls who plan to play in this summer’s Paris Olympics, here is a heads up. The president of the Olympic movement is reminding you that good little Olympic athletes should be seen and never heard. Well, you can be heard but not during the opening and closing ceremonies, the medal ceremonies, during competition and during your stay in the Olympic Village.  Athletes have to refrain from attacking individuals, organizations or countries. The International Olympic Committee and its President Thomas Bach said failure to comply with the rules may result in disciplinary action. It is time for Bach to be reminded of some Olympics history, particularly the Olympics history of his homeland Germany. In 1936, Adolf Hitler attempted to use the Berlin Games for propaganda purposes and legitimize his rule of the country. In 1972, there was the Munich Massacre where members of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s offshoot Black September killed 11 Israelis.

The Olympic movement threw South Africa out in 1964 because of apartheid. There was the African countries boycott of the 1976 Montréal Games. American President Jimmy Carter ordered a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Games because the Soviet Union refused to leave Afghanistan. A good number of western countries followed Carter’s lead. The Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries did not go to the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. Bach has to remember the 1968 Mexico City podium protest by two Americans Thommie Smith and John Carlos along with Australian Peter Norman protesting among other things poverty both in the United States and around the world. Bach should be reminded that he took partial credit when North Korea and South Korea fielded a combined team in the 2018 South Korea Winter Olympics. The Olympics event is political. Countries use the Olympics for various reasons including raising their global profiles.

 1922 Talk for International Women's Month

 

Goodell Has A Lot Of Political Work To Do

Goodell, the lobbyist has to get money out of politicians

The on-field action is done but the business of the National Football League is a 366 days a year event in leap years. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s main job is to carry out the agendas of 31 different owners and the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors and that means Goodell has to put on his lobbyist and negotiator clothes and get new stadium deals for various ownership groups including Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, and the Kansas City franchises. Goodell has endorsed a Chicago Bears’ ownership plan to build a stadium in Soldier Field’s south parking lot. He is also backing a Bears’ ownership quest to build a stadium on property the Bears ownership has in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The problem in Arlington Heights? Taxes. Bears’ ownership does not like the tax bill on the parcel it owns.

Goodell will probably be advocating the passage of a Jackson County, Missouri referendum on April 2^nd which, if passed, will funnel money into the reconstruction of the Kansas City football stadium and also provide money for a Major League Baseball stadium for MLB’s Royals’ ownership perhaps in downtown Kansas City. Goodell has also endorsed a plan for a new or rebuilt Jacksonville football venue. In Cincinnati, the lease between the Bengals; ownership group and the local municipality is done in 2026 so the clock is ticking in terms of getting a deal done and the Browns’ ownership’s lease with the local municipality is finished in 2028. The problem Goodell has is getting leverage for all the owners except Chicago’s McCaskey family because there are no municipal governments in non-NFL municipalities that have a stadium plan for right now. The NFL vacated Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego because there were alternatives. That is not the case today.

Black History Month Talk

February 15 talk It includes a theory that Jackie Robinson should have beene in the Major Leagues in 1846

Has The NBA Made It Harder For Small Markets To Host An All Star Game

The league says no.

Does the National Basketball Association have set rules for cities that might want one of its crown jewel events, the NBA All-Star Game? According to a report from the Oklahoma City newspaper, The Oklahoman, the NBA has set a standard that most small markets cannot attain for the event. According to the NBA, The Oklahoman report is not necessarily true. The report claimed there were three league requirements for a city to host an All-Star Game. A city or market needed 7,250 hotel rooms and at least three, five-star hotels. A city or a market needed a convention center with no less than 650,000 square feet of space. A city or a market needed an airport with at least 75 domestic nonstop flights and 20 international flights. Some NBA markets fall short of those requirements. San Francisco and Los Angeles will be hosting the 2025 and 2026 games respectively.

The next available event is in 2027 and there are still four NBA markets that have never hosted an NBA All Star Game. Oklahoma City, Portland, Memphis, and Sacramento. In sports, a market is rewarded when local politicians come up with hundreds of millions of dollars for a new arena. Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt has made a massive commitment of at least $850 million to build the local owner, Clayton Bennett, a new arena. That is the kind of commitment that gets the league commissioner and league owners attention. A publicly funded arena where the local owner has to put up just $50 million. Sacramento, Minneapolis, Memphis, Milwaukee and Oklahoma City are among the NBA cities that fall short of the reported requirements. Throw in Indianapolis, Charlotte, Cleveland, and Detroit on that list. The NBA All Star Game is an excuse for a weekend party for rich people who might not want to suffer travel inconveniences.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt

Evan Weiner's books are available at iTunes - https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191  

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com