December 2010 – the quick Sliver

12.30.10 New Year’s in Dixie

December 30, 2010 Mike Keeler

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OK, we admit it, we’re northerners at heart. In a discussion of who is cooler – Nathan Bedford Forrest or Winfield Scott Hancock? – Hancock wins every time. Sure, they were both resourceful in a pinch. Forrest captured Fort Pillow almost singlehandedly. And Hancock pretty much saved the Union at…

12.23.10 Cold Christmas

December 23, 2010 Mike Keeler

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Christmas. When all thoughts turn to South American polo players, bathing beauties, Xavier Cugat and mistaken identities. How’s that? Here’s how: It starts with all-American beauty Esther Williams and Latin lover Ricardo Montalban. In the 1940’s Hollywood paired them in series of madcap musicals in which she would sing and…

2010 Baby it's Cold Outside Christmas Esther Williams holiday Ricardo Montalban song

12.17.10 The Head of France

December 17, 2010 Mike Keeler

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All France wants for Christmas is their Bourbon back. Henry IV was an impetuous, selfish double-dealer. He was a Huguenot, and had fought against the Catholics in the Wars of Religion that were tearing France apart. But in 1589 he turned on his family and converted to Catholicism, just so…

2010 Bourbon Dynasty French King Henry Bourbon Henry IV Louis XIV

12.10.10 CPO Feller

December 10, 2010 Mike Keeler

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Consider every pampered, arrogant, ungrateful professional athlete you know. And then there’s this guy. He joined the Cleveland Indians in 1936 for the bargain price of $1. He immediately proved himself to be one of the hardest-throwing and effective pitchers in the game. In his first season, at the age…

2010 Baseball Hall of Fame Bob Feller Cleveland Indians Pearl Harbor USS Alabama World War 2