Sunday, August 4, 2002

The Hotline I had wondered over the years when the hotline between the White House and Kremlin was installed and after watching Thirteen Days again, I had to find out. This piece of Harris PR indicates that it went live in the fall of 1963. That seems to be backed up by this report Nuclear Risk Reduction: Is Cold War Experience Applicable to Southern Asia?, which says: The first communication channel, the "Hotline," was established immediately after the Cuban missile crisis, which clarified the dangers inherent in taking many hours to send, receive, translate, and interpret messages. Close enough for me. 10:10:03 PM

My connection with baseball I was reading today that Philadelphia is going to put up a new baseball stadium, something closer to Connie Mack Stadium (previously known as Shibe Park) than the Vet. Three games stand out from my youth: My first game at Connie Mack, which was also my first professional game. Richie Allen (before he was Dick) hit a blast that broke a light on the pole in left center field. 10 or so rows up, on the third base line about midway between home and third. My first game at Veterans Stadium, where Steve Carlton beat the Pirates on his way to a magical 27-10 season. Box seats on the first base line, really close to first base. And finally, the game my grandfather took me to at Yankee Stadium. It was my one and only trip to the House that Ruth Built, in the season after they had finished major renovations (I guess that means it was in 1975). We sat behind the plate, 15 or so rows up, on the third base side. It was a terrific place to watch a game, although I couldn't get over how short right field seemed (even after reading about it for years). I sure hope that the players and owners get over themselves because baseball might not be able to survive another work stoppage. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to see a game in the new Philadelphia park. 12:35:21 AM

10 kinds A geek joke I'd never seen before: "There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't." I looked around trying to find the person the quote as originally attributed to and of course it's everywhere, having made the rounds on the weblogs back in June. 12:07:22 AM

© Copyright 2002 Dave Ely.