On this date, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still born! Well, not "stillborn" obviously. But the joke wouldn't work otherwise. Eh, whatever. It's his birthday, but he won't be celebrating it, because well, (all together now) Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
Are you into what was once referred to as a "boozing, brawling, Japanese-taunting, hell-for-leather" fighter ace? If so, it's time to celebrate the birthday of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. The real one, not the Robert Conrad version, which was certainly toned down. He had an interesting career- he had a dream once that he was reading a Japanese newspaper, which was announcing the end of the War. That became interesting and relevant after he was shot down and captured, when he got hold of a Japanese newspaper which announced the end of the War. And he was reading it! However, after the War, his-ahem, "boozing and brawling" caught up to him, and it took him a lot of years to recover. There's a lesson there, folks.
Big Red Wings news- happy birthday to Alex Delvecchio, who teamed up with the Real Great One, Gordie Howe for some years. How important was Delvecchio? Even my mom recognized the name AND knew he played for the Wings. Which of course means the inevitable- he's cool. By the way, when he retired, he was "Beta" for the team, ranking second all-time in most career statistics, behind You Know Who. Now of course, he's slipped a bit because of The Captain, but he's still awesome. He was also the coach and the GM of the Team, though neither of those jobs panned out that well. He is of course in the Hall of Fame.
It's also the birthday of Frank Reich, former NFL player. I remember his big moment in the sun. He was the backup QB for the Buffalo Bills. I remember very well- it was 1993, and his teammate Jim Kelly was hurt. The Bills were playing the Houston Oilers in the playoffs, and were losing 35-6 early in the second half. I turned to another game, figuring that one had been sealed. Nobody at the time mentioned that Reich owned the record for largest comeback in the history of College Football. Oh, and by the end of the day, he also owned the record for largest comeback in the history of NFL football. Considering that announcers can tell you that a quarterback has completed more passes on third down from the 33 yard line in the fourth quarter of game 10 of years that end in odd numbers against teams from the other conference, you'd think they would have mentioned that little tidbit, wouldn't you? But if they did, I missed it. Bastards.
Hubba hubba for Marisa Tomei. I heard a sportscaster on the radio once, during March Madness refer to her as "A number one seed", which I think is pretty apropos. By the way, I recall reading that her Academy Award for "My Cousin Vinnie" was some kind of mistake, though I guess that could be people covering up for the fact that a relatively lowball comedy won an Oscar that one year. I dunno. Don't care either.
Happy birthday to them all! And by the way, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!
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