Allen Ginsberg
Stats and Facts for Monday, October 7th, 2013
- October
7, 1955, Allen Ginsberg reads part of his still unpublished poem ‘Howl'' for the
first time to about 150 people gathered at the Six Gallery, 3119 Fillmore
Street in San Francisco , a small art gallery and former auto-repair shop. When
the poem was published by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of the City Lights Bookstore
in 1956, it sparked a great deal of controversy, with its references to illicit
drugs and sexual practices. Ferlinghetti was eventually charged with
distributing obscene literature and was arrested. On October 3, 1957, Judge Clayton
W. Horn ruled the poem was not obscene.
Audio version of “Howl’’ read by
Ginsberg: http://is.gd/ZHFeBP
STATS: “Howl’’ was translated into 25 languages; by the time of
Ginsberg’s death in 1997, it had sold 800, 000 copies and well over a million
copies by 2004.
FACT: The Sixth Gallery (at 3119 Fillmore Street) in San Francisco is
now an Oriental rug shop.
- October 7,
2006, seven years ago, celebrated Russian investigative journalist and
human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, 48, was ruthlessly gunned down near
her apartment with a Makarov 9-millimeter pistol lying beside her. Her murder
remains unsolved and continues to attract international attention.
FACT: According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there have
been 56 journalists killed in Russia since 1992, the fourth deadliest country
in the world behind Iraq (151), Philippines (73), and Algeria (60). Worldwide,
there have been 1005 journalists killed since 1992.
- October
7, 1952, patent #2,612,994 was issued by the U.S. Patent Office to Norman
Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver for their invention of the bar code. Their discovery was inspired by Morse code, by
simply extending the dots and dashes into lines. It wouldn’t be commercialized
until 1966. The first bar code (Universal Product Code or U.P. C. scanner) was
installed at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio on June 26, 1974. The first product
scanned was a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum.
FACT: The 10-pack of Wrigley Juicy Fruit scanned in Troy, Ohio on June
26, 1974 is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
American History.
Patent Search on Google: https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts
U.S Patent and Trademark Office: http://patft.uspto.gov/
- Oct. 7,
2001 , U.S. and British forces begin airstrikes in Afghanistan after the
Taliban, the country’s ruling power, refuse to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden who was believed to have been the principal conspirator behind the
September 11 attacks. The attacks included the launching of bombs and cruise
missiles against Taliban military and communications facilities as well as an assortment
of suspected terrorist training camps with Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat incurring
the heaviest damage.
STATS: According to the Department of Defense, as of October 1,
2013, there were 2,143 U.S. deaths in Afghanistan alone (as part of Operation
Enduring Freedom) with a total of 2,276 deaths worldwide.
- Americans
and the Vatican Seeing Eye to Eye;
According to a new poll by
Quinnipiac University, 68 % of U.S. Catholics agree with Pope Francis that the
Church has become too focused on homosexuality, abortion, and contraceptives,
while 60% of the country’s Catholics support the ordination of women priests. http://is.gd/soQmMB
- U.S.
Government Shutdown
What’s Open? Airports, U.S.
Postal Service, Federal Courts, Federal Prisons, Kennedy Center, Amtrak,
military.
What's Closed? National Parks, National Zoo, U.S. Capitol, Free
Museums.
The
Washington Post breaks it down: http://is.gd/4QFCEJ
FACT: The longest U.S. government shutdown lasted 21 days, from
December 16, 1995, to January 6, 1996.
FACT: Since 1976, there have been 17 times when Congress has
allowed government funding to lapse, though not all of those lapses led to actual,
physical shutdowns.
STATS: The military's 1.4 million active-duty personnel will stay
on duty, while about 800,000 of the two million federal employees will not be
paid.
- The Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly
Forbes Magazine breaks down MLB's
2013 attendance figures, which shows that eight clubs surpassed the
three-million mark (Dodgers, Cardinals, Giants, Yankees, Rangers, Tigers,
Angels, and Phillies); The San Francisco Giants ended the 2013 season with 246
consecutive sell-outs, dating back to October 1, 2010, for the longest active
streak in the Majors, while there were 9 games that had attendance under 10,000,
four of those belonging to the Cleveland Indians, the Seattle Mariners with
two, and the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays each having one game below
the Mendoza Line.
NFL Stats and Facts for Sunday, October 7, 2013: Week 5
- Peyton
Manning, who passed Dan Marino, now ranks 2nd in NFL history with 61,371
career passing yards.
- Eli Manning
now has a league-high 12 interceptions as the Giants drop to 0-5 for the first
time since 1987.
- The Kansas City Chiefs are 5-0 for the first
time since 2003.
- Tom
Brady's streak of 52 straight games with a TD pass comes to an end with
13-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Drew Brees holds the NFL record with 54.
- Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo is the 5th QB to throw for at least 500 yards and 5 TDs in
game; and is only one of seven star-crossed QBs to lose while throwing for 500+
yards.
-Bill Lucey
October 7, 2013
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