1937 – Dave Smukler ran for a touchdown and passed for another to give the Philadelphia Eagles a 14-10 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1943 – Sid Luckman runs for a touchdown and throws for two more touchdowns as his Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions 35-14.

1946 – Ossie Schectman scores 12 points and Sonny Hertzberg scores 11 points as the New York Knicks beat the St. Louis Bombers 68-63.

1946 – The Philadelphia Warriors, under coach Eddie Gottlieb, make their BAA debut by defeating the Pittsburgh Ironmen 81-75.  Moe Becker led Pittsburgh with 20 points.

Jokes

Did you hear about the genie who was hard of hearing?

1. When a major wished to be a colonel, he was turned into a piece of corn.

2. When the arthritic wished to be pain-free, his house lost all of its windows.

3. When the ram wished for a ewe, he was given an evergreen tree.

4. When the girl wished for a beau, she got an archery set.

5. When the girl wished for a Prince Charming, she got cute photos.

6. When the female wished for a male, she received a letter.

7. When the sinner wished for his soul to be saved, he got a shoe repair.

8. A guy who wished for some brews got a few contusions.

9. A traveler who asked for a luxury suite got some Godiva chocolates.

10. The boy who wished to be a muscle man became a shell fish.

That Unforgettable Face

Morris is waiting for his wife to return home from shopping when his doorbell rings. When he opens the door, there are two grim-faced police officers standing there.

“Can we come in, sir?” asks one of them.

“Of course,” replies Morris.

They come in and he shuts the door. “How can I help you?” asks Morris.

“Do you have a photo of your wife we could look at?” asks one of the officers.

Of course I have,” replies Morris “Why do you want to see it?”

“Could we please see the photo first,” says the other officer, “and then we’ll tell you why.”

Morris gets a recent photo and shows it to them. The police officers study it carefully, then one of them says to Morris, “I’m sorry sir, but we have to inform you that it looks like your wife got hit by a truck.”

Without thinking, Morris says, “I’ve known that ever since I met her, but she makes up for it with a great sense of humor!”

New York Times, October 16, 2011; Nicholas Kristof

The frustration in America is not so much political and legal, as it is in the Arab countries, but rather economic inequality.  According to the CIA’s ranking of income inequality, the US is more unequal a society than either Tunisia or Egypt.

*The 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans.

*The top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent.

*In the Bush expansion from 2002 to 2007, 65 percent of the economic gains went to the richest 1 percent.

*In 1981 the average salary in the securities industry was twice the average in other private sector jobs.  At last count, in 2010 it was 5.5 times as much.

*Tycoons are manipulating the system, lobbying for loopholes and getting away with it.  Of the 100 highest paid chief executives in the US in 2010, 25 took home more pay than their companies paid in federal corporate income taxes.

*Among 65 industrial nations, the more unequal ones have experienced slower growth.  That was certainly true in the US.  During the 1940s to the 1970s there was considerable equality, but since then inequality has surged and growth has slowed.

Wall Street Journal, October 18, 2011: Martha Little

It is time for everyone to take off his blinders and see the facts; 30 years of accelerating unhealthy income distribution, too many years of unfunded, unnecessary wars, too many years of commitment to capitalism without rules.

On a personal note, I am having a bit of a personal crisis.  I am starting to have feelings for a cat.  Her name is Sassy, and this seems to go beyond a mixed-marriage sort of thing.  This is no poodle-chihuahua relationship problem where the worst that could happen is a litter of scrawny puppies with random puffs of kinky hair.  And we are consenting adults, so who are we hurting?

Have you seen John Edwards’ mug shot?  Is this clown for real?  Hey, I admire his hair, I am bald and a nice coif is something to behold, but he’s smiling like he just won the lottery!  What kind of a jerk is this?  Is he delusional?  Who would smile like that during a mug shot?!