The Day Mary Jo Kopechne Died

On this day, 50-years ago, Mary Jo Kopechne died. She had been riding with the married Ted Kennedy when he plunged his Oldsmobile into a pond at Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy did not report the accident for 10-hours. Kennedy received a two-month suspended sentence, and had his license suspended for a year for his actions.

Meanwhile Mary Jo Kopechne did not live to see her 29th birthday.

The Day Mary Jo Kopechne Died

On this day, 47-years ago, Mary Jo Kopechne died. She had been riding with the married Ted Kennedy when he plunged his Oldsmobile into a pond at Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy did not report the accident for 10-hours. Kennedy received a two-month suspended sentence, and had his license suspended for a year for his actions.

Mary Jo Kopechne did not live to see her 29th birthday.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- As an Irish-American this story is very disturbing and makes me want to avoid any future purchases of Hasbro products.

- Why Brad Stevens might be the next great NBA coach

- Axl Rose is new lead singer for AC/DC. The conversion of AC/DC to a cover band is now complete.

- Yup - sounds like Ted Kennedy

- Season 2 of Bill Burr's F is for Family is official! (NSFW language) If you haven't seen the first season go do so now!

- Dark Side of the Rainbow. Wizard of Oz synched up with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

The Day Mary Jo Kopechne Died

On this day, 46-years ago, Mary Jo Kopechne died. She had been riding with the married Ted Kennedy when he plunged his Oldsmobile into a pond at Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy did not report the accident for 10-hours. Kennedy received a two-month suspended sentence, and had his license suspended for a year for his actions.

Mary Jo Kopechne did not live to see her 29th birthday.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Good on ya mate - one Australian man estimated to have saved lives of 2 million babies

- Marco Rubio's driving record? Really?

- Good list of movie oral histories.

- Interesting look at behind the scenes at Augusta. More like the Soup Nazi of golf than the North Korea of golf if you ask me.

- Heh heh. Not sure if this chart is from Audubon.

- Interesting - how do water towers work? Never considered that height was a function of water pressure.

- Be careful when donating money to charities

- This is funny because it is so true!

Ted Kennedy

Fascinating look at Ted Kennedy written in 1990 by Michael Kelley - A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy. Keep in mind that it was 1990 but this quote speaks volumes:

“He has the kind of personal wealth where he can do just about anything he wants to do,” says Orrin Hatch. “But I wouldn’t trade life with him for ten seconds. I’d rather be poor and in the condition that I’m in than trade with Ted.”

I've been meaning to jot down my thoughts on Kennedy and will hopefully get to it today but read the linked article because it's important to start with the truth.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

On Tuesday for the Red Sox Opening Day - the music for Ted Kennedy's intro was first the theme music from A Band of Brothers and then Tessie by the Drop Kick Murphy's. Not sure if Band of Brothers was really appropriate for Kennedy who used his dad's political connections to insure he never saw any combat in his undistinguished tour in the Army. The Irish drinking-like Tessie on the other hand seemed more like Teddy's style... Your really don't hear the phrase "shiver me timbers" anymore - not even on Talk Like a Pirate day. The phrase probably gained its original popularity via the character Long John Silver in Treasure Island. I don't know why I thought about this in the first place but if there's a place for random thoughts this is it. I understand the phrase "well blow me down" is still popular in certain circles - not that there's anything wrong with that... You may have heard the trick question "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" The answer of course is President Grant. However, the trick answer to "What was Ulysses S Grant's first name?" is actually Hiram.

More Opening Day Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings won the first ever professional baseball game on May 4, 1869. They then went on to win their next 129 games until their winning streak was broken by the Brooklyn Atlantics. That seems to be some cosmic bad news for the Reds who today play the Mets (the spiritual heirs to the Brooklyn Dodgers who I guess would have been heirs to the Atlantics)... Ted Kennedy is scheduled to throw out the first pitch today at Fenway Park if he is healthy enough. No disrespect to Kennedy but this is an insult to Jim Rice who is newly elected to the Hall of Fame. Can you imagine another franchise who would have a player elected to the HoF but not have him throw out the first pitch while instead having a politician do the honor?... Time flies. The last time the Indians opened against the Rangers in Texas- Manny Ramirez was still on the team and Cleveland was so loaded offensively that ManRam batted 7th... Nick Johnson is the only remaining player on the Nationals roster who was with the Expos when the team moved to Washington... The Tampa Bay Rays had 16 sellouts last season but 8 of those sellouts were playoff games. The Red Sox always have full capacity at Fenway...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I think that if Barack Obama does win the Democratic nomination that the McCain campaign will be just as successful using Obama's relationship with Ted Kennedy to turn off centrist voters as it will be with the Reverend Wright... Does any political position fly under the radar more than the position of Speaker of the House? Fredrick Muhlenberg was the first Speaker of the House. If you knew that then you are a total history geek... Happy 54th birthday to Dave "Devil Fish" Ulliott. I'm not particularly a fan of Ulliott but I'll wish him happy birthday just the same... This is actually rather important and the analysis can't really be argued with. I think you will start to see a drastic change in the way print media covers games. For instance - the humor and insight of someone condensing a SoSH Red Sox game thread into a column would be equal or better than almost anything the Globe or Herald can offer. And that's not a knock on the Herald or Globe. It's just the way it is.

Ted Kennedy to Endorse Obama

Ted Kennedy is set to endorse Barack Obama who is probably hoping Ted makes his endorsement via press release so that this doesn't happen again.

The Day Mary Jo Kopechne Died

On this day, 38-years ago, Mary Jo Kopechne died. She had been riding with the married Ted Kennedy when he plunged his Oldsmobile into a pond at Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy did not report the accident for 10-hours. Kennedy received a two-month suspended sentence, and had his license suspended for a year for his actions.

Mary Jo Kopechne did not live to see her 29th birthday.

Why Bush, McCain and Kennedy Want the Immigration Bill

There's a concept in business called "What's in it for Them?" The idea is you have to know what value and benefits a potential customer would see in a product or proposal or what incentive or benefit an employee would see in a new program or policy. If a customer doesn't see enough value or benefit to them - they won't buy the product or service. If an employee doesn't see enough incentive that benefits them - then whatever new program or policy that is being enacted is doomed to failure.

I won't pretend to know all the details of the proposed Immigration Bill but I will admit to wondering why George Bush and John McCain would be so strongly in support of a bill that is so very unpopular in the Republican base. What's in it for them?

John McCain represents Arizona - a border state with Mexico. George W. Bush is from Texas (you can take the man from Texas but not the Texas out of the man). Both Arizona and Texas are spending lots of time and money dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. My guess is that to them (Bush and McCain) the Immigration Bill represents a chance to have the Federal Government help relieve a problem that has been plaguing their states. The immigration equivalent of the S&L bailouts.

McCain and Bush have to understand that the Federal Bureaucracy can't handle the job they already have in regard to immigration. You would have to be naive to think that making the job that much bigger and throwing some money at it will result in anything close to efficient.

I think Bush and McCain also understood that the best way to get this bill passed was to rush it through so that it could not be closely examined. The rush to passage was waylaid and now the bill is in limbo and probably (hopefully) doomed to failure.

What was in it for Ted Kennedy and the Democratic Party? Easy - they assume that all the new "citizens" would vote Democrat.