Thursday Mashup (11/11/10)

Oh noes, I tell myself…

I’ll tell you what – here is the story. Try finding references to a liberal author or publisher anywhere (not including the comments).

It should be noted, though, that Houghton Mifflin, the company that bought Harcourt School Publishers – the company that published “Storytown: Winning Catch 4” in which the update to the pigs story appeared – has contributed to Democrats…this begs to me the following question: Who the #@!$ cares!

Meanwhile, this tells us that the “Tea Party Coloring Book” tells kids that “high taxes take away jobs and freedom,” or something (as Think Progress reminds us, “never mind that 2009 tax rates were the lowest since 1950” – why should teabaggers let pesky stuff like facts get in the way of their demagoguery?).

And in the matter of people supposedly making “Chris Christie is fat” remarks, I agree that they’re uncalled for. I detest Christie not because of his appearance, upon which no one is entitled to judge about him or anyone else. My preoccupation with the fact that he’s a loudmouth and a bully and completely unqualified for the duties of his office keeps my plate pretty full as it is.

Those quick to criticize people criticizing Christie for his weight, though, would do well to read this (a bit of a “pot, meet kettle” moment).

Update 11/12/10: Oh, and here is more self-entitlement from “Governor Bully” (can hardly wait to see what Corbett in PA comes up with, considering that Christie is his “role model”…ugh).

Next, I wanted to make sure I got to this post before the end of the week from Michael Kieschnick of CREDO Mobile, in which he lists some objectives that should be pursued by the Democratic Party in the “lame duck” session of Congress: one is passing the DISCLOSE Act, another is telling the IRS and the Department of Justice to investigate the organizations set up by Karl Rove to launder millions in campaign dollars; another is to “convince the Obama administration to stop appealing progressive court rulings on matters like the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the state secrets defense against torture and wiretapping”; and another is telling the FCC to “use its authority to establish and defend Net Neutrality (another is making middle class tax cuts permanent and making the “two percenters” pay their fair share, but apparently the Dems are getting ready to do what they do best on this also, unfortunately).

Update 11/12/10: OK, this is positive, but I must admit that the whole "mixed messaging" thing gets awfully tiresome.

Still, though, please read what Kieschnick has to say and, if you’re so inclined, sign the linked petitions (all we can do is try).

Also, I wanted to note that, 25 years ago today, former Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Pelle Lindbergh was taken off life support and would be officially pronounced dead two days later, the result of one of the most horrific sports tragedies this city has ever seen.

As former Flyers hockey writer Jay Greenberg tells us in his book about the team up to about the 2000 season called “Full Spectrum” (pgs. 198-199)…

…on November 9 (1985), (Tim) Kerr pumped in three more goals, giving him 16 in 13 games and helping (backup goalie Bob) Froese to a 5-3 success over Boston. The 12-2-0 Flyers had won 10 in a row, led the league in fewest goals against, were second in goals scored, and were systematically dismantling opponents. As (owner) Ed Snider left the Spectrum after the Bruins’ defeat, he turned to his wife Martha. “This is the best team we’ve ever had,” he said.

For what it's worth, I attended the Boston game, and I remember seeing Lindbergh joking with Froese a bit on the ice when it was over.

Continuing...

The owner’s telephone rang before seven the next morning, far too early for a Sunday. It was John Brogan (assistant to Jay Snider, Ed’s son and team president).

“Pelle’s been in a car accident,” Brogan said.

…

One of the first things (Lindbergh) did after signing his contract (with the Flyers) in 1980 was to buy a new Corvette. Later, Lindbergh purchased a 1969 Porsche 930 Turbo and a speedboat that he kept in Stockholm. In 1983, he bought a new Porsche 930 Turbo in Germany for about $52,000 and sent it back to the Stuttgart factory for about $41,000 in modifications.

The Porsche’s speedometer went to 190 miles per hour. “It was the fastest car I ever drove,” recalls Jack Prettyman, a Voorhees (NJ) police officer who befriended many players. “Pelle told me he once took it up to 150 on the autobahn.”

Lindbergh did not always drive like a maniac, but enjoyed showing off what the car could do. After taking his first ride, (Bob) Clarke was never interested in another. “He scared me,” said the GM. “We told Pelle he had to slow down. I guess when you’re young and strong and full of life, you feel you’re invincible.”

…

Shortly after midnight (on the 9th), the goalie drove to Bennigan’s on Route 73. There he met several teammates and friend Ed Parvin, a part-time bartender at Kaminski’s Ale House in Cherry Hill, NJ, who had visited Lindbergh the previous summer in Sweden.

According to witnesses, Lindbergh drank at least three ten-ounce drafts before 2:30 AM. He asked (teammate) Rich Sutter, who was with his wife Rhonda and (teammate) brother Ron, whether anyone wanted to go to the Coliseum. Rich, who knew how Lindbergh drove, turned him down. Parvin went instead.

The goalie gunned his Porsche up to 120 mph on Springdale Road towards the nightspot, where he and about a dozen teammates and friends drank. Close to 3 AM, Cindy Volpe, a woman (dated by teammate Rick Tocchet), and Kathy McNeal, her co-worker and friend, arrived after completing their shifts as cocktail waitresses at Trump’s in Atlantic City. McNeal had met many Flyers when she served drinks at the (Philadelphia) Airport Hilton and had dated (teammate Peter) Zezel for six months.

The group ordered beers and B-52s, a concoction of several types of alcoholic beverages. McNeil later testified that she saw Lindbergh drink two of the mixed drinks, plus a beer. Tocchet also remembered buying Lindbergh two beers, but during the two-plus hours at the Coliseum, the goalie was often seen without a drink in his hand.

The club stopped serving at 4:45 and the lights went on at 5:00. Parvin, drunk and tired, told Lindbergh at about 5:20 he would wait in the car and fell asleep in the front seat. The goalie walked to the parking lot only steps away from (teammate Dave) Poulin. “He wasn’t falling-down drunk,” Poulin recalled.

McNeal said she was hungry, so Lindbergh told (teammate Murray) Craven, who shared a house with Tocchet within walking distance of the Coliseum, that he would drive Parvin home to Mount Ephraim, NJ, then stop back for Craven and Tocchet so they could all go for breakfast. McNeal climbed into the console of the two-seat Porsche. Neither Lindbergh nor Parvin wore a seat belt.

Tocchet and Craven were in the door less than twenty minutes when there was a knock. Two women who had been at the Coliseum said they had just seen Lindbergh’s car hit a wall on Somerdale Road.

Lisa Garaguso and Kristina Trout, 19-year-old college students from Gloucester Township, NJ had pulled out of the Coliseum’s parking lot behind the Porsche. As it turned onto Somerdale Road, the sports car accelerated and swerved into the opposite lane before reaching the White Horse Pike stop light, three-fifths of a mile away. At the intersection, Trout pulled her Chevette alongside the Porsche. McNeal was between Lindbergh and Parvin in the two-seat vehicle, her arms on the back of both headrests.

“They were all laughing,” Garaguso later told the Philadelphia Inquirer. When the light changed, the Porsche took off so fast that Trout said it looked like “the back wheels weren’t on the ground.”

Three-tenths of a mile past the stoplight, at the intersection of Somerdale Road and Ogg Avenue, Somerdale turns sharply to the right. Trout saw the Porsche continue instead straight towards the three-and-a-half-foot-high wall of the Somerdale Elementary School. Residents head the car roaring down the road and then a dull thud.

“Pelle just hit something,” Trout said to Garaguso. From a distance, it looked like the Porsche might have merely jumped the curb and stirred up some dust. When the women got closer, they saw otherwise. The vehicle had impacted the wall just at the point where it parted from the front steps of the school. The driver’s side was completely demolished and the passenger’s side rested against the steps. The windshield had been blown forty feet.

Parvin was slumped in the passenger seat with McNeal lying across him. Lindbergh was tilted up against the steering wheel, bleeding from the nose and mouth. “It’s just amazing that someone with his kind of reflexes ends up like this,” Somerdale police chief Charles Pope would say later. The skid marks indicated that Lindbergh did not apply the brakes until he was only ten feet from the wall.

And as noted here, as a result of the accident, in addition to Lindbergh’s death, Ed Parvin suffered brain damage and McNeal suffered injuries to her spleen and liver. It was determined later that Lindbergh’s blood alcohol level was an “astounding” .24 percent, with .10 being the legal limit for driving.

The Daily News ran an update to the Lindbergh story here today, in which we learn the following…

A FULL 4,000 MILES away from the city that grew to love him, Pelle Lindbergh's spirit lives on in the body of a teenager who has no biological connection to him.

His name is Jens Somnell. Naturally, he is a goaltender. Somnell, 14, has grown up playing in some of the same rinks that Lindbergh skated in as a youngster in Stockholm, Sweden.

…

Almost everything Somnell has learned about hockey, the NHL and Philadelphia has come from his mother, Kerstin Pietzsch-Somnell, who was engaged to Lindbergh and lived with him in South Jersey when he was killed.

"Every time I look at him in net, I can't help but think of Pelle," Pietzsch-Somnell said Monday from Stockholm. "He isn't as talented as Pelle yet, of course, but he is always asking questions. I tell him stories about Pelle and he knows all about him."

No Flyer has worn Lindbergh's No. 31 since his passing. Though it is not available, the number has not been retired by the Flyers. Jens Somnell could not have thought of a better number to wear.

After all these years, Lindbergh remains one of Sweden's most revered hockey figures. He is right up there with Peter Forsberg, Borje Salming and Nicklas Lidstrom.

Last March, Pietzsch-Somnell made a pilgrimage back to Philadelphia for the first time since Lindbergh's accident in November 1985. She wanted to meet with old friends, revisit favorite sites and most of all, introduce her son to the Flyers.

Pietzsch-Somnell, who married a little less than 5 years after Lindbergh's death, brought her husband, Kurt, and Jens to a Flyers game.

"I wanted to show my son a little bit what my life was like," Pietzsch-Somnell said. "Before then, he had just seen pictures and read stories about the Flyers. He was astounded by everything, from the arena to the players."

Who knows – maybe one day there could be another young Swedish phenom tending goal in the NHL with a link to someone who, for all too brief a time, was one of the very best in the business.

(And I included the horrific details of Lindbergh’s accident for a reason – if anyone reading this knows of anyone who engages in purposeful high-risk behavior with an automobile, whether they’re under the influence or not, please tell them Lindbergh’s story, as well as those of his passengers.)

Finally, to commemorate Veterans Day, I wanted to present a list of the bills related to our veterans either signed into law or passed through the U.S. House by the current Congress (and as you can tell from the membership of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees, there will be vacancies in the upcoming 112th – gulp! – Congress).

And in other vets news, Senator “Country First” is ready to filibuster the defense spending bill if the repeal of DADT is included here (and as noted here, most soldiers favor repeal). Just to show, though, that stupidity is bipartisan, I give you this, in which Kent Conrad believes that our vets should now be forced into co-pays for treatment (I said it during the health care reform mess and I’ll say it again here – it disgusts me to no end that I have to share a party allegiance with this worm).

Also, here is some truly sobering information about our wounded heroes returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (h/t Daily Kos).

In closing, please allow me to point out that there are at least four days in which we should fly the American flag or display it on our property in one fashion or another: Memorial Day, July 4th, 9/11 Remembrance Day, and today.

So fly the damn flags, OK people?

(And if you’re already doing so, sorry to be a crank.)