From the Sun vaults, November 30 -December 6, 1964
Absence of malaprops Fledgling weekly recommends nomadic attire, ornithologist stalking... by Jason Wals h
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‘There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.’—American journalist Walter Lippmann
by Howard Rachelson
1a. In what year did the Spanish first colonize California? 1b. When did California become part of Mexico? 1c. In what year was California “annexed” by the United States? Four years later it became a state... 2. What colorful name is given to the first shopping day of the Christmas season? 3. In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen beat the British explorer Robert Scott in a race to become the first person to reach what landmark? 4. What world currency, only 10 years old, is the second-most-traded currency in the world? 5. Name at least six items eaten at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. 6. See picture at right: 6a. What color is Marge #6 Simpson’s hair? 6b. What American cartoonist and screenwriter created The Simpsons? 6b. The Simpsons cartoon first appeared in 1985 on what quirky TV variety series hosted by a talented Englishwoman? 7a. Perhaps the most important legal document in the history of democracy, a bill of rights for the common people, was written in Latin in 1215, and is known as what? 7b. What English king was forced to sign this document respecting basic human rights? 8. There are more species of insects than all other animals, but the most common species of insects—almost 50 percent—is what? 9a. Which U.S. president declared Thanksgiving a national holiday: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt? 9b. About how many turkeys are eaten at Thanksgiving each year: 15 million, 30 million or 45 million? 10. The era of modern technology was launched in the early 1940s when the first electronic computer, weighing 30 tons and using 17,000 vacuum tubes, was built at the University of Pennsylvania. What was the five letter name of this technological forerunner? BONUS QUESTION: Late CBS newsman Charles Kuralt once commented,“Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing...“ what? Howard Rachelson, Marin’s Master of Trivia, invites you to a live team trivia contest at 7:30pm every Wednesday at the Broken Drum on Fourth Street in San Rafael. Join the quiz—send your Marin factoids to howard1@triviacafe.com.
V Recently, 80-year-old Patsy White was at Costco, struggling with a 40-pound package of bird seed when a woman came by and asked if she could help, and then did so by putting the burdensome bag in Patsy’s cart. As the woman left she told Patsy she’d also help put it in the car if she saw Patsy in the parking lot. After getting some other items, Patsy went to her car and the woman was right there, amazingly enough, and hefted the bird seed into the trunk, along with the rest of her purchases, “even though none of them were so heavy.” Says a grateful Patsy: “It was a wonderful encounter and a great help to me. I hope she sees this if you print it so that I can thank her more publicly.”
Answers on page 36
▼ A Mill Valley reader reported on
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ic death of 19-year-old Fairfax resident Charles Zimmerman who crashed his Honda on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. The farcical is-he-or-isn’t-he dead “misyears ago understanding” occurred after Fairfax Police reported the accident as a fatality, Journalism was quite the shameful little seemingly unaware that the Fairfax Fire devil, 45 years ago this week. Department’s “resuscitator squad” had Newspapers weren’t merely trying to upgraded Zimmerman’s condition to reinvent their identity in the autumn of alive-but-serious. “Zimmerman was then 1964—a time when television threatened cited by the CHP,” reported the Sun, “for to supplant the scandal sheet as Ameri- turning without signaling.” cans’ primary medium of philosophical Other stories that failed to lend credibilthought and intelity to the fledgling lectual discourse. Stinson BeachThey were trying based weekly varied to survive in an from the mundane age when the very (“New Fire Horn”) idea that someto the unintentionone was reading ally illicit (“Kindera newspaper was garten Scotched by headline-worthy Bolinas Board”) to news in itself. the mathematically Case in point, challenged (“Nathe Pacific Sun’s tional Thrift Week lead item from October 19-31”). the final week of The Fairfax ‘resuscitator squad’ yuks it up while valiantly But if the plucky November 1964 reviving a victim, 1964. paper hadn’t carried the incencemented itself as diary headline, “Newspaper Story Read,” the Gray Lady of the West just yet, what it and involved the unheard-of occurrence lacked in front-page scoops it made up for of a Tamalpais High School principal re- with out-and-out gall. citing a Pac Sun article at a student-body Despite its own taste for Dogberryisms, assembly. “As he started to read,” reported the Sun bestowed its worst-headline-ofthe Sun, “student giggling and tittering the-year award to the San Rafael Indepenwas heard throughout the auditorium.” dent Journal (today’s IJ)—the very same If the baby boom generation found issue it featured such whoppers of its the Fourth Estate so bemusing, perhaps own as “Bloody Hatchet Tells Story” and it wasn’t the messenger that alarmed “Crisis Year Was Good.” them—but the message. And who could “Our first impulse was to honor one blame them, with such eyebrow-raising of our own worst goofs, of which there stories that week as “Dress Your Children have been an altogether adequate supply,” as Shepherds” and “Cemetery Poll Taken.” conceded Sun editors. “But we must, alas, And like any suburban community, abandon such a plan in favor of a marvelthe people of Marin were looking to their ous example by the San Rafael daily.” hometown newspaper for guidance about Sun editors were referring to a recent what to do for excitement. To that end IJ story reprinting excerpts from Fulton they were no doubt disappointed by the Oursler’s The Greatest Story Ever Told, page 1, top-of-the-fold feature, “Watch which was then the subject of a muchthe Bird Watchers Watch Birds,” which hyped United Artists’ film production. kicked off with the redundantly rhetoriThe headline read: “Mary With Child; cal question, “Do you want to watch bird Fears Reaction From Joseph.” watchers watching birds?” Few outside And while we admit that’s a good one, the Marin Watch Paint Dry Society reour vote would’ve gone to the Sun headsponded affirmatively. line directly below: “Wanted: Attractive But, more importantly, the reputation Swimsuit Gals.” of Marin’s alternative newspaper would While it certainly didn’t shame the be defined by the accuracy of its reportdevil, a greater truth was never written. < ing. And to that end the Sun was taking Share your favorite headlines with Jason at jwalsh@pacificsun.com. a few lumps with the story “Fatality That Wasn’t, Still Quite Serious.” It seems the Blast into Marin’s past with more Sun failed to tie up all the loose ends to Behind the Sun at ›› pacificsun.com the previous week’s reporting on the trag-
›› TRiViA CAFÉ
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›› BEHiND THE SUN
“a grandmother who left the little one (between 1 and 2)” in her car outside a grocery store “so she could run in and get a bottle of water.” The reader said, “I had another mom run in and page her while my son and I kept a watch on the car.” The window was wide open, said the reader, and “anyone could have reached in, unlatched the car seat and taken that child.” The grandmother’s comment of “different people do things different ways” didn’t sit well with our reader. “It’s unsafe for the child and against the law.” We’ve seen too many over-alarmed Samaritans in our time to judge Grandma too harshly here, so we’ll just advise guardians to keep an extraclose eye on the kiddies this holiday season and leave it at that.—Samantha Campos
Got a Hero or a Zero? Please send submissions to scampos@pacificsun.com. Toss roses, hurl stones with more Heroes and Zeros at ›› pacificsun.com NOVEMBER 27 - DECEMBER 3, 2009 PACIFIC SUN 9