Archive Digger

September 8th is a good day for American culture.

In 1952 Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, the bane of every middle school-er’s reading list, was published. Am still waiting for the publication of  “Old Man and the Mine” (my equally thrilling life story).

In 1966, Star Trek premiered on television, as a result middle school-er’s everywhere had an even better reason not to read The Old Man and the Sea.

Today is also a good/bad day for famous liars.

On September 8, 1974 President Gerald Ford gave President Nixon a “full, free, and absolute pardon” for the crimes Tricky Dick “committed or may have committed during his presidency.”

On this day: “I am not a crook” became, technically, true.

Only 12 years ago, Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run and broke Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers from 1961 (nice symmetry 61 in 61).

The record is, of course, tainted, as McGwire publicly admitted to juicing in January.

Like Tricky Dick,  Big Mac had some interesting ways of spinning his drug use:

“I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.”