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In the Clover: The Mighty Quinn

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Click to enlarge

Pat Quinn, who passed away on Sunday, had the distinction of being a coach/GM for two different teams, both of which announced yesterday that they’ll be memorializing him on their uniforms. The Maple Leafs will be wearing a jersey patch, but only for their next two games (on the road tonight in Pittsburgh and at home on Saturday against the Caps), while the Canucks have added a helmet decal that they’ll wear for the rest of this season. It’s almost like the two teams took a quality vs. quantity approach — less time for the bigger gesture, more time for the smaller one. Maybe it all evens out.

Interesting to note that the Leafs used a three-leaf clover while the Canucks went with four. Speaking of which: Why is it de rigueur to use clovers as the default symbol for Irishmen (the Tug McGraw memorial patch is another example) but there’s no comparable symbol for other ethnicities? Like, when someone of Italian descent dies, you don’t see memorial patches shaped like a stick of pepperoni, right? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the Irish/clover trope, I’m just wondering why we don’t see anything similar for other groups.

Quinn also coached the Flyers, Kings, and Oilers, incidentally. To my knowledge, none of those teams has announced plans to uni-memorialize him. That’s not surprising in the case of the Kings (Quinn left on bad terms) or the Oilers (Quinn coached them for only one season, and it was a bad one), but I’m a little surprised the Flyers haven’t done anything — Quinn coached them to the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals. Can someone who’s a bigger NHL fan than I am provide some insight?

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NFL Superhero Project
By Thomas Correia

We’re a day early this week, because of the Thanksgiving holiday. And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to begin by giving thanks to a few people. First off, my thanks to Paul, for having faith in this project and trusting a complete stranger to contribute to his site on a weekly basis. Thanks also to my buddy and fellow Uni Watch fan Ryan Noonan, for guiding me as my own personal “art director/critic” on each one of these logos. Thanks to my two kids for always asking to see the new logo Daddy created and occasionally providing some great ideas to add. And thanks to my wife for those two kids.

Today we’re going to cover four of the six teams playing in tomorrow’s NFL games, beginning with the Eagles and Lions (click to enlarge):

NFLHeroWeek13pt1

There’s no better hero to represent Detroit’s blue, hairy lion than Marvel’s own blue, hairy mutant, Beast. I had a lot of fun with this one by re-creating the hands, feet, and head that would humanize the lion and transform it into one of the X-Men’s original members. The eye and wavy lines were carried over from the Lion’s logo. Credit to my nine-year-old daughter for reminding me to include the “X logo” belt buckle.

A funny story about this Eagles logo: I initially figured the beaked helmet of DC’s Hawkman would make for a good look. My biggest problem was creating the giant wing on the side of Hawkman’s helmet. I had spent time sketching it out and had just finished building a frame for it when it suddenly dawned on me that the Eagles have a wing on the side of their football helmets — duh. For me, that one additional element elevated this hero/team combo from good to great.

Now let’s look at the Seahawks/49ers game (click to enlarge):

NFLHeroWeek13pt2

The focal point of the Seahawks logo has always been its eye. Therefore, it seemed fitting to use Hawkeye of the Avengers for Seattle. I simply placed his classic purple mask onto the Seahawks logo. My six-year-old son wasn’t that impressed, so he suggested that I needed to include an arrow somewhere, just to emphasize the character’s archer identity a bit more. As usual, he was right.

The 49ers’ interlocking “SF” logo is tricky, because not many heroes have interlocking letters on their chest. But one well-known exception is Marvel’s Daredevil, who coincidentally recently moved to San Francisco in the comics. But instead of using San Fran’s plain oval logo, I opted to get creative with the Niners’ retro shield logo. I replaced the “SF” with Daredevil’s “DD” and replaced the football in the top-right quadrant with a scale (which hints at Daredevil’s alter ego as criminal lawyer Matt Murdock). But my favorite part of this logo is that DD’s billy club creates a “4” while the moon/city forms a “9.”

There are two other teams playing on Thanksgiving — the Cowboys and Bears — but I’ll feature them in next week’s installment. Which heroes will I use to represent them? Post your guesses in today’s comments, and have a great Thanksgiving!

• • • • •

One more sponsorship shout-out: Yesterday I gave little testimonials to our new holiday-season advertisers, There Used to Be a Ballpark and Left Field Cards. Today we have one more new advertiser who’s hopped on board, and I want to say a few words about them as well.

So: One of the nice surprises of 2014 has been the emergence of Oxford Pennant, which offers retro-styled, made-in-USA pennants. The graphics are sharp and the soft felt materials feel really plush. Do yourself a favor and take a look at their product line. (As an aside, it’s also worth noting that Oxford Pennant is based in Buffalo, so they could probably use a little pick-me-up right about now.)

As always, my thanks to all of these folks for partnering with Uni Watch. I hope you’ll consider them for your holiday shopping.

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PermaRec update: There’s a new book (shown at right) about a stash of 1930s love letters that lead down a rabbit hole of family secrets and Holocaust history. Learn more in the latest Permanent Record entry.

• • • • •

Baseball News: Who’s the super-suave dude in the Colorado Rockies cap? None other than jazz great Sonny Rollins (big thanks to Jeff Katz). ”¦ The Padres are once again supplying uniforms to local Little Leagues, with the designs drawn from all eras of Padres history. … I think we may have seen this before, but once more won’t hurt: Here’s a WKRP in Cincinnati screen shot that shows Venus Flytrap wearing a Reds-ish jacket with “Cincinnato” on the chest. Was this a licensing issue? (From Gene Sanny.)

NFL News: Looks like the cover design of the next issue of Mad magazine, due out on Dec. 5, pokes some fun at the NFL logo. ”¦ Love this old photo of Johnny U with a “fumble-proof football” (from Michael Clary). ”¦ Pats owner Robert Kraft got his own pair of signature Nike shoes (thanks, Brinke). … While looking for something else, I came across this Lions pipe. Well, that’s one way to get though Thanksgiving with the relatives.

College Football News: Here’s an amazing, if disturbing, sight: Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett proudly holding a Confederate flag at the Mississippi/Kentucky game on Sept. 29, 1962. The following day he refused to allow James Meredith to enroll as the school’s first black student. Further details here. … If you have to make your uniform look like a costume, at least wear my favorite colors, like USF will be doing this Friday.

Hockey News: “As a general rule, goalies seem to keep their pad designs for a year (altough they can run through duplicate sets of each annual design),” says Mike Engle. “Here’s an exception: Toronto’s Jonathan Bernier has made a mid-season switch from this design to this blue stencil design. It’s still the CCM E-Flex Pro 2 pad — just a different graphic. Personally, I like the new one. If you can only have one color (Toronto blue here), I like the lines. They pop.” … According to a small item buried within this page, town council members in the Canadian town of Marystown “wore hockey jerseys to last week’s [council] meeting. Residents are also being encouraged to wear a jersey to school or work this Friday in celebration of Jersey Day.” … What happens when you dress one hockey team as Batman and another as the Riddler? A fight, of course (from Robert Lapidus). … Cross-dressing alert! The AHL’s Charlotte Checkers will wear Hornets-themed jerseys this Saturday (thanks, Phil). … The ECHL’s Colorado Eagles will use candy-striped sticks on Saturday. The sticks will then be auctioned off to benefit local children’s charities. Nice move, although it’d be a lot nicer if the sticks weren’t plastered with corporate douchebaggery. Further details here (from Ted Phillips). … Ken Pilpel’s daughter plays on a high school girls’ hockey team comprised of students from four different schools, so their uniforms use all four schools’ colors. Fortunately, those colors mesh pretty well. Then there’s Ken’s son, who plays in the Maryland Youth Hockey Association. “The teams only have color jerseys, so all the games are color-on-color,” says Ken. “Most of the time the matchup is good, but sometimes it gets murky. This year my son’s team is blue, but last year there were purple and we were playing a royal blue team. The ref made my son’s team wear pinnies so they could tell the difference.” ”¦ A fan at last night’s Sens/Blues game was dressed as a blind ref (from Matt Larsen).

Basketball News: The Nets will soon begin a series of six “Brooklyn Blue Nights” presented by the team’s latest corporate partner, BlueRock Energy. For these games, “In celebration o Brooklyn’s rich heritage and tradition, the Nets will wear blue jerseys, and fans will be encouraged to turn Barclays Center into a sea of Brooklyn blue pride.” Huh — I’ve been living in Brooklyn for over 27 years and wearing blue jeans for the vast majority of that time without even knowing I was Brooklyn-proud. ”¦ My old high school in Indiana has had the same band sign at basketball games for over 20 years,” says Matt Blinkco. “After they recently tweeted a photo of it, I finally realized that it has an upside-down ‘K’ and has most likely been like that since its creation.”

Grab Bag: Oh baby, look at this spectacular vintage roller derby jersey. Va-va-fucking-VOOM! (Big thanks to Jeff Ash.) … Big news in the soccer worlds, as Sony is reportedly ending its sponsorship of the World Cup. … A severe head injury suffered by Australian cricket player Phil Hughes has led to some detailed analysis of cricket helmet design. … New Superleague rugby uniforms for Catalans Dragons (from George Chilvers).

• • • • •

Gobble-gobble: The day before Thanksgiving always feels like a big drumroll — the drumroll before the drumstick, or something like that. Here in New York, they originally said we were due for some significant snowfall today, so I was hoping to go sledding, but now they’re saying there’ll be little if any accumulation. Rats.

If you’re traveling today, travel safe. If you’re working today, I hope they let you out early. If you’re cooking a few things in advance today, I hope they all turn out great. And if you’re doing some last-minute food shopping today, well, I hope you come out of the supermarket scrum in one piece.

My brother and I will be spending Thanksgiving with our mom, who’s still rehabbing from hip-replacement surgery earlier this month (but doing fine, thanks), so I’ll be off the grid for most of tomorrow. But the site will be open for comments, grousing about traffic, grousing about relatives, and so on, so feel free to swing by.

 
  
 
Comments (76)

    I can’t be the only one a little let down by a picture when I was promised “Va-va-fucking-VOOM” from a roller derby uniform.

    whoa nelly! i never knew her in that movie but she is GOAT! here is the movie trailer link

    go the 47 second mark. is that rosie o’donell sr.?

    On the underoos, arent the Eagles playing Dallas tomorrow? Were the cowboys already “underoo’d” this year?

    Since Dallas plays Chicago next Thursday (12/4), I figured it’d be best to save both of them for next week rather than have to skip a week.

    Really nice work on the Superhero Project this week. I think the Hawkman and Daredevil designs are brilliant. As for the Cowboys, I think Vigilante is a logical fit in has classic cowboy costume. The “V” logo in his buckle would work well on the Dallas helmet. Stargirl wears a white star on a blue background. Her staff would probably need to be incorporated somehow (Starman would also be a good choice, though he’s had so many different looks over the years).

    For the Bears I don’t have much. I know Nightwing and Blue Beetle have been known to operate out of Chicago.

    Thanks for the compliment, Jeremiah . . . Vigilante is a good guess, but I actually chose a whole organization to represent the Cowboys (too big of a hint?) . . . As for the Bears, don’t focus on the team location. Look more at the team colors and think of a big bulky hero (the size of a bear).

    Blue and sliver, sort of round in overall shape but symmetrically pointy. So it’s gotta be either the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, no? Or if you can manage to make the SHIELD logo work, massive props to your design skills!

    Haha, arrScott, you got it! The Cowboys is indeed the “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division” (or whatever you may prefer the S.H.I.E.L.D. acronym to mean) . . . Hope my design skills are up to par.

    The Thing is an interesting choice for the Bears, but make sense given the orange in their colors. I guess the Demon Bear from the Bill Sienkiewicz-era New Mutants would have been a tad too obscure.

    Correction: I’m pretty sure that was a fan, not a ref, dressed as a blind ref at the Sens/Blues game.

    He’s actually somewhat of a fixture at Blues games. Been there most nights for the past few years or so.

    There is a product called pad wrap that allows goalies to make changes to the color and design of thier pads. Now that we have a break in my daughters hockey schedule we are changing her all white Vaughan leg pads to match her black, silver and white blocker and glove.

    Ages ago, I once published stock photography of a four-leaf clover alongside an article dealing with Ireland. This was in Chicago. I was buried under an immediate avalanche of letters from readers excoriating me for using a four-leaf clover instead of a shamrock, which is the symbol of Ireland and always has only three leaves. I put the question to some of my Hibernian-American relatives, and they said I was lucky the family isn’t disowning me for the error.

    Personally, I identify much more strongly with the harp as a symbol of my Irish heritage.

    Anyway, the fleur-de-lis is about as strongly identified with French ethnicity, the bull with Spain, and the chrysanthemum with Japanese, no?

    And maybe not as recognizable as shamrock/Ireland, but other Home Nations have strong symbols: England has rose/lion, Scotland has thistle and Wales has dragon/daffodil.

    Also, Netherlands has tulips, right?

    The daffodil may be the official flower of Wales, and the dragon is on the flag and is part of Wales’ heraldry, but the leek is the official emblem (and appears on one pound coins).

    Can’t say that I’ve ever see a tulip used as a symbol for Holland or Dutch ethnicity. Certainly not when living in Amsterdam a decade ago. That may be less like the Irish shamrock than, I don’t know, an automobile or a cowboy for America?

    Oh, and obviously: A red maple leaf is surely almost as strong a national identifier for Canadians as a green shamrock is for Irish. Though that’s a strictly national, not ethnic, symbol.

    True – I’m guessing the color orange is probably a better signifier of Dutch heritage than any object will ever be.

    A tulip representing the Dutch is used in the flag of Queens, on which it is crossed with a rose representing the English. The two crossed flowers are encircled by a ring of wampum, which represents the Natives.

    My $0.02 as an outsider, but I observe Irish-Americans and the Irish to be much more sanguine about embracing and celebrating their ethnicity than nearly any other group. Italian-Americans are close, but I don’t see collateral rah-rah behavior from the Italian homeland. As for there being an object that personifies Italian culture, I can’t find one better than the map of Italy: It’s so unmistakeable. My people, the Germans, barely rate a pulse possibly because of insecurity vis-a-vis their role in the Holocaust and WWII. Thoughts?

    Used to see images of Columbus as symbols of Italian ethnic identity in the United States. That’s pretty much why we have the holiday of Columbus Day. But that hasn’t really been all that current for many decades. Isn’t there something of a difference, in that for Italian-Americans, the ethnic identity is defined mainly in terms of culture (food, language, religion), not politics? Whereas until quite recently, Irish-American ethnic identity was steeped first and foremost in politics, both Irish/British and domestic American, then religion, and only last merely cultural things like food and rituals.

    The German-American immigrant experience is a profoundly rich bit of American history, but it’s also complex and defined by inflow mainly prior to the Civil War. Also, by the time their major immigration waves came to the United States, Irish and Italian people though of their home countries as a single, discrete country. There was no single country of “Germany” when the bulk of German immigrants came to these shores. That all puts the German-American experience closer to English settlers in their role in the American tapestry than to later Irish, Italian, Mexican, and other immigrant communities.

    Generally speaking, Americans of Greek descent rank pretty high on the list of enthusiastically celebratory/ethnically proud groups, though I am hard-pressed to think of a ‘defining’ symbol for them outside of blue and white stripes and (stereotypical?) angular fonts.

    According to legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock (three-leaf clover) to explain the Holy Trinity, One God in Three Forms while converting the Druids on the island to Christianity in the 5th century. Allegedly the Druids already had a mystical reverence for the shamrock and the use of the same by St. Patrick was a clever appropriation and helped speed the conversion process.

    “… I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the Irish/clover trope, I’m just wondering why we don’t see anything similar for other groups…”

    My brethren have covered this really well. One of the reasons, I think, that the shamrock (a trefoil clover, Paul) caught on is because the Irish sold it hard for a long time. Only infrequently did Ireland ever have a central government, be it certainly did have a very long sense of nationhood. Islands tend to do that. Anyway, when 19th Century agitators for Irish independence (or at least Home Rule) they were eager for totems that distinguished them from the English. The color green — your color, Paul! — was such. The
    shamrock (with the St Patrick-explains-the-Trinity hook) was another. The Irish wolfhound. The stone towers. All appear frequently on posters and propaganda leaflets. But the big totem was, as Scott notes, the Harp. The Harp was often being played by a female allegorical figure, akin to Marianne for the French. A golden harp on a royal blue background — no green – constitutes the official national seal.

    Italy was not a unitary country – in thought or in fact — until the late 19th Century. Each of its regions had their icons, but the peninsula didn’t and doesn’t. The fleur-de-lis has worked pretty well for the French, and the Swiss white-cross-on-red-square is instantly recognizable.

    Anyway, when 19th Century agitators for Irish independence (or at least Home Rule) they were eager for totems that distinguished them from the English. The color green — your color, Paul! — was such. The shamrock (with the St Patrick-explains-the-Trinity hook) was another.

    Pretty much spot on. And perhaps one of the main reasons why the shamrock, rather than the harp or any other symbol you mentioned, became so prominant was precisely because of its religious connotations. Contrary to popular belief Catholicism and Irish nationalism really didn’t become entangled until the 19th century when Church historians began writing hagiographic accounts of martyrdom at the hands of the penal laws which were seized upon by nationalists to portray the repression of Catholicism as the repression of the Irish themselves. Never mind that the Penal Laws were enacted by the Irish parliament at College Green, were for the most part dead letter and were in any case not unlike similar systems of legal social control elsewhere in Europe at the same time, a mythos of exceptional British cruelty against the poor old Irish could be achieved so long as notions of Catholicism and Irishness could be made synonymous. Elevation of symbols of Irish Catholicism, such as the shamrock and mass rocks, therefore were used as bumper stickers to cover up the glaring cracks in such an association.

    And right on cue, NPR has a piece on link:

    It was sort of the “lite rock” radio station of tattoos: pretty, bland and inoffensive. It could work for women or men. It didn’t have biker or sailor connotations. And it implied heritage and history.

    Maybe it isn’t standard practice for the Philadelphia NHL team to uni-memorialize coaches?
    I can’t recall if they made a patch honoring Fred Shero, and they probably should have done something for Roger Nielson considering how unceremoniously he was dismissed (the patch Ottawa came up with was perfect):

    link

    Their first head coach, Keith ‘The Thief’ Allen, passed away this year…no patch or decal for him either.

    Keith Allen was the Flyers’ GM during their Stanley Cup-winning era and even after Pat Quinn’s celebrated tenure. I don’t follow the Flyers any more, but they must have honoured Allen somehow.

    “Brooklyn Blue,” what a joke. If the company was called PurpleRock Energy it’d be “Brooklyn Purple.”

    Well, blue is one of the two official colors of the borough, the other being gold. Although what the Nets really mean is Dodger-nostalgia pride.

    Funny, because in the last couple years I would argue that black and white have become the unofficial colors of the borough. The Brooklyn Half marathon has adopted them after years of neons, and my kids’ scout troop had a serious conversation about switching our necker colors to black and white to reflect our borough pride.

    Post a picture of your troop of they make the switch! I can’t recall ever seeing black-and-white scout kerchiefs before.

    Regarding the candy-cane sticks, that would technically be “local franchise douchebaggery”, not “corporate douchebaggery”, since they’re specifically advertising locally-owned area franchises (which just happen to have a corporate brand tie-in).

    I also don’t think the clover trope would be used for someone who didn’t have a stereotypical Irish name. The names that come to mind are ‘Mc*,’ ‘O’*,’ ‘Murphy,’ ‘Quinn.’ I imagine a ‘Sheridan’ or a ‘Teague’ or an Irish ‘Abrams’ wouldn’t get the same treatment.
    There’s so much about the portrayal of Irish-Americans that bothers me. Don’t get me started on the cultural appropriation that occurs in mid-March every year.

    Remember, the Leafs also used a clover for King Clancy in the 1986-87 season!
    link

    As to why Irishmen get clovers and shamrocks as default icons, not only are Irishmen intensely proud of their heritage, but St. Patrick’s Day has “made” the calendar as a North American holiday, for better or for worse. I think Columbus Day is the only thing that comes close for another group, but adversely annexing Native American land is a little less harmless than partying over Guinness, green lager, and Jameson. And even still, the most Italian thing that could be an unmistakable icon would probably be the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but that would get sophomoric really fast.

    I’d say the Lunar New Year comes somewhat close to St. Pat’s as a de facto ethnic celebration day.

    And from my experience, Columbus Day feels mostly like a Northeast thing but I could be way off.

    I’ll corroborate that. I grew up in New Orleans, and Columbus Day was barely on the radar. I knew it technically existed because it’s a federal holiday and my mom worked for the USDA, but I always figured we were trading Columbus Day for a Mardi Gras vacation. Here on Long Island, some towns actually have civic parades for Columbus Day! Go figure!

    Never really thought about how it would be reflected around the country. My two hometowns – Milwaukee and New York – each has a strong Italian-American community, and Columbus Day is a big holiday in both cities.

    Don’t forget also that Italian-Americans were responsible for giving the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge its name, over the objection of Robert Moses and the city fathers of the time.

    I was thinking about ethnic markers that are actually more American. In addition to Cinco de Mayo as a drinking day, there’s:
    * Chinese takeout container
    * Fortune cookies
    * The faux-Asian type on Chinese fast food signs
    * Hannukah as a Christmas-like holiday
    * Casual Italian dining
    * Spaghetti with meatballs
    * Hanzi/Kanji tattoos

    Anything else?

    – General Tso chicken
    – Kilts and general “tartanry” as actual Scots tend to derisively refer to it
    – Caring about the British royal family
    – Tiki drinks and culture

    TECHNICAL TROUBLESHOOTING ALERT
    Does anybody have a problem reading Uni Watch on iPad through Safari? I’ve been having a particular problem since yesterday. The website does not load properly: it only displays a little more than the first paragraph before it craps out and stops giving me more. Sometimes, Safari says there was a problem, so it’s restarting the website. Here’s a screenshot of what I see on my iPad.
    link
    Any help would be appreciated. And oh yeah, don’t tell me to switch to mobile view, because that toggle option is at the bottom, and the bottom doesn’t load! It’s a Catch-22.

    Before his coaching career Quinn played for the Leafs and Canucks (as well as Atlanta Flames).

    Leafs wore this three leaf clover memorial patch with a crown for King Clancy.
    link

    Also while playing for the Leafs, they had King Clancy night where he wore a green jersey with a clover for part of the game.
    link

    I think I probably first saw it on this site as it’s one I have been semi-regularly looking at for a while now:
    link

    Interesting note on the WKRP episode–that one was funny, too. It was the one where Johnny’s reaction time became better as he got drunker–if you want Turkeys Away, Andy is wearing a branded Bengals cap, so if there was an issue, it wasn’t with the NFL.

    Maybe the Reds objected to the content of the episode.

    By the way, Turkeys Away streams free on Hulu.

    That might have been like the short-hair, black-shoes Reds. Too bad, too — WKRP went to some trouble to promote them, with cast members (e.g., link and link) often sporting Reds caps.

    Andy also wore link, too. I could swear he also once wore a jacket like Venus’s, complete with an “I” — but Google is no help with that.

    I’d like to point out that Pat Quinn passed away on Monday, not Sunday.

    As Will stated, the two teams he played for are wearing his tribute. The third – the Atlanta Flames – no longer exist.

    I’m not a big fan of coaches being honoured for their passing in this day and age. It’s not like the days of Jack Adams or Toe Blake where coaches stayed loyal to one team for life.

    While Quinn was important to the hockey world and to the teams he helped behind the bench and from the GM’s chair, his impact in Philly was really for one season in ’79-80. The other seasons were rather unremarkable.

    Actually, it was late Sunday night which went against the reports I had heard on Monday. Scratch that from my previous comment! Sorry!

    I’m not a big fan of coaches being honoured for their passing in this day and age. It’s not like the days of Jack Adams or Toe Blake where coaches stayed loyal to one team for life.

    You could say that about players, too.

    Personally, I think the Bulls would be remiss if they didn’t honor Phil Jackson on his eventual passing. Just as they will Michael Jordan. Both went on to other teams after Chicago, but that doesn’t minimize their exceptional contributions to the franchise.

    Sure, I get that, Chance. Al Arbour was honoured by the Islanders for his contributions to the franchise. It happens, and I can accept those that made major impacts on a franchise.

    Quinn? He didn’t. Not even close in terms of the Flyers.

    Not uni-related, but that photo of Ross Barnett reminded me of an an old A&E Investigative Report episode with Bill Kurtis on the secret White House tapes that I still have on an old VHS tape somewhere.

    One portion dealt with JFK’s recorded phone calls with Barnett on trying to resolve the University of Mississippi standoff peacefully while at the same time respecting the Supreme Court’s desegregation decision.

    A comment made by a JFK biographer/historian stood out with me. He said the White House’s efforts were complicated by the fact that they were dealing with a governor who was unpredictable, and “sad to say, stupid.”

    Without even getting to those jerseys, the Catalans Dragons rugby league team is a delightfully bizarre thing:
    A rugby league team in Catalonia – the French part of Catalonia – which plays in the English Rugby League system. You’ve just got to love how convoluted that is.

    One thing I love about Uni Watch is getting really interested in a topic I never thought I would have considered. Today, it was the cricket helmet link. Never thought I would have given so much attention to a cricket helmet before. The article is a good read!

    A long time ago I remember reading something that was related to the American 2 Dollar Bill on here.
    I recently received it in change while on vacation outside the United States (Jamaica). Is this note real? Has it been pulled from circulation? If so when?

    Not pulled from circulation, but getting increasingly rare. No new ones have been printed in awhile. Also, there is a belief that they are bad luck.

    Don’t miss the penny or the one dollar bill, but still miss the Canadian two dollar bill. Don’t think I have ever received or seen a U.S. $2 bill, but I don’t get out much – be a nice surprise if I got one.

    Matt Blinkco–what about the 2 different “W”‘s in Westview? And what is going on with the 3 different “E”‘s?

    I cannot recall a team doing a tribute for a couple of games only, as the Leafs are doing with Pat Quinn. has this been done before?

    There have definitely been one-game memorials, like the Mets’ one-game patch for Tommie Agee and Brian Coles, worn on Opening Day of 2001:
    link

    But I agree that a two-game patch is unusual, and hard to figure out.

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