George W. Bush’s highest-ever approval rating in the Gallup Poll was 90%, on September 21, 2011. His highest-ever disapproval rating was 71% on October 31, 2008. Therefore, since 1937, he has the record for all-time-high approval and disapproval rating.
Very interesting. That means that only eight days later, on 08 Nov 2008, George W. Bush won reelection after setting the record for lowest Presidential Approval Rating. Put another way, Al Gore couldn’t beat someone who’d just set that record.
Now there’s an inconvenient truth!
Off play: I don’t know what you guys are going on about. Obama was president for ALL of 2011. George W. Bush was not running in 2008, the year Obama first won. When Gore lost to Bush, it was in 2000, before Bush was even president, so there was no approval rating to speak of.
Figured it out. Ekedolphin meant 2001, right after 9/11. Echo was too intent on making a crappy Gore joke to realize he fucked up and was talking about a year the Republicans lost. Got it.
Continue play.
So moving on to a real play: Hector Boiardi started canning his pasta sauce in 1937. You probably know him better as Chef Boyardee.
Bill Cosby was born in 1937.
Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording of White Christmas was so popular that he was obliged to re-record it in 1947 using the same musicians and backup singers; the original 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use in pressing additional singles.
pressing… press… bench press: the world record in the bench press was set by Scot Mendelson on 22 May 2005 when he bench pressed 715lbs (324.3kg) with only belt and wrist wraps at the New England Bench Press Classic in Worcester, Massachusetts for the highest bench press of all time without a bench press shirt.
The 1968 NL Rookie of the Year Award was probably the closest on record, with Johnny Bench of the Reds beating out Jerry Koosman of the Mets 10.5 - 9.5. One voter split his vote between the two men; if he had voted for Koosman (who had a better WAR, though, of course, no one knew what that was back then), the voting would have ended in a tie.
Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench appeared semi-regularly on Bobby Goldsboro’s variety show, where he sang country music (poorly).
OFF
D’oh! Didn’t realize I’d typed 2011 when I meant 2001; carry on.
ON
Allen Iverson has frequently stated his distaste for the idea of being a bench player in the NBA, to the point where he threatened to retire from the Detroit Pistons, and reached a mutual termination agreement with the Memphis Grizzlies, rather than be relegated to a non-starting role.
President Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) tells a crude joke about American patriot Ethan Allen visiting a British aristocrat in the new Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln.
Ethan Allen gained fame for his capture of Fort Ticonderoga. His co-commander, Benedict Arnold, tends not to get mentioned.
Etahn Allen Furniture Co started as a housewares manufacturer in 1932, then bought a bankrupt furniture factory in Beecher Falls, Vermont in 1936. “Ethan Allen” was then adopted for its early-American furniture introduced in 1939, named after the Vermont Revolutionary leader.
Ethan Allen played center field for several Major League teams between 1926 and 1938. He later invented the spinner-and-disc game known as All Star Baseball.
OFF
Crude and hilarious!
ON
May 4, 1926 marked the start of a nine-day general strike in the United Kingdom in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for 800,000 locked-out coal miners. Ultimately, very little was achieved in terms of lasting results.
No worries. Your little bloop was quite the less spectacular blunder.
The Windsor name now used by Queen Elizabeth II and other British royals dates back only to 1917. Before that the British royal family bore the German name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha in German). World War I prompted the name change.
The aforementioned name change to Windsor was done by King George V in 1917. George’s successor, Edward VIII, abdicated less than a year into his reign over the controversy that ensued from his choosing to marry a twice-divorcee, Wallis Simpson— which was in opposition to the Church of England’s stance that said divorced people shouldn’t be remarried if their former spouses were still alive.
As Edward VIII’s status as head of the Church of England would have conflicted with that very strongly-held (and, by most modern standards, arguably out-of-date) belief, he resigned rather than end his relationship.
Edward and Wallis married on June 3, 1937; no members of the British Royal Family were in attendance. Their marriage lasted until Edward’s death in 1972.
Yep, I’ll 'fess up to that.
Most of the members of the Simpson family were named after corresponding members of creator Matt Groenig’s real family. The one big exception is Bart, whose name is an anagram of “Brat.”