Scott Adams formulated the Dilbert Principle: the worst employees in any business are promoted to management, where they can do the least harm.
Pieces of advice from the book version of The Dilbert Principle include constant meetings are as productive and useful “as a truckload of Chihuahuas” and to always carry a clipboard when walking through a cubicle center as people will assume you are busy.
Lawrence J. Peter’s The Peter Principle was that, in any hierarchy, people are promoted until they reach their level of incompetence, at which point they remain.
Charles Darwin established the principle of evolution when he published On the Origin of Species in November of 1859. However, the principle was first introduced 50 years earlier by the French naturalist, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau is pictured on the US $1 coin. He is the baby being held by Sacagawea, born on the Lewis & Clark Expedition, her son by her husband Touissant Charbonneau a French-Canadian trapper and interpreter.
Jerry Lewis is known as a clothes horse. He gives away suits rather than having them cleaned and refuses to wear a pair of socks more than once.
Hollywood legend has it that Jerry Lewis gathered every copy he could of his 1972 Holocaust dramedy The Day the Clown Cried so that it may never be seen in public. It is, by all accounts, a terrible movie.
Ronald McDonald was first created in 1963 by Willard Scott. Now, 50 years later, according to one survey, 96% of all school kids in the United States of America recognize Ronald McDonald (stunning-stuff.com).
Emmett Kelly’s “Weary Willie” was a tragic figure: a clown, who could usually be seen sweeping up the circus rings after the other performers. He tried but failed to sweep up the pool of light of a spotlight. His routine was revolutionary at the time: traditionally, clowns wore white face and performed slapstick stunts intended to make people laugh. Kelly did perform stunts too—one of his most famous acts was trying to crack a peanut with a sledgehammer—but as a tramp, he also appealed to the sympathy of his audience.
The movie Kelly’s Heroes in which a group of US Army misfits steals a load of Nazi gold in the waning days of WW II is based on a true story. A book, The Sensational Story of the World’s Greatest Robbery was written in the early 70’s by Ian Sayer. Sayer’s life was threatened and he was framed for a murder as a direct result of his investigating the case. (Great movie BTW, IMHO)
The 1978 murder of Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane (found bludgeoned to death in his apartment) remains officially an unsolved crime.
The 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Mark Goldman (found sliced up like sides of beef) remain officially an unsolved crime.
Patricia Cornwell wrote a non-fiction book called Jack the Ripper: Case Closed in which she claims the murderer in the unsolved cases was artist Walter Sickert. Few scholars found her evidence conclusive.
Mark Wahlberg’s movie Rock Star was based loosely on the experiences of Tim “Ripper” Owens, who was hired to replace Rob Halford as lead singer of Judas Priest after spending several years imitating Halford in a Judas Priest cover band.
Even after 125 years, the Jack the Ripper murders remain a mystery. The Whitechapel murders of 1888 have never been definitively solved, and many “Ripperologists” remain active even to this day. One of the foremost, if not the foremost, is Donald Rumbelow. Rumbelow, born in 1940, still leads occasional Jack the Ripper Walking Tours – at least he did up through last spring when I met him on one.
Opinion, side note and no connection whatsoever: if you’re interested in doing a Ripper Tour, seek out Rumbelow and get a tour from him. Hurry, as he’s already 73 years old.
Sterling Hayden played General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Hayden was a Marine commando in WWII.
In A Few Good Men (1992), the Marine Corps drill team was portrayed by Texas A&M University’s Corps of Cadets Fish Drill Team.
Paul “Bear” Bryant only coached one Heisman Trophy winner in his long, illustrious career: Texas A & M running back John David Crow.
Interesting. Thanks for that. I believe that was the opening scene, IIRC. The USMC Silent Drill Platoon.
In play:
Bear Bryant coached at A&M for four years. Crow won the Heisman in Bryant’s last season there, 1957. Bryant then went on to coach at Alabama for 25 years, winning six national titles (1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, and 1979) and thirteen SEC championships. The 1964 team featured senior QB Joe Willie Namath (okay, Joseph William Namath).
St Paul was the only apostle who did not meet Jesus prior to the Resurrection. As Saul of Tarsus, he held the coats of the men who were stoning Stephen, the first martyr.