Long, informative profile on the making of The Godfather. Can you believe I've never seen it? Here's what struck me:

Brando got the role, over the objections of almost everyone, by nailing his screen test.

Brando emerged from his bedroom in a kimono, with his long blond hair in a ponytail. As Coppola watched through the camera lens, Brando began a startling transformation, which he had worked out earlier in front of a mirror. In Coppola’s words, “You see him roll up his hair in a bun and blacken it with shoe polish, talking all the time about what he’s doing. You see him rolling up Kleenex and stuffing it into his mouth. He’d decided that the Godfather had been shot in the throat at one time, so he starts to speak funny. Then he takes a jacket and rolls back the collar the way these Mafia guys do.” Brando explained, “It’s the face of a bulldog: mean-looking but warm underneath.”

In meeting their idol, Robert Duvall and James Caan were moved to...moon him?

Driving down Second Avenue after dinner, Caan and Duvall pulled up beside the car in which Brando was riding. “Come on,” Duvall said, “moon him!”

“I go, ‘Are you crazy? I don’t do that. You’re the king of that,’” says Caan. “But he says, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ So I roll my window down, and I just stick my ass out. Brando’s falling down. And we went away crying laughing. So that was the first moon of my life, to Brando, and it was on the first day we met. But Brando won the belt. We had a belt made, mighty moon champion, after he mooned 500 extras one day.”

Of the iconic voice he used in the movie, Brando said, “Powerful people don’t need to shout.”

Lastly, Caan's take on Sonny was inspired by none other than Don Rickles.

A couple weeks ago, David Letterman had on Bill Hicks' mom and finally played the censored performance from 1993.

He wrote a 39 page letter about the incident to John Lahr for a profile in the New Yorker that was published 3 months before he died. Lahr says:

I called Robert Morton two weeks ago, and, when pressed, he finally grasped the nettle. He had begun by saying that the decision not to show Hicks’ routine was made jointly by the Letterman show and CBS and ended up telling me that the producers of the show were solely responsible. “Ultimately, it was our decision,” he said. “We’re the packagers and owners of the program. It’s our job to deliver a finished product to the network.”

And while we're at it, Letterman's 9 Most Awkward Moments from Cracked. (Thanks to Mike for post inspiration.)

This article in Vanity Fair was interesting and amusing, but I post it because, like Tracy Morgan, friends said of Pearson that, “He was always on.”

In something of an obituary, the creator of The Wire tells the story of William Zantzinger. Zantzinger caused the death of a Baltimore waitress in 1963 inspiring Bob Dylan to write 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.'

Zantzinger lived long enough to see Martin Luther King, Jr., honored with a national holiday and to know that this week Barack Obama would be inaugurated as President. We can imagine him galled at this outcome, a small-minded racist rightly defined by his ugliest moment. Perhaps that’s him, or perhaps he was more than that. At any rate, he knew his part and he played it to the end.

Rickey Henderson is going to get a call from the Hall of Fame today telling him to pack his bags for Cooperstown. I spent a couple hours yesterday looking though old articles about Rickey because he’s always been one of the more enjoyable and enigmatic players in the game of baseball. (And hey, he played for the Red Sox in 2002, so he could be called one of my favorite Sox, right?)

Take a second to click through and enjoy Rickey being Rickey:

Joe Posnanski made a great argument that Rickey should be the first unanimous selection to the Hall of Famer, including the mindboggling statistic:

"He walked more times just leading off an in inning than Lou Brock, Roberto Clemente, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Kirby Puckett, Ryne Sandberg and more than 50 other Hall of Famers walked in their entire careers (more than Jim Rice, too)."

Of course, a writer 70 year old sportswriter left him off and now wishes he hadn’t. The BWAA might want to have some editorial control over writers who use their ballots to make a point (or in the case of Corky, just goof).

Rickey was nonpareil as a leadoff hitter, and according to this short collection of stories about Rickey, he agreed. “There ain't no other leadoff hitter but me.”

In 1982 Rickey’s manager, Billy Martin, wanted Rickey to get the season stolen base record at home in Oakland. This is a Rickey anecdote I hadn’t heard.

"Billy told that Chicken (Stanley) to get his butt thrown out, so he wouldn't be on second in my way,' Henderson said. 'But I hit the ball too hard, and he had to stop at second. Billy wants me to run, but Chicken's in the way. So Billy tells him to get picked off. Get caught. So they throw a pitch and Chicken is way off base, and they don't even try to get him. We're playing Detroit and (Tigers manager) Sparky (Anderson) didn't want me to get it. So he wouldn't let them tag Chicken. He's way off the base, and no one's even trying. And that old Durwood Merrill (the second-base umpire) is getting madder and madder. He knew what was going on. He didn't like it. He made them make the play on Chicken. I think Sparky was mad. I go on the next pitch. And I make it, I'm in there. And that old Durwood, he called me out because he was still mad at Billy and Sparky.”

He finally got the record in the next game. Over the years, Rickey’s speech after getting the record has become something critics touch on proving he was selfish and arrogant. This, because the last lines of his speech are, “Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But today, I'm the greatest of all time.” Interestingly, the article from Time has no reaction to the speech and Lou Brock helped him write the speech before the game. Also, most of these article are full of teammates (like Don Mattingly and Dennis Eckersley) praising Rickey as a teammate. (Update: Via the comments, the speech was after he broke the career record, not the single season record, so that's why it wasn't mentioned in the article. My point remains, though, I don't think there's anything wrong with his speech and "Rickey is selfish" is a media driven storyline, not borne out by facts.)

Also, via the comments, for those who say Rickey is selfish, there's one girl in Oakland who would disagree.

See, I told you Mattingly liked Rickey.

"When Rickey was traded back to the A's in the late 80's, I remember watching a game the Yankees were playing in Oakland. Before the game, Rickey was hitting off the tee, and Mattingly was sitting there setting up the balls for Rickey. Mattingly liked Rickey. This was the moment that I realized that all the negative writing about Henderson was wrong. Don Mattingly was the most respected player in baseball at that time. If Don liked Rickey well enough to sit there and tee up balls for him when he was playing for the opposition, Rickey must be okay.

Rickey suffers from being inarticulate and a lack of education, just as Roger Clemens does. When they speak to the media, they have a hard time expressing themselves clearly, so they come off as jerks. I'm glad this article shows Rickey talking in a comfortable setting. It gives us a new insight into the man."

In reading several of these articles, I found that Rickey was able to turn on and off the Rickey speak that made him seem inarticulate. And especially earlier in his career, he didn’t appear to use it at all. Roger Clemens was just a dumbass, but for Rickey, it seems like it was more of an act. “ He needed no coaxing to cruise into Rickey-speak, a mixture of a streetwise preacher and an eccentric professor.”

Here’s Eck relating a story about Rickey having trouble with R-E-S-P-E-C-T. His fondness for Rickey is clear.

This Sports Illustrated article from 2003 is overflowing with Rickey anecdotes. I’m going to go out on a limb and call this article the definitive compendium of Rickey Henderson Anecdotes. (There’s a ’25 Greatest Rickey Henderson Stories’ meme out there that you can find with Google, but this article is the source for it, and it has more than 25 stories so you may as well read IT instead.) One of my favorites, Rickey griping about his contract, "If they're going to pay me like [Mike] Gallego, I'm going to play like Gallego."

There’s also the ‘tenure’ story, the Olreud story (which is untrue), and TWO uncashed check stories, among several others.

The first mention of Rickey I could find in SI was when he was awarded Player Of The Week in October 1980 for having 12 steals.

Rickey was on the cover of SI 4 times:
In 1982, when he broke the single season stolen base record. In the accompanying story, “Medich and his catcher, Ted Simmons, had the downcast aspect of persons about to become answers to a trivia question.” Also, we find out that Kirk Gibson was once considered one of the faster major leaguers, which blew my mind. I had no idea.

In 1986 when Peter Gammons previewed the All-Star game by comparing Rickey to the other preeminent leadoff hitter of his time, Tim Raines.
Obviously, I’m going to snip the Rich Gedman quotation. Rich Gedman was one of my first favorites.

"Boston catcher Rich Gedman looked at Rickey Henderson, who was getting dressed. "He's built like Superman," Gedman said of the Yankee centerfielder. "When you play against him, you try to say, 'Don't let him bother you,' because there are times there is nothing you can do to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do. He's from another planet. Unfortunately, you can't help thinking about him. We're only human."

In 1989 when he took over the Post Season. (Remember the earthquake that disrupted the Series? Rickey was apparently on the toilet for that one.) Gammons writes

"In the seventh inning, after getting such a jump on his steal of second that Whitt couldn't make a throw, Henderson pulled up a few steps short of second and walked to the bag. "That kind of hotdogging isn't right," said Whitt (box, page 34). The A's went on to win 6-3, and the next day Henderson was quoted in the papers as saying, 'I can steal on Whitt whenever I want.'"

And in 1990 for an article about Tony LaRussa written by George Will.

Bill James’ response to Rickey setting the single season stolen base record in 1982 was exactly what you would expect. Curmudgeonly grumbling about how the stolen base isn’t an extremely effective offensive weapon and then plenty of statistics to back it up. The early Bill James byline was an exciting find, though. And, in 2001, James made his feelings for Rickey’s game clear, "Somebody asked me did I think Rickey Henderson was a Hall of Famer. I told them, 'If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers.'" (It's important to note that Bill James was correct in his assessment of Rickey's use of the stolen base because in the same year that he set the record for steals (130), he set the record for caught stealing (42).

Though Rickey and Bill James may have been of a closer mind than they knew. In this 1989 NY Times article, Rickey wants a new contract from the Yankees and is refusing to waive his no-trade clause. ''My average is down, but with a leadoff hitter, you don't consider average,'' he said. ''On-base is what's important and mine is right up there.'' I don’t think ANYONE was talking about on-base percentage in 1989 EXCEPT Rickey and Bill James.

Check out Rickey’s Wiki. He played 2 or 3 years of Independent ball after leaving MLB. Rickey was there doing his thing, hoping to get another job in the majors. Incidentally, he had an OBP of over .450 in his Independent league career.

And finally, here’s the obligatory New Yorker profile on Rickey complete with a story about getting thrown off an airplane and the quotation defining his last couple years playing for crowds numbering in the hundreds and low thousands. “I just don’t know if Rickey can stop.”

And, of course, a hearty congrats to Jim Ed Rice, as well. I'm glad he finally got in.

For your lazy day viewing pleasure. Malcolm Gladwell being interviewed by Charlie Rose (below) and I couldn't figure out how to embed the Bill Moyers video, but Michael Pollan being interviewed by Bill Moyers. Both very interesting and a good way to spend a couple hours.



Video to Moyers/Pollan is here.

I'm not sure where or when I got the link to this (I'm just starting to clean out some old links), but it's a gracious and fascinating profile of Harold T. P. Hayes, editor of Esquire. Published in January 2007 - in Vanity Fair, no less - this article is fitting now as Esquire rounds out its 75th anniversary. The article is heavy on the stories from the 60s and includes Hayes' successful battle for power with Clay Felker, the mastermind behind New York Magazine. Check it out.

After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, I didn’t quite know what to do to help myself take it all in. I found a message board called ‘Win it For’ that was started at some point before the World Series and was filled with stories from people who wanted the Red Sox to win the World Series for someone or other. I spent about 5 hours, reading it straight through, the morning after the World Series and it was the best way I could have celebrated the Red Sox winning.

On November 4, when Barack Obama was announced the winner of the 2008 Presidential Election I was searching for a similar sort of catharsis. Not so much because of Obama winning (which was nice) but because the election had been building as an event for almost 3 years – from the speculation of who would run, to the announcements, to the campaigns, to the primaries, to the general, and finally, November 4th came and went. I thought maybe I’ll collect a few thoughts from friends, or collect all the Facebook status messages, or collect a few links that helped tell the story. As I thought about it, I decided I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted without going overboard. And I won’t lie, despite my attempts at making this document impartial, there’s no way it could have been. And though I’ve tried to make its focus 11/4, Election Day, there were certain events from the campaign that creeped in.

I wanted to create something to look at a couple years from now to remember the election and hopefully present a good representation of what both sides of America were feeling on that day as evidenced by the response in the press and on the blogs. I didn’t capture everything, though I’ve certainly tried. I want to consume all of this information, have it put on a microchip in my brain. Until that’s possible, I just read a lot. I don’t know how many of these links will work in a year or 5 years, (when this doc might be helpful to show younger people who may not have ever remembered having a president who isn’t black), but here’s what I’ve got. At the bottom is a list of all the sites I used and the domains that helped.

This is a LONG post, when you get bored, bookmark it so you can come back later. There are several different sections. If you want to skip around, you can use the Contents Section below.

Celebrate! - A run down of the celebrations.
WINS! - A list of 38 sites and their winning posts.
Winners and Losers - 18 lists of election winners and losers.
Turnout, Voting, and Polling - Articles and stories about voting, polling, and turn out.
Reactions - Reactions from the world, pundits, and celebrities.
How Obama Won - Some thoughts on how Obama won.
Why McCain Lost - Some thoughts on why McCain lost and what next for the GOP.
Expectations and Advice - There are a lot of people with expectations and a lot of people with advice.
Race - Obviously electing the first black president is going to bring up comments on race.
Money and Business - What will the impact on your money and you business be?
The Media - Without the media, wherever would we be!?
Humor - Without the humor, wherever would we be!?
Miscellaneous - Without the miscellaneous, wherever would we be!?
Personal Stories from Friends - Just what it says.
273 Status Political Status Messages in 27 Hours - Just what it says.
Via - Here’s a list of all the sites I used in putting this together – the sources.

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

Esquire has been celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with several different look backs and lists. As someone who loves lists, this has been a good year. As a culmination of the celebration, they've listed the 7 greatest articles of all time, though, judging by the list, the magazine was shit until the 60s, then again until 2003 with a brief beacon of light in 1986. Not sure if this is accurate, or if they just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Gay Talese and Norman Mailer wrote for Esquire. In any case, I enjoy best of lists and each of these articles is sure to be a great read. As Esquire is a hog for pageviews and presents most of their lists in slideshow form (I'll complain about anything, I know), I've gone through the trouble of reproducing the list here. Hope you enjoy it.

"The School" By C.J. Chivers June 2006

Kazbek Misikov stared at the bomb hanging above his family. It was a simple device, a plastic bucket packed with explosive paste, nails, and small metal balls. It weighed perhaps eight pounds. The existence of this bomb had become a central focus of his life. If it exploded, Kazbek knew, it would blast shrapnel into the heads of his wife and two sons, and into him as well, killing them all.

"The Falling Man" By Tom Junod September 2003

In truth, however, the Falling Man fell with neither the precision of an arrow nor the grace of an Olympic diver. He fell like everyone else, like all the other jumpers--trying to hold on to the life he was leaving, which is to say he fell desperately, inelegantly. In Drew's famous photograph, his humanity is in accord with the lines of the buildings. In the rest of the sequence--the eleven outtakes--his humanity stands apart. He is not augmented by aesthetics; he is merely human, and his humanity, startled and in some cases horizontal, obliterates everything else in the frame.

"What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?" By Richard Ben Cramer June 1986

He's always first, 8:00 A.M., at the tennis club. He's been up for hours, he's ready. He fidgets, awaiting appearance by some other, any other, man with a racket, whereupon Ted bellows, before the newcomer can say hello, "WELL, YOU WANNA PLAY?" Ted's voice normally emanates with gale force, even at close range. Apologists attribute this to the ear injury that sent him home from Korea and ended his combat flying career. But Ted can speak softly and hear himself fine, if it's only one friend around. The roar with which he speaks in a public place, or to anyone else, has nothing to do with his hearing. It's your hearing he's worried about.

"Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" By Gay Talese April 1966

He was the victim of an ailment so common that most people would consider it trivial. But when it gets to Sinatra it can plunge him into a state of anguish, deep depression, panic, even rage.

"M" By John Sack October 1966

"They hit a little girl," and in his muscular black arms the first specialist carried out a seven-year-old, long black hair and little earrings, staring eyes--eyes, her eyes are what froze themselves onto M's memory, it seemed there was no white to those eyes, nothing but black ellipses like black goldfish. The child's nose was bleeding--there was a hole in the back of her skull.

"The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes!" By Tom Wolfe March 1965

Starting time! Linda Vaughn, with the big blonde hair and blossomy breasts, puts down her Coca-Cola and the potato chips and slips off her red stretch pants and her white blouse and walks out of the officials' booth in her Rake-a-cheek red show-girl's costume with her long honeydew legs in net stockings and climbs up on the red Firebird float. The Life Symbol of stock-car racing! Yes!

"Superman Comes to the Supermarket" By Norman Mailer November 1960

Yes, America was at last engaging the fate of its myth, its consciousness about to be accelerated or cruelly depressed in its choice between two young men in their forties who, no matter how close, dull, or indifferent their stated politics might be, were radical poles apart, for one was sober, the apotheosis of opportunistic lead, all radium spent, the other handsome as a prince in the unstated aristocracy of the American dream.

(The original post, with everything on one page was too long to load. Hopefully this will fix that.)

And now, finally, I can have my life back, not having to worry about politics every second of every day.

(Many, many thanks to the following websites for making the above possible. Seriously. Via Wonkette, Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, Apelad, Soldier’s Home, Rob Pitingolo, Wired, Mark Cuban, SF Weekly, The New Republic, Change.gov, The Corner, Culture11, Daily Kos, Callie Shell, Dooce, Ed Cone, ESPN, Gawker, Gothamist, Wicked Local, Jezebel, Kottke, Nicholas Kristof, Paul Krugman, Marc Ambinder, Marketplace, Media Matters, Miami Herald, MyWay.com, Google News, Yahoo News, New York Magazine, Obama 2008 Headlines, Opinionator Blog, Perez Hiltion, Political Ticker Blog, Politico, Ross Douthat, Salon, Slate, The Stranger, Der Souegel, Swamland Blog, Talking Points Memo, The Board Blog, Think Progress, Tucson Citizen, Z on TV, The Wall Street Journal, Michelle Malkin, Curt Schilling, AfterEllen, The American Conservative, Baloon Juice, Barry Eisler, BeyondChron, The Boston Globe, The Big Picture (Boston Globe), Brand Week, Chris Piascik’s Blogzilla, CNN, Controlled Greed, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas News, Digby, D Magazine, EbonyJet, The Economist, Bill Whittle, Wikipedia, Atrios, Chicago News Examiner, FiveThirtyEight.com, FOX News, GQ, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, msnbc.com, National Journal, Saturday Night Live, Newseum.com, Newspaper Index, Newsweek, The New Yorker, New York Daily News, The New York Post, The New York Times, Patrick Mosberg, Bill Moyers Journal, Playboy, Pollster.com, Portfolio, The American Prospect, Real Clear Politics, Reason, RedState, Republicans for Obama, The Big Picture (Barry Ritholtz), Rolling Stone, Glenn Greenwald, Salon War Room, sarahpalin.com, Hello Everybody, Steven Johnson, The Next Right, The Onion, The Root, Time, Tiny Revolution, USA Today, Washington Monthly, The Washington Post, YouTube, Zefrank)