Racin' Stuff:
By Tom Avenengo
First things, first:
I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday! I decided to give the “War Department” a hand on Turkey Day by cooking the turkey. Messed up a little with the stuffing by having it a little to wet, and I have no idea as to how I managed to get some thread through the eye of a sewing needle, but I did manage that, other than that it turned out pretty good. We had about 22 over for dinner, and we realized, the day after, that there were some things that were completely forgotten to be either put out as snacks, or heated up for our dinner. Oh well, Christmas will be here before we know it, and what we forgot can be used then.
Some of my thoughts:
My thoughts about some things on the Internet, and also, if you don’t subscribe to the Area Auto Racing News, some thoughts about what was in last weeks issue.
In the AARN issue of November 24th, in an
article by Brian Danko, there are some things said
about the NASCAR banquet/banquets. In
the past, they’ve had “Regional” banquets – like those that run the NASCAR Modifieds here in the Northeast - have had their banquet at
the Mohegan Sun Casino in
My thoughts: A big “Thumbs down” to NASCAR on the timing and on that deal, for sure.
A while back it was said that Tony Stewart was going to have a 410 Sprint Car Series that would be exclusively Hoosier tires.
The first driver to sign up, from what I read, was Steve Kinser. Now it’s being said that Series is already history.
Ernie Saxton had this in his column, on page 6, in the AARN last week:
"GOOD
NEWS!! The national 410 sprint series that was to include Emmett Hanh, Tony Stewart and others has fallen through.
This is good news for sprint car racing. We do not need another traveling
sprint car organization."
My thoughts: A good thing that it isn’t gonna happen. Years ago there was a kind of “split” in the 410 Sprint Cars and that didn’t work out.
Most of the Sprint Car racing in recent years has been with them using Hoosier tires. Well, things are making quite a change for this coming season. Goodyear has really made a dent in Sprint Car racing, tire wise, with most tracks going with Goodyear, along with the WoO.
My thoughts: Hard call on this one. But when one thinks about it, no matter where you are racing today, chances are you’ll have to buy tires – so I imagine that as long as the cost (per brands) stays fairly close, there shouldn’t be a problem, as long as you’ll be able to use the “other” tires at other places, down the road. This, I believe is what hurt OCFS and their ESW weekend a few weeks ago. Those tires would, supposedly, only be good if you ere to run at OC on A Saturday night, and most of those “invaders” wouldn’t be doing that.
Going
back, in time:
Going
back to December 3rd in:
1937
Bobby Allison ... Born
... A former NASCAR Winston Cup driver and was named one of NASCAR's 50
greatest drivers. His two sons, Clifford Allison and Davey Allison followed him
into racing, and both died within a year of each other. Bobby was a car owner
for numerous drivers from 1990 to 1996, most notably Mike Alexander, Hut Stricklin ,
Jimmy Spencer, and Derrike Cope.
1951
Rick Mears ... Born ...
A retired American race car driver. He is the third of three men to have won
the
1964
Bobby Marshman
... Died ... Born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Marshman
died in San Antonio, Texas from injuries sustained in a tire test in Phoenix,
Arizona. He drove in the USAC Midget, Sprint and Championship Car series,
racing in the 1961-1964 seasons, with 49 career starts, including each
Indianapolis 500 contest in that span. He finished in the top ten 25 times,
with one victory, in 1962 at
1988
Mel Kenyon
won the USAC Midget race over Barry Reed, John Meyers, Mack McClellan and Russ
Gamester at the
1989
Jeff Gordon, in the Bickford # 6, won the CRA Sprint Car race over Rich Vogler, John Redican, Billy Vukovich III and Davey Hamilton at the Mesa Marin Raceway, Bakersfield,CA.
1994
Sam Rodriguez won the
TBARA Sprint Car race over Gene Lasker and Taylor
Andrews at the East Bay Raceway Park, Tampa,FL.
On
December 1, 2004, we lost Lenny Calinoff. Mr. Calinoff was
the main person that got me into writing about auto racing. Yeah, it’s all his
entire fault! I had the honor of meeting
him, just one time, at one of the AARN’s Motor Sports
Shows in
Methinks
I’ll dedicate this weeks column to him. Hey, Lenny, this one’s for you!
On
December 2, 1960, “Uncle Sam” decided that he needed this writer more than the
Grand Union Company – a food chain, did, so I reported to
Coming
up:
Indoor TQ Midget racing and Senior
Champ Kart racing returns to
Indoor
Go-Kart racing returns to
Racing
on TV - http://www.racefantv.com/USTV.htm
No actual LIVE racing on TV for a while, but the NASCAR Cup banquet is on TV this coming Friday night from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM on SPEED.
Last
Thursday night I watched the Turkey Night Midget race from
Other
forums/message boards and websites:
Note: Unless I see something really interesting, I’ll just be posting links to the various places for a while.
Track
Forum: - http://www.trackforum.com/forums/
From
Jayski: - http://www.jayski.com/
Evernham/Gordon – again?
What might happen in 2010?
http://jayski.com/pages/2010teams.htm
From my column,
last week:
Knaus commits to Johnson thru
2015: Chad Knaus has committed to being #48-Jimmie Johnson's crew
chief at least through the 2015 season, team owner Rick Hendrick
said on Tuesday. Hendrick is working on a deal to
keep Knaus at Hendrick
Motorsports through the length of his racing career. But, at least for the next
five seasons, his role will be as the crew chief for the driver who on Sunday
won a record fourth straight Sprint Cup title. That will coincide with the
length of Johnson's new contract extension. "
Note: I figure if he didn’t, then he has some
serious “head” problems.
As you can see,
below, there’s been a slight change:
UPDATE - denied:
Note: I kind of think that Mr. Knaus
just might be looking for a few more $$$$$$$?
NASCAR.com: http://www.nascar.com/
Dirt
Track Digest’s forum: http://www.dirttrackdigest.com/forum/index.php
OVRP:
I think I might have made mention that OVRP had been sold, in one of my columns earlier this fall - or maybe it was late summer. However, this notice is now on the OVRP’s website:
“OVRP Under New Ownership 11/17/09
Hannen Motorsports is pleased to announce the acquisition of
Racing
will continue through the winter with four trips to
Note: I’ve heard rumors that the Diotte family has, in a way, purchased the Dirt Oval. Can anyone verify that?
Former
OVRP Dirt Oval runners:
Roger
Coss finished 3rd in the Legends car race,
at Wall Stadium, last weekend. I’m not
sure yet as to how much he’ll be racing his Legends car in the future, since he
has posted on Facebook that he has picked up his
modified – a pavement SK modified.
Other racin’
stuff:
Over this past week, there have been a couple
of instances where some drivers have gone pit side during a race, made repairs,
or not, and if they came back out onto the track, after a few laps had been
turned by the cars on the track, well, they didn’t lose any laps. I don’t think that’s right.
I got a rather disturbing
e-mail on Tuesday from a Yahoo! Race History Group member that says that
Phyllis Devine, she of The Alternate, a small monthly paper that dealt mostly
with historical racing, has finally “crossed the finish line”, and has left us
here on earth. I enjoyed reading The
Alternate, since I love and write so much about the history of racing in our
country. I got to meet Phyllis a year
ago at a Stan Lobitz party/auction/dinner. Real nice woman. May she rest in peace.
More racin’
stuff:
This past week, on the Yahoo! Race History
Group, one of the members, Galen Kurth, posted
something that was rather interesting, and when it started out, I, too, had to
add my own feelings, and did, at that time, make mention that I would put in
this weeks column, all that was said – minus the names of those that had also
posted in reference to what Galen had said.
Never did I realize that it would get to be kinda
big, with even some of the drivers from “Back in the day” also posting their
thoughts and comments.
The subject of the e-mail
was: “Driver Counsels Wannabes”. Here is
what has been said:
“If a 17 year old, just out of
high school, came to me and asked my advice on taking up auto racing, I would say NO in great big capital letters. I don't care how expert a kid may be
in driving cars, how strong and clear-headed, this is
too tough a game to beat. The odds are far too great. For every champion,
there's 1000 who never get there, able young fellows who risk their necks and
get less than an ordinary job pays. Think this over....ninety eight percent, I
figure, of the boys who take up auto racing do not make any real money at it.
And by real money, I mean more than just an ordinary job would pay."
Nothing special there, I suppose?
That would apply to how things are today, right? Ah, but check out what follows next! That’s from 1931!
Billy Arnold in an interview,
May 23, 1931 Wisconsin State Journal.
Racing has changed an incredible amount since then, but it's kind of comforting
to know SOME part of it hasn't changed....I guess. I might kick that percentage
up to ninety-nine, though. Glad there's still plenty of young people who think
they'll be the one, or it would be awfully quiet on the weekends.”
"If a 17 year old, just out
of high school, came to me and asked my advice on taking up auto racing, I
would say NO in great big capital letters.
Galen, I agree 100%. The biggest hole he would already be in is.....just
starting at 17. Most of the drivers I am around in the
“Folks,
To be realistic let's also compare the odds of a young person making a living
as a golfer, a movie actor, a baseball player, an artist, a football player, a
poet, a basketball player, a race car designer,
or a philosopher. Race driving falls into the mix pretty well of all the
hobby/careers.”
“The difference in these other
pursuits is that the "price of admission"
isn't nearly as high..... A kid can try baseball for the cost of a glove and a
bat, or try tennis or golf for the cost of a racquet or clubs. ....... To try race car driving, in this day
and age. mommy and daddy have to bring the big
checkbook. Also, you usually don't destroy the club when you make a
mistake driving a golf ball but you can do a lot
of expensive damage when you make a mistake driving a race car...... the
consequence of error is much more expensive in car racing.”
“ Guys, are we missing some thing here? As a 17 year old whose
father put the
word out not to encourage me to drive race cars,
I hung out at any shop
that needed parts washed, fuel mixed by rolling the drum over Ray Teague's
back yard, or chased lunch down at Burgin's Sandwich shop because the crew
couldn't take a break for lunch or dinner. I got a break driving relief for a
modified driver at
Apprenticeship in driving race cars starts on the weekend short tracks in any
thing
that has wheels, two or four. Hundreds of guys satisfy their urge to race
with out going "Big Time", its' in the genes to
engage in combat, race drivers are the modern warrior. At 74, I still love
to go to
racing purifies the breed, the winners move on to better things while the
rest of us remember the good times we had when we chased the dream.”
“Bob I will go along with your
input on 17 year old in a race car. The teams
that do bring a lad along to do it right, is a great idea. I can speak from
experience, as a 17 year old I had a rocky start in auto racing. My roadster
crash at an unsupervised, run anything event, nearly
cost me my life, and $ 2,000.00 of my father's 1940 dollars to bail me out of
the hospital. I see 12 year old boys now running wheel to wheel in Mini
sprints, and with over a hundred cars, I saw some of the best regulated racing,
and some very sharp future drivers coming up.”
“Mel, I finally turned to
motorcycles after seeing Joe Leonard at
Dad with me to the races and he saw the action, he said "he made a mistake
keeping me out of the cars", turned out he was right about that too.”
“IMHO, in today's racing
environment, a 17 year old would be getting late start; many kids start racing
in quarter midgets as young a five years old.”
“I SAW SOMETHING THE OTHER
DAY THAT PROBABLY PUTS SOME LIGHT ON THIS SUBJECT.
THE ODDS OF BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER
IS 1 IN I MILLION. THAT SAID, WHERE DOES THAT
PUT THE ODDS OF BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL
RACE CAR DRIVER?”
“John, and others in this group -
this has become quite an interesting topic. So much so, that, minus the
names of those that are sending in their thoughts, I'm going to post what's
being said, in my weekly column, this week. Of course if anyone is
against me posting what they had to say, kindly contact me and I'll remove what
it was that you said. Again, I'm not mentioning who said what.
But, when the word "Professional" is used, just what are we talking
about, here. There have been rumblings that if a "race driver"
that's still in high school, wins some money racing, then he couldn't
participate in school sports, since he technically was a "Professional" . Can a "Saturday
Night Racer" be considered a "Professional"
? Chances are that he might get some monies at the end of the
racing night. Does that qualify him as a "Professional" ?
Years ago, Ray Bateman was a fairly successful race driver here on the dirt
tracks in the northeast. He was also a rather successful Luge competitor in the Olympics,
when "Professionals" were NOT allowed to compete - and he was racing race cars at the time, too. Apparently the
Olympic Committee/people don't consider auto racing as a professional sport - or didn't back then?
If a "Saturday Night Racer" is considered to be a "Professional" , then I believe that the odds would be quite a lot
different, John. BUT, if you are only classifying race drivers in the
higher echelon, like NASCAR, F-1 and the IRL as
the only professionals, then your odds might be closer to what you're saying in
your response.
My thoughts, of course.”
“I agree that the
"professional" I might be referring to would be someone who makes his
living driving a racing car.
While I was able to make a substantial amount of money over my racing career, It definitely would not have "supported" myself
and my family on a year to year basis. Therefore, I would not consider
that to be called "professional" in this instance. I would
assume that a professional race car driver would
be one who has no other means of income except his race winnings and any
endorsements or selling of souvenir type products.
Fortunately, for me, I had another means to feed my family.
I expect that narrows the field down very significantly and therefore makes the
odds of joining the "elite" group probably greater than 1 in 1
million. I think there are more professional football players than race car drivers. Not alot of
seats open”
“Interesting topic ... It would be
interesting to know how many of our members are among the 999,999 who didn't
become successful star race car drivers. Mels'
roadster experience in his teens matched my V8-60 midget trials in my early
twenties ... I got on my head twice in six races and the best I ever did was
second in a B main ... Hit my head so hard in the last flip that I lost the
filling in a tooth !!! Thank goodness I previously glued some scrap rubber
inside my Cromwell skid lid ... Later tried fendered
jalopies and the best I ever did was to spend $ 6000.00 to win $ 3000.00 in one
Saturday nite season ... But I think I was a real
racer ... However, losing two dollars for every one in prize money is not the
mark of professional success ...”
“Tom,
Like many other words in our language, the term professional no longer has the
usage it once had - someone who makes a living at a profession. The Olympics, as have most other sports, no longer have
a real amateur/professiona l differentiation. I think
Olympians are today allowed to compete for prize money in other events.
Certainly Olympic basketball players are. The whole concept of the US Open,
whether it was tennis or gold, denoted a tournament where amateurs and
professionals were allowed to compete together, but God help the amateur who
took any money.
When American road racing began after World War II, it was a strictly amateur sport, like
tennis and trank and field, the latter run by the Amateur Athletic Union. If you were an SCCA member and
accepted prize money, you lost your SCCA license. As racing grew more
"professional" on the preparation front the SCCA was forced to loosen
it's definitions. At first, money earned racing
outside the country didn't count. Then, when Sebring began
offering prize money, that didn't count after a while. At the beginning
some people lost their licenses for taking prize money there. Obviously, tennis
followed.
I think the closest we can come now is to call someone an amateur if his prime
source of income is from something other than his racing. This certainly
eliminates 95% of the race drivers in the
“This is a very interesting topic
and covers a wide range of people who are
or have once figured out a way to drive race cars.
But bringing sponsorship
dollars seems to be the big deal today when forty five or fifty years ago it
didn¹t seem to be so. Maybe I¹m wrong.
I know, for example, Mario Andretti was hired by
Clint Brawner based on
watching him race in a sprint car race at
Granted, Mario was already well on with his career when this happened but I
would guess he didn¹t have anybody bankrolling him up to that point. And I
would guess Clint didn¹t ask Mario how much money he could bring with him.
Foyt, I believe, once drove a midget for Bob Higman and the legend has it
that he helped him on his farm occasionally during his first full year in
the
on the road with a budget and a contract to hype someone¹s product during
the weekday when they weren¹t racing. On the other hand, a friend of mine
was working his way up through the ranks in the early nineties and he would
go to a city where a race was scheduled and spend a week prior to the big
weekend trying to barter sponsorship. He¹d work out a deal with a motel for
rooms for his crew in exchange for advertising on his race
car. These kinds
of deals went deep into funding the weekend in many ways. And he said it was
probably better to limit his schedule to a dozen races a year where he could
rustle good enough sponsorship to give him an edge in preparedness rather
than run twenty or thirty races where most of the time the lack of money
left him unprepared. It just wouldn¹t look as good.
It¹s a very complicated range of how people have managed to race and support
a family and eat, but it seems to me that nowadays it¹s more of an
entrepreneurial experience in marketing and business rather than being just
real good. And I know the two examples I gave for how it was in the good old
days features the two greatest racers of that time. There are a million more
stories that would show how people failed. I¹m not saying things are better
or worse now than then, but how long has it been since a racer would show up
a race two states away, carry his helmet through the pits and shake hands
with a bunch of people looking for a ride? And often times they¹d find one.
I¹m looking forward to hearing more about how it was once done.”
“Something I remember from years
ago from when Dad and I would go watch the
USAC midgets run at Kitley was the phrase "and
here's another owner driver
combination" . Of course CORA was essentially an
owner driver association
(Car Owners Racing Assn) so I didn't hear that owner driver thing at the
CORA shows. I don't really remember hearing it at any of the sprinter shows,
but the memory is fading...... . This was back in the
days when a chauffer
got a percentage of the gate based on his winnings and not guaranteed money.
Many of the sprints and midgets had sponsors like Larry's Lounge, or Dan's
Diner, or Pop's Garage. The most a guy could expect there was enough money
to pay the fuel and tire bill and MAYBE tow money to get to the out of town
shows.
When I first got to
a while I started hunting a ride and was told rather brusquely that "if I
wanted to race, go buy myself a car". And mind you this was NOT a top
notch
ride I was asking for either. At 22 years old and making minimum wage that
buy a car was REALLY going to happen. My point to this is, we've been
having to "buy a ride" a lot longer than any of us care to
admit and things
today are really not all that different from 50 years ago.
As far as the "true professional" aspect goes, outside of the top
tiers of
racing (NASCAR, IRL, USAC, WoO,
etc.) there are very few professional racers
and a cornucopia of hobby drivers.
I know a fellow here who has this idea that his kid is going to make a
career out of racing. So much so that he supposedly has a ride in a late
model lined up for a 13 year old kid. Now don't get me wrong, this kid is
plenty good. But the first thing he needs to learn is that if he wants to
become a pro he needs to learn manners, respect, and marketing, something
his dad is not good at at all. Properly groomed he
has the talent to make a
splash, but I fear that his role model has him destined to be just another
Saturday night hobby racer. His dad seems to think that talent will get him
there, but we all know that talent is so far out of the equation these days
it hardly matters. If you want examples, look at the bottom third of a
NASCAR field or about half of the IRL fields these days.
Enough of my rambling.... .”
“I agree with almost all you
said.
However; I disagree with the lack of talent at the bottom of the field in NASCAR. Almost to a man, the bottom
third have proved their ability to win at a lower level.
As with all professional sports, the "little guy" is relatively
unknown and doesn't stand out as the "stars" do. However; make
no mistake about it, they are talented athletes. More
talented than 95% of their peers. They just don't have the extra
5% of talent that it requires to reach the pinnacle of their sport and be a
star. extremely talented, just not in the top 5%
The guy some may refer to as a "duck", would be a star at the next
level down. Sometimes circumstance, sometimes talent.
I think that many do not realize just how talented the top 5% are. UNBELIEVABLY TALENTED.
This is true in all professional sports”
“Tom,
to this day the pro vs. amateur thing still appears in many aspects of
competition. The way the horse folks get around it is that the amateurs
either earn trophy type prizes (some of those deals are pretty expensive) or
the horse earns the money and not the amateur rider.
As far as this subject goes with the AAU and the Olympics
I seem to remember
that if you earned the pro money in a sport other than the one you were
competing in in the Olympics you were exempted. See
the Jim Thorpe story for
an example. I seem to recall that is how they finally got his Olympic medals
back to him, the money was earned playing baseball (or was it football ?)
and the medals were earned in track and field. Of course in recent days with
the Russian "amateurs" in hockey and basketball the AAU (US Olympic Commitee
?) finally had to relent and allow the "paid/pro" athletes compete or
continue seeing the US athletes get their collective butt resoundly
whupped
by a bunch of "amateurs" who were probably more "pro" than
amateur.”
“Jim ****** and the rest of the
group,
Here is a link to a helmet in hand story on Bob Lawrence's site about my
Dad. Not 2 states away, more like 2 counties and 50 miles.
http://winfield. 50megs.com/ 11Petty.htm
I've copied the text over just in case the link doesn't work but try it anyway
for a picture of the car.
Jack Petty was walking through the pits at “77”
Petty replied, “I’m Jack
Petty.”
Petty told him, “I don’t
know you either so we’re even.”
Petty told him, “Well, not on purpose I won’t.”
“Sonny, you and I and a ton of
Wannabes, tried the racing game. Some succeded, some
survived, many did not. My roadster crash at 17 kept me barred from all the
race tracks that I wanted to run. The only thing left for me to do was to wait
until I was 22, and released from the Navy after WWII. Then I purchased a low
budget V 8 60 midget, and raced it 2 months until it was well worn. From then
on it was a piece of cake getting a ride. I raced for 10 years, drove 25
midgets for 17 car owners. Never had to pay a dime to sit in the car, but I
still had a day job all 10 years. My last race in an Offy
midget was at
“I think many, if not most of the
drivers up until recently, and many today for that matter, had to be able to
work on the car if they wanted to drive it. I know Jimmy Reece had to keep the car running, set it up, and
tow it to the track, and that was pretty typical for young drivers in the
50's. There were exceptions, of course, but they were just
that...exceptional. Jud Larson comes
to mind, and maybe Ruttman. One of the
funnier "ride buyers" was Cotton Farmer, when he went to
work for Diz Wilson. He had to cook and clean
house for Diz, whose wife was ill. Diz already had Buzz Barton to work on the cars. My
own buy-in for my very brief driving career was about as cheap as it
gets. Several of us "invested" about $600 (total) in a
novice/sportsman stocker and since I owned a
and outlasted the car.”
Note: As I said, it was rather big. To cut down on room, I didn’t make the print
as large as this is.
The
History of the Sport:
This week I’m taking you back
to October 5, 1963 to the Williams Grove Speedway, in
However, there was a little problem after the race
with the winning car, the Venezia Chevy powered car, that Jimmy Maguire drove. It seems there was a protest made on the
engine size, with it being to big. And,
yes, it was too big. So the car, and Maguire were disqualified from winning the
race. With that disqualification, the
race winner ended up being A.J. Foyt. Roger McCluskey was
2nd, Johnny White 3rd, Chuck Arnold 4th and
Chuck Hulse 5th.
Going back to November 9th, 2008, and the
annual Stan Lobitz auction/party/dinner that Mr. Lobitz has every year to get funding for the Eastern Museum
of Motor Racing – there was quite a
discussion about that event, the car, and what happened to the trophy – between
Jimmy and A.J. There was a “discussion”
between the two drivers about the prize money won and the trophy. Well, more of a “Tug of War” between the two
with the trophy. Jimmy, knowing he
wouldn’t get the prize money, still was wanting the trophy, and both drivers
were tugging at it. The little handle
that A.J. was holding on to, broke, and A.J. was left holding a tiny piece of
the trophy, while all else was held by Maguire.
How I wish I had either video taped or audio taped what had happened
that day at the Lobitz Catering Hall, so I could
actually tell, word for word, what was told to us in attendance. Some things were said about what the car
owner said as he filled out the entry blank – especially regarding the engine
size, and rather than get it wrong, I’ll have to not rely on my memory, but not
mention what it was I THINK I remember.
However, I was able to get a couple of photos of the trophy, which Jimmy
brought to the affair. Jimmy no longer has
that trophy, in case you’re interested.
He gave it to the EMMR so they could keep it on display.
Note: If
you’re reading this on the New England Tractor website, the photo is
below. Notice the broken part over on
the lower right side over the small figure – that was where A.J. was holding on
to it.
Rumor
Dep’t:
Good news, if true – I heard that Eastern States Weekend
at Orange County Fair Speedway, in
I haven’t heard any more about any meeting between tracks
that are not DIRTcar sanctioned.
Video
time:
Something way different this week, and I hope it works. In this, when it comes up, you’ll see a little dog. Under the dog, there’s a place for you to ask the dog to do certain things, like bark, jump, fetch, stand, play dead, rollover, beg and kiss.
http://www.idodogtricks.com/index_flash.html
Other (non racing)
news:
GM’s CEO to resign; http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gm_ceo_resigns
There’s more on this,
too: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091202/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gm_ceo_resigns
Note: I’m wondering here – will this “Dude” get a
nice bunch of cash and/or a nice big fat bonus when he leaves?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_healthcare_unemployed
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091128/OPINION/911280307/-1/OPINION02
Other Voices: Goldman Sachs' inadequate amends
Posted: November 28, 2009 - 2:00 AM
The Post-Standard of
"Certainly,
our industry is responsible for things. We're a leader in our industry, and we
participated in things that were clearly wrong and we have reasons to regret
and apologize for."
So said Lloyd Blankfein, chairman
and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, last week.
You
remember Goldman Sachs ... the Wall Street investment giant that roared back
from the precipice of financial disaster earlier this year to report a 70
percent boost in earnings.
In
a nod to its critics, Goldman has announced it will set aside $500 million over
the next five years to help small businesses recover from their losses — at
least those small businesses still doing business after the worst financial
downtown since the Great Depression.
Goldman
has set aside a stupefying $16.7 billion for bonus payouts to its hard-charging
executives. This, after repaying the taxpayers — 10.2 percent of whom are out
of a job today — the $10 billion it received from the Wall Street bailout.
Goldman
knows full well it didn't just benefit from this direct subsidy. It also
recouped $12.9 billion in payments from American International Group, thanks to
the federal bailout of that tottering insurance giant. Federal policies keeping
interest rates low also enabled firms like Goldman to fund their operations
affordably. And the financial crisis also served Goldman well by eliminating
some of it biggest competitors.
So
it would be interesting to hear Blankfein be a little
more specific — for example, by describing in detail the "things" his
company is "responsible for" that were "clearly wrong." And
perhaps he could move beyond the vague references of the
"regret-and-apologize" stage and spell out the substantive, voluntary
steps Goldman will take — in addition to five years of contributing less than
one-167th of its windfall bonus pool this year alone — to make amends.
Note: Don’t ya just love
it, people?
Closing with these:
What Is Butt Dust??
What, you ask, is 'Butt dust'? Read on and you'll discover the joy in it! These
have to be original and genuine. No adult is this creative!!
JACK (age 3)
was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister... After a while he
asked: 'Mom why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for cold milk?'
MELANIE (age 5)
asked her Granny how old she was.. Granny replied she was so old she didn't
remember any more. Melanie said, 'If you don't remember you must look in the
back of your panties. Mine say five to six.'
STEVEN (age 3)
hugged and kissed his Mom good night. 'I love you so much that when you die I'm
going to bury you outside my bedroom window.'
had an ear ache and wanted a pain killer. She tried in vain to take the lid off
the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained it was a child-proof cap
and she'd have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl
asked: 'How does it know it's me?'
SUSAN (age 4)
was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. 'Please don't give me this juice
again,' she said, 'It makes my teeth cough..'
DJ (age 4)
stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: 'How much do I cost?'
MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a
restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: 'Why is he
whispering in her mouth?'
TAMMY(age 4) was with her mother when they met an
elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for a w hile and then asked, 'Why doesn't your skin fit your face?'
JAMES (age 4)was listening to a Bible story. His dad
read: 'The man named
The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget
This particular Sunday sermon....'Dear Lord,' the
minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his
upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust...' He would have continued but at
that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and
asked quite audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mom, what
is butt dust?'
May “Guardian Angels” sit on the shoulders of all of our race drivers and guide them safely around the
tracks!
Drive safe!
As
usual, you can reach me at: ygordad@yahoo.com