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DECEMBER BABIESby Kathy Wolfe

All kinds of famous folks were born during the month of December. This week, Tidbits brings you a few more details about these well-known people, past and present.

• Harvey Firestone was 31 years old in 1899 when he founded the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, dealing in carriage tires. Originally he sold tires man-ufactured by others, but his concerns with quality led him to begin manufacturing them himself. Recogniz-ing that the horseless carriage was the wave of the future, Firestone contacted Henry Ford, and in 1906, sold 2,000 sets of tires to the Ford Motor Company, contributing to Firestone’s first year of sales over $1 million. Their annual sales today top $4 billion. • Growing up with six sisters as a child of Russian Jewish immigrants in New York, Issur Danielovitch earned the money to buy milk and bread by ped-dling snacks to mill workers. His next job was deliv-ering newspapers, and he went on to 40 more jobs before finally settling into his permanent career as an actor. After a name change to Kirk Douglas, he played roles ranging from Doc Holliday to Spartacus to General Patton to Vincent Van Gogh.

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Entrepreneur, inventor, engineer, movie producer and director, aviator and philanthropist — These all describe the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Follow along as Tidbits takes a closer look at this unusual December baby, born in 1905, who went from center stage to recluse.

• Howard Hughes was a high school dropout. However, his wealthy father, owner of Hughes Tool Company and patent holder for a drill bit for oil drilling rigs, took care of that. A hefty donation to Cal Tech soon had Howard enrolled there, and later at what is now Rice University, studying math and aeronautical engineering. When his father died just a few weeks after Hughes’ 18th birthday, he dropped out of Rice and took over the tool com-pany. • At age 19, Hughes and his new bride moved to Hollywood to chase his dream of making movies. By the time he was 23, one of his films had won an Academy Award. His 1930s film “Hells Angels,” about World War I aviators, was the most expen-sive movie to date, costing $3.8 million to produce. It was while making this film that Hughes, who had taken his first flying lesson at age 14, earned his pilot’s license. • Hughes’ interest in aviation led him to branch out into aircraft design. In 1937, in his H-1 Racer, he set an airspeed record when he flew non-stop from Los Angeles to New York City in just under seven and a half hours with an average speed of 322 mph (518 km/hr). The following year, he flew around the world in 91 hours, setting another record. • When the U.S. Government ordered a giant car-go plane from Hughes Aircraft during World War II, Hughes used $18 million of government funds and $7 million of his own money to build it. It was officially known as the Hughes H-4 Hercules and nicknamed The Spruce Goose, even though most of the plane was made of birch, with small amounts of maple, poplar, balsa and spruce. The craft was designed to hold 750 armed troops or two 30-ton tanks. It contained eight 3,000-horsepower engines and had a wingspan of nearly 320 feet (97.5 m.), 20 feet longer than a football field, making it the largest aircraft ever made from wood. The plane made only one flight, one mile long, on Novem-ber 2, 1947, and remained in its own custom-built hangar for the next 33 years, costing $1 million per year to maintain. She now has a permanent home at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. • Hughes suffered from an extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder most of his life, which led to bizarre behavior, including locking himself away for months at a time, living on chocolate bars. He spent the final years of his life as a recluse, living in his penthouses in the Bahamas and Mexico. He is thought to have died on a private jet en route to a Houston hospital. His appearance had so dete-riorated that the FBI used his fingerprints to identify his body. At 6’4” (188 cm) tall, he was a mere skel-eton at 90 lbs. (41 kg). In his later years, he had become addicted to painkillers and morphine, and X-rays of his body showed broken-off hypodermic needles embedded in his extremities. • The 2004 film “The Aviator” starred Leonardo De-Caprio as Hughes and earned 11 Oscar nomina-tions.

HOWARD HUGHES

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“I don’t count, and Imay not be yellow!”

inclusion of many of the actual Lions players of the time: Alex Karras, Joe Schmidt, Pat Studstill and others.

“Invincible” (PG) -- Mark Wahlberg stars as Vince Papale, a substitute teacher and bartender from Philadelphia who gets a one-in-a-million shot at trying out for the 1976 Eagles team. And somehow, for a guy who never played college ball, he makes the cut. What follows is classic Hollywood feel-good flick about overcoming the odds and the triumph of the Common Man who followed his dream.

TV SERIES

“Jersey Shore” Season Two“United States of Tara” The Second Season“Archer” Season 1“Baccano” The Complete Series

TOP TEN MOVIES

1. Tangled (PG) animated2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1 (PG-13) Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson3. Burlesque (PG-13) Cher, Christina Aguilera4. Unstoppable (PG-13) Denzel Washington, Chris Pine5. Love and Other Drugs (R) Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway6. Megamind (PG) Will Ferrell, Tina Fey7. Due Date (R) Robert Downey Jr., Zack Gali-fianakis8. Faster (R) Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton9. The Warrior’s Way (R) Jang Dong-gun, Kate Bosworth10. The Next Three Days (PG-13) Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks

TOP TEN VIDEO, DVD of December 4, 2010

Top 10 Video Rentals1. Grown Ups (PG-13) Adam Sandler2. Toy Story 3 (G) animated3. Charlie St. Cloud (PG-13) Zach Efron4. Ramona and Beezus (G) Selena Gomez5. Predators (R) Adrien Brody6. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (PG-13) Michael Cera7. Sex and the City 2 (R) Sarah Jessica Parker8. How to Train Your Dragon (PG) animated9. The Karate Kid (PG) Jaden Smith10. Jonah Hex (PG-13) Josh Brolin

Top 10 DVD Sales1. Toy Story 3 (G) (Buena Vista)2. Grown Ups (PG-13) (Sony)3. Ramona And Beezus (G) (20th Century Fox)4. How to Train Your Dragon (PG) Dream-Works)5. The Karate Kid (PG) (Sony)6. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (PG-13) Univer-sal7. The Original Television Christmas Classics (NR) (Genius Products)8. Charlie St. Cloud (PG-13) (Universal)9. The Pacific (M) (Warner)10. Sex and the City 2 (R) (Warner)

PICKS OF THE WEEK

We’re winding down 2010 and barreling like a runaway train to New Year’s Day 2011, and that can mean only one thing to every red-blooded American: Football!Yessir, Bowl Games out the wazzoo -- and what better way to celebrate than with a marathon of Gridiron Greats. So here then, is a sampling of some of the best football movies ever made.

PICKS OF THE WEEK“The Longest Yard” (R) -- Burt Reynolds stars as Paul Crewe, a former pro quarterback dis-graced for shaving points. After being sent to prison for hitting his girlfriend and stealing a car, Crewe finds himself at the mercy of a sadistic warden (Eddie Albert), who tries to force Crewe to lead his semi-pro football team made up of the prison’s guards. Crewe sets up a “friendly” scrimmage between the guards and his fellow prisoners -- leading to one of the greatest action sequences ever filmed. Adam Sandler remade the film a few years back, and although not as epic as the 1974 Reynolds original, it’s still a pretty good flick.

“Go Tigers!” (R) -- This 2001 documentary about the Masillon, Ohio, Tigers high-school football team is a gripping account of how the success or failure of a local team can affect a small com-munity. Voted by ESPN as one of the top six best sports documentaries of all time, “Go Ti-gers!” is an eye-opening portrait of the spirit of small-town America.

“Paper Lion” (Unrated) -- Alan Alda stars in this 1968 classic based on the a series of articles written by George Plimpton for Sports Illustrat-ed. In 1963, Plimpton went undercover for the magazine to the Detroit Lions training camp to try out for the team. The result was the first-ever look into what goes on during NFL tryouts and training camp. What makes this film fun is the

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¥ It was prolific British author G.K. Chesterton who gave the following sage bit of advice: “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.”

¥ When Richard Nixon first ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (which he won in 1946), he funded his campaign largely with money he won playing poker while serving as a lieutenant com-mander in the Navy during World War II. ¥ From 1863 until 1945, the city of Vicksburg, Miss., didn’t celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. This is because during the Civil War, the Confederate city was surrendered to Union forces on that day, an event that was considered to be one of the turning points of the war. ¥ It was once thought that when snakes went through their version of hibernation they rejuve-nated themselves, and therefore that serpents lived forever. ¥ There’s talk everywhere these days about the growing problem posed by the fact that people in the U.S. are becoming more and more overweight. Interestingly, when the International Journal of Obe-sity was first published, in 1993, it was 509 pages long; the 2006 edition totaled 2,322 pages. Coinci-dence? ¥ It was one Dr. Spencer Silver, a chemist, who in-vented the adhesive used today in Post-it notes, but he had no luck promoting his invention. Six years later, one of his colleagues, Art Fry, came up with a use for it that stuck (so to speak). While sitting in church one day, Fry’s attention wandered from the sermon to the scraps of paper he used to mark his place in the hymnal, which kept falling out. Connect-ing his annoying problem and his friend’s invention, the Post-it was born.

***Thought for the Day: “Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.” -- Martin Lu-ther King Jr.

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DECEMBER BABIES (continued):• French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel was a spe-cialist in metal constructions, mostly bridges. He entered a competition soliciting designs for a monu-ment to serve as the entrance gateway to the 1889 World’s Fair to be held in Paris. The 984-foot-tall (300-meter) Eiffel Tower received two million visi-tors that year alone. Criticized as an “eyesore,” it was intended to be torn down immediately after the conclusion of the fair. Instead, it became a popular tourist attraction, evolving into the national symbol of France. It remains the most visited paid monu-ment in the world. The tallest building in Paris, it held the honor of world’s tallest structure until 1930, when New York City’s Chrysler Building grabbed the title. Although Gustave Eiffel is most famous for his tower, he was also the designer for the frame-work of the Statue of Liberty.• There’s much more to Jimmy Buffett than his “beach-bum” character. In addition to telling us “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” this Alabama na-tive holds a degree in history and is a multi-engine licensed pilot. The 1946 Christmas Day baby has written three No. 1 best sellers and is one of only seven authors (including Hemingway and Stein-beck) who has reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list in both fiction and non-fic-tion. Buffett owns two restaurant chains, Margari-taville and Cheeseburger in Paradise, along with the Margaritaville Beach Hotels and the Margarita-ville clothing line. An avid Miami Dolphins fan, he penned new lyrics for the team’s song “Fins.” He also bought the rights to have Dolphins Stadium renamed Landshark Stadium for the 2009 season due to the popularity of his private label Landshark Lager beer. Throw in those eight gold and nine plat-inum albums, and you see this guy is no bum at all!• A bright future awaited Binger, Oklahoma High School’s class valedictorian of 1965. Born on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, December 7, in 1947, this young man was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds and spent 16 years as baseball’s greatest catcher. Johnny Bench was Rookie of the Year in 1968, National League MVP in 1970 and 1972, World Series MVP in 1976, 14-time All-Star, and winner of 10 Gold Gloves. He has been a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1989 and has been named the 16th greatest player of all time by Sport-ing News. His success hasn’t come without conse-quences, however. Stress on his hip joints result-ing in severe arthritis led Bench to hip replacement surgery in 2004, when he was fitted with a ceramic hip.

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Call Now! 208-704-9972THE WRIGHT BROTHERSIn recognition of Wright Brothers Day on Decem-ber 17, Tidbits takes a closer look at these creative geniuses who made the world’s first powered, sus-tained, piloted flight on that date in 1903.

• Wilbur and Orville Wright began their working ca-reers in 1889 in the printing business, publishing The West Side News in Dayton, Ohio. Four years later, the pair opened a bicycle rental and repair shop, later branching out into bicycle manufactur-ing. In their free time, they studied aeronautics and experimented with building a flying machine. • The two brothers incorporated their knowledge of bicycles into their plane design. They were familiar with the principles of balance, chain and sprocket systems, wind resistance and aerodynamic shap-ing, and recognized the need for a strong but light-weight craft. Starting with kits and gliders, and constructing their own wind tunnel, the Wrights experimented for four years before their historical flight. • The Wrights chose the Atlantic coast at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, as the site for their manned gliding experiments based on its consistent breez-es and soft landing surface. They began practicing their piloting skills in non-powered gliders there in 1900. They constructed the Wright Flyer I in 1903 out of spruce and muslin fabric, carving their own wooden propellers. A gasoline engine built in the bicycle shop was added, and the craft was ready for it inaugural flight. • On December 14, 1903, the brothers flipped a coin to determine who would be the first pilot of the Flyer, with Wilbur winning the toss. However, after only 3.5 seconds, the craft lurched up, stalled, then smashed into the sand, creating some minor dam-age.• Three days later, with the damage repaired, Or-ville took the controls and flew 120 feet (37 me-ters) in 12 seconds. Three more flights followed that day — Wilbur flying 175 feet (53 meters) in 12 seconds, followed by Orville’s 200-foot (61-meter) flight for 15 seconds, concluding with Wilbur flying an amazing 852 feet (260) meters) in 59 seconds. All the flights were about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground. • Within minutes of the fourth flight, a strong gust of wind flipped the Flyer over several times, causing extensive damage. The plane was shipped home and never flew again. Many years later, Orville re-stored it, and the craft was lent to several museums before settling into its permanent home in 1948 at the Smithsonian where it can be seen today. • There were five witnesses to the flights, three of them members of a U.S. government life-saving crew, an area businessman and a local teenager. The newspapers seemed to pay no heed to the monumental feat for nearly a year and a half. Even the Wrights’ hometown Dayton Journal didn’t pub-lish the story, claiming the flights were “too short to be important.”

TRIVIA

1. ARCHITECTURE: What did ancient Roman aqueducts carry?2. COMPUTERS: What does DPI measure?3. GEOGRAPHY: Where does the Albemarle Sound lie?4. MOVIES: Which well-known film director had planned as a teenager to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood?5. GOVERNMENT: When was the Federal Communications Commission established?6. LITERATURE: In poetry, what is an enjamb-ment?7. MUSIC: Which jazz musician and composer recorded “Giant Steps” in 1960?8. FOOD & DRINK: What is another common name for corn?9. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: Who is consid-ered the founder of the birth-control movement in the United States?10. SCIENCE: What is the disease beriberi caused by?

ANSWERS

1. Water2. Dots Per Inch, which measures resolution in printing3. Between North Carolina and the Outer Banks4. Martin Scorsese5. 19346. One line of poetry runs into another without any end punctuation7. John Coltrane8. Maize9. Margaret Sanger10. Thiamine deficiency

SPORTS QUIZ

1. When was the last time before 2009 that the World Series went at least six games?2. Who is the all-time leader in career home runs for the New York Mets?3. When was the last time before 2009 that three road teams won in the same weekend in the NFL playoffs?4. Name the last time before 2010 that Baylor’s men’s basketball team won an NCAA Tourna-ment game.5. The New York Rangers made a trade with the New York Islanders in 2010. When was the last time before then that the two teams traded with each other?6. Who won the first Olympic gold medal in men’s snowboarding half pipe?7. In 2010, Stuart Appleby became the fifth PGA Tour player to shoot a round of 59. Name two of the other four to do it.

ANSWERS

1. It was 2003, when Florida defeated the New York Yankees in six games.2. Darryl Strawberry, with 252 homers. Mike Piazza is second, with 220.3. It was 1971 (Baltimore, Miami and Dallas all won as road teams).4. It was 1950.5. It occurred in 1972.6. Gian Simmen of Switzerland, in 1998.7. Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991), Da-vid Duval (1999) and Paul Goydos (2010).

The Tidbits® Paper is a Division of Tidbits Media, Inc. • Montgomery, AL 36106(800) 523-3096 • E-mail: tidbits@tidbitsmedia.com • All Rights Reserved ©2008

Information in the Tidbits® Paper is gathered from sources considered to bereliable but the ac cu ra cy of all information cannot be guaranteed.

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FLASHBACK TRIVIA

1. Name the group that was turned down for a contract after recording “Three Cool Cats” and “September in the Rain.” Bonus for knowing the year.2. Who had a No. 1 U.K. hit with “Do You Love Me” in 1963?3. Which Righteous Brothers song was criti-cized for being too long and slow -- only to bounce all the way to the top of the charts?4. Name the sound track that included these songs: “Freddy, My Love,” “You’re the One That I Want” and “Summer Nights.”5. Who sang “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”?6. Name the group that released “Abracadab-ra.”

ANSWERS

1. The Beatles were turned down by Decca Records in 1962. Decca signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead.2. Again, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. But they didn’t score another No. 1 U.K. hit until 1967 with “Silence Is Golden,” while the Bea-tles toted up 15 in that time.3. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” in 1964. Producer Phil Spector got airplay by listing the wrong time on the label.4. “Grease” (1978) starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. 5. Tina Turner, in 1984.6. The Steve Miller Band, in 1982. The single rose to No. 1 in the U.S.

• If you’ve been to a performance of the operas “La Boheme,” “Tosca” or “Madama Butterfly,” you’ve heard the musical compositions of Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini. Born Decem-ber 22, 1858, this genius had his life cut short when his chronic sore throats were diagnosed as throat cancer, a result of chain-smoking cigars and cigarettes.• “Book ‘em, Dano,” was the catchphrase familiar to fans of the 1970s cop drama “Hawaii Five-O” and uttered by Detective Steve McGarrett. McGar-rett was portrayed by actor Jack Lord, born John Joseph Patrick Ryan in Brooklyn in December of 1920. Lord had already had two careers before his show business fame. He started out as an en-gineer working in Persia, then came back to the states to run a Greenwich Village art school. His own paintings were displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Modern Museum of Art. In his late twenties, Lord made the switch to acting. James Bond movie fans will recognize him for his role in the very first James Bond film; he played a CIA agent in 1962’s “Dr. No.”• Every time you hold a one-dollar bill, you see the work of Gilbert Stuart, born on December 3, 1755, who has been dubbed the “Father of American Portraiture.” This Rhode Island-born artist trained in London and painted likenesses of more than 1,000 American political figures, including the first six U.S. Presidents. Portraits of George Washing-ton hanging in schoolrooms everywhere have a white, cloudy unfinished area across the bottom. Stuart left this one unfinished at the time of his death. The original portrait can be seen in the Na-tional Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. • Denzel Washington is the son of a Pentecos-tal minister, who also worked at the local water department, and a hairdresser. This gifted actor holds a degree in journalism from Fordham Uni-versity. He got his start in the hospital drama “St. Elsewhere” and appeared in the series for its en-tire six-year run. His son John plays professional football for the St. Louis Rams. He celebrates his birthday every December 28.• Those who remember the 1968 Summer Olym-pics might recall a spunky little 16-year-old gym-nast named Cathy Rigby. Before she wrapped up her gymnastics career, she had garnered eight gold medals in various international events. Her next career move was to the Broadway stage. She prepared for it with seven years of voice and act-ing lessons. She is best known for her Broadway portrayal of Peter Pan, a perfect role for this little pixie.• Coincidentally, two members of the popular 1960s band The Monkees share the same birth-day, although three years apart. Michael Nesmith was born on December 30, 1942, and singer Davy Jones came along in 1945.

DECEMBER BABIES (continued)

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