One of the nice things about playing poker for a living is that we can take random trips whenever we feel like it. G had Friday (and Monday) off for Martin Luther King Day so we took a little overnight trip. [Warning: random digression ahead]
"Probably" because I hadn't really thought about it. So I decided to do a little research. My vote would have been for George Washington. But last time I checked, being pro-George Washington doesn't win you many votes. Michael Hart wrote a book that listed the top 100 most influential people in world history. George Washington was on there, and so was Martin Luther (the Protestant dude), but no Martin Luther KING. Don't feel bad - Gandhi didn't make it on the list either. Anyway, there was an interesting list in Atlantic magazine and the top 10 influential figures in American History went like this:
10. Woodrow Wilson. I guess beating the hell out of Nazis is considered a good thing.
9. Thomas Edison. "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." I wrote a college essay on that quote and got in somewhere... decent.
8. Martin Luther King Jr. If getting 8th place gets you the top prize, there would be a lot of happy swimmers out there. (there are 8 lanes in a pool, for the sports-challenged out there)
7. John Marshall. I must've been asleep during this portion of my American history class. Maybe that's why I didn't get into Haaavaaad.
6. Benjamin Franklin. You don't get on a box of Quaker Oats for nothing. Wat? That's not him?!?
5. Alexander Hamilton. The dude on the $10 bill. Very underrated the $10 bill.
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Nazi-hating confirmed.
3. Thomas Jefferson. Setting that fine American precedent of schtupping the help... JFK, Clinton, Schwarzenegger, etc.
2. George Washington. Yup.
1. Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Fly's vote. I guess they gave him some style points for getting shot.
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Ummmm...Woodrow Wilson didn't beat the Nazis. Think Central Powers not Axis Powers. My guess is that you didn't attend Princeton either. High-five!
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the MLK birthday, but we should also be doing the same for Susan B. Anthony. The Atlantic are also a bunch of douches: Ralph Nader over Herman Melville? My guess is their editorial staff attended University of Phoenix. Low-five!
You are so clueless/sheltered:
ReplyDeleteDoublefly: "Of all the "influential" figures in American history, *HE'S* the only one to get his own holiday?!?"
Columbus Day
Regarding the Atlantic list, the seven more influential Americans (except Marshall) have a clearly greater federal recognition than just a holiday.
Doublefly: "I think there are a lot more poker players than blacks in the US."
from the WPT website (ridiculously optimistic):
With more than 60 million poker players in the United States
from the 2010 census (fact):
Black or African American 37,685,848
60 > 38
ReplyDelete^funny! That is the largest number that I could find online. It seems that 23 million is a more reasonable number.
ReplyDelete"It just irks the hell out of me." just irked the hell out of me. ok, I get hyperbole, but really? given that Virginia celebrates Lee-Jackson Day, and seven states (including Texas) have a state holiday for Confederate Memorial Day?
OMG dude! Lighten up. It was a "humor" label post and not everything I wrote was supposed to be taken seriously.
ReplyDeletecool, didn't realize it was a joke and that you were just using your "Archie Bunker" persona, and didn't actually mean what you wrote in your post. Next time, I suggest starting off with, "Why do we celebrate Nigger Day anyway?" to make it more obvious to the dullards among your readers.
ReplyDeleteI think there's some merit to my claim that MLK Day is all the work of politicians.
ReplyDelete