text:
Car Forums / Volvo / Volvo C70
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Volvo C70 Convertible Top Problems
lemenn Posts: 89I try to find out where to look at regarding the potential stains on cover.
Can someone post a picture?
Here are some but I doubt that any of these rubber protections are creating the potential problem.
Rubber protection with roof inside the trunk in low position.
Rubber protection with roof inside the trunk in high position. You can see the roof is touching slightly the rubber, but for now no problem.
Another rubber bumper with obviously some stress on it, but again I cannot detect a problem, this must be normal.
Another rubber bumper but everything looks OK. -
lemenn Posts: 89OK now I found the famous potential round bumpers stain creators.
These are the two bumpers, and you can only see them if you stop the closing /opening process.
Looking carefully these bumpers are not touching the plastic cover (few millimetters away) and should not create stains.
Here is the plastic cover where the stains should appears if they exist. Not on mine until now... -
guest Posts: 774You are 100% right on the stain problem that I had.They are the bumpers that the technician adjusted the cover away from when it is riding on them to silence the noise of cover bouncing when the top is closed. Mine were riding ON the cover which is much lighter color than yours. It is almost same color as the inside lining of your trunk shown in picture of bumpers. The stains came out as almost a brown stain because of chemical reaction from bumpers.
The technician placed a temporary tape over my bumpers with a slick cloth side which would rest on cover in case they touched each other and so far I have seen no circles as before. He said that as soon as dealer received the correct tape they would replace the temporary tape on mine.
I was surprised that yours did not have any tape on them. They must have changed the composition of bumpers or else the space between the two has been the problem all along.
Mine as stated were riding directly on cover all the time with top up before he adjusted them. -
ily Posts: 1Those marks on the quarter panel are caused by the rear headliner being too low. It's a very common problem for Volvo C70-cars. In coupé mode the headliner should not touch the quarter panel. There is supposed to be a small gap between them. Marks as deep as the ones on the picture probably can't be removed entirely; at least not the one on the edge. The quarter panel would have to be replaced. You could probably make them look a bit better using a hot air pistol, by heating them up carefully from a bit of a distance, then applying some pressure to them with your fingers. Unless something is done about the rear headliner the marks will probably return, though.
henkbw Posts: 22Hi Lemenn
I had the same marks on that panel. It is made by the roof in closed position. I took the car back to the dealer, he send it back to the importer. They've got special trained personnel for repairing/adjusting the roof. They replaced the panel and re-adjusted the roof. The car was away for a week. During that week I got a V50 (with a fully filled gas tank) for usage. After the repair the roof was working fine. They also did some software-updates ("puppy-sound" !!). And of course, it was all for free (I didn't even had to pay for the gas).
So, before doing something you might regret, contact your dealer:)
HenkBW -
henkbw Posts: 22Hi Lemenn
For your info:
I live in the Netherlands (yes, Europe).
And the car's panel wasn't destroyed neither. It only had two small dents, just like the ones you have (according to your photo). They've tried to repair it, but weren't satisfied with the results. So, they replaced the whole panel (and re-adjusted the roofmechanism).
Maybe you should be more persistent. After all, you paid a lot of money for the car. And Volvo always give up highly about their customer-friendliness. So, let them prove that.
HenkBW -
lemenn Posts: 89Hi henkbw,
I will probably try next week end, but my dealership is very new in town. They have only been around one year. It is a subsidiary of a bigger dealership located one hour away.
They are selling Volvo, Subaru and Suzuki like the big dealership. When they have to work on my Subaru, they have to send it to the big dealership because they don't have all the tools. It is basically 2 sales people and 1 main mechanic/customer service person + maybe 1 or 2 technicians and 1 secretary.
3 months ago, we had our 97 subaru legacy outback limited that we brought back from California for a complete 10 years check up. One of the things was to control the airbags and everything went fine. After 10 years we have nothing to do on this car. But we are still waiting for the certificate confirming everything is fine with the airbags, and that after more than 3 requests.
Just to show that the customer is not always the king like we say. -
volvo_driver Posts: 34Hi, I have experienced twice now a warning regarding the top. The scenarios have been mostly the same... It has been night time, top is up and has been up for several days, I am driving on the highway at somewhere between 65 mph and 80 mph and it has been moderately windy. An alert displays in the drivers menu screen stating something to the effect "Stop Close Top To Avoid Severe Damage" and the red hazard light in the drivers panel lights up with a loud beep accompanying it. As I said, the top has been closed on both occasions. I have pulled over and stopped, pushed the close top button and the rear windows go all the way down and the menu changes to "Roof Closed"... the rear windows do not go back up automatically, so I have raised them with the driver door control. Beeps and warning message stop and problem is averted... I'm guessing the speed and the wind are partially to blame, but after two times I am hoping this is not a regular thing as it is a hassle and annoying to pull over of off the highway to stop.
Has anyone else experienced this? -
cricket4 Posts: 94My dealership just gave me a new small brochure entitled "All-New Volvo C70 Tips - Guide to MY07 All-New Volvo C70 Features, Functions, and Use". It is as big as an 8.5 x 11 page when unfolded but has loads of tips and features listed in it. If you haven't seen a copy and would like one, please let me know and I'll e-mail it to you. (Way too much to type for you.) Anyway, I came across a warning inside of it that concerns me. Regarding the Retractable Hardtop (RHT), it states "Always complete the cycle and wait for the confirmation signal (chime) ROOF CLOSED and ROOF OPEN." Further down it reads "WARNING: Do not leave the roof in a stationary "middle" position. If necessary to leave the roof in this position, do not do so for more than a few minutes." I'm very upset to find this out because my car arrived at the dealership about four days ago and on its second day at the dealership they had the roof stopped in mid-action for the WHOLE DAY to display it! Stupid me thought that the dealership wouldn't do something that might damage the car. When I went back today to discuss this they said they don't do that anymore (what a difference two days makes or was it the brochure that finally brought them to their senses since it arrived around the same time). So if you do this with your roof - DON'T!
tom007 Posts: 40I would appreciate a copy of the brochure as my dealer told me when my car was delivered that it would not harm the system to stop roof in middle position. My E-mail address is email@example.com.
Thanks in advance and again this forum has proven that we can help each other when we receive tips about the C70.
I look forward to receiving a copy of brochure and I hope they did not harm your car. If it was the one with ribbon taken with your cell phone, I thought the top was in middle position. -
erisaman Posts: 99Yes please, may I have a copy also? My e-mail is on my 'profile page', if not I'll post it here tomorrow. I'd appreciate a copy when you have a moment. As Tom007 said - this is what this forum is all about - helping one another and passing on timely info - thanks for thinking of others when you obviously have your own worries. Let's hope that all will be well for you.
Merry Xmas - if we don't have any further exchanges before Monday. -
erisaman Posts: 99Thank you Cricket4 - it's Xmas morning here in the UK and I received your e-mail late last night, printed it out and took it to bed to read.
It is very interesting, containing info not found in the handbook, especially the part that the roof action should not be repeated too often, in fact, recommending even longer spells than that suggested by Volvomax.
So, Merry Xmas one and all - look forward to more info in the coming days and in the New Year. -
volvo_driver Posts: 34
sanjodlau Posts: 4Thank you all for the info shared on this forum.A bit more than a month to delivery , but I feel like I know quite a bit of the car already.
If Volvomax said min 10 minutes between cycles , what does the brochure say?
Actually , if I may ask , Could you - or Cricket4 - e-mail me that brochure too, wheever time and occupations permit?
Would be highly appreciated. -
cucci Posts: 49
erisaman Posts: 99Sorry Cucci - it's me again!
The brochure is being distributed by 'cricket4' although it's quite possible that Volvomax also has the same brochure.
I checked out your profile for your e-mail addy but it shows up as private - otherwise I would have forwarded the brochure this evening. My e-mail (previously marked private) is now def on show so you can contact me if you wish. -
cricket4 Posts: 94Your e-mail is marked as private. If you like I will e-mail it to firstname.lastname@example.com. Do you check your e-mail on your "My CarSpace"? Or would you prefer to change your e-mail from "private"? If you prefer, you can e-mail me at email@example.com. That should work and I will reply with the brochure. (If you've already gotten a copy from someone else, disregard this post.) Glad this brochure helps. For those of you who have not picked up your car yet, next time you are at the dealership you should be able to pick up a brochure (IN COLOR, ohhh ahhhh). Might be only the US, though.
erisaman Posts: 99Sorry Sanjodlau - missed your posting earlier, not deliberately ignoring you.
The brochure says [quote] "Ideally, the roof should be opened or closed only once every 15 to 20 minutes" - so that answers my question to volvomax as to what constitutes a cycle.
I can forward cricket4's e-mail to you, no problem, send me your addy if you wish and I'll get back to you fairly soon as I have it at home, whereas cricket4 has it in the office - a no-go area over Xmas.
P.S. Snap, I see cricket4 is responding even as I type. -
sanjodlau Posts: 4Hi Cricket4 and erisaman
Thanks for the prompt reply to you both.I thought I had set my e-mail to 'public' but something must have gone wrong somewhere.Anyway , it should show up now.
Thanks again and can't wait to be able to feed usefull info on this forum , just like you guys - and girls - have done so far.


text:
As you well know by now, the Anaheim Ducks are listening to offers on 24-year old three-time 30-goal-scorer Bobby Ryan (for some reason). The teams interested include: the rest of the NHL.
It's unclear if the Randy Carlyle firing/Bruce Boudreau hiring will affect his availability, but man…they'd have to get some haul to justify moving a player of his calibre.
Below, our great team in the video department has compiled the 10 best moments of his short career.
Hitting, scoring, acting…this guy can do it all.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Protecting our tax dollars
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Question: When was the last time state government shutdown, ala the federal government?
As these words are being keystroked into a computer, the Statue of Liberty is receiving visitors again because New York has agreed to pay $61,000 a day to keep it open. Why? Because New York benefits to the tune of millions of dollars a day from the tourists who visit.
We are not about to argue state legislatures can go it alone in order to shield their citizenry from all the ill effects of a federal shutdown. But we do believe there is a case to be made for tasking states with more of what the federal government does and in some cases moving to outright privatization. |


text:
Depleted Uranium: a legacy of treason
Legacy of Treason - Depleted Uranium and the Poisoning of Humanity
treason n 1 betrayal of one's sovereign or country.
2 any treachery or betrayal. treasonable adj treasonous adj
In recent years I have become aware of the issue of depleted uranium (DU) and its use by the US Military in Iraq in 1991 and again in the current Iraq war. The photos of birth deformities and stories of suffering resulting from DU shocked me, reminding me of the Agent Orange victims of America's Vietnam war. Then I watched David Bradbury and Peter Scott's film, Blowin' in the Wind. Its content shocked and appalled me, and spurred me into researching and writing this article. It is undoubtedly one of the most significant issues on the planet today, and yet the mainstream media stays quiet.
Depleted uranium (DU) is what is left after raw uranium has been enriched to the highly radioactive isotope U-235 used for weapons and power generation. For every ton of U-235 produced, there are seven tons of DU. Estimates vary, but it seems that currently the US alone has in excess of five million tons of stockpiles of DU. This has no commercial use beyond its use as a radiation shield in medical devices, and for adding to concrete to form radiation containing bunkers. However, this requires an insignificant quantity of the DU produced each year.
The half-life of DU is 4.5 billion years, so storing it safely and indefinitely is cost prohibitive. To remedy the situation, the US Department of Energy has made it freely available to the Pentagon and US armaments and armour manufacturers, and it has been used in weapons exported to 29 countries. It is simply cheaper to make it into weapons than store it.
It is widely accepted that DU itself is fairly stable, as the dangerous alpha particles which it emits cannot pass through more than a couple of centimetres of air. The problems arise when DU is in contact with water or is used in weaponry and explodes. (Remember the footage of the Baghdad bombing, with all the big sparks flying into the air? — The sparks were DU that was on fire and exploding.) It then creates a vapourised, radioactive gas comprising of tiny nano-particles.
The microscopic particles in this vapour are then littered, depending upon prevailing winds, up to 100 kms around (estimates on this vary — with some sources citing up to 1000 kms), where they fall on crops, water, or just on the ground to be picked up by the next gust of wind or by car tyres. Later, when this gas enters the atmosphere, it can spread worldwide.
The nanoparticles of DU enter the body, from the air, from landing on clothing or skin and from food or water. These nanoparticles penetrate all protective clothing and masks (nothing can filter these particles out), and once it comes in contact with the body it immediately disperses and begins to alter DNA. As it is not soluble it cannot be excreted from the body. Uranium is a toxic chemical element, just like lead, mercury, cadmium and chromium.
According to the declassified Groves memo from the Manhattan Project in 1943, the properties of DU in weapons have been known and strategised with for 60 years. It is clear that the US has known for 60 years about the effects of DU on the battlefield, also the danger to its own soldiers.
Why is DU so useful as a weapon?
DU is very hard, the hardest and densest of metals, and so is used for armour piercing rounds, fired from tanks, ships, aircraft and snipers, and for the bunker buster bombs made famous in the 2003 attack on Baghdad. It is also in the Tomahawk Cruise missiles fired from ships. Being so hard, it is also used extensively in the armour plating of tanks and armoured cars.
DU is a pyroforic metal, meaning it burns. The bullets and large calibre shells are actually on fire when they come out of the gun barrel because they are ignited by the friction in the barrel and explode on contact — armour piercing incendiary ammunition. Most of the DU metal becomes a metal vapour, so it is really a radioactive gas weapon once the initial destruction has occurred. DU weaponry are nuclear weapons. No question.
The military use of DU violates current international law including the principle that there is no unlimited right to choose the means and methods of warfare. Instead governments, including the Australian Government in correspondence about this matter with the writer, state that because it is not a nuclear weapon it does not contravene nuclear agreements.
When speaking of the quantities of DU used in various wars it is worth understanding that the amount of uranium used in the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima was approximately 13kg, about the size of a two-litre milk container. A Japanese professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki, has calculated that in terms of the atomicity, (the amount of radiation produced), a ton of DU used on the battlefield releases the equivalent of 100 Hiroshima bombs worth of radiation released into the atmosphere.
Thus when experts refer to the 2000 tons of DU dropped on Iraq in the past three years, what is being released in the Iraqi atmosphere, and then spreading worldwide, is the equivalent of 200,000 Hiroshima bombs.
The total amount of DU the US has used since 1991 is approximately 4600 tons (1000 in the first Gulf War, 800 in Kosovo, 800 in Afghanistan and a further 2000 tons in the current Iraq war.) This amounts to approximately 460,000 Hiroshima bombs, ten times the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from all previous nuclear testing worldwide.
Gulf War Syndrome
Over the past 18 months there has been an erupting scandal in the US in the Department of Veterans Affairs as DU is blamed by more and more respected scientists for Gulf War Syndrome (and also, Balkans War Syndrome).
Of the 580,000 US soldiers that served in Iraq in 1991, by mid 2004, 518,739 were on medical disability pensions. This figure is 150,000 higher than just one year earlier. There are no more recent statistics, but it would appear that by now the percentages of soldiers affected would be reaching 100%
According to Leuren Moret, in a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the first Gulf War, 67% of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans' families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war. This is the only group of soldiers who served in Iraq whose health has been studied over some years.
'The use of depleted uranium weapons is a crime against humanity, a crime against all species, and a war against the earth,' says Moret. 'It is imperative that we demand a permanent international moratorium on the sale and the use of depleted uranium weaponry.'
DU: Coming to a country near you
A 20-year agreement was signed om 2005 between the United States and Australia, the specific terms of which are secret, but which allows the US military to train and test its latest weapons in Australia. This involves bombing ranges in the pristine Shoalwater Bay near Rockhampton in Queensland and at Lancelin, the lobster fishing village 150kms north of Perth where there would be ship-to-shore bombing from nuclear powered and capable US navy ships.
Also in the Northern Territory a 'test' bombing range has been designated where B52s and Stealth bombers will, as of January 06, and as you read this, be dumping their payloads on their flights from Guam. The US Navy uses DU in its shelling, and the B52s will be most likely (presumably they will be testing the weapons they actually use) carrying bunker buster bombs with their 2.2 tons of DU each. Retrospective legislation was passed to remove the need for any Environmental Impact Study (EIS) before or after the duration of this agreement.
When asked in the Australian Senate about whether or not the US would be using DU in its bombing of Australian sites, Defence Minister Senator Hill said, 'In relation to Depleted Uranium used by our allies we have said that, if they believe it is the most appropriate element to use in their particular munitions in certain circumstances, we do not think it is appropriate for us to press a different view upon them.' Senator Hill has since retired from Australian politics and has taken up residence as the Australian UN Ambassador in New York.
(The author has since been in contact with the Australian Department of Defence who vehemently refute that DU weaponry is being used within Australian waters on the basis of a 1960s law preventing the use of nuclear weapons in Australian waters or on Australian land. However, given that DU weapons are not officially classified as nuclear weapons they would not come under this law.
Given, however, the propensity of the Australian Government to avoid asking any uncomfortable questions of our US allies, and to adhere quite strongly to the doctrine of plausible deniability ('I did not know' seems to work as an excuse for Government's systemic willful ignorance) it is more likely that the Australian Department of Defence does not in fact know what the US is using in its bombs, and does not want to know.)
Insert: The death economy
More and more it appears that the things which are most important are simply those that generate the biggest growth in profits, in the GDP. Sickness generates business, cancer rates generate research dollars, war accelerates growth, and we wonder why peace is so elusive when we worship the economy. The following is equally applicable to Australia now as it was to the US in the 1960s.
Too much and for too long we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product now is over $800 billion a year.
But that gross national product, if we judge the United States of America by that, counts air pollution, and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and the jails for people who break them. It counts the destruction of redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads, and armoured cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television program which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our passion nor our devotion to our country.
It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America — except why we are proud that we are Americans.
— Robert Kennedy, 18/3/1968
Ultimately we do not know how much DU is being used in Shoalwater Bay, or Lancelin or dumped daily in the Northern Territory.
We do know that Japan, the Philippines and Puerto Rica no longer allow the US to bomb their lands with DU, and that there is no ship-to-shore bombing allowed anymore on the US mainland.
We know that there are hundreds of very vocal groups in opposition worldwide to the use of DU, who have devoted their lives to this issue.
We also know that the US government does not particularly care about the safety of their troops or anyone else's, and is seemingly content to poison the world for eternity, and poison themselves in the process. We know that weapons usage is classified and that such information will never be freely supplied to the Australian people, while nuclear powered and armed ships are cruising the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. In January, the largest nuclear powered and capable aircraft carrier in the world, boasting 6000 marines on board, docked in Brisbane.
If the contamination of Shoalwater Bay and Lancelin is anything like Iraq, Kosovo, or Afghanistan, then the vicinity of these places should be avoided. But it would be a mistake to think that the troubles are confined to those areas. The beef and pineapples from Rockhampton, and the seafood from Lancelin, could be contaminated and end up on your bbq. After this article was first published a reader contacted the West Australian Government who assured them that the Federal Government had told them, in writing, that DU was not being used in WA.
The Federal Government may in fact believe what it is saying, but given the photo that appeared on the US Navy's own website, of DU shells being loaded into a ship's gun in Shoalwater Bay (scroll to near bottom of page), it beggars belief that they would not be using DU in WA. After all, according to the Defence Department, DU is perfectly safe. They test weapons that they use, and they certainly use DU weapons.
According to Leuren Moret, it is simply no longer possible to go to Afghanistan or the Middle East without being contaminated. How long before that is also true of Australia?
There are questions that need to be asked by everyone related to the integrity of our political leadership.
Does our government have our best interests in mind
- When they sign up for bombardments on Australian soil and in Australian waters by DU tipped weaponry?
- When they refuse to stipulate that no nuclear weapons are to be used on our shores, and will they guarantee that our children will not grow up breathing in DU nanoparticles? • when they sign up for Son of Star Wars , which will cost in excess of $50 billion? (To protect us from what? Who?)
- When they decide to sequester large tracts of land in the Northern Territory for eternity for a nuclear dump, so the US and UK can dump their 'spent' nuclear fuel and we can export more uranium?
- When they sign up for a de facto [unshielded] nuclear dump under the guise of a joint bombing facility in the Northern Territory?
Who is running the agenda that says that all of a sudden it is OK to talk about new nuclear power stations as if nuclear power is an answer to global warming? David Goodstein, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said on ABC's Lateline in October 2004 that if nuclear power were to provide all of the energy that fossil fuel currently provides there would be enough uranium for just 10 years!
Westinghouse and GE build most of the nuclear power stations in the world, and also happen to own significant stakes in most major media companies in the US, which is largely why no real discussion will arise from the US on this issue. Nuclear power becomes unviable if the cost of disposing of the DU is factored in, which is why it is given to the Pentagon. Now Australia wants to expand the number and size of its uranium mines to sell to India and China (Who knows how they will dispose of their DU!).
Now Australia, thanks to John Howard, is talking seriously about building nuclear power stations when our largest single electricity supplier, the Snowy Mountains company, is running at 13% capacity! (SMH, 24/5/06) (see an article by the same author, debunking much of the mythology surrounding nuclear power, such as it supposed green and economic credentials. A must read if you want to understand and be a part of the nuclear power debate.)
Together we need to do something. Research the internet, find out for yourself what the DU debate is about. Do the research before you speak to anyone so you know what you are talking about, as you will find that most people will not want to believe that this is happening. The list of websites supplied at the end of this article is by no means definitive, but is a good place to start.
Get in touch with any of the many groups that have mobilised over this issue all over the world. Start your own group. Do not let the size of the opposition and the scale of the ignorance and unwillingness to know the truth that you will be confronted with, convince you that you are helpless and cannot do anything about DU. This is what they depend on .
- Contact your local politician, and do not accept anything that smells like a brush-off. This may well be the most important thing you ever do.
- Buy a copy and arrange a showing of the film Blowin' in the Wind at your local cinema, and get your local community radio station to broadcast talks, interviews and lectures like those available on alternativeradio.org or traprockpeace.org and many other websites.
- If you live or holiday near the affected areas, make lots of noise with the local councillors and media. Be disobedient. Be seditious. Get the use of DU weaponry stopped. It is nuclear weaponry.
- Find out who provides the Public Liability insurance for the army, and does that insurer know the risks associated with DU? Perhaps the way to stop this is through the public liability requirements that the Australian population is tied up with. Any insurance lawyers out there?
This is our home that is being poisoned. It is our country. Demand that it is respected and protected for our children and their children. History will not forgive us if we stand by idly.
This article was first published in Kindred/byronchild magazine, issue 17, March 06. Republished Living Now magazine, May 06. This article may be copied as long as correct acknowledgment is made of the author and this web page.
• Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets, by Leuren Moret
• Depleted Uranium Shells, The Radioactive Weapons: Perpetuation of War Damage by Radiation (PDF) Prof. Katsuma Yagasaki Professor, University of the Ryukyus.
• Discussion on DU in Australian Senate, June 2003
• US Nuclear policy and Depleted Uranium: Testimony at the 28/6/2003 International War Crimes Tribunal on Afghanistan, by Leuren Moret
Depleted Uranium101, by Glen Lawrence.
Shoalwater Bay Photos, US Navy website,
What you can do?
Activists websites
- Dusk: Depleted uranium, Silent Killer
www.dusk-qld.info - IDUST. International Depleted Uranium Study Team
www.idust.net - Campaign Against Depleted Uranium (UK)
www.cadu.org.uk - Sea Swap. Lancellin bombing, Western Australia, DU.
www.seaswap.org - Irati Want. Site related to proposed nuclear dump in South Australia.
www.iratiwanti.org/home.php3 - Depleted Uranium Education Project
www.iacenter.org/depleted/du.htm - Depleted Uranium: Hysteria or health threat? Anti Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia website
www.anawa.org.au/weapons/du.html - WISE (World Information Service on Energy) Uranium Project.
www.wise-uranium.org/index.html - Map of Uranium mines and facilities in Australia:
DVDs, radio interviews, talks
- Blowin' In The Wind, DVD by David Bradbury, Peter Scott.
www.frontlinefilms.com.au - The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children. German documentary exposes current radioactive warfare in Iraq
www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium_children.html - DU discussion with Leuren Moret and others, USA
www.traprockpeace.org/WBAIDepletedUranium.mp3 - Dr. Doug Rokke, USA
www.traprockpeace.org/Rokketalk03May03.mp3, www.traprockpeace.org/rokkemiller111302.mp3
Further reading
- What does the US government know about DU? By Leuren Moret
www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium.html - Selected resources for Depleted Uranium information
www.myweb.brooklyn.liu.edu/lawrence/duproject/resourcef.htm - Depleted Uranium: Origin, properties, and health consequences, One of many articles/studies by Glen Lawrence, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
www.myweb.brooklyn.liu.edu/lawrence/duproject/duhandout.htm - The Depleted Uranium Project
www.myweb.brooklyn.liu.edu/lawrence/duproject/duproject.htm - Depleted uranium and health: Facts and helpful suggestions
www.myweb.brooklyn.liu.edu/lawrence/duproject/duhealth.htm - 'The Trail of a Bullet,' Christian Science Monitor. www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/uranium/
- Heads roll at Veteran's Admin: Mushrooming DU scandal blamed, Bob Nichols, San Francisco Bay View, December 14, 2005.
www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml - DU FAQ. What the Pentagon has to say
www.gulflink.osd.mil/faq_17apr.htm - Local troops victims of America's high tech weapons. Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News , April 2, 2004.
www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html - Radioactive Wounds of War. Dave Lindorff, In These Times, August 25, 2005
www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2298/ - 'Where and how much depleted uranium has been fired?'
www.laka.org/teksten/Vu/where-how-much-01/main.html - Depleted Uranium Weapons and Acute Post- War Health Effects: An IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) Assessment.
www.converge.org.nz/pma/dupost.htm - American Free Press four-part series on DU by Christopher Bollyn.
- - Part I: 'Depleted Uranium: US commits war crime against Iraq, humanity,'
www.americanfreepress.net/html/depleted_uranium.html - - Part II: 'Cancer epidemic caused by US WMD: MD says depleted uranium definitively implicated'
www.americanfreepress.net/html/cancer_epidemic_.html - - Part III: 'DU Syndrome stricken Vets denied care: Pentagon hides DU dangers to deny medical care to Vets',
www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_syndrome.html - - Part IV: Pentagon Brass suppresses truth about Toxic Weapons: poisonous uranium munitions threaten world,
- - Part I: 'Depleted Uranium: US commits war crime against Iraq, humanity,'
- Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War. Leuren Moret: August 2004. World Affairs Journal.
www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm - 'Marin Depleted Uranium resolution heats up - GI's will come home to a slow death,' Carol Sterrit: August 2004 Coastal Post Online.
www.coastalpost.com/04/08/01.htm - World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference, Hamburg, Germany, October 16-19, 2004:
www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/speakers.htm - International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan. Written opinion of Judge Niloufer Baghwat:
www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10mar04.htm - Discounted Casualties: The human cost of Nuclear war. Series of articles. Akira Tashiro, foreword by Leuren Moret.
www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html - Depleted uranium may stop kidneys 'in days', Rob Edwards, NewScientist.com , March 12, 2002
www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2024 - The War Against Ourselves, Doug Rokke, YES! , Spring 2003.
www.yesmagazine.com/article.asp?ID=594 - Science or Science Fiction? Facts, myths and propaganda in the debate over depleted uranium weapons, Dan Fahey, March 12, 2003.
www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/pdf/dumyths.pdf - US Army Training Video: Depleted Uranium Hazard Awareness
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3581.htm - Extreme birth deformities of Iraqi children (Warning: these photos may distress viewers)
Related to - World affairs | Nuclear Power | Indigenous | Environmental health
By Mark O'Brien
Send this page to a friend
8 comments
Keryn Vettoretto November 9, 2011 9:47pm
Thank you for kindly sharing your information with the general public, I found your article to be very informative and will look into it further. As I live in Tannum Sands I find this information most distressing.
mark November 9, 2011 10:24pm
Hi Keryn. thanks for your comment and am happy you have learned something. This was toughest article I have ever written. I have tried to ascertain from the government repeatedly over the years what they have agreed to re the US munitions, but all they say is no nuclear weapons are allowed. As noted because DU weapons are not considered nuclear this is not very helpful. Anyway, spread the word amongst your circle. Cheers mark
scylla November 18, 2011 8:44am
So pertinent with the new agreements between US and Australia this week! I learned first of DU eleven years ago when I was in Belgrade. The buildings bombed by the allies were still emitting - still a distinct crackle in the air - a year after. People's hair was falling out, vegetation would not regrow, leukaemia rife. This was long before Iraq!! DU was used in Serbia in 1999. My husband came home from a year's work in Belgrade with severe hypo-thyroid and was never the same again! Please keep up this good work.... BBC ABC etc. refuse to acknowledge the Fallujah statistics (worse than Hiroshima) cited by Chomsky.
mark November 18, 2011 12:07pm
Hi Scylla
Yes it is very pertinent as Aust/US have agreed to base some 2500 soldiers and an assortment of planes, including B52s whose only purpose is to drop big bombs, namely DU bunker busters, on a bombing range in the NT.
I can only recommend that everybody contact their local MP, or the Greens, and request they table a request for confirmation about DU weapons being allowed to be used on Australian soil.
scylla November 19, 2011 8:18pm
Thanks Mark - A real wake-up call. You're right the US must be called to account, nominate intentions etc., and not sure who is strong enough to do this. Certainly not our local MP unfortunately. The Greens possibly only hope. Can David Bradbury be called on to activate here? I'm full time carer for my husband who now has altzheimer's so limited in what I can do. Best to you - Scylla
Max Igan February 20, 2012 10:50am
Great Article Mark. Its really good so see someone else in Byron Bay addressing these extremely important issues. I was beginning to feel somewhat lonely. Ive added a link to this article to my website.
Aileen December 1, 2012 4:22pm
Never give up exposing their crimes against us! Thank you Mark for such an informative and intelligent article and also all the good research links you provide. If you check out BOM national and look at the map of Australia especially at night, you will see the pummelling they are giving us - and our govt. turns a blind eye to what is, effectively, genocide of the Australian people by our "allies" - after all we still belong to the "coalition of the willing" don't we???
may taylor January 21, 2014 6:37pm
Thank you for this article. I sincerely hope that something can be done about this. The use of Depleted uranium is a crime against humanity and frankly I am ashamed to find out that we are the "terrorists".


text:
A Look at North America's Top Door Companies
Following a bumpy ride (make that a roller coaster) that has lasted over the course of several years, forecasters predict that the housing market is finally on an upward trend. This has companies reporting cautious optimism in 2013. However, no one is popping the champagne cork just yet.
This month, DWM publishes its first-ever list of Top Door Manufacturers. The ranking is primarily based on annual sales. If a company did not report this information, DWM provided an estimate based on published information and conversations with industry experts. While the majority of companies on our list did release their annual sales to us, or at least a range of where they would fall, a few were so reserved they wouldn't divulge any sales figures or even tell us their number of employees.
The list is reserved for those companies whose primary business (60 percent or more) is door manufacturing for the residential market. Our list has it all: wood, folding, fiberglass and more.
Just because a company is among the top in the nation, however, doesn't mean it has it easy. For example, Masonite, at the top of our list, announced recently that it lost a good chunk of its business from Lowe's—its second largest customer. The big-box retailer said it will reduce its interior door business with Masonite to the tune of $70 million annually. It was that news that prompted the door manufacturer to announce recently that it would close its Kirkwood, N.Y., plant, resulting in the loss of approximately 70 jobs.
Then there is Taylor Building Products, large enough perhaps to appear here, but at press time, the company's assets were sold to Wausau Supply, proving that some companies are still struggling.
Tampa, Fla.
Profile*: Masonite® says it is one of the world's largest manufacturers of interior, exterior and patio doors for residential and commercial applications. For more than 80 years, Masonite has been committed to building enduring products and simplified solutions through innovation.
Masonite embraces the innovative spirit by constantly seeking new processes, technologies and materials with an eye on producing residential and commercial doors that are stylish, functional and durable, all while increasing efficiency with the implementation of Lean Sigma. Through the use of this comprehensive system, every aspect of the company is synchronized and seamless. Lean Sigma processes allow Masonite to operate at extremely efficient levels, with a focus on innovation, quality, consistency and performance.
Annual sales: $1 billion to $2 billion range
Leadership: Frederick J. Lynch, president and CEO
Door lines: Interior doors, entry doors, exterior doors, glass doors, commercial and architectural doors
Product mix: 75 percent residential and 25 percent commercial
Number of employees: 7,000
Years in business: 80
Woodgrain Doors
Nampa, Idaho
Profile*: Wood-grain Doors says it is one of the world's largest manufacturers and suppliers of wood stile and rail doors, and offer a unique combination of beauty and durability. Made in an array of attractive designs, and offered in ten wood species, MDF, and factory primed, Woodgrain offers a wide range of doors to complement any interior.
Woodgrain has manufactured millwork and building products for the residential and commercial construction markets since it was founded in 1954. As a family-owned and-managed business, Woodgrain is one of the largest manufacturers of interior pine doors and prefinished mouldings in the United States.
Woodgrain Doors is committed to innovation through continuous improvements in manufacturing, investment in design, best quality craftsmanship and the use of the highest quality raw materials to build doors that are as durable as they are beautiful.
Annual sales: The company says it falls in the $400-$700 million range.
Leadership: Kelly Dame, CEO
Door lines: Interior and exterior wood stile and rail doors in the following species: Radiata Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Knotty Pine, Oak, Knotty Alder, Poplar, Fir, Cherry, Maple, Mahogany, Primed and Primed MDF
Product mix: 95 percent residential, 5 percent commercial
Number of employees: 270
Number of locations: 2
Years in business: 27
Therma-Tru Corp.
Maumee, Ohio
Profile*: Therma-Tru says it is the nation's leading manufacturer of entryway doors. Within the building products industry, Therma-Tru takes pride in its reputation as the company that offers the entire entryway system, not just different parts and pieces. The company offers slabs, glass and components that are designed and tested to work together.
Therma-Tru engineers its doors to work together for ease of installation, unified aesthetic appeal and long-term durability. The company has remained competitive throughout its five decades of history because of the quality of its products, competitive price points, leadership in innovation and by providing one-stop-shop aspects for trend designs in entryway systems.
Annual sales: Estimates place Therma-Tru's parent company, Fortune Brands', annual sales at $3 billion. Estimates place Therma-Tru at $181.5 million.
Leadership: Mark Savan, president
Door lines: Fiberglass and steel entrance doors, fire-rated doors, hinged patio doors and sliding patio doors
Number of employees: Estimated at 2,000 employees
Number of locations: 2
Years in business: 50
Steves & Sons
San Antonio, Texas
Profile*: Steves & Sons was established in 1866 and is currently managed by its fifth and sixth generations of family management. Over the last five years, Steves & Sons has undergone a transformation from a prominent interior door manufacturer to a national producer of a full line of products including commodity composite and steel doors as well as premium wood entry systems. Beyond the aforementioned additions, Steves is in the final stages of development on 90-minute steel edge, in-house steel processing and prefinished premium and fiberglass product lines. Every member of the Steves & Sons team embodies the "We Can Do That" attitude, which is evident through their price, quality and service in both the retail and jobber trades.
Annual sales: $120 million (residential)
Leadership: Sam Bell Steves II, president; Edward Galt Steves, CEO
Door lines: Interior flush, interior molded, stile and rail, MDF, steel, fiberglass, premium wood entry systems, pocket doorframes, custom machining and pre-hanging.
Product mix: 90 percent residential, 10 percent commercial.
Number of employees: More than 800 Number of locations: 6 Years in business: 146
Sugarcreek, Ohio
Profile*: ProVia says it is a leading manufacturer of professional-class entry doors, storm doors, patio doors, windows, siding and manufactured stone. The professional-class designation reflects the company's high level of quality, service and customization. ProVia has been an Energy Star® Partner since 2002, and has won the prestigious Energy Star Partner of the Year award for Door Manufacturing three times, and the Energy Star Sustained Excellence award three times. The company continues to experience robust sales growth, demonstrating the demand for professional-class and energy-efficient products.
Annual sales: The company says its sales fall in the $100-125 million range (67 percent of that is comprised of door products.)
Leadership: Bill Mullet, CEO; and Brian Miller, president Door lines: Exterior only: steel and fiberglass entry doors; steel and fiberglass swinging patio doors, vinyl sliding patio doors; and aluminum storm doors. The company also produces vinyl windows, wood plus vinyl windows, aluminum storm windows, insulated siding, vinyl siding and manufactured stone.
Product mix: 98 percent residential, 2 percent commercial.
Number of employees: Approx-imately 500
Number of locations: 5
Years in business: 35
Los Angeles, Calif.
Annual sales: $100 million
Leadership: Shirley Wang, CEO; and Franco An, president
Door lines: Exterior fiberglass doors, composite door jambs, doorlites and steel doors
Product mix: 85 percent, residential and 15 percent commercial
Number of employees: 100 Number of locations: 4
Years in business: 18
Craftmaster (now owned by JELD-WEN)
Profile*: According to the CMI website, the company's heritage in the building products industry dates back to 1968. CMI manufactures and markets three diverse (yet complementary) product lines for the residential, commercial and industrial markets: CraftMaster Interior Doors; MiraTEC Treated Exterior Composite Trim; and Extira Treated Exterior Panels. The company's manufacturing network includes a facility in Towanda, Pa., which produces door designs, trim and panels, as well as door manufacturing facilities in Christiansburg, Va., Ozark, Ala., Garland, Texas, and Plainfield, Ill. In 2012 the company was purchased by JELD-WEN.
Annual sales: Estimated at $67 million, though that includes its moulding and panel lines.
Door lines: Interior doors include flush, molded and stile and rail door designs.
Number of employees: Estimated at 900.
Simpson Door Company
McCleary, Wash.
Profile*: With a century of experience, product innovation and industry-leading design, Simpson Door Company says its comprehensive line of interior and exterior stile and rail doors includes hundreds of standard options from panel to French to decorative entry doors with matching side lites and transoms. Simpson also offers a number of visualization tools so customers can see the doors they are getting before they arrive at the jobsite.
Annual sales: The company says it falls in the $50-75 million range.
Leadership: Stacie Conkle, vice president and general manager
Door lines: Stile and rail exterior and interior doors, custom doors
Product mix: 95 percent residential, 5 percent commercial
Number of employees: 175
Number of locations: 1 Years in business: 100
TruStile Doors
Denver, Colo.
Profile*: TruStile Doors says it is one of the nation's leading manufacturers of premium stile and rail MDF and wood doors for residential and commercial applications. As a made-to-order door manufacturer, TruStile offers more than 400 standard door styles with 66 profile options and can custom-build virtually any door design. Using its proprietary TruCad Door Design Tool, the company says its full line of paint-grade and stain grade doors can be individually tailored to reflect personal design styles. TruStile adds that it provides the shortest lead times in the industry with a limited lifetime product warranty.
Annual sales: Estimated at $23 million.
Leadership: Scott Schmid, president/CEO
Door lines: Interior premium solid MDF and wood doors
Product mix: 75 percent residential, 25 percent commercial
Number of employees: Estimated at 200
Years in business: 17
Glasscraft Doors
Houston, Texas
Profile*: In 1977 the GlassCraft Door Company started a small retail store in Houston with the guiding principles of quality and value, according to the company's website. Building from these core values GlassCraft Door Company says it has grown into the number-one hardwood entry door company in America. The company has a 180,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Houston.
"Our dedication to excellence is built into each product and continues with industry leading customer service and product warranties," says the website.
Annual sales: Estimated annual sales of $17 million.
Door lines: According to the company's website, Glasscraft produces premium fiberglass doors and wood doors, as well as a Buffalo forge wrought iron entry door.
Number of employees: Estimated at 128
Tru Tech Doors
Vaughan, Ontario
Profile*: Tru Tech Door Systems is a Canadian privately owned company specializing in the manufacturing of residential entry door systems. Since its inception in 1998, the company's growth has come from the philosophy that door manufacturing has to be vertically integrated. Tru Tech says that as a company it has always been forward-thinking and a leader in its approach to residential door systems, focused on quality and design, creating innovative product lines and styles. The company says it is positioned to expand its manufacturing potential to double in volume.
Annual sales: $15-20 million (residential)
Leadership: John Careri, president Door lines: Exterior, steel and fiberglass residential entry doors. (The company also produces door lites, which comprises 10 percent of its business, and steel-edge doors, which comprises 30 percent of its business).
Product mix: 80 percent residential, 20 percent commercial
Number of employees: 150
Number of locations: 2
Years in business: 14
*Description provided by company
Good Vibrations:
What Has Door Manufacturers Optimistic
As DWM compiled this year's list of the nation's top door companies, we also asked them to provide some insight into what they're optimistic about for the year ahead. Read on for a sampling of the answers from representatives of those on our list.
Plastpro: The increase in single-family and multi-family construction will continue in 2013.
ProVia: We believe we will continue to see modest strengthening of the remodeling market in 2013.
Therma-Tru: Increased awareness of the energy-efficiency of doors and windows is the greatest legacy of the Energy Tax Credit. Energy Star has excellent consumer awareness and can be a driving force for our industry in 2013 and beyond. While increasing energy standards are a good means for pushing product design forward, we need to be careful that Energy Star products remain a compelling consumer investment. The increased energy efficiency needs to be worth the incremental cost of the product.
Masonite: We are anticipating the return of growth in the construction industry in 2013, and we expect new construction to be the premier growth driver in 2013 with a growth rate in the high teens year over year.
Steves & Sons: Improved business climate.
Tru Tech Doors: The U.S. economy seems to be edging up.
Woodgrain: Housing starts being up and the recovery of the housing industry and economy.
The Down Side:
Door Manufacturers Share Their Worries
Despite a good bit of optimism as we look toward a recovering residential market, door industry executives admit they still have some concerns for the months ahead. Read on to find out their top areas of worry.
Masonite: While the construction market is expected to grow, certain factors will continue to present obstacles that may slow recovery. Uncertain economic conditions and mortgage availability, changes to lending regulations, foreclosures, inflationary pressures, and labor shortages provide challenges to the market.
Plastpro: The continuation of stringent mortgage approval requirements could limit the single-family home starts.
ProVia: Although we're not "worried" about it, we will keep our eyes open for any events that could create another recession or downturn in the remodeling market.
Steves & Sons: Indecisive and irrational government legislation.
Tru Tech Doors: Flat Ontario economy.
Woodgrain: Inflationary pressure and the job outlook for the housing and remodeling industry. The lack of skilled workforce is a concern as well.


text:
ON POINT: Albert Kriemler is indulging his passion for ballet once more. The Akris designer has again collaborated with composer John Neumeier and designed costumes for "The Legend of Joseph" by Richard Strauss, which opens at the Hamburg Ballet on Sunday.
RENO'S NEW GAMBLE: Noelle Reno's time at Degrees of Freedom — the luxe loungewear brand she launched with her ex-fiancé Matthew Mellon — may have ended, but she says she's not turning her back on the fashion world. "As one door closes another door opens," said Reno, speaking from her family's ranch in Arizona. "Since I've left, some amazing opportunities have been presented to me. I think it's meant to be in a way."
Reno said she was asked to leave the business after her relationship with Mellon ended earlier this year. She declined to comment on whether fall orders for the brand, whose collection of cashmere hoodies, pants and tank tops is sold at stores including Harvey Nichols, Intermix and Fred Segal, would be fulfilled. Reno held a 49 percent stake in the brand, while Mellon held the remaining 51 percent.
Reno, who was responsible for wholesale sales for the brand alongside her role as creative director, said she would be "a fool to not stay in the business," after the experience. She even has a new project in the works. "I've got the opportunity to revive an old brand with a ton of history, which is very exciting," said Reno, who declined to name the brand in question.


text:
We offer DJ, entertainment services and radio personality. We have been serving the Delaware Valley since 1976.
We offer professional emcee and radio personality on Cruisin' 92.1 FM. We offer bookings for bands and vocal groups. We provide lighting, karaoke and all forms of entertainment.
247 E. Broadway Ave., Clifton Heights, Pa.
Clifton Heights, PA 19018
- DOJ Smart Search verified
- Email verified
- Thumbtack reviewed
- Facebook verified


text: Another batch of newly granted Apple patents were published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and then detailed by Patently Apple. Perhaps the most notable is one for an inductive charging solution that we have heard about in the past. Apple patents surfaced last year showing new methods of inductive charging that could be used in various Apple devices. There were even rumors last year that a next-gen iPhone could sport a similar cable-free charging solution. Patently Apple described the docking station invention covered in today's patent that would include an "eradiating antenna and an inductive charging circuit for inductively charging a handheld device":


text:
Select () or exclude () categories to narrow your recipe search.
As you select categories, the number of matching recipes will update.
Find exactly what you're looking for with the web's most powerful recipe filtering tool.
My name is Karin and I come from Gothenburg,Sweden, the native country of ABBA and VOLVO.
At the moment I'm enjoying being on maternity leave with my 5 months old daughter Ella.
I have finally got time to experiment in the kitchen after working full time for many years.
I love everything from Italian to Indian food and often make up new receipies with whatever's in the cupboard.


text:
Salvation Army
Support Flick's Team in the Salvation Army's Most Amazing Race
Click here to show your support for Flick's team. You can make a donation or join Flick's team!
MAN IN A BOX CHRONICLES: Introvert to College Speaker- Larry's Story
Larry stuck out in my head, probably because he was so friendly despite telling us that just a year ago he was afraid to simply have a conversation with people let alone carry on an interview.
Man In A Box: Flick Is Crazy
For the last month since I've been telling friends, family, strangers that I plan on spending 3 days living in a box to raise awareness for homelessness in our fair city. "Crazy." – That's usually their first response.
MAN IN A BOX CHRONICLES: Joe & Nicki Find Love After Abuse And Addiction
Joe and Nicki joined us to share their past experiences and how they are doing today by the aid of this incredible organization.
Man In A Box Chronicles: Ta'Ha & Adam's Struggle Up The Coast
An employee for the Department of Health for the state of Florida and her gainfully employed husband found themselves unemployed and raising a 7 year-old son when there world came crashing down.
Flick: Why I'm Living In A Box For 3 Days
I used to think, much like you might, the Salvation Army means one thing … red kettles at Christmas. That was before I knew 2 things…


text:
If you have ever attended a professional baseball game, be it in the major or minor leagues, chances are you have encountered an innovation originally conceived and executed by Bill Veeck. Veeck, a lifelong baseball man who saw before most of his peers the need to market the sport beyond the on-field product, was the game's original and most memorable showman. His greatest stunt, in which he dared threaten the baseball establishment by signing a midget and sending him to bat, earned him the derision of his peers at the time, but is still remembered by even casual fans more than fifty years later. Other feats of his imagination include introducing the famous exploding scoreboard at Comiskey Park, planting the ivy on Wrigley Field's walls and allowing fans to determine game strategy for the St. Louis Browns in a 1951 contest.
But Veeck's contributions to baseball were not entirely frivolous. It was his decision in July 1947, with Jackie Robinson already making a fine showing in Brooklyn as the 20th century's first black player, to sign Negro League infielder Larry Doby, who went directly to the Cleveland Indians, thus integrating the American League. He also proposed a number of other ideas that he envisioned as strengthening the game he loved, including inter-league play, revenue sharing and expansion into the West Coast (specifically Los Angeles). It is a monument to his intelligence and foresight that all were eventually enacted in some form by major league baseball; it is also indicative of his overall poor reputation amongst his contemporaries that it took so long for seemingly obvious changes to take place.
Any project regarding Bill Veeck needs to begin with the understanding that he was first and foremost a baseball man, someone who did what he did not because it was a job or because it was easy, but because he was truly in love with the game. His career in baseball often resembled a tempestuous love affair – years of intense involvement marked by long periods of separation. This passion led to the breakup of Veeck's first marriage in the late 1940s and required his second wife to be as much an accomplice in his exploits as a spouse. Most of his nine children seem to have met the same fate as his first wife, assuming secondary status as baseball consumed his life. Of the nine (three from his first marriage, six from the second), only his son Mike, who later succeeded his father as a baseball innovator, figured prominently in Veeck's autobiographical writings, and only then because Mike followed Bill into the family business.
Discussing Bill Veeck's family life extensively is not necessary when considering his career in baseball. Such an examination only serves to reveal moral qualities and personal ethics, both of which can be seen in abundance in Veeck's decades of major league ownership. His family does come into play, however, to the extent that the two forces essentially coexisted during his time in St. Louis (this is his "second" family with wife Mary Frances Ackerman; Veeck's three children and first wife play virtually no role in his baseball story).
If we decide to begin the Bill Veeck story with the understanding that baseball was life and vice versa, the follow-up question is where exactly to begin. Do we start with his greatest promotion, the 1951 "incident" which saw him send a midget up to bat in a major league game? Or should it be his most serious contribution to baseball, the 1947 signing of 23-year old Larry Doby as the first black player in the American League? Or perhaps begin a great success story with a great failure, the 1979 disaster that was Disco Demolition Night? Maybe, in the end, the best way to understand who Bill Veeck was and why he became so important is to back to the beginning, before he was THE Bill Veeck, and bring it forward from there.
Bill Veeck's baseball career was set in motion on February 21, 1914, when he was just twelve days old. On that day, Cincinnati-based newspaper owner Charles P. Taft purchased the Chicago Cubs from controversial owner Charles W. Murphy, who had already been the recipient of Taft's financial backing for nearly a decade. Two years later, on January 5, 1916, the team was sold again, this time to Charles W. Weeghman, president of the Federal League's Chicago Whales franchise. Weeghman's partners in his $500,000 syndicate included a minority stockholder named William Wrigley, Jr., who later acquired majority ownership and became the namesake of the Whales ballpark on the north side of Chicago, which had opened in 1914 as a Federal League facility but would gain lasting fame as a National League venue.
William Veeck, Sr., a baseball writer for the Chicago American under the paper's standard "Bill Bailey" byline, entered the picture in 1917, opining on a number of ways that the Cubs could return to their winning ways (the team had taken four National League pennants between 1906 and 1910, but was flagless since and on its way to a third consecutive sub-.500 season). Wrigley called Veeck on the carpet for a face to face meeting, reportedly telling the writer, "All right, if you're so smart why don't you come and (run the team)?" Veeck took him up on the unlikely offer, accepting a position as vice-president of the Cubs. The team won the pennant in 1918 and Veeck was promoted to president in July 1919, but the Cubs would not return to the World Series again until 1929, when they lost to the Philadelphia Athletics. Three years later, they again represented the National League in the Fall Classic, but once again were defeated, this time by Babe Ruth's New York Yankees. It was the last World Series for Veeck, who lost a brief battle with leukemia the following October.
William Veeck, Sr. was a well-liked individual who enjoyed reasonable success as a baseball executive, but he would have been no better remembered than Murphy, Taft or Weeghman if not for his son. Bill Veeck, Jr. had worked for his father in various capacities over the years, but his baseball career began in earnest with the elder Veeck's death. Shortly thereafter, he left school at Kenyon College and approached Phil Wrigley, who had taken over the Cubs following his own father's passing the previous year and would continue to run the club into the 1970s, and asked for a job.
Over the next several years, Veeck continued to learn the business side of the game, attending night school classes and eventually earning the position of team treasurer with the Cubs. The situation was a necessary learning experience for the young man, but he knew that the position would not be long term. Wrigley was not afraid to take some risks as an owner – he okayed a plan to plant the now famous ivy on Wrigley Field's outfield walls and later used a team of coaches in lieu of an everyday manager – but Veeck knew that if he wanted to be a successful baseball operator, he had to have the freedom to attempt innovative and controversial promotional ideas without having to answer to anyone. The only solution was to buy a ball club of his own.
The team that became Veeck's first stop as an owner was the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association, which he built from a last place disaster with a nonexistent fan base into a consistent pennant winner during his five year tenure simply by giving the fans what they wanted: the highest value for their entertainment dollar. Arriving in town in 1941 with $11 in his pocket and co-owner/manager Charlie Grimm in tow, Veeck immediately set the baseball world on its ear. He gave away prizes at the gate, put circus acts on the field, staged morning games for wartime third shift workers and presented Grimm with a much-needed left-handed pitcher on his birthday. These promotions, which were rarely announced in advance, combined with a newly successful on-field product (a second place finish in 1942 preceded three consecutive pennant winners from 1943 – 45) to drive attendance levels to new highs, thus proving to Veeck what he had known all along – that promotion and baseball could coexist successfully.
A noteworthy result of the Milwaukee years was the lifelong relationship that developed between Veeck and Rudie Schaffer, a "volunteer" accountant who had spent the several years prior to Veeck's arrival working for the Brewers. Schaffer played the role of Veeck's right-hand man for the next several decades, sharing the successes in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Chicago along with the overall failure in St. Louis. His importance to Veeck's professional career cannot be overstated – Veeck once wrote, "Rudie and I complement each other perfectly. I'm the one who takes the bows, and he's the one who does the work." While this reads in part as typical Veeck hyperbole, the fact remains that Schaffer was perhaps the most important character to wander into Bill Veeck's life story.
Veeck left the Brewers in Schaffer's capable hands while serving a twenty-two month stint with the Marines in the South Pacific during World War II. Eighteen of those months were spent in the hospital, however, following an incident at Bougainville in which the recoil of an anti-aircraft gun seriously injured his right leg, leading to an amputation nine inches below the knee in November 1946. The injury failed to respond to treatment with various infections leading to several more operations and the loss of virtually the entire leg by the early 1960s. Veeck took the situation in stride, throwing a party for his first wooden leg and later building an ashtray into the hollow extremity. "I am absolutely convinced of one thing," he wrote in his autobiography. "A cripple cannot coddle himself. Once you coddle yourself, you're admitting you can't do what anybody else can do and then you're through."
Prior to entering the military at the conclusion of the 1943 season, Veeck allegedly considered purchasing the Philadelphia Phillies and loading the team with top-notch Negro League talent. Veeck believed the move, which would have taken place nearly three seasons before Jackie Robinson broke the color line, would be sufficient to catapult the moribund Phillies from seventh place in 1942 to the National League pennant in 1944. According to the popular story, the plan was undermined when Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis learned of Veeck's tentative deal with Philadelphia owner Gerry Nugent and quickly forced the sale of the team first to the National League, then to lumber baron William Cox for a lower price (Cox didn't last long in the major leagues, earning a lifetime ban less than a year later for betting on baseball).
The story is flattering to Veeck's image as a maverick owner who was willing to buck established tradition, but it is probably untrue. In reality, while it is possible that Veeck considered integration imminent in the early 1940s, it is highly unlikely that he would have been able to secure the financial backing needed to buy the Phillies, especially with the United States fully involved in World War II and the Brewers not yet at the peak of their success. More likely, Veeck fabricated the story at a later date for a variety of reasons.
Following his return to Milwaukee six weeks before the end of the 1945 season, Veeck sold the Brewers for a $275,000 profit and retired to the Lazy Vee ranch in Arizona for some much needed rest and relaxation with his wife Eleanor and their three children. In addition to Veeck's worsening leg trouble, things had been difficult between the couple for some time and this was seen as a final attempt to repair the relationship and save their eleven-year marriage. It didn't work. Barely weeks had passed before Veeck was itching to get back into action and actively looking for a venue in which to make his return.
As he considered his reentry, Veeck was certain of one thing: having proved the validity of his promotional methods in the minors, he wanted to take his knowledge to the major league level, where he was certain that more readily available funds would make things easier. Casting a covert glance around at the sixteen teams, he learned of potential opportunities in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. After conducting preliminary market research on the Pirates and finding the situation not to his liking, he set his sights on the Indians, gaining control of the team in 1946 just ahead of team president and minority owner Alva Bradley, who held the second option.
The Indians made history in June 1947 when Larry Doby became the first African-American player in American League history (he was preceded in the major leagues by Robinson, who debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15). Doby, a talented player who twice hit over thirty homeruns in a season for Cleveland, struggled as a part-time infielder in his first season after being purchased from the Negro League's Newark franchise for $10,000 but moved to the outfield in 1948 and rebounded to bat over .300 for Cleveland's first world championship team since 1920.
The club continued to rewrite history in 1948, when Negro League legend Satchel Paige, officially listed as 42 years old but rumored to be as old as 48, became the oldest rookie in league history. Although initially derided as a ridiculous publicity stunt by the baseball establishment, Paige ended up winning six games for the Indians following his July 9th debut, playing an instrumental role down the stretch as Cleveland fought for the American League pennant. His presence also helped the Indians set an American League attendance record with 2.6 million fans, a mark that stood until 1980.
One of Veeck's few public relations mistakes in Cleveland was a botched attempt to trade popular player-manager Lou Boudreau in 1947. Concerned with Boudreau's managerial ability, Veeck put together a deal that would have swapped the star shortstop with "half the St. Louis Browns ballclub." The trade fell through but word leaked to the public during the World Series, leading to an outcry that was soothed only by Veeck's apologetic appearances in gathering places around Cleveland.
Boudreau responded to the proposed trade with the best season of his career, playing and managing his club to a World Series victory in 1948. The Indians reached the Fall Classic following a one-game playoff victory over the Boston Red Sox in which Boudreau went 4-for-4 with two homeruns before continuing on to overwhelm the Boston Braves in six games. It remains Cleveland's only world championship since 1920.
Despite the success of the Cleveland years – the attendance records, the World Series win, the crossing of the color line, the continued validation of promotional efforts (including "Good Ol' Joe Early Day, a precursor to the now common Fan Appreciation celebrations) – Veeck sold his stake in the team to Ellis Ryan in 1949, partly due to impending divorce proceedings with Eleanor. With those proceedings underway, he met Mary Frances Ackerman, a press agent for the Ice Capades who soon became his second wife, mother of six of his children and an instrumental cog in his next major challenge: taking over the hapless St. Louis Browns, winners of just one pennant in half a century and owners of one of the worst attendance records in baseball.
It was in St. Louis, Veeck wrote ten years later, that he did the best promotional work of his career, combining innovative in-stadium promotion with an ambitious speaking schedule in an attempt to create fan interest in the team. Considering the situation he bought into, he had to be at the top of his game just to survive. Noted primarily for decades of futility and low attendance (the team had drawn just over 80,000 fans for the entire 1935 season, an average of 1,044 per game), the Browns lost ninety games or more all three years that Veeck owned the club, surpassing the century mark in 1951 and 1953.
When taking over a team of questionable ability and potential, as had been the case in Cleveland and again in St. Louis, Veeck's first order of promotion was to find a player he could spotlight to draw immediate fan interest. Cleveland's focus in 1946 had been placed on pitcher Bob Feller, who was within reach of the single season strikeout record when Veeck bought the team. The Browns didn't possess a player of Feller's caliber but they were fortunate to have Ned Garver, a right-handed hurler who at times seemed to be the only Browns pitcher capable of winning a ball game. Noting this, Veeck immediately used Garver in the same way he had used Feller, directing interest on the fact that Garver had a chance to become the first pitcher since 1924 to win twenty games for a last place team. The marketing campaign worked so well as to be historically unique: more than fifty years later, Ned Garver remains the only American League pitcher to win twenty games for a team with one hundred losses.
Fueled by the publicity from Garver's success, Veeck delivered a pair of promotions that ensured his reputation as an executive willing to do anything to put fans in the seats. The first took place on August 19, 1951 and centered on Eddie Gaedel, a local entertainer who remains, at 3'7" and 65 pounds, the smallest player in major league history. During a birthday celebration for the American League and team sponsor Falstaff Brewery between games of a doubleheader on that date, Gaedel popped out of a cake wearing a Browns uniform with the number 1/8 on the back. The move delighted the crowd but angered Falstaff representatives, who had been expecting something grander than Veeck's time honored cake gag, which he had used at virtually every prior stop as an owner. What they didn't know was that Gaedel was actually a member of the Browns, signed to a legitimate contract that would pay him $100 for the day's work. When the bottom of the first inning rolled around, the 18,000 fans in attendance, said to be the largest Browns crowd in four seasons, were shocked to see Gaedel pop out of the dugout, bat in hand, to pinch hit for leadoff man Frank Saucier. Huddled into a crouch that virtually eliminated the threat of a called strike and under strict orders from Veeck not to swing under any circumstances, Gaedel watched four balls pass by somewhere in the vicinity of his forehead before showboating his way down to first, where he was replaced by pinch-runner Jim Delsing. (Fun fact: Delsing's grandson is New England Revolution star Taylor Twellman.)
"Traditional" baseball was outraged that Veeck would dare demean the game by sending a midget to bat. American League president William Harridge, who had learned of the planned promotion that morning but had been unable to take any immediate action, decreed that Gaedel's base on balls be stricken from the baseball record books. Veeck argued against such an action on the grounds that removing Gaedel's appearance would throw the baseball record book out of whack. Harridge had little choice but to back down and allow the walk to remain on the books but guaranteed that such a farcical event would not be repeated by announcing that the league office must approve all future player transactions. The new rule came too late to get in Veeck's way, however, as the stunt earned the Browns and Falstaff national coverage and ensured baseball immortality for both Gaedel and Veeck.
Veeck's second major St. Louis promotion, Grandstand Manager Day, was held five days after Gaedel's appearance. This idea required more planning and was less controversial, but earned its fair share of publicity for the struggling Browns (the team's record on the morning of August 24 stood at 37-81, 39.5 games behind first place Cleveland). The concept for the promotion was ingenious: Browns fans were invited, through a special newspaper advertisement, to send in a lineup for the team's game against the Philadelphia Athletics. Fans who completed that task were then given a ticket to that contest, grouped into a special section behind the home dugout and allowed to make strategic decisions such as working a hit and run or warming up a relief pitcher. The idea worked to perfection, with Ned Garver earning his 15th victory in the Browns 5-3 win.
Under Veeck's leadership, attendance leapt nearly 60% from 1951 to 1952, but the Browns and Veeck were ultimately an unhappy mix in St. Louis for two reasons. First, the team was, it warrants mentioning again, awful, with little outlook for improvement, and no fan base will support a terrible team in great numbers for any length of time, no matter how good the promotional efforts. Second, the rival Cardinals were too much to overcome. The same franchise that defeated the Browns in the 1944 World Series had won its sixth Fall Classic in 1946 and, while the Brownies were losing ninety games a year from 1951 – 53, finished third in the National League all three seasons.
Despite Veeck's best efforts, which included the aforementioned promotions, various attempts to draw Cardinals owner Fred Saigh into a public relations battle and the hiring Cardinals legend Rogers Hornsby to manage the Browns, the Browns never seriously challenged the Cardinals for domination of St. Louis. They might have held on longer, however, had August Busch not purchased the Redbirds from Saigh in 1952. The transaction was a stake in the heart for Veeck and the Browns. "I decided I had better get out of town back in 1952, after Gussie bought the Cardinals, because he was smarter, handsomer and he had better posture," Veeck wrote with characteristic humor in 1965. "He was also richer, wealthier and he had more money." With the Anheuser-Busch brewery and its resources at his disposal, Busch could pour virtually unlimited funds, which Veeck and his shoestring budget could not match, into the Cardinals without blinking an eye, effectively ending any potential competition between the two organizations.
Realizing that his days in St. Louis were numbered, Veeck began seriously planning a move. His first choice was Milwaukee, but the rights to the city belonged to Boston Braves owner Lou Perini, who was considering a move there himself. Unable to part Perini from the rights, Veeck shifted the focus to his second option, Baltimore. This looked feasible for a time, but Veeck's lack of popularity among his fellow owners and the impending start of the 1953 season led to the failure of the proposed move to gain the necessary approval, leaving Veeck in a no win situation for the foreseeable future. (That same off-season, the National League owners approved Perini's move to Milwaukee, just weeks before the start of the regular season. The team set attendance records there for the next several years.) The Browns move to Baltimore was finally approved for the 1954 season, but only on the condition that Veeck sell his interests in the team. He eventually did so, bringing about his first period of sustained time away from daily operation of a baseball team since his teenage years.
Veeck spent the next several years working in broadcasting, running the Miami Marlins minor league club for a friend, attempting to purchase the Ringling Brothers Circus and seeking a route back to the major leagues. Bids to gain control of the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers were unsuccessful, a fact that seems almost preordained in retrospect because there was really only one logical place for a Veeck to reenter the baseball scene.
The place Bill Veeck belonged was Chicago, where his father had enjoyed success with the Cubs and the Comiskey family had owned the White Sox since 1900. Following patriarch Charles Comiskey's death in 1931, the team continued to be run by the family, with son Lou handling operations until 1939 and daughter-in-law Grace taking over in 1941. It was Grace's death in 1956 that provided Veeck with his opening. In her will, Grace left control of the White Sox in the hands of her daughter, Dorothy Comiskey Rigney instead of her son, Charles Comiskey II. Because Charles II considered his rightful place to be at the head of the franchise, he set out to gain control from his sister through a series of legal maneuvers.
Tired of fighting by 1958, Dorothy made the decision to sell her shares and controlling interest in the White Sox and Veeck was there to capitalize. He negotiated with Dorothy for her shares with the understanding that his involvement was only to set a legitimate purchase price for her brother, but when Charles came in with a significantly lower offer, Veeck and his partners were able to purchase Dorothy's shares, amounting to a 54% controlling interest, and return to the major leagues in 1959.
The White Sox, which had been on the verge of success with two consecutive second place finishes, finally made the jump to the next level, reaching the World Series in 1959 before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. Veeck set out that season to surpass the all-time Chicago baseball attendance record of 1,485,166 that had been set by his father's Cubs in 1929. He fell just short of the goal with a White Sox record 1,423,144 but broke the city mark the next season, when 1,644,460 fans passed through the Comiskey Park turnstiles.
The fans were coming to the park in those record numbers for two reasons: the team was winning and Veeck was innovating. The best and most lasting idea proved to be Comiskey Park's exploding scoreboard, which erupted in various light configurations every time a White Sox player hit a home run. For a time, the game was fun again, but Veeck's health had continued to decline since the St. Louis days, forcing him to sell his interests in the team to Arthur Allyn midway through the 1961 season.
When Veeck left the White Sox, he wasn't sure how much time he had left. His health was not only in steep decline but had in fact reached an all-time low. "I had my choice, it seemed, between dying from cancer, from a tumor of the brain, or from the somewhat more leisurely debilitations of a stroke," he wrote in 1972. In 1962 a trip to the Mayo Clinic finally provided a diagnosis: a brain aneurysm that could be treated with rest and an improved diet.
Recovered from his brush with death, Veeck did what came naturally: he attempted to buy a baseball team. This time around, the available club was the Washington Senators, a franchise that had made back-to-back World Series appearances in the 1920's and once boasted one of baseball's all-time great pitchers in Walter Johnson but had not added an American League pennant to its collection since 1933. Veeck threw his hat into the ring as early as 1963, but it wasn't until 1967 that he made an official offer for the club. There were other suitors for the team by that time, however, and another group outbid his price by several million dollars.
Following the failure to purchase the Senators, Veeck undertook a new challenge: horse racing at Boston's Suffolk Downs. His two years in Massachusetts were marked by legal and political battles at the end of which he was knocked out of the box by the same type of personalities that had sent him packing from the American League in the early 1950s.
During his lengthening absence from baseball, Veeck coauthored three books with sportswriter Ed Linn: 1962's Veeck As In Wreck, an autobiographical tome that recounted his life up to the departure from Chicago; 1965's The Hustler's Handbook, a monologue on various baseball topics from the sale of the New York Yankees to racial issues in the sport; and 1972' s Thirty Tons A Day, an account of the trials and tribulations experienced at Suffolk Downs.
A major component of Veeck As In Wreck was the mutual distaste that existed between Veeck, commissioner Ford Frick and the other owners in the American League. Although he had had run-ins with authority for years, the major problem centered on St. Louis, when he had been forced to choose between selling the team or continuing to absorb serious operating losses.
A conspiracy might have existed, but Veeck's relationship with other owners was also hindered by the fact that he was never the type of person to idly go along with the crowd. His son Mike, a successful minor league operator who was a toddler during the St. Louis days, later told ESPN, "Bill Veeck was born on the right side of the tracks. And as soon as he was capable, dragged himself to the other side." He was never one to surround himself with "yes-men" or stuffed shirts, but rather associated with those who were willing to take risks and unafraid to test established thinking. With such a mentality, it's little surprise that Veeck identified with his blue-collar fans and clashed with his conservative white-collar fellow owners.
On the last page of The Hustler's Handbook, Veeck concluded a discussion on the exclusion of the individual from major league baseball ownership by writing,"(W)hile the opportunities in baseball are, at the moment, negligible, the future is not wholly without hope." In 1975, that hope was realized when Veeck burst back onto the scene with the purchase of the White Sox.
Veeck's return coincided with the impending move of the White Sox from Chicago to Seattle. Team owner Arthur Allyn had been unable to meet his payroll and was therefore on the verge of turning his club over to the league, with the shift to Seattle intended to appease the city for the loss of the Pilots franchise after the 1969 season. The conditions are superficially ironic given Veeck's role in the unprecedented franchise shifts of the 1950s, when he had helped force the Braves move to Milwaukee, laid the groundwork for the Browns exit from St. Louis and announced an intention to take the Athletics from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.
His actions in the Chicago situation make sense, however, when all his moves are placed in the context of their times and places. Veeck believed that only two cities (New York and Chicago) possessed the resources to support two major league franchises, meaning that, in a perfect world, all other cities would eventually end up with a single representative team. This was precisely the case in St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia, where the Browns, Braves and Athletics were not able to overtake the Cardinals, Red Sox and Phillies in terms of popularity and fan support.
Ten years later, two of the same teams were again on the move, but the circumstances and Veeck's opinion had both changed. While the former St. Louis Browns were on the verge of tremendous success as the Baltimore Orioles, the Milwaukee Braves and Kansas City Athletics had each fallen on hard times, with their respective owners anxious to leave town as a result. To Bill Veeck, this situation threatened a dangerous precedent. The franchise shifts of the early 1950s had been made out of necessity; each of the teams had been forced to make the move from a competitive standpoint. These moves, however, would leave the two cities in question – as well as Cleveland, which was also in danger of losing its team but escaped the bulk of Veeck's ire, possibly due to his friendly relationship with Frank Lane – without major league baseball.
The inevitable franchise shifts took place. The Braves went to Atlanta, where they experienced periodic attendance issues even while winning fourteen consecutive division titles, and the Athletics went to Oakland, where they have won four World Series in six appearances but have raised questions of the Bay Area's ability to sustain two major league teams.
The Braves and A's were replaced relatively quickly. The expansion Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots began play in 1969, with the Pilots transferring to Milwaukee the following season. It was this move that left Seattle in the lurch and threatened the White Sox before Veeck jumped back into the mix.
The excitement from his unexpected return was short-lived. Just two weeks later, the historic Messersmith - McNally decision was handed down by arbitrator Peter Seitz, essentially nullifying the reserve clause and sparking the dawn of free agency. With an open market forthcoming, rising player salaries were virtually guaranteed, a bad omen for an operator like Veeck, who never had a deep-pocketed financial backer to cover the expenses. To cover himself, he developed the "rent-a-player" model that has become prevalent in the modern game, signing quality players at reasonable prices for a year or two before letting them leave if they received a substantially better offer.
Veeck treaded water in Chicago for five years, building solid teams from a combination of spare parts, low external expectations and blind faith. And, of course, he still had that bottomless imagination. Players were given Bermuda shorts in lieu of standard uniform pants, homeruns and big plays were followed by "curtain calls" and announcer Harry Caray began his daily routine of leading the crowd in "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch.
But it was July 12, 1979 that saw Veeck showcase his most controversial promotion since Eddie Gaedel donned number 1/8 way back in 1951. The theme, conceived by Veeck's son Mike, was Disco Demolition Night, with the concept being that fans who brought disco records to a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers were allowed in for a discounted price and the records would be destroyed in a bonfire between games. The event was immediately and intensely popular, with a packed house in the stadium and tens of thousands reportedly waiting outside for tickets. Everything went as well as could be expected until the actual detonation. When the smoke cleared, fans were streaming across the field, ultimately resulting in a forfeit. Years afterward, the story was that Veeck had fired his son over the debacle, but Mike denied the story. His father was the only one who understood the true issue at hand: the promotion had worked a little too well.
Veeck sold the White Sox early in 1981 and spent his last years living in Maryland and making appearances in the bleachers at Wrigley Field. His lifetime of poor health finally caught up to him on January 2, 1986, when a pulmonary embolism took his life five weeks before his 72nd birthday. He was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1991 as a member of the Pioneer and Executive wing, one of only twenty-three men to be so honored.
Baseball men have come and gone throughout the years, but few have matched the impact of Bill Veeck. Although his time as an owner was spread out and limited by poor health (four stints with three major league teams over fifteen seasons, plus several more seasons with two minor league clubs), his innovations live on today. From door prizes to fan appreciations, fireworks to Bermuda shorts and Eddie Gaedel to Disco Demolition, Veeck showed an uncommon ability to understand exactly what would spark the interest and excitement of the everyday individuals who comprised baseball's fan base.
Veeck, Bill with Ed Linn. Veeck As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. 398 pgs.
Veeck, Bill with Ed Linn. The Hustler's Handbook. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1965. 286 pgs.
Veeck, Bill with Ed Linn. Thirty Tons A Day: The Rough-Riding Education of a Neophyte Racetrack Operator. New York: The Viking Press, 1972. 296 pgs.
Pietrusz, David, Matthew Silverman and Michael Gershman, eds. Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. New York: Total/Sports Illustrated, 2000. 1298 pgs.
"Bill Veeck, Jr." – p. 1165 – 67
"Bill Veeck, Sr." – p. 1167 – 68
"Phil Wrigley" – p. 1258 – 59


text:
Bible in Basic English (BBE) | New International Version (NIV) |
2 Put me in the scales, O Lord, so that I may be tested; let the fire make clean my thoughts and my heart. | 2 Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; |
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain. (The Bible in Basic English Version Online) | Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |


text:
My daughter, Marly, had her baby on Thursday after 40 hours of labor. He is a beautiful sight to see. I am handing out virtual cigars. Grab one before they are gone. Funny thing: He doesn't look like an alien, Winston Churchill or a cone head, although I have to admit his head does stick a bit in the back, but that's just extra room for his brain.
Statistics: a respectable eight pounds six ounces, 22 inches in length and his name – Osiris. Osiris is the Egyptian god of the moon – these kids nowadays.
What will his life be like when he gets older; when he reaches the age of consent? What will be the state of our country, of our little burg, of the world? It's a happy time but you can't help thinking what his life will be like. If your glass is half-full you will think that his quality of life will be much better than ours. But if your glass is half-empty or someone has been drinking from it when you're not looking, you may think that his life could be a combination of wars, unemployment and revolution.
I hope and pray that his life is utopian not dystopian. I have hopes that his life will be as easy as mine has been and that he wants for nothing and is as happy with a simple life as he is with a lot of things. What I want for him is a fantastic quality of life.
What would quality of life mean for little Osiris? First, his parents, Marly and Brandon, are good parents and love him, which I know is in the bucket. Second: his health, and the way he looks now, that shouldn't be a problem. Third: is a roof over his head that he should want for nothing, laid back and loving.
That would be a good quality of life for little Siris, (his parents will no doubt drop the "O" and have already done so in casual conversation) to be loved and know it is the fuel that will get him from one place in this world to another.
The term "quality of life" gets tossed around too frequently and when used too much becomes meaningless. Quality of Life Vitamin Supplements; quality of life Cardiovascular, Cognitive, Digestive Health; Quality of Life Bookstore; healthcare in South Bend, Indiana; the Quality of Life Foundation helping those with nerve damage; American Top States for Business; top states listed for their quality of life are ranked by the factors including crime, health care, local attractions and environmental quality and happy state also a healthy state for business.
Virginia placed number five on CNBC's Top States for Doing Business, based on competitiveness developed with input from business groups across the country. Oddly, Virginia scored only 18 out of 300 points for quality of life.
Cost of doing business, infrastructure and cost of living came in at 28, 21 and 20 respectively. South Dakota is at the top of the list with 48 for innovation and technology, access to loans 39 and education 30. Virginia ranked eight on education out of a possible 150 points. But let's keep this in perspective. Think about the rural counties, the counties with the most poverty and the largest unemployment.
Having a job in a place where your family has grown is number one on the quality of life scale. But what bothers me is that the term is thrown around so much it doesn't mean anything anymore. It seems as if government has hijacked the expression "quality of life" and throws it in whenever it tries to convince people that they are doing a good job.
Is quality of life really good water and sewer service, building permits and widening highways? To my way of thinking, schools make the quality of life cut, but cost of doing business does not.
You've heard me refer to the "The Popsicle Index." It is a "quality of life measurement coined by Catherine Austin Fitts as the percentage of people - in a community who believe that a child in their community can safely leave his or her home, walk to the nearest possible location to buy a popsicle, and walk back home."
In addition to having a place to actually put your feet without getting run over has a lot to do with Ms. Fitts measurement.
"The Popsicle Index is about how people feel. Our feelings are real. Our feelings and our thoughts invent our world. Our feelings determine how we vote with our money in the marketplace or with our ballot at the polls. Crime may be down, but any mother or father knows it takes twenty years to raise a child and all it takes is one incident for a child to lose their life, their peace of mind or their soul. Moreover, even when reported crime is absent, the Popsicle Index can still be very low. A lot of kids can die from cars driving through a community too fast because the roads are poorly designed and people don't care much about each other. The absence of evil does not ensure the presence of love. Conscious love is what must be present continuously to raise healthy and safe children," stated Ms. Fitts in an article on the website www.solari.com.