In Hollywood, we’ve have had tough guys (Lee Marvin, Chuck Norris), funny guys (Jerry Lewis, Eddie Murphy) and then there are the cool guys, John Wayne, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, and James Dean. In the 70′s, a TV show took a chance, and introduced a Biker as a friend of a character, and a legend was born. The Fonz defined cool for a generation of TV viewers and it wasn’t long before Henry Winkler was getting as much attention as the star of Happy Days, Ron Howard. His white shirt, leather jacket, and comb steadily combing his hair back unless he was looking at a mirror, then it was… heyyyyyyyyy, with a satisfied smile as if to say, was there any doubt he would look good. The show ended and the stars moved on and it appeared to many that it was the Fonz that was cool, not Mr. Winkler. But to those that thought that, they were wrong. Henry Winkler has continued to define cool in his professional and personal life. So today, on his Birthday, we’ll honor Mr Winkler with today’s list of top coolest things that he has done:

1. Played the Fonz on Happy Days, giving the show and his career a huge boost.
2. Masters of Fine Arts from Yale – An Ivy League Educated Actor as the Fonz, who knew?
3. Night Shift – One of Ron Howard’s first movies that helped launch Michael Keaton and Shelly Long’s careers. I like to think he did it because Ron was his friend, but who really knows.
4. McGyver, Mr. Winkler was an executive producer of this down to earth handy man that was a lot of fun to watch.
5. Writer – 14 books and counting about Hank Zipzer, the world’s greatest underachiever. Hank as dyslexia, which Mr. Winkler has been diagnosed with as well and his life serves as a model for the stories in this series.
6. Broadway Star – Doing 9 months of The Dinner Party, a Neil Simon comedy.
7. Director – Directing several movies including Billy Crystals “Memories of Me”
8. Charity – He is involved with several leading Children charities including Toys for Tots and the Special Olympics
9. Professional Guest Star – Arrested Development, Law and Order, King of the Hill, The Simpsons and even a few music videos
10. Guest Conductor of the Boston Pops – summer 2008 in Cape Cod. He lost no time in getting rid of those pesky sheets of paper with little dots on them and doing it, his way. It was great fun and he started his stint with a good talk on growing up with dyslexia.  

Its awfully nice to see a good actor, with a solid career, doing something nice and using his fame, and some of his fortune, to help those who need the help. While he may not have an Oscar, he does have a life sized statue of himself in Milwaukee and the undying loyalty and adulation from the kids who he has helped. Not bad for a “greaser” who was trouble. Happy Birthday Mr. Winkler!

Edmond Halley was born on this day in 1656, unless you are looking at a Julian Calender, which would put his birthday as November 8^th. He is widely known for calculating the orbit of what is now known as Halley’s Comet, which will be returning in 2061. He went to school at St. Paul’s School and as an undergraduate was publishing papers about sun spots and the solar system. He was a fellow for the Royal Society, which someday should be its own list, which allowed him to do the research for which he became famous for. Today’s list will look at some of his career highlights and interesting facts:

1. Obviously, mapping out the orbit of the comet is his career highlight. When he predicted accurately when it would return, and it did, the comet was quickly named after him.
2. Mapping 341 Southern Stars – Earned his MA from Oxford for this work
3. Published concerning Trade Winds, Barometric changes and the effect of Solar Heating on Atmospheric Motion – working more as a meteorologist than an astronomer.
4. Built a Diving Bell to underwater studies – Eventually he could stay underwater for 4 hours.
5. Taking John Graunt’s ideas a bit farther, Halley developed age of death tables, paving the way for more actuarial studies
6. Commanded the first English Vessel that set sail on a purely scientific voyage, mapping out variations in the magnetic field of compasses.
7. Improved the calculation of the distance between the sun and earth by using the timing of the movement of the orbital travel of Venus.
8. With others, tried to scientifically date Stonehenge. This is first recorded effort to use science to date an object.
9. He developed a root level algorithm that is named Halley’s Method in numerical analysis, not that I could begin to tell you what this might be used for.
10. A Crater on both the Moon and Mars are named after him as is a research facility in Antarctica.

Of course, he was born 300 years too early to be involved in Bill Haley and the Comets, but he certainly even found his name having an influence in Rock and Roll.

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n looking at the day in history, I came across the name of this Holiday and just had to use it. The people of Czechoslovakia call it Independence Day, which I like better and certainly I can spell that much easier. But the full name seems to work for the people in Slovakia at least for awhile. This holiday was celebrated with the people of Czechoslovakia from 1918 until 1993 when the two countries went their separate ways. I might have skipped this holiday as well for today, given my temptation to do a list about Bill Gates or Charlie Daniels whose birthdays are today. But since I actually know someone in Slovakia, today’s list will be the top ten famous Slovaks:

1. Martina Hingis – tennis player, was born in Slovakia although she now lives in Switzerland.
2. Stefan Banic – inventor of the modern parachute
3. Juraj Jánošík – Slovak Robin Hood featured in dozens of books and at least 8 movies
4. John Dopyera – father of modern acoustic string instruments
5. Ján Bahýľ – the inventor of the motor-driven helicopter
6. Jozef Murgaš – the inventor of wireless telegraph
7. Jozef Maximilián Petzval – inventor of the camera zoom and lens
8. Jozef Karol Hell – inventor of the industrial water pump
9. Stan Mitka – Center for the Stanley Cup Champions Chicago Black Hawks (1961)
10. Michael Strank – the leader of the group of U.S. marines who famously raised the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima

Please do not ask me to pronounce any of these names but anyone jumping out of a plane or using a zoom on a camera should certainly thank these famous Slovakians.

 Tip of the Fedora to Mr Drudge, who turned turns 42 today. Anyone reading this already knows who Matt Drudge is, editor of the infamous Drudgereport. Sure, I could bore you with his biography (which has been done and redone too many times for me to count, but if you are really interested, check out the New York Magazine article on him, perhaps one of the most unbiased look at him). Wikipedia has its perfunctory bio as well, but it seems rather sparse, which makes me wonder if he is not controlling what is entered on that site pretty carefully. I certainly would not blame him.

Personally, I think he is a keen observer of what is interesting to people like himself, internet junkies. People like to argue about politics and he seems to me as merely that “arms dealer” for these arguments rather than a leader for either side. It is rather surprising, and almost amusing that so many call him bias in what he links to. I think when you throw your name up as the name of the report, it should go without saying that there is some personal preferences involved. More power to him for doing so. Perhaps if he was selling his site as a source of unbiased news and called it something like The American Times or the Associated Report, we would have some expectation of fair and even reporting. But its not, its just a slick, fast website that points to some of the popular, and not so popular stories of the day, without waiting for video or graphics to load. There are times I just want to see what is happening without wading through all of CNN or MSNBC, and The Drudge Report gives me that quick snap shot, usually without comment or explanation and lets me decide whether I am interested enough to follow the link. Lastly, to be perfectly honest, who among us would not love a tenth of his traffic? Perhaps there is a certain amount of jealousy among his critics. Then again, there may be the same jealousy among his fans as well! So in honor of Matt, today we’ll look at his top hits and misses over the years:

1. Monica Lewinsky – Hit
2. John Kerry Intern – Miss
3. Swift Boat – Hit
4. Sydney Blumenthal Libel – Moss
5. Barack Obama’s Tribal Picture – Hit
6. CNN Reporter Heckling during Press Conference – Miss
7. Prince Harry in Afghanistan – Hit
8. Bill Clinton’s illegitimate child – Miss
9. Jack Kemp as Bob Dole’s running mate – Hit
10. Evan Bayh as Barack Obama’s running mate – Miss

Here’s hoping the next 11 years of the DrudgeReport will be as interesting as the first 11!