The Match Maker

Feminists are having a fit.

8/25/2013
Forty years ago in September, Billie Jean King struck one of the most decisive blows in women's fight for equality, and she did so with her weapon of choice: a tennis racket.

Bobby Riggs & Billie Jean King

In a ridiculously hyped match, Bobby Riggs, 55-year-old former tennis champ and outspoken "male chauvinist," challenged King, then 29 and coming off a victory at Wimbledon, to a "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match in the Houston Astrodome. To the winner would go $100,000; to the winner's entire gender would go bragging rights for years.
Riggs had earlier that year beaten Margaret Court, the world No. 1, and a thrashing of King, then ranked #2, seemed all but certain. Oddsmakers favored Riggs, the 1939 Wimbledon champion, in an overwhelming tide. "King money is scarce," said another product of the era, gambling expert Jimmy the Greek. "It's hard to find a bet on the girl."
Anybody who did bet on "the girl" would have seen a huge and unexpected payday, however, as King absolutely thrashed Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Everyone from announcer Howard Cosell on down could see that King was the superior player, running a clearly winded Riggs all over the court and forcing him into error after error.
But how? Perhaps the greatest women's tennis player ever, Serena Williams, has said she would lose 6-0, 6-0 to Andy Murray. Riggs was no Murray, but then again Williams is in a different time zone from King. How on earth could such a stunning defeat have happened?
The story, according to ESPN's Don Van Natta in a must-read story, is painfully straightforward: the fix was in, and the Mafia was in on it all.
Hal Shaw, an assistant golf pro at Tampa's Palma Ceia Golf & Country Club, recently told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that he heard several notable Mafia figures, including Santo Trafficante Jr. and Carlos Marcello, discussing how Riggs would throw the match in order to pay off more than $100,000 in gambling debts. (For the conspiracy-minded: Marcello later claimed he had ordered John F. Kennedy's assassination. Everything is connected!)
According to Shaw, the Mafiosi determined that Riggs would decisively win the first match, against Court, in order to generate action on the second, against King ... which he would then throw.
Shaw kept his silence for forty years, fearing reprisal. And a Mafia expert whom Van Natta consulted said Shaw's story has the feel of truth. But now, Shaw has decided to come forward. "It's been 40 years, OK, and I've carried this with me for 40 years," he said. "The fear is gone. … And I wanted to make sure, if possible, I could set the record straight — let the world know that this was not what it seemed to be."
The entire article is must-read, starting with the accounts of Riggs' early hustling days, where he'd "stay in the barn" — allow an opponent to gain false confidence by dropping a set or two in order to gin up more betting action. He soon found himself running with less-than-reputable crowds, and the leap from there to Riggs as Mafia pawn isn't hard to make. King, for her part, made for an easy mark for Riggs; his chauvinistic condescension was specifically geared to needle her. King was an outspoken supporter of women's rights at a time when women couldn't even get a credit card without a man's signature.
The event itself was pure hype. Check out this trailer from a recent docuмentary of the match, and try to imagine how over-the-top we'd all go with it today:

Right from the start, Riggs appeared listless and slow. But King maintains that she doesn't believe he threw the match. "Bobby Riggs wanted to win that match," she told ESPN. "I saw it in his eyes. I saw it when we changed ends, and there is no question. I have played matches where players have tanked, and I know what it feels like and I know what it looks like, and he did not. He just was feeling the pressure."
Even as King was hammering Riggs, talk that Riggs was throwing the match was beginning. It's never really stopped since. Many supporters of Riggs deny the allegation, some angrily. Still, London betting parlors were so suspicious of the match, and Riggs' history, that they didn't even offer action.
Was Riggs throwing the match to appease the Mafia? Or was he, as some have suggested, staying "in the barn" for a long con — throwing the first match to set up a highly lucrative rematch? (King refused any rematch.) We won't ever know; Riggs passed away in 1995. But he and King remained close for his entire life, and the match remains a singular moment in American sports. Maybe that's enough, regardless of its origins.


http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/9589625/the-match-maker


Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante Jr. and Frank Ragano, left to right, were among a group of mobsters and attorneys who dined at La Stella Restaurant in New York after appearing before a grand jury in the 1970s

But seriously, not so loud.  You should have named this thread something like " What oil should I use in my 4x4 10w30 or 5w20"

Now all the ladies on Cathinfo are going to be all over this thread...

Our cover is totally blown

 


Luke

But seriously, not so loud.  You should have named this thread something like " What oil should I use in my 4x4 10w30 or 5w20"

Now all the ladies on Cathinfo are going to be all over this thread...

Our cover is totally blown

 


Luke

Speaking of oil, I know of a guy who asked his wife to put in a quart of oil in his car...


http://i.imgur.com/gpALGIH.gif

With the certainty of faith we know that Jesus Christ is king in the full, literal, and absolute sense of the word; for He is true God and man. This does not, however, prevent Mary from sharing His royal prerogatives, though in a limited and analogous manner; for she was the Mother of Christ, and Christ is God; and she shared in the work of the divine Redeemer, in His struggles against enemies and in the triumph He won over them all. From this union with Christ the King she assuredly obtains so eminent a status that she stands high above all created things; and upon this same union with Christ is based that royal privilege enabling her to distribute the treasures of the kingdom of the divine Redeemer. And lastly, this same union with Christ is the fountain of the inexhaustible efficacy of her motherly intercession in the presence of the Son and of the Father.

Without doubt, then, does our holy Virgin possess a dignity that far transcends all other creatures. In the eyes of her Son she takes precedence over everyone else. In order to help us understand the preeminence that the Mother of God enjoys over all creation, it would help to remember that from the first moment of her conception the holy Virgin was filled with such a plenitude of grace as to surpass the graces enhancing all the saints. Recall what our predecessor Pius IX, of blessed memory, wrote in his Bull Ineflabilis Deus: "More than all the angels and all the saints has God ineffable freely endowed Mary with the fullness of the heavenly gifts that abound in the divine treasury; and she, preserving herself ever immaculately clean from the slightest taint of sin, attained a fullness of innocence and holiness so great as to be unthinkable apart from God Himself, a fullness that no one other than God will ever possess."

Spurred on by piety and faith, may we glory in being subject to the rule of the Virgin Mother of God; she bears the royal sceptre in her hand, while her heart is ever aflame with motherlove.

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2013-08-22

I don't know about other people but I willingly submit myself to the rule of this woman.

 :dancing-banana: :dancing-banana: :dancing-banana: :dancing-banana: :dancing-banana: :dancing-banana: :dancing-banana:
The engine was a bit of a mess, but the salad made by the husband proved lethal.  
 :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf:

A good old wise priest once said   , "A woman's mission is submission, even though Our Blessed Mother was the Queen of Heaven and earth possessing such power and authority that no human creature has ever had. She still submitted which makes me wonder if she was submissive having everything what other women should be doing... Just saying :), I agree Our Mother in heaven certainly deserves submission from her servants.   :sign-surrender:

There's no way around it - you gotta marry a Traditional Catholic girl or else you will have "trouble"....