Lee Marvin

Palance Points: 4/5

Perhaps best known as Liberty Valance in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", Lee Marvin had a long and storied career, including an Academy Award for Best Actor (Cat Ballou, 1965). Lee was quickly recognized by his gravelly voice and gruff demeanor, which softened in later roles or TV and the big screen. A former Marine who served in Asia during World War II, his big break came while working as a plumber's assistant at a theater in upstate New York.


Lee Marvin as Major John Reisman in The Dirty Dozen.

I am especially fond of his early roles, which include the vicious boyfriend of Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat (1953). Marvin had a small but memorable role in The Wild One (1953) opposite Marlon Brando, followed by Seminole (1953), Gun Fury (1953). He was again praised for his role as the small-town hood Hector in the film Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy (1954).

Let's salute Lee Marvin as our Movie Mensch of the Week!

Lee Marvin on Wikipedia

Australian Rules Football

Palance Points: 4/5

If you've ever grown tired of cable "sports" like Billiards and Texas Hold'em, than you may have come across Australian Rules Football. I remember being both baffled and fascinated by this sport as a kid, which seemed to me a gristly blend of Rugby and martial arts. And why do the refs wear Pith helmets?



To paraphrase the encyclopedic Wikipedia entry, Australian rules football (a.k.a. Australian football, Aussie rules, or simply "football" or "footy") is a code of football played with an prolate spheroid ball, on large oval shaped fields, with four posts at each end. No more than 18 players of each team are permitted to be on the field at any time and the primary aim of the game is to score by kicking the ball between the posts. The winner is the team who has the highest total score by the end of the match.

It just goes to show you what you can learn by watching late-night TV...after you've tired of peeking a hole cards.

More information of current league play can be found at the Australian Football League website.

Captains of Crush® Grippers

Palance Points: 4/5

We'd like to thank the fine folks at IronMind.com for helping us "get a grip" for the past fifteen years. I've been using two of the easier grippers for the past year and a half, and continue to impress my wife with my jar-opening prowess. OK, and I've also impressed my "stronger" friends by closing grippers that they could not.

Captains of Crush Grippers are the tool of choice for people who are serious about hand strength in their jobs, at play, and at home. A highway patrol officer is as likely to use one of our Captains of Crush Grippers as a tennis player or a strongman; a rock climber will want one to build crimp power as much as a boxer will need one to protect his hands from injury and to develop a KO punch. Whether in the gym, out in the field, or on the street, you are only as strong as your hands—it doesn’t matter if you are wrestling alligators or going for the gold, if you can’t hang on to whatever you’re battling, all the core strength in the world won’t do you one lick of good.

Captains of Crush grippers have been the world standard for building and testing hand strength. They are the tool of first choice for everything from working hand strength to recreational training, injury prevention and rehabilitation, and ultimate feats of hand strength. And, they’re just plain fun.

Carnegie Hero Fund Commission

Palance Points: 5/5

If you have heard about someone receiving the "Carnegie Medal" or "Carnegie Hero Medal", you might find the following interesting. I learned a lot about the fascinating history of this medal and the more recent work of the Commission. The bravery shows by these men and women is extraordinary.

The two-fold mission of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission is to recognize men and women who perform acts of heroism
in civilian life in the United States and Canada, and to provide financial assistance for those disabled and the dependants of those killed helping others.

We live in a heroic age, Andrew Carnegie wrote in the opening lines of the Commission's founding Deed of Trust in 1904. Not seldom are we thrilled by deeds of heroism where men or women are injured or lose their lives in attempting to preserve or rescue their fellows.

Carnegie's "hero fund," administered by a 21-member commission in Pittsburgh, was charged with honoring whom he
called the "heroes of civilization," whose lifesaving actions put them in stark contrast to the "heroes of barbarism, (who) maimed or killed" their fellow man. That the mission of the Hero Fund as set forth by Carnegie is unchanged over 103 years, despite massive upheaval in the social and world order, is testament both to his foresight and to essentially unchanging human nature.

The Commission's working definition of a hero as well as its requirements for awarding remain largely those that were approved by the founder. The candidate for an award must be a civilian who voluntarily risks his or her life to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the life of another person. The rescuer must have no full measure of responsibility for the safety of the victim. There must be conclusive evidence to support the act's occurrence, and the act must be called to the attention of the Commission within two years.

Those who are selected for recognition by the Commission are awarded the CARNEGIE MEDAL, and they, or their survivors, become eligible for financial considerations, including one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance. To date, 9,053 medals have been awarded, the recipients selected from more than 80,000 nominees. About 20 percent of the medals are awarded posthumously. Awardees are announced five times a year, following meetings of the Commission.