title: Matt Holliday

text: Unable to agree to an extension, the Rockies traded Holliday on November 12, 2008, to Oakland Athletics for pitchers Huston Street and Greg Smith, and outfielder Carlos González. Holliday began working with former A's and Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire as a personal hitting coach during the 2008–09 off-season, who became the Cardinals' official hitting coach the following off-season.


title: Matt Holliday

text: After spending most of the off-season on the trade market with the Rockies, Holliday was again a frequent subject of rumors during the spring. The Athletics failed to get off to a strong start and it was unlikely the club would have been able to re-sign him over the course of the season or if he would have had become a free agent following the season. He also got off a slow start as minor injuries hampered him while playing in Oakland. His first home run of the season came on the last day of April against the Texas Rangers. He batted .240 in April, and, from May 11 until the St. Louis Cardinals acquired him, improved to .316, .420 on-base percentage and .489 slugging percentage over 65 games. Reaching base five times in a May 17 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park, he scored his first four-hit game and stolen base of the season.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The A's defeated the Minnesota Twins 14–13 on July 20 following a 10-run comeback, the largest in team history. Holliday contributed two home runs and six RBI, including a seventh-inning grand slam that tied the score at 13. This game marked the second time in his career in which he hit a grand slam plus another home run in his team's record-breaking comeback. The first such comeback had occurred with the Rockies the previous year, on July 4, against the Marlins. Two days later, he added three more hits and three runs scored against the Twins in a 16–1 victory. An offensive surge that boosted his trade value significantly by hitting .390 with a .422 on-base percentage and a .756 slugging percentage in his final two weeks in Oakland. His overall totals with the club included 93 games played while batting .286 with 11 home runs and 54 RBI.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On July 24, 2009, the A's traded Holliday to the St. Louis Cardinals for prospects Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen, Shane Peterson and $1.5 million. He represented an instant offensive upgrade for Cardinals left fielders, who had batted .212 with a .294 on-base percentage and a .342 slugging percentage in 2009, and for cleanup hitters, who had batted .250 with .325 on-base percentage and .443 slugging percentage. He hit in the fourth slot in the lineup behind All-Star first baseman Albert Pujols. Because Pujols already wore jersey number 5, the number Holliday previously wore with Colorado and Oakland, St. Louis issued him the number 15.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In his Cardinals debut, Holliday augmented four hits with an RBI and a stolen base in an 8–1 win, for his 15th career four-hit game. He reprised his debut with 20 hits in 33 at bats in his next nine games for a .606 batting average, a .659 on-base percentage, a 1.061 slugging percentage, six doubles, three homers and 10 RBI. Each of those nine games featured Holliday with at least one hit and twice reaching base. His combined totals in July 26 games with Oakland and St. Louis included 40 hits, 20 runs scored, a .412 batting average, a .487 on-base percentage, a .612 slugging percentage, 13 doubles, four home runs, 22 RBI, 16 walks and four stolen bases. The Cardinals segued into improved play with a 20–6 record in August to stretch a National League Central division lead from one-half game on August 1 to ten on September 1 In the third inning against the Milwaukee Brewers on September 3, he collected his 1,000th MLB hit.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Cardinals won the National League Central division crown to claim a playoff berth for the first time in three years. During the 65 games with Holliday on the roster, they dispatched an NL-best .600 winning percentage; he batted .353 with 13 home runs and 55 RBI; twelve were game-winning RBI. After the All-Star break, he ranked in the top ten in MLB in batting average (.357), home runs (16), and RBI (66). His aggregate totals with the A's and Cardinals included a .313 batting average, 24 home runs and 109 RBI.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In spite of the inspired play after acquiring Holliday, the Cardinals did not fare well in the postseason, where they battled the Dodgers in the NLDS. Following a Game 1 defeat, Holliday hit a go-ahead home run off starter Clayton Kershaw in Game 2. With the Cardinals maintaining a 2–1 advantage and two outs in the ninth inning, Holliday dropped a line drive off James Loney's bat. Had he caught the ball, that play would have ended the contest for a Cardinals win and a 1–1 Series tie. Instead, Loney ended up on second base, setting the Dodgers up to eventually score the game-winning run for a 3–2 final margin. Los Angeles swept the best-of-five series, ending the Cardinals' season, and the Game 2 error left Holliday with a reputation as a "goat."


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday filed for free agency on November 5. He finished 16th in the NL MVP voting – including a fourth-place vote – despite playing nearly 100 games in the American League. Both trades involving Holliday were later panned as failures for the A's, as two of the players they dealt away became multiple All-Stars. One was González, who won the 2010 batting title, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Awards with the Rockies. Street was the other All-Star. Jesse Spector of "Sporting News" augured that the second deal was a "landslide win" for the Cardinals, even if they had never resigned Holliday in his free agency.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On January 21, 2010, the Cardinals signed Holliday to a seven-year, $120 million deal ($ million today), and he switched his uniform number to 7 in honor of fellow Oklahoman Mickey Mantle. The contract features a full no-trade clause and a $17 million team option for 2017 or $1 million buyout. It was the richest contract in team history and the largest of the 2009–10 offseason. At the Cardinals' annual Winter Warm Up, he was bestowed with a new nickname—"The Stillwater Stinger".


title: Matt Holliday

text: Batting second, Holliday homered in four consecutive games from June 18 to 22. In a weekend series against Oakland from June 18 to 20, he drove in eight of the Cardinals' 12 runs. He was named the National League Player of the Week for June 20, batting .435 with four home runs and eight RBI. Selected to the All-Star Game on July 4 as a reserve player, he also participated in the Home Run Derby. In the 10 games against both his former clubs, he batted .487, seven home runs, 13 RBI and nine runs scored. He batted .431 in a 16-game hitting streak from September 9–24. His .364 average for September and October ranked second in the NL.


title: Matt Holliday

text: For the season, Holliday played in 158 games, batting .312 with 186 hits, 45 doubles, 28 home runs, 103 RBI, 95 runs scored, 69 walks, a .390 on-base percentage and .532 slugging percentage. He finished tied for second in the National League in doubles, third in hits, fourth with 317 total bases and 52 multi-hit games, fifth in batting average, sixth in on-base percentage and extra base hits with 74, and seventh in slugging and RBI. He earned another Silver Slugger award, was named to "The Sporting News" All-Star Team and placed 12th in the NL MVP voting. The St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America recognized his charitable work and role as a team leader with the Darryl Kile Good Guy Award.


title: Matt Holliday

text: After hitting a home run the day before on Opening Day of 2011, Holliday had an emergency appendectomy. He returned just nine days later despite a forecast to miss four to six weeks. In seven consecutive plate appearances against the Houston Astros on April 26 and 27, he reached base and did so in 10 of 15 plate appearances in that series. He made his fifth MLB All-Star Game appearance and third Home Run Derby. After two appearances on the disabled list twice that season, a different "injury bug" struck Holliday in a late August game against the Dodgers. During the eighth inning, he left the game due to pain developing after a moth had lodged itself deep within his ear. Team trainers removed it without further incident.


title: Matt Holliday

text: As of August 28, the Cardinals were games behind the Braves for the wild card playoff berth with 28 left to play. In a September 1 contest against the Brewers, Holliday hit his 200th career home run, becoming the 300th player in MLB history to do so. Tendonitis developed in his right hand on September 13, limiting him to three more starts the rest of the season. St. Louis won 20 of their final 28 games, enabling them to overtake the Braves for the wild card position in the last game of the regular season; it was the largest lead surrendered in MLB history with 28 games left to play. In 124 games, Holliday batted .296 with 22 home runs, 75 RBI, 36 doubles, .388 on-base percentage, .525 slugging percentage, .912 OPS, and 151 OPS+, placing sixth in the NL in on-base percentage, seventh in OPS and OPS+ and ninth in doubles.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In the NLDS against the Phillies, Holliday's tendonitis reemerged, limiting him to start two of the five games in the series. He was in better health for the NLCS against Milwaukee, batting .435 with 10 hits, six runs scored, five RBI and a home run. The Cardinals defeated the Brewers, advancing to the World Series against the Texas Rangers. Holliday was injured again in Game 6 on a play diving into third base where catcher Mike Napoli and third baseman Adrián Beltré had picked him off, and the injury also kept him out of Game 7. The Cardinals won again and the Series, giving him his first World Series ring. Although he had just three hits in 19 at bats, Holliday walked seven times – the most since Bonds' 13 in the 2002 World Series — boosting his on-base percentage to .385 as he scored five runs.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In 41 straight starts spanning from June 22 to August 8, 2012, Holliday reached base. His 15-game hitting streak from June 27 to July 16 was a season-high for the club. From June 16 to July 6, he batted .500 with 10 doubles, 17 runs scored, four home runs, and 21 RBI; his batting average, on-base percentage (.549) and slugging percentage (.824) each led MLB. Holliday was named the NL All-Star team to replace teammate Yadier Molina when he went on the bereavement list. On July 21, Holliday hit the longest home run recorded to date at Busch Stadium. The ball traveled , flying past the 'Big Mac Land' sign into the second deck in left field. He held the record until Brandon Moss surpassed that distance four years later. Safely hitting four times in five at bats on August 26 against Cincinnati, he also had four RBI and missed hitting for the cycle by a home run. He singled in the first inning against the Nationals on August 30 for his 1,500th career hit. Holliday finished the season with a .295 batting average with 27 home runs and 102 RBI.


title: Matt Holliday

text: During the NLCS against the Giants in Game 2, he slid into second baseman Marco Scutaro during a routine ground ball double play and ended up on top of him. Scutaro left the game to have x-rays taken. Controversy arose and persisted as to whether Holliday intentionally attempted to injure him. The Giants trailed 1–0 at that point, but scored seven runs to win, 7–1. Eventually, the Giants won the series. The Missouri Athletic Club named Holliday their Sports Personality of the Year for 2012.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday hit a grand slam on June 9, 2013, during a seven-run 10th inning against the Reds in an 11–4 victory. He left the July 11 game against the Cubs early because of a tightened right hamstring sustained while running to first base, prompting the Cardinals to place him on the DL. He returned July 27 against the Braves. In another game against the Reds on August 26, Holliday's three-run home run was the longest at Busch Stadium in 2013 at . During the final road trip of the season, he collected 13 hits in 26 at bats. However, back spasms kept him out of several games at the end of the regular season. The Cardinals set an all-time MLB team record by batting .330 with runners in scoring position, and Holliday was fourth in MLB in those situations that year at .390. In all, he finished with 22 home runs, 94 RBI, and a .300 batting average. His MLB-leading 31 double plays grounded into were a career-high and set a new Cardinals' single-season franchise record.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Cardinals clinched the best record in the NL at 97–65, granting Holliday his fifth career postseason entrance, and fourth with the Cardinals. Faced with a must-win Game 4 situation against the Pirates in the NLDS, he hit a two-run home run in a 2–1 victory. The Cardinals advanced to their third consecutive NLCS against the Dodgers. Holliday started 0-for-13, but his Game 3 home run off Ricky Nolasco to help St. Louis win, 4–2. The Cardinals defeated the Dodgers in six games, securing Holliday's third trip to the Fall Classic, and second against the Red Sox. Holliday collected six hits in 24 at bats with one double, one triple and two home runs for a .625 slugging percentage; however, the Red Sox claimed the title in six games. In the 2013 postseason, Holliday hit four home runs, 10 RBI and a .507 slugging percentage.


title: Matt Holliday

text: By reaching base in each of his first 30 home games of 2014, Holliday authored the longest such streak to start a season in franchise history since Solly Hemus had 33 straight in 1953, extending a streak of 42 dating back to the previous September 6. He singled in Jon Jay to drive in the 1,000th run of his career on June 17 at Busch Stadium against Washington, the 277th player in MLB history to do so. While batting against Dan Haren of the Dodgers on July 19, Holliday hit his 400th career double and hit a home run for his 1,000th run scored.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Arizona Fall League announced on July 20 that Holliday, along with fellow outfielder Carl Crawford, were selected to their Hall of Fame. For the week ending September 2, Holliday was the NL Player of the Week, following a major league-leading 13 RBI – four of which each won separate contests – and an NL-leading four home runs, .889 slugging percentage and 24 total bases while the Cardinals took over first place in the NL Central. On September 12, his home run against the Rockies was the longest home of the season at Busch Stadium and the second-longest in the stadium's history, just after the one he had hit two years earlier against the Cubs. From August 30 to the end of the season, he batted .538 with RISP. He finished the season with a .272 average, 20 home runs, 90 RBI (eighth in the NL), 37 doubles, 83 runs scored, 74 BB (eighth), 247 times on base (sixth), .370 on-base percentage (10th) and .443 slugging percentage. Seventeen of Holliday's 20 home runs traveled at least ; his home run true distance average of led all MLB. For the ninth consecutive season, Holliday recorded at least 20 home runs, 30 doubles, 75 RBI and 80 runs scored, becoming just the fifth player in MLB history to do so. The others with this exploit were Stan Musial (10), Manny Ramirez (10), Pujols (10), and Miguel Cabrera (nine).


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Cardinals finished first in the NL Central division to enter the postseason for the fifth time and faced the Dodgers in an NLDS for the second time in six seasons since acquiring Holliday. After finding themselves down 6–1 in Game 1, Holliday provided a three-run home run off reliever Pedro Báez that was the difference in a 10–9 victory. The Cardinals faced the Giants in an NLCS rematch but were defeated in five games. For the National League MVP voting, he placed 14th, marking the eighth time he received votes.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday opened the 2015 season with a 12-game hitting streak that evolved into a sequence of reaching base in each of the first 45 games of the season, breaking Pujols's National League record of 42 games to open a season which he set in 2008. It was the longest such streak in MLB since Derek Jeter garnered 53 in 1999. Dating back to the end of 2014, Holliday's continuity of reaching base spanned 47 games. The venture reached finality on June 2 against the Brewers after umpire Joe West ejected him for arguing a called third strike, the fourth ejection of his career.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On June 8, Holliday suffered a right quadriceps strain while diving for a fly ball off the bat of the Rockies' Carlos González, and the Cardinals placed him on the 15-day DL. At the time, he was batting .303 with three home runs and 26 RBI, and had been receiving strong fan support in the All-Star Game voting. He continued to reap considerable vote totals in spite of missing a month, and eventually was chosen a starting outfielder for the first time in his career. He was rendered unable to play in the game due to the quadriceps injury.


title: Matt Holliday

text: After returning from the DL, Holliday's first home run was a grand slam on July 21 against Carlos Rodon of the Chicago White Sox in an 8–5 win, his sixth career grand slam. He reinjured the right quadriceps on July 30, prompting the club to retract him to the DL. The Cardinals reactivated him on September 15 after missing 41 games. Holliday played 73 games and finished the season with a .279 batting average, .394 on-base percentage, .410 slugging percentage, .804 OPS, four home runs and 35 RBI in 277 plate appearances.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Cardinals started Holliday at first base on Opening Day of the 2016 season, a position he had not previously played during his career. On May 6 against Pittsburgh, Holliday collected his 512th hit at Busch Stadium, breaking his personal tie of 511 hits at Coors Field. Having already achieved 500 hits at both stadiums, he became the only active player with at least 500 hits at multiple stadiums, and just the fourteenth to do so within the previous 50 years. Holliday hit a home run on May 30 that traveled off Jhan Mariñez and nearly exited Miller Park in a 6–0 defeat of the Brewers. The next day, also against the Brewers, he collected his 1,000th career hit with the Cardinals.


title: Matt Holliday

text: A fastball from the Cubs' Mike Montgomery on August 11, 2016, struck Holliday on the right thumb, fracturing it. The Cardinals placed him on the DL. Presented with the option to either allow the thumb to heal naturally or with surgery, Holliday elected surgery as that would have potentially allowed him to return before season's end. He encountered multiple delays in recovery. Having been informed in the final days of the 2016 season that the Cardinals would not pick up the option for 2017 worth $17 million, he was activated from the DL — although his thumb was still fractured — in time for the September 30 game against Pittsburgh. He hit his first career pinch-hit home run in that game and 20th of the season. Holliday released a statement: "While I'm disappointed this could be it here in St. Louis, I understand that it might be time to move on." While his batting average had dropped to a career-low .246, Holliday was optimistic about a rebound. Because he produced the third-highest exit velocity at of all hitters with at least 100 batted balls in 2016, he concluded that to "have my misses be more in the air than on the ground, my numbers could really get back toward where they have been my whole career."


title: Matt Holliday

text: After becoming a free agent for the second time in his career, on December 7, 2016, Holliday signed a one-year contract with the New York Yankees worth $13 million, to become their primary designated hitter (DH). One provision to the contract was an unusual, "enormously specific," no-trade clause to one team: the Oakland Athletics.


title: Matt Holliday

text: His first RBI and double for the Yankees came on the same play on April 4, 2017, versus the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, in the third inning of a 5–0 Yankees win. His first home run for the Yankees was on April 7, on a pitch by Baltimore Orioles starter Ubaldo Jiménez in the third inning of a 6–5 loss. The following day, Holliday collected his 2,000th career hit versus Kevin Gausman, a first-inning single, in a 5–4 loss to the Orioles. Holliday drew a career-high five walks on April 9, tying a Yankees franchise record. On April 28, Holliday hit a walk-off three-run home run off Jayson Aquino, which capped a comeback after trailing 1−9, and helped a 14−11 win over the Orioles.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday hit his 300th career home run on May 3, versus Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays. He became the 93rd player in major league history to reach that milestone along with 2,000 hits.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On June 28, Holliday was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a viral infection. On July 5, it was revealed that Holliday tested positive for an Epstein-Barr virus, a symptom associated with mononucleosis. He hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning versus Craig Kimbrel of the Boston Red Sox on July 15, which the Yankees eventually won in 16 innings, 4−1. On August 6, Holliday was again placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a lower back strain. For the 2017 season, he batted .231/.316/.432.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On July 28, 2018, Holliday signed a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies assigned him to the Albuquerque Isotopes.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On August 23, Holliday was placed in the starting lineup, to play left field for the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, against the San Diego Padres. Infielder Garrett Hampson was optioned to Albuquerque to make room on the 25-man roster & in the process Hampson's uniform number 7 was given to Holliday, Hampson would wear #1 upon his return to the club in September.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In 2018 he batted .283/.415/.434 in 53 at bats. He had the slowest baserunning sprint speed of all major league left fielders, at 25.1 feet/second. He was the 4th-oldest player in the National League.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday elected free agency on October 29 and retired that offseason. He was named to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in May 2022, and was inducted to the "Red jacket club" in August 2022.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On July 18, 2019, Holliday announced would be joining his brother Josh's coaching staff at Oklahoma State University as an outfielding and hitting coach.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Former Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire described Holliday as "a very good on-base guy. He’ll take the walks. He knows how to work the count. He uses the whole field. Once in a while he’ll tap into his strength and hit homers. He's just really good." Comparing his approach to that of Pujols and Adrián González, McGwire also commented that "Matt's very strong mentally. I can’t emphasize enough how this game is a mental grind. The stronger ones do survive, and the stronger ones you see throughout their career, the numbers are always there."


title: Matt Holliday

text: Pundits and fans have consistently questioned Holliday's durability, and thus his effectiveness as a hitter, into the final guaranteed year of the contract he signed in 2010. However, during each of its first five seasons, he played no fewer than 124 games. In each of the first 11 seasons of his career, including his rookie year, he played at least 121 games.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Throughout his career, Holliday has received criticism for his defense. After signing with the Yankees, he was projected to play mainly DH, as sportswriter George King observed, "Yankee Stadium’s vast left field and the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Holliday aren’t a good marriage, but he might be able to navigate a much smaller right field in a pinch."


title: Matt Holliday

text: The contract to which Holliday and the Cardinals agreed before the 2010 season was widely viewed as a great success. Over its first five seasons, he averaged 147 games per season, .295 batting average, .383 OBP and .496 SLG for a 141 OPS+; his counting stats average included 24 home runs, 93 RBI, and 92 runs scored. He totaled 119 homers and 185 doubles in that span. Since being acquired from Oakland, Holliday ranked fifth in MLB in RBI, doubles, and runs scored, ninth in extra-base hits, and 14th in OPS.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Fangraphs' Wins Above Replacement (WAR) formula rated Holliday's production equivalent to nearly $110 million in value while actually being paid just $84 million. In that span, he ranked 11th in all MLB, and fifth among outfielders, with 23.8 WAR. Holliday was a key factor in the 2011 championship run with a big NLCS. With RISP, Holliday had hit .315 with a .407 OBP and .486 SLG during his Cardinals years. Since Busch Stadium opened in 2006, he hit .309 with a .403 OBP, .542 SLG; only Pujols had more home runs, RBI and a higher OPS. At $17.2 million in total earnings, "Forbes" magazine ranked Holliday as the 99th-highest paid athlete in the world in 2014.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In spite of missing significant time in 2015 and 2016, Holliday contributed 24.1 WAR during the life of his 2010−16 contract with St. Louis, worth $168.6 million in total contributions according to Fangraphs.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday and his wife, Leslee, married on December 30, 2000. They met on a blind date in 1999 in Stillwater during the baseball offseason when Matt had returned home from his first professional season following his selection by the Rockies in the MLB draft and Leslee was an undergraduate at OSU−Stillwater. Matt's best friend was dating a friend of Leslee's, and they wanted to do a double date, so her friend asked if she would go with Matt. The Hollidays currently reside in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and Jupiter, Florida, and have four children. They have three sons, Jackson (born December 4, 2003), Ethan (b. February 23, 2007), and Reed (b. July 24, 2013) and a daughter, Gracyn (b. November 7, 2009). Jackson was selected first overall in the 2022 Major League Baseball draft by the Baltimore Orioles. They formerly resided in Austin, Texas, during the offseason until December 2010, following his signing of the contract with the Cardinals in January 2010. During the offseason, Holliday and his family have also lived in Stillwater, where he also has worked with his brother, Josh, on his swing. In the 2014−15 offseason, Holliday and his family moved to South Florida, allowing him to stay in optimal shape year-round, and his sons to continue to play sports in winter months.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday is a Christian and is part of a Bible study group with fellow Christian teammates. He has spoken about his faith saying, "I play for God. It says in the Bible that we are to do all things for Him. ... So I try to do the best that I can for Him. This is my job, not who I am." Leslee has led a Bible study in the St. Louis area for professional athletes' wives.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday's favorite player growing up was Cal Ripken Jr. He has stated that if he had a dream car it would be a Bentley Continental GT, rather than a sports car, because he is "too big for small sports cars."


title: Matt Holliday

text: Scott Boras has represented Holliday as his agent since he turned professional. Holliday described his relationship with Boras and his staff in that he "enjoy(s) sitting down and talking to them. Scott is as accessible as you want him to be. I could call him right now. He's got a lot of clients and people say they don’t hear from Scott but he’ll give you as much or as little attention as you want." Holliday further explained that due to the amenities the Boras Corporation provides, including a staff psychologist, research to assist players in prolonging careers, studies into arbitration cases, and statistical performance computation, he felt that Boras' agency gave him the best opportunities to succeed.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Known primarily as a reserved figure, Holliday has played for years in the shadows of such franchise icons as Todd Helton and Albert Pujols, which accommodated his demeanor well. However, he has emerged as a veteran presence for the Cardinals willing to assist and entertain younger players and top prospects as they attempt to adjust to a lifestyle of playing baseball. In January 2012, he invited Matt Adams, Ryan Jackson, Charlie Tilson and Kolten Wong for a weeklong stay in St. Louis at the tony Frontenac Hotel. Activities included eating out, hitting, working out and attending a St. Louis Blues game. Holliday also became more active on his Twitter account and more readily availed himself as a guest on talk radio shows. Further, he befriended former teammate David Freese, who, shortly after Holliday's arrival in St. Louis in 2009, was arrested for driving under the influence. However, after becoming daily workout partners and socializing, teammates noted a "positive influence" on Freese.


title: Matt Holliday

text: With intense off-season physical training regimens, Holliday plays squash and likes to incorporate an NFL approach. He has trained with teammates, such as Freese, and pitcher Trevor Rosenthal, in activities such as "sled pushing, tire flipping and some fireman carries", and each player taking turns carrying each other for about 20 metres.


title: Matt Holliday

text: One opponent with long-time ties to the Hollidays is former Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell. Farrell pitched for Tom Holliday at OSU, helping propel them to four College World Series appearances. When Matt and Josh were still toddlers, Farrell often babysat them when their parents went out. Years later, when Matt Holliday was a member of the Rockies team that played the Red Sox in the 2007 World Series, Farrell was the Red Sox pitching coach. Six years after that, as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, Holliday again played against Farrell. This time, he was the Red Sox manager. In both Series, however, Farrell's teams were victorious over Holliday's.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On July 18, 2019, it was announced that Matt would be joining his brother Josh's coaching staff at Oklahoma State University as an outfielding and hitting coach.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On November 6, 2022, the St. Louis Cardinal announced the hiring of Matt Holiday as the new Bench Coach for the 2023 MLB Season.


title: Black Like Me

text: Black Like Me, first published in 1961, is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin recounting his journey in the Deep South of the United States, at a time when African-Americans lived under racial segregation. Griffin was a native of Mansfield, Texas, who had his skin temporarily darkened to pass as a black man. He traveled for six weeks throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia to explore life from the other side of the color line. "Sepia Magazine" financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles.


title: Black Like Me

text: Griffin kept a journal of his experiences; the 188-page diary was the genesis of the book. When he started his project in 1959, race relations in America were particularly strained. The title of the book is taken from the last line of the Langston Hughes poem "Dream Variations".


title: Black Like Me

text: In 1964, a film version of "Black Like Me," starring James Whitmore, was produced. A generation later, Robert Bonazzi published a biographical book about Griffin, these events, and his life: "Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me" (1997).


title: Black Like Me

text: In late 1959, John Howard Griffin went to a friend's house in New Orleans, Louisiana. Once there, under the care of a dermatologist, Griffin underwent a regimen of large oral doses of the anti-vitiligo drug methoxsalen, and spent up to 15 hours daily under an ultraviolet lamp for about a week. He was given regular blood tests to ensure that he was not suffering liver damage. The darkening of his skin was not perfect, so he touched it up with stain. He shaved his head bald to hide his straight brown hair. Satisfied that he could pass as an African-American, Griffin began a six-week journey in the South. Don Rutledge traveled with him, documenting the experience with photos.


title: Black Like Me

text: During his trip, Griffin abided by the rule that he would not change his name or alter his identity; if asked who he was or what he was doing, he would tell the truth. In the beginning, he decided to talk as little as possible to ease his transition into the social milieu of southern U.S. blacks. He became accustomed everywhere to the "hate stare" received from whites.


title: Black Like Me

text: After he disguised himself, many people who knew Griffin as a white man did not recognize him. Sterling Williams, a black shoeshine man in the French Quarter whom Griffin regarded as a casual friend, did not recognize him. He first hinted that he wore the same unusual shoes as somebody else, but Sterling still did not recognize him until Griffin told him. Because Griffin wanted assistance in entering into the black community, he decided to tell Williams about his identity and project.


title: Black Like Me

text: In New Orleans, a black counterman at a small restaurant chatted with Griffin about the difficulties of finding a place to go to the bathroom, as facilities were segregated and blacks were prohibited from many. He turned a question about a Catholic church into a joke about "spending much of your time praying for a place to piss".


title: Black Like Me

text: On a bus trip, Griffin began to give his seat to a white woman, but disapproving looks from black passengers stopped him. He thought he had a momentary breakthrough with the woman, but she insulted him and began talking with other white passengers about how impudent the blacks were becoming.


title: Black Like Me

text: Griffin decided to end his journey in late November in Montgomery, Alabama. He spent three days secluded from sunlight in a hotel room and stopped taking his skin-darkening medication. When his skin had regained its natural color, he quietly slipped into the white part of Montgomery, and was jarred by how warmly the people there now treated him.


title: Black Like Me

text: After his book was published, Griffin received many letters of support. He said they helped him understand the experience. Griffin received very few hostile letters.


title: Black Like Me

text: Griffin became a national celebrity for a time. In a 1975 essay included in later editions of the book, he recounted encountering hostility and threats to him and his family in his hometown of Mansfield, Texas. He moved to Mexico for a number of years for safety.


title: Black Like Me

text: In 1964, while stopped with a flat tire in Mississippi, Griffin was assaulted by a group of white men and beaten with chains, an assault attributed to the book. It took five months to recover from the injuries.


title: Black Like Me

text: Journalist Ray Sprigle of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" had undertaken a similar project more than a decade earlier. In May 1948, Sprigle disguised himself as a black man and traveled in the Deep South for a month with black Atlanta political and social leader John Wesley Dobbs, a guide provided by the NAACP. In August Sprigle wrote a series of 21 articles under the title "I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days," which was syndicated in 14 newspapers including the "New York Herald Tribune". Sprigle's newspaper articles formed the basis of his 1949 book "In the Land of Jim Crow". Bill Steigerwald goes into great detail about Sprigle's undercover trip and the impact his series had on the country in his 2017 book "30 Days a Black Man".


title: Black Like Me

text: "Sepia Magazine" financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles, which it did under the title "Journey into Shame".


title: Black Like Me

text: The television drama film "To Be Fat like Me" (2007) was loosely inspired by the book. It stars Kaley Cuoco as a thin woman who makes herself appear overweight by wearing a fat suit, and films her experiences for a documentary titled "Fat Like Me".


title: Patrick Baladi

text: Patrick Bashir Baladi (born 25 December 1971) is an English actor and musician. He is best known for playing Neil Godwin in the BBC sitcom "The Office", Michael Jackson in the Sky 1 drama "Stella" and Stephen Holmes in the ITV thriller "Marcella".


title: Patrick Baladi

text: Baladi was born in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. His father was a Syrian gynaecologist and obstetrician, and his mother a midwife. Baladi grew up with his siblings, Sara, Charlotte, Sophie and Nicholas. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, where he was the first student to win the Charles Laughton Prize for his roles in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (as Pharaoh) and "Amadeus" (as Mozart). After school he went on to train as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama.


title: Patrick Baladi

text: Baladi is known for his portrayal of David Brent's nemesis, Neil Godwin, in the BBC's hit comedy-mockumentary series, "The Office". He appeared in the second and final series of the award-winning show, as well as the subsequent "The Office Christmas Special".


title: Patrick Baladi

text: In addition to "The Office", Baladi has appeared in various films and television shows, including "Bodies", "Kidnap and Ransom", as Philip Shaffer, ITV (2011), "Alpha Male", "", "Beyond The Pole", "POW", "Lady Audley's Secret", "Grafters", "Silent Witness", "The International", "Party Animals", "Mistresses", "Rev.", "Sensitive Skin", "Privates", "Stella" and "Line of Duty".


title: Patrick Baladi

text: Baladi portrayed Dodi Al-Fayed in the 2007 television docudrama "". In 2008 he had a small role in the romantic comedy "Last Chance Harvey", appearing alongside Emma Thompson. He is also a stage actor who has appeared in numerous productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company, such as "Hamlet" and "Much Ado About Nothing". He starred in the comedy "No Heroics" as Excelsor.


title: Patrick Baladi

text: In 2007, Baladi married Gemma Walker, whom he met on the set of "A Touch of Frost". They married in St Lucia and had one daughter, Ava.


title: Patrick Baladi

text: In 2017 Baladi set up a booth at the Malthouse Emporium, an antiques and furniture centre in Stroud in Gloucestershire.


title: Ossification

text: Ossification (also called osteogenesis or bone mineralization) in bone remodeling is the process of laying down new bone material by cells named osteoblasts. It is synonymous with bone tissue formation. There are two processes resulting in the formation of normal, healthy bone tissue: Intramembranous ossification is the direct laying down of bone into the primitive connective tissue (mesenchyme), while endochondral ossification involves cartilage as a precursor.


title: Ossification

text: In fracture healing, endochondral osteogenesis is the most commonly occurring process, for example in fractures of long bones treated by plaster of Paris, whereas fractures treated by open reduction and internal fixation with metal plates, screws, pins, rods and nails may heal by intramembranous osteogenesis.


title: Ossification

text: Heterotopic ossification is a process resulting in the formation of bone tissue that is often atypical, at an extraskeletal location. Calcification is often confused with ossification. Calcification is synonymous with the formation of calcium-based salts and crystals within cells and tissue. It is a process that occurs during ossification, but not necessarily "vice versa".


title: Ossification

text: The exact mechanisms by which bone development is triggered remains unclear, but growth factors and cytokines appear to play a role.


title: Ossification

text: This requires a hyaline cartilage precursor. There are two centers of ossification for endochondral ossification.


title: Ossification

text: In long bones, bone tissue first appears in the diaphysis (middle of shaft). Chondrocytes multiply and form trebeculae. Cartilage is progressively eroded and replaced by hardened bone, extending towards the epiphysis. A perichondrium layer surrounding the cartilage forms the periosteum, which generates sperm cells that then go on to make a collar that encircles the outside of the bone and remodels the medullary cavity on the inside.


title: Ossification

text: The nutrient artery enters via the nutrient foramen from a small opening in the diaphysis. It invades the primary center of ossification, bringing osteogenic cells (osteoblasts on the outside, osteoclasts on the inside.) The canal of the nutrient foramen is directed away from more active end of bone when one end grows more than the other. When bone grows at same rate at both ends, the nutrient artery is perpendicular to the bone.


title: Ossification

text: Most other bones (e.g. vertebrae) also have primary ossification centers, and bone is laid down in a similar manner.


title: Ossification

text: The secondary centers generally appear at the epiphysis. Secondary ossification mostly occurs after birth (except for distal femur and proximal tibia which occurs during 9th month of fetal development). The epiphyseal arteries and osteogenic cells invade the epiphysis, depositing osteoclasts and osteoblasts which erode the cartilage and build bone, respectively. This occurs at both ends of long bones but only one end of digits and ribs.


title: Ossification

text: Several hypotheses have been proposed for how bone evolved as a structural element in vertebrates. One hypothesis is that bone developed from tissues that evolved to store minerals. Specifically, calcium-based minerals were stored in cartilage and bone was an exaptation development from this calcified cartilage. However, other possibilities include bony tissue evolving as an osmotic barrier, or as a protective structure.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Frank Ian Luntz (born February 23, 1962) is an American political and communications consultant and pollster, best known for developing talking points and other messaging for Republican causes. His work has included assistance with messaging for Newt Gingrich's Contract with America, and public relations support for pro-Israel policies in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He advocated use of vocabulary crafted to produce a desired effect; including use of the term "death tax" instead of "estate tax," and "climate change" instead of "global warming."


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz has frequently contributed to Fox News as a commentator and analyst, as well as running focus groups during and after presidential debates on CBS News. Luntz describes his specialty as "testing language and finding words that will help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a candidate." He is also an author of business books dealing with communication strategies and public opinion.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz was born and grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Phyllys (née Kelmenson) and Lester Luntz, who together wrote the first American forensic dentistry textbook. His family is Jewish. He graduated from Hall High School, earned a bachelor of arts degree in history and political science from the University of Pennsylvania, and received a doctorate in politics from Trinity College, Oxford where he was a contemporary of future British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Luntz's doctoral thesis formed the basis for his first book, "Candidates, Consultants, and Campaigns: The Style and Substance of American Electioneering". published in 1988.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz's studies at Oxford were funded by The Thouron Award, a scholarship established in 1960 by Sir John R.H. Thouron, K.B.E., and Esther du Pont Thouron to strengthen the "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom through educational exchange between British universities and the University of Pennsylvania to foster the sort of relationship that Luntz had with Boris Johnson (as Luntz counseled Johnson regarding his election as President of the Oxford Union debate society). Since its founding in 1960, the Thouron Award has sponsored programs of graduate study for more than 650 fellows, known as Thouron Scholars.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz has appeared as a consultant or panel member on a number of television news shows, including "The Colbert Report", "Capital Gang", "Good Morning America", "Hannity", "Hardball with Chris Matthews", "Meet the Press", "PBS NewsHour", "Nightline", "The O'Reilly Factor", "Real Time with Bill Maher", and "The Today Show". He has written op-eds for publications such as "The Financial Times", "The Los Angeles Times", "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", and "The Washington Post". In addition to his work in the United States, Luntz also provides analysis for British news programmes such as Newsnight.


title: Frank Luntz

text: He was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1989 until 1996 and also taught at George Washington University and Harvard University.


title: Frank Luntz

text: On January 10, 2020, Luntz suffered a stroke, a matter he freely discussed in interviews afterwards. He recovered, and continued his public analysis and media appearances.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz frequently tests word and phrase choices using focus groups and interviews. His stated purpose in this is the goal of causing audiences to react based on emotion. "80 percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think. ... If I respond to you quietly, the viewer at home is going to have a different reaction than if I respond to you with emotion and with passion and I wave my arms around. Somebody like this is an intellectual; somebody like this is a freak."


title: Frank Luntz

text: In an article in "The New Yorker" Luntz is quoted as saying,The way my words are created is by taking the words of others... I've moderated an average of a hundred plus focus groups a year over five years... I show them language that I've created. Then I leave a line for them to create language for me.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In a 2007 interview on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, Luntz redefined the term "Orwellian" in a "positive" sense, saying that if one reads George Orwell's essay on language, "To be 'Orwellian' is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening… and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever." Luntz believes that Orwell would not have approved of many of the uses to which his pseudonym is applied by quoting Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", where Luntz focuses on how Orwell derides the use of cliché and dying metaphors.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz's description of his job revolves around exploiting the emotional content of language. "It's all emotion. But there's nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. ... my job is to look for the words that trigger the emotion. ... We know that words and emotion together are the most powerful force known to mankind."


title: Frank Luntz

text: Additionally in his 2007 interview on "Fresh Air", Luntz discussed his use of the term "energy exploration" to refer to oil drilling. His research on the matter involved showing people a picture of current oil drilling and asking if in the picture it "looks like exploration or drilling." He said that 90 percent of the people he spoke to said it looked like exploring. "Therefore I'd argue that it is a more appropriate way to communicate." He went on to say, "if the public says after looking at the pictures, that doesn't look like my definition of drilling—it looks like my definition of exploring—then don't you think we should be calling it what people see it to be, rather than adding a political aspect to it all?" Terry Gross responded, "Should we be calling it what it actually is, as opposed to what somebody thinks it might be? The difference between exploration and actually getting out the oil—they're two different things, aren't they?"


title: Frank Luntz

text: James L. Martin, chairman of the conservative 60 Plus Association, described Luntz's role as being that of pollster and popularizer of the phrase "death tax."Martin gained an important ally in GOP pollster Frank Luntz, whose polling revealed that 'death tax' sparked voter resentment in a way that 'inheritance tax' and 'estate tax' couldn't match. After all, who wouldn't be opposed to a 'tax on death'? Luntz shared his findings with Republicans and included the phrase in the GOP's Contract with America. Luntz went so far as to recommend in a memo to GOP lawmakers that they stage press conferences 'at your local mortuary' to dramatize the issue. 'I believe this backdrop will clearly resonate with your constituents,' he wrote. 'Death is something the American people understand.' Apparently, he's right. Spurred by Luntz, Republicans have employed the term 'death tax' so aggressively that it has entered the popular lexicon. Nonpartisan venues like newspapers and magazines have begun to use it in a neutral context—a coup for abolitionists like Martin.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In a confidential memo to the Republican party, Luntz is credited with advising the Bush administration that the phrase "global warming" should be abandoned in favour of "climate change", which he called a "less frightening" phrase than the former.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz is the author of the 2007 "New York Times" Best Seller, "Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear." His second book, "What Americans Really Want ... Really: The Truth About Our Hopes, Dreams and Fears," climbed to #6 on the New York Times Business Best Sellers list. In March 2011, Luntz released his book,"Win: The Key Principles to Take Your Business From Ordinary to Extraordinary".


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz was Pat Buchanan's pollster during the 1992 U.S. Republican presidential primary, and later that year served as Ross Perot's pollster in the general election.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz also served as Newt Gingrich's pollster in the mid-1990s for the Contract with America. During that time, he helped Gingrich produce a GOPAC memo that encouraged Republicans to "speak like Newt" by describing Democrats and Democratic policies using words such as "corrupt," "devour," "greed," "hypocrisy," "liberal," "sick," and "traitors."


title: Frank Luntz

text: In 1993 and 1997 Luntz served as pollster and strategist for the successful mayoral campaigns of Rudolph Giuliani in New York City.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In December 2008 to January 2009, Luntz wrote a report titled "The Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary" that has been used by the Israeli government to defend Israeli policy in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The report, commissioned by The Israel Project, advised media spokespeople to use specific language that Luntz believed would create a more favorable impression of Israel in the United States and the rest of the international community. For example, when discussing the contours of a two-state solution, the report advised describing Palestinian negotiating points as "demands" because Americans dislike people who make "demands." The report was marked "not for distribution or publication", but it was leaked to "Newsweek" shortly after it was written.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Although Luntz later tried to distance himself from the Bush administration policy, it was his idea that administration communications reframe "global warming" as "climate change" since "climate change" was thought to sound less severe. The term "climate change" was not altogether new, as in 1956, the physicist Gilbert Plass published a seminal study called "The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climatic Change", and in 1978 the journal "Climatic Change" debuted. Luntz has since said that he is not responsible for what the Bush administration did after that time. Though he now believes humans have contributed to global warming, he maintains that the science was in fact incomplete, and his recommendation sound, at the time he made it.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In a 2002 memo to President George W. Bush titled "The Environment: A Cleaner, Safer, Healthier America", obtained by the Environmental Working Group, Luntz wrote: "The scientific debate is closing [against us] ... but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science. ... Voters believe that there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate, and defer to scientists and other experts in the field."


title: Frank Luntz

text: In 2010, Luntz announced new research that shows the American people are eager for Congress to act on climate legislation that would promote US energy independence and a healthier environment. "Americans want their leaders to act on climate change—but not necessarily for the reasons you think," Luntz said. "A clear majority of Americans believe climate change is happening. This is true of McCain voters and Obama voters alike. And even those that don't still believe it is essential for America to pursue policies that promote energy independence and a cleaner, healthier environment." In reference to recent political events, Luntz added: "People are much more interested in seeing solutions than watching yet another partisan political argument."


title: Frank Luntz

text: On July 25, 2019, Luntz spoke in front of the United States House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis where he shared his advice to people pushing for action on the climate crisis. Furthermore, he stated that "I'm here before you to say that I was wrong in 2001", "That was a lifetime ago", and "I've changed." He promised to help the Democrats on the climate committee, provided that they put "policies ahead of politics" and commit to nonpartisan solutions. He had his change of heart after a wildfire, the Skirball Fire, threatened and forced him to evacuate his home in 2017.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In 2005, Luntz conducted a focus group broadcast on the Conservative leadership race on the BBC current affairs show "Newsnight". The focus group's overwhelmingly positive reaction to David Cameron was seen by many as crucial in making him the favorite in a crowded field. Cameron was the eventual victor. In March 2007, Newsnight invited him back to gauge comparative opinions on Cameron, Gordon Brown and Sir Menzies Campbell in the city of Birmingham.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz led a focus group telecast with the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ to gather the opinions of the Irish people before the May 24, 2007 general elections. RTÉ hoped to show viewers some of the campaign techniques the political parties were using without their knowledge.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Another focus group of swing voters was analysed by Luntz in the lead-up to the November 2007 poll between the ruling Coalition and the opposition Labor party. Luntz noted that, like the Irish scenario, the Coalition was well established, presiding over the country for 11 years and overseeing continued economic growth for much of that period; and that unlike the lead-up to the Irish elections, Australia had a stronger and more popular opposition leader in Kevin Rudd: "This is much closer to the Irish election where the leader just barely scraped in, Bertie Ahern, because the economy was so good. But the big difference there was the opposition leader was not as good as Kevin Rudd." Luntz was brought in to conduct his research in a collaborative effort by Sky News Australia and "The Australian" newspaper.


title: Frank Luntz

text: During the 2010 UK general election, Luntz led focus groups during the Prime Ministerial debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, and also appeared on the BBC's "Daily Politics".


title: Frank Luntz

text: In 2012, Luntz conducted a poll that found that sizable majorities of gun owners supported gun control measures such as mandatory criminal background checks, minimum age restrictions, and eligibility requirements for concealed weapon permits.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In November 2011, during the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Luntz had a meeting with the Republican Governors Association to discuss how to address the growing populist Occupy movement sweeping the country. He was quoted as saying: "I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death. They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."


title: Frank Luntz

text: According to a 2014 article in "The Atlantic", Luntz became frustrated with the contention and argumentation of voters after the 2012 presidential election and, at the time of the interview for the article, was in psychological turmoil: "Something in his psyche has broken, and he does not know if he can recover." As a result, in 2014, he sold the majority of shares of his polling business, LuntzGlobal.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In August 2020, Luntz was asked what the defining principles of the Republican Party were, to which he responded, "You know, I don’t have a history of dodging questions. But I don’t know how to answer that. There is no consistent philosophy. You can’t say it’s about making America great again at a time of Covid and economic distress and social unrest. It’s just not credible."


title: Frank Luntz

text: On election day in 2022, Nov. 7, Luntz tweeted his prediction: "When the dust settles from the 2022 midterms, the GOP will have between 233-240 House seats – outdoing their total from 1994. Republicans also will take control of the Senate, but that won’t be clear until Friday. Top issues for 2022 voters: 1. The economy 2. Inflation and rising prices 3. Crime... 6. Abortion...


title: Frank Luntz

text: 10. Donald Trump. This year, Democrats ran on abortion and Trump while ignoring Americans' growing economic hardship." In 2022, Republicans narrowly won control of the house, but failed to win control of the Senate.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In 1997, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, of which Luntz was not a member, criticized Luntz for refusing to release poll data to support his claimed results "because of client confidentiality". Diane Colasanto, who was president of the AAPOR at the time, said


title: Frank Luntz

text: It is simply wanting to know, How many people did you question? What were the questions? We understand the need for confidentiality, but once a pollster makes results public, the information needs to be public. People need to be able to evaluate whether it was sound research.


title: Frank Luntz

text: In 2000 he was censured by the National Council on Public Polls "for allegedly mischaracterizing on MSNBC the results of focus groups he conducted during the [2000] Republican Convention." In September 2004, MSNBC dropped Luntz from its planned coverage of that year's presidential debate, saying "[W]e made a decision not to use focus groups as part of our debate coverage. This decision had nothing to do with Frank's past work or politics." Luntz disagreed, believing that MSNBC "buckled to political pressure" from activist David Brock.


title: Frank Luntz

text: Luntz was awarded the 2010 PolitiFact Lie of the Year award for his promotion of the phrase 'government takeover' to refer to healthcare reform, starting in the spring of 2009. "'Takeovers are like coups,' Luntz wrote in a 28-page memo. 'They both lead to dictators and a loss of freedom.'" In an editorial response, the "Wall Street Journal" wrote that "PolitiFact's decree is part of a larger journalistic trend that seeks to recast all political debates as matters of lies, misinformation and 'facts,' rather than differences of world view or principles." The editors of PolitiFact announced "We have concluded it is inaccurate to call the plan a government takeover."


title: Frank Luntz

text: On April 25, 2013, "The American Spectator", a conservative news outlet, published a scathing article about Luntz entitled "The Problematic Frank Luntz's Stockholm Syndrome".


title: Frank Luntz

text: In fact, what Luntz has done is simply reveal the kind of thinking that goes on in the minds of too many on the right who, whether they realize it or not, have been intellectually and culturally bullied that there is some sort of 'right way'—'right' as in 'correct'—to think. Resulting in some conservatives who suffer from what might be called a political version of Stockholm Syndrome—where the captives identify with their captors.


title: Frank Luntz

text: The article was a response to an April 22, 2013 leaked recording of Luntz at the University of Pennsylvania, where he said conservative radio personalities (specifically Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin) were being "problematic" and "destroying" Republicans' ability to connect with more voters, or even maintain a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2014 mid-term elections.


title: Frank Luntz

text: And they get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it's really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It's only on the Republican side. ... [Democrats have] got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what's driving it. If you take—Marco Rubio's getting his ass kicked. Who's my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He's getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He's trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn't the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That's what's causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy.


title: Frank Luntz

text: After the leak, Luntz announced that he would no longer fund a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. The scholarship, which was in his father's name, supported student trips to Washington, D.C.


title: Toaster

text: In pop-up or automatic toasters, a single vertical piece of bread is dropped into a slot on the top of the toaster. A lever on the side of the toaster is pressed down, lowering the bread into the toaster and activating the heating elements. The length of the toasting cycle (and therefore the degree of toasting) is adjustable via a lever, knob, or series of pushbuttons, and when an internal device determines that the toasting cycle is complete, the toaster turns off and the toast pops up out of the slots.


title: Toaster

text: The completion of toasting may be determined by a timer or by a thermal sensor, such as a bimetallic strip, located close to the toast.


title: Toaster

text: Toasters may also be used to toast other foods such as teacakes, toaster pastry, potato waffles and crumpets, though the resultant accumulation of fat and sugar inside the toaster can contribute to its eventual failure.


title: Toaster

text: Among pop-up toasters, those toasting two slices of bread are more purchased than those which can toast four. Pop-up toasters can have a range of appearances beyond just a square box and may have an exterior finish of chrome, copper, brushed metal, or any color plastic. The marketing and price of toasters may not be an indication of quality for producing good toast. A typical modern two-slice pop-up toaster can draw from 600 to 1200 watts.


title: Toaster

text: Toaster ovens are small electric ovens that provide toasting capability plus a limited amount of baking and broiling capability. Similarly to a conventional oven, toast or other items are placed on a small wire rack, but toaster ovens can heat foods faster than regular ovens due to their small volume. They are especially useful when the users do not also have a kitchen stove with an integral oven, such as in smaller apartments and in recreational vehicles such as truck campers.


title: Toaster

text: Conveyor toasters are designed to make many slices of toast and are generally used in the catering industry, restaurants, cafeterias, institutional cooking facilities, and other commercial food service situations where constant or high-volume toasting is required. Bread is toasted at a rate of 300–1600 slices an hour; the doneness control on such a toaster adjusts the conveyor speed, thus altering the time during which the bread is near the heat elements. Conveyor toasters have been produced for home use; in 1938, for example, the Toast-O-Lator went into limited production.


title: Toaster

text: Before the development of the electric toaster, sliced bread was toasted by placing it in a metal frame or on a long-handled toasting fork and holding it near a fire or over a kitchen grill.


title: Toaster

text: From the 16th century onward, long-handled forks were used as toasters, "sometimes with fitment for resting on bars of grate or fender."


title: Toaster

text: Wrought-iron scroll-ornamented toasters appeared in Scotland in the 17th century. Another wrought-iron toaster was documented to be from 18th-century England.


title: Toaster

text: Utensils for toasting bread over open flames appeared in America in the early 19th century, including decorative implements made from wrought iron.


title: Toaster

text: The primary technical problem in toaster development at the turn of the 20th century was the development of a heating element which would be able to sustain repeated heating to red-hot temperatures without breaking or becoming too brittle. A similar technical challenge had recently been surmounted with the invention of the first successful incandescent lightbulbs by Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison. However, the light bulb took advantage of the presence of a vacuum, something that couldn't be used for the toaster.


title: Toaster

text: The first stand alone electric toaster, the Eclipse, was made in 1893 by Crompton & Company of Chelmsford, Essex. Its bare wires toasted bread on one side at a time.


title: Toaster

text: The problem of the heating element was solved in 1905 by a young engineer named Albert Marsh, who designed an alloy of nickel and chromium, which came to be known as Nichrome.


title: Toaster

text: The first US patent application for an electric toaster was filed by George Schneider of the American Electrical Heater Company of Detroit in collaboration with Marsh. One of the first applications that the Hoskins company had considered for its Chromel wire was for use in toasters, but the company eventually abandoned such efforts, to focus on making just the wire itself.


title: Toaster

text: The first commercially successful electric toaster was introduced by General Electric in 1909 for the GE model D-12. Toasters were not invented by an "Alan MacMasters"; that notion stems from a 2010s Wikipedia hoax.


title: Toaster

text: In 1913, Lloyd Groff Copeman and his wife Hazel Berger Copeman applied for various toaster patents, and in that same year, the Copeman Electric Stove Company introduced a toaster with an automatic bread turner. Before this, electric toasters cooked bread on one side, meaning the bread needed to be flipped by hand in order to cook both sides. Copeman's toaster turned the bread around without having to touch it.


title: Toaster

text: The automatic pop-up toaster, which ejects the toast after toasting it, was first patented by Charles Strite in 1921. In 1925, using a redesigned version of Strite's toaster, the Waters Genter Company introduced the Model 1-A-1 Toastmaster, the first automatic, pop-up, household toaster that could brown bread on both sides simultaneously, set the heating element on a timer, and eject the toast when finished.


title: Toaster

text: In the 1980s, some high-end U.S. toasters featured automatic toast lowering and raising, without the need to operate levers – simply dropping the bread into one of these "elevator toasters", such as the Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster models made from the late 1940s through the 1990s, begins the toasting cycle. These toasters use the mechanically multiplied thermal expansion of the resistance wire in the center element assembly to lower the bread; the inserted slice of bread trips a lever switch to activate the heating elements, and their thermal expansion is harnessed to lower the bread.


title: Toaster

text: When the toast is done, as determined by a small bimetallic sensor actuated by the heat radiating off the toast, the heaters are shut off and the pull-down mechanism returns to its room-temperature position, slowly raising the finished toast. This sensing of the heat radiating off the toast means that regardless of the type of bread (white or whole grain) or its initial temperature (even frozen), the bread is always toasted to the same consistency.


title: Toaster

text: A number of projects have added advanced technology to toasters. In 1990, Simon Hackett and John Romkey created "The Internet Toaster," a toaster which could be controlled from the Internet. In 2001, Robin Southgate from Brunel University in England created a toaster that could toast a graphic of the weather prediction (limited to sunny or cloudy) onto a piece of bread. The toaster dials a pre-coded phone number to get the weather forecast.


title: Toaster

text: In 2005, Technologic Systems, a vendor of embedded systems hardware, designed a toaster running the NetBSD Unix-like operating system as a sales demonstration system. In 2012, Basheer Tome, a student at Georgia Tech, designed a toaster using color sensors to toast bread to the exact shade of brown specified by a user.


title: Toaster

text: A toaster which used Twitter was cited as an early example of an application of the Internet of Things. Toasters have been used as advertising devices for online marketing.


title: Toaster

text: With permanent modifications, a toaster oven can be used as a reflow oven for the purpose of soldering electronic components to circuit boards.


title: Toaster

text: A hot dog toaster is a variation on the toaster design; it can cook hot dogs without use of microwaves or stoves. The appliance looks similar to a regular toaster, except that there are two slots in the middle for hot dogs, and two slots on the outside for toasting the buns. Or there can be a set of skewers upon which hot dog are impaled.


title: Lexi Underwood

text: Lexi Underwood is an American actress and singer, best known for her role as Pearl Warren in "Little Fires Everywhere". She also played Athena in "Will vs the Future," a comedic science fiction series created and executive produced by Tim McKeon and Kevin Seccia, and directed by Joe Nussbaum.


title: Lexi Underwood

text: Underwood made her professional theatrical debut in November 2013 at age ten, at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. in their acclaimed production of Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" as Want/Urchin Girl.


title: Lexi Underwood

text: On December 15, 2014, Underwood performed in "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol" for the Actors Fund of America's one night only benefit concert, which was directed by Peter Flynn and musically directed by John McDaniel. In November 2015, Underwood was cast as Young Nala in the Disney Theatrical Productions’ "The Lion King". Underwood performed with the North-American Touring Company from January to August 2015 and covered Broadway in the same role.


title: Lexi Underwood

text: On October 14, 2014, Underwood made her television debut on the CBS series "Person of Interest" in the role of Queen Bee. Underwood went on to appear in "Code Black" as Emily Campbell, Dr. Campbell's daughter, "Henry Danger" as Narlee, "Walk the Prank" as Nice Nancy, "Raven's Home" as Shannon Reynolds, "David S. Pumpkins’ Halloween Special" as Paige (voice) animated by Bento Box Entertainment; and "Will Vs The Future" as Athena, a time traveling, warrior rebel from the future. Her role in "Little Fires Everywhere" was called "excellent" by the "New York Times," which said, "The scenes between [her mother] Mia and Pearl, both the tender and the angry ones, are the show’s highlights."


title: Ready to Rumble

text: Ready to Rumble is a 2000 American buddy comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and written by Steven Brill, which is based on Turner Broadcasting's now defunct professional wrestling promotion, World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The movie draws its title from ring announcer Michael Buffer's catchphrase, "Let's get ready to rumble!" The movie features many wrestlers from WCW.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: This film is also notable for being the media debut of future wrestler John Cena, who makes an appearance as an extra in a scene taking place at a gym.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: Dimwitted sewage workers Gordie Boggs and Sean Dawkins watch their favorite wrestler, WCW World Heavyweight Champion Jimmy King cheated out of the title by Diamond Dallas Page (DDP), an evil WCW promoter named Titus Sinclair, and DDP's partners. After the match, the duo expresses their rage while driving in their septic truck, resulting in a car crash with Gordie and Sean surviving.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: After this event, Gordie believes that the car crash was supposed to happen and that they should make Jimmy King once again the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Gordie asks a friend to find out where King lives, and they go to an unexpected-looking neighborhood where they find King's estranged wife and his parents. King's parents tell Gordie and Sean that King borrowed their mobile home and never returned it. The duo finds King and becomes over-excited. They have a conversation, and when King says that he has given up on wrestling, Gordie and Sean anger him to the point where he suddenly attacks them. This attack on the men prompts a change of heart for King where his passion for wrestling returns. They go visit his wife, who kicks him twice in the crotch for giving her crabs and abandoning her and their son.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: They reconcile on her porch as he ices his crotch, and she says she hopes she broke it. He clarifies that his penis is bruised and it feels like Richard Petty drove a stock car into his scrotum.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: His teenage son comes out and has very bad teeth. King vows to win the money and get him a good dentist.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: The trio proceeds to go on a road trip to the next "WCW Monday Nitro" taping in New York City. Gordie sends letters to his father, a police officer who wanted Gordie to follow in his footsteps. Gordie writes that he will not join him in the police force, making him frustrated. Gordie, King, and Sean arrive at the Nitro taping where they hide King in a port-a-potty and they meet one of the Nitro Girls, Sasha. When DDP mocks King on camera, King comes out of the port-a-potty and attacks him. Sinclair then declares a Steel Cage match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship plus a $1 million cash prize, with the added stipulation that if King loses, he will never wrestle again.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: Sasha is impressed by Gordie, and they later go to her apartment to have dinner. When Sasha attempts to have sex with Gordie, he reacts like it's a wrestling match and pushes her off of him. King is in deep need of a trainer for the match, so he, Gordie, and Sean head to the residence of retired wrestler Sal Bandini, where he accepts becoming King's trainer. The trio then heads to a local gym, where King meets his former partner, Bill Goldberg. King asks Goldberg to help in the upcoming match, but he turns him down, saying that King has no chances of winning. Then that night, Sid Vicious and Perry Saturn attack Sal, hospitalizing him. At the hospital, Gordie overhears Sasha at a phone booth, where he learns that Sasha was working under the orders of Sinclair the entire time, therefore realizing his relationship with her was a total sham; Gordie breaks up with her as a result.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: As the trio return to Gordie and Sean's home town in Wyoming to continue training, Gordie's father steps in and forces him to abandon his wrestling aspirations and join the police force. Sean and King try to convince Gordie to get out of becoming a police officer, but he refuses. He does, however, hold a huge party for King and wishes him luck in the Steel Cage match.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: On the night of the match, King is once again outnumbered by DDP's goons but he suddenly receives help from Goldberg, Booker T, Billy Kidman, Disco Inferno, Sting, and Gordie, who rides in on a police motorcycle debuting his new gimmick as "The Law." King ultimately wins the match by dropping DDP from the top of the cage to the floor of the ring. As King comes up victorious and is once again WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Sinclair gets beaten up by Sean and Gordie (as well as by the fans). Goldberg later asks King to re-team with him, but announces his new partner will be Gordie and their manager will be Sean “Suga Daddy” Dawkins.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: An epilogue shows Sean telling some local kids "dreams can come true" at a convenience store, where Gordie and Goldberg teach the store clerk a lesson for being mean to kids by hurling him out on the street. All ends happily as the heroes ride off in a stretch limousine Hummer, together with Sal, now fully recovered in a hot tub with beautiful women.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: The character of Sal Bandini is based on wrestlers Lou Thesz and Stu Hart. Oliver Platt accidentally struck Randy Savage in the face during the filming of a fantasy scene. The footage of the incident, which was shot over Savage's shoulder, can be seen in the blooper reel shown during the closing credits. Chris Kanyon was Platt's stunt double, and Shane Helms was David Arquette's stunt double. The character of Titus Sinclair is based on WCW President and Executive Producer Eric Bischoff, who was originally planned to star in this movie as a fictionalized version of himself, but was fired from WCW before filming began.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: Following the release of the movie, WCW decided to generate publicity for the company by running a storyline in which David Arquette, a legitimate wrestling fan, became WCW World Heavyweight Champion. The storyline was reviled by wrestling fans, and Arquette himself reportedly believed it was a bad idea, as he felt that it would damage the value of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship he held in such high regard. While in WCW, he aligned himself with Diamond Dallas Page (despite Page being the movie's villain) and agreed (in storyline) to drop the title to him. He eventually lost the title in the main event of Slamboree involving the three-tiered cage seen in "Ready to Rumble", pitting himself against Page and Jeff Jarrett, which ended when he turned on Page and allowed Jarrett to win. Arquette later donated all the money WCW paid him to the families of deceased wrestlers Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, and Brian Hildebrand, plus to wrestler Darren Drozdov who was left paralyzed due to an in-ring accident a year prior.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: The Triple Cage was used by WCW only twice: first, at Slamboree 2000, Jeff Jarrett beat Diamond Dallas Page and David Arquette (defending the WCW World Heavyweight Championship) to win the title. In this match, Chris Kanyon was thrown from the roof of one of the cages, "paralyzing" him. The other, taking place on the September 4, 2000 episode of "WCW Monday Nitro", was the 2000 edition of the WarGames match.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: "Ready to Rumble" received a largely negative reception, garnering a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 22% based on 72 reviews, with an average score of 4/10. Its consensus states, "Humor at its lowest that isn't funny for kids and is insulting to adults". On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 23, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Ready to Rumble

text: Roger Ebert said that the movie works best when focusing on the aspects of professional wrestling instead of the "wheezy prefab" "Dumb and Dumber" antics and felt there was misuse of both Platt and Landau, citing the former's comedic talents being wasted and having an actual wrestler in his place instead, and the latter being more suitable in dramatic works. BBC film reviewer Neil Smith commended the efforts of both Platt and Landau in their respective roles but felt the film overall was the typical Hollywood comedy, consisting of "oafish slapstick and lavatorial humour in place of genuine wit or imagination", concluding that it "has its moments, but ultimately feels just as bogus as the Lycra-clad charlatans it lionises." "The A.V. Club"s Nathan Rabin criticized the filmmakers for trying to satirize and indulge in the world of wrestling and ignore it for rehashed humor from films like "The Wedding Singer" and "Mallrats", concluding that, "[I]n its attempts not to offend wrestling fans or the wrestlers who make brief, bland appearances, "Ready To Rumble" is plodding, obvious, toothless, and unfunny."


title: Ready to Rumble

text: A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" mockingly said that the film does a deep exploration into the world of professional wrestling and its core fanbase, but in reality is "not a satire of the idiocy [of professional wrestling], but a long, self-satisfied wallow in it." Chris Gramlich of "Exclaim!" backhandedly called it "the best Hollywood wrestling movie since "No Holds Barred"", giving credit to Chris Kanyon's wrestling choreography, the various WCW performers and the contributions from both Landau and McGowan being the film's saving graces, concluding that, "While "Ready to Rumble" may at times make even the most ardent wrestling ashamed by its use of wrestling stereotypes (some even justified); it does make you laugh almost as often. Almost." "The Austin Chronicle"s Marjorie Baumgarten agreed with the critics about the "asinine plot, premise, and performances" but admitted to laughing at a few moments that shows the film being honest with itself about its creation, concluding that, "Filled with lots of appearances by real wrestling stars, the movie seems a certain shoo-in among a certain demographic. But if you're going, hit the theatres soon because this one looks ready to tumble."


title: Ready to Rumble

text: The film score makes extensive use of classical music, both diegetic and non-diegetic. "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland is featured as Jimmy King's theme music. "Siegfried's Funeral March" from "Götterdämmerung" by German composer Richard Wagner plays quietly in the background during King's initial discomfiture at the hands of Titus Sinclair, played by Joe Pantoliano, and Diamond Dallas Page.


title: Ready to Rumble

text: A soundtrack for the film was released by Atlantic Records and 143 Records in both 'clean' and 'explicit' editions. Considering the Kid Rock song "Badwitdaba", the Lower Than You remix, is not deleted on the iTunes version of this soundtrack, it remained one of the only songs of Kid Rock to be available on iTunes, until most of his catalog was released on iTunes in 2013.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Andrew Aitken Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer who was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program "60 Minutes" from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on "60 Minutes" aired on October 2, 2011; he died a month later at the age of 92.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Andrew Aitken Rooney was born in Albany, New York, the son of Walter Scott Rooney (1888–1959) and Ellinor (Reynolds) Rooney (1886–1980). He attended The Albany Academy, and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in central New York, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity, before he was drafted into the United States Army in August 1941.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney began his career in newspapers in 1942 while in the Army where he began writing for "Stars and Stripes" in London. He was one of six correspondents who flew on the second American bombing raid over Germany in February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force. He was the first journalist to reach the Ludendorff Bridge after the 9th Armored Division captured it on March 7, 1945. He was to the west when he heard that the bridge had been captured. "It was a reporter's dream," he wrote. "One of the great stories of the war had fallen into my lap." The bridge capture was front-page news in America. Rooney rated the capture of the bridge as one of the top five events of the entire European war, alongside D-Day.


title: Andy Rooney

text: He was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II, and one of the first to write about them. During a segment on Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation", Rooney stated that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist. He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal for his service as a war correspondent in combat zones during the war. His 1995 memoir "My War" chronicles his war reporting and recounts several notable historical events and people from a first-hand view, including the entry into Paris and the Nazi concentration camps. He describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney joined CBS in 1949 as a writer for "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts", when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV. It opened the show up to a variety of viewers. The program was a hit, reaching number one in 1952 during Rooney's tenure. It was the beginning of a close lifelong friendship between Rooney and Godfrey. He wrote for Godfrey's daytime radio and TV show "Arthur Godfrey Time". He later moved on to "The Garry Moore Show" which became a hit program. During the same period, he wrote public affairs programs for CBS News, such as "The Twentieth Century".


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney wrote his first television essay in 1964 called "An Essay on Doors", "a longer-length precursor of the type" that he did on "60 Minutes", according to CBS News's biography of him. From 1962 to 1968, he collaborated with CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner, Rooney writing and producing and Reasoner narrating. They wrote on CBS News specials such as "An Essay on Bridges" (1965), "An Essay on Hotels" (1966), "An Essay on Women" (1967), and "The Strange Case of the English Language" (1968). In 1968, he wrote two episodes of the CBS News documentary series "Of Black America", and his script for "Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed" won him his first Emmy.


title: Andy Rooney

text: CBS refused to broadcast his World War II memoir titled "An Essay on War" in 1970, so Rooney quit CBS and read the opinion himself on PBS, which was his first appearance on television. That show in 1971 won him his third Writers Guild Award. He rejoined CBS in 1973 to write and produce special programs. He also wrote the script for the 1975 documentary "FDR: The Man Who Changed America".


title: Andy Rooney

text: After his return to the network, Rooney wrote and appeared in several primetime specials for CBS, including "In Praise of New York City" (1974), the Peabody Award-winning "Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington" (1975), "Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner" (1978), and "Mr. Rooney Goes to Work" (1977). Transcripts of these specials are contained in the book "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", as well as of some of the earlier collaborations with Reasoner.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney's "end-of-show" segment on "60 Minutes", "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" (originally "Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney"), began in 1978, as a summer replacement for the debate segment "Point/Counterpoint" featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick. The segment proved popular enough with viewers that beginning in the fall of 1978, it was seen in alternate weeks with the debate segment. At the end of the 1978–1979 season, "Point/Counterpoint" was dropped altogether.


title: Andy Rooney

text: In the segment, Rooney typically offered satire on a trivial everyday issue, such as the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, or faulty Christmas presents. Rooney's appearances on "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" often included whimsical lists, such as types of milk, bottled water brands, car brands, and sports mascots. In later years, his segments became more political as well. Despite being best known for his television presence on "60 Minutes", Rooney always considered himself a writer who incidentally appeared on television behind his famous walnut table, which he had made himself.


title: Andy Rooney

text: In February 1990, CBS's "60 Minutes" suspended Rooney for three months after it was alleged that he had suggested that black people were less intelligent because they "watered down their genes". After the program's ratings dropped significantly, Rooney was let back on in March. Rooney vehemently disputed this in a 1999 interview, claiming he was instead referring to lower-income people more broadly.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney wrote a column in 1992 that posited that it was "silly" for Native Americans to complain about team names like the Redskins, in which he wrote in part, "The real problem is, we took the country away from the Indians, they want it back and we're not going to give it to them. We feel guilty and we'll do what we can for them within reason, but they can't have their country back. Next question." After receiving many letters from Native Americans he wrote, "when so many people complain about one thing, you have to assume you may have been wrong".


title: Andy Rooney

text: In a 2007 column for "Tribune" media services, he wrote, "I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but today's baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me." Rooney later commented, "Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said it, [but] it's a name that seems common in baseball now. I certainly didn't think of it in any derogatory sense."


title: Andy Rooney

text: In the 1940s, Rooney was arrested after sitting in the back of a racially segregated bus in protest against such segregation. Also, in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, Rooney applauded the fact that "the citizens of this country, 80% of whom are white, freely chose to elect a black man as their leader simply because they thought he was the best choice." He said that it made him proud, and that it proved that the country had "come a long way—a good way."


title: Andy Rooney

text: In 1990, Rooney was suspended without pay for three months by then-CBS News President David Burke, because of the negative publicity around his saying that "too much alcohol, too much food, drugs, homosexual unions, cigarettes [are] all known to lead to premature death." He wrote an explanatory letter to a gay organization after being ordered not to do so. After only four weeks without Rooney, "60 Minutes" lost 20% of its audience. CBS management then decided that it was in the best interest of the network to have Rooney return immediately.


title: Andy Rooney

text: In a 1994 segment, Rooney attracted controversy with his remarks on Kurt Cobain's suicide. He expressed his dismay that the death of Richard Nixon was overshadowed by Cobain's suicide, stating that he had never heard of Cobain or his band, Nirvana. He went on to say that Cobain's suicide made him angry. "A lot of people would like to have the years left that he threw away," Rooney said. "What's all this nonsense about how terrible life is?" he asked, adding rhetorically to a young woman who had wept at the suicide, "I'd love to relieve the pain you're going through by switching my age for yours." In addition, he asked "What would all these young people be doing if they had real problems like a Depression, World War II, or Vietnam?" and commented, "If [Cobain] applied the same brain to his music that he applied to his drug-infested life, it's reasonable to think that his music may not have made much sense, either."


title: Andy Rooney

text: On the following Sunday's show, he apologized on the air, saying he should have taken Cobain's depression into account. He also read only critical feedback from listeners without interjecting any commentary of his own.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney's shorter television essays have been archived in numerous books, such as "Common Nonsense", which came out in 2002, and "Years of Minutes", probably his best-known work, released in 2003. He penned a regular syndicated column for Tribune Media Services that ran in many newspapers in the United States, and which has been collected in book form. He won three Emmy Awards for his essays, which numbered over 1,000. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003. Rooney's renown made him a frequent target of parodies and impersonations by a diverse group of comic figures, including Frank Caliendo, Rich Little and Beavis.


title: Andy Rooney

text: In 1993, CBS released a two-volume VHS tape set of the best of Rooney's commentaries and field reports, called "The Andy Rooney Television Collection — His Best Minutes." In 2006, CBS released three DVDs of his more recent commentaries, "Andy Rooney On Almost Everything, Things That Bother Andy Rooney," and "Andy Rooney's Solutions".


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney's final regular appearance on "60 Minutes" was on October 2, 2011, after 33 years on the show. It was his 1,097th commentary.


title: Andy Rooney

text: He claimed on "Larry King Live" to have a liberal bias, stating, "There is just no question that I, among others, have a liberal bias. I mean, I'm consistently liberal in my opinions." In a controversial 1999 book, Rooney self-identified as agnostic, but by 2004 he was calling himself an atheist. He reaffirmed this in 2008. Over the years, many of his editorials poked fun at the concept of God and organized religion. Increased speculation on this was brought to a head by a series of comments he made regarding Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" (2004).


title: Andy Rooney

text: Though Rooney has been called Irish-American, he once said "I'm proud of my Irish heritage, but I'm not Irish. I'm not even Irish-American. I am American, period."


title: Andy Rooney

text: In 2005, when four people were fired at CBS News perhaps because of the Killian documents controversy, Rooney said, "The people on the front lines got fired while the people most instrumental in getting the broadcast on escaped." Others at CBS had "kept mum" about the controversy.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney was married to Marguerite "Margie" Rooney (née Howard) for 62 years, until she died of heart failure in 2004. He later wrote, "her name does not appear as often as it originally did [in my essays] because it hurts too much to write it." They had four children: Ellen, Emily, Martha, and Brian. His daughter Emily Rooney is a TV talk show host and former ABC News producer who went on to host a nightly Boston-area public affairs program, "Greater Boston", on WGBH. Emily's identical twin, Martha Fishel, became chief of the Public Services Division at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland; her son Justin works as a producer for ABC News. His first daughter, Ellen Rooney, is a former film editor at ABC News and is now a travel and garden photographer based in London. His son, Brian Rooney, has been a correspondent for ABC since the 1980s and lives in Los Angeles.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney lived in the Rowayton section of Norwalk, Connecticut, and in Rensselaerville, New York, and was a longtime season ticket holder for the New York Giants.


title: Andy Rooney

text: Rooney was hospitalized on October 25, 2011, after developing postoperative complications from an undisclosed surgical procedure, and died on November 4, 2011, at the age of 92, less than five weeks after his last appearance on "60 Minutes".


title: Kirsty Young

text: From 2006 to 2018 she was the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" and previously presented "Crimewatch" on BBC One from 2008 to 2015.


title: Kirsty Young

text: Young was born in East Kilbride. She attended Cambusbarron Primary School and Stirling High School. She returned in June 2008 to officially open the school's new building. She shared with viewers that she had suffered from bulimia as a teenager on the first episode of her first TV show. In a later interview she said "It only happened for a very fleeting few months and I dealt with it myself."


title: Kirsty Young

text: Young became a continuity announcer for BBC Radio Scotland in 1989. In 1992 she moved to Scottish Television as a presenter of "Scotland Today" and which resulted in her chat show, "Kirsty". She left Scotland Today in 1996 to become a relief presenter for "The Time, The Place" and appeared on the "Holiday" programme. She co-hosted a consumer show "The Street" on BBC Two.


title: Kirsty Young

text: In March 1997, she joined the news team of the new terrestrial channel, Channel 5, presenting the channel's flagship news programme Channel 5 News. Young then left Channel 5 to join ITV in 2000 and briefly hosted the quiz show "The People Versus". In 2001, she became a co-presenter of the "ITV Evening News". Later the same year, after giving birth to her first child, she decided to return to Channel 5 to again front Channel 5 News on 14 January 2002.


title: Kirsty Young

text: In November 2003, Young presented an edition of "Have I Got News for You". She has since featured on the show a further eleven times. In 2004, she made a memorable appearance on "Room 101" during which she humourously nominated cowboy boots, Britney Spears, Brazilian waxes and 'baby on board' stickers among her pet hates.