About that whole "Greatest American" poll

[Edan]

Originally posted by Jaguar

If that's too politician-heavy, you can put Jackie Robinson in there if you want an athlete, Bob Dylan or Elvis if you want a singer, Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart or Katherine Hepburn if you want an actress, Edison if you want a scientist, etc.

I disagree. While Cary Grant may have been a good actress:



I don't think the same can be said of Bogart.

[Flandrien]

So the Americans followed the Netherlands and elected the one that died most recently.

Big deal

[SlowwHand]

You reference AOL like it's more ludicrous than ACS.
I mean come on.


Yeah, Mr Fun. Talking about you.

[Moral Hazard]

It was a case of splitting the electorate.
MLK split with Lincoln. Lincoln split with Washington, and to some degree Franklin split with Washington. I believe the host said that the leader going into the final 5 was Washington.

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Edan


I disagree. While Cary Grant may have been a good actress:



I don't think the same can be said of Bogart.

That's what I get for constructing a complicated runon sentence.

[Lonestar]

And now, the greatest American.

[Ben Kenobi]

Awesome!

The Gipper, can now label himself, 'the greatest american'.

[Ben Kenobi]

What astounded me is I caught a minor glimpse of one of these circuses on Discovery, and they were talking about Reagan, and Ann Coulter was on some sort of judgin panel.

Ann Coulter! The show lost any and all shreds of dignity in my mind after seeing that.

Thanks for cheering me up gepap.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Awesome!

The Gipper, can now label himself, 'the greatest american'.

"He's dead, Jim."

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
Rufus - I'll grant you Aaron Copeland - I transposed names, I'm terrible about that - but John Philip Sousa is considered a great American from his time period, and his music has lasted. Also, reference Louis Armstrong - was it really him or is he just the popularized icon for jazz. I like jazz in a casual way (including Armstrong) but often those who become known for it are not the real greats. Sort of like the credit Einstein gets for the A-bomb, when Fermi deserves much more credit.

It was really him. There were jazz players before Armstrong (though not by much) and jazz musicians contemporary with him, but no one played it better, innovated more, was more revered by fellow musicians, or did more to define what we mean by "jazz" today. The comparison to Mozart wasn't glib; Armstrong really was that important to jazz, and that head-and-shoulders above everyone else (though Charlie Parker gets close, but even Parker is unthinkable without Armstrong). It's amazing and distressing to me that he could be on his way to becoming an historical footnote; it would be like the Germans forgetting about Mozart, or the British forgetting about Shakespeare.

And I see your point about Sousa; but the genre of military music itself is small, self-contained, and without any real impact on the larger culture (in fact, is there such a thing as "contemporary military music"? Or did it just kind of stop with Sousa?). Jazz swept the world.

Add to that Armstrong's unflinching and very public support of the civil rights movement -- very similar to Jackie Robinson's -- and his very effective deployment as a Jazz Ambassador (along with Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington) during the Cold War, and in the end you have one truly great American.

[MrFun]

There's a lot of stupid people out there . . . . .



Reagan is numero uno.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by MrFun
There's a lot of stupid people out there . . . . .



Reagan is numero uno.

What really were his lasting accomplishments?

[MrFun]

Damn you! With a question like that you're going to force me to make something up just so I have an answer!?!?

[mrmitchell]

What really were his lasting accomplishments?

Personally spreading AIDS to 2,500 gay men

Eating Nicaraguan babies for breakfast

Putting together one coherent sentence

Giving confidence to millions of wierdos to be proud that they're Republican

[Alexander's Horse]

I'm surprised ill Robinson from Lost in Space didn't get up - he was my heroe.