Happy 22nd G:TBday

Greetings, gheorghies, on this fine and fair Friday that also happens to be G:TBday.  Remember, G:TBday?

It's Gheorghe: The Blog's Birthday!

This here blog turns 22 today. I remember my 22nd birthday, I was (still) in college (still) and was (still) drinking at the Greenleafe in Williamsburg. I remember thinking that I got as inebriated or more so than I even did on my 21st. Way to aim high.

22 years ago the country was mired in a lot of political and military doings that divided the country -- specifically, the war in Iraq. What a mess that was.

Oh, were it all that quaint and simple these days. It's like when Kyle Reese went back to the mid-80's to find and protect John Connor's mom -- yeah, L.A. was a dangerous and weird place then, but compared to the morass of the future, hallelujah.

Side Note: what about a mash-up where Reese and the Terminator overshoot the mid-80's and go to 1955 and encounter George McFly and Lorraine and Biff and Doc Brown? Could be amusing.

Aaaaaand I just now googled that. And of course it already exists. In more than one iteration! The robots are already taking over!

G:TB brains would've done that funnier, methinks.

Anywho... it's a silly and obvious understatement to say that the world is a different place than it was on November 7, 2003. I mean, 22 years prior to that day was November 7, 1981. When "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates topped the charts and Raiders of the Lost Ark was still big at the box office. And the World Series had recently been won by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Oh, wait...

Gheorghe: The Blog nostalgists often polish off Rob's memorable first post, the GTB mission statement and reissue it -- hell we did that when we first coined G:TBday in 2018.

But what about subsequent posts? The very second post is one worth looking at 22 years later. 

Take a peek:

I'd say it holds up pretty well. Kudos, tiny dictator. And nice mention of the Wiggles. (The Wiggles documentary is worthy, if sweet and void of gripping controversy.) 

Happy Double-Deuce, gheorghies! 

Have a Drink with Gheorghe: The Blog (Legally)

That's right, your favorite blogospheric stopping point, Gheorghe: The Blog, turns 21 today!

Booze it up with the Gheorghies. And watch this -- which rob and I cannot believe we've never posted here:

Today we celebrate 21 years of formally celebrating Gheorghe Mureșan with a namesake blog. And, wow, does this quote from that very first post hit home at the moment: "Gheorghe's spirit and the joy with which he appears to approach life offer lessons for all of us about the important things. This space will celebrate those in sports and elsewhere that live with Gheorgheness, and skewer those that think they are more important than the game - be it sports or life."

Just in case you don't have anything else to drink about this week, have one now.

This Day in History

Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.  My man Gheorghe Santayana said that, or something close to it. Precision ain't really our strong suit.

Twenty years ago today, Beyonce topped the pop charts with 'Baby Boy' (featuring Sean Paul, of course). She seems to have done fairly well over the intervening two decades.

On that same day, we were a week or so away from Lionel Messi's professional debut when he came on as a 16 year-old against Porto. Just last week, the same Messi, now 36, won his 8th Ballon d'Or as the best player in the world. Circle of life, or something.

The U.S. was mired in a clusterfuck in the Middle East in November 2003 while Israel was rattling sabers at Palestinians while building a wall in the West Bank. Same as it ever was, and I'm not sure we've learned much.

Going back a bit further into history, Magic Johnson announced that he was HIV-positive on this date in 1991. It appears he did, in fact, learn from his past. From that bleak and uncertain moment, Magic's built one of the great post-playing careers in history.

Arguably the most consequential thing to happen on this date was the contested election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Could've been Richard Nixon's re-election in 1972. Or maybe FDR's fourth electoral win in 1944. Or possibly the first meeting of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1966.

Upon reflection, the most consequential thing to happen on this day, at least for this group, was the very first G:TB post to grace the interwebs, exactly 20 years ago. 5100 posts, 140,000 comments, 3.86m pageviews later, we're almost legal. You've come a long way, Gheorghies!