When Richard Nixon Was President. The First Term.

People who were alive then are now planning their retirements. They're checking their 401-ks and wondering if Bitcoin and gold will keep them in the sunshine in a few years. Or they are already retired. They pay attention to the markets and wonder if they should call those people who have ads on TV who will guide them in the process of financial planning. They might be called Boomers by their children.

I've always admired the people who write the Jeopardy clues. If these people lived in another era, say like the 1940s, I imagine the OSS would be recruiting them to be spies or intelligence analysts to help defeat the Axis powers. They'd be in the book Book and Dagger.

The crafting of the Final Jeopardy clues is always especially clever. Consider the one from this past Thursday under the category of Super Bowl History.

Realizing that there have now been 58 (LVIII) Super Bowls, that's a lot of history to cover. If a historian were to put pen to paper on that one it would be at least two volumes. If Robert Caro lives long enough he might take the job after he finally finishes telling us what Lyndon Johnson ate in 1967.

If you can spot it, there is always a helpful clue in the Final Jeopardy question that helps anchor the clue to a place, time, or person. Consider:

It's the only team to play in the Super Bowl before Neil Armstrong's moon walk that has not been back to the big game since.

The Neil Armstrong reference anchors the clue to the year 1969, when none of the contestants were even born. I always read the clue in the morning from the NYT and see how I'd do. This one was a slam dunk for me.

One contestant answered the New York Giants; another The Cleveland Browns. The third answered Houston. None of the contestants were from New York, being from Memphis, Illinois and Texas. 

It's a great clue that might have found the right answer if someone was from New York. As for myself, when I read it I immediately knew it was the New York Jets who were in what was an NFL-AFL Championship game in the third year they played in that format in January 1969. Not only was I alive then, I remember watching the game

It's the famous game where the Jets were 17-point underdogs against the Baltimore Colts, only to see the Jets quarterback Joe Namath and his team play the game of their lives, upsetting the Colts 16-7. Joe Namath boldly predicted they'd win. Who believed him?

I'm not a hard-core football fan, professional or college. But I am aware of how the New York teams are doing and do take in some TV viewing.

I've only ever been to one New York Giants game in person at the Meadowlands when Craig Morton was their quarterback. I think they lost to the Cincinnati Bengals.

I've been to a few more Jet games. When the AFL started, the New York franchise was the New York Titans, and they played on Friday nights at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. My father took me to a game in what I'm guessing was the early 60s. I don't know who they played, or even if they won. The Polo Grounds was at the end of its existence, a dark place full of girders

Shea Stadium was built around the time of the 1964 World's Fair and was close to our home in Flushing. I remember some Friday night games there when the half time show was a contest between three women to see who could empty out a refrigerator into a shopping cart the fastest, racing along rubber mats placed on the field.. I kid you not. Or, half time could be a drum and bugle corps from Brooklyn showing off how they could spin fake rifles.

Anyone who is aware of the Jets knows they are a team steeped in futility. They have had numerous owners, countless coaches and a massive rotation of players. Someone has put a serious hex on that club.

You read that the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians were cursed, but the Jets have set a new standard for ineptness and being haunted. Alert the Vatican. They need a exorcism.

I had the biggest laugh when they got Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback who was going to lead them to the promised land. In 2023 as he ran out on the field for the first, highly anticipated game, carrying Old Glory as if he were Custer and he was going to annihilate some Indians, and then fell in a heap after the first set of plays with an injury that put hm out for the season, I said to myself what more proof do they need that they're never, ever going to win squat?

The beginning of the 2024 season optimism ran high again for the Jets. A health Rodgers was going to do it in 2024 2025 and take them to the Super Bowl. At 4-10 for this season so far the only way they're going to the Super Bowl is if they have tickets. Can they just forfeit the remaining games and show mercy to their fans, a group of masochists if ever there was one. Those people need intensive counseling.

I'd love to see a sports reporter like Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal pick up on the Jeopardy clue of last Thursday and do a column on the history of the Jets. Perhaps his lede could go:

Gas is 34¢ a gallon, Robert Caro is just thinking about writing about Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon is in his first term, and the Jets are in their only Super Bowl. What year is it?

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