History of The Curse

So the Boston red sox won the American Series (calling it the World Series is still silly and very 20th century. Either invite the rest of the world to play or stop calling it the World Series.) But in any case, guess what? The curse has finally been reversed! After almost a hundred years. Babe Ruth can sleep well now and so can the city of Boston. I think this is a good omen for America indeed. A few days before the series, our good friend old Chap and his friend, both from the northeast, drove to the actual grave of babe Ruth which is here in New York upstate and begged him to release the curse. This is a true story. They poured an entire brand new bottle of jack Daniels on his gravesite as an offering and begged him to let the old curse go. Well we all know what happened next. So today they are on their way back up to the gravesite to give him another bottle of jack Daniels and to lay a few Boston red sox caps on his grave and to give their thanks.

History of The Curse
Jan. 3, 1920 -- Boston, winners of five World Series appearances (1903, 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918) sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. The Red Sox received a fee of $125,000 plus a loan of $350,000 for Ruth, and superstitious fans believe a curse was thrown in for free. The "Curse of the Bambino" has followed Boston through four World Series defeats -- each one in seven games. 
May 8, 1926 -- During a span in which Boston lost over 100 games in three consecutive seasons, much of the left-field bleacher sections in Fenway Park were destroyed by a fire. 
Jan. 4, 1934 -- When Tom Yawkey purchased the Red Sox in 1933, restoration began on Fenway to repair damage from the 1926 fire. During construction, another fire swept through the ballpark, undoing much of the progress. 
Oct. 15, 1946 -- In Boston's first visit to the World Series since 1918, the Red Sox lost a decisive Game 7 to the Cardinals. Tied at 3-all in the eighth inning, Enos Slaughter scored from first on Harry Walker's double in the bottom half when shortstop Johnny Pesky hesitated with his relay throw. 
Oct. 4, 1948 -- The Red Sox lost 8-3 to Cleveland in a one-game playoff for the American League pennant. 
Oct. 12, 1967 -- The Red Sox lost to the Cardinals in their next visit to the World Series. After leading the Red Sox to victory in Games 2 and 5, Jim Lonborg returned to the mound in Game 7 against the Cardinals' Bob Gibson. Gibson gave up three hits while Lonborg, pitching on only two days rest, allowed the Cardinals to score seven runs for a 7-2 loss. 
March 22, 1972 -- In yet another of a long line of bad Boston trades, the Yankees acquired relief pitcher Sparky Lyle for first baseman Danny Cater. Lyle was a three-time all-star with the Yankees and won the AL Cy Young Award in 1977. 
Oct. 14, 1975 -- Cincinnati took a 2-1 lead in the World Series with a controversial 6-5, 10-inning win. Reds pinch-hitter Ed Armbrister hesitated after a bunt and collided with catcher Carlton Fisk, who was trying to field the ball. Fisk's throwing error allowed Cesar Geronimo to advance to third -- and later score the game-winning run. Home plate umpire Larry Barnett ruled there was no interference despite heated protests by the Red Sox. 
Oct. 22, 1975 -- One day after Carlton Fisk hit a 12th-inning homer off the left-field foul pole to win Game 6, Boston lost Game 7 by wasting a 3-0 lead. Joe Morgan blooped a go-ahead ninth-inning single off Jim Burton in Cincinnati's 4-3 win. 
Oct. 2, 1978 -- The Red Sox lost the only other one-game playoff in AL history. Bucky Dent hit a three-run homer off Mike Torrez to lead the Yankees to a 5-4 victory at Fenway Park. The Red Sox at one point in the year had a 14-game lead over the Yankees in the East division. 
Oct. 25, 1986 -- The Red Sox were one strike away from the title. But then came Bob Stanley's tying wild pitch and Mookie Wilson's winning grounder through the legs of first baseman Bill Buckner in Game 6. 
Oct. 27, 1986 -- Boston again wasted a 3-0 lead in Game 7, losing 8-5. 
Nov. 5, 1996 -- Roger Clemens was granted free agency after Boston's then-general manager Dan Duquette said the pitcher was in the "twilight" of his career. Over the next eight years, Clemens
went on to post a 136-53 record while earning three more Cy Young awards and two World Series rings with the Yankees. 
Oct. 18, 1999 -- Boston blew a three-run lead in the bottom of the eighth and stranded 11 runners in a 6-1 loss to New York in Game 5 of the ALCS. The victory clinched the Yankees' 36th American League Pennant and led to their 25th World Series title since the acquisition of Ruth. 
Oct. 16, 2003 -- Aaron Boone homered off Tim Wakefield in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7 of the ALCS and the Yankees advanced to the World Series for the sixth time in eight years. Boone was just 2-for-16 in the ALCS before the home run. 
Feb. 14, 2004 -- The Yankees and the Texas Rangers agreed to the outline of a deal that sent Alex Rodriguez to New York. The Red Sox nearly acquired A-Rod in December of 2003, but a proposed deal that would have sent outfielder Manny Ramirez to Texas fell through because the players' association blocked Boston's attempt to restructure Rodriguez's record $252 million, 10-year contract. 
June 13, 2004 -- Hoping to lift the curse, divers attempted to find and raise the sunken remains of a piano that Babe Ruth allegedly pushed into Willis pond in Sudbury, Mass. after the 1918 World Series. The fourth such dive surfaced without so much as a pedal or a piano string.

AND:
Scientists uncover possible new species of human
Dwarf skeleton is 18,000 years old
Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Posted: 1:06 PM EDT (1706 GMT)
(AP) -- In a breathtaking discovery, scientists working on a remote Indonesian island say they have uncovered the bones of a human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man rapidly colonized the rest of the planet.
One tiny specimen, an adult female measuring about 3 feet tall, is described as "the most extreme" figure to be included in the extended human family. Certainly, she is the shortest.
This hobbit-sized creature appears to have lived as recently as 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores, a kind of tropical Lost World populated by giant lizards and miniature elephants.
Read more here:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/27/dwarf.cavewoman.ap/index.html 

"Love the earth and the sun and animals, despise riches, give alms to
 everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and the crazy, devote your
 income and labors to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
 have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to
 nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men, go freely
 with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and mothers of
 families, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency, not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

 --Walt Whitman, *Leaves of Grass*

Dear Ferret,

I want to send you this letter in order to extend my apologies for the turn of events that transpired between us regarding the xxx corp and the monies we borrowed from you over the years.

As you know I have moved now to New York City. I have quite a fresh start here and the new environment has done much to cleanse me in many ways. It has allowed me a clearer picture of the last few years of my life as probably nothing else in the world would besides this great move.

I have come to believe after a lot of reflection and meditation on the series of events that led up to our imbroglio that I owe you a sincere apology from one man to another that is long overdue.

I don't want to waste our time with a lot of rhetoric. Just suffice it to say that I have thought a lot about it and realize that I was blinded by a few things that disabled my better judgment when it came to repaying the debt I owed to you as a friend, and as a business partner. I think that to put it lightly I was so thoroughly wrapped around the claws of someone we once knew and loved, just so blinded by feelings that still lingered, that I probably did a lot of other things too that looking back I wouldn’t have partaken in if I had had my wits about me.

In all fairness to the black widow, for I cannot put the blame entirely on her, I believe that I was also blinded by my own greed and ambition to a degree that wasn't the healthiest for me nor for those around me and I made quite a few major mistakes that I am still feeling the repercussions of today. One of the most personal to me as a man was how I handled or mishandled our business dealings. For our friendship is something that I am sure that I always treasure more than anything I could have achieved as a business person or acquired as a man addicted to the life of leisure and pleasure. I think maybe that I was so broke for so long as a struggling artist during our twenties that I let the glimmer of success get the best of me and didn't attend to the duties that were right there in front of me and so obvious to you.

To serve justice where justice is due to you my old friend, it didn't make much sense for me to have a million dollar wardrobe while month after month went by and you never received a penny as repayment for your generous loans over the years. I know I gave you that inheritance check but there was much more than that that could have been done. I know that now. You always came through for us when we needed you. And as a friend I had always believed that I reciprocated admirably. Except in the case of repaying you when it was obvious in most cases how easy it would have been to do so.

If I had all that money back and had it do over, you would have been repaid on time every month as promised with a smile and a handshake. That's the God’s honest truth. I'm not saying it was easy street because post 2000 it wasn't. Times got tough for us. But the fact that I lavished extravagant luxuries on my home while you went unpaid for years is something that I will always hold myself to remember as a weakness in my character that went unchecked and may have cost me one of the most valuable assets I had in the world, our friendship.

My realizations of my errors and my contrition over how I handled our affairs do not in my eyes condone the actions you took in the final battle nor the manner in which you proceeded, about which at this point we are just going to have to agree to disagree. But in closing allow me to say I am sorry to you. I treated you unfairly. I took advantage of our relationship in a way that I wouldn’t have done otherwise had you been a bank or a creditor, and I betrayed your trust for my own benefit in a way that makes me ashamed when I think about it.

In more informal terms and perhaps most sincerely: sorry dog.

Yours,

Fishy

PS – with your permission I would also like to cc this letter to Bas and Madelynne O'Ryan, since they inadvertently got swept up in the turmoil and I wish to set the record straight as to try to correct any damage that may have been caused by my passion of the moment and my inability to see the bigger picture. I think it would be the least that I could do. You remain I am sure one of the most admirable persons I have ever had the privilege to know; and I suspect that I did not represent that fact accurately in the last six months.