Stan Musial is a retired Major League Baseball (MLB) player who spent his entire 22-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals (1941-1963). He was a 24-time All-Star selection (tied with Willie Mays) and is widely considered one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. He compiled 3,630 hits and 475 home runs during his career. He was named the National League MVP three times and won three World Series. He was born on this day in 1920.
Troy Polamalu is a strong safety in the National Football League (NFL). He has won two Super Bowls (2005 and 2008) with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has been selected for the Pro Bowl seven times. Polamalu’s hair is his most distinguishing characteristic, allowing him to be easily spotted on the field. He is of American Samoan descent, went to high school in Oregon and has a million-dollar insurance policy for his hair.
Dan Marino is a retired National Football League (NFL) player. He played his 17-season career for the Miami Dolphins (1983-1999). He was one of the most prolific quarterbacks in history, holding or having held almost every major NFL passing record. With his quick release and powerful arm, Marino led the Dolphins to the playoffs 10 times. Despite never winning the Super Bowl, he is recognized as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. He was born tomorrow in 1961.
Note: You may also remember Marino for his role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) with Jim Carrey. “The laces were out!”
Joe Montana is a retired National Football League (NFL) player. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with the San Francisco 49ers, where he played for 14 seasons. Traded before the 1993 season, he spent his final two years in the league with the Kansas City Chiefs. While a member of the 49ers, Montana started in four Super Bowl games (1981, 1984, 1988 and 1989) and won all of them.
Note: The 2012 NFL season began on Wednesday, September 5.
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “Lady Day,” she pioneered a new vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists. Holiday is perhaps most celebrated for singing “Strange Fruit,” a protest song that became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording. She died on this day in 1959.
Bill Cosby is an American comedian, actor and television producer. During the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in The Cosby Show (1984-1992), which is considered one of the decade’s defining sitcoms. He is also known for The Electric Company, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and A Different World. Cosby is a notable spokesman for Jell-O and other products. He was born on this day in 1937.
Note: The Cosby Sweater Project is great.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect and interior designer who believed in designing harmonious structures of organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for Fallingwater (1935) in Pennsylvania, which has been called “the best all-time work of American architecture.” Wright was born on this day in 1867.
Of Wright’s over 400 works, only one structure is located in Oregon. It’s the Gordon House at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. I plan to visit the Fallingwater property when I’m back in Pennsylvania later this month.
Kobe Bryant is an NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers, since 1996. He plays the shooting guard position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He led the Lakers to NBA championship runs in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010.
Note: This is 8-bit character #11 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Her book Silent Spring (1962) documented detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. This led to a nationwide ban on DDT, and inspired a grassroots environmental movement that resulted in the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She was born on May 27, 1907.
Trent Reznor is an American singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. Reznor has led the industrial rock project Nine Inch Nails as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist since 1988. In 2010, he and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, formed the post-industrial band How to Destroy Angels alongside fellow composer Atticus Ross, with whom Reznor has scored two films. Reznor was on born on this day in 1965.
Wilt Chamberlain is a former NBA player with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. He played the center position from 1959-1973 and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Chamberlain is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season.
Note: This is 8-bit character #6 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
With apologies to Kurt Vonnegut: This is I. This is me. This is the author of this site. Today I am celebrating 365 days of pixel art with my most self-indulgent 8-bit character of all. I was born on this day in 1979. This year on 3/3 I celebrate 33 revolutions around the sun. For many years I called Pennsylvania home, but I’ve lived in Oregon since 2001. My three cats are Eli, Tanuki and The King.
Happy Leap Year! This special occasion deserves a purple squirrel. These rare creatures show up in the media about once every four years. There was a sighting in Pennsylvania earlier this month, in southern England in 2008 and in Minnesota in 1997. Most guesses about how a gray squirrel ends up colored purple involve exposure to dye, ink or paint.
Note: There is a more terrifying hypothesis posed by Krish Pillai, a Pennsylvania computer science professor. He suggests bromine-contaminated groundwater from fracking operations: “That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel has too much bromide in its system possibly from all the bromide laced frack water its been drinking.”
Mister Rogers was an American educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, author and television host. Rogers created and hosted Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968-2001), which featured his gentle, soft-spoken personality and directness to his audiences. As a kid in the 1980s, I watched countless episodes of his show on PBS. He died on this day in 2003.
P.S. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.” – Fred Rogers
Update: Listen to “Garden of Your Mind (Mister Rogers Remixed)” from PBS Digital Studios.
A controversial artist and leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. Warhol’s works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement. His studio (The Factory) was a famous gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons. He died on this day in 1987.
A groundhog resident of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. On February 2 (Groundhog Day) of each year, the town of Punxsutawney celebrates the groundhog. During the ceremony, Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler’s Knob and performs shadow-based weather prediction. A group called the Inner Circle, recognizable by their top hats and tuxedos, takes care of Phil year-round and plans the annual ceremony.
An iconic college football coach who was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 through 2011. JoePa holds the record for the most victories by an FBS football coach with 409 and coached five undefeated teams. He was fired on November 9, 2011 by Penn State trustees in the wake of the horrific Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Joe Paterno has always reminded me of my late Italian grandfather and, as a Penn State alum and former State College resident, I occasionally saw this humble man around town. It is difficult to understand how a man who stressed moral character didn’t act beyond his legal obligations when the well-being of a child was at stake. Sad times.
A Puerto Rican professional baseball player and humanitarian. He was born on this day in 1934. He played his entire 18-year career with Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates (1955-72) and was the first Latin American player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in a plane crash in 1972, while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and inventor of the lightning rod and bifocals. Now he is on the $100 bill, so I’m making him my 100th 8-bit character. It’s all about the benjamins.
In mostly unrelated news, I launched my first website exactly 14 years ago today.
Mario Lemieux – No. 527
Mario Lemieux is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He played 17 seasons as a forward for the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984 and 2006. Lemieux led Pittsburgh to two Stanley Cups (1991 and 1992) and led Canada to an Olympic gold medal in 2002. He was named MVP three times and led the league in scoring six times. Playing only 915 out of a potential 1428 regular season NHL games, Lemieux’s career was plagued by health problems, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He is currently the Penguins’ principal owner and is the only person ever to win the Stanley Cup as both a player and an owner. Lemieux is one of the greatest hockey players of all time.
Today is the last day that Heidi and I will be in Switzerland. The next stop on our train journey across Europe is Venice, Italy. Goodbye, Alps.