AMERICAN PATRIOT
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JANUARY 28, 2010
THE FIRST SUPER BOWL A TRADITION IS BORN
DR. ATKINS AND HIS DIET
RONALD REAGAN INAUGURATED
AMERICAN PATRIOT
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THE FIRST SUPER BOWL A TRADITION IS BORN
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DR. ATKINS AND HIS DIET
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AMERICA’S BREAKOUT ARCHITECT
10 Contents
12
EDWIN HUBBLE AND THE BIG BANG
14 16 BASEBALL MAKES PITCH FOR VETERANS
BILTMORE AMERICA’S LARGEST HOME
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
THIS WEEK IN AMERICAN HISTORY
THE FIRST SUPER BOWL A TRADITION IS BORN As the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts prep for this year’s Super Bowl, here is a surprising fact for people younger than 50: the Super Bowl has a very brief history. In fact, the first game was not held until 1967. The game began as a way for the champions of the two professional leagues of the time, the well-established National Football League (NFL) and the upstart American Football League, (AFL) to determine who was number one and to facilitate their merger into the league we know today.
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A little history. Professional football began in 1920 with the 14-league American Professional Football Association. The APFA became the NFL in 1922, and had no serious competition until 1960, when the AFL became a major power. After years of bitter rivalry, the leagues brokered a merger deal. The merger would be gradual, they decided: for the 1967 season, they’d share a draft and a championship bowl, and by 1970 they would be merged into a single league of 26 teams, the NFL. The NFL was still on top, but this AFL seriously influenced the NFL, unlike its predecessors. High-powered passing strategies and end-zone celebrations are its most durable legacies. The first Super Bowl game itself was played in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers, top team of the NFL, and the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. Although the contest was officially known as the AFL-NFL World Championship, the Super Bowl name stuck, as did the practice of thinking about the event — Super Bowl Sunday — as a full day of festivities.
Most Valuable Player as he led the Packers to a 35-10 victory over Kansas City. The Packers dominated, asserting the competitive edge of the NFL. It would be Superbowl III before the tide would turn, when the New York Jets of the AFL defeated the Baltimore Colts, and complete equality between the leagues was established. THREE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SUPER BOWL I: 1. The game was not a sell-out. 2. It was televised simultaneously by two networks NBC and CBS since both had broadcast rights to the respective leagues. 3. There was no celebrity half time show as two college marching bands provided the entertainment. It’s all very different today. WATCH VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FIRST SUPER BOWL
© BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons
The game itself was played at the Memorial Coliseum before 61,946. Quarterback Bart Starr was the first AMERICAN PATRIOT 5
DR. ATKINS AND HIS DIET 6 AMERICAN PATRIOT
Dr. Robert C. Atkins made American history as the promoter of what may be the most influential weight loss program ever. Indeed, it is estimated that onein-five Americans have tried his low carbohydrate, high fat and protein diet. Though Atkins first raised the theory in 1972, it took nearly two decades for him to popularized the concept with the publication of Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. This book made him a household name, inspired dozens of spinoff low-carb diets, and sold more than 15 million copies, making it one of the top 50 titles ever published. It spent five years on the New York Times bestseller list. Atkins was born and grew up in Ohio in modest surroundings. A frustrated comedian, he ended up going to medical school at Cornell University. In 1959, Atkins opened his own practice in New York City. As he told it, he began a diet low in carbohydrates in 1963 to counter obesity and depression. After a few weeks on the plan, he lost 27 pounds and became a convert. For the next two decades, Atkins operated an alternative healing clinic far from public view. He did continue to publish, however, and in 1992, his diet book exploded in popularity due, in part, to endorsements by celebrities as Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt. The point of the book — and the diet — is that people should consume as much as two-thirds of their calories from fat and protein and reduce carbohydrates to a bare minimum. In simple terms, such a diet turns the body from a carbohydrateburning engine into a fat-burning engine. The result: quick and dramatic weight loss. Larger than life once fame hit, Dr. Atkins saw tens of thousands of patients in his clinic. He also appeared on numerous radio and tv shows, had his own syndicated radio program, and authored the monthly newsletter Dr. Atkins’ Health Revelations. Atkins received the World Organization of Alternative Medicine's Recognition of Achievement Award and was named the
National Health Federation's Man of the Year. He was the director of the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine which he founded in the early 1980s until his death in 2003. Though he won fame and fortune, universal respect eluded him because the Atkins Diet is high in controversy. The amount of meats and fats in the diet is much higher than the American Medical Association recommends, and the diet has been skewered by the AMA, as well as the American Dietetic Association and the American Heart Association. The charges: the diet does not work over the long term, and that it can cause health problems ranging from bad breath and constipation to osteoporosis and heart problems. Many medical professionals continued to issue a strong recommendation against the Atkins Diet as well as similar low-carb, high protein regimens such as the Zone, Protein Power, Sugar Busters, and South Beach. His final book, Atkins for Life, tried to blunt the controversy by adding lean meats, some vegetables, and exercise to the mix, as well as up to 20 nutritional supplements. After Atkins died in 2003 — of a fall in the snow, not heart disease as some have maintained — scientists have remain divided. Recent studies have shown that low-carb diets do produce weight loss and reduce certain cardiac risk factors. Still, most experts remain concerned that a high-protein, high-fat diet can cause problems for the large segment of the population that is at risk for heart disease. Thus, Dr. Atkins legacy remains a subject of debate.
OFFICIAL RECIPES FOR THE ATKINS DIET AMERICAN PATRIOT 7
FRANK LLOYD
WRIGHT 8 AMERICAN PATRIOT
AMERICA’S BREAKOUT ARCHITECT Spanning a productive career of 70 years, architect Frank Lloyd Wright would design hundreds of landmark banks, churches, schools, civic centers and residential homes, in the process significantly defining the identity of American architecture. He would become best known for his dramatic designs: Fallingwater, a private home integrated into a waterfall, and the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum in New York. But equally influential are his rural schools and middle class homes. Wright was determined to design buildings in a style that didn’t emulate his European counterparts, a break from tradition. He would disregard “form follows function,” preferring “form and function are one.” His buildings would appear modern yet elegant, notably seen in his Prairie Series which cemented his reputation as a visionary. His work was distinct from other modernist architects, as he was heavily influenced by nature in the design and construction of his more than 1,000 buildings, and created buildings where the line between inside and outside were blurred. His concern for interiors would forever alter how homes and public buildings would be constructed, commenting, “the space within that building is the reality of that building”. He would create large open interior spaces and experiment with modern shapes and materials, at the time revolutionary ideas. His whimsical side is shown in his design for the Johnson Wax Building (shown top right), which uses interior support columns in a tree shape which meet the ceiling with concrete “lillipads”. Wright's mother declared while pregnant that her son would grow up to build beautiful buildings, and after his birth covered his
JOHNSON WAX BUILDING. PHOTOGRAPH © BY JEFF DEAN
FALLINGWATER
nursery with engravings of English Cathedrals. She proved prescient. In 1991, 39 years after his death and 94 years after his mother’s prediction, he was, in fact, called “the greatest American architect of all time” by the American Institute of Architects. LEARN MORE ABOUT FALLINGWATER, A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AMERICAN PATRIOT 9
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E DW I N H U B B L E AND THE BIG BANG
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You may vaguely recognize this American astronomer’s name from the Hubble Telescope (shown below), the large and flexible space telescope this was carried into orbit by the space shuttle in 1990, and was repaired in space in a daring maneuver. But the reason Edwin Hubble should be known and remembered goes much deeper.
provide the first evidence for the Big Bang theory, which describes the birth and evolution of the universe. He discovered the cosmos, and in doing so founded the science of cosmology.”
In the 1920s, Hubble made a series of discoveries that changed the way we think about the Universe. First, using a powerful telescope at Mount Wilson in California, Hubble discovered that the Milky Way — long thought to make up the entire cosmos, was just one a many galaxies spread throughout space. Then he followed up this discovery by showing that the galaxy-filled universe was actually expanding like a balloon, that it must be expanding outward from a single point in space and time, and that the age of the Universe could be calculated. In its Time 100 series on influential people of the 20th century, Time Magazine stated that “Hubble did nothing less, in short, than invent the idea of the universe and then
Among the people Hubble influenced was Albert Einstein, who believed that the astronomer’s findings helped explain and legitimize Einstein’s own theory of relativity. He personally visited Hubble to thank him in 1931.
Born in Marshfield, Missouri in 1889, he grew up in Chicago. Always fascinated by science, Hubble was both a great student and an Illinois state high school high jump champion. He earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics and astronomy, went to Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, practiced and rejected the law, and the received a doctorate from the University of Chicago. Following a tour of duty in WWI, he took a job at the Mount Wilson Observatory, where he made his stunning discoveries using a 100 inch reflecting telescope.
Hubble served as a scientist for the government during WWII and, after the war, was honored for providing exception service. He returned to Mount Wilson, where he helped design the biggest telescope yet, the Hale Telescope that was set up at the Mount Palomar Observatory. He died in 1953, and the worldchanging orbital telescope launched in 1990 was named – appropriately, by all measures — in his honor.
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AMERICA’S LARGEST HOME
Asheville, North Carolina, a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, became known as an international resort area from the 1890s to the 1920s. History buffs are still visiting its historic sites and architectural wonders. Perhaps the most notable among them is the Biltmore, called “America’s largest home,” and now both a hotel, a working estate, and a historic landmark. 12 AMERICAN PATRIOT
GEORGE VANDERBILT conceived the project and he was a big thinker. Building Biltmore was, at the time, one of the largest undertakings in the history of American residential architecture. Over a six-year period, an entire community of craftsmen worked to build the estate, which boasted its own brick factory, woodworking shop, and a three-mile railway spur for transporting materials to the site.
The design was the work of renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, who modeled the house on three chateaux built in 16th-century France. It would feature 4 acres of floor space, 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. The basement alone would house a swimming pool, gymnasium and changing rooms, bowling alley, servants’ quarters, kitchens, and more. The grounds had to be as monumental as the building. For this task, the 125,000-acre estate was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the creator of New York’s Central Park and the father of American landscape architecture. He not only developed acres of gardens and parkland, but in his efforts to protect the environment and reclaim over-farmed land, Olmsted established America’s first managed forest. Vanderbilt officially opened the home to friends and family on Christmas Eve in 1895. He had created a country retreat where he could pursue his passion for art, literature, and horticulture. After marrying the American, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, during the summer of 1898, George and his new bride came to live at the estate. Their only child, Cornelia (1900–1976), was born and grew up at Biltmore. Today, the 8,000 acre estate lives on. It includes a four-star inn, winery and working farm, and receives more than one million guests and visitors a year. A family-owned company keeps the Biltmore as a privately owned, profitable, working estate. Biltmore does not receive any governmental funding or grants, making it one of the country’s most significant National Historic Landmarks that is preserved solely through private funding.
LEARN MORE ABOUT ASHEVILLE NC AND THE BILTMORE AMERICAN PATRIOT 13
BASEBALL MAKES PITCH FOR VETERANS Veterans were the winners when Michelle Obama and Jill Biden visited the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx before attending the Game One of the 2009 World Series at Yankee Stadium. The visit, as well as the game, was dedicated in support of Welcome Back Veterans, a charity sponsored by Major League Baseball that helps returning Iraq and Afghanistan war vets find mental health services and jobs.
Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden were joined at the Center by members of the Yankees organization and representatives from Major League Baseball as they met with veterans and staff and thanked them for their service. Said Obama: “These folks have made sacrifices, and we owe for what they have done for us.” Dr. Biden said she wanted to make it clear to the veterans there and across the country that the administration was listening. “As a military mom, I know how a simple act of kindness can make a difference to a soldier, whether it's troop greeters who are meeting our troopers coming back, a neighbor offering to baby-sit, or a classroom adopting a unit,” she said. “It is our sacred duty to honor the service of those who sacrifice for our country -- and we can all play a role with a simple act of service.” Afterwards, at the Stadium, the two took the field, escorted by Yogi Berra, to help throw out the ceremonial first pitch with wounded Iraq veteran Tony Odierno. And the pre-game ceremonies include the airing of a public service announcement featuring the first wives. The charity was created by Major League Baseball to inspire Americans to give back to returning veterans and their families. Welcome Back Veterans is committed to transforming the lives of our returning veterans by changing the way people think and talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) while providing ongoing
treatment for veterans and their families in addition to funding research. To date, the group has raised more than $3.9 million for our courageous veterans and their families. An additional $2 million in matching funds was provided by the McCormick Foundation, totaling nearly $6 million available to address challenges of mental health injuries and employment for vets. Recently, more than $2.9 million in first round grants was awarded to 12 nonprofit organizations across the nation. One key initiative is to create a network of University Hospitals to address the mental health needs of our veterans and their families. The three core Centers for Veterans Mental Health are at university-based medical centers and, as such, will serve as models that can be replicated at other civilian medical centers across the nation. These include the Department of Psychiatry at Weill-Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, the University of Michigan Depression Center and Department of Psychiatry, and the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry. The Centers are emphasizing the major psychiatric issues facing those returning from combat such as PTSD, depression, substance use, and increasing suicide rates.
WELCOME BACK VETERANS PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT SEE THE FIRST WIVES ON THE MOUND AT YANKEE STADIUM
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming”
— WERNHER VON BRAUN (1912-1977)
an important rocket developer and champions of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. He transferred his loyalty from the Nazis to the U.S. toward the end of World War II and worked with the U.S. Army to develop rockets after the war. He eventually became director of NASAʼs Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans to the Moon.
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THIS WEEK IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
1981. Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States at the age of 69, the oldest president to take office. During inauguration celebrations, he announced that 52 American hostages that had been seized in the U.S. embassy in Tehran were being released after 444 days in captivity. CLICK HERE TO WATCH RONALD REAGAN’S FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH
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F R E E al digit
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