DayStrider: Tales from a Time Traveler

Aug 16th: Olympic Gold Overload

• Truman Pastworthy • Episode 16

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August 16th is a day to celebrate many remarkable achievements!  Do you like stories about triumph and glory?  Todays tales have that and more - especially if you love sports: 

  • Sports Illustrated was born today - and turned 70 this year.  Did the magazine grow because of America’s love of sports?  Or was it the other way around?
  • The “Fastest Man Alive” set a speed record on this day that may never be broken.  Do you believe that?
  • The “Greatest Swimmer of All Time” won an amazing come-from-behind race on this day in the past.  Can you imagine 0.01 seconds?

If it's a special day for you or for someone you care about, why not learn a little more about today by listening to some fun, engaging tales of the past.  You’ll find yourself a little smarter and have some great stories you can tell at the next summer bar-b-q!  If you need some great gift ideas, we have those too (along with links to where you can find them on Amazon).

Watch today’s events using these YouTube video links (these links worked in mid-2024 - not sure how long the links will be available):

  • Link to Usain Bolt’s world record in the 100m dash
  • Link to Micheal Phelps’s 0.01 second win in the 100m butterfly
  • Link to Joe’s Elite Podcasts website


Gift ideas for folks who celebrate August 16th:

Text me your favorite time travel movie!!!


~~~ DayStrider Fun ~~~


Do you want to be mentioned here in the podcast? Or do you want me to do a shout-out for a loved one? All you need to do is send me an e-mail: daystriderstories@gmail.com


Better yet, you can record your own shout-out by leaving me a voice message using this SpeakPipe link


Do you have a story that you wish to share? Join me as a guest and let’s tell the world together! Once again, just send me an e-mail or find me here on Facebook: Truman Pastworthy


If you had as much fun listening as I did creating this episode, please click "follow" in your favorite podcast platform . . . oh . . . and even better - why not share it with a friend (or three)! I’m betting you know just the perfect person who would enjoy today’s stories!


If you feel adventurous, how 'bout writing a great review? :-)



Truman:

Welcome, Seeker. Your portal is all warmed up and ready to stride through history with me. Together, we'll discover why August 16th is special when it comes to the world of sports. There's a handful of amazing achievements that occurred on this particular day. The popularity of sports took off in the mid-1900s, right around the time Sports Illustrated was born. Our journey will take us through that time period. and we'll try to discover if the magazine was just following along with the culture change, or if it was at the wheel actually driving the popularity of sports to new heights. After that, we're going looking for gold, as in the Olympic variety. The first stop will be in Berlin as we check in on the fastest man alive, and then we'll head to Beijing to relive the most exciting swim race ever. You'll have your hands full as we return you to your normal self with over two dozen gold medals and all. Oh yeah, you'll want to stick around for today's holidays. It's tell a joke day and I've got some goodies for you. After striding through August 16th, you'll have a new appreciation for sports in general and for speed in particular. Get ready to keep up as we take our fastest journey ever through the past. Time's a-tickin', so let's get to it. Welcome, seekers, to the enchanting world of Daystrider, the podcast where we embark on a daily journey through history. I'm your travel guide, Truman Pastworthy, and together we'll explore some fascinating stories that happened on this exact day, but from some time in the past. From groundbreaking inventions to remarkable birthdays and extraordinary events to quirky national holidays, we've got it all. So kick back, relax, and open your mind for some lighthearted stories that'll leave you saying, huh, I never knew that happened on this day. Alrighty then, let's get to it. When I was growing up, one of my buddies, Scott, had the coolest bedroom in the neighborhood. Now, his dad was an avid sports fan, and he collected Sports Illustrated magazines. And he kept every one of them, I guess saving them for something special. Well, his mom had a spark of genius, and she tore off the covers of almost 200 of those magazines and then wallpapered Scott's room with them. Now, to young boys growing up idolizing superstar athletes, this was the most awesome bedroom ever. Maybe to others, it might have felt a little creepy that the walls had a couple hundred faces of these various athletes watching you sleep at night, right? Well, today marks the 70th birthday for the famous magazine. Now, 70 seems pretty old, right? But Time Magazine has been around for over 100 years. National Geographic, close to 140 years. And the oldest, Scientific American, it's been around for almost 180 years. Sheesh. But Sports Illustrated was the first magazine dedicated to sports. Now, sports were definitely becoming popular in the mid-50s when Sports Illustrated came along. Actually, like everything else, sports started becoming popular in the late 40s after World War II ended and life was returning to normal. So Henry Luce, who had started Time Magazine in the 20s, Fortune Magazine in the 30s, and then Life Magazine later that decade, he wanted to diversify. He wanted something different in the portfolio, but his friends and business associates warned him that sports was not a good idea. In fact, the words they used were misguided and inherently trivial folly. Yeah, folly. Well, they were wrong. Sports Illustrated went on to become a huge success. Now, in the beginning, the naysayers were right. It was a little bumpy. because Luce focused on diversity and featured sports that were both popular mainstream as well as rugby and other outdoorsy activity type sports, which were less popular. But around the five-year mark, they pivoted and began to focus almost entirely on premier sporting events, and that's when subscribers began flocking and the money started rolling in. Now, if you're like me, when you think of Sports Illustrated, you think of their awesome cover photos. Over the years, their shots have been amazing. They've captured triumphs like no one else. People frame these covers and try to get them autographed, and there are traders out there who buy and sell the magazine issues because of these remarkable cover photos. Images like Muhammad Ali knocking out Sonny Liston, or Tiger Woods celebrating a huge win at the Masters, or Brandi Chastain taking her shirt off and celebrating the World Cup championship win. And the 1980 miracle on ice moment when the U.S. beat Russia in hockey. All amazing photos. And I could probably go on and on listing photo images across all the decades. But we'll leave you with the very first one. What was on the cover of the first Sports Illustrated magazine? Milwaukee Braves third baseman Eddie Matthews at the plate in his home stadium. Now if you're listening carefully, you heard me say Milwaukee Braves, not Brewers. Surprisingly, Milwaukee had two baseball teams in the 1950s. How about that? Anyway, Sports Illustrated changed the way sports was reported. Back in the day, the newspapers, all they would do is share the stats of the game, and they'd run through the facts of who did what and what the score was and so forth. Kind of bland, boring stuff. Sports Illustrated did much more than that. Essentially, the concept of sports journalism was formed. And these writers would spend time digging into the backstories of the athletes and the events and opened up all the behind the scenes to all of America. And we got to know the people playing the games that we love so dearly. James Missner went so far as to say, Sports Illustrated has become the Bible of the industry. It eventually became the desire of athletes to make the cover of the magazine. Well, it did for most. There's this thing called the Sports Illustrated Jinx that many athletes were concerned about. Have you heard about this one? I guess we could call it an urban legend or a superstition. Anyway, the worry was that if an athlete or a team makes the cover, then something bad would happen to them soon after. Yeah, it was a thing. There's even a Wikipedia page that lists 52 examples of the Jinx, going all the way back to 1955 when it all started. Yeah, and the start was actually a bad one. Alpine skier Jill Kinmont was featured on the cover of a late January issue. And then the very next slalom event she was in, she lost control, hit a tree, and unfortunately became paralyzed for the rest of her life. Yeah, well... Sorry for her, but you can make time to read about all the jinxes. There's boxers that were featured who soon lost their championship titles. There are examples of undefeated football and basketball teams who, after they made the cover, lost the next game. And there's teams who are making great runs into the playoffs, make the cover of the magazine, bam, knocked out. Yeah, so of course, I think this is all silly, right? People only remember the bad examples. There are plenty of stars out there who have made dozens of covers and went on to be the greatest ever. Michael Jordan, he's made the cover 50 times. Goat. Tom Brady, 21 cover appearances. Goat. Serena Williams, a more modest 8 cover appearances. Still, goat. So, I don't buy the jinx. Instead, I buy the statistics, right? Meaning, if you have a stellar run and then have this huge stellar performance, you're going to make the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. But statistics say that when your performance is above your normal average, you are due to return to normal levels. It's bound to happen. And when it does, athletes are going to need something to blame, right? So they'll just blame the jinx. All right. Now, we can't talk about Sports Illustrated without mentioning its most controversial feature, the annual swimsuit issue. So this concept came about in the mid-1960s when they were trying to think of ways to bridge the gap between the college bowl games in early January and the start of baseball spring training in March. Now, side note, the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl Sunday, that wasn't really a big deal until the 70s. And side note too, March Madness wasn't a thing really until the 80s. So anyway, they were thinking about this sunshine issue, and they decided to go with pretty ladies modeling bathing suits. And many subscribers loved this issue, but at the same time, others were outraged. Now, of course, we all know that even bad publicity sells subscriptions. So they released the swimsuit issue again the next year, and again the year after that, and the love-hate relationship took off. Yep, and they've been doing the swimsuit issue ever since. The founder, Jewel Campbell, continued to press on, battling the accusations that she was contributing to the objectification of women. And her work was heavily scrutinized. But, regardless of all that, she stuck to her moral compass and created the issue for 32 years. And hey, she was partially responsible for the successful modeling careers of Cheryl Teagues, Christy Brinkley, and Tyra Banks, to name a few. Many of those models speak very highly of Campbell and the institution of that annual issue. Of course, why wouldn't they, since it helped them make millions of dollars during their careers? All right, so we're going to move on here. I'm just striding through history, folks. I'm not here for editorial commentary. But what I will leave you with is that this iconic magazine has been much more than just chronicle sporting events. It has been a cultural driver. shaping the way we view athletes, sports, and even societal issues. Sports Illustrated has not only documented history, but it's also influenced it. Roses are red and sports are fun. Writing a review would be a home run. Not sure what to say? Don't worry or fear. Type, this pod's a winner. It's top tier. Wouldn't it be cool if your name somehow invoked the very thing that makes you special? So let's say you were given the name Sunny Day at birth, and then you had a genuinely bright and cheery personality that made others feel great. That would be cool, wouldn't it? Or if your parents named you Max Whitson, and then you loved to tell jokes and always kept your family and friends in stitches, they'd ask you, is that really your given name?

Guest:

Yeah.

Truman:

Well, this actually happened this way for the fastest man to ever live. His name evokes insane speed. And of course, I'm talking about Usain Bolt. Insanely fast, Usain Bolt. It's like those names I just made up a minute ago, but this one's actually true. It's the name he was given at birth by Wellesley and Jennifer Bolt. Yeah. Now, I said the fastest man to ever live like I'm hyping him up for this segment and clickbait and all that. No, no. As many of you know, this is not hype at all. And today, I'm sharing Bolt's story. So like many superstars, Usain's life started off humble. As a child, his parents enforced discipline and required that he focus on his schooling. He played basketball and soccer, they called it football in Jamaica, in the streets. And then in high school, while playing these sports, the coaches could just tell that he was wicked fast. So of course, they convinced him to run track. I'd love to use the cliche, the rest is history from there, but sometimes luck does play a role. So, locally in Jamaica, Usain was a standout in every race he participated in. Now, where luck played its role was when he was 16, because that year, the World Junior Athletic Championships were held in Jamaica, and so it was convenient for him to participate. And of course, he pretty much won everything he competed in. And, oh by the way, he became the youngest ever world champion in the 200 meter. So now, everyone in the sprinting world got the chance to see this rising star. So that was 2002, and naturally, he began training for the Olympics in 2004. And this is where his story hits a speed bump, also like many superstars. So Bolt had health issues. He was diagnosed with scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine. And he had issues with his thighs in that Olympics that caused him to not run as fast as he could. And then he had issues with his hamstrings in the 2005 World Championships. So apparently, these things stemmed from his poor training habits. Now, like many gifted and talented individuals, he had risen to where he was because of raw ability. Now, to get to the elite level and status, he would be required to work hard. I'm talking really hard. And so at that point in his life, he needed to decide what he wanted to do. Would he really put in the hard work necessary? Well, we'll find out more about that in a minute. But what I want to share is Usain's strong proponent for work-life balance, which meant he liked to spend some of his time having fun. Now, if you haven't gotten to see any of his races, you can go back and watch videos now. And some of them show him doing little dances, little jigs on the track before a race, and then big, huge dances after the race. In fact, he even made up this cool lightning bolt pose that he did for the fans after races he won once the official results were posted. I love it. It's awesome. It makes everybody cheer. It's pretty cool. I'm actually doing the pose right now as I say this. Anyway, there's also images of him literally dancing. In a race, running along, looking to the side directly at the camera and smiling during the race. It's so funny. Yep. And apparently, Bolt loves playing Jamaican Dominoes, which from what I've researched is a lively four-player game where there are two teams and you talk trash and you block your opponent's moves on the board. But most of his friends outside of his home country weren't used to that style of play, so he also played French dominoes with them, which is a calmer two-player game, and you're just competing to build lines and get scores. So, pretty cool. Yeah. And you'd think that Balt would also have a strict diet, right? Well, apparently, when he was at the 2008 Olympics, which were in Beijing, China, the local food didn't work out so well for him. So what did he do? He went to my favorite fast food joint, McDonald's, and he pounded down chicken nuggets. Well, excuse me, McNuggets. And he claims to have eaten a thousand nugs during his 10-day stay in China. Bolt sounds like a great person to me, and he would fit right in with my family and friends. Okay, but we're here to talk about August 16th, and we'll get to that. But let me zip you through Bolt's accomplishments. Essentially, Bolt spent a career setting and then breaking world records in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter relays. In fact, he's the only person to win a double-double in consecutive Olympics, which means he won both the 100-meter and 200-meter gold medals in 2008 and 2012. Actually, he topped that with a double-triple because in both of those Olympics, he also won the gold in the 400-meter relay. Pretty impressive. So he was an eight-time world champion in sprinting, and he also has eight Olympic gold medals in all. He used to have nine, but sadly one was taken away because one of his teammates in the 400-meter relay tested positive for using illegal substances. So that stinks. But anyway, we got to get back to August 16, 2009, when he was racing in the World Athletics Championship in Berlin, Germany. And he was amped up that night. because he wanted to break into a new barrier for the 100 meter. Now, the barrier of 10 seconds was broken way back in 1968 by Jim Hines, and he held that record for almost 15 years. And then after that, someone kept breaking the record every couple of a few years, just breaking it and knocking it down lower and lower. And on the night of August 16th, Bolt himself was holding the current record of 9.68 seconds, that he set a year earlier at the 2008 Olympics. Remember those chicken nuggets? 9-6-8, fueled by McDonald's. Anyway, he was gunning to break that 9-6 barrier. He wanted to get to 9-5-something. He figured 9-5-anything would be the record, the one that would never be broken. Well, 15 years today and counting, he still has it. The 2024 Olympics, they just wrapped up, and the fastest 100-meter time there was 9.79 seconds. Okay, so Bolt was in lane four, which is reserved for the fastest runner. And at the gun, he exploded out of the blocks. But at the 10-meter mark, he was about dead even with the other runners. So everybody had a great start. But his acceleration to max speed was so impressive that by the 20-meter mark, he was clearly in the lead already. And he kept expanding that lead with each 10-meter segment. And I think he could actually tell that he was zooming. At the end of the straightaway, there's a clock. And you can see him. Right after he crosses the finish line, he turns his head and looks down at the results. So he knew. He knew he had done it. He had broken the barrier. 9.58. He and everyone else had been chasing that 5, and he got it. Awesome. Top speed that night, 27.8 miles an hour. Usain is insane. The fastest man alive. Yep, chick. So the question is, do we think this record will ever get broken? Well, let's turn to science. Peter Wayne at the Locomotor Performance Lab in Texas studies the human body and its ability to run fast. And I'm talking really fast. He studies world-class athletes on some very high-tech equipment. And he says the key to sprinting is the force the body can apply to the track. Apparently, Bolt can apply over five times his body weight in force, which is insane. Normal people can apply closer to three times their body weight. Then, once they get to their max speed by the 12th step in the race, it's how long they can maintain that max speed. And again, Bolt hit 27.8 miles per hour that night, which is remarkable. So the short story is Peter Wayne says that a perfectly built human running in perfect conditions and runs a perfect race from start to finish, if all those things happen, then a time of, his words, low 940s could be possible. So I guess we're going to have to wait and see. Will someone from the future be able to do that? Who knows? But here's what I do know. Bolt has done what is right at the limit of impossible. which is pretty daggum impressive. So records, they're made to be broken, right? But at some point, isn't a record going to be the final record? Who knows? I guess time will tell. Pun intended, time will tell. A time traveler's delight, we sprint through the past. Perhaps those triumphs will forever last. If these tales of champions lit a spark in your eye, please share with your friends so they can learn why. I want to tell you about my friend who's an Olympian that had an amazing experience on this day. Okay, well, he's not actually my friend. He's not even an acquaintance. More like a local celebrity that I have a few teeny tiny connections to and I follow on Instagram, right? That counts as a friend, right? Yeah, I have a teeny connection because my mom taught school with his mom A long, long time ago. And my kids swam in the same pool that he grew up swimming in. In fact, as we've traveled around Central Maryland for Swim Meets, we've seen his name on the pool records boards. These are the boards that show the records in that pool for the different events. His times are impressive. And there have been sightings of him in the Towson area, and he's made celebrity appearances at both the Orioles and Ravens games. So kind of a friend, right? By now you've probably figured out that I'm talking about Michael Phelps. Yep, and I want to take you back to August 16, 2008 and tell the story of the most intense swimming race I have ever seen. But as a preview before this amazing race, Phelps was already a hero of young swimmers. Eight years earlier, he made the Olympics at the age of 15. Impressive. Of course, his best finish that year was a fifth-place finish, but hey, he was only 15. And then four years later, when he was 19, still a teenager, he brought home five gold medals and two bronze, which is the second-best Olympic haul in swimming history. So he's already had an impressive career leading up to tonight. All right, so the Summer Olympics were in Beijing, China that year. And a quick aside, something I learned as part of researching this segment was that the Chinese government wanted perfect weather for these Olympic Games. And so they employed weather modification strategies to do so on a massive scale. Yes, yes, they used cloud seeding techniques where they launched or spread silver iodide amongst the clouds in the air west of Beijing, and then these droplets would cause the moisture in the clouds to become heavier, which caused the rain to fall before the clouds got to the capital, leaving sunny skies for the Olympians and their millions of fans. How about that? Anyway, these Olympics took place in Beijing, and so the 16th was on a Saturday that year. Or was it? Consider there's this huge time zone issue. So Beijing is 12 hours ahead of East Coast time. And so events taking place on the morning over there would be late the night before over here. What? Yeah, yeah. So for example, the 100-meter butterfly swimming event that was scheduled for 10.10 a.m. Beijing time on Saturday the 16th, which thankfully was aired live for us at 10.10 our time, But what time was that? Our slidey keyboard mobile phones. Remember those where you slid the screen up to get to the typing keys? Anyway, told us it was August 15th here in the U.S. Friday night. Yeah, Friday night's party time, right? No, no, no. Not until after this swimming event. This one is going to be huge. Yes, leading up to Friday night's event, Phelps had been on an incredible tear. If you don't remember this personally, what I'm about to tell you is going to sound pretty much impossible. It's hard to believe, but he had swum in six events already. Is swum right or is it swimmed? He had swimmed? He had swam in six events already? I don't know. And in each event, he not only won the gold, he set world records in all six events. So already he had won the most gold medals of everyone ever in the Olympics. A goat status already. And here we are, Friday night. Again, Saturday morning over there. And tonight's huge because Serbian swimmer Milorad Cavic had been talking trash. Yeah, he had the fastest qualifying time leading into this final event. And he said that it would be good for swimming if Phelps loses. Yeah. He said it would be nice if historians talk about Michael Phelps losing to some guy. I'd like to be that guy. Whoa, what? Yeah. All right, game on. Let's go. Phelps is fired up. I was fired up. Everyone. We fired up. And I've got the link in the show notes so that you can watch this video of this race. It's over two minutes long because it has a bunch of replays and stuff, but the race itself was only 51 seconds. And man, what an intense 51 seconds that was. Because right from the start, Cavage, who was in lane four, like I said, the fastest qualifying time, got off to a better jump off the block and came out of the water ahead of Phelps, who was in lane five, right next to him. Well, no, we're already behind, but there's 80 meters left. When they got to the turn and heading back, Kavich had held his lead and Phelps was actually in seventh place at that point. The announcers are saying maybe he was tired, maybe too much race. Oh, no, no. Come on, Michael. Dig deep. Dig deep, buddy. And then with every stroke, he gained a smidge. Another stroke, another smidge. Now let's pause right there. The butterfly to me is one of the hardest strokes to swim. You have to keep your feet together while kicking, kind of like a mermaid would do. So your feet are together kicking through the water. Much harder than the freestyle flutter kick. And the arms are so uncomfortable because you have to pull them up out of the water together and scoop them back into the pool. It's just hard to do. You need strong shoulders. But I'll tell you what. Great swimmers like Phelps and Cavish, they make it look like a beautiful thing in the water. Anyway. So we're heading down the homestretch, a few meters left, and Phelps keeps gaining by a smidge with each stroke. And then at the very end, Kavich is gliding into the wall to touch the pad, but Phelps takes one more arm stroke and gains one more smidge and hits the pad.

Guest:

Bam.

Truman:

Race over. Who won? Oh my gosh, too close to call. On the screen, we could see the times. It said Phelps had won, but the officials needed to look at the results. And they're looking, and they're looking, and yes... Michael Phelps announced the winner by one one hundredth of a second. That's point zero one of a margin. You can't get a smaller margin, at least not back then. This year's Olympics, you could. They flashed it up on the boards and the American fans are going nuts. The people I'm with were going nuts, jumping around the room. Everyone except Cavage is going nuts. All right. So Cavage and his camp, right? It's time for a protest. That's what we do when we lose by a smidge. We need to protest. So luckily, the cameras they used to film the ending of these races filmed 10,000 frames per second. That's a lot of frames. So anyway, in the protest, they went and watched the film frame by frame by frame. And they were able to confirm that Phelps did actually touch the wall before Cavage. Amazing. Another gold for Phelps. Sadly, this was only an Olympic record, not another world record. Now, I'm kidding. An amazing run. And then the next day, he won another gold medal, along with another world record. So he pushed his event total to eight gold medals and seven world records, and his all-time total to 13 gold medals. And he wasn't even done. Four years later, in the next Olympics, he won four more golds and two silvers to finish his career as the undisputed GOAT in swimming. Yes. Now, you want to know what Cavage said after the protest was all done? It's actually pretty impressive. I wish I could do his accent, but I can't, so I'm just going to say it my way. People, this is the greatest moment of my life. I've accepted defeat, and there's nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been. Music And there you have it. Some great stories to share with your someone special to celebrate August 16th. Once again, those were the very first Sports Illustrated magazine was published today, kicking off an amazing franchise and driving the culture of American sports. Usain Bolt set a world record that some scientists feel may never be broken. And a fun story about one of Michael Phelps' most amazing finishes in his storied career. Now this episode was loaded with lots of sports stuff. So for all you non-sports enthusiasts out there, thanks for following along. I hope the stories brought enough fun to make it worth your time. That said, if you are a sports enthusiast, there are more sports stories you can find all across time. For example, there's a football story in the very first Daystrider episode September 28th. And you can find a figure skating story that had an Olympics impact in the January 8th episode. If you like basketball, the invention of the sport was covered on the December 21st episode, and a famous chair-throwing coach was featured on February 23rd. So many stories and so much fun. We'll keep striding until we're done. So for today's reflection moment, it's going to be a bit of a twist. We covered some elite athletes today, and part of their journey includes a struggle, a lot of struggle. They need to constantly eat healthy, and they must be ever vigilant about their exercise program, and even make sure they get plenty of sleep and rest. This means that they must make sacrifices in their lives, all for the sake of being elite. And it's not easy. Now, I'm not comparing my podcast journey to their sacrifices, but I am going to suggest that there are times when I ask myself, is this worth it? Are folks really enjoying this enough? Should I keep going or not? And I think about these elite athletes. They keep going and so can I. But guess what? They have help. They have coaches and mentors who push them and pull them and lift them up when they need a boost. Well, recently I received a boost. Joe from Elite Podcasts. You can check out his site in the show notes. He made some time to listen to the show and he really gave me a boost. I probably won't end up as a goat like Bolt or Phelps. And I definitely won't have as many episodes as Sports Illustrated has issues. But thanks to Joe and his encouraging words, I'm going to keep pressing on. In fact, he even tested out my SpeakPipe link that is normally reserved for shout-outs, and he left me this message.

Joe:

Hi, Truman from Daystrider Podcast. This is Joe from ElitePodcast.net, and I have to say we're really enjoying your show and have already consumed several of the back episodes and found much satisfaction there as well. Keep up the great work. It sounds great, and we'll be listening.

Truman:

Thanks, Joe. Let's do this, people. Let's keep on keeping on. Alright, so after you share these special stories, you can also mention the famous folks who celebrate their birthdays today. Madonna, the self-proclaimed rebel, was born on this day in 1958. Not only the queen of pop for selling the most records of all female artists... Even Taylor Swift. Yes, true. Madonna has a Golden Globe Award to go along with her seven Grammys. She's also started a number of successful businesses and charitable organizations like A Prayer, Like A Virgin, Material Girl, Vogue, all on the list of great songs that she's created. I'd sing them for you, but you don't want to hear that. All right, James Cameron is exactly four years older than Madonna, and he is one of the most famous movie directors ever. Terminator, Alien, Avatar, and Titanic are just a few of his mega successes. He was the first person to direct a film that grossed over $1 billion. And in 2010, Time Magazine named him one of the most 100 influential people in the world. That's pretty neat. So August 16th is loaded with famous people born this day, but since we had a sports theme in the episode, here's a handful of famous athletes who find today special. Christian Akoye, a football player known as the Nigerian Nightmare. Janik Sinner, a young tennis player who's making waves today. Caleb Dressel, a swimmer who's got lots of goals and broke Phelps' 100-meter butterfly world record. And Jonathan Johansson, a Finnish footballer who has played striker and scored lots and lots of goals. And as you've come to learn, I love to feature the 50th most famous person showing up on famousbirthdays.com. Well, I'm glad I did today because that person is crazy. He has a YouTube channel dedicated to making his body a human punching bag, going against paintballs, hot sauce, sandpaper, and doing things like firewalking and more. He's got over 4 million subscribers and he's made almost 900 videos. Happy birthday, Houston Jones. Okay. Yep. And when I looked at Wikipedia centenarians list, there was no one they had on there who was over 100 years old and born on this day. There was someone who celebrated being over 100 yesterday and someone who was born tomorrow, but no one from today. Oh, well, maybe next year. Alright, today is also Kool-Aid Day. Yep, grab a pitcher and get ready to sugar up with some vibrant colors and flavors. So actually, Kool-Aid Day floats around a little. Because it always takes place on the first day of the Kool-Aid Days Festival, held every year in Hastings, Nebraska during the second week of August. Yes, so Kool-Aid was invented in Nebraska, and so they take their Kool-Aid seriously and they have a festival for it. It has a grand parade. You can find the world's largest Kool-Aid stand. There's a 5K run, even a beauty pageant. Crazy. Today is also Roller Coaster Day, commemorating the issuance of a patent on this day in 1898 for the Loop the Loop roller coaster. So this upside-down ride was built in 1901 on Surf Avenue in Coney Island. It's no longer there today. In its place is the Cyclone roller coaster built in 1927. But apparently, Edwin Prescott's invention wasn't so popular because it was an uncomfortable ride. No one built another looping coaster until 1976 when the new Revolution was opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain and the Super Duper Looper opened in Hershey Park the following year. And that ride, it's still running if you want to check it out. Today is also... Tell a joke day. Now we can't let you go without telling a good joke, right? Oh yeah, here we go. What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing. It just let out a little whine. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. One day I told my wife she should embrace her mistakes. So she gave me a hug. Actually, our wedding was so touching. Even the cake was in tears. You want to hear my pizza joke? Nah, well, it was pretty cheesy. Oh yeah, tell a joke day. So much fun. You know what? I was going to tell a time travel joke, but you all didn't like that one the last time. So then I thought about a construction joke. But I'm still working on it. And then I got to thinking about a new joke I could tell about my spine. It was about a week back. And then finally, I picked up a thesaurus to help with these jokes, but it was terrible. Not only that, it was terrible. Okay, two more, two more, and then I'll move on, too. All right, ready? This one's a good one. A fire hydrant has H2O on the inside and K9P on the outside. And what did Yoda say when he saw himself in the newest 4K format? HDMI! Tell a joke day. Okay, need a gift idea for your loved one? Well, after you share these awesome stories, you can have them open up a gift that is customized to their birthday. And I have several gift ideas for you. And as always, you can find links to these in the gift ideas section of the show notes. Now, often I mention you can get a unique gift for the person who has everything. And today is no exception. Obviously, we were chock full of sports, and so most of these gifts will be sports related. Whatever sport your loved one enjoyed, there was a Sports Illustrated magazine that featured that on the cover. Football, basketball, baseball are easy, but there's ultimate frisbee, water polo, lacrosse. There's outdoors events that involve retrievers and fishing and all kinds of things. So you can get them a Sports Illustrated magazine and say, hey, today Sports Illustrated celebrates its birthday, and so do you. If your loved one enjoys track and running, you can get them something that invokes racing and tie to Usain Bolt's world record time in the 100-meter dash. Similarly, if your loved one's into swimming, then you can tie the gift to Michael Phelps' 0.01-second win in the 100-meter butterfly. There are links to some ideas for both Bolt and Phelps gift options. Today's special holidays are also ripe with gift ideas. When's the last time your loved one enjoyed some Kool-Aid? And if they're a thrill seeker, roller coaster gifts have many options. There are tickets to local theme parks, pictures of amazing roller coasters, roller coaster coffee table books. And while we're talking books, there are some great joke books out there for people of all ages and all tastes of jokes. There's one joke out there that I can't tell on this podcast that is my favorite joke of all time. So there are actually lots of customized gifts for folks who circled August 16th on the calendar. And those ideas are unique to only this day of the year. Now, if those ideas aren't cool enough, you can give them a personalized shout-out right here on the pod. I can do the shout-out for you if you just email me their name and something you want to share. Or... You can do your own shout-out by using the SpeakPipe link that's available in the show notes. Today, we're going to do a special shout-out about my grandma, who was born on this day a long, long time ago, and who blessed the lives of my brothers and cousins so very much. I rounded them all up, and we spent an hour laughing and telling stories about her. It was fun. Now, when you finally recall your grandma... you probably remember her best for how she made you feel. Our grandma was exceptional at that.

Cousin Missy:

I mean, she taught us what unconditional love was. And she was, I don't know, like when you just sat next to her, it radiated off of her. I've never felt so safe in my entire life than I was sitting next to that woman. She was the best.

Truman:

Maybe you also finally remember her cooking or her baking. We had that too. Oh, Terry was the chocolate pie? Did you actually like it, Terry?

Cousin Terry:

I loved it, but I have not been able to properly remake it. Mom got me the recipe, and I've tried it. I've given it to real bakers, and we tried to get them to do it. It's good, but it just doesn't seem to come out like I remember. So, who knows?

Truman:

When you were a kid growing up, you probably got into trouble like we did. But did you ever consider that your grandma was also a kid and may have also caused mischief? Well, I learned this.

Cousin Kevin:

Yes, because grandma told me that she and RT used to tip over all the young girls when they would go to the bathroom in there. They would push it over. The outhouse? Yes. No way. Yes. That's what she said. Grandma was Henri? Yes. Yeah.

Truman:

Yeah, it's a lot of fun to connect with family and reflect on the old days, especially when you're old enough now to really appreciate a grandmother's love.

Cousin Tricia:

She showed sacrificial love. She walked that out in her daily life. She just loved to serve. And so that was just so beautiful. And as an adult, I can appreciate it so much more how... Incredible. That really is like the patience and selflessness that is required to show that kind of love to you.

Truman:

Wow. That's awesome. Well, happy heavenly birthday, grandma. We all love you so much. And as always, if you have a story that just needs to be shared about any day in the past, send me an email at daystriderstories at gmail.com and let's connect. All right. So guess what, my fellow Daystriders? I'm working on updating my podcast artwork. And when I do, we're actually going to have to make some Daystrider merch. That's right. Stickers, buttons, and t-shirts, and maybe even hats. Because who wouldn't want to have some fun time travel merch, right? So stay tuned for that. Why? Because you'll be able to earn free goodies just by listening to the show and sharing it with others. Yep. Free and easy. Yeah, for egg-sample. I know many of you were so egg-cited for Egg Day, and that very first segment was clearly egg-ceptional. Well, you could win a Daystrider sticker by going back to that episode and telling me how many times I used the word egg in the egg-zaggerated manner. See? That's easy, right? Easy. That's how we're going to run these things. Alrighty then. I hope you had as much fun listening as I did creating this episode. Sharing it with a friend or family member would be incredible and sincerely appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, this is Truman Pastworthy, reminding you that every day has a great story. And we'll be striding through them all to find some more goodies for you. Now get out there and make your own great story today.