John Wooden passed away yesterday, which has elicited an amazing outpouring of support and kind remembrances from sports fans, celebrities, and every day people all across the country.
And of course from one person whose category is a little difficult to ascertain, Sarah Palin. (I don't know "charlatan", "cult leader", "grifter"? Which one do you think fits best?)
Sister Sarah tweeted:
Coach John Wooden, irreplaceable in American life. God bless your soul. You shall be missed dearly, and we shall remember your lessons.
"Remember his lessons"? Coach Wooden's three key precepts were as follows:
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Which one of those do we think best describes Sarah Palin?
Sarah's Facebook ghostwriter posts the following:
Ever since we were kids, Todd and I have looked at Coach John Wooden as a true hero. His quotes plastered our bulletin boards, school notebooks, and locker doors. Realizing this mutual admiration of Coach Wooden when Todd and I first met about 30 years ago was a sure sign that we were on the same page.
Do you smell that kids? Yep that has the very distinctive aroma of Sarah Palin brand bullshit.
So both she and Todd found inspiration in John Wooden quotes since they "were kids"? How romantic. But how do we explain this quote, attributed to John Wooden, in Palin's book "Going Rogue"?
"Our land is everything to us...I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it -- with their lives."
The only problem is that John Wooden NEVER SAID THAT. Instead it was written by a Native American activist named John Wooden Legs in an essay entitled "Back on the War Ponies". Now look, I am not saying that Sarah Palin had NEVER heard of John Wooden until her ghostwriter was searching for appropriate quotes to use in her book. I am just saying that when somebody is supposedly such a huge inspiration to both you and your trophy husband that it should be a simple thing to remember an ACTUAL QUOTE to use in your very first book.
And by the way, speaking of inspirations, I found this tidbit on ESPN Page 2 this morning:
A passage buried near the bottom of John Wooden's obituary stands out: "He never made more than $35,000 in a season, and early in his career he worked two jobs to make ends meet. 'My first four years at UCLA, I worked in the mornings at a dairy from six to noon then I'd come into UCLA,' he told The Associated Press in 1995. 'Why did I do it? Because I needed the money. I was a dispatcher of trucks in the San Fernando Valley and was a troubleshooter. After all the trucks made their deliveries and came back, I would call in the next day's orders, sweep out the place and head over the hill to UCLA.'"
Once again I do not believe that the woman who went to five different colleges, quit halfway through her job as Governor, and seems to hand off as many of her responsibilities to others as possible, could TRULY appreciate such a man. Which is really too bad. Just imagine what a fundamentally better person Sarah Palin would have been if she had REALLY learned the lessons that Coach John Wooden's life had to teach her.
how is it she had quotes of Woodens plastered all over when he did not publish his book until 1988?.......
ReplyDeleteDisgraceful! She didn't even get the right persons quote? What rot of a book. I'm sure she has had this pointed out - and simply doesn't care enough to correct it. I'd hate hate hate the thought of someone using my death and memory for their own gain when they're nothing like me. She's done this twice recently has not she? A terrible thing; both men would turn in their graves at the thought. What a terrible woman she is. Gryphen, I really hope you have the goods to derail her career. She is a monstrous person and I only see pain in her power.
ReplyDeleteDear God,
ReplyDeleteThis past week you have taken away my favorite actor Gary Coleman, my favorite actress Rue McClanahan, and now my favorite coach John Wooden. I want you to know my favorite Governor is Sarah Palin.
Yes,indeed - what very different, and much better people both Sarah and Todd would have been.
ReplyDeleteJohn Wooden:
ReplyDeleteHelp Others
Drink Deeply from Good Books
Make Friendship a Fine Art
Grifter/Former Half Term Gov.:
Grab as much as fast as possible
Put your name on Ghostwritten book to make $$
Unlike children, friends are disposable
Last paragraph expresses my thoughts precisely. Absolutely spot-on, yet again, Gryphen. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRIP Coach Wooden
Wooden's first book was published in 1997 -13 years ago.....so Sarah, you and Todd were in high school in 1997?
ReplyDeleteThere's the google, and you tube and every other lame stream media out there to catch you in your lies.....
It's a shame that Sarah gets to brand herself as one associated with the work ethic and morals of Coach Wooden. When I read of his passing I thought of her mis-credited quote and the man's breadth of contributions to real students, athletes and sports fans deserved more than to become fodder for Palin's superficial narrative.
ReplyDeleteNot knowing anything about Coach Wooden, I went to Wikipedia. His father gave him a 7 point creed:
ReplyDelete* Be true to yourself.
* Make each day your masterpiece.
* Help others.
* Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
* Make friendship a fine art.
* Build a shelter against a rainy day.
* Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.
They also mention three of his maxims:
* Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
* Flexibility is the key to stability.
* Be quick, but don’t hurry.
Two other items caught my eye. The coach was a Christian for many years, and he called himself a Liberal Democrat who had voted for some Republican presidential candidates.
Sarah and Todd may have plastered the Coach's sayings all over their notebooks and lockers (LOL), but she forgot that one is supposed to follow them, not just show them off. Sarah has not helped others, or we would see her devoting herself to national Down Syndrome charities and awareness groups, speaking and fund raising for them and accepting no fee.
Sarah does not dive into books; she has used and abused her friendships. As far as making each day a masterpiece, Sarah has taken that to mean "do or say anything at all to get your name in the media every day." Todd did take the last one to heart when he and his buddies built those houses on the weekends (more LOL).
Since Wikipedia listed three maxims, I really have to call Sarah out for failing to prepare. Writing crib notes on your hand shows that you couldn't memorized three things. As for flexibility, Sarah is a control freak, as seen by her demands of water, bendy straws, first class travel and the right to veto anyone who wants to live next door to her.
When Wooden was a coach, he never earned very much money. It was later, when he hit the circuit giving motivational speeches that he cashed in and made big money. This is what Sarah found inspiring about Coach Wooden.
Interesting comment above. So, how could Sarah and Todd have plastered Wooden's quotes on their notebooks and bulletin boards thirty years ago, when he didn't have any out there in the public domain yet? TOO Funny!!
ReplyDeleteIs Palin getting tired of herself yet? I sure am. Lying "crazy lady on the lake" (description borrowed from Gryphen)
Words fail me. Sarah impresses no one and just spews hot air. Please let's start looking seriously at Todd. Because he stays in the background and appears less obvious, he is overlooked. Time for a look!
ReplyDeleteIs there not a story out there, that she does not have to make her own?
ReplyDeleteJohn Wooden: "Drink deeply from good books."
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin: "I read 'em all."
Does she not know, or even care, that when she posts untruthful comments on her facebook page it just adds more fuel for her detractors to pile on her already fractured & diminished credibility? What is wrong with the woman?
ReplyDeleteGles- You bring up a good point!! Todd was the acting governor, while Sarah shopped and took naps, so we should take a look at him (AIP member, influenced Troopergate, and more?).
ReplyDeleteGryphen wrote -
ReplyDelete"Coach Wooden's three key precepts were as follows:
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Which one of those do we think best describes Sarah Palin?"
Which one best describes Sarah? -
The third one -
she has made fiendship a fine art.
Oh, wait, that's a typo ! My mistake
Again, no thinking. Wooden's UCLA Bruins dominated college basketball, winning 10 national titles in 12 years. There were dozens of books written by him and about him, the first in 1975 and for sale on eBay: FIRST EDITION FIRST PRINTING "THE WOODEN-SHERMAN METHOD" A GUIDE TO WINNING BASKETBALL
ReplyDeleteHere's a quote from a 1965 SI article:
ReplyDeleteFor this season Wooden plans other changes. "If we don't change," he says, "coaches will soon figure out how to beat it."
All of em, Gryph. Lee
ReplyDeleteAs much as I can't stand this lying fraud known as $P, my dad brought home Coach Wooden's pyramid and other things he'd said, because Wooden truly was an inspirational leader--and Dad used magnets to have them on the side of the fridge so we'd see them every time we walked into the kitchen. His quotes could have come from newspaper articles after UCLA games.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER!
"Enjay in E MT said...
John Wooden:
Help Others
Drink Deeply from Good Books
Make Friendship a Fine Art
Grifter/Former Half Term Gov.:
Grab as much as fast as possible
Put your name on Ghostwritten book to make $$
Unlike children, friends are disposable"
I disagree with that last line. She treats her kids as if they were disposable and actually DOES dispose of her so-called friends.
This is as believable as her listening (again, with great appreciation and not mean-spirited at all) to O'Biden's speeches on the Senate floor that only could have been available in the Congressional Record in the 70's when thirsty brained seven year old Sarah was busy reading anything and everything to impress her ugly Alaskan / American father.
ReplyDelete"Realizing this mutual admiration of Coach Wooden when Todd and I first met about 30 years ago was a sure sign that we were on the same page."
ReplyDeleteThe bullshit is especially stinky. I vote for 'charlatan'.
Sue from Winona ... that is so mean. And so good! Love it. Hahahahahahahaha.
ReplyDeleteSince Sarah doesn't write her own tweets and Facebook messages, I wonder how many of them she can even remember.
ReplyDeleteAll her ghostwriting is just another form of lying.
Were Wooden quotes 'out there' in some form even before he wrote his book in 1997? How did Sarah get them to plaster on lockers, notebooks & bulletin boards in 1982?
ReplyDeletePossibly answered my question before posting it. I just found this: 'The Wooden-Sharman method: A guide to winning basketball', 1975.
It's hard to imagine but she may just have exaggerated instead of telling outright lies.
I'd also like to point out that in that lying fraud $P's ghostwritten book that she said something along the lines of her father taped her hand so she could get out of band practice with a false injury. Really holding up Coach Wooden's ideals there.
ReplyDeleteYeah, right.
Anon 9:07: You're absolutely right! Sarah and Todd googled Coach Wooden to get those quotes in the 1980's. Then, in the 1980's, they did go on EBay and bought all of his books too, also.
ReplyDeleteToad Palin was also very involved in Dairygate. Even sitting muscling his way into Executive sessions at board meetings when he was NOT a board member.
ReplyDeleteThe Paris Hilton syndrome continues on with Palin, where we have to listen to another stupid thing about her, every stinking day.
ReplyDeleteAll I can hope for, is the fact that Paris and Britney and Lindsay had their lights dimmed after an excruciating while, and that Palin's will, too.
I think she meant mike wooten and plastering him all over the place...
ReplyDeleteWhat a dumbass.
ReplyDeleteAt the very least... GET YOUR QUOTES RIGHT, YOU IDIOT WOMAN! Gah!!
Shut the fuck up, you twit twat! YOU are the laughing stock of this country... don't YOU get it now???
>>His quotes plastered our bulletin boards, school notebooks, and locker doors<<
ReplyDeleteIf this is true someone from school should remember. Is that someone reading IM?
@Anonymous @10:18 - Yeah but Paris Hilton isn't dangerous to our country. Not sure you can compare Paris (or the others) to Palin.
Basketball and hockey are nice safe tweet subjects. How much more united can she be? Some deceased people are just not worth mentioning for SarahPalinUSA.
ReplyDeleteWooden's "sayings" were already legend in 1969. Read this article from Sports Il
ReplyDeletehttp://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1148073/index.htm
--excerpt
Away from games, the former India Rubber Man is a soft-spoken gentleman with a trace of homespun Hoosier in his voice, a human Poor Richard's Almanack who has inspirational sayings filed in a loose-leaf notebook, taped to his pencil box, framed on his walls, tucked away in his wallet: "Make each day your masterpiece." "Build a shelter for a rainy day." "It's better to go too far with a boy than not far enough."
@Anon@10:18
ReplyDeleteYou don't hear much about Paris Hilton these days. Imagine if Al Gore had hung around till 2005 spewing out as much BS as the grifter...he would have been laughed out of town.
I call HUGE BS on this crap. My husband's whole family went to UCLA, several generations worth and one was a professor of journalism there (yes he spins in his grave daily). They had season tickets to the BB and FB games and NOT ONE OF THEM had anything like what dipshit and her tool spouse say they had on their high school lockers while growing up IN SoCal.
ReplyDeleteOf course maybe it was because they got to see and hear the real deal instead of jonesing it fifth hand 30 odd years later.
I'm another one that thinks 'the Toad' should be delved into more than he has. Me thinks he is just as 'ugly' as she!
ReplyDeleteFrom the LA Times:
ReplyDelete"His senior year was noteworthy for two other reasons. Wooden won the conference Medal for Academic Achievement as an English major. Years later, he would place the honor among his favorites on a list that included induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Also in 1932, Wooden married his high school sweetheart, Nell Riley. He called her "the only girl I ever went with.""
Given who Track looks like, I doubt $P followed Wooden's example.
"
"He never swore, but there was not a coach in the United States who could use the English language any better than he could," an official told Chapin and Prugh. "He was always technically and grammatically correct when he was chewing you out.""
$P didn't learn anything from John Wooden. She can't even speak in English.
I'm sure Sarah and Todd got together during and after school and shared their favorite John Wooden sayings, and read passages from his books instead of from the Bible.
ReplyDeleteIf any of her facebook rant is true, then maybe she can explain how she quoted the wrong Wooden in her book.
Sarah Palin, you are no John Wooden, Ronald Reagan, .................. .............
You ARE sick and pathetic.
I think she wrote that she and Todd mutually admired Todd's "woody" but the ghostwriter edited it!
ReplyDeleteHere's a comment from the LA Times article I've quoted above:
ReplyDeletehttp://discussions.latimes.com/20/lanews/la-me-john-woodenlong-20100605/10
"About a year and a half ago I had the honor to see Coach Wooden present his "Pyramid of Success" to a group of about 50 successful business men from the Baby Boomer Generation, many with inflated egos. I myself am just a young man and was working at the event. His appearance came as a surprise to all guests and when he entered the room he was pushed to the front in a wheel chair, looking extremely frail. At first I felt uncomfortable being there, as if his past greatness was being exploited and that we were being introduced to a shell of Coach Wooden but as soon as he started to present the group went into complete silence and hung on his every word. His message could not have been anymore poignant. He was incredibly engaging, passionate, and motivating. By the time he was done the room that was primarily filled with men immediately jumped into a standing ovation and most people including myself had tears in their eyes. In that hour he was able to deflate those egos and help everyone realize the simplicity of being a successful individual (not businessman) and how to be a beneficial contributor to society. His presence will be missed but I can only hope that the lessons and examples that he has set for so many will continue to be passed on from one generation to the next. Thank you coach."
Hope her psycho followers are coming out of their trance.
Having read all the comments and noting that perhaps Mrs. Palin and her Todd did post quotes from John Wooden, sans Legs, I believe one which would have definitely attracted their attention is this one listed earlier, credited to the SI article:
ReplyDelete"It's better to go too far with a boy than not far enough."
I know this is off the topic, Gryphen, but I am quite surprised that you have let Bill Maher get away with taking SP's side against Joe McGinness. On top of that, he had two of the best anti-Palin MSM journalists right there together and he wasted a golden opportunity to have a serious discussion about her. Shame on you, Bill!
ReplyDeletehttp://palinbabygate.blogspot.com/
John Wooden was a great person.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin is that which is farthest from.
Her most embarrassing gaffe is PUBLISHING in her book the quote by John Wooden Legs and attributing it to her idol, John Wooden. It showed clearly her sloppy and shallow work ethic and intellect. (I shudder to think of this sloppy, dense person anywhere near leadership positions in this country.)
ReplyDeleteWhy did the editors of her book allow the misquote to remain? Either they were also sloppy in their own work, or they were secretly amused to let the sh*t hit Palin's fan in public. Who knows for sure, but I'm betting on the latter.
If Coach Wooden had such a strong influence over Sarah, regarding those sayings plastered all over her books, locker and bulletin board, I find it strange that we never heard one word about her hero before.
ReplyDeleteKaty Couric: What do you read to inform your world opinion?
Sarah Palin: I was so influenced by the common sense wisdom of Coach Wooden......ooops, no, she didn't say that, did she.
Given her thin skin, and her need to respond to every slight, perceived or real, I wonder what Palin thinks of this John Wooden quote on ho to maintain poise:
ReplyDelete"Not being thrown off stride in how behave or what you believe because of outside events."
Maybe it's still plastered on her locker, and she forgot it.
NOT ONE OF THEM had anything like what dipshit and her tool spouse say they had on their high school lockers
ReplyDelete=================================
I did. I had a picture of Lew Alcindor in my locker.
$P not only incorrectly attributes the quote to John Wooden (rather than John Wooden Legs) but she completely changes its intended meaning.
ReplyDeleteHere's the actual passage from which she lifts the quote.
Our land is everything to us. It is the only place in the world where Cheyennes talk the Cheyenne language to each other. It is the only place where Cheyennes remember the same things together. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it--with their life. My people and the Sioux defeated General Custer at the Little Big Horn.
$P is an ignorant, disrespectful, lazy piece of cr@p who is an insult to every person who's actually trying to contribute something positive to the world.
I think it's safe to say John Wooden would never have chosen her for his team nor quoted any of her spews. Never.
This is truly DISGUSTING. There is no mention of her condolences to the family or friends of John Wooden, just an attempt to sell her brand. As usual, it is not about the death of John Wooden, it's about Sarah Palin. Using someones death to polish up your image is about as low as you can get. I can't say this surprises me. After all, it is Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that Sarah will bring Piper to the funeral?
ReplyDeletePalin in need for publicity and press has reverted to crashing funerals in Alaska. I was wondering, did Palin crash Coach Wooden's funeral?
ReplyDeleteIn tribute to Coach Wooden, I was wondering did Sarah put on her high school basketball uniform in rememberance of coach?
ReplyDeleteSarah's stupid little high school basketball career was as big a farce as is her "political" career. She had a few great moments that she writes about again and again.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Sarah wished she could have been a cheerleader, but she just wasn't that cool. Instead she had to be a mediocre girl's basketball player.
We cheerleaders used to hate having to go cheer the girl's basketball teams. The games were so low scoring and so absolutely boring.
Girls who couldn't cheer played basketball, or softball. That's how it was in my school.