Mitch Powitz

On this day, March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry addressed the Second Virginia Convention and delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history. Arguing that British actions threatened colonial liberty, he urged Virginia to prepare for war and organize a militia. He ended with a line that has defined the Revolutionary spirit ever since: “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Henry’s words helped shift opinion toward resistance at a critical moment, just weeks before fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord. From protest to action, the path to independence was accelerating.

@TMacPhils Now we need to see what Chris wrote about you in mid 80s - back in your playing days!!!

Thanks Chris!!!!

“And Sparky Anderson will be going to his bullpen here in the 7th inning and it looks like he’s calling for the right-hander, Ronnie James Dio.”

Cost of Attendance, per school, out of state undergrad: Hou $27,776 Pur $36, 182 IaSt $45,218 Iowa $47, 372 Neb $48, 032 Bama $50,458 Ark $53, 744 Tenn $56,170 UConn $63,210 MSU $65, 656 *SJU $65, 676 Ill $65,722 AZ $66,470 Tex $72, 682 Mich $84, 164 *Duke $94,217

I will tell this story until I'm blue in the face: In '23, Phils needed a spot starter for 6/17 @ OAK. Choice btw Sanchie & Bailey Falter. Falter pitches for LHV 6/13, gets rocked (1.1IP, 4ER). Makes Sanchie de facto choice for 6/17. He goes up (4IP 0R), never comes back down.

We have a map! Dad and I will begin our 19-ballpark, 22-day Southern Baseball Road Trip on May 3! I’ll be posting from the road, at the sights, and especially at the ballparks. Follow along! #SouthernBaseball #19ballparks22days

California artist painted a 600-foot mural on an overpass that only comes to life when you're driving. Hit the right speed and suddenly the figures start moving. A horse runs, stretches, and turns into a bird taking flight Pretty damn cool 🤯

The Beatles used all kinds of rhetorical tricks in their songwriting, which is one reason why their music is so memorable. Two examples: 1) Anadiplosis, which is where the last word of one verse starts the next one, such as with "You say goodbye and I say hello. Hello, hello!" 2) Epanalepsis, where each verse begins and ends with the same word, like in the song 'Yesterday' which goes: "Yesterday / All my troubles seemed so far away / Now it looks as though they're here to stay / Oh, I believe in yesterday." These are fancy words for very simple rhetorical tricks that you'll see in all kinds of popular music. — Mark Forsyth

@TMacPhils I agree Tom - great work! Have a great Phillies season ….

Thank you.

LGA - plane collision. Shut down EWR - smoke in air traffic control tower. Shut Down George Washington Bridge - multiple accidents and closures. 90 Min Delays Lincoln tunnel - multiple accidents and closures 80 min delays. Not a great day for NY/NJ transportation infrastructure

@RobertTalisse Nice. Thanks.

@powitz I've used various gauge large-triangle Dunlops for a while, now beginning to like the feel of their smaller curved-side triangles. .88 gauge

I've been rethinking my approach to guitar picks lately, just FYI....

One of the most remarkable things about the preservation of Robert E. Lee's Headquarters is the photos of the home taken just days after the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863. Join Garry Adelman as he "steps into" Mathew Brady's historic shots. Take note of Mary Thompson, who can be seen in the foreground of the photos. She had lived in the house for 17 years by the time of the battle, and remained in her home, tending wounded soldiers, as the battle raged outside her door. #WomensHistoryMonth

@Chiprockabilly @ca92075 My wife and I were singing ZZ Top right as we listened 😂😂😂🎸🎸🎸

@ca92075 @powitz Appreciate you putting your ear to it. Yes, there’s Chuck n ZZ 👍

Installment 3 from guy that played in rock n roll cover bands for decades. 8 bits from popular songs here. How many can you identify?

Just trying to “pick” your brain 🧠 🎸😂

🎶#Tele #Sunday This year @Fender celebrates 75 years of the #Telecaster. Often stereotyped as a country guitar, it's actually foundational to the history and tone of #soul. Here’s my take on sitting in a classic soul pocket. Who can guess the track? 🎸 #guitar #Fender #cover

@PawnshopGuitar Nice. Right!

@powitz It’s an 07 Ariel Levine Signature Squier.

Happy Straturday!

George Lucas traded $350,000 in directing salary for something Fox executives thought was worthless: the right to sell Star Wars toys. It was 1976. Over 40 studios had already passed on his script, including Disney. Fox only greenlit the project because they wanted Lucas for other films. Nobody at the studio expected to make money on a space opera with no stars, so when Lucas offered to cut his directing fee from $500,000 to $150,000 in exchange for merchandising and sequel rights, Fox said yes on the spot. Movie merchandise was a dead business. Fox had lost money on Doctor Dolittle lunchboxes a decade earlier. They thought they were getting the better deal. Lucas couldn’t even find a toy company that wanted in. Kenner, a division of cereal company General Foods, finally bought the licensing for a flat $100,000. Then Star Wars opened. Between 1977 and 1978, Kenner sold $100 million worth of toys off that $100,000 investment. They couldn’t make enough for Christmas ’77, so they sold empty boxes with IOUs inside, promising to mail the action figures later. Parents paid real money for cardboard and a promise. Nobody around the production saw any of this coming. Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan, privately called the script “fairy-tale rubbish.” But he was shrewd enough to negotiate 2.25% of royalties instead of a flat fee. About 20 minutes of total screen time earned his estate somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. Lucas himself was so convinced the film would flop that he offered Spielberg a bet while visiting the Close Encounters set: swap 2.5% of each other’s profits. Spielberg took it. That handshake has paid him around $40 million. And then the money started compounding. Lucas poured his Star Wars profits into ILM, the effects house he’d built for the film. When its computer graphics division got too expensive to maintain, he sold it to Steve Jobs in 1986 for $10 million. Jobs renamed it Pixar. Disney bought Pixar twenty years later for $7.4 billion. Then in 2012, Disney came back for the rest, buying Lucasfilm itself for $4.05 billion. Total franchise revenue today sits around $46.7 billion, over $20 billion from merchandise alone. The filmmaker 40 studios passed on is now worth $5.3 billion according to Forbes. Fifty years ago today, cameras rolled on a desert in Tunisia. The $350,000 pay cut that made it all possible might be the best trade in business history.