“Song of Myself” opens with the line “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” Walt Whitman first published the poem without a title in the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. It received the title “Song of Myself” in 1881.
I Am the Greatest
In August 1963 Columbia Records released an album by the young boxer Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali. Its title was I Am the Greatest.
On February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, he beat Sonny Liston and took the title. Afterward he told reporters: “I’m the greatest thing that ever lived … I shook up the world.”
Nominate Yourself
Engineers at Google usually nominate themselves for promotion. Laszlo Bock, Google’s head of people operations, described the system in his 2015 book Work Rules! Google found that women “weren’t nominating themselves as often as the men around them.”
Alan Eustace, then head of engineering, wrote to the engineers: “We’ve noticed that women aren’t nominating themselves and, hey, you should be!” According to Bock, it worked. They sent the email “for about three six month periods and then Alan forgot to send the email.”
The Support Form
In the Army’s 2012 guidance for officer evaluations, the rated officer drafts a support form. The officer writes a duty description and a list of major performance objectives.
At the end of the period, the officer documents “how well he or she accomplished the major performance objectives,” “focusing on the most significant objectives and other contributions made.”
Show-and-Tell
Merriam-Webster defines show-and-tell as “a classroom exercise in which children display an item and talk about it.” The dictionary dates its first known use to 1941.
No Degree
Harry Truman attended a business college and later law school, but he did not earn a degree. He is the most recent American president without a college degree, and the only one since William McKinley.
Skills, Not Degrees
On March 15, 2022, Maryland governor Larry Hogan announced that thousands of state jobs would no longer require a four-year degree. “People shouldn’t be compensated based on their years of education, but what their skills are to do the job,” he said.
The federal government had moved toward skills-based hiring earlier. Executive Order 13932, signed on June 26, 2020, said that “an overreliance on college degrees excludes capable candidates.” It told agencies to assess candidates “in a manner that does not rely solely on educational attainment.”
The First Pick
The Oakland Raiders chose the quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the first pick of the 2007 NFL Draft. His six-year contract was worth up to $68 million, with $31.5 million guaranteed.
In May 2010 the Raiders released him. He is often described as one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
I Guarantee It
On January 9, 1969, according to most accounts, Joe Namath of the New York Jets spoke at a dinner of the Miami Touchdown Club. Super Bowl III was three days away. “We’re going to win Sunday. I guarantee it,” he said, as CBS Sports quotes him. Other accounts give slightly different words.
The Jets were heavy underdogs against the Baltimore Colts. Sources give the point spread as 17, 18 or 19 points. The Jets won, 16 to 7.
The Called Shot
On October 1, 1932, in the third game of the World Series at Wrigley Field, Babe Ruth faced the Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root in the fifth inning. Ruth made a gesture. Then he hit a home run.
Whether he pointed to center field to call the home run is disputed. Two home movies of the moment exist, and they are inconclusive. Root denied the story for the rest of his life. In a 1942 account, Ruth himself said: “I know I didn’t, but it made a hell of a story, didn’t it?”