Long-titled song: "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space" by Spiritualized
Idea with $50bn: Buy every company in America that operates billboards, shut them down, and donate the land to local cities to convert to affordable housing or parks.
I would pay off all the amount kids owe schools for lunches they had to buy. I would also travel first class to evert MLB park and sit in the front row.
i haven't read all the responses so if someone has already said this one, I am sorry, but from the Bellamy Brothers: "If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?" And yeah, there is no wrong answer to the title's question.
Dylan is the master of the long song title, all of them great:
Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance
It Takes a Lot to Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry
Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine
The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Love the billionaire question! For starters, I'd do what you suggest, and what Chili Palmer talks up at the beginning of GET SHORTY, and take over an old theater (The Egyptian is just sitting there in Seattle) and play old Cagney movies, and Bogart, and Jean Gabin, and great '70s flicks, and newer ones, too, and foreign flicks, and not worry about the bottom line. If people came they came. It would be like how Roger Angell describes baseball during summer: It's there when you need it.
For the rest, I'll have to think some more. Love your list.
I would sponsor a year abroad for anyone who wants to do volunteer work in a developing country (say, GDP per capita of 1/5 the US's or lower, which is about 2/3 of the countries in the world).
Also, I guess I'd buy Oakland Coliseum, refurbish it, install ginormous jumbo-trons, and open it to the public for local school team and little league games. Hire a new Voice of God to announce those games, play walk-up music for all batters, the works. Bring back dot racing. Provide amazing (and free) food/drink. Hold watch parties for Las Vegas A's games, and make sure attendance always exceeded paid attendance in LV.
And, if I had billions, I'd take care of child hunger in some way. And with what is left, I would establish an endowment at UNC Charlotte to create a Sports Hall of Fame and elect you as executor of the endowment.
I do not say this simply because I'm a Dodger fan, but read some history, please. The idea that Walter O'Malley simply ripped the Dodgers out of Brooklyn to satisfy himself isn't borne out by the facts. Yes, as Roger Kahn said, he surprised himself when he realized that he was condemning a capitalist for being a capitalist. But Robert Moses helped drive him out, and Horace Stoneham was moving any which way.
Whether O'Malley should be in Cooperstown, we can debate.
bbison beat me to Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals...", so I'll go with Murphy's Law "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In"
As for my billions...I'd buy a few local ice cream truck routes- especially the ones that encompass parks and in lower income areas around here - hire a driver, and just make everything free. I'd redo all of the local Little League fields to have real dugouts any other cool baseball stadium stuff that wouldn't be out of place for a Little League field.
I'd buy really, really good season tickets to both Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, and then I'd give them to the local library so that people could sign up and just take their families, and I'd add a "per diem" thingy on there or however that would work, so that they could get pretty much whatever they want from the stadium vendors. I guess I'd do that for the Long Island Ducks as well, but that may actually already exist in some form? I'd do it anyway, just better than whatever already exists.
I would buy a large plot of land and turn it into a wooded kiddie wonderland/magical, enchanted garden kind of thing with all kinds of cool winding paths and "hidden" wonders - NOT just open grass fields, and whatever else the team I hire to design it could come up with ... and it would just be a park for anyone to use.
The ice cream truck thing may not be a great idea for "community health" reasons, now that I think about it. Maybe only free on weekends.
I realize I'm probably thinking too small here, but:
A) I am not a billionaire, and
B) these are things I thought of just off the top of my head that I think would be cool
Six days until pitchers and catchers! Woo hoo. I just got a press release from "my" team with all the non-roster invitees. Some young prospects, some old guys hoping to hold on for one more season in the sun. So filled with hopes and dreams.
With my billions there is a lot including the one noted below by Brilliant Reader to emulate Dolly Parton and give out millions of childrens books. But one charitable thing and one goofy thing. Charitable: I'd make sure that all the teachers in my area never again have to pay for supplies for their classrooms and that kids from sub median income homes have a computer and internet access. Goofy: pay to have my favorite musicians do tons of unannounced shows at bars and small venues.
Not sure if the song title is long enough but my nomination are Bruce Cockburn's "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" Colin Hay's "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" and Simon & Garfunkles' "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"
Alright, now I'm annoyed. I finally got around to making a Team Gleason donation. When I started the process, I was going to be the 355th to do so. Hey, that would have been great. I would have matched Greg Maddux's wins! But then some of you jokers jumped in line in front of me. I almost got Joe DiMaggio's 361 (homers) but nope, I didn't delay quite enough so I was #360. Phooey. Now I need to figure out some connection to that number.
Long-titled song: "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space" by Spiritualized
Idea with $50bn: Buy every company in America that operates billboards, shut them down, and donate the land to local cities to convert to affordable housing or parks.
With billions of dollars, I would pay off the school lunch debt and then do something to revitalize youth baseball (what, I don't know).
My favorite long-titled song is "The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria" by Blue Öyster Cult
I would pay off all the amount kids owe schools for lunches they had to buy. I would also travel first class to evert MLB park and sit in the front row.
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away…
i haven't read all the responses so if someone has already said this one, I am sorry, but from the Bellamy Brothers: "If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?" And yeah, there is no wrong answer to the title's question.
Dylan is the master of the long song title, all of them great:
Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance
It Takes a Lot to Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry
Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine
The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Love the billionaire question! For starters, I'd do what you suggest, and what Chili Palmer talks up at the beginning of GET SHORTY, and take over an old theater (The Egyptian is just sitting there in Seattle) and play old Cagney movies, and Bogart, and Jean Gabin, and great '70s flicks, and newer ones, too, and foreign flicks, and not worry about the bottom line. If people came they came. It would be like how Roger Angell describes baseball during summer: It's there when you need it.
For the rest, I'll have to think some more. Love your list.
I would sponsor a year abroad for anyone who wants to do volunteer work in a developing country (say, GDP per capita of 1/5 the US's or lower, which is about 2/3 of the countries in the world).
Also, I guess I'd buy Oakland Coliseum, refurbish it, install ginormous jumbo-trons, and open it to the public for local school team and little league games. Hire a new Voice of God to announce those games, play walk-up music for all batters, the works. Bring back dot racing. Provide amazing (and free) food/drink. Hold watch parties for Las Vegas A's games, and make sure attendance always exceeded paid attendance in LV.
And, if I had billions, I'd take care of child hunger in some way. And with what is left, I would establish an endowment at UNC Charlotte to create a Sports Hall of Fame and elect you as executor of the endowment.
REM - It's the End of the World as We Know it and I feel Fine.
“This Song’s Just Six Words Long” - Weird Al Yankovic
I do not say this simply because I'm a Dodger fan, but read some history, please. The idea that Walter O'Malley simply ripped the Dodgers out of Brooklyn to satisfy himself isn't borne out by the facts. Yes, as Roger Kahn said, he surprised himself when he realized that he was condemning a capitalist for being a capitalist. But Robert Moses helped drive him out, and Horace Stoneham was moving any which way.
Whether O'Malley should be in Cooperstown, we can debate.
bbison beat me to Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals...", so I'll go with Murphy's Law "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In"
As for my billions...I'd buy a few local ice cream truck routes- especially the ones that encompass parks and in lower income areas around here - hire a driver, and just make everything free. I'd redo all of the local Little League fields to have real dugouts any other cool baseball stadium stuff that wouldn't be out of place for a Little League field.
I'd buy really, really good season tickets to both Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, and then I'd give them to the local library so that people could sign up and just take their families, and I'd add a "per diem" thingy on there or however that would work, so that they could get pretty much whatever they want from the stadium vendors. I guess I'd do that for the Long Island Ducks as well, but that may actually already exist in some form? I'd do it anyway, just better than whatever already exists.
I would buy a large plot of land and turn it into a wooded kiddie wonderland/magical, enchanted garden kind of thing with all kinds of cool winding paths and "hidden" wonders - NOT just open grass fields, and whatever else the team I hire to design it could come up with ... and it would just be a park for anyone to use.
The ice cream truck thing may not be a great idea for "community health" reasons, now that I think about it. Maybe only free on weekends.
I realize I'm probably thinking too small here, but:
A) I am not a billionaire, and
B) these are things I thought of just off the top of my head that I think would be cool
If I had even $49 billion at my disposal, I would see that every school kid (say, 5th grade) gets to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN.
Six days until pitchers and catchers! Woo hoo. I just got a press release from "my" team with all the non-roster invitees. Some young prospects, some old guys hoping to hold on for one more season in the sun. So filled with hopes and dreams.
With my billions there is a lot including the one noted below by Brilliant Reader to emulate Dolly Parton and give out millions of childrens books. But one charitable thing and one goofy thing. Charitable: I'd make sure that all the teachers in my area never again have to pay for supplies for their classrooms and that kids from sub median income homes have a computer and internet access. Goofy: pay to have my favorite musicians do tons of unannounced shows at bars and small venues.
Not sure if the song title is long enough but my nomination are Bruce Cockburn's "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" Colin Hay's "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" and Simon & Garfunkles' "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"
Alright, now I'm annoyed. I finally got around to making a Team Gleason donation. When I started the process, I was going to be the 355th to do so. Hey, that would have been great. I would have matched Greg Maddux's wins! But then some of you jokers jumped in line in front of me. I almost got Joe DiMaggio's 361 (homers) but nope, I didn't delay quite enough so I was #360. Phooey. Now I need to figure out some connection to that number.
If I was a billionaire, I would make entry to all kids 10 and under free at all Disney Parks. Don't they get enough from their parents?