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George Carlin, Van Halen & '27 Yankees Land On One Great 'Best Lists' List

George Carlin in 1981. The comedian's seven dirty words made the list of best lists.
Ken Howard
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George Carlin in 1981. The comedian's seven dirty words made the list of best lists.

We continue to be on the watch for the best of the year-end "best-of lists." This one from The New Yorker stands out in our mind:

" The Hundred Best Lists Of All Time."

It's got something for everyone, from " Generations of Adam" (No. 100) to the " Periodic Table of Elements" (No. 1). But it's many of those in between that we found amusing, just inspired or apt to have us say "oh, yeah!" Such as:

-- No. 77: Van Halen's 1982 tour-provisions "rider," which famously stipulated that there be no brown M&M's in the backstage snacks.

-- No. 49: The opening-day lineup for the 1927 New York Yankees, the "greatest team" of all time that included Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

-- No. 44: George Carlin's seven words you can't say on network TV.

-- No. 19: The Fibonacci sequence.

-- No. 4: The Ten Commandments.

May we suggest you add it to your list of things to check out? And perhaps start a list of lists that The New Yorker missed? (Suggestions welcome in the comments thread.)

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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