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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 2021 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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