When the Beatles stopped giving concerts, they put time into forming their own company, which became Apple Corps. Aspinall and Evans were both directors at Apple, and personal assistants to the Beatles. None of the band's inner circle knew how to run a large company, and Apple got into financial trouble. Allen Klein and Lee Eastman (Paul McCartney's father-in-law) took over running Apple, and Evans was fired. Aspinall was also supposed to be fired, but the Beatles themselves insisted he be kept on.
After the Beatles disbanded, Apple's business decreased, Klein and Eastman moved on, and Apple was reorganized. Aspinall alone was able to handle most of Apple's ongoing business, which was mostly licensing Beatles-related products, and future issues of Beatles music. He kept working for the band until shortly before his death.
Aspinall's last tasks for Apple included handling a lawsuit against Apple Inc. over iTunes, and supervising a new recording of the whole Beatles music catalogue. Aspinall died of lung cancer in New York City in 2008.
Caretaker (Star Trek: Voyager)
"Caretaker" is the first episode in the TV series "". When it was first broadcast on TV, it was shown as a double-length episode (meaning it lasted for double the time a normal episode would last), however it has been split into two separate episodes so that it can be shown as a repeat.
This episode was first broadcast on January 16, 1995 and takes place on stardate 48315.6, in the year 2371.
Jean Balukas
Jean Balukas (born June 28, 1959) is an American pool player from Brooklyn, New York. During the 1970s and 1980s, many people thought Balukas was the greatest female player ever. Some people described her as a leader and "a child prodigy, a loner who rebelled against dress codes for women—the pool equivalent of Billie Jean King". Balukas was named Billiard Congress of America (BCA) Player of the Year five times. She was the youngest person given an entry in the BCA Hall of Fame. She is only the second woman given that honor. In 1999, Balukas was ranked fifteenth on "Billiard Digest's" Fifty Greatest Players of the 20 Century.
Balukas was thought of as a rare young talent. She first earned some fame when she was six years old by appearing in a pool playing event held at New York City's Grand Central Station. She later appeared many times on television, such as on CBS's popular evening television show, "I've Got a Secret". She was nine years old when she placed 5th in the 1969 U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship. She placed 4th and 3rd in the next two U.S. Opens. From that early start, Balukas dominated women's professional pool during the 1970s and 1980s.
Balukas won the U.S. Open seven years in a row, from 1972 through 1978. She won six world championship titles. She had over 100 professional competition first place finishes; 38 of those wins were in major events. She had a streak of 16 first place finishes in women's professional tournaments. Balukas was also the only woman to compete equally with men in professional play in her era. She quit the sport in 1988 because of a dispute that happened in a match at the World Open Nine-ball Championship that year.
Jean Balukas's father, Albert Balukas, and his business partner, Frank McGown, owned a forty-eight-table pool hall, named the Ovington Lounge, in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, New York. Balukas began playing pool when she four years old. She did not play at her father's pool room. Her first play was on a 4½ by 9 foot pool table in the basement of her childhood home. Her parents bought the table to keep her four brothers out of local pool rooms.
Balukas played with a cue stick that had ivory details. It was made just for her in 1965 by a cue stick maker, George Balabushka. When she was five and six years old she would practice a game called straight pool to 50 points after family dinners. Her father supported her play.
In 1966, McGown held a public billiards exhibition at New York City's Grand Central Terminal. With her parents' permission, he brought along the six-year-old Balukas. Balukas participated in the exhibition. This gained Balukas media attention. Later in 1966, Balukas appeared on a television show called "Wonderama". Balukas and her younger sister Laura also appeared on CBS's television show "I've Got a Secret" later that year.
In 1967, Balukas was in an exhibition match at a pool hall called the Carom Club, located Manhattan. In advertisements for the match, Balukas was described as "the Little Princess of Pocket Billiards". A reporter described her at the match as "a little girl with honey-blond hair...wearing a short yellow dress and green leotards...who resembles a young Shirley Temple". She beat her adult opponent, Roland DeMarco, with a final score of 50 to 42.
In 1969, at the age of nine, she competed in her first Billiard Congress of America U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship. Balukas placed 5th in the competition. All her opponents were adults. In the next two U.S. Opens, in 1970 and 1971, she placed 4th and 3rd, respectively. By that time, Balukas had appeared on other television programs with a number of billiard stars and other celebrities.
On August 18, 1972, when she was thirteen years old, Balukas won the women's side of the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship. For the win she beat five time champion Dorothy Wise. The prize was $1,500. Balukas was the U.S Open's youngest winner ever and by a large number of years. She also beat in the finals, Madelyn Whitlow of Detroit, Michigan, with a score of 75 to 32 in 44 innings (turns at the table). Reporting on the competition, "The New York Times" described her as a strong player "throughout the tournament ... as she defeated six opponents with precision shooting and <nowiki>[</nowiki>almost perfect<nowiki>]</nowiki> strategy".
In 1973, at fourteen, Balukas successfully defended her straight pool U.S. Open title. She beat runner-up Donna Ries, a psychologist from Kansas City, Missouri, with a final score of 75 to 72 in 42 innings. In her longest turn, she sank 26 balls in a row and won $2,000 for first place. Earlier in the tournament she beat Mieko Harada, a housewife from Kyoto, Japan. Baluka's score was much higher than Harada's: 75 to 1 in 20 innings and sank 25 balls in a row. In the 1974 U.S. Open held at the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago, Balukas defended her title, again beating out Harada, but by a much closer score: 100 to 99. This was Balukas's third U.S. Open title in a row, at the young age of fifteen. The close scores at the end of the match were similar to the results on the men's side, where Joe Balsis defeated Jim Rempe 200 to 199.
In 1975, Balukas beat Ries again in the U.S. Open semi-finals with a score of 75 to 15 in 15 innings. She also beat Gail Breedlove of Ames, Iowa, 75 to 19. She then again played and beat Harada in the finals, winning $3,000 with a score of 100 to 63 in 39 innings. In her longest turn, she sank 23 balls. In 1976, then 17, Balukas took her fifth U.S. Open title in a row, beating Gloria Walker of Cheyney, Pennsylvania 75 to 46 in 39 innings and winning a $1,700 prize. Balukas would win the next two U.S. Open straight pool championships for a total of seven wins in a row. Her streak of wins ended after 1978 because the U.S. Open itself was canceled, not because she was beaten.