The year in cities

Kottke has an interesting meme, which he got from Hanna.

Name the places where you spent the night last year.

For NewMexiKen:

Albuquerque*
Denver
Tucson*
Virginia near Washington, D.C.*
Mojave, California
Near Oakland, California*
Yosemite National Park
Jenks, Oklahoma
Shenandoah National Park
Kanab, Utah
Layton, Utah
Ontario, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Seaside, Oregon
Arcata, California
Indio, California
Barstow, California

Not very exciting, just eight states — but lots of time with The Sweeties.

Asterisk indicates more than one occasion.

Nice return for those smart enough to buy

A year ago today, in light of the news of the Apple iPod Shuffle and the Mac Mini, NewMexiKen asked about buying Apple stock. It closed at $32.28 that day (adjusted for 2:1 split last February).

It closed today at $83.90; up 160% in one year.

Don’t you love hindsight?

More judicial activism

Unborn children don’t count when it comes to carpool lanes, according to a judge’s ruling.

Even after being fined $367 for improper use of a High Occupancy Vehicle lane, Ahwatukee Foothills resident Candace Dickinson stood by her contention that Arizona traffic laws don’t define what a person is, so the child inside her womb justified her use of the lane.

“To follow her philosophy would require officers to carry guns, radios and pregnancy testers, and I don’t think we want to go there,” said Sgt. Dave Norton, the Phoenix police officer who cited Dickinson on Nov. 8.

Reuters via Yahoo! News

As the police officer noted, the intent of the law is to lessen traffic congestion.

Starbucks: Win some, lose some

In a rare setback for the company that made “Frappuccino” a household word, a federal judge ruled that a small New Hampshire coffee roaster can keep selling its “Charbucks” brand coffee beans, following a nearly decade-long legal battle with Starbucks Corp.

Judge Laura Swain of New York federal court ruled last month that consumers were unlikely to be confused between Starbucks and the “Charbucks” and “Mister Charbucks” coffee blends sold by the family-owned Black Bear Micro Roastery of Centre Tuftonboro, New Hampshire.

Reuters via Yahoo! News

You may remember the Astoria, Oregon, woman who lost her case to preserve the name Sambucks.

7,000

Every once in awhile NewMexiKen deletes an entry from months back, for example ones I notice with nothing more than a broken link. And there are many that I deleted along the way, some right after I posted them because they just didn’t seem right.

So, when you get right down to it, there have been many more than 7,000 entries in the 29-plus months this blog has been in business. But, two items ago the official count reached 7,000. That seemed like a milestone worth congratulating myself for.

‘[T]he Si corners like a weasel in a drainpipe.’

NewMexiKen just loves the style of Los Angeles Times auto critic (and Pulitzer winner) Dan Neil: An example from today’s column about the Honda Civic Si:

Tina is my wife and — setting aside her taste in husbands — she has very good judgment. While I ponder the Confucian mysteries of things like caster angle and shift throws, for the Tina-meter it’s all about comfort, security and serenity in the passenger seat. Yes, yes, your electroluminescent gauges and dials are all very pretty, but for me the Tina-meter is the most important readout in a car. If Tina arrives in a bad mood, well, my day isn’t going to get any better, is it?

Or:

From the driver’s chair, the Si is an endless source of infantile thrills, a high-fructose sports compact with all the yank and snatch of a tuned autocross racer. Think psychotic hamster. From the passenger seat, however, the car is kind of awful — loud and ungenerous and frantic, endlessly seesawing over 1-2 and 2-3 gearshifts. The sport-tuned suspension is leathery and the “tuned” intake system, routed through the fender well for more wailing resonance, performs exploratory surgery until it finds your last nerve, and then gets on it.

The Grand Canyon

… was first designated for preservation on this date in 1908 when President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the area a national monument. It was designated a national park in 1919.

NewMexiKen photo, 1995

Agua Fria National Monument (Arizona)

… was designated under the Bureau of Land Management on this date in 2000.

Adjacent to rapidly expanding communities, the 71,000-acre Agua Fria National Monument is approximately 40 miles north of central Phoenix. The monument encompasses two mesas and the canyon of the Agua Fria River. Elevations range from 2,150 feet above sea level along the Agua Fria Canyon to about 4,600 feet in the northern hills. This expansive mosaic of semi-desert area, cut by ribbons of valuable riparian forest, offers one of the most significant systems of prehistoric sites in the American Southwest. In addition to the rich record of human history, the monument contains outstanding biological resources.

Best line of the day, so far

“At the end of my life I hope to have lived to such a standard that I don’t have the regret that I didn’t watch enough television.”

dooce

Thanks to Jill for the pointer.

But Enough About You, Judge; Let’s Hear What I Have to Say

According to this report in The New York Times, and elsewhere, yesterday Senator Biden’s questions (to use the term loosely) were three times as wordy as Judge Alito’s responses.

Best line of the day, so far

“Watching the bobblehead coverage of the Alito hearings – and, frankly, just about everything else they cover – one comes away think[ing] that to them it just doesn’t really matter. Court decisions don’t matter. Policy doesn’t matter. None of this stuff matters. It’s just a game played between rival high school football teams and they’re just happy to go to the homecoming dance.”

Atrios

Best line of the day, so far

“Some good news — doctors say that Ariel Sharon is emerging from his coma and can move his hand. The first thing he did was give Pat Robertson the finger.”

Jay Leno

That was Tuesday night. Here’s the best line from Monday night:

“A judge ruled last week that mooning is legal in Maryland. Though that’s not really a problem because a lot of people who work in Washington live in Maryland and they’re more concerned with covering their ass than showing it.”

Coulda Shoulda Woulda

Bill Simmons takes Kobe to task for not scoring 80 points against the Mavs. (He got 62.) An excerpt:

See, sports isn’t only about winning and losing. It’s also about the little challenges along the way. Kobe’s chance to break the non-Wilt record transcended victory or even a little character rehab. After three quarters, he’d outscored the Mavs by himself, something nobody ever remembers happening before. To throw your hands up, high-five your teammates and say, “That’s it, that’s enough” doesn’t just cheat the fans who are at the game, it cheats everyone who loves basketball and spends their evenings flicking channels, waiting to stumble across a lightning-in-a-bottle moment. The outcome was decided, but the story line wasn’t. Kobe took the easy way out. And in doing so, it was just one more manifestation of what has gone wrong with his career. He should have been the next MJ, should have broken the non-Wilt record, should have been the defining player of his generation. Instead, he’s another couldashouldawoulda guy.