NewMexiKen
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Archive for January 16, 2006

Pinnacles National Monument (California)

… was established on this date in 1908.

Pinnacles National Monument

Rising out of the chaparral-covered Gabilan Mountains, east of central California’s Salinas Valley, are the spectacular remains of an ancient volcano. Massive monoliths, spires, sheer-walled canyons and talus passages define millions of years of erosion, faulting and tectonic plate movement. Within the monument’s boundaries lie 24,000 acres of diverse wildlands. The monument is renowned for the beauty and variety of its spring wildflowers. A rich diversity of wildlife can be observed throughout the year.

Pinnacles National Monument

ReNew Orleans

Beats Per Minute has the latest on New Orleans.

Beats Per Minute is written by Vernon who identifies himself: “I’m Dineh and I’m a physician living in New Orleans. I grew up on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. Although I now live in the Louisiana, I also consider the Navajo Reservation my home.”

Cheating in the N.F.L.?

Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner is wondering if the NFL wanted the Colts to win:

I’ve had occasion over the years to deal with the N.F.L. on a number of levels, and I think it’s a pretty remarkable industry (well, okay, a pretty remarkable cartel). But yesterday’s Steelers-Colts game contained three mind-boggling calls (or non-calls) that went against the Steelers, and made me wonder what was happening.

Click link above to read more.

2005 National Book Critics Award Nominees

National Book Critics Circle award nominees:

Fiction
William T. Vollmann, “Europe Central”
E.L. Doctorow, “The March”
Mary Gaitskill, “Veronica”
Kazuo Ishiguro, “Never Let Me Go”
Andrea Levy, “Small Island”

General Nonfiction
Joan Didion, “The Year of Magical Thinking”
Orhan Pamuk, “Istanbul”
Francine du Plessix Gray, “Them”
Judith Moore, “Fat Girl”
Vikram Seth, “Two Lives”

Biography/Autobiography
Doris Kearns Goodwin, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”
Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, “American Prometheus”
Carolyn Burke, “Lee Miller”
Jonathan Coe, “Like a Fiery Elephant”
Ron Powers, “Mark Twain”

Poetry
Simon Armitage, “The Shout”
Manuel Blas de Luna, “Bent to the Earth”
Jack Gilbert, “Refusing Heaven”
Richard Siken, “Crush”
Ron Slate, “The Incentive of the Maggot”

Criticism
John Updike, “Still Looking”
Arthur Danto, “Unnatural Wonders”
Hal Crowther, “Gather at the River”
William Logan, “The Undiscovered Country”
Eliot Weinberger, “What Happened Here”

No Place Like Home

You won’t find a nicer tribute to home and to Albuquerque than the one at La Queen Sucia.