On May 16, 1868, the U.S. Senate failed by just one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as he was charged under the articles of impeachment. A second vote, taken on May 26, also fell short, by just one vote, of the two-thirds majority required to convict the president.
From the Library of Congress, which has details, though the contemporary report from The New York Times is more fun to read.
“Whatever Lou Dobbs says, illegal immigration is not anything like a crisis. The possibility of civil war in Iraq – now, that’s a crisis. The devastation in New Orleans – that’s a crisis.
“People risking their lives to cross a desert to clean our toilets – that’s a tragedy.”
Every McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and Jack-in-the-Box in the country via Google Maps.
Disapproval in polls isn’t the same as votes in November, but it’s a Blue Nation now.
It’s one of those names we all know, maybe a little vaguely: Annie Oakley. But who was she? Most people today know very little about her; in fact, you may think she’s a myth, a character from Western lore like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Pete, or the Lone Ranger.
Even the musical Annie Get Your Gun, which is supposedly about the real person, twists her life significantly. In it she loses a shooting match on purpose to a male marksman, then marries him; in real life, the 16-year-old Annie both won that match and married her man. And he became her press agent.
The real Annie Oakley was among the best-known and best-loved Americans of her day, perhaps the first female superstar in this country.
Read more about Annie Oakley from AmericanHeritage.com.
FLINT, Mich. – It was just a penny, but to Consumers Energy it was enough to cut off power in a local home. Jacqueline Williams, 41, of Flint had an electricity bill of $1,662.08 and paid all of it, except for one cent. That wasn’t enough for the power company, which blacked her out for seven hours Wednesday.
The CMS Energy Corp. subsidiary told Williams the power would not be turned on until the penny was received.
“I went down there, paid my penny and got a receipt,” Williams told The Flint Journal.
Shortly after, the electricity was turned back on.
Skype now provides FREE outgoing calls to all numbers in the U.S. and Canada — at least through the end of 2006.
That is, not only can you call all Skype members free, now you can call landlines and cell phones free, too!
“Let’s set aside our political differences for a moment and pretend we all agree with the goals Bush outlined for immigration reform last night. Is there any sane person left on the planet, anyone at all, who truly believes these pinheads are capable of executing a plan successfully?”
Yummy. And black for only $200 $150 more (it has a larger hard drive).
But who wouldn’t want black?
Forty years ago today, on May 16, 1966, American rock music grew up. Two of the most ambitious albums to date were released on that day. They were Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Forget all the soda-pop dreams chirped over basic chords that preceded that day. These two albums heralded a new era of sophisticated songwriting.
Read more from AmericanHeritage.com
According to the Barna research, The Da Vinci Code has been read “cover to cover” by roughly 45 million adults in the U.S. — that’s one out of every five adults (20%). That makes it the most widely read book with a spiritual theme, other than the Bible, to have penetrated American homes.
The audience profile of the book is intriguing. Despite critical comments and warnings from the Catholic hierarchy, American Catholics are more likely than Protestants to have read it (24% versus 15%, respectively). Among Protestants, those associated with a mainline church are almost three times more likely than those associated with non-mainline Protestant congregations to have read the book. Upscale individuals — i.e., those with a college degree and whose household income exceeds $60,000 — are nearly four times more likely to have read the book than are “downscale” people (i.e., those without a college degree and whose household income is $30,000 or less).
“In a nationally televised address last night, President George W. Bush announced that he would order 10,000 National Guard troops to protect his sagging approval rating.”
“President Bush is going to address the nation Monday night on the immigration issue. Bush said he would have given the address [Friday night] but, he couldn’t get that Mission Accomplished sign in Spanish made fast enough.”
Jay Leno
… was born on this date in 1856. Mr. Baum is, of course, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first published in September 1900. The Library of Congress has an interesting enough online exhibit about Baum and Oz. It’s curious to contrast the drawings from the original by W.W. Denslow with our own images so indelibly formed by the 1939 film.
From the Social Security Administration last year’s most popular baby names.
| Rank | Male name | Female name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacob | Emily | ||
| 2 | Michael | Emma | ||
| 3 | Joshua | Madison | ||
| 4 | Matthew | Abigail | ||
| 5 | Ethan | Olivia | ||
| 6 | Andrew | Isabella | ||
| 7 | Daniel | Hannah | ||
| 8 | Anthony | Samantha | ||
| 9 | Christopher | Ava | ||
| 10 | Joseph | Ashley | ||
| Note: Rank 1 is the most popular, rank 2 is the next most popular, and so forth. | ||||
In New Mexico the top 5 names for boys were Joshua, Isaiah, Jacob, Daniel and Elijah. For girls Alyssa, Emily, Madison, Isabella and Destiny.
Thanks to Jill (not in the top 1000 most popular girl’s names last year) for the link.
In The New Yorker Steven Shapin tells us what we’re buying when we buy organic. A brief excerpt:
It all depends on what you think you’re buying when you buy organic. If the word conjures up the image of a small, family-owned, local operation, you may be disappointed. Like Whole Foods, Earthbound Farm is a very big business. Earthbound’s founders, Drew and Myra Goodman, Manhattanites who went to college in the Bay Area, and then started a two-and-a-half-acre raspberry-and-baby-greens farm near Carmel to produce food they “felt good about,” are now the nation’s largest grower of organic produce, with revenues for this year projected at more than $450 million. Their greens, including the arugula, are produced on giant farms in six different counties in California, two in Arizona, one in Colorado, and in three Mexican states. Earthbound grows more than seventy per cent of all the organic lettuce sold in America; big organic retailers like Whole Foods require big organic suppliers. (Earthbound actually dropped the “organic” specification when it started its mass-distribution program, in 1993—even though the stuff was organic—because its first client, Costco, thought it might put customers off.) By 2004, Earthbound was farming twenty-six thousand acres; its production plants in California and Arizona total four hundred thousand square feet, and its products are available in supermarkets in every state of the Union. The Carmel Valley farm stand is still there, largely for public-relations purposes, and is as much an icon of California’s entrepreneurial roots as the Hewlett-Packard garage in downtown Palo Alto.
A solid review of David Brion Davis’ Inhuman Bondage by Ira Berlin in today’s New York Times. The review includes this:
The genius of “Inhuman Bondage” is in Davis’s ability to identify the big questions: Why slavery? Why did slavery become identified with Africans and their descendants? Why was slavery so easily accepted before 1776 and so readily challenged thereafter? Why did racism outlast slavery? On each of these matters, and dozens more, Davis expertly summarizes the debates, bringing clarity to the contending arguments. “Inhuman Bondage” is a tour de force of synthetic scholarship.
But Davis is not merely a referee among historical gladiators. He gets in with the lions, forcing a rethinking of many of the most fundamental issues. He examines the twists and turns of slavery’s development and the contingencies that set human history off in unexpected directions: the patent evil that redounds to the good and the earnest benevolence that creates untold pain.
The view Friday from the highway between Durango and Silverton, Colorado. A stunning, warm spring day in the high country.
NewMexiKen read Leigh Montville’s new, excellent The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth over the past few days. Recommended for anyone interested in America’s greatest sports legend.
In light of Barry Bonds’ approach to Ruth’s career home run mark (714), two Ruth home run stories. First, the third inning of the first game ever in Yankee Stadium, 1923:
“The fans were on their feet yelling and waving and throwing scorecards and half-consumed frankfurters,” van Loon wrote, “bellowing unto high heaven that the Babe was the greatest man on earth, the the Babe was some kid, and that the Babe could have their last and bottom dollar, together with the mortgage on their house, their wives and furniture.”
The Yankees won the game, 4-1, Ruth’s homer the difference. For the rest of his life, when asked about the home runs he had hit, he always would say this was his favorite. Theater never merged better with sport. He gave ’em exactly what they wanted when they wanted it.
And, his last:
This was homer number 714, the third of the day, the last of a career. The Pittsburgh crowd of 10,000, not knowing the exact implications of what it had seen but knowing this was pretty darn good, applauded as he left the game. He was Babe Ruth, dammit. … He never had another major league hit.
Ruth played over 22 seasons (1914-1935) and appeared in 10 World Series. He was 40 when he retired. He died of cancer at age 53 in 1948. Most of his life he thought he was a year older than he was.
… of George Lucas. He’s 62. Lucas has twice received a writing Oscar nomination and a directing nomination for the same film (American Graffiti and Star Wars). He’s won none. He did get that Thalberg Award though.
… of David Byrne. He’s 54. Byrne is an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Talking Heads. An excerpt:
Among the most adventuresome bands in rock history, the Talking Heads drew from funk, minimalism, and African and Brazilian music in promulgating a new sound that was both visionary and visceral. They were invariably challenging and inventive, using infectious rhythms as a form of sorcery to introduce their ever-expanding audience to exotic influences from abroad that they might otherwise have never heard. In so doing, they helped pave the way – along with the likes of Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno – for the “world music” phenomenon of the Eighties and beyond.
… of Cate Blanchett. She’s 37. Nominated for best actress for Elizabeth, Ms. Blanchett won the supporting actress Oscar for playing an even more famous redhead, Kate Hepburn, in The Aviator.
… of Sofia Coppola. She’s 35. Ms. Coppola was nominated for three Oscars for Lost in Translation — best picture, best director and best original screenplay. She won for the writing.
Frank Sinatra died on this date in 1998. He probably died because it was also the date of the last Seinfeld episode and what was the point of going on.
As of today, there have been exactly two documented, successful pieces of malicious software — viruses, trojan horses, worms — that affected users of the Mac OS X operating system, since it was released in 2001. And these two failed to spread much, affecting probably a few dozen people, and doing no harm. I expect there to be a small number of additional Mac viruses this year.
By contrast, there are over 100,000 reported viruses for Windows, some of which have affected millions of people and have done significant economic damage. As for spyware, I know of no documented cases on Mac OS X, while there are certainly thousands on Windows. These Windows viruses and spyware can’t run on the Mac operating system, even on Macs powered by the same Intel processors used by Windows PCs.
Click image to enlarge and learn more about the Very Large Array.
… became a national park on this date in 1930. It had been a national monument.
Established to preserve Carlsbad Cavern and numerous other caves within a Permian-age fossil reef, the park contains more than 100 known caves, including Lechuguilla Cave—the nation’s deepest limestone cave at 1,567 feet (478m) and fourth longest.
… of Bea Arthur. Maude is 84.
… of Harvey Keitel. He’s 67. Keitel was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in Bugsy.
… of Stevland Morris. He’s 56.
Only 12 when he began to record for Motown, Steveland Morris grew up on vinyl in the public eye.
His first hit, “Fingertips – Pt. 2,” under the name of Little Stevie Wonder, rose to No. 1 as an R&B shouter in the mold of Ray Charles.. He then steered toward ballads with “I Was Made to Love Her” (1967) and “For Once in My Life” (1968).
After turning 21, Wonder wrested artistic control over his career from the Motown hit-making factory; the results were such No. 1 hits as “Superstition” (1972), “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (1973), “I Wish” (1976) and “Sir Duke” (1977).
Many of his ‘70s songs dealt with politics and ghetto life, but by the ‘80s he had returned to more predictable material, such as “I Just Called to Say I Love You” (1984) and “Part-Time Lover” (1985).
… of Joe Louis, born on May 13, 1914. (He died in 1981.)
When some called Louis “a credit to his race,” sportswriter Jimmy Cannon responded, “Yes, Louis is a credit to his race — the human race.”
He also was a credit to boxing, which often contributes to the worst in the human race. His championship reign, from 1937 until he retired in 1949, is the longest of any heavyweight. With his powerful left jab, his destructive two-fisted attack that he released with accuracy at short range, and his capacity for finishing a wounded opponent, the 6-foot-1½ fighter defeated all 25 of his challengers, another record.
Louis also was a winner with women. Though married four times, including twice to his first wife, he discreetly enjoyed the company of both African-American and white women, including Lena Horne, Sonja Henie and Lana Turner. (ESPN.com)
… of Richard Steven Valenzuela, born on May 13, 1941.
In the course of his short life, Ritchie Valens left a lasting impact on rock and roll with the classic rocker “La Bamba.” A high-energy reworking of an old Mexican wedding song, its driving simplicity foreshadowed garage-rock, frat-rock and punk-rock. Ironically, “La Bamba” was the B-side of “Donna,” a paean to Valens’ girlfriend that rose to #2 on Billboard’s singles chart. “La Bamba” also charted, peaking at #22. This double-sided smash is one of the greatest rock and roll singles of the Fifties. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Valens was killed in 1959 in the plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. He was 17.
President Al Gore reports on the State of Union.
Video from Saturday Night Live (May 13).