Month: June 2006

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park (Virginia)

… was designated a U. S. War Department Battlefield Site on this date in 1930. It became a National Historical Monument in 1935 and a National Historical Park in 1954.

Appomattox Court House

Walk the old country lanes where Robert E. Lee, Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered his men to Ulysses Grant, General-in-Chief of all United States forces, on April 9, 1865. Imagine the events that signaled the end of the Southern States’ attempt to create a separate nation. The National Park encompasses approximately 1800 acres of rolling hills in rural central Virginia. The site includes the McLean home (surrender site) and the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, the former county seat for Appomattox County. The site also has the home and burial place of Joel Sweeney – the popularizer of the modern five string banjo. There are twenty seven original 19th century structures on the site.

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park

Best gift ever

One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was a losing lottery ticket. My brother bought it for me. I realize that doesn’t sound like a great gift, since it only cost a dollar, and it lost. But the way he did it was pure evil genius.

No one wants to buy a winning lottery ticket for someone else. You’d bang your head on the wall for the rest of your life, yelling “WHY OH WHY DIDN’T I KEEP THAT ONE??? WHAAAWHAAAAWHAAAA!!!” That’s bad for the wall.

My brother solved that problem by buying for himself two additional lottery tickets with the same numbers as the one he got for me. He explained that in case my ticket won, he wanted to be twice as rich. It’s the thought that counts.

The Dilbert Blog

Adams goes on to explain that he’s told this story “about a hundred times, always to good effect.” So, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Uncommon Carriers

From a review of John McPhee’s latest book, Uncommon Carriers:

This is also the theme that ties together “Uncommon Carriers,” almost all of which, like McPhee’s previous books, first appeared as New Yorker articles. Small boys dream of being the driver of a giant tractor trailer that towers over the family car, or of piloting a ship, or (most of all in my day) of being a railroad engineer. Three portraits of people at work in these professions are the core of this new collection, which includes several shorter pieces also related to transportation: one about a pond in France where sea captains pay $15,000 for a weeklong ship-handling course using scale models, one retracing Thoreau’s canoe journey on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and one about the innards of United Parcel Service.

The decisive Day is come

Or so Abigail Adams wrote to husband John the day after the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was fought on this date in 1775. The first major battle of the American Revolutionary War, it was fought more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.

After the action at Lexington and Concord in April (Paul Revere’s ride), the reinforced British were camped in Boston. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety decided to contain the British by occupying the heights of Charlestown north of Boston (and Dorchester south of it). The militiamen, however, did not have artillery to defend the heights once occupied.

By the morning of June 17, some 1,200 Americans were entrenched on Breed’s Hill in Charlestown — not Bunker Hill, which would have been a better choice. Reinforcements increased the number to 1,500 by afternoon. They were bombarded by British cannon shooting uphill and without much effect. Some 2,200 British troops attacked the fortified position around 3:30 — uphill, carrying 125 pound knapsacks. The first two assaults were thrown back, but the third succeeded as American gun powder ran out.

Though the British took the hill, they suffered more than 1,000 casualties — “The dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold.” American losses were less than 500.

The Battle of Bunker Hill encouraged the colonies. It proved that American forces could inflict heavy losses on the British.

An American officer, William Prescott, is said to have ordered during the battle, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

The Massachusetts Historical Society has an excellent web site relating to the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Beginning of ‘Watergate’

Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. [on this date in 1972] in what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee here.

Three of the men were native-born Cubans and another was said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerrilla activity after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

They were surprised at gunpoint by three plain-clothes officers of the metropolitan police department in a sixth floor office at the plush Watergate, 2600 Virginia Ave., NW, where the Democratic National Committee occupies the entire floor.

There was no immediate explanation as to why the five suspects would want to bug the Democratic National Committee offices or whether or not they were working for any other individuals or organizations.

The Washington Post

UNM

NewMexiKen attended a graduation party Friday evening for the daughter of a dear friend. The daughter recently graduated from prep school and will be attending the University of New Mexico.

Or, as we in Albuquerque call it — UNM.

University Near Mom.

The Don’t-Bother-to-Knock Rule

The Supreme Court yesterday substantially diminished Americans’ right to privacy in their own homes. The rule that police officers must “knock and announce” themselves before entering a private home is a venerable one, and a well-established part of Fourth Amendment law. But President Bush’s two recent Supreme Court appointments have now provided the votes for a 5-4 decision eviscerating this rule.

This decision should offend anyone, liberal or conservative, who worries about the privacy rights of ordinary Americans.
…

If Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had stayed on the court, this case might well have come out the other way. For those who worry that Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito will take the court in a radically conservative direction, it is sobering how easily the majority tossed aside a principle that traces back to 13th-century Britain, and a legal doctrine that dates to 1914, to let the government invade people’s homes.

New York Times Editorial

NewMexiKen believes it is the erosion of our civil liberties that will mark the Roberts Court. And so it begins.

Never have your photo taken then become famous

Bill Gates Strikes a Pose for Teen Beat Photospread (ca. 1984).

Or take a look at this mug shot from NewMexiKen’s very own Albuquerque Police Department. Surely you will recognize Albuquerque’s most famous short-term resident. The arrest in 1977 was related to a traffic violation.

From the Santa Fe New Mexican, the original Microsoft team in Albuquerque (1978). Story here.

And here is the official current Microsoft photo and bio.

William and Mary files appeal on NCAA’s logo ruling

William and Mary yesterday filed an appeal with the NCAA, which last month ruled that the nickname “Tribe” coupled with a logo including feathers could be viewed by Native Americans as offensive.

“Present NCAA determinations of mascot policy – what is allowed and what is forbidden – are neither comprehensible nor capable of being sensibly defended,” Gene R. Nichol, W&M’s president, wrote in a cover letter addressed to Myles Brand, the NCAA president.

In the appeal, W&M points out that the NCAA has made exceptions to its policy, allowing Florida State to remain the “Seminoles,” Utah to remain the “Utes,” and other schools to keep Native-American nicknames or imagery because those schools were granted permission to do so by specific tribes.

“To put it bluntly, the NCAA is now a complicit partner in the practices it seeks to condemn,” states a W&M-produced summary of the 21-page appeal. The appeal contends that W&M’s “nickname and logo are a natural expression of the College’s unique history and location.”

W&M established a school to educate Native Americans in 1697. That school operated for seven decades.
…

“Few will understand why the College – where athletes regularly don Phi Beta Kappa keys at commencement, gain admission to competitive graduate and professional programs in unusually high numbers, and avoid the corrupting misconduct that too often mars university sports programs elsewhere – has made it to the top of the NCAA’s regulatory agenda,” Nichol wrote to Brand, the NCAA president.

“It would make more sense to study and export William & Mary’s approach to athletics than to penalize it.”

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Jill and Emily, official daughters of NewMexiKen, are alumnae of The College of William and Mary. Jill was employed in the athletic department for several years.

Exactly

John Fleck makes an excellent point about the professionalism of firefighters contrasted with that of TV journalists:

I have a great frustration with traditional television news coverage of wildfires, because it generally leaves the impression of a chaotic, uncontrolled and unpredictable situation. Sometimes it is that way. But more often, the fire crews have a pretty clear idea of terrain, fuel load and weather. They know where the fire is now, and where it’s likely to go in the next 24 hours. They have a strategy for fighting the fire, which generally involves cutting a line behind it, flanking it with lines, and picking a safe distance in front of it to cut a line. It’s hard work, but most of the time it’s a fairly orderly process. The importance is to distinguish that orderly process from the times that the fire gets unruly rather than just treating the whole event as unruly chaos.

House Divided

Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided Speech at Springfield, Illinois, on this date in 1858.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new — North as well as South.

The speech was made at the Illinois Republican State convention that had nominated Lincoln for U.S. Senator. It was a precursor to the Lincoln-Douglas debates in the campaign that followed, which Lincoln lost. It seems to be about as succinct a statement of the core issue of the Civil War as one could find.

FoMoCo

Ford Motor Company entered the business world on June 16, 1903, when Henry Ford and 11 business associates signed the company’s articles of incorporation. With $28,000 in cash, the pioneering industrialists gave birth to what was to become one of the world’s largest corporations. …

The earliest record of a shipment is July 20, 1903, approximately one month after incorporation, to a Detroit physician. With the company’s first sale came hope—a young Ford Motor Company had taken its first steps.

Ford Motor Company

Geronimo

Several sources give June 16, 1829, as Geronimo’s date of birth. It’s not clear to NewMexiKen that the Apaches were using the Gregorian calendar at that time. And, indeed, one of those sources, The New York Times, stated in its obituary of Geronimo in February 1909 that he was nearly 90 — not 79 as this birth date would indicate. But, he had to be born some time. So why not June 16?

In her excellent 1976 biography of Geronimo, Angie Debo concludes:

Geronimo was born in the early 1820’s near the upper Gila in the mountains crossed by the present state boundary [Arizona-New Mexico], probably on the Arizona side near the present Clifton. …

He was given the name Goyahkla, with the generally accepted meaning “One Who Yawns,’ why or under what circumstances is not known.

As an adult in battle he was called Geronimo by Mexican soldiers, perhaps because they could not pronounce Goyahkla, or perhaps to invoke Saint Jerome (Geronimo is Spanish for Jerome). The name was adopted for him by his own people.

In its obituary of Geronimo, The Times provided this quote:

Gen. Miles, in his memoirs, describes his first impression of Geronimo when he was brought into camp by Lawton, thus: “He was one of the brightest, most resolute, determined-looking men that I have ever encountered. He had the clearest, sharpest dark eye I think I have ever seen, unless it was that of Gen. Sherman.”

Some have wondered what motivated Geronimo to fight so fiercely. Perhaps this from his autobiography (written with S.M. Barrett in 1905) explains a little:

Geronimo.jpgIn the summer of 1858, being at peace with the Mexican towns as well as with all the neighboring Indian tribes, we went south into Old Mexico to trade. Our whole tribe (Bedonkohe Apaches) went through Sonora toward Casa Grande, our destination, but just before reaching that place we stopped at another Mexican town called by the Indians Kas-ki-yeh. Here we stayed for several days, camping outside the city. Every day we would go into town to trade, leaving our camp under the protection of a small guard so that our arms, supplies, and women and children would not be disturbed during our absence.

Late one afternoon when returning from town we were met by a few women and children who told us that Mexican troops from some other town had attacked our camp, killed all the warriors of the guard, captured all our ponies, secured our arms, destroyed our supplies, and killed many of our women and children. Quickly we separated, concealing ourselves as best we could until nightfall, when we assembled at our appointed place of rendezvous–a thicket by the river. Silently we stole in one by one: sentinels were placed, and, when all were counted, I found that my aged mother, my young wife, and my three small children were among the slain. There were no lights in camp, so without being noticed I silently turned away and stood by the river. How long I stood there I do not know, but when I saw the warriors arranging for a council I took my place.

It’s the birthday

… of novelist Joyce Carol Oates. She’s 68.

She is one of the most prolific writers of her generation, having published almost one hundred books in forty years, including novels, short stories, plays, poetry and essays. She’s the author of many novels, including Them (1969), Bellefleur (1980), and We Were the Mulvaneys (1996).
…

When asked how she can write so much, Oates says she just works steadily, about eight or ten hours a day. She spends a lot of her time thinking about her work while she’s running, walking, or bicycling. She said, “At such times the imagination floats free, and one can contemplate one’s work with an almost magical detachment.”

The Writer’s Almanac

… of Lamont Dozier, 65 today. Who is Lamont Dozier you say? Along with Eddie and Brian Holland, Dozier wrote a few songs you may know, among them:

Baby I Need Your Loving
Baby Love
Bernadette
Come See About Me
Nowhere To Run
I Hear a Symphony
My World Is Empty Without You
Reach Out, I’ll Be There
How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You
(Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) I Can’t Help Myself
Stop! In The Name Of Love
This Old Heart Of Mine
It’s The Same Old Song
Jimmy Mack

… of Roberto Duran. “No mas” is 55. (In a 1980 fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, with 16 seconds remaining in the 8th round, Duran had enough. He told the referee, “No mas, no mas.”)

… of Phil Mickelson. Lefty is 36 today.

And, it was on this date in 1904 that Leopold Bloom took his epic journey through Dublin in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Happy Bloomsday.

Historical maps foster Indian education

Montana Indian Map

Thompson and Lugthart developed a series of full-color historical maps of Montana, beginning with one of the earliest American Indian maps of a portion of Western Montana all the way through to the present. …

The historical maps show an evolution of discovery, place names and the migration of the people living on the land. Each mapmaker from each era contributes to the history of the landscape.

“Each map is a story unto itself,” Thompson said.

BillingsGazette.com

NewMexiKen loves maps, and thinks historical maps in particular would be good to collect once I receive my Powerball winnings.

That is cool

President Bush called a reporter’s cell phone yesterday to apologize for joking with him about wearing sunglasses during a press conference. The reporter has an eye disease that Bush was not aware of it.

Getting a call on your cell phone from the president, now that is cool. If Bush called NewMexiKen on my cell phone I would probably vote for him the next time he ran for president.

Oh, yeah

NewMexiKen forgot to mention that on our recent trip, the highlight for Dad, who lives in daylight saving time free Arizona, was having people in Indiana, which just this year adopted DST — and thus left Arizona as the only state without it * — tell him how much they hated it, and that surely DST and the current governor would both be removed.

100% of the folks we discussed it with in Indiana said this. Well, two people.

* Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight saving time because that close to the equator the length of the day varies by only 2½ hours between June and December. In Tucson the length of the day (sunlight) varies by 4¼ hours summer/winter; in Indianapolis 5½ hours.