Month: April 2008

April 14th, but Ruination Day can’t be a holiday

Today we celebrate the birthday

… of Loretta Lynn. The coal miner’s daughter was born in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, 73 years ago.

Loretta Webb was born in a one-room log cabin and was the second of eight children. At thirteen she attended a pie social, bringing a pie she had baked using salt instead of sugar. The highest bidder not only won the pie but also got to meet the girl who had baked the pie. Mooney Lynn had just returned home after having served in the army. A month after they had first met, still three months short of her fourteenth birthday, Loretta and Mooney married.

Country Music Hall of Fame

… of four-time Oscar nominee for best actress Julie Christie. She’s 67. Miss Christie won the Oscar for Darling — and not in February for Away from Her but be sure to see the film.

… of Pete Rose. You can bet that Pete is 67 today.

… of Brad Garrett, 48. Garrett is 6-8½.

… of Greg Maddux, 42.

… of Adrien Brody. The Oscar winner (best actor for The Pianist) is 35.

… of Sarah Michelle Gellar. Buffy is 31.

… of Abigail Breslin. The Oscar-nominated actress is 12.

Three time Oscar-nominated actor Rod Steiger was born on this date in 1925. Steiger won for Best Actor for his portrayal of the sheriff in the movie In the Heat of the Night. He was nominated for best actor for The Pawnbroker and for best supporting actor for On the Waterfront. The Pawnbroker (1964) was one of the first films to deal with the emotional aftermath of the Nazi concentration camps. Steiger died in 2002.

James Cash Penney opened his first retail store, called the Golden Rule Store, in the mining town of Kemmerer, Wyoming, on this date in 1902. In 1913, the chain incorporated as J.C. Penney Company, Inc.

Penney Store

The first store, as seen in 1904.

RMS Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 PM (Titanic time) on this date in 1912. She was at 41° 46′ north latitude , 50° 14′ west longitude in the Atlantic. The ship went under at 2:20 AM on the 15th.

Best whole paragraph of the day, so far

Bitter? You ain’t seen nothing yet. And as much as people like Russert, Carville, Matalin, Schrum, and Murphy want to divert our attention from what’s really happening; as much as HRC and McCain seek to make political hay out of choices of words that can be spun cynically by the mindless spinners of the old politics; as much as demagogues on the right and left continue to try to channel the cumulative frustrations of Americans into a politics of resentment – all these attempts will, I hope, prove futile. Eighty percent of Americans know the nation is on the wrong track. The old politics, and the old media that feeds it, are irrelevant now.

Robert Reich.

Reich wrote seven paragraphs in all when he posted this yesterday. Go read the other six.

Best most of a paragraph of the day, so far

I was away from the Intertubes for several days and, therefore, I am just now catching up to the whole “Bittergate” controversy. (I actually heard a TV drone say that.) I also am just now catching up with the fact that the president of the United States is proud to have hosted meetings in which specific techniques of torture were discussed in the presidential mansion. Forgive me if I am not yet up to speed on the two stories, but having a candidate for the presidency say something that virually anyone who’s spent any time in the region in question knows to be true — which, I will admit, leaves out almost all of the people covering national politics these days — seems to me rather less of a story than the fact that a giggling unemployable spent time pretending to be Henry VIII down the hall from a gathering of bloodsoaked, pathetic wannabe tough guys.

Charles Pierce

Pierce also reminds us that Charlton Heston did march with Dr. King back in 1963, when it wasn’t a safe play.

Ruination Day

And the great barge sank.
And the Okies fled.
And the great emancipater
took a bullet in the head.

in the head…
took a bullet in the back of the head.

It was not December.
Was not in May.
Was the 14th of April.
That is ruination day.

That’s the day…
The day that is ruination day.

— Gillian Welch, “Ruination Day Part II”

Lincoln assassinated, the Titanic hit the iceberg, Black Sunday on the Great Plains.

April 14th.

Warning: Rant Alert!

Checking the ID of 60-year-old individuals before selling them beer seems to be back in vogue around Albuquerque. It’s happened to me twice in the past few days — at a restaurant and at Costco.

Here’s what I had to say about it two years ago:

NewMexiKen had to show ID last night at the Isotopes baseball game to purchase beer. Now I am 61 years old, have four children in their thirties and six granchildren. I was of legal age 40 f***ing years ago. There is no way, much as I might feel young on the inside, that I look like I could be under 21.

What kind of foolishness requires servers and vendors to check the age of every customer? Doesn’t that obvious overkill actually undermine the legitimacy of the liquor laws? (Sort of like “drug free zones” near schools — drugs are illegal but they’re really, really illegal around schools.)

When I was 17 or 19 I would have had no problem getting alcoholic beverages. I’m fairly certain today’s 17 or 19 year olds have little trouble if they really want it. What mis-guided moron thought up the policy of checking the IDs of grandparents?

And it’s just sad when the waitress or cashier says, “You don’t want me to get fired, do you?” Well, of course I don’t want them to get fired. I want them to quit and look for a job where they are enabled to use some common sense.

And you know what galls me the most? I was buying Michelob Ultra in both instances. (Don’t ask.) I mean that stuff is like making love in a canoe.

You know — f**king close to water.

Lucky 13th?

Henry Aaron began his Major League career on April 13th in 1954.

Sidney Poitier won his Academy Award on April 13th in 1964.

Tiger Woods won his first Masters on Sunday, April 13th, in 1997.

What will this April 13th bring?

April 13th

Today is the birthday

. . . of Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 75.

. . . of Paul Sorvino. The 69-year-old actor has more than 100 credits at IMDB, including a season as Detective Sergeant Philip “Phil” Cerreta on Law & Order and Henry Kissinger in Nixon.

. . . of Wally Cleaver. Tony Dow is 63.

. . . of Al Green, staying together at 62.

With his incomparable voice, full of falsetto swoops and nuanced turns of phrase, Al Green rose to prominence in the Seventies. One of the most gifted purveyors of soul music, Green has sold more than 20 million records. During 1972 and 1973, he placed six consecutive singles in the Top Ten: “Let’s Stay Together,” “Look What You Done for Me,” “I’m Still in Love With You,” “You Ought to Be With Me,” “Call Me” and “Here I Am (Come and Take Me).” “Let’s Stay Together” topped the pop chart for one week and the R&B charts for nine; it was also revived with great success by Tina Turner in 1984. In terms of popularity and artistry, Green was the top male soul singer in the world, voluntarily ending his reign with a move from secular to gospel music in 1979.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

. . . of chess champion Gary Kasparov, 45.

. . . of Davis Love III. He’s 44.

. . . of Rick Schroeder. Just nine when he won a Golden Globe, he’s 38 now.

It’s also the birthday of playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett, born on this date in 1906. Waiting for Godot was published in 1952.

April 13th ought to be a national holiday — no, really!

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13th in 1743. [It was April 2nd on the calendar when he was born, but it’s that old Julian-Gregorian thing again.]

Eight-three years later, at the end of his remarkable life, he wished to be remembered foremost for those actions that appear as his epitaph:

Author of the
Declaration
of
American Independence
of the
Statute of Virginia
for
Religious Freedom
and Father of the
University of Virginia.

Jefferson Epitaph

Draft Declaration of Independence

At a White House dinner honoring 49 Nobel laureates in 1962, President Kennedy remarked, “I think this is the most extraordinary talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Despite serious flaws, Jefferson remains one of the most remarkable Americans.

In addition to being a writer, Jefferson was also a hard-nosed politician, lawyer, naturalist, musician, architect, geographer, inventor, scientist, paleontologist, and philosopher. Jefferson filled his house with scientific gadgets and inventions, collected mastodon bones, and kept detailed notes on the most obscure details of his life, including the daily fluctuation of the barometric pressure. After he missed the start of the solar eclipse in 1811, he designed his own more accurate astronomical clock. He composed all his papers in later life with a device that allowed him to write with two pens at the same time, so that he could keep copies of all the papers he produced.

The Writer’s Almanac

It seems to NewMexiKen that the country could use a federal holiday during that long spell from Washington’s Birthday to Memorial Day — for shopping and sales and stuff. I propose that April 13th, Jefferson’s birthday, would be ideal.

Click on the image of the document to view Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence. The photo of Jefferson’s tomb above taken by NewMexiKen, 2001. Click to enlarge.

Flag day

From the Library of Congress:

On April 12, 1818, a new flag flew over the U.S. Capitol for the first time. The flag’s thirteen stripes represented the original colonies, and its twenty stars symbolized the number of states in the Union.

StarSpangled.jpgThe first national flag, emblazoned with thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, was modified in 1795 when Kentucky and Vermont entered the Union. A flag with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes was used during the war of 1812. It was the fifteen star and fifteen stripe flag which flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Continued expansion of the Union meant Congress soon again faced the prospect of adding to the number of the flag’s stars and stripes. Thus, in 1818, Congress settled on the expediency of altering the flag according to its present formula whereby stripes represent the original thirteen colonies, and stars are coincident with the number of states in the Union. The Independence Day following the admission of a State was set as the occasion for adding new stars to the flag. With the admission of Hawaii, the fiftieth star was added to the flag on July 4, 1960.

Photo is of the Star Spangled Banner with its 15 stars and 15 stripes. There were 18 states at the time.

I do solemnly swear

Truman Oath

Harry Truman takes the oath of office at 7:09 PM (Eastern War Time) on this date sixty-three years ago. Franklin Roosevelt had died just over two hours earlier at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia, the “Little White House.” When called at the Capitol and told he should rush to the White House, Truman is reported to have exclaimed, “Jesus Christ and General Jackson.” Once at the White House, Truman was told of FDR’s death by Mrs. Roosevelt.

The following day, Friday the 13th, is when Truman told several reporters: “Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when you told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”

Information and quotations from David McCullough’s outstanding biography of Truman. Photo from the National Archives via the White House web site.