Day: August 1, 2008

August the oneth

William Clark, of Lewis and Clark, was born on this date in 1770. He died in 1838.

Francis Scott Key was born on August 1st in 1779.

Richard Henry Dana was born on August 1st in 1815.

Herman Melville was born on August 1st in 1819. The Writer’s Almanac had a brief little bio last year that included this:

Melville started Moby-Dick in the winter of 1850 and finished in the summer of 1851, writing all day every day without eating until four or five o’clock in the evening. When it was finally printed, he handed one of the first copies of the book to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne in a tavern, and later said that that was the best day of his life. But Moby-Dick was a total flop. Melville’s readers wanted adventure stories, and Moby-Dick was an adventure story, but the adventure was obscured by the language. It takes more than a hundred pages before the characters even get on the boat. The book got terrible reviews, and nobody read it.

But if Moby-Dick was a financial failure, Melville’s next book, Pierre (1852), fared even worse. Melville eventually gave up on writing fiction and turned to poetry, which he had to publish himself. He spent the last 20 years of his life working as a customs inspector. It wasn’t until the 1920s that his work was rediscovered.

Robert Todd Lincoln, the first child of Abraham Lincoln and the only one to survive to adulthood, was born on this date in 1843. He died in 1926. (Lincoln’s son Eddie was born in 1846 and died in 1850. Son Willie died at age 12 in 1862. Son Tad (Thomas) died at age 18 in 1871.)

Jerry Garcia was born on this date in 1942. He died in 1995.

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) is 43 today.

Bi

New Mexico FBIHOP had an interesting essay late last night about bilingualism — and the harm the small-minded people can do. Read it.

And I learned the state song, or at least some of it. It’s bilingual just like New Mexico.

Under a sky of azure,
Where balmy breezes blow,
Kissed by the golden sunshine,
Is Nuevo Mejico.

Land of the Montezuma,
With firey hearts aglow,
Land of the deeds historic,
Is Nuevo Mejico.

Go read the posting.

Actually every day in Albuquerque is above average

Yesterday, the 31st, was officially the hottest day all month in Albuquerque, 97º. The average high for the month was a moderate 87.7º and the average low an A/C off, windows open, 65.4º.

It hasn’t reached 100º in Albuquerque in August since 1994. So 97º may be the official high this year (twice in June and yesterday).

Maybe. I see right now at Casa NewMexiKen it’s 96º with 9% humidity. Them’s June-like conditions.

By comparison, the high for July in Phoenix was 112º (on the first and last days of the month). The average high there was 105.7º (18 degrees higher than Albuquerque) and the average low 84º (nearly 19 degrees warmer than Albuquerque). It has reached 100º or more in Phoenix 55 out of the last 61 days. Ugly.

Identify constellations, stars, planets and how to navigate at night

“The night sky has followed you your whole life. It may be the only thing your distant ancestors would recognize today. How much of it do you recognize? Fifteen minutes from now, you will recognize plenty.”

Identify constellations, stars, planets and how to navigate at night.

NewMexiKen has found that just the slightest knowledge about the night sky impresses people, even people who otherwise are more impressive than me. Try it.

Black Hawk’s War

On this date in 1832, the fortunes of American Indians in Illinois, Iowa and Michigan Territory took a significant turn for the worse.  On August 1-2 of that year, the final confrontation of the Black Hawk War took place just south of the Bad Axe River in the western region of modern day Wisconsin.  The result was as decisive as the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1894) had been for the Indians of the Ohio River Valley, or the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) had been for the Creeks.  Though it is often overshadowed by the drama of the Cherokee removal, the Black Hawk War was no loss [sic] critical to the history of Indian peoples east of the Mississippi.

The Edge of the American West tells the rest of the story.

The Battle of Fallen Timbers was in 1794.

Most unfair to the Oakland Raiders line of the day

“But I guess it’s useful for Democrats to get a reminder that the Republican Party plays presidential politics by the same moral code that guided the bad-boy Oakland Raiders in their heyday: ‘Just win, baby.'”

Eugene Robinson

Robinson continues: “The latest bit of snarling, mean-spirited nonsense to come out of the McCain camp was the accusation, leveled by campaign manager Rick Davis, that Obama had ‘played the race card.’ He did so, apparently, by being black.”

Civil discourse, what is this country coming to?

Obama eventually stopped speaking, turned around, and said, “Excuse me, young men. This is going to be a question-and-answer session, so you can ask a question later. Let me make my statement. Why don’t you all sit down? Then you can ask your question. That’s why we’re having a town hall meeting. Sit down. You’ll have a chance to answer your question. But you don’t want to disrupt the whole meeting. Just be courteous. That’s all. All you got to do is be courteous. That’s all. Just be courteous and you’ll have a chance to make your statement.”

MSNBC

And they got the chance and he responded.

Your assignment, contrast and compare with this and this.

Best Pierce line of the day

“On stories like these, I am reminded of a friend from Belfast who once, while walking in Boston, was confronted by a man who said, ‘Give me your wallet. I have a gun.’ My friend replied, ‘Sir, where I come from, if you have a gun, you produce it,’ and then went on his way. It is insupportable as journalism to write as fact that which you merely suspect, regardless of how many other people suspect it, too.”

Altercation

Gunning for you

NewMexiKen sold the revolver without incident — for a good price too, I think.

The shop was interesting — and very busy before 11 in the morning. I am not anti-gun by the way. I’d kind of like to own some authentic 19th century firearms if I knew what I was doing — as an investment. When I was curator of Richard Nixon’s musuem items (after he left office), I was impressed by the nice collection of firearms the firearm manufacturers had given him. I suspect most politicians — and at least five supreme court justices — have similar collections.

Two guys working in the gun shop wanted to talk about the election; how it worried them. I assured them not to worry, that the black liberal guy was sure to win.