“Relative to McCain, whose promised spending cuts are extremely vague, Obama does indeed look like a fiscal conservative.”
David Leonhardt in an in-depth analysis of Obama’s economic policy in The New York Times Magazine.
Day: August 24, 2008
Washington burns
The invading British burned the public buildings of Washington on this date in 1814.
On August 24, 1814, as the War of 1812 raged on, invading British troops marched into Washington and set fire to the U.S. Capitol, the President’s Mansion, and other local landmarks. The ensuring fire reduced all but one of the capital city’s major public buildings to smoking rubble, and only a torrential rainstorm saved the Capitol from complete destruction. The blaze particularly devastated the Capitol’s Senate wing, the oldest part of the building, which was honeycombed with vulnerable wooden floors and housed the valuable but combustible collection of books and manuscripts of the Library of Congress, then located in the Capitol building. Heat from the intense fire reduced the Senate chamber’s marble columns to lime, leaving the room, in one description, “a most magnificent ruin.”
Source: U.S. Senate Art & History
After 26 hours in Washington, the British moved toward Baltimore, where they met with resistance and the Star-spangled banner still waved.
Now that the Olympics are over
. . . you might be looking for some good movies to watch. Until a few years ago, NewMexiKen was unaware there had been a 1997 remake of the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men, a movie which tells the story of jury deliberations in a murder trial. The original is superb. Directed by Sidney Lumet (Network, Serpico, The Pawnbroker) and starring Henry Fonda as the protagonist, it is well written, exceptionally well acted, and a film worth seeing again and again.
Reginald Rose’s screenplay remains remarkably intact 40 years later in the 1997 version. Produced for the cable network Showtime, the film was directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) and stars Academy Award winners Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott. It is a surprisingly fine film in its own right, made even more compelling by comparisons with its predecessor.
|
1957 |
1997 |
|
| Juror #1 | Martin Balsam | Courtney Vance |
| Juror #2 | John Fiedler | Ossie Davis |
| Juror #3 | Lee J. Cobb | George C. Scott |
| Juror #4 | E.G. Marshall | Armin Mueller-Stahl |
| Juror #5 | Jack Klugman | Dorian Harewood |
| Juror #6 | Edward Binns | James Gandolfini |
| Juror #7 | Jack Warden | Tony Danza |
| Juror #8 | Henry Fonda | Jack Lemmon |
| Juror #9 | Joseph Sweeney | Hume Cronyn |
| Juror #10 | Ed Begley, Sr. | Mykelti Williamson |
| Juror #11 | George Voskovec | Edward James Olmos |
| Juror #12 | Robert Webber | William L. Petersen |
Breakfast of Champions
Woman #1: What we gonna eat for dinner?
Woman #2: How ’bout Popeyes Chicken?
Woman #1: Nah, I had that fo’ breakfast.
–Coney Island Boardwalk
Live, Local, Meaningless
First posted here two years ago, but more true every day.
Some 40 years ago in Tucson NewMexiKen lived across the street from a small supermarket. At the rear of the store they parked a large, flatbed trailer with a wire cage on it. As they stocked the store’s shelves they’d toss the empty cardboard boxes into the cage. Once-in-awhile someone would come by, drop off a new trailer and haul the full one away.
One afternoon around three the boxes caught fire. It was a pretty spectacular bonfire for about five minutes and during that brief time a local news guy happened by (he must have had a scanner to hear the fire call). He took a few seconds of film. We laughed, but sure enough that night on the news there was film of cardboard boxes in flame. If I remember right, it was the lead story.
It wouldn’t happen that way anymore. Oh, TV news would still cover a cardboard box fire, but here’s what we’d see.
A news crew would show up, more than likely after the fire was out. They’d videotape a few seconds of fire engine lights flashing, a firehose leaking, and a soggy, charred mess of cardboard. They’d interview a guy in a tank top, who’d say it was the biggest box fire he’d ever seen.
Then, at 10PM, they wouldn’t just use the video like Channel 13 in Tucson did all those years ago. No, they’d send a reporter and van out to the now deserted store, hours after the fire. The reporter would stand in front of a now even soggier mess and introduce the seven hour old video.
Live, local, late breaking.
If you don’t believe me, I just saw a live shot of an empty trash container tipped over by flooding earlier today.
Best line of the Olympics, so far
“Pete McEntegart of SI.com, on Olympic sprint sensation Usain Bolt: ‘He’s so fast, he’s literally invisible to American viewers until 13 hours after he finishes.'”
The Extraordinary Lives of the World’s Tallest People
From Mental_Floss, brief stories about people, women and men, 7-foot-7, 8-foot-11, 7-foot-8, 8-foot-5, etc.
Maryland My Maryland
“Katie Hoff, with her three swimming medals, and Michael Phelps, with his eight golds, call the same Baltimore suburb home,” pointed out Bob Molinaro of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. “If Towson, Md., were a country, it would rank among the top 20 medal winners.”
Super Hero
(six-year-old boy tries to cross street against traffic)
Father, grabbing boy’s hand: Whoa, little man! That’s dangerous!
Six-year-old boy: Daddy, I eat danger for breakfast.
–Ocean & Newkirk, Brooklyn