“It is tight. It is cramped. It is hot. It probably isn’t completely safe to have everyone go up, in any numbers, at any time. But the Park Service is full of slightly dangerous things you can do.”
Interior Secretary Salazar after climbing to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. As senator he supported reopening the crown to the public. (I’ve been there. It is tight. It is cramped. It is hot. It is also glorious!)
“A British man who murdered his wife after becoming enraged when she changed her relationship status on Facebook to ‘single’ was jailed for at least 18 years late Thursday.
President Obama seems a little like Jeff Bridges in The Contender with the menu.
[Republican pollster Frank] Luntz found that Americans are prepared to pay (cue scary music) higher taxes for more infrastructure investment. Luntz was further shocked to find that three out of four Republicans would accept such a trade off.
Better yet, Luntz found that Americans “understand that infrastructure is not just roads, bridges and rails. In fact, they rated fixing energy facilities as their highest priority. Roads and highways scored second, and clean-water treatment facilities third.”
The 2009 Bloggies nominated these six blogs for Weblog of the Year.
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
You can vote on all of the awards at Ninth Annual Weblog Awards: The 2009 Bloggies.
The Oscars aren’t the only awards in progress. Nominated for Best New Blog among the 2009 Bloggies are:
… but some of these guys need to be wearing orange jump suits and picking up trash alongside the highway.
Merrill CEO (now former CEO) John Thain lavished his office with $1.22 million worth of area rugs, wall sconces, chandeliers, and a $35,000 “commode” after inheriting a struggling investment bank that would have been liquidated had it not been for its shot-gun marriage with Bank of America.
Thain, according to documents reviewed by The Daily Beast, spent another $233,000 on a driver for the past year—more than twice as much as most CEOs. He personally signed off on the expenses, which were paid with company money. He did not reimburse the company for the expense, according to a person close to the firm.
“I won.”
President Obama after listening to Republican gripes about his stimulus package, as reported by Politico.com.
Video from 1970. Damn, she could sing.
Link via Ben Freeman at The New Yorker. Freeman has an interesting, brief critique of Ms. Franklin’s Inauguration performance, which she herself feels fell short.
The 24th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by the required 38th state on January 23rd just 45 years ago.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Virginia ratified the Amendment in 1977, North Carolina in 1989 and Alabama in 2002. Mississippi rejected the 24th Amendment in 1962. Wyoming, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina have never ratified the Amendment.
Poll taxes had been imposed late in the 19th century primarily as a means of keeping African-Americans from voting. In some instances, individuals whose parents and grandparents had voted were exempt from the tax — and, of course, the parents and grandparents of nearly all black voters had been slaves.
At the time the Amendment was approved, only five states still had a poll tax in federal elections: Virginia, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi. A Supreme Court decision in 1966 declared poll taxes unconstitutional for state elections under the Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Today is the birthday
… of U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. The Senator is 85.
… of actress Jeanne Moreau. She’s 81. Moreau is best known for French New Wave films Jules and Jim (1962) and The Bride Wore Black (1968). Roger Ebert:
This is ridiculous, I told myself. You’ve interviewed Ingmar Bergman. Robert Mitchum. John Wayne. You got through those okay. Why should you be scared of Jeanne Moreau? Simply because she’s the greatest movie actress of the last 20 years? Simply because she’s made more good films for great directors than anybody else? Simply because something in her face and manner has fascinated you since you sat through “Jules and Jim” twice in a row? She’s only human; it’s not like she’s a goddess.
But I suspected that she was.
… of Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. The poet and playwright is 79.
… of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, 56.
… of Princess Caroline of Monaco, 52.
… of Mariska Hargitay. Jayne Mansfield’s daughter is 45. (She was in the car when her mother was killed in 1967.) Ms. Hargitay plays Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
It’s the birthday of Humphrey Bogart, born on this day in 1899. Bogart was nominated for the best actor Oscar for Casablanca, The Caine Mutiny and The African Queen; he won for The African Queen. According to The Writer’s Almanac (2004):
[Bogart] was expelled from Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy and immediately joined the Navy to fight in World War I, serving as a ship’s gunner. One day, while roughhousing on the ship’s wooden stairway, he tripped and fell, and a splinter became lodged in his upper lip; the result was a scar, as well as partial paralysis of the lip, resulting in the tight-set mouth and lisp that became one of his most distinctive onscreen qualities.
And, born on this date in 1910, was Django Reinhardt. the first significant jazz figure in Europe — and the most influential European in jazz to this day. Play Jazz Guitar.com has some interesting background:
A violinist first and a guitarist later, Jean Baptiste “Django” Reinhardt grew up in a gypsy camp near Paris where he absorbed the gypsy strain into his music. A disastrous caravan fire in 1928 badly burned his left hand, depriving him of the use of the fourth and fifth fingers, but the resourceful Reinhardt figured out a novel fingering system to get around the problem that probably accounts for some of the originality of his style. According to one story, during his recovery period, Reinhardt was introduced to American jazz when he found a 78 RPM disc of Louis Armstrong’s “Dallas Blues” at an Orleans flea market. He then resumed his career playing in Parisian cafes until one day in 1934 when Hot Club chief Pierre Nourry proposed the idea of an all-string band to Reinhardt and Grappelli. Thus was born the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, which quickly became an international draw thanks to a long, splendid series of Ultraphone, Decca and HMV recordings.
The Red Hot Jazz Archive has some on-line recordings of the Quintette of the Hot Club of France.
Edouard Manet, an artist whose works include both the Realist and Impressionist traditions of 19th-century France, was born on this date in 1832. Click here to view Manet’s painting “On the Beach” (1873) and here for his painting of Monet in his floating studio (1874).
The 12-hour mini-series Roots premiered on this date in 1977. According to the Encyclopedia of Television:
Roots remains one of television’s landmark programs….For eight consecutive nights it riveted the country. ABC executives initially feared that the historical saga about slavery would be a ratings disaster. Instead, Roots scored higher ratings than any previous entertainment program in history. It averaged a 44.9 rating and a 66 audience share for the length of its run. The seven episodes that followed the opener earned the top seven spots in the ratings for their week. The final night held the single-episode ratings record until 1983, when the finale of M*A*S*H aired on CBS….
Apprehensions that Roots would flop shaped the way that ABC presented the show. Familiar television actors like Lorne Greene were chosen for the white, secondary roles, to reassure audiences. The white actors were featured disproportionately in network previews. For the first episode, the writers created a conscience-stricken slave captain (Ed Asner), a figure who did not appear in Haley’s novel but was intended to make white audiences feel better about their historical role in the slave trade. Even the show’s consecutive-night format allegedly resulted from network apprehensions. ABC programming chief Fred Silverman hoped that the unusual schedule would cut his network’s imminent losses–and get Roots off the air before sweeps week.
Silverman, of course, need not have worried. Roots garnered phenomenal audiences. On average, 80 million people watched each of the last seven episodes. 100 million viewers, almost half the country, saw the final episode, which still claims one of the highest Nielsen ratings ever recorded, a 51.1 with a 71 share. A stunning 85% of all television homes saw all or part of the mini-series….Today, the show’s social effects may appear more ephemeral, but at the time they seemed widespread. Over 250 colleges and universities planned courses on the saga, and during the broadcast, over 30 cities declared “Roots” weeks.
It was a national, shared cultural experience.
NewMexiKen co-sponsored a symposium at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1979, that included Alex Haley, the author of Roots. Haley, who also wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X, was a very self-possessed and self-assured speaker, confident yet pleasant and informal. He spoke for some time without notes, telling the story about the story — that is, how he learned about his family. Along with the Archivist of the U.S. and my history professor co-host, I sat on the stage behind Haley as he spoke and could see the rapture on the faces of his listeners. To an audience of genealogists this was the Sermon on the Mount.
NewMexiKen has seen so many studies and articles over the years recommending exercise as important to good health that I’m beginning to think there might be something to it.
Anyone have any personal experience with this approach?
Kiss My Big Blue Butt is the home of Susan DuQuesnay Bankston who wrote the website formerly known as The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
As she says, “I live in Richmond, Texas, in heart of Tom DeLay’s old district. It’s crazy here. No, seriously, it’s triple z crazzzy.”
Click to read about her neighborhood and her husband’s yard sign. Three posts — January 18, 19 and 20. Or click the 18th and scroll up.
LOL I promise.
“John Cornyn is such a weenie. First he holds up Hillary’s nomination, and then the next day he votes for her. Anybody in the mental health field will tell you that’s a clear sign of an impotent man. No, seriously, men with real power don’t need to pull stunts like that. Look it up.”
Cornyn is now holding up Eric Holder’s confirmation.