“The year Sullenberger graduated he received the Outstanding Cadet and Airmanship Award for being the academy’s number one aviation cadet, said Lt. Col. Brett Ashworth, an academy spokesman.”
They trained him well, class of 1973.
Month: January 2009
Coffee Strong Enough to Ward Off Alzheimer’s
The researchers note that previous studies have shown that coffee drinking improves cognitive performance, and caffeine reportedly reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
The researchers say it’s not known how coffee would offer protection against dementia, but that coffee drinking also has been associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, which is a risk factor for dementia. The authors speculate that the effect may have something to do with coffee’s antioxidant capacity in the blood.
An acquired taste worth acquiring.
Namibia: Land of Awesome
NewMexiKen has a subscription to the magazine mental_floss (thank you Nora and Jason). Each issue they profile a country — the “50-Cent Tour” they call it. In the Jan-Feb issue the subject is Namibia. I looked for links to the article but found only this mental_floss Blog item instead.
The opening paragraph resonated quite well — I was having the same reaction to the magazine article the blogger did:
Elaborating on last week’s post on the nature of wanderlust, today I have a practical example to share. Here’s how wanderlust works. You’re minding your own business, and then something lands in front of you — say, this month’s issue of Mental_floss. You flip to the back of the mag and devour a great feature article on Namibia, and you start to feel a funny tickle in your brain. That sounds interesting, says the tickle, which leads you to the internet, where you start looking up Namibia on Wikipedia and a few hours later are looking it up on Kayak (the plane ticket comparison site). … Lonely Planet calls it “one of those dreamlike places that make you question whether something so visually orgasmic could actually exist.”
Most impressive nomination yet
James Fallows really likes Obama’s pick as Deputy Secretary of Energy. It’s all blah blah and yadda yadda unless you’re really interested — until you get to his footnote.
Four days (and counting!)
Watch carefully. The video is just 18 seconds.
Speaking of Speeches
He said he then walked the girls over to the other side of the Lincoln Memorial, where the 16th president’s celebrated Civil War-era second inaugural address is etched. Obama said his younger daughter, 7-year-old Sasha, asked whether he would be giving a similar speech.
“And I said, ‘Well, actually, that’s a short version, but yeah, I will,’ ” Obama recalled. “And then Malia says, ‘First African American president — it better be good.’
“So I just want you to know the pressures I’m under here from my children.”
He comes close to that, the greatest inaugural speech in American history, and he’ll have done something.
Frankly I’d like a version of Fired up! Ready to go! That’s what we need.
Idle thought
Not to joke too much1 about something that could have been an enormous tragedy, but how much do you suppose passengers on board U.S. Air Flight 1549 will receive in compensation for their landing in the Hudson River?
From what I’ve read it sounds as if the pilot is a genuine hero. Good thing the marine who ejected over San Diego last month wasn’t flying this plane.
Update: Can the Passengers of Flight 1549 Sue for Emotional Distress?
Update Two: In case you were wondering, about that airplane in the Hudson. Interesting assessment.
__________
1 Howard Stern reportedly was once fired from his radio job in D.C. for inquiring on the air in 1982 after a plane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge, how much the fare was from National Airport to the 14th Street Bridge.
Another idle thought
NewMexiKen always felt and said that buying stuff from Circuit City was too much like buying it out of the back of a truck — annoying, snide, self-important jerks1 — but now the truck has gone.
Circuit City Will Be Liquidated, Sources Say – CNBC.com
__________
1 Not all 35,000 employees of Circuit City, of course, nor perhaps all 567 stores. I do feel badly for their personal loss.
I don’t even want to think about this for a second line of the day
“LONDON — Singer Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Friday after being convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort by handcuffing him to a wall in a London apartment.”
Guess he’s a man with conviction now. [Note: Obscure lyrics reference.]
Get off my lawn reaction of the day
“Our impeccably placed source says, ‘Just before Thanksgiving, Cindy McCain (above) started talks with producers to appear as a dancer on the show. She wanted to do it very badly.’ But this week, Sen. McCain ‘put the kibosh on it.'”
Best line of the day showing variation on a theme
“Now, I realize that Steve King is a couple of crayons short of a box … ”
Benen is referring to Rep. Steve King (R-Moron) who questions Obama’s including his middle name at the swearing-in next Tuesday.
January 16th
Author William Kennedy is 81 today.
His first novel, The Ink Truck, came out in 1969, and didn’t sell very well. He began writing a series of novels about a big, down-at-heel Irish family full of storytellers and brawlers. One of these novels, Ironweed (1984), is about a derelict on the run from his past. Thirteen publishers rejected it because they thought no one would want to read about bums. But it was published, and it won the Pulitzer, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a Pen/Faulkner award, all in the same year.
Kennedy made it big at age 56.
Dian Fossey is 77 today.
She lived alone for 18 years, studying mountain gorillas in the cold, rainy mountains of Rwanda. She was the first person ever approached by gorillas in the wild, and she would sit with them for hours while they swatted her gently with leaves and played with her hair. She wrote a book about her experience called Gorillas in the Mist (1983).
Fossey made it big at age 51.
Albert Pujols is 29 today. Pujols made it big at age 21.
Also having birthdays today, Marilyn Horne (75), A.J. Foyt (74), Ronnie Milsap (66), Debby Allen (59), Sade (50) and Kate Moss (35).
Dizzy Dean was born 99 years ago today.
Jay Hanna Dizzy Dean, the brash Cardinals fireballer, burst upon the big league scene in 1932 and averaged 24 wins over his first five full campaigns. A winner of four consecutive National League strikeout crowns, Diz was 30-7 in 1934 (the last National League pitcher to record 30 wins) when he and his brother Paul led the Gashouse Gang to the World Championship. A broken toe suffered in the 1937 All-Star Game led to an arm injury that eventually shortened his playing days. He later embarked on a successful broadcasting career.
Ethel Merman was born 101 years ago today.
Forgive and Forget?
Krugman thinks Obama “should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime.”
Flat N All That
The ever-awesome Matt Taibbi disconstructs Tom Friedman (who was once worth reading); a laugh-out-loud takedown of someone who constantly needs taking down.
Taibbi begins:
When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.
Beautiful, I thought. Just when you begin to lose faith in America’s ability to fall for absolutely anything—just when you begin to think we Americans as a race might finally outgrow the lovable credulousness that leads us to fork over our credit card numbers to every half-baked TV pitchman hawking a magic dick-enlarging pill, or a way to make millions on the Internet while sitting at home and pounding doughnuts— along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene 114,000 square foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism.
Where does a man who needs his own offshore drilling platform just to keep the east wing of his house heated get the balls to write a book chiding America for driving energy inefficient automobiles? Where does a guy whose family bulldozed 2.1 million square feet of pristine Hawaiian wilderness to put a Gap, an Old Navy, a Sears, an Abercrombie and even a motherfucking Foot Locker in paradise get off preaching to the rest of us about the need for a “Green Revolution”? Well, he’ll explain it all to you in 438 crisply written pages for just $27.95, $30.95 if you have the misfortune to be Canadian.
Why is it?
Why is it that if you buy orange juice in a waxed cardboard container, say Tropicana Pure Premium High Pulp, it has a pour spout on the top, but if you buy milk in a waxed cardboard container you have to rip open a corner of the top to make a pour spout? Why can’t milk have a plastic spout too?
Another sad line of the day
“The Star Tribune, saddled with high debt and a sharp decline in print advertising, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition Thursday night.
“Minnesota’s largest newspaper will try to use bankruptcy to restructure its debt and lower its labor costs.”
Best line of the day, so far
“The White House has promised that in his final address, the president will be joined by a small group of everyday American heroes, which means that the only person on stage with a history of failing to perform well in moments of stress will be the main speaker.”
Everybody’s Talkin’ about the Bird
Salon’s Ask the pilot with a first look at Thursday’s water landing in the Hudson River.
Martin Luther King Jr.
… was born 80 years ago today.
Many may question some of King’s choices and perhaps even some of his motives, but no one can question his unparalleled leadership in a great cause, or his abilities with both the spoken and written word.
There are 10 federal holidays, but only four of them are dedicated to one man: one for Jesus, one for the man given credit for discovering our continent, one for the military and political founder George Washington, and one for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
December 10, 1964
Library of Congress
Joe Buck Really Ought to Stick to Broadcasting IRS Audits
It was like being at the game with a few friends, not that one is likely to have friends who know so much. Johnston, who played on three Super Bowl teams with Dallas, and Siragusa, who was a key player in the Ravens victory in Super Bowl XXXV in 2001, easily switch from talking about their experiences on the road to the Championship to dealing with the potentially stultifying statistics that Fox supplies visually and aurally for the ADHD among its viewers.
. . .
Sadly, that is it for the Albert team this year. It is back to the mausoleum with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman next week for the Eagles-Cardinals. Back to the grave business of pro football.
Where, exactly, was Joe Buck while his father Jack was urging St Louis Cardinal fans to “go crazy folks” when the Redbirds won a playoff game* or telling a national radio audience that “I don’t believe what I just saw” after Kurt Gibson’s 1988 world Series blast off of the Eck?**
Was he reading a book? He is bloodless! And now it comes out that Buck and Aikman have been improperly escorted to gamers by U.S. Marshals.
Buck lacks that certain something when he broadcasts a sporting event. He can’t quite put the, what’s the word, ah, life into anything. In fact, it feels like he makes his living draining the life of all who are forced to listen to him.
Taxpayers you might want to work a little harder this week because a certain someone has another game to attend on Sunday.
Yes, Philadelphia it’s true, Joe Buck will most likely once again broadcast an Eagles game — this weekend’s NFC Championship showdown against the Arizona Cardinals.
The game is expected to be full of hard-hitting, skull-cracking, bombs-away action — but none of it will come to life in Fox’s broadcasting booth.
Links via Awful Announcing. For myself, my reflex reaction to Buck and Aikman clicks in faster than the remote can change the channel. Aikman is just typical retired athlete, duller than most. Buck is awful, reading his notecards well into the last two minutes of the game. He’s in sports announcing because his dad was, not because he cares about it.
Why is it?
Why is it that sports announcers say someone has a rocket for an arm? This is usually said about outfielders and quarterbacks, sometimes pitchers.
Shouldn’t it be that they have a rocket launcher for an arm? Isn’t the ball in fact the rocket?
Football quiz
Name the ONLY NFL team to win playoff games this season AND last season.
Hint. It’s not the Giants or Colts, but it’s the only team in addition to the Giants and Colts to make the playoffs each of the last three years.
The best free iPhone app
LOS ALAMOS, N. M. (KRQE) – The light from a portable music player helped guide airborne rescuers to a lost snowboarder facing a second frigid night on a New Mexico mountain.
Sebastian Gomez disappeared while boarding in falling snow at the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area late Sunday afternoon. He and his best friend, Greg Blea, were on their last run in the mountains above Los Alamos when they became separated.
…But as Gomez was preparing for another long, cold night shortly after sunset, he found salvation in his pockets. As a Blackhawk rescue helicopter made a pass overhead, he waved his iPod music player and a lighter.
The Pit
Along with 15,210 other folk we attended the University of New Mexico men’s basketball game against the Air Force Academy at University Arena in Albuquerque tonight. The Lobos beat the Falcons 78-53.
It was the 750th men’s game at The Pit, designated 13th among American sports venues of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated. Tonight’s crowd was below average in attendance — the Lobos have averaged 15,559 per game over 42 years.
It’s called The Pit because the arena floor is 37 feet below grade. It’s the loudest basketball venue in America, beating out Cameron Indoor at Duke University in some study done in 1999. One hopes the $60 million renovation that begins in April won’t decrease the noise.
The original cost to build the arena in 1966 was just $1.4 million. Current capacity is 18,018.
01/10
Today is the birthday
… of Willie McCovey. “Stretch,” a baseball hall-of-famer, is 71.
TOP LEFT-HANDED HOME RUN HITTER IN N.L.
HISTORY WITH 521. SECOND ONLY TO LOU GEHRIG
WITH 18 CAREER GRAND SLAMS. LED N.L. IN HOMERS
THREE TIMES AND RBI’S TWICE. N.L. ROOKIE OF
YEAR IN 1959, MVP IN 1969 AND COMEBACK PLAYER
OF THE YEAR IN ’77. TEAMED WITH WILLIE MAYS
FOR AWESOME 1-2 PUNCH IN GIANTS’ LINEUP.
… of Scott McKenzie. So “if you’re going to San Francisco” wish Scott a happy 70th birthday.
… of Rod Stewart. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 64.
Rod Stewart can be regarded as the rock generation’s heir to Sam Cooke. Like Cooke, Stewart delivers both romantic ballads and uptempo material with conviction and panache, and he sings in a warm, soulful rasp. A singer’s singer, Stewart seemed made to inhabit the spotlight. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
… of William Sanderson. The character actor (E.B. Farnum in “Deadwood,” Larry on “Newhart,” Lippy in “Lonesome Dove”) is 61.
… of George Foreman. The boxing hall-of-famer and cook is 60. Foreman has five daughters and five sons and has named all of the sons George — George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI.
… of Patricia Mae Andrzejewski. Pat Benatar is 56. She won four consecutive Grammy awards in the 1980s for “Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.”
… of Shawn Colvin. The singer is 53.
Shawn Colvin is one of the bright spots of the so-called “new folk movement” that began in the late ’80s. And though she grew out of the somewhat limited “woman with a guitar” school, she has managed to keep the form fresh with a diverse approach, avoiding the clichéd sentiments and all-too-often formulaic arrangements that have plagued the genre. In less than a decade of recording, Colvin has emerged as a songcraftsman with plenty of pop smarts, which has earned her a broad and loyal following. (All Music Guide)
Jake Delhomme is 34 today but I hope Kurt Warner has the better day.
Had he not smoked, the historian and author Stephen Ambrose might have been 73 today.