Deadwood

NewMexiKen has definitely become of fan of the newest HBO series, Deadwood, which showed its fourth episode Sunday (and which I viewed Monday via Comcast On Demand).

True to history, “Wild Bill” Hickok died at the end of this episode, shot by a small-time gambler. While accurate—Hickok was killed on August 2, 1876, at the age of 39—it’s too bad. As played by Keith Carradine, Wild Bill was the most charismatic and positive character in the show. The hell with historical fact, bring back Wild Bill.

Deadwood Magazine has an informative 1999 article on Hickok in Deadwood, Gambler to the End. The following is excerpted from that article:

British author Joseph Rosa has been researching the Hickok legend for more than 40 years. His books (They Called Him Wild Bill, The West of Wild Bill Hickok and Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth) meticulously sift fact from fiction.

The number of notches on Wild Bill’s guns were part of the myth, according to Rosa. The true total of men he killed in gunfights is closer to 10, rather than the 21 to more than 100 he has been credited with, Rosa writes.

Like all other serious historians, Rosa debunks stories of a romance with Calamity Jane. Known to be a notorious liar, Martha Jane Cannary claimed the relationship only after Wild Bill couldn’t defend himself. Almost 27 years to the day after Wild Bill’s death, Calamity Jane died and, by her request, was buried in an adjoining lot.

The fifth card in the “Deadman’s Hand” (two pair—black aces and eights) has been the subject of speculation for years, variously identified as the queen of diamonds, nine of diamonds, a jack, or (in another version of the story) the fifth card hadn’t been dealt. Newspaper accounts written immediately after the shooting make no mention of specific cards held by Wild Bill. It wasn’t until many years later Ellis Peirce wrote: “Bill’s hand read aces and eights—two pair, and since that day aces and eights have been known as ‘the deadman’s hand’ in the Western country.”

Wild Bill’s real name was James Butler Hickok.

Rare play

Regular readers of NewMexiKen know that I am a fan and constant visitor to Eschaton and the work of Atrios. It’s about the best place in the blogosphere for commentary on current issues.

But even the great hitters sometimes mess up. Today Atrios hit into the rare triple negative: “Not insignificant chunks of the internet are inaccessible today.”

Which reminds NewMexiKen of the line about Nixon’s political philosophy: “If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three.”

The Week Quiz

Surprise, here’s The Week Quiz on Monday.

NewMexiKen scored seven correct out of 10 this time. Good luck.

Dumb and dumber

Tucson Weekly has an article on some of the dumber criminals to pass through the system. The best example:

Danny was a local career criminal who had pulled–and botched–enough jobs to be prosecuted separately by Rick Unklesbay and two of his colleagues in the Pima County Attorney’s Office.

For the current charge against Danny, prosecutors wanted to show prior convictions. A prior conviction cannot be demonstrated simply by recitation in court or the showing a piece of paper; it has to be part of the evidence of a case. One way to accomplish that is to have the prosecutor who handled the previous case testify in court that he or she had, in fact, previously prosecuted the defendant. Identification is necessary.

In this case, Unklesbay was called on to identify the defendant, and sufficient time had passed for Unklesbay to wonder if he would still remember Danny.

As he and his colleague, Tom Rankin, walked the block from their offices to the Superior Court Building, Unklesbay had some doubt if he would be able to identify the thief.

There are four elevators in the courthouse; the doors opened on one, and the two lawyers walked in.

“Hi, Mr. Unklesbay,” said Danny. “Remember me?”

And Danny went back to prison.

Wanderlust

If you love Hawaii and you miss Hawaii but you cannot leave for Hawaii today, don’t read A thousand-in-one vacation and companion articles from the Los Angeles Times.

Janet Jackson

Did you see Janet Jackson on Saturday Night Live? In the opening sketch she did a good and funny job as Condoleezza Rice preparing for her testimony. Jackson had the Rice facial expressions—the sneers and grimaces—down wonderfully. When the stress of actually appearing before the commission arrived and Ben-Veniste pressed her with his questions, Jackson as Rice responded, of course, by ripping off her bodice. (There was a scrambled image.) I didn’t see the punch line coming and it was pretty funny.

NewMexiKen doesn’t care for Janet Jackson and thought the Super Bowl show was a tacky travesty on several counts, though not a national crisis. But I’ll give Jackson and Saturday Night Live credit for making the boob flashing into the joke it should be and not giving in to the FCC hysteria.

FDR

died on this date in 1945.

The New York Times had re-published its obituary, written by Arthur Krock with an April 12 dateline, President Roosevelt is Dead; Truman to Continue Policies

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, War President of the United States and the only Chief Executive in history who was chosen for more than two terms, died suddenly and unexpectedly at 4:35 P. M. today at Warm Springs, Ga., and the White House announced his death at 5:48 o’clock. He was 63.

The President, stricken by a cerebral hemorrhage, passed from unconsciousness to death on the eighty-third day of his fourth term and in an hour of high-triumph. The armies and fleets under his direction as Commander in Chief were at the gates of Berlin and the shores of Japan’s home islands as Mr. Roosevelt died, and the cause he represented and led was nearing the conclusive phase of success.

Read more from The New York Times.

There is an interesting and prescient remark in the article concerning Truman: “He is conscious of limitations greater than he has.”

Fort Sumter

America’s most tragic conflict ignited at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, when a chain reaction of social, economic and political events exploded into civil war. At the heart of these events was the issue of states rights versus federal authority flowing over the underlying issue of slavery.

Photo and caption from the National Park Service.

David Letterman…

is 57 today.

Six-year drought reigns across most of the West

The Santa Fe New Mexican published an article Sunday that surveys the drought situation across the west.

From the brittle hillsides of Southern California to the drying fields of Idaho, from Montana to New Mexico, a relentless drought is worsening across most of the West where a once-promising snowpack is shrinking early, water supplies are dwindling and the threat of wildfires is already on the rise.

“Most of the West is headed into six years of drought and some areas are looking at seven years of drought,” said Rick Ochoa, weather program manager at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Arizona faces its worst drought on record.

New Mexico farmers are bracing for dramatic reductions in water supplies, and in parts of southeast Idaho, the only farmers who will get water this summer might be those with water rights dating to the late 1800s.

On the edge of the Sierra, lingering drought is pitting residents against the Reno country club that hosts a national golf tournament in a battle over water from a mountain creek.

Continue reading from the Santa Fe New Mexican.

FulPhilment

NewMexiKen isn’t a fan of Phil Mickelson but I am glad he finally got the monkey off his back. Better yet, he did it in style—he made the charge this time—five birdies in the last seven holes—and making the final birdie putt to win.

Factoid: Mickelson had never come to the final hole in a major with a share of the lead.

Ladykillers

NewMexiKen saw the latest Coen brothers film Ladykillers over the weekend. After a slow start it becomes a lot of fun, albeit not unlike a Road Runner cartoon becomes fun, but laugh-out-loud fun nonetheless. Tom Hanks is amusing, seemingly enjoying himself in a part the near opposite of Michael Sullivan in Road to Perdition. Irma P. Hall is delightful. And the Coens may do for gospel music what their O Brother, Where Art Thou? did for bluegrass.

The one large argument I have with this otherwise enjoyable—though hardly classic—movie is the profanity. NewMexiKen has a working knowledge of the four and 12-letter words. I’m not shocked by them. But what I don’t understand is what value they are thought to add when used in torrents. Even if that is the way some people talk, the movie is a cartoon. Realism isn’t the goal. Why let the f-word turn a good farcical comedy into an R-rated movie? It was uncomfortable and off-putting.