More from the history teacher

Red Ted is considering this question for his American history students —

The historical drama network has put out a call for new proposals for telemovies about American history. Write me two paragraphs presenting your proposal. The first is the precis of a true historical event, as you would tell it on the screen. The second is your explanation of why this particular story would provide compelling television while conveying useful historical information.

Read his example answer.

Let’s hope he’s right about Jackson

Red Ted teaches history:

I am also grading homework, including one poor student who when asked “Should Andrew Jackson be on the U.S. money?” responded by cutting and pasting some 200 words from his official biography on the White House web site. At least the student changed the plagarized material, if only by deleting about every 4th sentence.

Wine improves with age, but beer?

PORTAGE, Wis. - A woman has been arrested for digging up her dead boyfriend’s ashes from a cemetery more than 10 years ago and drinking the beer that was buried with him, possibly out of spite for his family, authorities say.

AP via Anchorage Daily News

Via Dave Barry

Update: NewMexiKen now realizes the crime was committed 10 years ago and the beer was consumed when reasonably fresh.

Analysis

Kevin Drum has a lengthy (for a blog) analysis of the CNN exit polls. He believes terrorism was the deciding issue.

Compared to 2000, three times as many people thought world affairs was the most important issue in the election, and among those people, Bush gained 5 points of support. Multiply those two things together, and that’s a lot of extra votes for Bush.

Drum believes the “moral issues” were no more decisive than in 2000.

Most important issue

• 22% moral values (80% for Bush)
• 19% terrorism (86% for Bush)
• 15% Iraq (73% for Kerry)
• 18% economy (80% for Kerry)
• 8% health care (77% for Kerry)
• 5% taxes (57% for Bush)
• 4% education (73% for Kerry)

Source: CNN exit polls

We had three weeks to vote
They should have three weeks to count

If New Mexico is leaning red, it’s not because the state is any closer to declaring a presidential winner. It’s because some New Mexicans are embarrassed about how long it’s taking to get the votes counted. Again.

“It’s embarrassing to know this state has not been able to count all it’s votes,” said Tom Torres of Edgewood. “It’s not like this is a surprise. We saw it last election.”

In the 2000 election, it took about a month for the state to determine that Al Gore had defeated President George W. Bush by 366 votes.

Election officials said they are working to count all ballots by Friday in the race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. In Bernalillo County, the actual counting of more than 13,000 provisional and in-lieu-of ballots might not start until Tuesday, election officials said.

Albuquerque Journal

Spring forward, fall back (anyone can do it)

Watch out Arizona, you may soon be alone (Hawaii notwithstanding, as daylight time makes no sense there).

Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels wasted no time jumping into one of the state’s most politically treacherous issues, promising Thursday to fight to bring daylight-saving time to Indiana.

For years, the time-change issue has divided Hoosiers. And time and again, that division has killed efforts to have Indiana join the 47 other states that observe daylight-saving time.
…

Some farmers say changing the time twice a year would interfere with their daily work habits; parents fear children would be waiting for school buses in the dark; others fight over which time zone Indiana should join.

From Indystar.com

Via Three Bed Two Bath

Montana …

entered the Union as the 41st state on this date in 1889.

Got insurance?

How about health insurance? 91.3% of the people in Minnesota have private or public health insurance. 90.5% are coverd in Vermont; 89.9% in Hawaii.

At the other end, 20.4% of the people in Oklahoma are not covered. 20.6% of the folks in Louisiana lack coverage; 22.1% in New Mexico; 24.6% in Texas.

All states listed here.

Pushing their weight around

The thinest states (by percentage not considered obese) are Colorado (84.0%), Hawaii (83.6%) and Massachusetts (83.2%).

The fattest (by percentage that are considered obese) are Indiana (26.0%), West Virginia (27.7%), Mississippi (28.1%) and Alabama (28.4%).

All states listed here.

Obese is defined having a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher. BMI is equal to your weight in pounds divided by your height in inches squared and then multiplied by 703. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a BMI Calculator.

Speaking of state rankings

How about smoking?

Not too surprisingly, the fewest smokers are in Utah (11.9% of the population over age 18 in 2003). California is second (16.8%), followed by Hawaii (17.2%), Colorado (18.6%) and Connecticut (18.6%).

States with the most smokers are Alaska (26.2%), Louisiana (26.5%), Missouri (27.2%), West Virginia (27.3%) and Kentucky (30.8%).

New Mexico’s 22.0% places it 23rd (fewest).

Complete rankings here.

Logical?

All this talk today. Well let’s see who’s as logical as they think they are. Take the test: So you think you’re logical? (It will take a few minutes. Read carefully.)

Thanks to dangerousmeta! for the link. There are a number of other games and activities here (untested by NewMexiKen).

It’s the birthday

… of Bonnie Raitt. She turns 55 in the Nick of Time.

… of Patti Page. A good gift for Patti as she turns 77 might be A Doggy in The Window. Depends on how much, I suppose.

It’s also the birthday of Margaret Mitchell, born on this date in 1900. As you all must know (but just in case), Mitchell’s original name for Scarlett O’Hara was Pansy O’Hara. Just wouldn’t have been the same.

The Writer’s Almanac has quite a bit on Mitchell.

Sideline Chatter

A couple of items from Dwight Perry:

That’s the ticket, not

Saturday wasn’t a good day to be a ticket scalper at Husky Stadium, which appeared to be only about two-thirds full to watch Washington and Arizona battle it out for last place in the Pac-10.

In other words, it was a cellar’s market.

Food for thought

Timberwolves guard Latrell Sprewell, who makes $14.6 million this season, created quite a stir when the team’s three-year contract offer averaging $10 million a year left him feeling “insulted … I’ve got my family to feed.”

• Bill Lankhof, Toronto Sun: “Exactly how big is this ‘family,’ anyway?”
• Jim Armstrong, Denver Post: “Hey, that’s understandable. I mean, have you noticed the price of caviar lately?”
• Jim Litke, The Associated Press: “Apparently the Sprewells have never been to Wendy’s.”

Behind bars

New statistics from the Department of Justice for the end of 2003:

• 1,470,045 men and women in state and federal prisons

• 742,430 in city and county jails and juvenile detention centers
• 2,212,475 total behind bars

• 44 percent are black

• 35 percent are white
• 19 percent are Hispanic
• 101,179 are women (6.9%)

Another point of view

Byron, official first son-in-law of NewMexiKen, has written some thoughtful and provocative comments, which I repeat here in full. While I don’t agree with everything he says (and remind him that this site is billed as “Half Wisdom · Half Whimsy · Half Wit” and that no one should take NewMexiKen seriously except me), I do think what he has to say deserves your attention.

Here I go again: I am sure I will get blasted for this, go ahead. Just trying to do the right thing.

So to start off, I voted for Bush. I am probably the only member of Ken’s family (extended or otherwise that did). I could list a ton of reasons why I voted for him (and a ton why I shouldn’t have). But, I can’t think of one reason why I should have voted for Kerry. He never gave me any and neither did any of you. I am not alone.

I understand that I am an outsider and a guest to this forum. But,as I read this website, I am shocked by some of the comments and quite frankly the content that drives them.(Sorry,Ken)

Read the rest of this entry.