I like it

Chimp art.

Source found

A week ago NewMexiKen posted a quotation from Dwight Eisenhower. Here is the (slightly) corrected quotation, which is from a November 8, 1954, letter to his brother Edgar:

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

Read the whole letter from among The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower.

The meaning of life

And so we went to see The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill tonight at the Guild Cinema. It affected me on several levels. Not that the film is a puzzle (It is a straight-forward report of a man and his “hobby.”). Rather, it’s simplicity allows one to look deeper into small pleasures…and wonder how they fit into the fabric of one’s own life.

— Jon at Albloggerque

Many have praised this film, for example:

A thoroughly absorbing portrait of one man’s discipline and commitment — and, yes, spiritual transformation….Quite simply, a beautiful film, in both form and content. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And your heart is guaranteed to soar.

— Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three

Rumsfeld attempts to cancel the contract for the C-130J, a plane considered unfit for duty by the Pentagon’s own inspector general. But there is Congressional opposition, so yesterday Rumsfeld advised Congress that Defense would continue the $4.1 billion five-year contract.

The plane is considered so inept it isn’t used for combat, which means that most of them are stationed in the U.S. As a result, the presence of the planes has been used as justification by members of Congress for keeping a base open.

Details in The New York Times.

Trust…but validate

The New York Times made an error in the obituary of Col. David Hackworth last week, calling him the inspiration for Apocalypse Now character Kurtz (Marlon Brando) rather than, as he actually was, for character Kilgore (Robert Duvall). As Editor & Publisher notes, others blithely passed along the mistake:

Time magazine, NPR’s “Fresh Air” and “All Things Considered,” and London’s Sunday Mirror. It’s likely they all just cribbed from “the newspaper of record.”

Kurtz, of course, is based on the character of the same name in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

American 250 heavy, you’re on approach for heaven

“I was raised a Southern Baptist and twice now a preacher has made reference to airlines pairing their pilots with one Christian (or saved) and one non-Christian (or un-saved). This is done on the pre-text that if and when the 2nd coming of Christ happens and the one Christian pilot is taken into the clouds with Christ, leaving the non-Christian pilot to supposedly land the plane safely alone. One preacher specifically mentioned American Airlines as having this policy.”

— Urban Legends, which responds.

“I write them to find out what happens,” he said of his novels. “I don’t write for anybody else.”

David Carr has a wonderful piece about Elmore Leonard in today’s New York Times. I suggest you read it, then go get Leonard’s latest, The Hot Kid.” But here’s a couple excerpts:

He writes seven days a week in the living room of a nice house in the suburbs here with a No. 5 Pilot Pen on unlined yellow paper. He does not use e-mail or a computer. He types the handwritten pages on an I.B.M. Selectric, which occasionally breaks down from daily exertion.

“There’s one name in the phonebook who repairs typewriters,” Mr. Leonard said, adding, “he says he can live on $6,000 a year. He lives in a trailer park.”

…

This great American author, one of the best dialogue writers ever, lets people at charity auctions bid for the right to name his characters; Ed Hagenlocker, a “hard-shell Baptist” and cotton farmer in “The Hot Kid,” got his name that way. “Why not help them out?” he said.

…

“Elmore always says you have to do what you love; otherwise, what’s the point?”

And that explains 40 wonderful books.