Monday, May 16, 2005
The closer you look …
the more absurd it is.
Note that Phil McGraw is a “Dr.” but Condoleezza Rice, Jonas Salk, Bill Cosby, Carl Sagan and Martin Luther King are not.
Archive for May 16, 2005
“The 100 Greatest Americans”
Here’s the whole AOL/Discovery Channel list:
Abraham Lincoln
Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Hamilton
Amelia Earhart
Andrew Carnegie
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Audie Murphy
Babe Ruth
Barack Obama
Barbara Bush
Benjamin Franklin
Bill Clinton
Bill Cosby (William Henry Cosby, Jr.)
Bill Gates
Billy Graham
Bob Hope
Brett Favre
Carl Sagan
Cesar Chavez
Charles Lindbergh
Christopher Reeve
Chuck Yeager
Clint Eastwood
Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Donald Trump
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eleanor Roosevelt (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt)
Ellen DeGeneres
Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Frederick Douglass
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Lucas
George Patton
George Washington
George Washington Carver
Harriet Ross Tubman
Harry Truman
Helen Keller
Henry Ford
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Howard Hughes
Hugh Hefner
Jackie Robinson (Jack Roosevelt Robinson)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Stewart
John Edwards
John Glenn
John F. Kennedy
John Wayne
Johnny Carson (John William Carson)
Jonas Edward Salk
Joseph Smith Jr.
Katharine Hepburn
Lance Armstrong
Laura Bush
Lucille Ball
Lyndon B. Johnson
Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone)
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little)
Marilyn Monroe
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Martha Stewart
Martin Luther King Jr.
Maya Angelou
Mel Gibson
Michael Jackson
Michael Jordan
Michael Moore
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.)
Neil Alden Armstrong
Nikola Tesla
Oprah Winfrey
Pat Tillman
Dr. Phil McGraw
Ray Charles
Richard Nixon
Robert Kennedy
Ronald Reagan
Rosa Parks
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Rush Limbaugh
Sam Walton
Steve Jobs
Steven Spielberg
Susan B. Anthony
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Edison
Thomas Jefferson
Tiger Woods
Tom Cruise
Tom Hanks
Walt Disney
Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur Wright)
6 CommentsNo, it means what I thought it did
Definitions of great:
Remarkable or outstanding; Of outstanding significance or importance; Superior in quality or character; noble; Powerful; influential; Eminent; distinguished.
(See next three entries.)
Another best line about the list
“Worst. List. Ever.
“Lance Armstrong but not Louis?”
Commenter Alan at Political Animal
Neil Armstrong is on the list.
Best line of the day, so far
“First clue about the absurdity of this list: it’s ordered alphabetically by given name. (’Is Thomas Jefferson on the list? Oh, right, he’s under the Ts.’)”
Commenter RSA at Political Animal on the list of The 100 Greatest Americans (see below).
Don’t they teach anything in schools anymore?
AOL and Discovery Channel are producing a TV series in June to count down the 100 Greatest Americans. They created the list from nominations made by 500,000 voters (ignoramuses I’d say).
Let NewMexiKen share just some of the most absurd from the list to get you agitated:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Barbara Bush
Brett Favre
Christopher Reeve
Ellen DeGeneres
Hugh Hefner
John Edwards
Lance Armstrong
Laura Bush
Martha Stewart
Michaels Jackson, Jordan and Moore
Pat Tillman
Dr. Phil
Tom Cruise
These are listed to compete with others of similar importance; you know, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain.
Professor Bainbridge has a good discussion.
Thanks to Ken for the pointer.
The beginning of the end of the good old days on the internets
Most of the material on the Web site, NYTimes.com, will remain free to users, The Times said, but columnists from The Times and The International Herald Tribune will be available only to users who sign up for TimesSelect, which will cost $49.95 annually.
Starting in September.
Good questions
Professor Bainbridge asks a couple of pretty good questions:
The LA County Sheriff’s deputies who shot up Compton last week have apologized to the residents of the neighborhood they terrorized. (Link) This astonishing incident raises two burning questions:
- What the heck possessed the cops to fire 120 shots at Winston Hayes?
- Having fired so many shots, how the heck did they only manage to hit him 4 times?
Trigger happy cops are bad enough. But trigger happy cops who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn are even worse.
Henry Fonda …
was born 100 years ago today in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Seems hard to believe but Fonda was only nominated for an acting Oscar twice — for Grapes of Wrath and On Golden Pond. He won for the latter in 1982, a few months before his death. Particular favorite Fonda films (other than those two): 12 Angry Men, Mister Roberts, My Darling Clementine (he played Wyatt Earp), The Ox-Bow Incident (with sidekick Harry Morgan, aka Col. Sherman Potter) and, maybe best of all, as Clarence Earl Gideon in Gideon’s Trumpet (made when Fonda was 75).
Just looking for low prices
NORFOLK, Neb. - So exactly how do you stop a charging deer in Wal-Mart? You take away its credit card.
Shoppers at the Wal-Mart here wish they would have thought of that. It would have been a whole lot easier.
A deer without a grocery list entered through the doors of the supermarket part of the store Thursday.
The store’s greeter didn’t see the deer enter through the exit, but she did see the critter when it hit the slick floor and fell. It quickly recovered and went scurrying down the aisles.
After doing a little looking around, the deer was tackled by a customer. Others of the human persuasion then tied the deer’s legs so it couldn’t kick, placed it in a shopping cart and pushed it outside.
Officials took the animal to nearby Ta-ha-zouka Park and released it.
The deer obviously knew the secret of getting past the annoying “greeter.” Never — never — make eye contact.
Seems strange …
but the actress Debra Winger and the gymnast Olga Korbut both turn 50 today. Winger has been nominated for Best Actress three times. Korbut is the Belarusian gymnast who, pixie-like, revolutionized gymnastics. She became it’s first TV superstar while winning three gold and one silver medals at the 1972 Olympic Games. For a few days she was the talk of the planet.
Only a Sith thinks in absolutes
A.O. Scott in The New York Times generally likes “Revenge of the Sith;” indeed, if I read him correctly he thinks it ranks with “The Empire Strikes Back” as the best of the six “Star Wars” films. Some of his keenest observations:
“Mr. Lucas’s indifference to two fairly important aspects of moviemaking — acting and writing — is remarkable.” …
“Yoda, the spry green Jedi master voiced by Frank Oz, some of his finest work in this film does.” …
“[T]he sheer beauty, energy and visual coherence of “Revenge of the Sith” is nothing short of breathtaking.” …
“Mr. Lucas has surpassed Peter Jackson [blashphemy to some NewMexiKen readers, I know] and Steven Spielberg in his exploitation of the new technology’s aesthetic potential.”
Sounds to me like it’s worth $9.
I don’t know if money can buy happiness …
but it sure can buy art. Sam Walton’s daughter Alice bought Asher B. Durand’s lovely “Kindred Spirits” at auction last week for $35 million. It was sold by the New York Public Library to raise funds.
Reportedly another interested party was Bill Gates.
Here’s a look at the painting, in case you wondered what $35 million gets you these days.
