Clint Eastwood…

is 74 today. Eastwood directed a movie last year — Mystic River — that actually had acting. He should have won the Best Director Oscar, just as he did for Unforgiven.

Americas Dreamers: The Lure of Las Vegas

On Sunday, The New York Times began a multi-part series on Las Vegas and its incredible growth. Sunday’s article, The Budget Suites, where “the city’s promise of new beginnings is regularly put to the test.” Today’s article, New Teachers, Pupils, and Classrooms With Revolving Doors, tells the travail of one of 2,000 new teachers this year.

Both articles are well done and worthwhile, as are the sidebars.

Peter Yarrow…

of Peter, Paul & Mary is 66 today. It was Peter who wrote “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

The South Fork Dam…

gave way on this date in 1889 flooding Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Johnstown Flood National Memorial (National Park Service) describes the event:

There was no larger news story in the latter nineteenth century after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The story of the Johnstown Flood has everything to interest the modern mind: a wealthy resort, an intense storm, an unfortunate failure of a dam, the destruction of a working class city, and an inspiring relief effort.

The rain continued as men worked tirelessly to prevent the old South Fork Dam from breaking. Elias Unger, the president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, was hoping that the people in Johnstown were heeding the telegraph warnings sent earlier, which said that the dam might go. When it finally happened, at 3:10 P.M., May 31, 1889, an era of the Conemaugh Valley’s history ended, and another era started. Over 2,209 people died on that tragic Friday, and thousands more were injured in one of the worst disasters in our Nation’s history.

How ironic

Belle Waring at Crooked Timber has a delightful post on the meaning and use of irony.

A recent post on our blog about whether any of the situations in the Alanis Morrisette Song “Ironic” were, in fact, ironic, has garnered unexpected interest. I looked at the lyrics more carefully, and I think perhaps half could be said to qualify in an extended sense, that is, they seem like dramatic irony. So: “rain on your wedding day” is unquestionably not ironic, it’s just somewhat unfortunate. But I’ll give her “death-row pardon two minutes late”, I guess, if we accept a certain notion of irony I outline below.

The comments at both Crooked Timber and John & Belle are worth perusing as well.

Family feud

Functional Ambivalent fears NewMexiKen’s family.

Also because I’m afraid of his family. See, I made a couple of wisecracks about NewMexiKen’s grandchildren, and the mother of at least one of those children called me out.

Beautiful

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Judge not, lest ye be judged

From the Santa Fe New Mexican:

The chief judge of New Mexico’s largest state court was arrested Saturday on charges of drug possession and evidence tampering after being stopped near a DWI checkpoint, police said.

W. John Brennan, the well-known judicial leader of the state District Court in Albuquerque, appeared “extremely intoxicated” when he was pulled over just after midnight, police spokeswoman Trish Ahrensfield said.

Officers found what they believed to be cocaine in the vehicle, she said.

The judge had tried to evade the DWI checkpoint.

Global warming?

On Friday NewMexiKen put this headline on an entry about what people think about global warming/climate change: I believe. I believe. Even though it’s silly I believe.

The line is taken from the little girl Susan (Natalie Wood in the original) in Miracle on 34th Street. My misuse of it was an attempt to say, “Hey, it really doesn’t matter what the public thinks.” As Byron, one of two official sons-in-law of NewMexiKen, said to me, “A politically popular opinion doesn’t make it correct.” Precisely.

The climate is changing. The climate is always changing. NewMexiKen’s opinion is that we’d better find out what, if anything, we might do about it, and what, if anything, we should do to prepare for it. If there is a consensus among serious scientists, that’s good enough for me. Can’t the news media report that and quit with the man-on-the-street nonsense?

Benny Goodman…

was born on this date in 1909. Goodman was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who thought that music might be a way out of poverty. His older brothers were given a tuba and a trombone but — just 10 — Benjamin was given a clarinet. He learned to play at a synagogue and then with a Jane Hull House band. By 16, he was in the Ben Pollack Orchestra; by 19, Goodman was making solo recordings.

In 1934, Goodman put together his own band and they played on a live NBC radio program “Let’s Dance” during the late hours in New York. It was not until the band played before a live audience at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles that it found its fans — because of the time difference, the Goodman band that was on so late in the east was heard during prime dancing time on the west coast. (It’s a good scene in the 1955 film The Benny Goodman Story.) Some date the beginning of the Swing Era to that August 21, 1935, appearance in Los Angeles.

On January 16, 1938, Goodman brought jazz to Carnegie Hall. This great concert was recorded (with one microphone), but the original disk was lost. In 1950, Goodman discovered a copy in a closet. It quickly became a best-selling record and the CD is an absolute essential.

But NewMexiKen’s favorite Benny Goodman appearance was on December 30, 1966, at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. That’s because I was there.

Mel Blanc…

the voice of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Private Snafu, Sylvester, Tweety, Yosemite Sam, Pepe Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzalez, Marvin Martian, Wile E. Coyote, Tasmanian Devil, Barney Rubble, Tom, Jerry, Woody Woodpecker’s laugh and Jack Benny’s Maxwell automobile was born on this date in 1908.

Blanc was in a serious automobile accident in 1961 that left him comatose. Unable to bring him out of the coma for weeks, in desperation the doctor finally said to him, “How are you today, Bugs Bunny?” Blanc reportedly answered, “Eh…just fine, Doc,” in his Bugs voice and began to recover.

Mel Blanc died in 1989. His epitaph reads: “That’s All Folks!”

Shaq

Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:

– Shaq’s free throws are like snowflakes: No two are alike.

Memorial Day

According to the Library of Congress:

In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade. …

In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended it to honor all soldiers who died in American wars. A few states continue to celebrate Memorial Day on May 30.

Can you hear me now?

Watching a prolonged sports championship on TV, such as the current NBA playoffs, becomes an ordeal about now. It’s not the games, which generally increase in drama and tension. (Tonight’s Lakers-Timberwolves game is a great example.) No, it’s the commercials. The same commercials are shown over and over and over and over. How many times have we seen Lance Armstrong riding with the Harley guys, etc.? Worse, how many times have we seen the three people text messaging “it’s over,” “so over,” “now it’s over”? (And, by the way, where do you get your hair cut while basketball is being shown on TV? Most hair cut places are closed for several hours before these games end.) How many more inane discussions must we see between people and jilted Budweiser bottles?

For the most part, the cost of producing a 30 second spot is minor compared to the cost of buying the television time to show it. Why can’t they have at least a handful of different ads for us to see?

And don’t even get me started on the network promos. They’re repeated even more often.

Guess what it is

Click on this item from Kevin Drum and see if you can guess what the map represents. As he says, it’s not related to politics. DO NOT LOOK AT THE COMMENTS BELOW THE MAP UNTIL YOU GUESS. Click on the map to see what it is.

Look into my eyes

From Kevin Drum:

COSTCO….I was over at CostCo yesterday and they were selling gasoline (regular unleaded) for $2.27 a gallon. Cars were lined up ten deep at each service bay, waiting about 20 minutes each to get to the pump.

On my way home I passed four gas stations. The posted price for regular unleaded at each one was $2.33, $2.34, $2.35, and $2.39. So that’s an average of $2.35, or eight cents higher than CostCo.

The CostCo lines had the usual mix of big cars and little cars. Figure the average tank size was about 15 gallons. At eight cents a gallon, that’s a savings of $1.20 compared to other gas stations.

That means these folks were all willing to idle away in line at CostCo for 20 minutes in order to save about a dollar. It’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s almost like CostCo has them hypnotized or something.

Rats

The University of Arizona softball team lost to Oklahoma and to Louisiana-Lafayette last Saturday to end their season at 55-6. Oklahoma went on to advance to the Women’s College World Series.

Arizona had been to the Series every year since 1988, 16 straight, a record.

Four PAC-10 teams are in the WCWS even without Arizona — UCLA, Cal, Stanford and Washington.

Tenzing Norgay…

of Nepal and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest (29,035 feet/8,850 meters) on this date in 1953. The mountain is called Chomolungma (”goddess mother of the world”) in Tibet and Sagarmatha (”goddess of the sky”) in Nepal. It’s growing/moving about 6 cm a year.

George Everest (1790-1866) was the British Surveyor General of India (1830-1843). (He pronounced his name E-ver-est, not Ev-er-est as we know it.) Everest’s successor named the mountain for the surveyor.

Wisconsin…

entered the Union as the 30th state on this date in 1848.

Rhode Island…

ratified the Constitution on this date in 1790, thereby becoming the 13th state.

John F. Kennedy…

35th President of the United States, was born on this date 87 years ago (1917).

The Buffs

ESPN’s Ivan Maisel takes a look at the University of Colorado, A Recipe For Disaster.

All it takes is a recipe of liberal politics, arrogant coaches, condescending faculty, libertine lifestyles, racial imbalance and a long-simmering battle between town and gown. Mix well and bake in the glare of competitive media — Denver, 25 miles down the highway, is one of the last two-newspaper cities in America — and what started as rape accusations too fuzzy to prosecute became a national symbol for college football programs run amok.

Thanks to Byron for the pointer.

250 years ago today…

George Washington engaged in his first military action.

Washington arrived at the Great Meadows, as the Fort Necessity area was than called, on May 24. Although the meadow was nearly all marsh, he believed it “a charming field for an encounter” and ordered his men to set up an encampment. Three days later, after hearing that a group of French soldiers had been spotted about seven miles away on Chestnut Ridge, Washington and 40 men set out to find them. At dawn on May 28, the Virginians reached the camp of Tanacharison, a friendly Seneca chief known as the Half King. His scouts then led them to the ravine about two miles to the north where the French were encamped.

The French, commanded by Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville, were taken by surprise. Ten were killed, including Jumonville, one was wounded, and 21 were made prisoner. One man escaped to carry the news back to Fort Duquesne. Washington’s command suffered only one man killed and two wounded.

Fearing “we might be attacked by considerable forces,” Washington undertook to fortify his position at the Great Meadows. During the last two days of May and the first three days of June, he built a circular palisaded fort, which he called Fort Necessity.

Source: Fort Necessity National Battlefield (National Park Service)

The Virginian…

considered the first serious western, was published on this date in 1902. The novel by Owen Wister sold 300,000 copies in its first year. The University of Wyoming (the novel is set in Wyoming) has an online exhibit concerning The Virginian. According to the site:

Since its 1902 publication, The Virginian has left a lasting impact upon the American cultural landscape. In earlier years after its publication, The Virginian did much to popularize the American West. As a result, a romanticized view of the West became an integral part of the American popular imagination and cultural identity. In recent years, The Virginian has come under scrutiny. Wister’s portrayal of the West is seen by many as a myth at odds with reality.

When the San Francisco Chronicle listed the 100 best Western works of fiction in 1999, Wister’s novel was 46th.

More Presidential trivial

The two oldest former Presidents ever are alive today: Ronald Reagan, who was 93 in February, and Gerald Ford, who will be 91 in July. John Adams lived to be 90 and 8 months. Herbert Hoover lived to be 90 and 2 months.

Presidential trivia

The year of birth of the last 12 presidents (in order of birth) and their age when they became president:

1882 Franklin Roosevelt 51
1884 Harry Truman 60
1890 Dwight Eisenhower 62
1908 Lyndon Johnson 55
1911 Ronald Reagan 69
1913 Richard Nixon 56
1913 Gerald Ford 61
1917 John Kennedy 43
1924 George H. W. Bush 64
1924 Jimmy Carter 52
1946 George W. Bush 54
1946 Bill Clinton 46

I believe. I believe. Even though it’s silly I believe.

From Scripps Howard via the Albuquerque Tribune:

Two-thirds of Americans are convinced global warming is a serious problem even before today’s opening of “The Day After Tomorrow,” the disaster film with a plot based on an abrupt change in Earth’s climate, according to a Yale University poll released Thursday.

In a national survey of 1,000 adults conducted by the polling firm Global Strategy Group, 70 percent of Americans said they consider global warming to be a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem.

Only 20 percent said they do not consider global warming to be a serious problem.

A majority of Americans, 55 percent, also believe that “the scientific evidence is in” with regard to global warming, the poll found.

There is, however, a clear political gap on the issue. A majority of Democrats, 66 percent, and independents, 55 percent, said they want action to address the problem. But only 44 percent of Republican women and 35 percent of Republican men share that view.

Into the mouths of babes

Jill, one of the two official daughters of NewMexiKen, reports:

[Three-year-old] Mack and I picked out some lovely ripe cherries at the market today. We’re going to chop them up put them in homemade ice cream.

At lunch I diced some of them and gave them to [8-month-old] Aidan.

He grabbed a couple and stuffed them in his mouth. Immediately, his eyes shot to me with an expression that perfectly conveyed two thoughts:

“My God, but I do love you, woman.”

and

“Exactly what else have you been keeping from me?”

Seriously

Watch to the end.

Thanks Ralph.

The Week Quiz

NewMexiKen scored eight correct out of ten this week. What do I know about American Idol, and once again I was careless with a which “is not true” question. (You’d think I’d learn.)

Take The Week Quiz.

John Fogerty…

is 59 today. Fogerty was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 with Creedence Clearwater Revival.

“In 1968, I always used to say that I wanted to make records they would still play on the radio in ten years,” John Fogerty, former leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival, said on the eve of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In retrospect, Fogerty got all he wished for and more. Three decades later, Creedence’s songs - including “Proud Mary,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Bad Moon Rising,” and “Green River” - endure as timeless rock and roll classics. Under Fogerty’s tutelage, Creedence Clearwater Revival defined the spirit and sound of rock and roll as authentically as any American group ever has.

CCR’s cover of “I Heard It Through the Grape Vine” isn’t too bad either.

In his great book The Heart of Rock & Soul, Dave Marsh tells us:

Creedence Clearwater started out in the late fifties as just another Northern California high school band, formed by Fogerty, his brother Tom, and a couple of friends, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford. (They were called, among other things, the Blue Velvets and the Golliwogs.) They got a chance at recording for Fantasy, basically a jazz label, only because it happened to be in the neighborhood and the boys had found jobs in the warehouse. They got the kind of record deal you’d expect from that situation, one in which the label not only didn’t have to pay much in royalties but also controlled their song publishing rights.

Somewhere along the way, out of their own avarice and some bad judgment, Creedence was convinced to invest its royalties in an offshore banking tax dodge. Several Fantasy executives also poured money into the scam. Unfortunately, the bank they chose was a Bahamian shell called the Castle Bank, which went down in one of the great financial swindles of the century, leaving Creedence short more than $3 million and with huge overdue payments to the IRS (which stepped in for its bite once the scheme crashed).

Bitter, John Fogerty sued everybody including Fantasy. For the best part of a decade, he litigated but made no music. Meantime, his songs and records continued to generate huge income for Fantasy (which took its profits and produced, among other things, the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).

Fogerty was still pissed when he finally made another record, Centerfield, in 1985. The final track on each side was an unmistakable slug at Fantasy owner Saul Zaentz: “Mr. Greed” and “Zanz Kant Danz.” Zaentz, apparently feeling as vindictive as Fogerty, sued for libel, asking $142 million damages, then charged Fogerty with infringing on a Fantasy copyright-”Run Through the Jungle.”

Centerfield’s first track, and its first single, was “The Old Man Down the Road.” Everybody who heard it remarked on its amazing similarity to “Run Through the Jungle.” And so Fantasy sued Fogerty for royalties plus damages for plagiarizing his own song!

Amazingly enough, the case actually went to trial and in the fall of 1988, John Fogerty spent two days on the witness stand with a guitar on his lap, explaining “swamp rock” and its limitations to a jury. Pressed about the similarity between the two songs, he finally snapped, “Yeah, I did use that half-step. What do you want me to do, get an inoculation?”

Even if Fantasy did, the jury didn’t. They acquitted him in early November 1988, and, having proven his skills in running through the modern jungle, John Fogerty went back to making his new record. Which he vowed would sound not approximately but exactly like Creedence.

************

Well, I spent some time in the mudville nine, watchin’ it from the bench;
You know I took some lumps when the mighty casey struck out.
So say hey willie, tell ty cobb and joe dimaggio;
Don’t say “it ain’t so”, you know the time is now.

Oh, put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be centerfield.

Still America’s Finest News Source

From The Onion

No-Makeup Look Easier To Achieve Than Elle Claims
NEW YORK—Contrary to claims in the June issue of Elle magazine, the no-makeup look actually requires little effort, a licensed cosmetologist reported Monday. “The article ‘20 Minutes To A More Natural You’ suggests an application of under-eye concealer, light powder, natural lip gloss, and clear mascara to achieve the makeup-free look,” said Michelle Karns-Daley, spokeswoman for the American Association of Cosmetology. “But really, a quick shower and a towel-off will do the trick just as well.” Similarly, experts say Elle’s six-page article “Building Your Self-Esteem” can be more simply stated as “Stop giving a shit about what people think.”

Great-Grandmother Actually Not That Great
DAVIS, CA—Following a family get-together Sunday, 7-year-old Tom Morris reported that he didn’t really see what was so great about his great-grandmother Sarah Lott. “Grandma Lott is okay, I guess, but she sorta just sat there with this dazed look on her face until Aunt Debbie gave her a chocolate-covered cherry,” Morris said. “All-right Grandma Lott, maybe. But ‘great’?” Morris conceded that there might be a side to the wheelchair-bound 87-year-old he hasn’t seen.

Drug pushers

From The Arizona Republic:

Parents might want their children to consider a career in selling drugs after reading this.

The demand for pharmacists is hot as baby boomers age and more prescriptions are filled each year in Arizona and nationwide. The shortage’s culprit is simple: supply and demand. There were more than 4,100 open pharmacy jobs across the nation as of January, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

“An unemployed pharmacist generally doesn’t have a pulse,” said Dennis McAllister, associate dean of the College of Pharmacy at the Midwestern University campus in Glendale.

Each of today’s Arizona graduates has an estimated seven job openings to choose from, McAllister said. Job security isn’t the only lure. Starting salaries range from $88,000 to $93,000 with some starting as high as $120,000, plus $10,000 to $30,000 sign-on bonuses.

Oh, give me a break

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

Lawyers for two men accused of looting American Indian artifacts said Thursday that the real culprit is the U.S. Forest Service because it failed to mark the site near Reno as culturally significant.

The Greatest Athlete of the First Half of the Century

was born near Prague, Oklahoma, on this date in 1888. His Sac and Fox given name was Wa-Tho-Huk (Bright Path). We know him as Jim Thorpe.

Thorpe was named by ESPN as the 7th greatest athlete of the 20th century (after Jordan, Ruth, Ali, Brown, Gretsky and Owens). Read the biographical essay, Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo.

A couple of items from the biography:

• Thorpe won both the decathlon and the pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Swedish King Gustav V told him, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” Thorpe reputedly replied, “Thanks, king.”

• Jim Thorpe was a twin. His brother Charles died of pneumonia at age 8.

The Dionne Quintuplets…

were born in Corbeil, Ontario, Canada, 70 years ago today. Together, the five girls, at least two months premature, weighed about 14 pounds. They were put by an open stove to keep warm, and mothers from surrounding villages brought breast milk for them. Against all expectations, they survived their first weeks. Watch video.

According to the CBC:

When the quints are still babies, the Ontario government takes the sisters from their parents, apparently to protect their fragile health, and makes the girls wards of the state. For the first nine years of their lives, they live at a hospital in their hometown that becomes a tourist mecca called “Quintland.” The Ministry of Public Welfare sets up a trust fund in their behalf with assurances that the financial well-being of the entire Dionne family would be taken care of “for all their normal needs for the rest of their lives.”

Between 1934 and 1943, about 3 million people visit Quintland. The government and nearby businesses make an estimated half-billion dollars off the tourists, much of which the Dionne family never sees. The sisters are the nation’s biggest tourist attraction — bigger than Niagara Falls.

After nine years and a bitter custody fight, the girls rejoined their family.

In 1998 the surviving quints were awarded $4 million by Ontario.

Emilie died in 1954, Marie in 1970 and Yvonne in 2001. Annette and Cecile live near Montreal.

Jerry West…

is 66 today.

Mini Cooper vs. Ford F150

Crash Testing. You won’t believe these photos.

Parody — a false, derisive, or impudent imitation of something

Very Very Happy parodies the Rightwing blogs, starting with Instapundit:

THE MEDIA’S WAR ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION continues unabated. Recent events have combined with the media’s anti-Bush agenda to paint a misleadingly dark picture of Iraq. If you received all your news from CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Army Times, The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, the Sacremento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, The Orlando Sentinel, The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The Lansing State Journal, the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, the Houston Chronicle, UPI, Reuters, or the Associated Press, you would be under the impression that things are pretty bleak in Iraq.

The Lileks parody is even better.

Genealogy, Hollywood-style

From Steve Harvey in the Los Angeles Times:

I read that Frances Fisher plays the mother of Julianne Moore in the movie “Laws of Attraction,” though she is just eight years older than Moore.

This kind of weird parenting is a tradition in the movies:

Paul Newman was actually three years younger than Jo Van Fleet, the woman who played his mother, in “Cool Hand Luke.”

In “The Manchurian Candidate,” Laurence Harvey was the son of Angela Lansbury, who would have been 3 when she gave birth.

Dustin Hoffman was the son of Sean Connery, seven years older, in “Family Business” and the son of William Daniels, 10 years his senior, in “The Graduate.”

And Anne Bancroft, the “older” woman who was Hoffman’s mistress in “The Graduate,” would have been just six grades ahead of Hoffman in school.

Most remarkable, perhaps, was Jessie Royce Landis portraying Cary Grant’s mother in “North by Northwest,” though she was actually 10 months younger than Grant. Perhaps this was the inspiration for the movie “Back to the Future.”