Amen

“Announcing your plans is a good way to hear god laugh.”

Al Swearengen, Deadwood, Episode 12

Best line of the day, so far

“It is a hot day at Santa’s workshop when I say something nice about …”

Juanita

Where Have You Gone, Sheriff Taylor?

Lean Left has a delightful — and insightful — essay on modern America vs. Mayberry. It’s evocative. Take three minutes and go read it.

Link via Body and Soul.

Bloomsday update

Even Google gets in on Bloomsday. Hard to imagine Microsoft being this cool.

Interesting

Mother Jones has the results of a very interesting poll. First question:

Generally speaking, do you think that things in this country are going in the right direction, or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track?

Right direction: 30%
Wrong track: 62%
No answer: 8%

If you’re interested in public affairs/current issues, the results are well worth reviewing. Americans are in a deep funk.

He was looking for the real killers

“Former President George Bush marked his 80th birthday by jumping out of a plane. In a related story, O.J. Simpson marked the 10th anniversary of the murders by jumping out of the bushes.”

Jay Leno

Painted into a corner

“Bill Clinton’s official portrait was unveiled at the White House yesterday. Don’t kid yourself, there’s already trouble. Yesterday, Clinton’s portrait was caught hitting on Dolly Madison’s portrait.”

David Letterman

“Yesterday at a White House ceremony, the official portrait of President Clinton was unveiled. Apparently, Clinton’s portrait is so realistic that Hillary immediately started yelling at it.”

Conan O’Brien

“Yesterday at the White House they unveiled the official portrait of Bill Clinton. It’s very classy. It’s on black velvet.”

Jay Leno

“The Bushes hosted their predecessors at the White House yesterday, for the official unveiling of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s White House portraits. The occasion moved the current commander in chief to a rare show of gracious bi-partisanship. … Bush then handed the mic over to Clinton. It’s been a long time since this skilled orator spoke in the White House. I’m sure he’s got some profound words to share … [clip of Clinton: 'All those kind and generous you said, made me feel like I was a pickle stepping into history.'] … Uhhh, I don’t get that at all. As a matter fact, if I remember correctly, your pickle’s already stepped into history.”

Jon Stewart

Productivity enhancer

Pinball anyone?

Time to kill?

Try to land Daffy on the target.

One Who Yawns

As NewMexiKen notes below, “Several sources give June 16, 1829, as Geronimo’s date of birth.” In her excellent 1976 biography of Geronimo, however, Angie Debo concludes:

Geronimo was born in the early 1820’s near the upper Gila in the mountains crossed by the present state boundary [Arizona-New Mexico], probably on the Arizona side near the present Clifton. …

He was given the name Goyahkla, with the generally accepted meaning “One Who Yawns,’ why or under what circumstances is not known.

As an adult in battle he was called Geronimo by Mexican soldiers, perhaps because they could not pronounce Goyahkla, or perhaps to invoke Saint Jerome (Geronimo is Spanish for Jerome). The name was adopted for him by his own people.

Premonition

T.J. Simers wondered if it was over before it began:

9:04 — Aretha Franklin sings the national anthem. If it’s true what they say, and it’s not over until the fat lady has sung, it’s not looking good for the Lakers.

No I in team

At the Los Angeles Times the mood is more somber. Bill Plaschke:

The team that was supposed to make basketball history indeed made basketball history Tuesday, doomed forever to symbolize all that is wrong with modern professional sports, a testament to the failure of excess and danger of ego. …

As if sent down by the sports gods to deliver a message, the Detroit Pistons crawled out from the shadows of hard work, away from the anonymity of defense, and into a spotlight that showed the Lakers everything they used to be.

A team that shares the ball. A team that shares the floor burns. A team that shares the glory.

An NBA champion.

Great photo

This version of the Free Press [pdf file] front page shows whom I would have named MVP — and why. Determined? You think?

Indeed

Take a look at the front page of the Detroit Free Press [pdf file].

Even more Geronimo

Some have wondered what motivated Geronimo to fight so fiercely. Perhaps this from his autobiography (written with S.M. Barrett in 1905) explains a little:

In the summer of 1858, being at peace with the Mexican towns as well as with all the neighboring Indian tribes, we went south into Old Mexico to trade. Our whole tribe (Bedonkohe Apaches) went through Sonora toward Casa Grande, our destination, but just before reaching that place we stopped at another Mexican town called by the Indians Kas-ki-yeh. Here we stayed for several days, camping outside the city. Every day we would go into town to trade, leaving our camp under the protection of a small guard so that our arms, supplies, and women and children would not be disturbed during our absence.

Late one afternoon when returning from town we were met by a few women and children who told us that Mexican troops from some other town had attacked our camp, killed all the warriors of the guard, captured all our ponies, secured our arms, destroyed our supplies, and killed many of our women and children. Quickly we separated, concealing ourselves as best we could until nightfall, when we assembled at our appointed place of rendezvous–a thicket by the river. Silently we stole in one by one: sentinels were placed, and, when all were counted, I found that my aged mother, my young wife, and my three small children were among the slain. There were no lights in camp, so without being noticed I silently turned away and stood by the river. How long I stood there I do not know, but when I saw the warriors arranging for a council I took my place.

More Geronimo

In its obituary of Geronimo, The Times provided this quote:

Gen. Miles, in his memoirs, describes his first impression of Geronimo when he was brought into camp by Lawton, thus: “He was one of the brightest, most resolute, determined-looking men that I have ever encountered. He had the clearest, sharpest dark eye I think I have ever seen, unless it was that of Gen. Sherman.”

Geronimo

Several sources give June 16, 1829, as Geronimo’s date of birth. It’s not clear to NewMexiKen that the Apaches were using the Gregorian calendar at that time. And, indeed, one of those sources, The New York Times, stated in its obituary of Geronimo in February 1909 that he was nearly 90 — not 79 as this birth date would indicate. But, he had to be born some time. So why not June 16?

House divided speech

Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided Speech at Springfield, Illinois, on this date in 1858.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new — North as well as South.

The speech was made at the Illinois Republican State convention that had nominated Lincoln for U.S. Senator. It was a precursor to the Lincoln-Douglas debates during that campaign, which Lincoln lost. It seems to be about as succinct a statement of the core issue of the Civil War as one could find.

ReJoyce, It’s Bloomsday

On this date in 1904, Leopold Bloom took his epic journey through Dublin in James Joyce’s Ulysses. ReJoyce Dublin tells us:

“Bloomsday”, as it is now known, has become a tradition for Joyce enthusiasts all over the world. From Tokyo to Sydney, San Francisco to Buffalo, Trieste to Paris, dozens of cities around the globe hold their own Bloomsday festivities. The celebrations usually include readings as well as staged re-enactments and street-side improvisations of scenes from the story. Nowhere is Bloomsday more rollicking and exuberant than Dublin, home of Molly and Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, Buck Mulligan, Gerty McDowell and James Joyce himself. Here, the art of Ulysses becomes the daily life of hundreds of Dubliners and the city’s visitors as they retrace the odyssey each year.

Like I said

Lakers Pistons in five.

The important thing is I predicted the number of games correctly.