Carpet update

The carpet is about half installed and the installers have left for the day. A good crew — nice guys, proficient, conscientious. Just like you want. They’ll finish tomorrow.

The carpet itself looks terrific — and now everything else looks like it needs attention. (Sigh!)

New music

All Songs Considered, NPR’s Online Music Show, has a Grammys edition.

Each year the Grammys hand out awards for nearly every conceivable category of music, from “best jazz instrumental album, individual or group” to “best engineered classical album.” Did you ever wonder how it all works? On this edition of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen talks with Ron Roeker, vice president of communications for the Recording Academy about the selection process; plus a look at the “best new artist” category. Below you’ll find the five Grammy nominees for best new artist, along with listener and staff picks for best new artist from the past year.

The teaching of history replicates history

From Body and Soul, an interesting essay on the teaching of history from which the following is excerpted —

I’ve been pleasantly surprised — up to a point — with the way history is covered in my daughter’s class. When my son was her age, ten years ago, he had a teacher who was so uninterested in history — she actually told me that she despised the subject — that one time a kid recited, “The Indians made corn and ate baskets,” and the teacher just nodded and moved on. As long as the kid got Indians, corn, and baskets in one sentence, as far as she was concerned he knew everything he needed to know about Native Americans. And it wasn’t likely she was ever going to ask a kid to put Columbus and genocide in the same sentence.

Ever since then, “The Indians made corn and ate baskets” has been our code for how bad elementary school history is.

News Flash: AP writer uninformed

The first two paragraphs of an AP article by Joseph B. Frazier —

Representatives of Northwest Indian tribes from seven states are in Portland this week to seek common ground on issues affecting them, and possible infringement on tribal sovereignty by the Bureau of Indian Affairs is near the top of the list.

The Office of Special Trusts, formed five years ago to improve accountability in the BIA, is drawing much of the acrimony.

Facts:
1. It is the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (not Office of Special Trusts).
2. It was established by federal statute in 1994 (that would be 11 years ago, not five).
3. It is not part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (though both are part of the Department of the Interior).

Ernie Stensgar, president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, said the formation of the office was announced at a meeting of tribal leaders five years ago by Interior Secretary Gale Norton with no tribal input.

Fact:
Gale Norton has been Secretary of the Interior for just four years, not five.

Coach Chow

From the Los Angeles Times —

USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow said Tuesday night that he is taking a similar job with the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, thus ending one of the most successful coaching partnerships in college football history.

“I’m fired up — it’s an exciting opportunity to get into the highest level of football,” Chow said. “But my family is very, very sad to leave USC because it’s been such a great run.”

Chow, 58, accepted an offer from Titan Coach Jeff Fisher that will pay him nearly $1 million annually plus incentives. It will be Chow’s first job in pro football after 32 seasons at Brigham Young, North Carolina State and USC.

Best line of the day, so far

“Paul Krugman likes to say that if the White House were to announce tomorrow that the world is flat, our press is so disfunctional that the leads the following day would read ‘opinions on shape of earth differ.’”
— As quoted at Brad DeLong’s Website

Bill Veeck …

the man who brought a midget (Eddie Gaedel) to bat in the major leagues, was born on this date in 1914.

Read about Gaedel’s time at the plate, told as the first chapter of Veeck’s autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck — “When Eddie went into that crouch, his strike zone was just about visible to the naked eye. I picked up a ruler and measured it for posterity. It was 1? inches. Marvelous.”

Veeck (it rhymes with wreck) died in 1986. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

Federal spending

Source of income for FY 2006:

• Income taxes $967 billion

• Payroll taxes $819 billion
• Corporate income taxes $200 billion
• Excise taxes, gift taxes, etc. $172 billion
• Our children and grandchildren (borrowed) $390 billion

Should have had O.J. help with the search

This from Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times —

Frank Gifford says in an A&E “Biography” that in 1990, when he was already a grandfather, Don Meredith was the first person he called after learning wife Kathie Lee was pregnant.

“There was this long pause,” Gifford says before Meredith is shown saying, “I told him not to worry, I’d find out who did it.”

Gifford says that when Kathie Lee became pregnant with their second child three years later, Meredith again was the first person he called.

This time Meredith is shown saying that he told his friend, “Oh no, I killed the wrong guy.”

Guadalcanal

The battle for the island of Guadalcanal was won by American forces on this date in 1943. See The New York Times article: Guadalcanal Is Ours from which the following is taken —

The conquest of this island, or specifically a few square miles of territory around Henderson Airfield on its northern shore, gives American forces undisputed possession both of the airfield and an excellent harbor near by, which becomes a threat to Japan’s major bases in the South Pacific.

Vialula

Actress Julie Warner is 40 today. Seems like an occasion to watch Doc Hollywood.

It’s the birthday

… of Carole King. She’s feeling the earth move under her feet at 63 today.

… of Joe Pesci. No longer a “yute,” he’s 62.

… of Alice Walker. One assumes her birthday cake is the color purple as she turns 61 today.

… of Mia Farrow. The former Mrs. André Previn, Mrs. Frank Sinatra and significant other of Woody Allen is 60.

Caveat lector

A year ago I posted this:

NewMexiKen sat down with Grisham’s The Last Juror just before 3; got up to stretch, etc., for a 20-30 minutes at 6; finished it about 8:20. I’d say that’s a novel with a pretty good hook.

A year later I have absolutely no recollection of what this book was about. In fact, I saw someone reading it recently and wondered whether I had read it.