Monday, February 25, 2008
Now that’s momentum
Jan 13: Clinton 42%, Obama 27%
Feb 3: Clinton 41%, Obama 41%
Feb 25: Obama 54%, Clinton 38%
Archive for February 25, 2008
I am so tired of these people
That’s Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Imbecile) on Bill Maher’s show Friday night railing about Senator Obama not wearing a flag lapel pin.
Notice anything missing on Rep. Kingston’s lapels?
Crooks and Liars has the story.
Work of Art
The Daily Howler seems to have liked this movie.
We rarely use the term “work of art” around here. But what else can you possibly say about a film as great as 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days? We strongly suggest that you go see it—and we’ll suggest that you go at a time when there will be people in the hall. We’ve never seen a film reach out and grab the throat of an audience in quite the way this brilliant work did. Seeing this film with a group really matters. You may be slightly cheating yourself if you attend the Tuesday matinee—or if you see it at home, alone.
There was a fuss when this film wasn’t included among the foreign language Oscar nominations. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
Not playing in Albuquerque currently. Seven theaters are showing Jumper though.
1 CommentTimes Machine
The New York Times is making available its pages from September 18, 1851, through December 30, 1922. Choose “any issue from Volume 1, Number 1″ and you can “flip electronically through the pages, displayed with their original look and feel.”
More Americans changing religious denominations
A sweeping new study of religious affiliation in the United States finds a country in which Protestants are becoming a minority, Catholicism is becoming heavily Hispanic, and the number of people who say they are not affiliated with any religion is growing.
The study, which is the most comprehensive such examination in at least a half century, finds the United States to be in a period of unprecedented religious fluidity, in which 44 percent of American adults have left the denomination of their childhood for another denomination, another faith, or no faith at all.
The Boston Globe had this brief report. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life conducted the study.
Insanely simple
Tutorials for the first time Macintosh user from OS X Help. Begins with the basics (the power switch) but there are things to learn for children of all ages.
February 25th
Larry Gelbart, the writer and producer of M*A*S*H, is 80 today.
CBS news veteran Bob Schieffer is 71.
Karen Grassle, the mom on Little House on the Prairie, is 64.
It’s the birthday of Debby, official younger sister of NewMexiKen. Debby is a lecturer and author of children’s books, newly minted cowgirl, and middle school recess wrangler. Happy birthday Debby.
John Foster Dulles was born on this date in 1888. Dulles was Secretary of State under Eisenhower from 1953 until April 1959. He is the person for whom Washington Dulles International Airport is named.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on this date in 1841. Click image for larger version of Renoir’s painting “The Picture Book.”
Enrico Caruso was born in Naples on this date in 1873. The Writer’s Almanac had this to say about Caruso a few years back:
It’s the birthday of tenor Enrico Caruso, born in Naples, Italy (1873), the eighteenth of twenty-one children and the first to survive past infancy. He was determined to become a singer, but several teachers told him he had neither voice nor talent. He finally persuaded one teacher to let him observe other students’ lessons; eventually he was given his own private classes. Legend has it that when the young tenor was asked to sing as Rodolfo in La Bohème, he first had to get permission from Puccini himself. After listening to Caruso sing a few pages, Puccini allegedly leapt from his chair and cried, “Who sent you to me? God!?!” In 1902, Caruso made his debut in Rigoletto at London’s Covent Garden, and the following year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He was engaged there continually for the next eighteen years. Caruso has often been called the greatest tenor of the twentieth century, known for his brilliant high notes and his dramatic interpretations. He was immensely popular, partly because he was the first major tenor to be recorded on gramophone records.
NewMexiKen had this about Caruso in 2004.
