Saturday tune

Thanks Pete. Thanks Roger, David and Chris.

Cheap

Is Hillary buying votes for 18.4 cents apiece?

Just asking.

Best line of the day

“Life has a way of taking your most earnest pledges and folding them into funny hats for you to wear.”

Dan Neil, concluding a very personal essay about relationships.

Best line about the proposed gas tax holiday

“It’s a Shell game.”

Barack Obama

A desert hike through Joshua Tree with high tech

Dan Neil takes a hike — with gadgets. He begins:

“Whoso walketh in solitude, and inhabiteth the wood . . . into that forester shall pass . . . power and grace.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

But what if I snap my ankle? Or blow a cardiac gasket? Or fall or get stuck on a mountain where I can’t go up or down, what climbers call getting “cliffed out”? What then, Ralph Waldo? I won’t give a tinker’s damn about power and grace then. I’m going to be looking for that orange-and-white rescue whirligig in the sky. Swing low, sweet Stokes litter.

Going solo into the backcountry — or on a sailboat around Catalina, or on a mountain bike in Moab, Utah, for that matter — always implies a trade-off, the exchange of safety for reverie. Nearly always, the risk is worth it, and for all the reasons Emerson made a career of. To be alone in big-N nature is to challenge yourself, to calibrate yourself, to fully inhabit the body you were born with, to feel the chill of the absolute run up your spine.

But things can go very wrong.

Best lines

“Did you all see ‘American Idol’ Tuesday night? The story is everywhere on the Internet and the radio that Paula Abdul was drinking before she had that meltdown on ‘American Idol.’ I hope so. Because if she wasn’t drinking, that means she’s just crazy. Usually when you see somebody named Abdul babbling like that, it’s in an al Qaeda video.”

“And some sad news. ‘CSI’ actor Gary Dourdan was arrested in Palm Springs for possession of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. Or as Amy Winehouse calls that, a ‘happy meal.’”

Jay Leno

Sounds like a Darwin Award nominee to me

A lot of zeros: Chares Ray Fuller, the police say, had it in mind last week to start a record business, and figured he might as well finance it by cashing a forged check drawn on his girlfriend’s mother’s account, The Associated Press reported this morning. Not that The Lede has any firsthand experience with this, but one imagines that a check-forger-to-be inevitably faces a moment when, with pen poised, he or she must decide exactly what amount to try for.

How about, oh, $360,000,000,000? Yeah, that ought to do it.

At the Chase Bank branch in Fort Worth, Texas, where the police said he tried to cash the check, the teller apparently thought something was amiss, seeing as how the amount far exceeded the bank’s total market capitalization and all, so officials contacted the account owner. When she told them that, no, she hadn’t written any multibillion-dollar checks, Mr. Fuller was arrested and charged with forgery (not to mention possession of a small amount of marijuana and a .25-caliber pistol), and later was released on $3,750 bail — cash or bond, please, no personal checks.

The Lede

The Civil War in New Mexico

Today and tomorrow from 10-4, New Mexico has its very own Civil War reenactments.

“Military drills, skirmishes and cannon fire will highlight two action-filled days, including reenactments of the battles of Glorieta Pass and Apache Canyon fought near Santa Fe during the War Between the States. Visit Confederate and Union camps, and more!”

And tonight only:

“To enhance your daytime experience at the ranch, you will have a unique opportunity to come back on Saturday evening to participate in a candlelight tour that will take you back to the days of the Civil War in the New Mexico! You will view several ‘vignettes,’ depicting everyday life of soldiers and civilians in 1862. Tours will be given by New Mexico Civil War Congress and the Friends of Fort Selden. After the tour, you will have an opportunity to chat with re-enactors by the campfire, while enjoying hot chocolate and cookies!”

Every 20 minutes, starting at 8 p.m., no charge, reservations required.

El Rancho de las Golondrinas

10 ways to blow your tax rebate

Mark Morford has some spending suggestions for those of you receiving the hush money tax rebate. Several are funny. My favorite:

One share of Google. Hey, it’s the most powerful company on Earth. It belches up bits of Microsoft after an organic tofu and wakame salad lunch in its massive world-class floating cafeteria in the sky. Why not buy a tiny crumb of the company that already owns a large piece of you and everything you do and play with and think about and log into every single day? Sort of like buying back a tiny, digitized, bitmapped, rebranded, YouTubed, Street Viewed piece of your own exhausted soul. Neat!

May 3rd ought to be a national holiday

Harry Lillis Crosby was born on this date in 1903. Known as “Bing” from a childhood nickname, he was:

[W]ithout doubt, the most popular and influential media star of the first half of the 20th century. The undisputed best-selling artist until well into the rock era (with over half a billion records in circulation), the most popular radio star of all time, and the biggest box-office draw of the 1940s, Crosby dominated the entertainment world from the Depression until the mid-’50s, and proved just as influential as he was popular. Unlike the many vocal artists before him, Crosby grew up with radio, and his intimate bedside manner was a style perfectly suited to emphasize the strengths of a medium transmitted directly into the home. He was also helped by the emerging microphone technology: scientists had perfected the electrically amplified recording process scant months before Crosby debuted on record, and in contrast to earlier vocalists, who were forced to strain their voices into the upper register to make an impression on mechanically recorded tracks, Crosby’s warm, manly baritone crooned contentedly without a thought of excess. …

John Bush for the All Music Guide

And today is Pete Seeger’s birthday. He’s 89.

Pete Seeger’s contribution to folk music, both in terms of its revival and survival, cannot be overstated. With the possible exception of Woody Guthrie, Seeger is the greatest influence on folk music of the last century.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

(The audio and the video are slightly out of sync, but it’s interesting nonetheless.)

It’s also the birthday

… of Ann B. Davis. Alice is 82.

… of Frankie Valli, well-seasoned at 74.

… of Greg Gumbel. He’s 62. (Brother Bryant is 59.)

… and of Dulé Hill. That’s Charlie on West Wing. He’s 33.

The Godfather of Soul

In honor of James Brown, born on this date in 1933, the only thing to say is this.