“You can tell most New Mexicans, or at least assimilated New Mexicans, by their reactions to rainstorms.
“They’re the ones out standing in them — or at the very least looking out from their porches and admiring the rain and that rich, earthy smell it brings.”
Sue Vorenberg, Santa Fe New Mexican
A rainy weekend. Let’s celebrate!
Flags will be flown at half-staff through the Memorial Day weekend in honor of Navajo Code Talker John Brown Jr. of Crystal, N.M., who died Wednesday at the age of 87.
Brown received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2001. …
He was one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers with the U.S. Marine Corps and “endured the horrors of combat in the Pacific Theater battles on the islands of Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Guadalcanal,” said a proclamation by Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr.
Brown was born on Dec. 24, 1921 to Nonabah Bia Begay and Little Policeman (the late John Brown Sr.) in Chinle, Ariz., near Canyon De Chelly.
Today is the birthday of two important and influential American writers, Peter Matthiessen (82) and Garry Wills (75).
[Matthiessen's] father was a successful architect, and Matthiessen grew up in an affluent area of southwest Connecticut. He served in the Navy during World War II, studied at Yale, and then traveled to Paris, where he and two other young writers, Harold Humes and George Plimpton, decided to start a literary journal called The Paris Review.
After publishing two novels that weren’t very successful, Matthiessen took off on a trip across the United States in his Ford convertible, with a shotgun and a sleeping bag, looking for places where certain American animals were dying out: the bear, the wolf, the crane. His journey became the subject of his book Wildlife In America (1959), which was one of the books that helped launch the modern environmentalist movement in the United States. Matthiessen has continued to write books about nature, such as The Snow Leopard (1978).
[Wills] grew up in a conservative Roman Catholic family. He said, “[I was raised as] a Catholic cold warrior, praying after Mass every day for the conversion of Russia.” His father was an appliance salesman who believed that reading was a waste of time, and he used to pay Wills not to read.
Wills couldn’t stop reading, though. He got a job writing for the conservative National Review, but during the 1960s, he started traveling around the country, writing about protests and race riots. He began to argue against the Vietnam War and for federal support of civil rights. He continued to call himself a conservative, but other conservatives didn’t think so.
His first important book was Nixon Agonistes (1970), about Nixon’s 1968 campaign for the presidency. Since then he has written dozens of books, about religion, Shakespeare, the Kennedys, the Declaration of Independence, Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, The Gettysburg Address, and the papacy.
Arthur Conan Doyle was born 150 years ago today. A physician, Doyle modeled Shelock Holmes after a professor he knew in medical school. There are 56 stories and four novels featuring the famous detective.
Mary Cassatt was born on May 22nd in 1844.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was a unique artist because she was a woman who succeeded in what was in the nineteenth century a predominantly male profession, because she was the only American invited to exhibit with a group of independent artists later known as the Impressionists, and because she responded in a very distinctive way to their mandate to portray modern life.
Click images for larger version and to learn more.
Dick Bavetta, one of the referees in last night’s game between the Lakers and Nuggets, is 69-years-old.
Just sayin’.
“I mean, the level of morals here is astonishing. In my entire life I’ve never met a drug dealer who would even think about trying half the shit that banks like Goldman Sachs and Citibank pulled during these years.”
Matt Taibbi in a must-read post, “Don’t pin the recession on AIG’s Joe Cassano.”
It seems Sara Lee is red hot at Kraft. Sara Lee makes Ball Park franks; Kraft owns Oscar Mayer.
According to the Chicago Tribune here’s the beef:
The Sara Lee suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, says the ad is false and misleading because in large type it implies one Oscar Mayer dog bested the taste of all Ball Park dogs. But the footnote, “in very small type,” says that Oscar Mayer compared its hot dogs to “the leading beef franks” of its main rivals.
The suit also claims Oscar Mayer’s contention that its Jumbo Beef franks are “100 percent pure beef” is false because they contain a host of other ingredients. Sara Lee says Oscar Mayer has rejected requests to drop its 100 percent pure beef claims.
The case law that applies may have been written by Justice Felix Frankfurter.
With apologies to official oldest child Ken.
… going to hell in a hand basket.
Via Boing Boing. First posted here three years ago.
American Heritage has an essay on the assault on Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston Brooks 153 years ago today. The essay details the events leading up to the attack — an inflammatory speech by Sumner — and the aftermath. Here’s what they say about the acutal assault:
Brooks avoided the potential difficulty of a fair fight by entering the Senate chamber after that body had adjourned. He waited chivalrously for all the ladies to leave, then approached Sumner’s desk, where the senator was franking copies of his speech to be sent to supporters. Brooks spoke a few words explaining his presence, then began whacking Sumner over the head with his cane. When the senator raised his hands, Brooks became excited and, he recalled, felt “compelled to strike him harder” than he had intended.
Sumner managed to get up and stagger down the aisle, pursued by Brooks, as a pair of congressmen tried to separate the two men and several others argued over whether to get involved. Sen. Stephen Douglas, who had been another target of Sumner’s abuse, was called to the scene but chose not to interfere, worrying that, in view of the state of relations between him and Sumner, “my motives would be misconstrued.”
Brooks recalled that by the time his cane finally shattered, less than a minute after he first confronted the senator, he had dealt Sumner “about 30 first rate stripes. Towards the last he bellowed like a calf. I wore my cane out completely but saved the Head which is gold.”
Krugman’s column today is about how the health care industry is already undermining health care reform.
“We can do a lot better than a government-run health care system,” says a voice-over in one of the ads. To which the obvious response is, if that’s true, why don’t you?
To which I will add — I’ve had “government” health care insurance since 1973. The rest of the country should be so lucky.
Official daughter-in-law Veronica reports:
Carpool conversation between Sofie and her good friend, A.
Sofie: What should we play at school today?
A: Dunno.
Sofie: How about “Cold, Lost Girls?”
A: Nah. How about “Puppy Protector?”
Sofie: Nah.
Cold, Lost Girls? Puppy Protector? What’s wrong with Kick the Can and Mother, May I?
Meanwhile, Sofie doesn’t need to protect her aunt and uncle’s puppy, Barkley (123 pounds).
Sofie and her 'cousin' Barkley
Click image for larger version.
Via David Pogue.
TV series that didn’t make it — Law and Order DMV.
… but it’s just another in the automakers endless list of screw-ups.
| Be a F@#king Person – Dealer or No Dealer | |
This is a photo of my dear friend Fran with my cousin Terry in front.
Fran's birthday present
Fran was celebrating her 90th birthday last week. I love the look of pure joy on her face.
Here’s the longer view of that same photo that gives you more of the story.
Or click the image above to see all four photos.
… that Mack excels in sports. In addition to being tough and competitive, he is rather big for his age.
That’s him in the middle of these three boys, all eight-year-olds.
Too tall
The mophie Juice Pack Air is a rechargeable external battery concealed inside of a protective form-fitting case for the iPhone 3G. It offers you the full protection of a hard-shell case while providing almost twice the battery life of the iPhone alone.
Its ultra-thin, lightweight, low-profile design houses a rechargeable 1200mAh lithium polymer battery for up to 270 hours standby time. The case allows USB charging and sync with iTunes as well as full protection for your iPhone 3G.
$79.95 at the Apple store. Or for a couple dollars more from Amazon.
Mophie Juice Pack – Case and Rechargeable Battery for iPhone 3G
Available for iPod touch, too.
Mophie Juice Pack – Case and Rechargeable Battery for iPod Touch 2G
Example 1:
“The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday threatened to sue a San Diego County school that refused to let a student present a report on slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk until her classmates got permission from their parents.”
Via Atrios.
Example 2:
Republican National Committee: “as he prepares to deliver remarks in hall that holds the constitution, flashback obama: “constitution flawed” http://bit.ly/tFL7O #RNC [Twitter, 5/21/09]”
The flaw that Obama was referring to was slavery.
Al Franken is 58. Mr. T is 57. Judge Reinhold is 52.
Leo Sayer is 61. I wonder if he feels like dancing.
Thomas “Fats” Waller was born on this date in 1904. His most famous composition was “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
Five-year-old Sofie: Mommy – BIG problem.
Mommy: What?
Sofie: We don’t even have a dog house.
Mommy: We don’t even have a dog.
Sofie: That’s a much bigger problem.
“Newspapers are an important part of our lives, not to read, of course, but, when you’re moving you can’t wrap your dishes in a blog.”
Stephen Colbert
The credit card reform bill just passed by Congress includes tough new provisions that will legally ban some of the most egregious behavior by banks. But as in all such laws, the devil is in the details.
There’s already some confusion about what the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act does and doesn’t require.
The Red Tape Chronicles has the essential facts.
Michael Lewis reviews The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. An excellent and telling review.
“The life expectancy for former NFL players is 20 years lower than it is for the general public.”
From Bill Simmons: A back-and-forth with best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell.
An intelligent exchange that includes talk of Larry Holmes, Nick Faldo, Tiger, Michael, Jennifer Anniston, the press (basketball), etc. Good stuff.
Best line: “You can become great without the help of someone else, but you can’t stay great without someone pushing you. Golf excepted, of course.”
And: “And in any case, if the reverse-order draft is such a great leveler, then why are the same teams at the bottom of both the NFL and NBA year after year? The current system perpetuates the myth that access to top picks is the primary determinant of competitiveness in pro sports, and that’s simply not true. Success is a function of the quality of the organization.”
Bill Simmons: A back-and-forth with best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell.
Elise, a frequent contributor to these pages as a commenter, has begun to blog again at SinPantalones.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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