December 10th Really Ought to Be a National Holiday

Melvil Dewey was born on December 10th in 1851. You know — Dewey, as in Dewey decimal system.

Dr. Dewey had a passion for efficiency, for time and labor saving methods. He was born at Adams Centre, Jefferson County, N.Y. on Dec. 10, 1851. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1874 and received a Master’s degree there in 1877. While in college he was honorary assistant in the library, desiring to learn its technique. He decided that much could be done in education by building up the library systems and set about to apply his ideas. The college library drifted into his management, and at the end of his junior year he was asked by the trustees to become acting librarian.

It was here that he developed the system of classifying and cataloguing books by decimal numbers, a system now known by his name and used in practically all libraries in this country.

New York Times obituary, 1931

Emily Dickinson was born on this date in 1830.

Emily Dickinson selected her own society, and it was rarely that of other people. She preferred the solitude of her white-washed poet’s room, or the birds, bees, and flowers of her garden to the visitations of family and friends. But for three occasions in her life she never left her native Amherst, MA; for the last twenty of her fifty-six years, she rarely left her house. And yet her reclusive existence in no way restricted her abundant life of the imagination. Her letters and poems, all except seven published posthumously, revealed her to be an inspired visionary and true original of American literature.

PBS: I Hear America Singing

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading – treading – till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through –

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum –
Kept beating – beating – till I thought
My Mind was going numb –

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here –

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down –
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing – then –

Emily Dickinson Museum

“Hoss” Cartwright was born 87 years ago today. That’s the actor Dan Blocker. Blocker was a west Texas boy, a teacher and coach at Carlsbad, New Mexico’s Eddy School among other places, before getting into acting. Hoss’s given name on Bonanza was Eric. Blocker, who weighed around 300 pounds, died in 1972 at age 43.

Philip Hart was born 103 years ago today. Hart was United States Senator from Michigan 1959-1976. The third of the three Senate office buildings is named for him — the vote to do so was 99-0. He died shortly after.

Chet Huntley was born 104 years ago today. After proving a popular success at the 1956 political conventions, the team of Huntley (from New York) and David Brinkley (from Washington) anchored the NBC evening news program. Huntley left the show in 1970. He died in 1974. “Good night, Chet” — “Good night, David — “and good night for NBC News.”

And happy birthday to my brother-in-law Ken. That’s a book he wrote below. Best wishes, Bro.

Holiday Tunes

Mariah Carey’s 1994 song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” tops the Billboard Holiday 100.

Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is No. 2, followed by Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)”.

Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is fourth, “Mary, Did You Know?” by Pentatonix fifth, and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” sixth.

December 9th Ought to Be a National Holiday

Kirk Douglas is 99 today. The three-time Oscar nominee was born Issur Danielovitch Demsky in Amsterdam, New York.

The 10 Best Kirk Douglas Movies

NewMexiKen’s favorite Douglas performance is in Lonely Are the Brave. “Filmed on location in New Mexico, Lonely are the Brave was adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Edward Abbey’s novel Brave Cowboy.”

Dame Judith Olivia “Judi” Dench is 81.

Lloyd Vernet “Beau” Bridges III, Jeff’s big brother, is 74 today. No Oscars for Beau, but he has three wins from 10 Emmy nominations.

John Malkovich, a two-time Oscar nominee, is 62.

The actor Broderick Crawford was born 104 years ago today. Crawford won the best actor Oscar in 1950 for his portrayal of politician Willie Stark in All the King’s Men. He has 141 acting credits at IMDb.

The actor Lee J. Cobb was born 104 years ago today as well. Cobb was twice nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar: On the Waterfront and The Brothers Karamazov. I thing he was superb as Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men. He has 104 acting credits listed on IMDb.

The screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado, 109 years ago today. Trumbo was nominated for three writing Oscars, winning twice, for Roman Holiday and The Brave One. Because he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, both Oscars were awarded to fronts. The records were changed only years later after Otto Preminger and Kirk Douglas fought the blacklisting and credited Trumbo’s screenwriting for Exodus and Spartacus respectively. Trumbo’s novel Johnny Got His Gun is a classic that everyone should read.

Emmett Kelly

The famed circus clown Emmett Kelly was born on December 9, 1898. Kelly was known for his character Weary Willie, in makeup as a bum sweeping up. His was a revolutionary character; clowns always appeared in white face before Kelly. He was a star performer with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Grace Hopper was born in New York City 109 years ago today.

She began tinkering around with machines when she was seven years old, dismantling several alarm clocks around the house to see how they worked. She studied math and physics in college, and eventually got a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale.

Then World War II broke out, and Hopper wanted to serve her country. Her father had been an admiral in the Navy, so she applied to a division of the Navy called WAVES, which stood for Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service. They turned her down at first[;] they said she was too old at 35, and that she didn’t weigh enough, at 105 pounds. But she wouldn’t give up, and they eventually accepted her. With her math skills, she was assigned to work on a machine that might help calculate the trajectory of bombs and rockets.

Hopper learned how to program that early computing machine, and wrote the first instruction manual for its use. And she went on to help write an early computer language known as COBOL — “Common Business-Oriented Language.” She remained in the Navy, and eventually she became the first woman ever promoted to rear admiral.

The Writers Almanac from American Public Media (2006)

Clarence Birdseye was born on this date in 1886. Birdseye, fishing with Inuit in the Arctic, observed that fish flash frozen at Arctic temperatures, when thawed, tasted much better and fresher than fish frozen at higher temperatures, as was being done commercially. That is, Birdseye came up with the approach that made frozen food acceptable. The company he founded eventually became General Foods.

Wupatki National Monument (Arizona)

… was proclaimed 91 years ago today (December 9, 1924).

Wupatki

Wupatki National Monument was established by President Calvin Coolidge on December 9, 1924, to preserve Citadel and Wupatki pueblos. Monument boundaries have been adjusted several times since then, and now include additional pueblos and other archeological resources on a total of 35,422 acres.

Wupatki represents a cultural crossroads, home to numerous groups of people over thousands of years. Understanding of earlier people comes from multiple perspectives, including the traditional history of the people themselves and interpretations by archeologists of structures and artifacts that remain. …


Today, Wupatki National Monument protects 56 square miles … of high desert directly west of the Little Colorado River and the Navajo Reservation. Its vistas preserve clues to geologic history, ecological change, and human settlement. All are intertwined.

Wupatki National Monument

Duke City

On this date in 1702, the Duke of Alburquerque, Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva Enriquez, arrived in Mexico City to become Viceroy. In a kiss-ass move four years later, some folks around here named a settlement after him.

Imagine

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no posessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

John Lennon (1940-1980)
Lennon was killed by a crazy man with a gun 35 years ago tonight.

El Morro National Monument (New Mexico)

… was established by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act 109 years ago today (December 8, 1906).

El Morro

Paso por aqui . . . A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a massive sandstone bluff made El Morro (the bluff) a popular campsite. Ancestral Puebloans settled on the mesa top over 700 years ago. Spanish and American travelers rested, drank from the pool and carved their signatures, dates and messages for hundreds of years. Today, El Morro National Monument protects over 2,000 inscriptions and petroglyphs, as well as Ancestral Puebloan ruins.


Explorers and travelers have known of the pool by the great rock for centuries. A valuable water source and resting place, many who passed by inscribed their names and messages in the rock next to petroglyphs left by ancient Puebloans. The ruins of a large pueblo located on top of El Morro were vacated by the time the Spaniards arrived in the late 1500s, and its inhabitants may have moved to the nearby pueblos in Zuni and Acoma. As the American West grew in population, El Morro became a break along the trail for those passing through and a destination for sightseers. As the popularity of the area increased, so did the tradition of carving inscriptions on the rock. To preserve the historical importance of the area and initiate preservation efforts on the old inscriptions, El Morro was established as a national monument by a presidential proclamation on December 8, 1906.

El Morro National Monument

NewMexiKen photo 2007Click to enlarge
NewMexiKen photo 2007
Click to enlarge
NewMexiKen photo 2007Click to enlarge
NewMexiKen photo 2007
Click to enlarge

Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona)

… was first proclaimed a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act 109 years ago today (December 8, 1906). It became a national park in 1962.

PetrifiedForest

With one of the world’s largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, multi-hued badlands of the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of 225 million year old fossils, this is a surprising land of scenic wonders and fascinating science.


Petrified Forest was set aside as a national monument in 1906 to preserve and protect the petrified wood for its scientific value. It is recognized today for having so much more, including a broad representation of the Late Triassic paleo-ecosystem, significant human history, clear night skies, fragile grasslands ecosystem, and unspoiled scenic vistas.


Petrified Forest is one of the national parks that has Class I air. Class I National Park Service areas have the highest level of air quality protection under the law. These areas are defined as national parks larger than 6,000 acres or wilderness areas over 5,000 acres that were in existence when the Clean Air Act was amended in 1977.

Petrified Forest National Park

NewMexiKen photo 2011
NewMexiKen photo 2011
Click for larger version

Montezuma Castle National Monument (Arizona)

… was established by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act 109 years ago today (December 8, 1906).

MontezumaCastle

Nestled into a limestone recess high above the flood plain of Beaver Creek in the Verde Valley stands one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. The five-story, 20-room cliff dwelling served as a “high-rise apartment building” for prehistoric Sinagua Indians over 600 years ago. Early settlers to the area assumed that the imposing structure was associated with the Aztec emperor Montezuma, but the castle was abandoned almost a century before Montezuma was born.


Montezuma Castle National Monument encompasses 826 acres and lies in the Verde Valley at the junction of the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range physiographic provinces. Although the climate is arid with less than 12 inches of rainfall annually, several perennial streams thread their way from upland headwaters to the Verde Valley below, creating lush riparian ribbons of green against an otherwise parched landscape of rolling, juniper-covered hills.

Montezuma Castle National Monument

NewMexiKen photo 2003
NewMexiKen photo 2003
Click for larger version

AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL

Naval dispatch from the ranking United States Navy officer in Pearl Harbor, Commander in Chief Pacific (CINCPAC), to all major navy commands and fleet units provided the first official word of the attack at the ill-prepared Pearl Harbor 74 years ago this morning.

Day of Infamy True, but December 7th Should Be a National Holiday

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Eli Wallach. This from his Times obituary in 2014:

A self-styled journeyman actor, the versatile Mr. Wallach appeared in scores of roles, often with his wife, Anne Jackson. No matter the part, he always seemed at ease and in control, whether playing a Mexican bandit in the 1960 western “The Magnificent Seven,” a bumbling clerk in Ionesco’s allegorical play “Rhinoceros,” a henpecked French general in Jean Anouilh’s “Waltz of the Toreadors,” Clark Gable’s sidekick in “The Misfits” or a Mafia don in “The Godfather: Part III.”

Despite his many years of film work, some of it critically acclaimed, Mr. Wallach was never nominated for an Academy Award. But in November 2010, less than a month before his 95th birthday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him an honorary Oscar, saluting him as “the quintessential chameleon, effortlessly inhabiting a wide range of characters, while putting his inimitable stamp on every role.”


Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, on this date in 1873. The following is from her New York Times obituary in 1947.

One of the most distinguished of American novelists, Willa Sibert Cather wrote a dozen or more novels that will be long remembered for their exquisite economy and charm of manner. Her talent had its nourishment and inspiration in the American scene, the Middle West in particular, and her sensitive and patient understanding of that section of the country formed the basis of her work.

Much of her writing was conceived in something of an attitude of placid reminiscence. This was notably true of such early novels as “My Antonia” and “O Pioneers!” in which she told with minute detail of homestead life on the slowly conquered prairies.

Perhaps her most famous book was “A Lost Lady,” published in 1923. In it Miss Cather’s talents were said to have reached their full maturity. It is the story of the Middle West in the age of railway-building, of the charming wife of Captain Forrester, a retired contractor, and her hospitable and open-handed household as seen through the eyes of an adoring boy. The climax of the book, with the disintegration of the Forrester household and the slow coarsening of his wife, is considered a masterpiece of vivid, haunting prose.

Another of her famous books is “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” 1927, in which she tells in the form of a chronicle a simple story of two saints of the Southwest. Her novel, “One of Ours,” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922.


Richard Warren Sears was born December 7, 1863, in Stewartville, Minnesota. In 1886, seeking to make some extra money, he took a number of watches on consignment and sold them all to fellow railroad stations agents. Within six months he quit the railroad and formed the R.W. Sears Watch Company, a mail-order business. He joined with watch repairman Alvah C. Roebuck the next year. Sears, Roebuck and Co. moved to Chicago in 1893.


Today is the birthday also

… of Ellen Burstyn. Alice is 83. Ms. Burstyn has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress five times, winning for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in 1975. She was also nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Last Picture Show.

… of Johnny Bench. The Hall of Fame catcher is 68.

Bench Johnny Plaque 98_NBL_0

As one of the most impressive defensive catchers, Johnny Bench was also considered to be an outstanding hitter. A durable catcher, noted for his excellent baseball intelligence, Bench won 10 Gold Glove Awards, two Most Valuable Player Awards and the Rookie of the Year Award during his 17-year National League career. A skilled hitter, the 14-time All-Star selection belted 389 home runs and led the league in RBIs three times as a leader of the Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s.

Baseball Hall of Fame

… of Tom Waits. He’s 66. His voice is 138.

… of Larry Bird. The Basketball Hall of Famer is 59.


Harry Chapin was born on this date in 1942. He died in 1981. “Cat’s in the Cradle” was his only number one song.

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin’ ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you dad
You know I’m gonna be like you”

And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home dad?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then

December 4th Should Be a National Holiday

Today is the birthday of The Dude and Mona Lisa Vito.

Jeff Bridges. The six-time Oscar nominee — three for supporting, three for leading, winning for Crazy Heart — is 66. He received his first Oscar nomination in 1972 and his most recent in 2011..

The Dude: Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not “Mr. Lebowski”. You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.


Marisa Tomei. The three-time Oscar nominee — winning for best supporting actress in My Cousin Vinny — is 51.

Judge Chamberlain Haller: Would you please answer the counselor’s question?

Mona Lisa Vito: No, I hate him.

Vinny Gambini: Your Honor, may I have permission to treat Ms. Vito as a hostile witness?

Mona Lisa Vito: You think I’m hostile now, wait ’til you see me tonight.

O Tannenbaum

I see that Costco has cut Christmas trees for sale again this year. They look like nice trees too — Noble Fir — and a decent price.

But you have to buy a pack of six trees.

Old Spanish National Historic Trail

… was established this date 2002. It runs from Santa Fe to Los Angeles with portions in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.

Old Spanish Trail

There was money to be made in transporting New Mexico serapes and other woolen goods to Los Angeles, and in wrangling California-bred horses and mules back to Santa Fe. But a viable overland route across the remote deserts and mountains of Mexico’s far northern frontier had to be found.

It took the vision and courage of Mexican trader Antonio Armijo to lead the first commercial caravan from Abiquiú, New Mexico, to Los Angeles late in 1829. Over the next 20 years, Mexican and American traders continued to ply variants of the route that Armijo pioneered, frequently trading with Indian tribes along the way. And it was from a combination of the indigenous footpaths, early trade and exploration routes, and horse and mule routes that a trail network known collectively as the Old Spanish Trail evolved.

Santa Fe emerged as the hub of the overland continental trade network linking Mexico and United States markets—a network that included not only the Old Spanish Trail, but also the Santa Fe Trail and El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. After the United States took control of the Southwest in 1848 other routes to California emerged, and use of the Old Spanish Trail sharply declined.

National Park Service