Month: June 2006

A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

From an article in Monday’s New York Times:

In that old battle of the wills between young people and their keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear.

In settings where cellphone use is forbidden — in class, for example — it is perfect for signaling the arrival of a text message without being detected by an elder of the species.

“When I heard about it I didn’t believe it at first,” said Donna Lewis, a technology teacher at the Trinity School in Manhattan. “But one of the kids gave me a copy, and I sent it to a colleague. She played it for her first graders. All of them could hear it, and neither she nor I could.”

The Times has the sound file. Can you hear it?

Good Scout

Garrison Keillor has written an absolutely wonderful review of ‘Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee,’ by Charles J. Shields.

This biography will not disappoint those who loved the novel and the feisty, independent, fiercely loyal Scout, in whom Harper Lee put so much of herself.

By all means read the review if you’ve ever read To Kill A Mockingbird, or, for that matter, In Cold Blood, or seen Capote. Then buy the biography.

Timothy McVeigh

… was executed on this date five years ago for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

Dig him up and do it again.

World’s funniest joke, so far

Via Hit and Run, who sets it up this way:

According to the London Telegrah, via Arts & Letters Daily, Science–with a capital S–has determined that the world’s funniest joke was written by Spike Milligan, “Comic Genius!” and goes something like this:

Two hunters are out in the woods in New Jersey when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed.
The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps ‘My friend is dead! What can I do?’ The operator says: ‘Calm down, I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.’ There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says ‘OK, now what?’

Funnier version: Dick Cheney and another guy are out in the woods when the other guy collapses. …

Harley’s Angels

Dan Neil on the Harley culture and Memorial Day. A must read that includes this:

The trappings of Harley culture—the leather jackets with club colors, the Kaiser-style helmets, the tattoos, the beards like Arizona tumbleweeds—were established in the ’50s and ’60s, the heyday of outlaw motorcycle clubs such as the Hells Angels, which are still around and whose members, may I state clearly, are exemplary young men for whom I have nothing but the greatest admiration and fear.

The first bikers I ever met were, in fact, Angels, and they were total bad asses, the sort of guys who, after firmly planting the knife in your head, would attempt to kick the handle off.

New host

NewMexiKen is moving. Ultimately this should be transparent to you.

NewMexiKen may be unavailable briefly while the domain is transferred. Do not fret. Like MacArthur, NewMexiKen shall return.

When this entry is no longer at the top you will know you are at the new server. It may be a day or two or three.

In the meanwhile, everything works fine including comments.

Airplane nonsense

At Freakonomics Blog, Steven D. Levitt has some commentary that most frequent fliers will appreciate. It includes this:

Finally, when they read the safety instructions at the beginning of the flight, they go through the whole song and dance about “in the unlikely event of a water landing…” and all the precautions in place to deal with that happening. My friend Peter Thompson did some research on this. At least going back to 1970, which by my estimation encompasses over 150 million commercial airline flights, there has not been a single water landing!

NewMexiKen particularly appreciates the water landing silliness on flights from Albuquerque to Phoenix, or to Denver, or to Dallas.

Vince Lombardi

… was born on this date in 1913.

Lombardi is the legendary football coach. You know — the one the Super Bowl trophy is named for.

Some Lombardisms:

  • “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
  • “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
  • “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
  • “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Vince Lombardi died in 1970 at age 57.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (Kentucky)

… was authorized on this date in 1940.

Cumberland Gap

Throughout the ages, poets, songwriters, novelists, journal writers, historians and artists have captured the grandeur of the Cumberland Gap. James Smith, in his journal of 1792, penned what is perhaps one of the most poignant descriptions of this national and historically significant landmark: “We started just as the sun began to gild the tops of the high mountains. We ascended Cumberland Mountain, from the top of which the bright luminary of day appeared to our view in all his rising glory; the mists dispersed and the floating clouds hasted away at his appearing. This is the famous Cumberland Gap…” Thanks to the vision of Congress, who in 1940 authorized Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, visitors today can still bask in its beauty and immerse themselves in its rich history.

The story of the first doorway to the west is commemorated at the national park, located where the borders of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia meet. Carved by wind and water, Cumberland Gap forms a major break in the formidable Appalachian Mountain chain. First used by large game animals in their migratory journeys, followed by Native Americans, the Cumberland Gap was the first and best avenue for the settlement of the interior of this nation. From 1775 to 1810, the Gap’s heyday, between 200,000 and 300,000 men, women, and children from all walks of life, crossed the Gap into “Kentuckee.”

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

NewMexiKen and Dad visited Cumberland Gap on our recent trip — it’s an inspiring and beautiful site. The highway through the Gap was removed in 1996 (replaced by a tunnel). One can now walk the Wilderness Road through a forest much as the migrants moving west did from Daniel Boone on.

Frances Ethel Gumm

… was born 84 years ago today. We know her as Judy Garland. She was just under 5-feet tall and the need for weight-control lead her to drugs, which controlled much of her adult life. She died of a barbiturate overdose at age 47.

Ms. Garland was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for A Star is Born (1955) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Judgment at Nuremberg (1962). She won a special “Juvenile Oscar” for The Wizard of Oz (1940).

Doggy do

From Discovery News:

Language skills once thought exclusively human are also within the reach of dogs, say German researchers studying a nine-year-old border collie that has a 200-word vocabulary. …

In a game where Rico is told to fetch an unfamiliar object with a name he hasn’t heard before, Rico runs into a room where the new object is on the floor among several familiar objects, of which he already knows the names. Rico reliably figures out that the new word must go with the new object in a single try. Then, after a month of not seeing the new object or hearing the new word, he remembers them.

What’s scary is that he’s 9, which means 63 in human terms, right? I’m younger than that and I can go into a room and forget what I went into it for.

First posted June 10, 2004. Link no longer active.

Veronica in Training

Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, is training for the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco on October 22. She is running the race as a member of Team In Training, a division of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Click on the link to help Veronica raise money to support research and patient services. Your tax-deductible contribution will be helping cancer patients and their families.