Month: July 2006

Build an ark

An astonishing rainstorm at Casa NewMexiKen this morning around 3. And, by my count, three lightning strikes way too close. You know, “One Mississippi, two Miss … oh damn, that was close.” NewMexiKen really doesn’t like lightning since my house was struck and set on fire in 1995.

Anyway, the rain was falling so fast and furiously I began to wonder if Lowe’s carried gopher wood.1 Then I panicked when I couldn’t remember the conversion from feet and inches to cubits (did we learn that in school?). And would it be OK if I accidentally on purpose forgot to bring two scorpions and two rattlesnakes. (But I did remember I’d only need one New Mexico whiptail.) It was really raining!

But it slowed to nothing much after 25-30 minutes. The arroyo2 next to my house is still running deep and fast, but things are returning to normal otherwise.

1 Genesis 6

  1. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
  2. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

2 “Arroyo” is Spanish for concrete ditch.

Independence Day trivia quiz

  1. Based on their age when they took office, Theodore Roosevelt (42) is the youngest president the U.S. has had. John F. Kennedy (43) is the second youngest. Who is the third youngest president? Fourth youngest? (Both were 46 and some months.)
  2. Who was the oldest president?
  3. Alaska is the largest state, Texas second. Which state is the third largest? Fourth largest? Fifth?
  4. Rhode Island is the smallest state, Delaware second. Which state is the third smallest? Fourth smallest? Fifth?
  5. The highest mountain in the eastern U.S. is in which state?
  6. The largest county in the U.S. is San Bernardino, California (20,105 square miles). The smallest county (26 square miles) is?
  7. The boundary with Mexico is 1,933 miles. The boundary with Canada is about (1) half as long, (2) the same as with Mexico, (3) half again as long as the boundary with Mexico, (4) more than twice as long as the boundary with Mexico?
  8. Two first ladies earned post-graduate degrees. Which two?
  9. True or false, the Liberty Bell cracked ringing to celebrate the Declaration of Independence.
  10. The monarch to whom the Declaration of Independence is addressed is (1) Louis XIV, (2) Elizabeth I, (3) Edward VIII, (4) George III?

Bonus question: Quick, without looking, are there more red stripes or white stripes in the American flag?

History’s greatest coincidence

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on this date in 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration; Adams, with Benjamin Franklin, was also key in its development.

[Image of first page of Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence with edits.]

Adams and Jefferson were colleagues during the Revolution, but fell apart over political differences during their terms as president (Adams 1797-1801, Jefferson 1801-1809). After Jefferson left office they resumed a remarkable correspondence that lasted until their deaths.

Also, on that same day in 1826, Stephen Foster, the first great American songwriter, was born. “His melodies are so much a part of American history and culture that most people think they’re folk tunes. All in all he composed some 200 songs, including ‘Oh! Susanna’ ‘Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,’ and ‘Camptown Races.'” [American Experience]

And “Old Folks at Home (Swanee River),” “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Beautiful Dreamer.”

It’s the birthday

… of actress Gloria Stuart, 96 today. She was Rose in Titanic and has appeared in more than 70 film and televison roles since 1932. She was nominated for a supporting Oscar for playing Rose. (Kate Winslet was nominated for a lead Oscar for playing the same character.)

… of Oscar winner Eva Marie Saint. She won the best supporting actress Oscar for On the Waterfront. She’s 82.

… of Marvin Neil Simon. Simon has received four Oscar best screenplay nominations — The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys, The Goodbye Girl and California Suite. He did win a Golden Globe for The Goodbye Girl.

… of Bill Withers. Someone in his family can be singing about “Grandpa’s Hands” now; he’s 68.

… of Zuzu Bailey. She’s 66. You know, ZuZu, the one with the petals, played by Karolyn Grimes in It’s a Wonderful Life. “Look, Daddy. Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”

Independence National Historical Park (Pennsylvania)

… was established 50 years ago today.

Independence Hall

Independence National Historical Park, located in downtown (called “Center City”), Philadelphia, is often referred to as the birthplace of our nation. At the park, visitors can see the Liberty Bell, an international symbol of freedom, and Independence Hall, a World Heritage Site where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were created. In addition, the park interprets events and the lives of the diverse population during the years when Philadelphia was the capital of the United States from 1790 to 1800. A section of the park where Benjamin Franklin’s home once stood is dedicated to teaching about Franklin’s life and accomplishments. Spanning approximately 45 acres, the park has about 20 buildings open to the public.

Independence National Historical Park

Disunited States of America

New York Times columnist John Tierney has an incredible Independence Day essay on how we’d be better off if the confederacy had won the Civil War and become independent. He says he sides with an ecomonmist who believes, “[P]eople in both countries could have been richer and freer because of smaller national governments.”

Oh, there is that slavery thing, but it would have gone away.

Happy Birthday America.

Hurrah for Senator Clinton

“Mrs. Clinton has introduced a bill that, in addition to raising the minimum wage to $7.25, would link Congressional pay raises to hikes in the minimum wage. Under the bill, the minimum wage would be increased automatically by the same percentage as any increase in Congressional pay.”

As reported by Bob Herbert in today’s New York Times

I think my doctor might be a quack

NewMexiKen has really liked my current physician. He’s exceptionally pleasant, very thorough, patient, responsive to questions, has a wonderful sense of humor and is seven months older than me — which is good, because he tends to not fall back on the “you are just getting older” diagnosis so much.

But I have been reading Daniel Yergin’s great history of the oil industy, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. Yergin writes about an Armenian, Calouste Gulbenkian who — to a large extent — brokered the deal in 1928 that led to the allocation of middle eastern oil among Royal Dutch/Shell, Anglo-Persian (now BP), the French and New Jersey Standard (eventually Exxon). For his efforts, Gulbenkian took 5 percent.

Nearing 60, according to Yergin, Gulbenkian lived at the Ritz in Paris or the Ritz or Carlton in London “attended by a succession of mistresses, at least one of whom at all times, on the basis of ‘medical advice,’ had to be eighteen years or younger in order to rejuvenate his sexual vigor.”

Where does one find a doctor who will dispense that sort of “medical advice”?

Stupidest line of the day (or any day) about the internet

But this service isn’t going to go through the interent and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.

Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.
…

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.

It’s a series of tubes.

And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Senator Ted Stevens (third in line to the presidency by the way) trying to talk about internet neutrality legislation the other day.

But then again NewMexiKen has never liked Ted Stevens since he almost ran me over in a crosswalk in 1973.

Transcript via 27B Stroke 6.

The Third Day

Having failed on July 2 to turn either of Meade’s flanks (Culp’s Hill and the Round Tops), Lee decided on the 3rd to assault the Union center. James Longstreet, who would command the attack, wrote later that he told Lee: “General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as anyone, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.” But Lee had made up his mind — and he had already issued the orders. Two divisions from A.P. Hill’s Third Corps and one — Pickett’s — from Longstreet’s First Corps were to make the advance. It’s known as Pickett’s Charge, but more correctly it is the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge.

Gettysburg Day ThreeTo prepare for the assault — to cripple the Union defenses — Lee order a massive artillery strike. The 163 Confederate cannons began firing at 1:07 PM. The Union artillery returned fire with nearly the same number. The Confederate aim was high and smoke curtained the targets. Little damage was done to the Union infantry. After a time, Union artillery commander Henry Hunt ordered his guns to cease firing — to save ammunition, cool the guns, and lure the rebels forward.

Forward they came, 14,000 men in a formation a mile wide, moving across open fields for three-quarters of a mile. The Union artillery opened on them with shot and shell and ultimately canister (shells filled with metal). At 200 yards, the Union infantry on the Confederate front opened fire, while other Union units moved out to attack both sides of the charge. Of the 14,000 in the advance, perhaps 200 breached the first Union line before being repulsed. Of the 14,000, half did not return.

Lee was defeated and withdrew from Gettysburg. While the war lasted 22 more months, the brief moment when the 200 reached the Union line was considered the high-water mark for the confederacy. Gettysburg totals: 25,000 Union casualties; 28,000 Confederate casualties.

Map: National Park Service

People don’t believe me

… when I tell them about the New Mexico whiptail, so I thought I’d publish this again. (It first appeared here a year ago.)

How come having a New Mexico whiptail lizard in the utility sink in NewMexiKen’s garage is so much more pleasant than say finding a tarantula or mouse there would be? I scooped her (and they are all females) into a coffee can and released her outside.

A single female New Mexico whiptail, all by herself, quite efficiently and handily produces entire populations of lizards without dads: offspring that are genetically identical to her in every detail (except for very rare mutations). All are striped and streamlined, and all are healthy females that, except for mating, enjoy doing the usual lizard things, like basking in the sun. The entire species is a thriving girls club; no sperm allowed.

This bizarre method of reproduction is known as parthenogenesis, a Greek word meaning “virgin birth.”

Animal Planet

The New Mexico whiptail (Cnemidophorus neomexicanus) is the official reptile of New Mexico.

Are We There Yet?

Bruce Barcott begins his review of Cross Country by Robert Sullivan:

In the summer of 1981 my parents packed my sister and me into our 1973 Gran Torino station wagon and drove, on a route resembling a fishhook, from our home in Ventura, Calif., to Ensenada, Mexico, and then straight up the spine of I-5 to our grandparents’ house in Everett, Wash. Along the way, things happened. The Torino lacked air-conditioning, so we sucked motel ice cubes as we drove the length of California’s broiling Central Valley. My sister and I stared daggers at our father when he vetoed our plan to see the Trees of Mystery, a tourist trap near Crescent City. It was getting late, he said, and we had to make time. The next day the Torino’s transmission blew out near Grants Pass, Ore., and we “made time” sitting in a laundermat waiting for the parts to arrive. Agony in the doing and ecstasy in the telling, the trip has become a central part of our family lore. My sister and I can still crack each other up by muttering, “Trees of Mystery.”

Cross Country is subtitled: Fifteen Years and 90,000 Miles on the Roads and Interstates of America with Lewis and Clark, a lot of bad motels, a moving van, Emily Post, … kids, and enough coffee to kill an elephant.

“Cross Country” tells the story of one such trip: a simple west-to-east crossing that takes the Sullivans from his wife’s cousin’s wedding near Portland, Ore., to New York. Riding with the author in a rented Impala are his wife, his teenage son, his younger daughter and a rooftop luggage pack that threatens to disintegrate at highway speeds. Though technically a travel memoir, “Cross Country” aspires to be much more: a survey of cross-country road trips written with the languid pace and arcane detail that might characterize a six-day drive with a charming, talkative history buff.

Thanks to Veronica for the tip.

And click here for Jill’s take on our own family vacations.

The Lonely American Just Got a Bit Lonelier

A recent study by sociologists at Duke and the University of Arizona found that, on average, most adults only have two people they can talk to about the most important subjects in their lives — serious health problems, for example, or issues like who will care for their children should they die. And about one-quarter have no close confidants at all.

From an article in The New York Times

Key quote: “But gosh, the number of friends you have is a strong predictor of how long you live.”

The Second of July

It’s the date on which the Continental Congress approved a resolution declaring independence (1776) — the Declaration of Independence stating the reasons was approved two days later.

It’s the date on which the second day of battle was fought at Gettysburg (1863).

It’s the date on which Charles J. Guiteau assassinated President James A. Garfield (1881).

It’s the date on which Thurgood Marshall was born (1908).

It’s the date on which Amelia Earhart was lost (1937).

It’s the date on which the Air Force says a weather balloon crashed near Roswell, New Mexico (1947).

It’s the date on which Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho (1961).

It’s the date on which President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act (1964).

It’s the day Richard Petty turns 69.

It’s the day Luci Baines Johnson, the younger daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, turns 59.

Larry David turns 59 today as well.

Lindsay Lohan is 20.

Mr. Justice Marshall

It’s the birthday of the first African American to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, born in Baltimore, Maryland (1908).

He applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but he was rejected on the basis of race, so he enrolled at Howard University instead. The first thing he did, upon graduation, was use his law degree to sue the University of Maryland for racial discrimination, and he almost couldn’t believe it when he won. Thanks to his efforts, the University of Maryland Law School admitted its first black student in 1935. It was the first time that a black student had ever been admitted to any state law school south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Marshall became the legal director of the NAACP, and of the thirty-two cases he argued for that organization, he won twenty-nine. His biggest case was the landmark Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. He went on to serve as an appeals court judge under Kennedy, and Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1967.

Thurgood Marshall said, “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody—a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns—bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

The Writer’s Almanac

The President Shot, 1881

On July 2, 1881—125 years ago this weekend—President James A. Garfield was shot at the Baltimore & Potomac station in Washington by a failed lawyer named Charles Guiteau. The President took two months to die, and the trial of his assassin raised issues of criminal responsibility and the insanity defense that American jurisprudence struggles with to this day.

So begins a solid summary of the event and its legal aftermath by David Rapp at AmericanHeritage.com. Be the first kid on your block to know any details of the second presidential assassination in American history.

Gettysburg, Day 2

On July 2, 1863, the lines of the Battle of Gettysburg, now in its second day, were drawn in two sweeping parallel arcs. The Confederate and Union armies faced each other a mile apart. The Union forces extending along Cemetery Ridge to Culp’s Hill, formed the shape of a fish-hook, and the Confederate forces were spread along Seminary Ridge.

Gettysburg, Day 2General Robert E. Lee ordered General James Longstreet to attack the Union’s southern flank, aiming for the hills at the southernmost end of Cemetery Ridge. These hills, known as the Little Round Top and Big Round Top had been left unoccupied, and would have afforded the Confederates a good vantage point from which to ravage the Union line.

General Longstreet, disagreeing with Lee’s orders, and hoping that the cavalry under the command of General J.E.B. Stuart would soon come up with the army to participate in the attack, was slow to advance on the hills.

Although Longstreet’s soldiers broke through to the base of the Little Round Top, Union General G. K. Warren perceived the Confederate plan in time to rouse his men to take the strategic hill, fending off the Confederate attack.

General Lee had also commanded General R.S. Ewell to attack the northernmost flank of the Union Army. On one occasion Ewell’s troops took possession of a slope of Culp’s Hill, but the Union remained entrenched both there and on Cemetery Ridge, where General Meade was headquartered.

Library of Congress

Map: National Park Service

10 Days That Changed History

Adam Goodheart suggests 10 Days That Changed History. He begins:

It’s a badly kept secret among scholars of American history that nothing much really happened on Thursday, July 4, 1776.

Although this date is emblazoned on the Declaration, the Colonies had actually voted for independence two days earlier; the document wasn’t signed until a month later. When John Adams predicted that the “great anniversary festival” would be celebrated forever, from one end of the continent to the other, he was talking about July 2.

Cherry-O

NewMexiKen has been munching on Rainier cherries today. A few at a time. Anything that good (and expensive) has to be savored.

Anyway, the cherries reminded me of a story two years ago from Jill, one of two official daughters of NewMexiKen.

[Three-year-old] Mack and I picked out some lovely ripe cherries at the market today. We’re going to chop them up put them in homemade ice cream.

At lunch I diced some of them and gave them to [8-month-old] Aidan.

He grabbed a couple and stuffed them in his mouth. Immediately, his eyes shot to me with an expression that perfectly conveyed two thoughts:

“My God, but I do love you, woman.”

and

“Exactly what else have you been keeping from me?”

Frenzied Interactivity

Joel Achenbach has a terrific column on the blurring of lines between journalism and blogging. He begins:

In the news media there is much talk of “interactivity,” of breaking down the wall between journalistic producers and consumers. No longer will the news be proprietary to a professional elite that attempts, in an Olympian voice, to speak down to the unwashed masses. Instead, everyone will be an equal, fully respected partner in the news process, including nitwits, fanatics, the extremely daft and the recently straitjacketed.