Emily reports from Walt Disney World that she:
“is confused by the fact that there is lightning all over the place and yet there’s still 100 people in the two pools at our hotel. Our local lifeguards close the pools if a car’s brights flash and the trunk slams.”
“Never before have we had so many tools to learn and to communicate. Yet the art of talking, listening and ascertaining the truth seems more elusive than ever in this Internet and cable age, lost in a bitter stream of blather and misinformation.”
I’m all for both freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.
But people taking loaded firearms to town hall meetings scares the shit out of me.
Yours truly is going to be traveling the second half of August — I’ve got places to go, Sweeties to see — all six at once for the first time in fact. I’ve decided to take that time off from here.
I will still be posting the rest of this week.
When I resume in September I’m considering starting over with a new blog and maybe even a new name. No doubt the same old stuff, but maybe a new feel and look (and a faster loading home page).
Will you still love me even if I get a makeover?
Adopt just the new plate, or keep the old plate as an option?
Take the License Plate Survey.
The new turquoise plate will be available in January. The 10-year-old balloon plate is ending its run.
“General Motors Corp. said today its Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car should get 230 miles per gallon of gasoline in city driving …”
Two hundred and thirty. Of course, lets remember, electricity (you plug the car in) is not free.
Thanks to Marlita H. for the link.
… was born on this date 56 years ago. Who’s that, you ask?
Does 6’8″ (2.03m) help?
How about 275 pounds (124.7kg)?
Long blond hair, but balding? Fu Man Chu mustache?
Twenty-five years ago or so I saw this man in the St. Louis Airport. I had no idea who he was, but knew he had to be somebody. He was huge. His shirt was artistically slit. Twelve-year-old boys were all a-twitter.
I finally asked one of the boys, “So, who is that?”
He looked at me like I had just arrived from Mars.
“Hulk Hogan, of course!”
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary accepted its first prisoners 75 years ago today.
Alcatraz is a 22-acre rock island in San Francisco Bay, 1½ miles from shore. For 29 years the federal prison system kept its highest security prisoners there, including Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and the famous Birdman, Robert Stroud (played by Burt Lancaster in the film Birdman of Alcatraz). Reportedly, no one was ever known to have successfully escaped from Alcatraz, though Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers were never found after their attempt (as dramatized in the Clint Eastwood movie).
From 1868 to 1934, Alcatraz was a military prison. In 1969, American Indian activists occupied and claimed the island. Their occupation lasted 19 months.
Alcatraz Island became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area of the National Park Service in 1972.
Alcatraz, from the original Spanish Alcatraces, is usually defined as meaning “pelican” or “strange bird.”
This is a sign I saw a man holding alongside the curb early on a Sunday morning in Chandler, Arizona, six years ago yesterday.
“Car wash 4 baby funeral“
“The hazards Americans treat as facts of life — the risk of losing your insurance, the risk that you won’t be able to afford necessary care, the chance that you’ll be financially ruined by medical costs — would be considered unthinkable in any other advanced nation.”
Paul Krugman from last year.
… was born on this date in 1921. Haley was the author of two publishing phenomena — The Autobiography of Malcolm X (6 million copies) and Roots, which was not only a best-seller, but led to one of the most successful television series ever. Nearly half the people in the country watched the last episode in January 1977. Haley won a special Pulitizer for Roots, “the story of a black family from its origins in Africa through seven generations to the present day in America.”
Subsequently it bothered me to learn he plagarized sections of the book and possibly fudged some of the genealogy. Clearly, that wasn’t right. Even so, the good his work did in educating both black and white America (and I include both books) was a legacy of major proportion.
Haley, who served in the U.S. Coast Guard 1939-1959, before becoming a full-time writer, died of a heart attack in 1992. The Coast Guard has named a cutter for him.
The idea of socialized medicine — you know where the doctors actually work for the government like in Britain — scares the hell out of most Americans.
So of course, that’s exactly what we give our honored heroes, our veterans.
I don’t think there is any truth to the rumor than Sarah Palin and Paula Abdul are trading places, do you? Palin to American Idol, Abdul to governor of Alaska.
“Still, Indians have a way of surviving. But it’s almost like Indians can easily survive the big stuff. Mass murder, loss of language and land rights. It’s the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins.”
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Another. “‘Your father was always half crazy,’ my mother told me more than once. ‘And the other half was on medication.'”
“Even our closest relatives, the great apes, move smoothly from their juvenile to adult life phases – so why do humans spend an agonising decade skulking around in hoodies?”
“So Democrats want to kill granny, Sarah Palin’s kid, and Ted Kennedy, for those of you keeping score at home.”
Daily Kos (Thanks to Avelino for the tip).
“The conservative activist who claims he was beaten up by union thugs in St. Louis while protesting against health care reform is accepting donations towards his medical care because he was laid off recently and … has no health insurance.”
“True parenting is going out into the rain to search through the paper recycling bin by torchlight for your son’s missing collectible trading cards, and then resisting the urge to strangle him when he finds they were in his coat pocket all the time.”
Just because I like the song.
Nelson was 45 in 1985 when this was made. He died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve that year — and, no, drugs were not the cause of the crash according to NTSB.
Today, as noted below, is the 100th anniversary of Leo Fender’s birthday.
We honor him by citing Rolling Stone’s The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.
The top 15:
“The storm, Morakot, unleashed record rains that dropped up to 83 inches in some parts of Taiwan on Friday and Saturday…”
Eighty-three!
Leo Fender was born 100 years ago today.
“It’s safe to say there would be no such thing as rock and roll without its distinctive instrumentation. To put it another way, rock and roll as we know it could not exist without Leo Fender, inventor of the first solid-body electric guitar to be mass-produced: the Fender Broadcaster. Fender’s instruments – which also include the Stratocaster, the Precision bass (the first electric bass) and some of the music world’s most coveted amplifiers – revolutionized popular music in general and rock and roll in particular.
…The bass-driven soul music of Motown and Stax would have been inconceivable without Fender’s handiwork.
Jimi, Clapton, Jeff Beck all used a Fender Strat.
Oh, and …
Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10 in 1874. Mr. Hoover, who was the 31st President of the United States, lived until 1964. Among the presidents, only Ford, Reagan, and the first Adams have lived longer.
Born in Iowa, orphaned at nine, Hoover grew up in Oregon. He was in the first class at Stanford University, graduating as a mining engineer. Hoover earned millions in mining before turning his attention to public service. He was instrumental in relief and humanitarian efforts during and after World War I. He was Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge. Hoover, the Republican, defeated Al Smith, the Democrat, handily in the 1928 election with 58% of the popular vote.
President at the time of the stock market crash and subsequent depression, Hoover believed that, while people should not suffer, assistance should be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility. Even so, he supported some measures to aid businesses and farmers; indeed, among his party he was moderate. But he was simply not bold enough to meet the crisis. Hoover lost to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, 57.3% to 39.6% of the popular vote, 472-59 in the electoral vote.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bobbie Hatfield was born on this date in 1940. The Righteous Brothers — blue-eyed soul. No one believed they were white. The name had something to do with that, but it was the sound that fooled everyone. Hatfield had the higher voice; Bill Medley the lower. In the book accompanying the Phil Spector compilation, Back to Mono, songwriter Cynthia Weil recalls that:
After Phil, Barry [co-writer Barry Mann] and I finished the song, we took it over to The Righteous Brothers. Bill Medley, who has the low voice, seemed to like the song. I remember Bobby Hatfield saying, “But what do I do while he’s singing the whole first verse?” and Phil said, “You can go directly to the bank!”
On AM radio in those days deejays didn’t like songs that lasted more than three minutes. Lovin’ Feelin’ is 3:46. On the label Spector printed 3:05. It was number one for two weeks in February 1965.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Veronica Bennett is 66 today. That’s Ronnie Spector, one-time Mrs. Phil Spector (married 1968-1974), and lead singer of The Ronettes (with her sister and cousin). Hits included Be My Baby and Walkin’ in the Rain. “I like to look the way Ronnie Spector sounds: sexy, hungry, totally trashy. I admire her tonal quality.” — Madonna, quoted at RonnieSpector.com.
Country singer, TV personality, sausage seller Jimmy Dean is 81 today.
Rosanna Arquette is 50.
Antonio Banderas is 49 today, all reported 5-feet, 8½ of him.
Angie Harmon is 37.
“Reader surveys show that the typical Perez Hilton reader is a 26-year-old college-educated white woman who seldom goes to church, is a Democrat and does not shop at Wal-Mart.”
And this — “the site commands as much as $72,000 for a single 24-hour wallpaper-style ad that incorporates the banner logo across the top of the site.”
I posted some photos last week taken from the north rim of the Gunnision Canyon upriver from the national park. Here is one I took three years ago in the park from the south rim. That’s the Gunnison River at the bottom of Black Canyon, narrow with nearly vertical walls.
Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Although the shower won’t peak until August 11th and 12th, the show is already getting underway.
…For sky watchers in North America, the watch begins after nightfall on August 11th and continues until sunrise on the 12th. Veteran observers suggest the following strategy: Unfold a blanket on a flat patch of ground. (Note: The middle of your street is not a good choice.) Lie down and look up. Perseids can appear in any part of the sky, their tails all pointing back to the shower’s radiant in the constellation Perseus. Get away from city lights if you can.
There is one light you cannot escape on August 12th. The 55% gibbous Moon will glare down from the constellation Aries just next door to the shower’s radiant in Perseus. The Moon is beautiful, but don’t stare at it. Bright moonlight ruins night vision and it will wipe out any faint Perseids in that part of the sky.
