“I read omnivorously, I always have, my entire life. I would rather be dead than not read. So, there’s always time for that. I read while I eat, and our whole family did. We all had very bad manners at the table. All of our books are stained with spaghetti sauce, and that sort of thing.”
E. Annie Proulx, who turns 75 today, from a worth-reading profile at The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor.
The New York Times reports on jerks and fools in the national parks. An excerpt:
The national parks’ history is full of examples of misguided visitors feeding bears, putting children on buffalos for photos and dipping into geysers despite signs warning of scalding temperatures.
But today, as an ever more wired and interconnected public visits the parks in rising numbers — July was a record month for visitors at Yellowstone — rangers say that technology often figures into such mishaps.
People with cellphones call rangers from mountaintops to request refreshments or a guide; in Jackson Hole, Wyo., one lost hiker even asked for hot chocolate.
A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures. And last fall, a group of hikers in the canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers explained that their water supply “tasted salty.”
Columbia University professor Michael Stone knows evil. He’s a forensic psychologist — the type of expert that provides testimony on the mental state of accused murderers when a declaration of insanity can mean the difference between life and death row.
Inspired by the structure of Dante’s circles of hell, Stone has created his own 22-point “Gradations of Evil” scale, made up of murderers in the 20th century. “I thought it would be an interesting thing to do,” he says.
The 22 examples in this NPR story are interesting to read about, too. Pleasant dreams.
On this date in 1680, the surviving Spanish settlers under siege decided to abandon Santa Fe and began the trek to Chihuahua. The Spanish did not return to Nuevo México for 12 years.
Colonists from Mexico first settled in New Mexico, north of present-day Santa Fe, in 1598. By the 1620s there were 2,000 colonists taking land and forcing labor from the Puebloans, occasionally executing dozens of Indians for the murder of one settler. In the 1660s a drought further stressed conditions for all, especially as Apaches and others raided the Pueblos. Many Puebloans began to feel that deserting their own religion to accept Christianity had brought on these disasters. There were occasional uprisings, but nothing sustainable until Popé, a San Juan medicine man, began unifying resistance among the various independent Pueblos in 1675.
On August 10, 1680, the Indians launched a unified all-out attack on Spanish settlers. Colonists were killed, churches burned, horses and cattle seized. Priests were singled out and killed in all the Pueblos, including Acoma, Zuni and Hopi (in modern Arizona). About 1,000 survivors escaped to Santa Fe and the town was put under siege on August 12. By the 16th the Indians occupied all of the town except the plaza and its surrounding buildings. According to reports, as they burnt the town the Indians sang Latin liturgy to taunt the Spanish.
Three-hundred-and-thirty years ago today the settlers were allowed to withdraw from Santa Fe. When they reached El Paseo del Norte (modern-day El Paso) in October, there were 1,946 from of a population that had been about 2,500. About 400 had been killed, another 150 escaped to Mexico independently.
The Puebloans removed all signs of the Spanish — the churches, the religion itself, the crops, even the animals (the horses let loose on the plains, eventually transforming the culture of the Plains Indians). One vestige remained: one man rule. Popé declared himself that man and moved to the Palace in Santa Fe.
Spanish attempts at reconquest failed until 1692.
Popé’s statue is one of the two for New Mexico in the United States Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
1680: The Pueblo Revolt
On this date in 1831 “… a 30-year-old black slave named Nat Turner, supported by about 60 followers armed with guns, clubs, axes and swords, launched the bloodiest slave revolt in American history.” Joshua Zeitz has more on the revolt, its context, aftermath and legacy at AmericanHeritage.com.
1858: Lincoln-Douglas
Kenny Rogers is 72 today.
Patty McCormack is 65. The actress, known now as Patricia McCormack, was nominated for the supporting actress Oscar as an 11-year-old for her performance in The Bad Seed.
Kim Cattrall of Sex in the City is 54.
Hayden Panettiere of Heroes is 21.
William “Count” Basie was born on this date in 1904.
Count Basie was a leading figure of the swing era in jazz and, alongside Duke Ellington, an outstanding representative of big band style.
Quotation from the PBS website for Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns. The page has a nice biography of Basie with some audio clips, including Basie’s 1937 recording of “One O’Clock Jump,” one of NPR’s 100 “most important American musical works of the 20th century.”
Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia 74 years ago today. Usually called “The Stilt” because it rhymed with Wilt, Chamberlain actually preferred the nickname “The Big Dipper.”
Chamberlain died in 1999.
Hawaii entered the Union as the 50th state on this date in 1959. The eight major islands in the chain are Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lāna’i, Kaho’olawe, Maui and Hawai’i.
If you know Americans of Chinese, Canadian, Brazilian, Mexican, Eastern European, Italian, Greek, or Irish ancestry, or any other, for that matter, ask around. You may be surprised at how many descendants of unauthorized immigrants turn up, people who seem indistinguishable from any other doctor or student, mechanic or professor. Hispanic immigrants are following the same pattern as other immigrant groups of increasing English speaking ability and family income as generations pass.
In the past, America has come to regret policies denying citizenship to particular groups, policies like Dred Scott, and the racial tests for naturalized citizenship in force from 1790 to 1952. These policies always rested on the idea that some immigrants — almost always non-white — would not make good citizens. Doubt about the ability of the United States to take in and benefit from every branch of the human family has always been proved wrong, and, we have no doubt, will be here as well.
From Parents, Children, and Citizenship by Birth, a must-read on immigration, the 14th Amendment and citizenship.
I wonder how my own French Canadian ancestors came across the border.
Eight banks failed yesterday. That’s 118 so far in 2010.
Another 800 or so are in danger.
“A special analysis of the data shows that 73% of Americans believe in at least one of the 10 items listed above, while 27% believe in none of them. A Gallup survey in 2001 provided similar results — 76% professed belief in at least one of the 10 items.”
I’ll be watching the Little League World Series over the next week (it’s on ESPN), which might be an odd place to look for perspective on all this. But here’s some: in 1955, sixty-two local Little Leagues in the state of South Carolina entered the tournament that leads to the Little League World Series. For the first time, one of them consisted of black players—the Cannon Street YMCA All Stars. None of the sixty-one other teams had a single black player, and every one of them refused to play Cannon Street. They wanted them out of the tournament. Instead, the Little League head office disqualified the sixty-one white teams.
Amy Davidson : The New Yorker writing in the context of the Burlington Coat Factory mosque. Read the rest of her story.
10. You pay before you eat
9. You pay after you eat, but you stand in line and pay a cashier
8. More men eating with caps on than those without caps
7. The piped-in-music is louder than the TVs
6. Soup served with soup spoon already in soup
5. They fill the condiments while you’re at the table
4. Menu includes photos of the food
3. Menu includes samples of the food stuck to pages
2. They wipe your table with a wet rag
And the number one reason to chose another restaurant if you want to impress your date or customer:
They wipe the seats of the chairs with the same rag
Voyager 2, the first of two Voyager spacecraft (Voyager 2 was launched before Voyager 1 — go figure), was sent to explore the planets of our solar system on August 20th in 1977.
For nearly 33 years, the venerable spacecraft has been returning unprecedented data about the giant outer planets, the properties of the solar wind between and beyond the planets and the interaction of the solar wind with interstellar winds in the heliosheath. Having traveled more than 21 billion kilometers on its winding path through the planets toward interstellar space, the spacecraft is now nearly 14 billion kilometers from the sun. Traveling at the speed of light, a signal from the ground takes about 12.8 hours to reach the spacecraft.
NewMexiKen wrote about The Golden Record on board each spacecraft some years ago. The record is “a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth” so that extra-terrestials might learn about life on our planet. Among the music is Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, various native music and Chuck Berry performing “Johnny B. Goode.”
If we ever hear from extra-terrestials, I imagine their message to us will be, “Send more Chuck Berry.”
Lots of photos posted on NMK today, but this is my favorite. It’s Alex (5) and Kiley (7) on the berm at Isotopes Park. Their mother Emily took this picture August 8th.
By the time we reached New Mexico we were tired from driving across America so we took a couple of days off in Albuquerque to go to the ballgame and rest, before heading north to Santa Fe and Taos.
Click photo for a gallery of all four. Note: Captions not visible in gallery and in RSS feed.
The drive across America (really mostly a drive across Interstate 40) continued in Oklahoma, as did our visit to state capitols.
Click photo for a gallery of all nine. Note: Captions not visible in gallery and in RSS feed.
NewMexiKen never quite knows how much salt to take with some of the stories The Consumerist relays, but if this is even remotely true, TSA and other law enforcement are increasingly over the line. The Constitutional line.
Nice bit of misogyny too, I’d say.
“Stanley Ketchel was 24 years old when he was fatally shot in the back by the common law husband of the lady who was cooking his breakfast.”
John Lardner
Charles Pierce’s nomination as the greatest lede ever written.
Deadspin had suggested Red Smith’s 1951 Bobby Thompson home run story as The Greatest Lede Ever Written.
Emily and I like visiting state capitols — we toured ten on a road trip we took in 1998. We always circumnavigate the building counter-clockwise and take our photo on the steps (Emily often running to pose after setting the timer on her camera). Emily has the state capitol photos of us from this trip; they may or may not show up on NMK in the future.
Click photo for a gallery of all eight. Note: Captions not visible in gallery and in RSS feed.
[A little more about Little Rock and a better photo of the high school from 2006: Little Rock 49 years later.]
Last week I was in Taos and then Thursday and Friday at Great Sand Dunes National Park (100 miles north of Taos in Colorado). Thursday night after an evening rain it cleared, the moon set, and the sky was spectacular. With no nearby light pollution, the Milky Way appeared nearly solid in places. And the Perseid meteor shower provided fireworks — a few of the many “shooting stars” we saw were just amazing.
Two weeks ago I was on my way home from Virginia with Emily and her two Sweeties, Kiley (7) and Alex (5). As Kiley and Alex put it, we were “driving across America.” (From northern Virginia to Albuquerque, about 1860 miles.) I took a few photos of America with my iPhone along the way.
First, Tennessee (other states will be in subsequent blog posts).
Click images for a gallery of larger versions. [Note: There is a caption for each photo. It may not be visible in RSS readers.]
Bill Clinton is 64 today.
It’s also the birthday
… of Ginger Baker of Cream and Blind Faith. Peter Edward Baker, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is 71. Rolling Stone says Baker is the third greatest rock drummer ever (after Neil Peart of Rush and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin).
… of Johnny Nash. He’s 70.
I can see clearly now, the rain has gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
… of Jill St. John; she’s 70. A sixties hottie, St. John, real name Jill Oppenheim, reportedly has an IQ of 162.
… of Fred Dalton Thompson. The actor and former U.S. Senator is 68.
… of Tipper Gore. She’s 62.
… of Kyra Sedgwick, 45.
… of Matthew Perry. The Friend is 41.
Gene Roddenberry was born on August 19th in 1921. The creator of Star Trek died in 1991.
The poet Ogden Nash was born on this date in 1902.
Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.
From his “Reflections on Ice-Breaking.” Or, from “The Firefly”:
The firefly’s flame Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person’s posteerier.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was born on this date in 1883. She died in 1971.
The British landed on the Patuxent River in Maryland on August 19th in 1814. It took them five days to reach Washington. Arsonist bastards.
Two American girls, cousins Sweetie Sofie and Sweetie Kiley, outside American Girl Denver last Saturday.
Today is the birthday
… of Rosalynn Carter; she’s 83.
… of Roman Polanski, 77.
… of Rafer Johnson. The decathlete is 75. It was Johnson who lit the Olympic torch in Los Angeles in 1984.
… of Robert Redford; he’s 73. Redford has been nominated for two directing Oscars, winning for Ordinary People. His only acting nomination was for The Sting.
… of Rockabilly great Johnny Preston, singer of the classic “Running Bear.” He’s 71. (Here’s a link to YouTube, audio only. My god we were a simpler country 50 years ago.)
… of Martin Mull; he’s 67.
… of Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, 49.
… of Edward Norton; he’s 41. Norton has both a leading and a supporting Oscar nomination but no wins yet.
… of Christian Slater; he too is 41.
Roberto Clemente should have been 76 today. The Puerto Rican born Baseball Hall of Fame inductee won four National League batting titles, was MVP in 1966 and finished his shortened career with exactly 3,000 hits. Clemente died at age 38 in a plane crash while delivering supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year Year’s Eve 1972.
Antonio Salieri was born on this date in 1750. After his characterization as a villain in Peter Shaffer’s play and film Amadeus, it seems Salieri has made a bit of a comeback. According to a December 2003 article at Guardian Unlimited and other sources, while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.
Meriwether Lewis was born on this date in 1774. Lewis had this to say on his 31st birthday 205 years ago today, camped just east of Lemhi Pass near the present-day Montana-Idaho border. (From the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online at the University of Nebraska.)
This day I completed my thirty first year, and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this Sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. but since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least indeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestoed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.—
His birthday doubts are made all the more poignant, of course, with the knowledge that just more than four years later Lewis took his own life at age 35.
New Mexico officially became part of the United States 164 years ago today when 1,600 troops under General Stephen Watts Kearny raised the American flag over the plaza in the Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis (Santa Fe), reportedly as the sun broke through the overcast sky. There had been little or no resistance. (It came at Taos the following January.)
August 18. Gen. Kearney proceeded through the pass and at 5 pm reached hill that overlooks Santa Fe.
Major Clark’s artillery was put into line, and the mounted troops and infantry were marched through town to the Palace (as it is called) and his staff dismounted and were received by the acting governor and other dignitaries and conducted to a large room. The general gave the assurance of safety and protection to all unoffending citizens. The stars and stripes were hoisted on the staff which is attached to the Palace by Major Swords. As soon as it was seen to wave above the buildings, it was hailed by a national salute from the battery of Captains Fischer and Weightman, under the command of Major Clark. While the general was proclaiming the conquest of New Mexico as a part of the United States, the first gun was heard. “There,” said he, “my guns proclaim that the flag of the United States floats over this capitol.” The people appeared satisfied. The general slept in the palace. (we democrats must call it the governor’s house.) One company of dragoons ws kept in the city as a guard and the business of the day was ended.
As reported in Niles’ National Register
“[New Jersey Governor Christie] charged the president with trying to turn the [mosque] issue into a political football. But that is not quite right. It already was a political football and the president fumbled it.”
Another wonderful essay from Joe Posnanski — this on the most memorable home runs in baseball history. Beautifully done, especially the liberal use of Vin Scully and Red Smith.
Reid, Aidan and Mack with, as Jill put it, “America’s favorite gay couple.”
Taken at the Sesame Street Forest of Fun at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, two weeks ago.
