Author: NewMexiKen

From the heart of America

Nearly 500 Californians have lost their lives while in service to their country in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 58 were immigrants; more than 160 were parents, who left behind more than 300 children. One descended from two presidents; another was a Guatemalan street orphan taken in by an American family as a teenager. One high school lost six of its graduates.

The above from an article in the Los Angeles Times describing a study by the paper to be published Sunday.

“He was Mexican, but he thought like an American. And he gave his life for this country.”

It’s Larry Craig “Bobblefoot” Day!

Capitalizing on Senator Larry Craig’s restroom bust, a Minnesota minor league baseball team this Sunday is giving away a promotional item celebrating the Republican politician’s arrest last year at the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport. Dubbed a “bobblefoot” (as opposed to a bobblehead doll), the polyresin giveaway depicts an occupied bathroom stall (the inhabitant’s pants and shoes can be seen below the stall’s panels). When the St. Paul Saints’s “bobblefoot” is shaken, one of the spring-loaded feet taps. The keepsake, which will be handed out to the first 2500 fans attending the Saints’s May 25 game against the Fort Worth Cats …

The Smoking Gun

Click on the link for photos of the “booblefoot.”

Red means stop, green means go, and yellow means say ‘cheese’

Investigative reporting forced Denver, Colorado to lengthen the yellow at four city intersections where red light cameras are to be installed. In late March, the Rocky Mountain News uncovered how these intersections had quick, three-second yellow times that fell short of recognized engineering standards. Drivers will now enjoy up to two additional seconds of warning at some intersections by the time automated tickets start landing in the mail on June 10.

TheNewspaper

Follow the link for details on the four intersections. Lengthening the yellow at one Fort Collins intersection by one-second reportedly reduced the accident rate 30 percent.

One of my favorite lines ever — “Madrid [New Mexico] doesn’t have any traffic lights yet; there is one in the works, they just haven’t decided what colors they’re gonna use.”

Best line of the day, so far

“$4 gas is annoying. $8 gas, if it happens, will be… different.”

Gas PricesAtrios commenting on $135 a barrel and downward revisions in supply forecasts.

According to AAA, today’s national average price is $3.831 for regular, $4.068 for mid-grade, $4.214 for supreme, and $4.590 for diesel. If only I could have that 18.4¢ a gallon rebate from McCain and Clinton.

Update: That the gasoline tax rebate discussion has seemingly disappeared from Clinton’s repertoire is interesting, don’t you think? Kind of proves the pandering charge doesn’t it?

The Gold Old Days

“I want to say also that the press is to be commended — complimented — on the manner in which the program was explained to the country. I think the press made a great contribution toward informing the people of the United States — toward showing just exactly what the intention of the legislation is.”

President Harry Truman 61 years ago today after signing legislation providing economic aid for Greece and Turkey, as reported then in The New York Times.

Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was born on May 22nd in 1844.

Mary Cassatt Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was a unique artist because she was a woman who succeeded in what was in the nineteenth century a predominantly male profession, because she was the only American invited to exhibit with a group of independent artists later known as the Impressionists, and because she responded in a very distinctive way to their mandate to portray modern life.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Click images for larger version and to learn more.

Book Report

I fear somewhere in the back of my mind I may have turned reading Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story into an assignment more than just acting on a recommendation. In any case, I found the book interesting and amusing but — honestly — he writes about a lot of music and a lot of bands I’ve barely just heard of — and certainly not listened to. While I try to keep up with current music, the music that absorbs my interest ended somewhere around 1965 or 66. Klosterman was born in 1972.

I found his obsessing about the women in his life (while on a cross country roadtrip) more interesting than his obsessing about the music; narcissistic, but interesting.

Klosterman does have a clever style though and at least three great lines:

“By now, the sky is as dark as Johnny Cash’s closet.”

“At this show, there aren’t many people with a job that includes air-conditioning.”

“Tina was always a case of good news/bad news (for instance, she was a part-time swimsuit model . . . but only for Target).”

What did I miss?

Obscenity

You know, you can’t say “fuck” on the radio, but here’s a real obscenity —

“The poor guy’s been suffering for years, you know? Unfairly he’s been accused of alcoholism, but we see now that it was something much more deep-seated. And so, to cut this out in some respect for Ted Kennedy, here’s a tune coming at you from the Dead Kennedys. Go ahead and play it, please.”

Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage yesterday, the day Senator Edward Kennedy’s tumor was announced.

May 21st, not a holiday, but some time off for misbehavin’

NewMexiKen checked and I’ve never posted the birthdays for May 21st. Here’s why:

Al Franken is 57. Mr. T is 56. Judge Reinhold is 51.

TV actress Lisa Edelstein is 40. I didn’t even know what show she’s in.

However, Thomas “Fats” Waller was born on this date in 1904.

Here he is in the 1943, shortly before he died at age 39, singing his most famous composition, “Ain’t Misbehavin'”

And here’s a great version of the same tune with Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli (no video, just the music).

And the Muppets have a nice cover, too.

How about some guitar misbehavin’?

Lucky Lindy

Lindbergh landed in Paris on this date in 1927, 33½ hours after take off.

From the take-off in New York, he flew north over Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, navigating by checking maps against the landmarks he could see on the ground. He reached Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and then flew in toward the city of St. John’s because he wanted people to know he’d gotten at least that far. People who saw his plane said they could almost read the serial number on the underside of the wing. It was the last land Lindbergh would see until he reached Ireland.

He turned east toward Europe just as night was falling. For the next 15 hours, no one would know if he was alive or dead. People across America would later say that they stayed up thinking about Lindbergh that night, praying for his safety. The humorist Will Rogers wrote in his column, “No attempt at jokes today. A … slim, tall, bashful, smiling American boy is somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where no lone human being has ever ventured before.”

After reaching the halfway point of his journey, Lindbergh began to hallucinate, and even saw a coastline before his calculations said that he should. When he flew toward it, the coastline vanished. After more than 24 hours, Lindbergh spotted fishing boats on the water. He reached Ireland a few hours later, and turned south toward Paris.

From a longer essay at The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media.

May 20th

James Stewart was born 100 years ago today. Stewart received five best actor Oscar nominations in his long career, but won only for The Philadelphia Story in 1941.

Joe Cocker is 64. Timothy Olyphant is scowling at being 40.

Cher is 62.

Charles Lindbergh departed Long Island for Paris 81 years ago today.

Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland on May 20th in 1932, the first woman to solo the Atlantic.