Author: NewMexiKen

The Oscars 2008

Below are the five polls on the Oscars we’ve run this week. You can see you have some heavy favorites — “No Country for Old Men,” Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem. Rudy Dee is your favorite for best supporting actress. The only close race is for best actress with Julie Chrisitie edging ahead of Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard and Cate Blanchett. Thanks for participating.

Personally NewMexiKen selected “Juno” for Best Picture, George Clooney and Marion Cotillard for best actor and actress respectively, and Saoirse Ronan and Tom Wilkinson for the best supporting roles. (I’m playing the long shots.) I also think the Coens will win the director’s award, and Cody Diablo and the Coens the screenplay awards.

Update: My long shots weren’t such a good idea, eh? Well, except for Marion Cotillard.

[POLLS REMOVED. BEING CONSOLIDATED ON ONE PAGE.]

Strangest line of the day, so far

“On Saturday, Hollywood’s biggest names made their way to the Kodak Theater one by one, in 15-minute increments, to walk on stage and practice their lines.”

— Gossip Girls

Strange because I’ve been watching the Oscar telecast over at least 40 years and I never once thought the presenters had ever, ever practiced their lines.

February 24th

Today is the birthday

… of Abe Vigoda. Fish on Barney Miller and Sal Tessio of The Godfather is 87.

… of Steven Hill. Adam Schiff on Law and Order is 86.

… of Dominic Chianese. Uncle Junior on The Sopranos is 77.

Baseball great Honus Wagner was born on this date in 1874.

One of the Hall of Fame’s five original inductees in 1936, Honus Wagner combined rare offensive and defensive excellence throughout a 21-year career. Despite his awkward appearance – stocky, barrel-chested and bow-legged – the longtime Pirates shortstop broke into the big leagues by hitting .344 in 1897 with Louisville, the first of 17 consecutive seasons of hitting over .300, including eight as the National League batting champion. Wagner compiled a lifetime average of .329, and the Flying Dutchman also stole 722 bases, while leading the league in thefts on five occasions.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Coming Storm

Winslow Homer was born on this date in 1836. The painting is his “Coming Storm” (1901). Click for larger version.

From the late 1850s until his death in 1910, Winslow Homer produced a body of work distinguished by its thoughtful expression and its independence from artistic conventions. A man of multiple talents, Homer excelled equally in the arts of illustration, oil painting, and watercolor. Many of his works—depictions of children at play and in school, of farm girls attending to their work, hunters and their prey—have become classic images of nineteenth-century American life. Others speak to more universal themes such as the primal relationship of man to nature.

Source: The National Gallery of Art, which has a fine online Winslow Homer exhibit.

The Environment

There were, according to the League of Conservation Voters, 15 key votes on the environment in the Senate during 2007.

Senator Hillary Clinton voted the environmentalist side 11 times and was absent for four votes.

Senator Barack Obama voted the environmentalist side 10 times, against once, and was absent for four votes.

Senator John McCain was absent for all 15 votes.

Two good lines from last night

“Senator John McCain has been accused of having an affair with a woman who was a lobbyist for a cable television company. During their affair the cable lobbyist would show up at McCain’s house sometime between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.”

Conan

“They say this woman traveled around with McCain to his campaign stops and she also flew aboard his private jet. You know what they call a young woman who travels around with a 71-year-old man? A nurse!”

Leno

Oscars 2008 — Best Picture

Today is the last of NewMexiKen’s five polls leading up to Sunday’s Oscar presentations. This poll will run until the awards program begins Sunday evening.

You are asked which film you think will win. You do not have to have seen the movies to vote.

Sunday I’ll have the results of all the polls and my picks — and ask for yours.

[POLLS REMOVED. BEING CONSOLIDATED ON ONE PAGE.]

Mama Giraffe

This was first posted here four years ago, February 23, 2004.

NewMexiKen visited the Rio Grande Zoo Monday, a cool but not uncomfortable day (the rain and snow came in toward evening). With me were my daughter Emily and her daughter, my 16-month-old granddaughter, Kiley. The Zoo was quiet and nearly empty, seemingly as many caretakers as visitors.

We had already enjoyed the giraffes for a few minutes when a female came from the far side of the enclosure toward us. I commented to Emily that the giraffe was coming to see us.

Sure enough the giraffe came as close as she could, her head no more than five or six feet from our viewpoint. She seemed attracted to the baby, who was hungry about then and crying.

Kiley stopped crying when she saw the giraffe. We took some photos. The giraffe lost interest and wandered off.

Kiley also lost interest and resumed crying. Slowly, ambling as they do, but without hesitation, the giraffe, which by then had gone around a corner out of sight about 20 yards away, came back, if anything closer.

There was absolutely no doubt in our minds that the female giraffe was interested in the crying baby. I found myself talking to the giraffe, as one would to an intelligent house pet, reassuring her that the baby was fine. It was a conversation with considerable eye-to-eye contact.

The whole incident was extraordinary.

Ah!

Debby, official younger sister of NewMexiKen, sent me a present that arrived today. It’s a Grandpa’s Sweeties calendar — and not at all late because it runs from March 2008 through February 2009.

The calendar has, as you might imagine, delightful photos of The Sweeties each month, plus notations for holidays, family birthdays and anniversaries, events, etc.

And most importantly of all, April 20 is dutifully annotated as the birthday of Ron Howard’s Brother.

I think I’m gonna cry.

Thank you Debby.

Slam!

Back when NewMexiKen went to high school, basketball had evolved well past the peach basket stage. Even so, there weren’t many boys who could dunk — at least not in Tucson, Arizona — maybe three or four. One of my friends was one of them, a 6-10 high school All-American — one of that year’s top 50 players nationally. In pre-game warmups Dave put on quite a show — I can remember the other team stopping their drills to watch when his turn for a layup — that is, a dunk — came. A dunk during a game was still very rare. Well, times have changed.

Byron, one of the official sons-in-law of NewMexiKen, sent along a link to this video from his high school alma mater in Washington, D.C.

This is boys high school basketball 2008 style.

Tooth Fairy Takes Inflation Hit

This was discussed here not too long ago:

Even the tooth fairy feels inflation’s bite. The price per baby tooth is 22% steeper today than it was a year ago.

That’s according to a new tooth fairy poll from Securian Dental, which runs dental plans.

The poll, which included 647 parents, shows that the tooth fairy pays $2.09 per baby tooth, on average, up from $1.71 last year.

Most parents said they pay $1 per tooth. The second most common payment was $5 per tooth.

Then there were the outliers. One parent says the payout is a nickel per tooth. And at the other end of the spectrum, another parent splurges with $50 per tooth.

WebMD

Kids have 20 baby teeth.

Perhaps you thought I was kidding

Yesterday I mentioned the Lindsay Lohan photo spread in New York Magazine and my abbreviated plan to generate some bogus Google traffic. In the end, as I put it, I decided I’d “[j]ust rely on the old standbys … — you know, Omarosa.”

Here are the top searches at NewMexiKen this morning:

omarosa
omarosa nude
omarosa naked
omarosa nude pics

Product Launches

Apple stock is down 40% from its high at the end of December — aren’t you glad you don’t take your investment advice from a blogger? I am.

Nonetheless I still find the company fascinating. It has, like it or not, a 21st century approach to marketing that few have successfully copied. This article does a good job, I think, of explaining it. Stimulating reading for anyone who has to market products — or ideas — even on a much smaller scale. Here’s one brief excerpt:

When you walk into the Moscone Center for an Apple product launch, the posters outside tout current Apple products. The advertising on passing taxis and buses are familiar Apple themes. The nearby Apple store still promotes the current bestsellers. The Apple Web site is still business as usual.

But as soon as the keynote presentation ends and people file out of the building, everything is new: The advertising on the buses and cabs has miraculously changed to trumpet the new product. The Apple Stores are stocked and ready to sell the New Thing. Apple employees are wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the new message. The Apple Web site is ready with new information and images. New TV ads showing the just-introduced product are already spreading the news.

The Geography of Bliss

This week NewMexiKen has really enjoyed reading The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner (thank you again Veronica and Ken).

The operating conceit of this odyssey memoir is that the author, a professed grouch (“My last name is pronounced ‘whiner,’ and I do my best to live up to the name”), will travel to the world’s happier places to explore to what degree an individual’s happiness is intertwined with a shared geography and culture. To that end, he shoots off to unusual locales — Bhutan, Iceland, Qatar — and to Thailand and India, perpetual stopovers for pleasure seekers, visiting nine foreign countries altogether over the course of a year. His final chapter is about the United States, which “is not as happy as it is wealthy.”

The New York Times

The Times reviewer, Pamela Paul, found Weiner’s humor forced or contrived — I found it amusing.

“We know a thing by its opposite. Hot means nothing without cold. Mozart is enhanced by the existence of Barry Manilow.”

“I picked up the companion book to Grumpy Old Men [a British TV series] and flipped to the foreword, written by a grump named Arthur Smith. He begins by observing that ‘life is shit organized by bastards.’ Then he gets negative.”

But mostly I found Weiner’s insights into what makes us happy — and what doesn’t — interesting.

“Social scientists estimate that about 70 percent of our happiness stems from our relationships, both quantity and quality, with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. During life’s difficult patches, camaraderie blunts our misery; during the good times, it boosts our happiness.”

“People are least happy when they’re commuting to work.”

And I always find it rewarding to read about other places and other people.

There’s an interesting dialogue with Weiner at World Hum.

Best codgerisms of the day

“I like that John McCain. He looks like a guy who gets ticketed for mowing under the influence. McCain looks like a guy with a collection of movies he bought at the car wash. McCain looks like a guy on the beach with a metal detector. McCain looks like the guy who is still confused by the phone answering machine. McCain looks like the guy who calls his grandson when he screws up the remote.”

— David Letterman

Oscars 2008 — Best Actor

Today is the fourth in NewMexiKen’s five polls leading up to Sunday’s Oscar presentations. Like the previous polls, this poll will run for one day (until Saturday morning).

You are being asked to pick who you think will win. You do not have to have seen the movies to vote (I’ve seen just two of these performances). And, if you haven’t voted, you may still do so in the earlier polls.

Sunday I’ll have the results of all the polls and my picks — and ask for yours.

[POLLS REMOVED. BEING CONSOLIDATED ON ONE PAGE.]