“[I]f I were President today, I would withdraw American troops by the end of this calendar year. I would have no residual force whatsoever.”
Author: NewMexiKen
No longer a Muggle
At the insistence of Jill, official older daughter of NewMexiKen, I have just read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first of the Harry Potter books (published 10 years ago).
I’d seen enough of the Potter movies with grandson Mack to have the gist of Hogwarts and all, but still the book was fun and engaging, well-worth the $3.61 a used copy of the paperback cost me.
Indeed, good enough to want to read Year Two.
Baseball trivia question
What position is responsible for the most home runs in baseball history, 1876-2004?
Cheney’s Nemesis
As commenter Richard Albury pointed out, NewMexiKen neglected to include Seymour Hersh among the birthdays Sunday. Hersh turned 70 April 8th. Matt Taibbi has an interview with Hersh in the current Rolling Stone.
America’s pre-eminent investigative reporter of the last half-century, Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and was on hand, nearly four decades later, when we found ourselves staring back at the same sick face in the mirror after Abu Ghraib. At age seventy, he clearly still loves his job. During a wide-ranging interview at his cramped Washington office, Hersh could scarcely sit still, bouncing around the room like a kindergartner to dig up old articles, passages from obscure books and papers buried in his multitudinous boxes of files. A hopeless information junkie, he is permanently aroused by the idea that corruption and invisible power are always waiting to be uncovered by the next phone call. Somewhere out there, They are still hiding the story from Us — and that still pisses Hersh off.
Key quote: “I think Bush wants to resolve the Iranian crisis. It may not be a crisis, but he wants to resolve it.”
Best summing up of the day, so far
These young women were much, much smarter and much more decent than most of the adult commentary which has swirled around them this week. We thought their coach was outstanding too. Ditto for that superb Rutgers president, who told these young women that he and their school “have their back.”
Jesus’ General deserves your click on this topic, too.
And, via Crooks and Liars, The Daily Show on Imusgate.
Pas de Deux of Sexuality Is Written in the Genes
Beginning of an intriguing article in The New York Times:
When it comes to the matter of desire, evolution leaves little to chance. Human sexual behavior is not a free-form performance, biologists are finding, but is guided at every turn by genetic programs.
Desire between the sexes is not a matter of choice. Straight men, it seems, have neural circuits that prompt them to seek out women; gay men have those prompting them to seek other men. Women’s brains may be organized to select men who seem likely to provide for them and their children. The deal is sealed with other neural programs that induce a burst of romantic love, followed by long-term attachment.
So much fuss, so intricate a dance, all to achieve success on the simple scale that is all evolution cares about, that of raising the greatest number of children to adulthood. Desire may seem the core of human sexual behavior, but it is just the central act in a long drama whose script is written quite substantially in the genes.
Money quote: “Several advances in the last decade have underlined the bizarre fact that the brain is a full-fledged sexual organ, in that the two sexes have profoundly different versions of it. This is the handiwork of testosterone, which masculinizes the brain as thoroughly as it does the rest of the body.”
And this: “. . . although average IQ is identical in men and women, there are fewer average men and more at both extremes.”
Spring cleaning
With Earth Day coming on April 22nd and “going green” becoming a fashionable proclamation, you’re sure to find more and more options for recycling your computer or sending it away to someone who can refurbish it. One way or another, your old computer can be used for much more than gathering dust in a basement corner.
The Mossberg Solution suggests options for recycling your old computer(s).
Inquiring minds want to know
Women civil servants in India have expressed shock at new appraisal rules which require them to reveal details of their menstrual cycles.
. . .The questions at the root of the controversy are on page 58 of the new appraisal forms for the current year issued by the federal Ministry for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
Women officers must write down their “detailed menstrual history and history of LMP [last menstrual period] including date of last confinement [maternity leave],” the form says.
April 11th is the birthday
. . . of Ethel Kennedy, 79, Joel Grey, 75, and Joss Stone, 20.
Under achievers
Playing in the NCAA basketball tournament, it turns out, is just like gambling in Vegas.
Play long enough, and the house wins.
Mark Wangrin of the San Antonio Express-News compiled his “SAT” — Seeding Achievement Test — by taking the 10 active coaches with the most NCAA appearances and weighting their games with plus-minus values. Only two (UConn’s Jim Calhoun and Maryland’s Gary Williams) came out ahead, with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski breaking even.
Coaches received zero points for beating a lower-seeded team, one point for beating a higher-seeded team or winning a Final Four game, and minus-one point for losing to a lower-seeded team, with additional minus points tacked on for each subsequent round in which they would have been favored.
The final tally: Calhoun 4, Williams 3, Krzyzewski 0, Tubby Smith -1, Bob Knight -3, Jim Boeheim -3, Roy Williams -6, Rick Barnes -6, Bob Huggins -8, Lute Olson -9.
Or to put it another way: NCAA tournament 29.
Fascinating
The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother’s heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too.
There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.
April 8th is the birthday
. . . of Betty Ford, 89.
. . . of John Havlicek, 67.
Known for clutch performances in big games, Havlicek posted impressive numbers during his illustrious 16-year career. In 1,270 regular-season games he scored 26,395 points and averaged 20.8 points to rank as the Celtics’ all-time leading scorer and the sixth-highest scorer in NBA history. He also grabbed 8,007 rebounds, recorded 6,114 assists, and played on eight Boston championship teams. He appeared in 13 consecutive NBA All-Star Games, earned 11 selections to the All-NBA First or Second Team, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive First or Second Team eight times.
. . . of Gary Carter, 53.
A rugged receiver and enthusiastic on-field general, Gary Carter excelled at one of baseball’s most demanding positions, as both as offensive and defensive force. A three-time Gold Glove Award winner, Carter belted 324 home runs in his 19-season major league career. “Kid” showed a knack for the big-time, twice earning All-Star Game MVP awards in his 11 selections. His clutch 10th-inning single in Game Six of the 1986 World Series sparked a dramatic Mets’ comeback victory, ultimately leading to a World Series title.
. . . of Barbara Kingsolver, 52.
. . . born in Annapolis, Maryland (1955). She majored in biology at DePauw University in Indiana, and then got a master’s degree in evolutionary biology. She was working on a Ph.D. thesis on the social lives of termites when she decided to abandon a career in science and try to become a writer. Kingsolver began writing short stories in her spare time, and then she wrote her novel The Bean Trees (1986) about a woman from rural Kentucky who leaves home so she won’t get stuck in a boring, dead-end life. The Bean Trees was a huge success, and Kingsolver has gone on to write many more novels, including The Poisonwood Bible (1998), about the wife and four daughters of an evangelical Baptist minister who go as missionaries to the Belgian Congo in 1959.
. . . of the Princess bride. Robin Wright Penn is 41.
Gladys Marie Smith was born on this date in 1892. We know her as Mary Pickford. Miss Pickford won the Oscar for best actress for Coquette. The first big female movie star, Pickford was an industry leader as well, helping found United Artists and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Jim “Catfish” Hunter was born on this date in 1946.
The bigger the game, the better he pitched. Jim “Catfish” Hunter, with his pinpoint control, epitomized smart pitching at its finest. He pitched a perfect game in 1968, won 21 or more games five times in a row, and claimed the American League Cy Young Award in 1974. Arm trouble ended his career at age 33, but he still won 224 games and five World Series rings. The likable pitching ace died in 1999 at age 53 – a victim of ALS, the same disease that cut short the life of Lou Gehrig.
Easter
The word “Easter” comes from an ancient pagan goddess worshipped by Anglo Saxons named Eostre. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny. Eggs were a symbol of fertility in part because they used to be so scarce during the winter. There are records of people giving each other decorated eggs at Easter as far back as the 11th century.
Something special
As much as may have been wrong, especially in the past, with the Masters and Augusta National, one has to think, “Wouldn’t it be nice if everything on TV was covered so well?”
April 7th is the birthday
. . . of Ravi Shankar. Norah Jones’ father is 87.
. . . of Hendley “The Scrounger,” Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford. That’s James Garner, 79 today.
. . . of Trapper. Wayne Rogers is 74.
. . . of Governor Moonbeam. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown is 69.
. . . of Francis Ford Coppola. The Oscar-winning writer and director is 68. Coppola has been nominated 14 times overall, winning five, three for writing (Patton, Godfather and Godfather II). He won the best director and best picture Oscars for Godfather II.
. . . of David Frost. The journalist, television celebrity is 68.
. . . of Russell Crowe. The 3-time best actor Oscar nominee is 43. He won for Gladiator.
. . . of Tiki and Ronde. The Barber brothers are 32 each.
Eleanora Fagan was born on this date in 1915. We know her as Billie Holiday.
Miss Holiday set a pattern during her most fruitful years that has proved more influential than that of almost any other jazz singer, except the two who inspired her, Louis Armstrong and the late Bessie Smith.
Miss Holiday became a singer more from desperation than desire. She was named Eleanora Fagan after her birth in Baltimore. She was the daughter of a 13-year-old mother, Sadie Fagan, and a 15-year-old father who were married three years after she was born.
The first and major influence on her singing came when as a child she ran errands for the girls in a near-by brothel in return for the privilege of listening to recordings by Mr. Armstrong and Miss Smith.
. . .At Jerry Preston’s Log Cabin, a night club, she asked for work as a dancer. She danced the only step she knew for fifteen choruses and was turned down. The pianist, taking pity on her, asked if she could sing. She brashly assured him that she could. She sang “Trav’lin’ All Alone” and then “Body and Soul” and got a job–$2 a night for six nights a week working from midnight until about 3 o’clock the next afternoon.
Miss Holiday had been singing in Harlem in this fashion for a year or two when she was heard by John Hammond, a jazz enthusiast, who recommended her to Benny Goodman, at that time a relatively unknown clarinet player who was the leader on occasional recording sessions.
She made her first recording, “Your Mother’s Son-in-Law” in November, 1933, singing one nervous chorus with a band that included in addition to Mr. Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Gene Krupa and Joe Sullivan.
Two years later Miss Holiday started a series of recordings with groups led by Teddy Wilson, the pianist, which established her reputation in the jazz world. On many of these recordings the accompanying musicians were members of Count Basie’s band, a group with which she felt a special affinity. She was particularly close to Mr. Basie’s tenor saxophonist, the late Lester Young.
It was Mr. Young who gave her the nickname by which she was known in jazz circles–Lady Day. She in turn created the name by which Mr. Young was identified by jazz bands, “Pres.” She was the vocalist with the Basie band for a brief time during 1937 and the next year she signed for several months with Artie Shaw’s band.
The New York Times (1959)
Dora the Explorer revisited
Not to be missed if you are familiar with Dora the Explorer.
Another use for iPods
Wow, as if there weren’t enough reason to carry around your iPod, Kevin Garrad of the 3rd Infantry Division has evidence that an iPod can save your life. Apparently, he had the iPod in his outside pocket when he was shot with an AK-47; the iPod seems to have slowed down the bullet enough to prevent it from penetrating his body armor.
Safety First
Dan Neil likes the Volvo S80 (around $50K+):
You may have seen the S80 commercial in which the driver and his wife are out for a late-night run to Pink’s hot dog stand. He’s not looking where he’s going and runs up on a slower vehicle. The system flashes. She laughs and looks at him lovingly. Not in real life she doesn’t.
Attuned to the fact that women think of safety not just in terms of crash protection but personal security, Volvo offers the optional Personal Car Communicator (PCC), a high-tech keyless entry device that tells you if the car’s alarm has been activated while you’re away; the car even has a heartbeat sensor to tell you if anyone is hiding in the car. Cool.
. . .So now I have to reorder my favorite cars in this class. The Volvo — which has the added advantage of being neither German nor Japanese, a nonaligned nation in a segment where nationality matters to a lot of buyers — nudges the Acura RL from the top spot. Coolly Euro, quietly indifferent to its competitors, understated and overachieving, this V8 powered son of Gothenburg is most definitely a good idea.
Wining and dining
This from an interesting profile of chef Gordon Ramsay in last week’s New Yorker.
That night, James Lloyd, one of Condes’s assistants, was serving the chef’s table, eight young men from a hedge-fund company, who ordered a thousand-dollar bottle of 1970 Latour (“Keep back a glass for us,” Ramsay whispered) and, midway through, were approaching the ten-thousand-dollar mark. (James kept Ramsay informed like someone reporting a sports score.) The next night, the chef’s table was reserved by Goldman Sachs: “budget not important,” I was told, possibly a fifty-thousand-dollar wine bill. (At Pétrus, a Ramsay restaurant in London, six bankers once spent sixty-three thousand dollars on dinner. Five of them were fired after they tried to expense it, a story that was reported in just about every paper in London. “It was a year before we saw another banker,” Ramsay said.)
Spring Break Update
Hi from Virginia, where the dogwoods are beautifully in bloom, but the current temperature is 39°. It was 81° when I arrived two days ago. Spring.
Yes, Mrs. A, SnoLepard is correct, “NewMexiKen has a lifetime of vacation time saved up!” I left the workday world at the ripe old age of 57 (well, actually I turned 58 four days later). I may yearn for fast, expensive cars instead of buying them, but otherwise it’s been terrific. Lots of time for visiting The Sweeties® and trips with Dad (while we could). And, if anything, too much time for blogging.
At the moment, some of The Sweeties® are in daycare and some are on a playdate, so I’m enjoying my coffee and doing a little blogging so I don’t lose the touch.
As if.
(Be sure to watch the Peyton Manning video below.)
April 5th is the birthday
. . . of Gale Storm. My Little Margie is 85. That TV series ran 1952-1955. Storm’s real name was neither Gale, nor Margie (nor Susanna Pomeroy). It was Josephine Cottle.
. . . of Colin Powell. He’s 70. As NewMexiKen exited my office in 2001, I nearly ran into Secretary Powell and Condoleezza Rice walking down the hall after leaving one of Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force meetings. Powell is one of eight Secretaries of State that I’ve met or seen, but the only one I almost knocked down.
. . . of Michael Moriarty. He’s 66. Moriarty has won three Emmy awards, but none for playing Ben Stone in Law and Order despite five nominations. NewMexiKen liked Moriarty best as Henry “Author” Wiggen in Bang the Drum Slowly (with Robert De Niro). The IMDB mini biography for Moriarty says he’s 6-feet-4. Interestingly, the mini biography was written by Michael Moriarty.
Booker T. Washington was born on this date in 1856.
An incident of Dr. Washington’s life that stirred up a controversy throughout the country was the occasion of his dining at the White House with President Roosevelt on Oct. 16, 1901. Dr. Washington went to the White House at the invitation of the President, and, when the news was spread abroad, thousands, both North and South, who were moved by race prejudice or by a belief that social equality between blacks and whites had been encouraged, became angry. Most of the criticism fell upon Colonel Roosevelt, but the incident served also to injure Dr. Washington’s work in some parts of the South.
Spencer Tracy was born on this date in 1900. Tracy was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar nine times and won twice, for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. Tracy died in 1967.
Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born on this date in 1908. As Bette Davis she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar 11 times, winning for Dangerous and Jezebel. Davis died in 1989.
Conductor Herbert von Karajan was also born on this date in 1908 and he, too, died in 1989.
Gregory Peck was born on this date in 1916. Peck was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar five times, winning for To Kill a Mockingbird. Mr. Peck also won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Peck died in 2003.
Joseph Lister was born on this date in 1827. His principle that bacteria must never enter a surgical incision was a breakthrough for modern surgery. Lister died in 1912.
Best line of the week, so far
President Bush is losing his top day-to-day Iraq advisor. If you’re wondering what went haywire in Iraq, it’s worth examining the faint praise being heaped on Meghan O’Sullivan now that she’s leaving:
Stanford University professor Larry Diamond, who worked in Baghdad with O’Sullivan during Bremer’s tenure, called her an amazingly quick study of Iraqi politics.She “came in with very little knowledge of Iraq when the war began,” Diamond said, but by the time she left some Iraqis were calling her “the Gertrude Bell of the American mission” – a reference to the British civil administrator who helped create Iraq in the early 1920s.
So, in other words, she’s a graduate of the learn-by-doing school of nation building.
And, of course, she stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Peyton gives back to the community
Spring Break
NewMexiKen will be gone for the next week, either partying in Mexico or Florida, or visiting Sweeties, I can’t decide.
April 3rd is the birthday
. . . of Doris Day. She’s 83 today. Day had three number one hits on her own and was the vocalist with Les Brown for one of the great hits of all-time, “Sentimental Journey.” Her most famous other single, “What Ever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)” was a number two song in 1956. Day was nominated for the best actress Oscar for Pillow Talk.
. . . of primatologist Jane Goodall. She’s 73.
. . . of Marsha Mason; she’s 65. Mason is a four-time Oscar nominee for best actress — Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two and Only When I Laugh.
. . . of Wayne Newton and Billy Joe Royal. They’re both 65. Each had exactly one top ten hit — Newton with “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast” (reached number 4 in 1972) and Royal with “Down in the Boondocks” (reached number 9 in 1965). Of the two, Newton has surely done the better job of hanging on.
. . . of Tony Orlando, 63. Orlando had three number one hits in the early 70s: “Knock Three Times” as Dawn, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Rond the Ole Oak Tree” as Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando, and “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” as Tony Orlando and Dawn.
. . . of Richard Thompson. He’s 58 and he’s never had a top ten hit, however:
One of Britain’s most gifted guitarists and songwriters; Richard has been the mainstay of the folk rock scene for over 30 years. Whatever the size of his record sales, he has a reputation among his peers that is second to none. (BBC – Music)
. . . of Alec Baldwin. He’s 49. Baldwin was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Cooler.
. . . of David Hyde Pierce. Frasier Crane’s brother Niles is 48.
. . . of Eddie Murphy. He’s 46. Murphy was 19 when he started with “Saturday Night Live.” Murphy was nominated recently for the best supporting actor Oscar.
The actor Leslie Howard was born on this date in 1893. Most famous as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, Howard was nominated for two best acting Oscars earlier in his career. Wilkes’ was killed when his plane was shot down by German fighters during World War II.