May 26, 1637
January 25, 1787
January 24, 1848
September 17, 1862
July 6, 1892
September 6, 1901
July 21, 1925
July 16, 1939
September 9, 1956
June 21, 1964
The History Channel is showing a 10-hour series this coming Sunday through Thursday (two hours each night) — “10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America.” The 10 dates are listed above. How many of the events can you identify from the date?
From a report in The Seattle Times:
In their quest to seize the ill-gotten gains of suspected drug dealers, federal prosecutors have targeted cash, jewelry, cars and even homes.
You can now add gold-capped teeth to the list.
A defense expert and the attorneys for two men facing federal drug charges in Tacoma are crying foul over efforts by federal prosecutors and officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to have the gold-capped teeth — commonly called “grills” or “grillz” — removed from their clients’ mouths.
…
According to court documents and attorneys involved in the case, Flenard T. Neal Jr. and Donald Jamar Lewis — who were both charged in U.S. District Court with several counts of drug and weapon violations in January — on Tuesday were taken from the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac to the U.S. Marshal’s Office in Tacoma. There they were told the government had a warrant to seize the grills from their mouths and that they were being taken to a dentist in Seattle for removal.
Both made hasty calls to their attorneys, but were loaded into a vehicle and on their way to Seattle when their attorneys were able to persude a judge to stop the seizure, according to Neal’s federal public defender, Miriam Schwartz.
Grills, made popular by rappers such as Nelly, are customized teeth caps that are typically made of precious metals and jewels. The cost for a full set can run from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some styles of grills can be snapped onto the teeth somewhat like an orthodontic retainer, while others are permanently bonded to the teeth.
Neal and Lewis had permanently bonded grills, their attorneys said. The attorneys for both men declined to describe their clients’ grills.
Nelly had a number one hit for a couple of weeks in January with the single “Grillz.”
Smile for me daddy
Let me see your grill
Rob a jewelry store
And tell ’em make me a grill
Taking a lesson from Saint Francis Xavier (see previous post), NewMexiKen has decided to raise the level of the insults I hurl, for example, at other drivers. From now on, instead of “Hey, a**hole,” or “m*****f*****,” or some other Deadwood appropriate language, I am simply going to yell:
“It upsets me to know that at the hour of your death you may be ordered out of paradise.”
Saint Francis Xavier was born in Navarre on this date in 1506.
According to the Patron Saints Index Francis had quite a résumé:
Nobleman from the Basque reqion. Studied and taught philosophy at the University of Paris, and planned a career as a professor. Friend of Saint Ignatius of Loyola who convinced him to use his talents to spread the Gospel. One of the founding Jesuits, and the first Jesuit missionary. Priest.
In Goa, while waiting to take ship, India, he preached in the street, worked with the sick, and taught children their catechism. He would walk through the streets ringing a bell to call the children to their studies. Said to have converted the entire city.
He scolded his patron, King John of Portugal, over the slave trade: “You have no right to spread the Catholic faith while you take away all the country’s riches. It upsets me to know that at the hour of your death you may be ordered out of paradise.”
Tremendously successful missionary for ten years in India, the East Indies, and Japan, baptizing more than 40,000. His epic finds him dining with head hunters, washing sores of lepers in Venice, teaching catechism to Indian children, baptizing 10,000 in a single month. He tolerated the most appalling conditions on long sea voyages, enduring extremes of heat and cold. Wherever he went he would seek out and help the poor and forgotten. He traveled thousands of miles, most on his bare feet, and he saw the greater part of the Far East. Had the gift of tongues. Miracle worker. Raised people from the dead. Calmed storms. Prophet. Healer.
That’s the number of immigrants that entered the United States from 1901-1921 — more than 15 million into a country of just 100 million people over 21 years.
What’s the big deal with 12 million illegal immigrants in a country of 300 million today?
NewMexiKen isn’t saying it isn’t an issue. Let’s just get a little historical perspective on it.
(Photo of sign on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and San Diego.)
“If you yourself are an immigrant, consider adopting an Irish accent. Everyone will find you too rakish and charming to deport, unless you accidentally travel back in time to the 19th Century.”
Wonkette reports on the immigration bill:
This is the funniest part of the Senate plan:
About 2.8 million illegal immigrants who have been in the country for more than two years but less than five would have three years to return to a port of entry along the border, such as El Paso, cross the border and apply for one of 450,000 green cards that will be available each year. Kennedy said the whole process could take less than a day, and the immigrants could then return to their U.S. homes. However, Republican aides warned that there would be no guarantees, and that some of those immigrants could get stuck across the border.This portion of the plan was drafted by Senator Rick Santorum’s 8 year-old son, Billy* and is based on both popular playground game “Red Rover Red Rover” and that thing where you tell your little sister that there’s a surprise for her on the front lawn and then lock the door when she goes to look.
… of Ravi Shankar. Norah Jones’ father is 86.
… of Hendley “The Scrounger,” Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford. That’s James Garner, 78 today.
… of Trapper. Wayne Rogers is 73.
… of Governor Moonbeam. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown is 68.
… of Francis Ford Coppola. The Oscar-winning writer and director is 67. 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 67.
… of Russell Crowe. The 3-time best actor Oscar nominee is 42. He won for Gladiator.
… of Tiki and Ronde. The Barber brothers are 31.
The second day of the battle known as Shiloh was fought on this date in 1862. It was the first great battle of the American Civil War. The following is from a contemporary report in The New York Times:
Gen. Buell having arrived on Sunday evening, in the morning the hall was opened at daylight, simultaneously by Gen. Nelson’s Division on the left, and Major-Gen. Wallace’s Division on the right. Gen. Nelson’s force opened up a most galling fire on the rebels, and advanced rapidly as they fell back. The fire soon became general along the whole line, and began to tell with terrible effect on the enemy. Generals McClernand, Sherman, and Hurlburt’s men, though terribly jaded from the previous day’s fighting still maintained their honors won at Donnelson, but the resistance of the rebels at all points of the attack was worthy a better cause.
But they were not enough for our undaunted bravery, and the dreadful desolation produced by our artillery, which was sweeping them away like chaff before the wind. But knowing that a defeat here would be the death blow to their hopes, and that their all depended upon this great struggle, their Generals still urged them on in the face of destruction, hoping by flanking us on the right to turn the tide of battle. Their success was again for a time cheering, as they began to gain ground on us, appearing to have been reinforced; but our left, under Gen. Nelson was driving them, and with wonderful rapidity, and by eleven o’clock Gen. Buell’s troops had succeeded in flanking them and capturing their batteries of artillery.
They however again rallied on the left, and recrossed another right forced themselves forward in another desperate effort. But reinforcements from General Wood and Gen. Thomas were coming in regiment after regiment, which were sent to Gen. Buell who had again commenced to drive the enemy.
About three o’clock in the afternoon Gen. Grant rode to the left, where the fresh regiments had been ordered, and finding the rebels wavering, sent a portion of his body-guard to the heart of each of five regiments, and then ordered a charge across the field, himself leading, as he brandished his sword and waved them on to the crowning victory, while cannon balls were falling like hail around him.
The men followed with a shout that sounded above the roar and din of the artillery, and the rebels fled in dismay, as from a destroying avalanche, and never made another stand.
“I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself.”
Audience member Harry Taylor to President Bush Thursday
“While I was watching the sweet sixteen college basketball games, my wife and I got into a conversation about life and death, and the need for living wills. During the course of the conversation I told her that I never wanted to exist in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and taking fluids from a bottle.
“She got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all my beer.”
From an email sent to Debby.
The Writer’s Almanac, often cited here at NewMexiKen, is now available as a daily podcast hosted by Garrison Keillor. Click for details.
An Act of Congress acquiring Ford’s Theatre by the federal government was approved on this date in 1866.
America’s transfer from civil war to peace was made more difficult on April 14, 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed, just five days after General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. A well-known actor, John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, stepped into the president’s box. Booth’s decision to pull the trigger altered the nation’s power to reconstruct after the war. Booth escaped into the night as Abraham Lincoln was carried to the Petersen boarding house across the street. It was there that President Lincoln died early the next morning, and became the first American president to be assassinated.
“Has the Straight Talk Express been rerouted through Bullshit Town?”
— Jon Stewart to Senator John McCain
From the Dixie Chicks (clicking link will take you to their website and play song).
I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over
I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should
The 100-foot Desperate Housewife. (Requires Google Earth)
More likely to attract aliens than the usual stuff we send on space capsules.
In case you don’t have Google Earth, here’s what you would see.
The 75-by-110-foot display is just outside Primm, Nevada, near the California state line. That’s a pickup at the bottom.
Excerpts from the recently discovered Gospel of Judas (via The New York Times). [pdf]
My prediction is that Tom [DeLay] will continue in his present life-calling and become a teevee evangelist…. It’s just like being a Congressman: the hours are good, you can have girlfriends on the side as long as you don’t get caught, you can get stoopid people to give you lotsa money, it helps if your wife cries a lot and can make “Jesus” a three-syllable word, and you get to wear fancy clothes…. He’ll hardly know the difference….
… of Andre Previn. The composer-conducter and 13-time Oscar nominee — he won for Gigi, Porgy and Bess, Irma la Douce and My Fair Lady — is 77. Previn was married to Mia Farrow for most of the 1970s. They had three children and adopted three more.
… of Merle Haggard. The Country Music Hall of Fame inductee is 69.
Haggard has recorded more than 600 songs, about 250 of them his own compositions. (He often shares writing credits as gestures of financial and personal largess.) He has had thirty-eight #1 songs, and his “Today I Started Loving You Again” (Capitol, 1968) has been recorded by nearly 400 other artists.
In addition, Haggard is an accomplished instrumentalist, playing a commendable fiddle and a to-be-reckoned-with lead guitar. He and the Strangers played for Richard Nixon at the White House in 1973, at a barbecue on the Reagan ranch in 1982, at Washington’s Kennedy Center, and 60,000 miles from earth—courtesy of astronaut Charles Duke, who brought a tape aboard Apollo 16 in 1972. Haggard has won numerous CMA and ACM Awards including both organizations’ 1970 Entertainer of the Year awards, been nominated for scores of others, was elected to the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1977, and won Country Music Hall of Fame membership in 1994. In 1984 he won a Grammy in the Best Country Vocal Performance, Male category for “That’s the Way Love Goes.” (Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
… of Billy Dee Williams. Lando Calrissian is 69. Williams played Gale Sayers in the classic 1971 TV movie Brian’s Song.
“There’s always been a lot of misunderstanding about Lando’s character. I used to pick up my daughter from elementary school and get into arguments with little children who would accuse me of betraying Han Solo.”
… of Barry Levinson. The six-time Oscar nominee (writing, directing) won for best director for Rain Man. He’s 64.
… of John Ratzenberger. Best known as Cliff Clavin the mailman on Cheers, Ratzenberger is also the voice of Hamm the Piggy Bank in the Toy Story movies and Yeti in Monsters, Inc. Ratzenberger is 59.
… of Jason Hervey. Wayne Arnold of “The Wonder Years” is 34.
… of Zach Braff. He’s 31 today.
… the first great battle of the American Civil War began on this date in 1862. The Union Army, under Grant, was encamped in a poorly chosen position at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee,. They were attacked by Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard early Sunday, April 6. By the end of the day, Confederates had catured the key position of Shiloh church and driven Union lines nearly to the Tennessee River. Grant, reinforced by Buell, counter attacked Monday morning, regained the lost ground, and forced the Confederates to retreat to Corinth, Mississippi. It was ostensibly a Union victory, though Grant was faulted for a lack of precaution that led to the first day’s disaster. Under criticism to remove Grant, Lincoln replied, “I can’t spare this man, he fights.”
According to James M. McPherson in Battle Cry of Freedom:
The 20,000 killed and wounded at Shiloh (about equally distributed between the two sides) were nearly double the 12,000 battle casualties at [First] Manassas, Wilson’s Creek, Fort Donelson, and Pea Ridge combined.
Shiloh was the beginning of total war.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans report possessing a library card, and most continue to visit the library in person at least once a year. These are among the findings of the American Library Association in its first “State of America’s Libraries” report. Released on Monday, the survey, conducted earlier this year, found that patrons’ use of some crucial library services had increased significantly since 2002: 81 percent of library visitors say they take out books (up 14 percentage points from 2002); 54 percent say they consult the librarian (up 7 points); 38 percent say they take out CD’s, videos or computer software (up 13 points); and 22 percent say they go to the library to attend special programs (up 8 points).
Mozart wasn’t poor; he just wasn’t much of a money manager. That is the suggestion of scholars who scoured Austrian archives for an exhibition that opened yesterday at the Musikverein in Vienna, The Associated Press reported. At a time when successful professionals were living comfortably on 450 florins a year, Mozart was earning about 10,000 florins — at least $42,000 in today’s terms, a sum that would have put him in the top 5 percent of wage earners in late-18th-century Vienna. “Mozart made a lot of money,” said Otto Biba, director of the Archive of the Friends of Music in Vienna. For centuries, nevertheless, Mozart has been portrayed as poor, and letters on display at the exhibition, devoted to his later years in Vienna, show that he repeatedly borrowed money from friends to pay for travel and social obligations; whatever wealth he had was long gone by the time he died at 35 in 1791. Although unable to buttress their suspicions, some experts believe that gambling debts bit heavily into his income, much of it, Mr. Biba said, derived from teaching piano to aristocrats.
So the way NewMexiKen understands it, Tom DeLay is leaving Congress to search for the real corruption.
