Author: NewMexiKen

NewMexiKen

… is away being a full-time grandpa. There may be sporadic posting these next few weeks, but real blogging, such as it is around here, will return on or about April Fool’s Day.

Feel free to comment among yourselves.

In the meanwhile, here’s a good line from Conan O’Brien:

“The makers of ‘Sesame Street’ have decided not to have Russell Crowe on as host of the show because he is not a good role model. Crowe was disappointed because he wanted to host an episode that was brought to you by the letters F and U.”

Oh, and Justice Antonin Scalia is 70 today, and NewMexiKen’s one-time boss’s boss, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, is 52.

Cape Lookout National Seashore (North Carolina)

… was established on this date in 1966.

Cape Lookout

The seashore is a 56 mile long section of the Outer Banks of North Carolina running from Ocracoke Inlet on the northeast to Beaufort Inlet on the southeast. The three undeveloped barrier islands which make up the seashore – North Core Banks, South Core Banks and Shackleford Banks – may seem barren and isolated but they offer many natural and historical features that can make a visit very rewarding.

Cape Lookout National Seashore

The February Revolution

… began in Russia on this date in 1917.

The February Revolution was the first stage of the Russian Revolution. Mostly bloodless, it led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. Ultimately, the regime begun in the February Revolution was replaced during the October (Bolshevik) Revolution.

[Russia was still using the Julian Calendar in 1917. Hence, March 8 elsewhere was February 23 in Russia; November 7 was October 25 .]

John McPhee

… the Pulitizer Prize winner is 75 today. The Writer’s Almanac has this:

It’s the birthday of writer John McPhee, born in Princeton, New Jersey (1931) and considered one of the greatest living literary journalists. He is known for the huge range of his subjects. He has written about canoes, geology, tennis, nuclear energy, and the Swiss army. He once researched his own family tree and traced it back to a Scotsman who moved to Ohio to become a coal miner. He said, “[That coal miner] has about a hundred and thirty descendants who have sprayed out into the American milieu, and they have included railroad engineers, railroad conductors, brakemen, firemen, steelworkers, teachers, football coaches, a chemist, a chemical engineer, a policeman, a grocer and salesmen.”

In his book Oranges (1967), about the orange-growing business, he wrote, “An orange grown in Florida usually has a thin and tightly fitting skin, and it is also heavy with juice. Californians say that if you want to eat a Florida orange you have to get into a bathtub first. California oranges are light in weight and have thick skins that break easily and come off in hunks. The flesh inside is marvelously sweet, and the segments almost separate themselves. In Florida, it is said that you can run over a California orange with a ten-ton truck and not even wet the pavement.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

… was born on this date in 1841. Three times wounded in the Civil War, Holmes survived to become a prominent legal scholar, Chief Judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1902-1932. He is considered one of the greatest of the Supreme Court justices.

But the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done…. The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force…. The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Schenck v. United States, Baer v. United States, 249 U.S. 52 (1919).

But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas—that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, dissenting, Abrams et al. v. United States, 250 U.S. 630 (1919).

Pope Nano I

Pope Benedict XVI was given the £139 gizmo by staff at Vatican Radio.

It stores 1,000 tracks and his officials have loaded it with his favourites — mostly religious music, plus pieces by Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin.

The Pope, 78, is a pianist and appreciates good music. He has been spotted around the Vatican using his iPod and distinctive white earphones. A spokesman said: “He is very pleased with the iPod.”

The Sun Online

NewMexiKen is thinking Benedict’s iPod must have a copy of “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pope.”

Take a walk

The American Podiatric Medical Association has ranked 100 American cities on “their walking conducive environments and habits.” Here’s the top 10:

#1 Portland, OR: Portland consistently ranked in the top 25 percent in each of the competition’s criteria. With cool summers and relatively mild winters, walkers in Portland can hit the streets and trails year round.

#2 Colorado Springs, CO: Colorado Springs scored extremely high in both the general physical fitness index and the percentage of adults that participate in sports.

#3 Madison, WI: Ranking fourth in miles of trails per square mile, Madison also has more residents that bike to work than any other city in the nation.

#4 Boise, ID: The largest city in the Gem State boasts a high percentage of adults that participate in athletics, and ranked fourth in the number of residents that walk for exercise.

#5 Las Vegas, NV: More than glitz and gambling, this desert oasis has a high number of households that are physically active and participate in sports.

#6 Austin, TX: Home to the main campus of the University of Texas and a vibrant downtown, Austin scored favorably because of its many parks and the number of residents that bike for exercise.

#7 Virginia Beach, VA: More than just a haven for beach goers, Virginia Beach reached the top ten due to a low crime rate, lots of parks and the number of residents that play golf.

#8 Anchorage, AK: Despite a chilly climate, Anchorage made the list because of its vast square mileage of parks and more dog owners than any other city in the U.S. Nearly 50 percent of Anchorage residents walk for exercise.

#9 Fremont, CA: Topping the list for the number of residents who walk for health, Fremont outscored many cities because of the number of residents that take public transportation to work.

#10 Raleigh, NC: With several parks to choose from, Raleigh residents have many places to walk.

Albuquerque is 17th. Here’s the list of all 100 (small PDF).

How ‘Crash’ went bang

From the Los Angeles Times‘ The Envelope.com, a report on how Crash campaigned and won. An excerpt:

Much of the morning-after punditry and blog logic has centered on whether members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had trouble giving “Brokeback Mountain” a best picture nod because of its gay love theme. Another theory: Like a cinematic John Edwards, “Brokeback” peaked too early and its Oscar buzz dissipated.

In fact, the key to the success of “Crash” was that the film itself — and the carefully orchestrated promotional campaign undertaken by its distributor, Lionsgate — appealed to the academy’s largest voting bloc: actors. With 22% of the voting members, the acting contingent is nearly three times as big as the next-largest group, producers.

It was actors — specifically, those in Los Angeles — who were targeted to deliver votes. And judging by the upset, deliver they did.

Playing dress up

Dan Neil had a big Hollywood party to attend Sunday evening. An excerpt:

This would be the place to establish my cool cynicism about the affair, to assert my purely forensic interest in the entertainment industry—which is, first of all, an industry, a business, and not a very pretty one despite the relative prettiness of the employees. Yes, I have many sober things to say about the crass and empty, and destructive, illusionism of Hollywood, which I’d be happy to run up the rhetorical flagpole if only I weren’t so worried about what I’m going to wear.

Now, obviously, my sartorial dilemma is nothing, nothing compared to my wife’s, a fact she hastens to point out. But Tina has an advantage. She would look fabulous in anything—a dress made of chocolate-covered doughnuts, or parking citations, or pink building insulation. If she went wearing a family of possums, the next week you’d see wives in the OC sporting possum couture.

Me? Not so much.

Where did she inherit this obsessive/compulsive behavior?

Jill, official oldest daughter of NewMexiKen likes the Oscars:

I got up at 9:00 this morning on my only morning to sleep in and drove to Fairfax Corner to see the 10:15AM showing of Good Night and Good Luck. … Except that there was no 10:15am showing. It is a PM showing. And a 10:15PM showing only (no other options, not playing at any other remotely local theaters.) So I was screwed.

It was a mistake in their listing, so I threw a hissy fit with management and got a free pass for any time in the next month (so useful) [baby due March 23]. But, for only the second time in 14 years, I will not see all five nominees before the Oscars.

For the record, NewMexiKen has seen only three of the five best picture nominees (missing Munich and Brokeback). Also for the record, I seriously considered seeing both today.

And, for the record, my main picks: Crash, Ang Lee, Hoffman and Huffman, Dillon and Weisz. Not exactly going out on any limbs. (Posted at 2:30 PM MST)

Update: Just four for six for the main awards, but elsewhere I scored 17 of 24.

Our Financial Failings

Meet the typical American family. It has about $3,800 in the bank. No one has a retirement account, and the neighbors who do only have about $35,000 in theirs. Mutual funds? Stocks? Bonds? Nope. The house is worth $160,000, but the family owes $95,000 on it to the bank. The breadwinners make more than $43,000 a year but can’t manage to pay off a $2,200 credit card balance.

That is the portrait of the median American household as painted by the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances.

The Washington Post

Boston Massacre

On March 5, 1770 the Twenty-Ninth Regiment came to the relief of the Eighth on duty at the Customs House on King (now State) Street [Boston]. The soldiers, led by Captain Thomas Preston, were met by a large and taunting crowd of civilians. Captain Preston was unable to disperse the crowd and as they chanted “Fire and be damned” he ordered his troops “Don’t Fire!” With all the commotion the soldiers probably did not hear his orders and they opened fire on the crowd killing three men instantly and another two who died later.

It all started March 5 by a couple of boys throwing snowballs at British soldiers. A crown soon gathered throwing ice and making fun of them. Soon after, the British started firing wildly. Other weapons were clubs, knives, swords, and a popular weapon, your own bare hands.

The people that died are: Crispus Attacks, one of the more famous people who was an African American sailor, Samuel Gray, a worker at rope walk, James Caldwell, a mate on a American ship, Samuel Maverick, who was a young seventeen year old male, and Patrick Carr, a feather maker.

Both excerpts from the Boston Massacre Historical Society, which has a wonderful web site with everything about the “Massacre.”

Momma, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys

Joel Achenbach shows his kids a real western movie with The Duke and …

Naturally, I had to show the kids a John Wayne movie. We went to the video store and settled on “Red River.” Directed by Howard Hawks, co-starring Montgomery Clift. The teaser explained that John Wayne plays a cowboy who takes his massive herd on a long cattle drive. Perfect: A cowboy movie with lots of cows.

A little ways into the movie, the young Montgomery Clift makes his first appearance, playing “Matt,” the adopted son of the John Wayne character. He sort of . . . slinks around. Pantherish. Boy, he’s one pretty cowboy.

Another handsome young man, played by John Ireland, shows up and wants to join the cattle drive. Matt bristles at the newcomer, but it’s clear that the two lads are instantly fascinated with each other.

“That’s a good-lookin’ gun you were about to use back there. Can I see it?” the Ireland character says.

Matt hands him his gun.

“Maybe you’d like to see mine.”

Whoooaaaaaa, dogie!

There’s more like that — flirtatious comments about Matt’s gun. Mock hurt. Why did the new guy want to go on the cattle drive? “Just a notion I had, then Matt turned me down. Made me want to go. Besides, then I took a liking to that gun of his.”

I was practically shouting at the screen, “Get a room!”

Later I found out from the Internet what every film buff and “Brokeback” reviewer knows: “Red River” is famous for its suggestion of homoerotic behavior on the range. The “gay cowboy movie” has a long history. …

Which is exactly why Crash will get the Oscar.