Author Carlos Fuentes on the saving grace of literature. He begins:
Not long ago, the Norwegian Academy addressed one hundred writers from all over the world with a single question: Name the novel that you consider the best ever written.
Of the one hundred consulted, fifty answered: “Don Quixote de la Mancha” by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Quite a landslide, considering the runners up: Dostoevsky, Faulkner and Garcia Marquez, in that order.
The Writer’s Almanac has a nice new look.
New Mexico and one of the oldest American Indian tribes in the United States will be recognized Thursday when a statue of Popé, the San Juan Pueblo leader who organized the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, will be enshrined in the National Statuary Hall in the nation’s Capitol.
“In a city of monuments, there will be a pueblo person representing one of the most ancient tribes, so I think that’s very significant,” said Herman Agoyo, past president of the New Mexico Statuary Hall Foundation and San Juan tribal council member.
Each state is allowed two statues in Statuary Hall. New Mexico’s other statue is of Dennis Chavez, U.S. Senator from 1935-1962.
NewMexiKen votes for Popé and replacing the honorable Senator Chavez with one of the Unsers.
From an article in the Los Angeles Times:
As debates over Social Security and Medicare heat up, Americans might feel like doing what the old urban myth says the Inuit do: Ship the old folks out on the ice floes. It’s cheap, simple and good for the polar bears.
It is also, arguably, a bit coldhearted. So here’s a warm and loving alternative that the U.S. government should endorse: Send the old people to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
By one estimate, almost 20% of gross domestic product will go to seniors by 2030. Baby boomers are the first generation of grasshoppers in U.S. history. Their parents and grandparents, scarred by the Depression, scrimped and saved. The boomers put it on plastic. With private household savings rates near all-time lows, bills are coming due and the facts are increasingly clear: Some boomers not only won’t be able to afford the retirement they dream of, many won’t even be able to afford the retirement they fear.
Key quote: “For the price of a condo in Phoenix, you can often have a villa in Mexico.”
From Wired News:
My playlist has a total of 17 songs by the band, so it seemed highly unlikely that two of them would be bunched so close together in a random order. But I was wrong about that.
The problem, it turns out, isn’t that the programs aren’t randomizing my playlists. They are. According to Jeff Lait, a mathematician and author of randomm3u, it’s what’s happening between my ears, specifically, in my expectations of what it means for something to be random.
To illustrate his point, Lait referred to a phenomenon statisticians call the birthday paradox. Roughly stated, it holds that if there are 23 randomly selected people in a room, there is a better than 50-50 chance that at least two of them will have the same birthday. The point: Mathematical randomness often contradicts our intuitive expectations of randomness.
What we want, Lait says, isn’t a list that’s been randomized, but one that’s been stratified, or separated into categories that are weighted by a listener’s preferences. A stratified playlist might select songs randomly but would be smart enough to throw out choices that, say, would repeat a band within 10 songs.
The article goes on to describe iTunes’ new Smart Shuffle that will randomize music with selected parameters.
Of course, until iTunes can read your mind and determine what you really want to hear next, it’ll never totally satisfy. But they’re getting scarily closer.
Two excerpts from Paul Krugman’s column in today’s New York Times:
… By all accounts Ronald Reagan, who declared in his Inaugural Address that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” wasn’t personally racist. But he repeatedly used a bogus tale about a Cadillac-driving Chicago “welfare queen” to bash big government. And he launched his 1980 campaign with a pro-states’-rights speech in Philadelphia, Miss., a small town whose only claim to fame was the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers.
Under George W. Bush – who, like Mr. Reagan, isn’t personally racist but relies on the support of racists – the anti-government right has reached a new pinnacle of power. And the incompetent response to Katrina was the direct result of his political philosophy. When an administration doesn’t believe in an agency’s mission, the agency quickly loses its ability to perform that mission.
…Consider this: in the United States, unlike any other advanced country, many people fail to receive basic health care because they can’t afford it. Lack of health insurance kills many more Americans each year than Katrina and 9/11 combined.
Bill Medley is 65 today. Medley is the Righteous Brother with the deep voice. It was he who sang the opening verse in the great, great classic “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” It was the late Bobby Hatfield, the tenor , who generally took the lead on Righteous Brother songs. Cynthia Weil, who wrote “Lovin’ Feelin’,” told this story:
After Phil [Spector], Barry [co-writer Barry Mann] and I finished the song, we took it over to The Righteous Brothers. Bill Medley, who has the low voice, seemed to like the song. I remember Bobby Hatfield saying, “But what do I do while he’s singing the whole first verse???? and Phil said, “You can go directly to the bank!???
Hall of Fame ballplayers Duke Snider and Joe Morgan were born on this date — Snider is 79, Morgan 62. When I think of Morgan I think of an interview during a World Series in the early 1970s. Howard Cossell asked Morgan, “What does it feel like to know you are the best person in the world at what you do?”
Roger Angell, the wonderful writer known foremost for his essays on baseball in The New Yorker, is 85 today.
Actor Adam West, TV’s Batman, is 75. David McCallum, TV’s Illya Kuryakin, is 72.
And the Mary Tyler Show debuted on this date 35 years ago.
 |
… is two today. |
| Here’s the story of his arrival. |
It’s Talk Like A Pirate Day.
I’m sure me timbers will be shivering all day.
208 years ago today (1777) Continental soldiers under General Horatio Gates defeated the British at Saratoga, New York. A second battle was fought at Saratoga on October 17, 1777. American victory in the battles turned the war in the colonists favor and helped persuade the French to recognize American independence and provide military assistance.
Four search topics are each generating just under five percent of the searches that bring folks to NewMexiKen — largest college stadiums, Louisiana 1927, “iTunes redux,” and Ron Howard’s brother. “iPod user manual” brings in about a percent-and-a-half of the searches; “Omarosa nude” just under one percent.
Blogging may be slowed because I have a $2300 laptop with two broken $5 cover hinges. Hard to keep the lid open and the monitor titled at a usable angle. And, of course, any movement of the laptop — like to my lap — makes whatever Rube Goldberg arrangement I’ve configured inoperable.
NewMexiKen admits this 32-month old computer has been dragged around the country and been a workhorse, but I’m still irritated that they used what appear to be plastic hinges. Previous desktops lasted 4½ years each. And, in fact, the latter HP is still going stong after 7½ years.
For the record, the computing part of this Toshiba Satellite seems to work great. External hardware is the problem — the hinges, a speaker that shorts out, a broken key, an original power pack that died, a battery nearly dead, stuff like that. Am I expecting too much after this amount of time?
James Gandolfini is 44 today. Big party at the Bada Bing.
Actor Jack Warden is 85. Warden was nominated twice for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar — for Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait. NewMexiKen liked him best as juror # 7 in 12 Angry Men.
Frankie Avalon is 65. (Annette will be 63 next month.)
And C.J. Sanders, the kid who played the young Ray (Charles) Robinson, is 9.
As previously, USATODAY.com posts Jeff Sagarin’s computer rankings for college football. Here’s his top 10 through yesterday’s games. A little different from the opinion polls of ESPN/USA Today and AP. (Includes team rank, rating and won-loss record.)
1 Southern California = 98.64 2-0
2 Florida State = 98.44 3-0
3 LSU = 97.78 1-0
4 Miami-Florida = 97.34 1-1
5 Texas = 91.32 3-0
6 Wisconsin = 90.58 3-0
7 Virginia Tech = 89.78 3-0
8 Georgia Tech = 89.43 3-0
9 Florida = 89.36 3-0
10 Louisville = 88.96 2-0
Sagarin rates all 239 Division I teams, 1-to-239.
[Update: Sagarin link is to current week, not to the week this was written.]
Donna, official friend of NewMexiKen, had a harrowing flight this evening. About ten minutes after take off from Salt Lake City she said it felt as it the pilot had hit the brakes. They returned to Salt Lake under emergency conditions, landing with the runways all to themselves.
While they sat on the suspect aircraft the mechanics went to work. Ultimately, the passengers heard a mechanic tell the pilot, “I really think you’ll be OK.” After that, even the pilot seemed unwilling to try again.
So, Donna and her colleagues decided to scramble to another flight. There they found two mechanics working on that plane; something about rebooting the computers. Ultimately she made it back to Albuquerque on the second plane.
And through this all Donna could only remember what her father, an American Airlines mechanic, had warned her — “Never, never fly on an airline that’s in bankruptcy.”
America’s bloodiest day:
| Killed: | Union 2,000 | Confederate 1,550 | Total Killed: 3,650 |
| Wounded: | Union 9,550 | Confederate 7,750 | Total Wounded: 17,300 |
| Missing/Captured: | Union 750 | Confederate 1,020 | Total Missing: 1,770 |
| Total: | Union 12,400 | Confederate 10,320 | Total Casualties: 22,720 |
As a rule of thumb, about 20% of the wounded died of their wounds and 30% of the missing had been killed (in the days before dog-tags to identify the dead). Accordingly, an estimate of the total dead from the one-day battle: 7,640.
Source: National Park Service
Hiram Williams was born on this date 82 years ago. We know him as Hank.
Hank Williams’s legend has long overtaken the rather frail and painfully introverted man who spawned it. Almost singlehandedly, Williams set the agenda for contemporary country songcraft, but his appeal rests as much in the myth that even now surrounds his short life. His is the standard by which success is measured in country music on every level, even self-destruction.
The Country Music Hall of Fame goes on to tell us:
The peak years of Hank Williams’s career were 1950 and 1951. He was one of the most successful touring acts in country music. Every one of his records charted, except for those issued as Luke the Drifter and his religious duets with Audrey. His songs, which had matured greatly since the demos he had submitted to Molly O’Day, began finding a wider market than his own recordings of them ever could. Starting with “Honky Tonkin'” in 1949, his songs had been covered for the pop market, but it was not until Tony Bennett covered “Cold, Cold Heart” in 1951 that he began to be recognized as an important popular songwriter. From that point, there was a rush to reinterpret his songs for the pop market. Guy Mitchell, for instance, had a hit with “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You”), and the duo of Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford took “Hey, Good Lookin'” into the pop Top Ten.
And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Williams is also and inductee, says:
The words and music of Hank Williams echo across the decades with a timelessness that transcends genre. He brought country music into the modern era, and his influence spilled over into the folk and rock arenas as well. Artists ranging from Gram Parsons and John Fogerty (who recorded an entire album of Williams’ songs after leaving Creedence Clearwater Revival) to the Georgia Satellites and Uncle Tupelo have adapted elements of Williams’ persona, especially the aura of emotional forthrightness and bruised idealism communicated in his songs. Some of Williams’ more upbeat country and blues-flavored numbers, on the other hand, anticipated the playful abandon of rockabilly.
Hank Williams died in the back seat of his Cadillac. He was found and declared dead on New Year’s Day 1953. He was 29.
… but just in case.
Someone asked me today what was the difference between straw and hay.
Straw is used for animal bedding. It’s the chaff from grains like wheat.
Hay is used for food. It’s grass. A prominent type is alfalfa.
There will be a pop quiz later.
From an article in The New York Times:
In the last several years, New York City has had more baby girls named Fatoumata than Lisa, more Aaliyahs than Melissas, more Chayas than Christinas. There have been more baby boys named Moshe than Peter, more Miguels than Jeffreys, more Ahmeds than Stanleys. …
But the reverse also happens. Jose and Luis were the top two names for Hispanic baby boys in 1980. But today they have slipped out of the Top 10, behind names like Brandon, Kevin and Christopher. The top Hispanic baby name today is Justin.
A master sergeant assigned to the 58th Training Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico has claimed a $93.4 million Powerball jackpot. John San Cartier correctly matched all six numbers drawn on August 10. San chose the $52.2 million lump-sum option. After federal withholding taxes of 25 percent and state withholding taxes of six percent, he will receive a one-time wire transfer of approximately $36 million.
Expected Jackpot tonight about the same: $92 million.
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.
On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document and send it to the states for ratification.
“Of all the days on all the fields where American soldiers have fought, the most terrible by almost any measure was September 17, 1862. The battle waged on that date, close by Antietam Creek at Sharpsburg in western Maryland, took a human toll never exceeded on any other single day in the nation’s history. So intense and sustained was the violence, a man recalled, that for a moment in his mind’s eye the very landscape around him turned red.”
Stephen W. Sears
Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam
The New York Times coverage from 1862 is online.
“At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.”
— P. G. Wodehouse, Uneasy Money
Luis was thinking snow when the weather got cooler in Denver earlier in the week, but I bet he wasn’t thinking of it like these Snowflake and Snow Crystal Photos.
Amazing.
Go look at this photo and tell me that surfer’s arms and legs aren’t already a little messed up.
From a story in the Los Angeles Times.