Author: NewMexiKen

Destination America

Smithsonian Magazine stimulates a little wanderlust.

From Custer’s Little Bighorn battlefield, to Eudora Welty’s Mississippi garden, to an underwater wonderland in the Florida Keys—seven destinations to entice our ever-discerning readers

I said go, go, go, little queenie

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

Her Majesty is 79 today. Her name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor. She signs Elizabeth R.

John Muir …

was born on this date in 1838. The following is from the autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt (1913) and was found at the Sierra Club’s online John Muir Exhibit.

When I first visited California, it was my good fortune to see the “big trees,” the Sequoias, and then to travel down into the Yosemite, with John Muir. Of course of all people in the world he was the one with whom it was best worth while thus to see the Yosemite. He told me that when Emerson came to California he tried to get him to come out and camp with him, for that was the only way in which to see at their best the majesty and charm of the Sierras. But at the time Emerson was getting old and could not go.

John Muir met me with a couple of packers and two mules to carry our tent, bedding, and food for a three days’ trip. The first night was clear, and we lay down in the darkening aisles of the great Sequoia grove. The majestic trunks, beautiful in color and in symmetry, rose round us like the pillars of a mightier cathedral than ever was conceived even by the fervor of the Middle Ages. Hermit thrushes sang beautifully in the evening, and again, with a burst of wonderful music, at dawn.

I was interested and a little surprised to find that, unlike John Burroughs, John Muir cared little for birds or bird songs, and knew little about them. The hermit-thrushes meant nothing to him, the trees and the flowers and the cliffs everything. The only birds he noticed or cared for were some that were very conspicuous, such as the water-ouzels always particular favorites of mine too. The second night we camped in a snow-storm, on the edge of the cañon walls, under the spreading limbs of a grove of mighty silver fir; and next day we went down into the wonderland of the valley itself. I shall always be glad that I was in the Yosemite with John Muir and in the Yellowstone with John Burroughs.

Isn’t the game hard enough without this?

The golf pros agree: You should size up the green closely, address the ball squarely and hold onto your club firmly.

Very firmly, if you’re playing golf in parts of the San Gabriel Valley.

A rash of golf club thefts at public courses there is leaving authorities frustrated and golfers downright furious.

On Friday, thieves even struck one course during a Los Angeles Police Department tournament and stole more than $2,500 worth of clubs from officers.

Los Angeles Times

My god, what would he have done if he’d had a Chrysler Sebring?

MIAMI (Reuters) – Fed up with his troublesome car, a Florida man fired five rounds from a semi-automatic pistol into the hood of the 1994 Chrysler LeBaron.

“I’m putting my car out of its misery,” 64-year-old John McGivney said after the incident outside an apartment building in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, according to a police report that listed the car as “deceased.”

McGivney surrendered to police, was jailed on a firearms charge on Friday and released on bond a day later. He told them the car had been giving him trouble for years.

Reuters

Link via dangerousmeta!

Big mistake

It seems a student stole a laptop from a UC Berkeley biology professor. Here is a link to a video of the professor’s warnings to the thief. (This is a RealPlayer video file. Skip to 48:50 of the 52-minute file.)

It will take you a couple minutes to set this up and watch, but worth it as you can almost feel the terror that must have been welling-up within the culprit as the professor continued.

Link via BoingBoing

The Indians’ Own Story

Thomas Powers, who usually writes about foreign and military affairs and intelligence, has a first-rate piece of work on American Indian history in the April 7, 2005, issue of The New York Review of Books. The 5,548 word article may be read online for $3.00.

What makes Powers’ review essay so valuable is that it discusses American Indian history as it has been maintained — both in the recent and in the more distant past — by Indians.

What the old stories tell us is that Indian peoples lived on the edge, were dependent on animals and weather, respected cunning as much as courage, and at night around the fire invented a literature half about coping and half about mysteries, with lots of jokes.

A valuable and informative article. Highly recommended.

Powers also references this stunning online exhibit of Lakota winter counts.

This is just his opinion

“The Big 5 of all time, musically, are probably Mozart, The Beatles, KC and the Sunshine Band, Beethoven and The Gap Band, though some could argue that Bach deserves to be in there somewhere. Maybe sub out Beethoven?”

Joel Achenbach

NewMexiKen would include The Kingsmen.

Smarter than the driver

Dan Neil reports on some intelligent new safety technology:

The new M45 is also equipped with Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) — now fairly commonplace in luxury cars — that above certain speeds maintains a pre-set following distance with the help of radar or laser emitters in the car’s nose. When the car ahead slows down, you slow down.

In Albuquerque (and elsewhere) this feature comes with an optional “Road Rage” setting that allows you to program your car to speed up when the vehicle in front of you slows down.

Digital cameras

Walter Mossberg has his “annual guide to buying a digital camera.”

Key points:

  • More megapixels don’t always mean better pictures.
  • [I]gnore digital zoom completely when shopping for a camera.
  • Be sure your camera has both an optical viewfinder and an LCD viewing screen.

Birthdays and stuff

Justice John Paul Stevens is 85 today. He went on the Court in 1975.

Actor George Takei is 68. That’s Mr. Sulu of Star Trek.

Ryan O’Neal, the actor who played the part of Al Gore in Love Story, is 64.

Coach Steve Spurrier is 60.

Six-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner Jessica Lange is 56.

And, of course, Ron Howard’s brother, Clint, is 46.

Dumbo, party of six, your table is ready

SEOUL (Reuters) – Six elephants escaped from a zoo and roamed around the South Korean capital Wednesday, briefly crashing their way into a restaurant before being rounded up, police and zoo officials said.

The elephants were on a parade led by mahouts outside their enclosure inside Seoul Children’s Grand Park in the east of the city when one was apparently startled and bolted, a zoo official said by telephone.

The five others followed “because they have the tendency to do that,” the official said.

Reuters

NewMexiKen doesn’t know what elephants would order in a Korean restaurant, but in a Chinese place they should try the Kung Po Chicken.

Pope 1 Wizards 0

BERLIN (Reuters) – The writings of Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI Tuesday, went straight in at number one on Germany’s book charts Wednesday, toppling the latest Harry Potter.

The German version of online retailer Amazon showed Ratzinger’s books in the top four spots and seven titles in the top 10.

Reuters

Ron Howard’s little brother

Clint is 46 today. He has appeared in many of his brother’s films — Cocoon and Apollo 13 come to mind, but most will remember Clint Howard as the 8-year-old kid in the TV series Gentle Ben. (Dennis Weaver was the dad.) Howard was also the voice of Roo in the Disney Winnie the Pooh films.

Since NewMexiKen first posted information about Clint Howard a year ago, the term “Ron Howard’s brother” (and variants) has been the most popular search term for people finding their way to the site.

Happy Birthday Clint.

As long as they play before those all-important finals

This item is a week old, but it’s the first I’d seen it. (I guess NewMexiKen just isn’t reading enough stuff on the internets.)

The NCAA Division I Management Council has backed legislation that would allow Division I-A and I-AA schools to add a 12th football game starting with the 2006 season.

The plan was given tentative approval by the council during its meeting Monday, but still must be approved by the NCAA Board of Directors when it meets April 28.

Division I vice president David Berst said Tuesday he didn’t know whether the NCAA board would give final approval for a 12th football game. Only the Atlantic Coast Conference was opposed to the proposal.

AP via The Washington Post