… of Scotty Moore. Elvis Presley’s guitarist for 14 years is 72.
… of John Amos. Adm. Percy Fitzwallace (West Wing), Toby (Kunta Kinte as adult) and J.J.’s father (Good Times) is 63.
… of Cokie Roberts. The daughter of Hale and Lindy Boggs is 61.
… of Gérard Depardieu. The actor who has played more famous characters than even Charlton Heston (Cyrano De Bergerac, Jean de Florette, Christopher Columbus, Honoré de Balzac, Le Comte de Monte Cristo, Porthos, Auguste Rodin, Franco, Danton) is 56.
Last week NewMexiKen read Thomas Frank’s exceeding insightful analysis of why social conservatives vote against their apparent economic best interests — What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. I recommend it highly for observations such as this:
Although the Cons [Conservative Republicans] vituperate against the high and the mighty, the policies they help exact—deregulating, privatizing—only serve to make the Mods [Moderate Republicans] higher and mightier still…. For decades Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting…. The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their first at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the Leawood toffs. They are massing at the gates of Mission Hills, hoisting the black flag, and while millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. “We are here,” they scream, “to cut your taxes.”
A fascinating essay about Jared Diamond’s new book — Collapse — from Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker.
From The Writer’s Almanac:
Today is Boxing Day and St. Stephen’s Day in England, Canada, and several other countries. The origins of this national holiday are not certain, but the holiday might have started from an old custom of wealthy estate-owners giving small gifts or money, wrapped in boxes, to their servants and those who worked for them. Servants were needed on Christmas to help with their masters’ holiday events, so they often were given a rest the next day. St. Stephen is honored today for being the first Christian martyr, having been stoned to death for blasphemy.
… of Montgomery Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy. Harry Shearer is 61.
“President Bush got an early Christmas gift. This week, President Bush was chosen as ‘Person of the Year’ by Time magazine. Not only that, Martha Stewart was chosen as person of the year by Doing Time magazine.”
— Conan O’Brien
“Yesterday, I received a Christmas card from Donald Rumsfeld in the mail. Would have been nice if he had actually signed it.”
— David Letterman
“Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.”
— Bart Simpson
Thanks to The Sonoran Son.
… of Steve Carlton. Lefty is 60.
… of Diane Sawyer. She’s 59.
is 92 today. NewMexiKen worked at the LBJ Library in the mid-1970s and met and occasionally chatted with Mrs. Johnson. She was a warm, impressive and attractive woman.
… of Paul Winchell. The voice of Jerry Mahoney is 82.
… of Joe Paterno. The coach who should retire from Penn State is 78.
… of Phil Donahue. The liberal talk show host is 69.
… of Jane Fonda. Barbarella is 67.
… of Carla Thomas. Gee Whiz, she’s 62.
… of Chris Evert. The tennis hall-of-famer is 50.
… of Jane Kaczmarek. Malcolm’s mom is 49.
… of Ray Romano. Raymond is 47.
Winter began in the Northern Hemisphere at 5:42 this morning Mountain Standard Time.
Wonderful versions of carols from the Irish vocal group Anuna on Winter Songs.
Available on iTunes as Christmas Songs.
Link via First Draft.
NewMexiKen feels a cold coming on — it is after all the week of Christmas. I’m doing all I can think of — even have the humidifier and the de-humidifier both going full blast.
From the Los Angeles Times:
In what could best be described as a terrible case of buyer’s remorse, Rick Majerus apparently plans to resign as USC men’s basketball coach, only days after calling it his “dream job.”
Majerus, 56, who said last week he had bought himself out of his reported five-year, $500,000 contract as an ESPN analyst, will return to the cable network, ESPN officials said Saturday night.
…
Days Name Team Outcome 1 Eddie Stanky Rangers Quit after managing one game in 1977. 2 Britney Spears Celebrity Annulled ’04 marriage to Jason Alexander. 4 Wally Backman Diamondbacks Fired in ’04 when legal trouble discovered. 5 George O’Leary Notre Dame Resigned in ’01; lied about background. 9 Cher Celebrity Divorced Gregg Allman in ’75 21 Dan Marino Dolphins Quit as team executive in 04. 31 William Henry Harrison Presidency 9th president died of pneumonia in 1841. 34 Magic Johnson Lakers Finished ’94 season as coach; didn’t return.
was first published on this date in 1843.
Scrooge. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
… of Al Kaline. The hall of fame right fielder is 70.
… of Kevin McHale. The basketball hall-of-fame member is 47.
… of Mike Lookinland. Bobby Brady is 44.
Three observations, also gleaned from Perfectly Legal:
While the overall annual pay increase for everyone in America averaged a nickel an hour between 1970 and 2000, chief executives won pay raises that averaged $660 per hour per year.
*****Microsoft began with a gift from his parents, Bill. Sr. and the late Mary Gates. And in significant ways it was the taxpayers who made that gift possible. The father went to college on the GI Bill. The couple bought their first house with a VA loan. Those investments by the taxpayers paid off for the Gates family, as they did for millions of other Americans. … [T]he taxpayers also paid a salary to Mrs. Gates when she taught public school. So not only did the country’s largest fortune begin with a gift that was tax-free, but also the gift money was there because of the taxpayers.
*****Repealing the estate tax, [Warren] Buffet said, is “the equivalent in economic terms of choosing our Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics. … Without the estate tax, you in effect will have an aristocracy of wealth, which means you pass down the ability to command the resources of the nation based on heredity rather than merit.”
We often read about the state of the American economy in terms of averages. As David Cay Johnston points out in his book Perfectly Legal however, averages can be misleading.
When Bill Gates walks into a café where a dozen people are already eating, the average wealth in the room rises to billions of dollars, hardly a reasonable picture of the situation.
An interesting email message from a Marine Gunnery Sergeant in Iraq.
Go read it.
The attempts to de-Christianize Christmas are as absurd as they are relentless. The United States today is the most tolerant and diverse society in history. It celebrates all faiths with an open heart and open-mindedness that, compared to even the most advanced countries in Europe, are unique.
Yet more than 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and probably 95 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Day is an official federal holiday, the only day of the entire year when, for example, the Smithsonian museums are closed. Are we to pretend that Christmas is nothing but an orgy of commerce in celebration of . . . what? The winter solstice?
I personally like Christmas because, since it is a day that for me is otherwise ordinary, I get to do nice things, such as covering for as many gentile colleagues as I could when I was a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital. I will admit that my generosity had its rewards: I collected enough chits on Christmas Day to get reciprocal coverage not just for Yom Kippur but for both days of Rosh Hashana and my other major holiday, Opening Day at Fenway.
was designated as such on this date in 1971. It had been a national monument since 1937.
NewMexiKen thinks college football (at all levels) should come together for an annual awards ceremony to present the Heisman, Bednarik, Biletnikoff, Butkus, Walter Camp, Groza, Ray Guy, Hendricks, Lombardi, Mackey, Maxwell, Nagurski, O’Brien, Outland, Thorpe, Unitas, Doak Walker, Walter Payton and other awards.
As it is, because it’s presented by the New York Athletic Club, the Heisman gets a disproportionate amount of publicity while some of these other actually more important awards are presented in relative anonymity. A televised awards show (throw in coach of the year, best cheerleaders, what-have-you) could be a popular post season event I’d think.
And another thing. How come these awards are given before the bowl games? When first established, many of the bowl games were just post season fun. Now, with the BCS especially, the outcome of these games is critical for a team. Why determine awards before the most important game of the season?
From The Sports Network:
William & Mary quarterback Lang Campbell was named the 18th winner of the Walter Payton Award [Friday night] at the Division I-AA College Football Awards held in Chattanooga, TN on the eve of the I-AA national championship game.
Campbell completed a remarkable 66 percent of his passes (215-of-326) for 3,037 yards. He tossed 21 touchdowns while throwing just one interception in the regular season.
Without the benefit of polls or computers, the James Madison University Dukes defeated the University of Montana Grizzlies 31-21 Friday night to become the football champions of NCAA Division I-AA.
James Madison is a state university in Harrisonburg, Virginia (in the Shenandoah Valley).
rode out on what is now Sun Point in search of lost cattle on this date in 1888 and first saw Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. That afternoon, Richard found Spruce Tree House, and the next day, the two men discovered Square Tower House. Al Wetherill, Richard’s brother, saw Cliff Palace sometime the year before, but he did not enter the dwelling, so the credit for “discovering” the dwelling has been given to Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason.
In 1901, Richard Wetherill homesteaded land that included Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo Del Arroyo, and Chetro Ketl in what is now Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Wetherill remained in Chaco Canyon, homesteading and operating a trading post at Pueblo Bonito until his controversial murder in 1910. Chiishch’ilin Biy, charged with his murder, served several years in prison, but was released in 1914 due to poor health. Wetherill is buried in the small cemetery west of Pueblo Bonito.