Functional Ambivalent is lamenting that he only has nine readers and Kos has a half-million. FA’s commentary is very good lately — thoughtful, provocative, occasionally even clever. You should take a look.
Let’s see if we can’t boost his readership to 11 or 12.
essayist and editor, was born on this date in 1880.
was authorized on this date 40 years ago. From the National Park Service:
Canyonlands National Park preserves a colorful landscape of sedimentary sandstones eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by the Colorado River and its tributaries. The Colorado and Green rivers divide the park into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze and the rivers themselves. While the districts share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character and offers different opportunities for exploration and learning.
NewMexiKen hasn’t test driven the Porsche Cayenne to see how it feels, but I sure do like the way it sounds.
was born on this date in 1852. We know him as O. Henry.
NewMexiKen posted O. Henry’s most famous story, The Gift of the Magi, here in its entirety last Christmas.
Another particular favorite is The Ransom of Red Chief.
Two immortal football coaches share this birthday.
Paul “Bear” Bryant was born on this date in 1913.
Tom Landry was born on this date in 1924.
Poynter.org has a gallery of front pages from September 11 and 12, 2001.
A.O. Scott asks some questions in his generally favorable review of Cellular:
All of this happens before you have time to ask how a science teacher can afford a brand-new Porsche Cayenne and a Brentwood mansion with live-in help, or why, on a day when school is in session, this particular science teacher is not at work. (You may also wonder why none of your science teachers looked or dressed like Ms. Basinger, but never mind.) But to pose such questions — and others that arise during the diverting, implausible 89 minutes of “Cellular,” which opens today nationwide — is to miss the point and spoil the fun.
As regular readers know, NewMexiKen is a big fan of “Sideline Chatter” the sports column written by Dwight Perry and published every weekday in The Seattle Times — “a not-so-safe haven for the humorous, offbeat and bizarre events and characters that color the sports landscape.”
Dwight is taking a few days off right now but I thought many would appreciate knowing that before today he actually published 602 consecutive weekday columns (since May 2002).
“I escaped duty in Vietnam by deferring my birth until 1982.”
— Jesse Taylor at Pandagon. He says there’s documentation.
South Knox Bubba’s Mom takes the long view —
I was talking to my Mom the other day. She’s an FDR New Deal Yellow Dog Democrat. I don’t think she’s ever voted for a Republican, except maybe Jimmy Duncan.
I was shocked when she said she would probably vote for Bush. Her reasoning is that she wants him to be responsible for “cleaning up the mess.”
I told her it would be better to fire him and get somebody capable of cleaning up the mess he made. Mrs. Bubba says my Mom is thinking ahead to 2008. Four more years of Bush will put Republicans in the dog house for a long, long time. My Mom is smart like that, and her generation knows about sacrifice for the long term and the greater good.
“I saw John Edwards at a town meeting in N.H. yesterday, and he was manfully running down the issues like health care and college aid, and it was like I’d wandered into a different election.”
— Charles Pierce writing at Altercation
From America’s Finest News Source —
WASHINGTON, DC—Military and political strategists agreed Monday that President Bush’s re-election campaign has been executed with greater precision than the war in Iraq. “Judging from the initial misrepresentation of intelligence data and the ongoing crisis in Najaf, I assumed the president didn’t know his ass from his elbow,” said Col. Dale Henderson, a military advisor during the Reagan Administration. “But on the campaign trail, he’s proven himself a master of long-term planning and unflinching determination. How else can you explain his strength in the polls given this economy?”
Arnold Palmer is 75 today. Wonder if he can shoot his age.
From CNN.com —
A man who tried to shoot seven puppies was shot himself when one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver’s trigger.
Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, was charged with felony animal cruelty, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday. He was being treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound to his wrist.
Bradford said he decided to shoot the 3-month-old shepherd-mix dogs in the head because he couldn’t find them a home, according to the sheriff’s office.
On Monday, Bradford was holding two puppies — one in his arms and another in his left hand — when the dog in his hand wiggled and put its paw on the trigger of the .38-caliber revolver. The gun then discharged, the sheriff’s report said.
“What’s the difference when you have a professor and a dog at your back door?
“When you let them in, the dog stops whining.”
— New Mexico State Professor Lowell Catlett
From AP via Newsday —
Indicators measure the nation’s unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay.
“That’s a source that didn’t even exist 10 years ago,” Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on Thursday. “Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay.”
Cheney is right. eBay is an important development as fewer and fewer Americans will be able to afford garages to have old-fashioned garage sales.
Update: From Brad DeLong —
Cheney needs a staff who will tell him that the $2.0 billion or so in eBay’s domestic revenues are already included in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis’s estimates of GDP.
Was Washington really a hero crossing the Delaware?
From Bill Maher —
If you’re watching people play cards on TV, you either need a better hobby or a drinking problem. First, there was “Celebrity Poker.” Then there was “Celebrity Blackjack.” I saw one show that was just Camryn Mannheim scratching lottery tickets.
What’s on TV has to be at least as interesting as what’s on the average security monitor at a convenience store.
“Former President Clinton is wide awake and alert. I wish we could say the same for our current president.”
“For 73 minutes during the surgery, Clinton had no pulse, no heartbeat. Just like the Kerry campaign.”
— David Letterman
So Bush didn’t serve his country well in the National Guard thirty years ago. Big deal. As the song goes:
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they’re red, white and blue.
And when the band plays “Hail to the chief”,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord,It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no,Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don’t they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no millionaire’s son, no.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no.Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord,
And when you ask them, “How much should we give?”
Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! yoh,It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no military son, son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, one.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, no no no,
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate son, no no no.Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969
“Bush is way up, way up in the polls. In fact, they said if the election was held today, the Supreme Court would re-elect him 7 to 2, which is better than last time.”
— Jay Leno
Here is an example of the kind of item NewMexiKen refuses to link to. Look out the window of the third photo down.
Quick, before they pull the photo.
Link via Functional Ambivalent who got it from Farm Accident Digest.
According to Kottke, here’s the Final Jeopardy answer that stumps Ken Jennings in his 75th (and final) game.
Subject: Companies and Corporations. The Answer: This company has a workforce of 17000 people, whose average working year is only 4 months long.
