Author: NewMexiKen

Wildfires and Skiing — Another Holiday Weekend in the West

The Las Conchas wildfire in the Jemez Mountains has grown to over 120,000 acres and is just 11% contained but the residents of Los Alamos are being allowed to return home. There are nearly 2,000 firefighters working this fire. 63 residences have been destroyed.

The Donaldson fire in south central New Mexico is about 50% contained. It has burned over 96,000 acres since it began Tuesday.

The Pacheco fire nine miles north of Santa Fe is 55% contained. It has remained at about 10,000 acres for some time now.

The weather has changed as the monsoon season approaches. Humidity here had been in single digits many days by mid-morning. Today at 9:15 the humidity is 29%. No measurable rain fell in Albuquerque officially yesterday, but there was a trace.

Meanwhile ski resorts in the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies are open this weekend, there is that much snow remaining from the record snow pack.

According to the AP: “The weather allowed some of the more adventurous skiers at Arapahoe to try ‘pond skimming,’ a blend of snow skiing and waterskiing in which an individual picks up as much speed as possible going downhill and then attempts to coast over the top of a mid-mountain lake.”

I’d as soon be fighting a fire.

July 3rd

The next-to-the-last of the 12 men to walk on the Moon, and the only one who had never served in the U.S. military, New Mexico’s Harrison Schmitt is 76 today. Schmitt was a geologist (B.S. Cal Tech, Ph.D. Harvard). He went to the Moon on Apollo 17 in 1972 (he claims to have taken the famous photo of Earth known as “The Blue Marble”). Schmitt was elected U.S. Senator in 1976, but defeated by Jeff Bingaman in 1982. Bingaman’s campaign slogan asked, “What on Earth has [Schmitt] done for you lately?” Schmitt lives in Silver City and serves in the cabinet of the current governor.

(Neil Armstrong was a civilian employee of NASA when he walked on the moon, but he had been a naval aviator during the Korean War.)

Dave Barry is 64 today. Tom Cruise is 49.

Yeardley Smith is 47. She’s the voice of Lisa Simpson and claims to have sounded pretty much the same since she was six.

The City of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain on July 3rd in 1608. George Washington took command of the Continental Army on July 3rd in 1775. Jim Morrison of The Doors broke on through to the other side 40 years ago today.

Gettysburg July 3rd

Having failed on July 2 (1863) to turn either of Meade’s flanks (Culp’s Hill and the Round Tops), Lee decided on the 3rd to assault the Union center. James Longstreet, who would command the attack, wrote later that he told Lee: “General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as anyone, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.” But Lee had made up his mind — and he had already issued the orders. Two divisions from A.P. Hill’s Third Corps and one — Pickett’s — from Longstreet’s First Corps were to make the advance. It’s known as Pickett’s Charge, but more correctly it is the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge.

Gettysburg Day ThreeTo prepare for the assault — to cripple the Union defenses — Lee ordered a massive artillery strike. The 163 Confederate cannons began firing at 1:07 PM. The Union artillery returned fire with nearly the same number. The Confederate aim was high and smoke curtained the targets. Little damage was done to the Union infantry. After a time, Union artillery commander Henry Hunt ordered his guns to cease firing — to save ammunition, cool the guns, and lure the rebels forward.

Forward they came, 14,000 men moving across open fields for three-quarters of a mile. “[It] was a magnificent mile-wide spectacle, a picture-book view of war that participants on both sides remembered with awe until their dying moment—which for many came within the next hour.”

The Union artillery opened on the Confederates with shot and shell and ultimately canister (shells filled with metal). At 200 yards, the Union infantry on the Confederate front opened fire, while other Union units moved out to attack both sides of the charge. Of the 14,000 in the advance, perhaps 200 breached the first Union line before being repulsed.

Of the 14,000, half did not return.

Lee was defeated and withdrew from Gettysburg. While the war lasted 22 more months, the brief moment when the 200 reached the Union line is considered by many the high-water mark for the confederacy. Gettysburg totals: 25,000 Union casualties; 28,000 Confederate casualties.

Map: National Park Service
Quotation about spectacle: Battle Cry of Freedom, James M. McPherson

Best line of the day

“It is irresponsible to run a story with a statement from one politician saying it is sunny and warm in Alaska and another saying that actually the temperature is below zero and it’s snowing. There are real conditions in Alaska that the reporter should know and be able to tell readers. This information will let readers know that one politician is being largely truthful, while one is not. Reporters who have a job reporting the news have the time to find out about the actual weather conditions in Alaska. Readers generally do not.”

Beat the Press

Idle thought

We don’t know what happened in that New York hotel room in May and never will. The hotel maid’s credibility has now been shown to be questionable. Strauss-Kahn’s credibility, of course, is likely controlled by his attorneys.

But, it seems to me, the people who have shown by far the least credibility during this are the news media. First he was guilty, now she is guilty.

Often wrong, never in doubt.

Seeing and Making Comments

If you wish to comment or to see what others have said, you have three choices.

  1. Click on the post title. That will open the page for just that post.
  2. Click on the little balloon to the right of the post title; the balloon that’ll have a number in it if there have been any comments. That click will take you directly to the comments section on the page for just that post.
  3. But, easiest of all, click on the Show Comments (or Leave a reply) link at the bottom of every post. That will open the comments form right there before your very eyes.

BTW, I’ve made the appearance cleaner as that works best, especially on mobile devices such as phones and iPads. A few longtime readers have told me that it’s too plain. Thoughts?

Gettysburg July 2nd

On July 2, 1863, the lines of the Battle of Gettysburg, now in its second day, were drawn in two sweeping parallel arcs. The Confederate and Union armies faced each other a mile apart. The Union forces extending along Cemetery Ridge to Culp’s Hill, formed the shape of a fish-hook, and the Confederate forces were spread along Seminary Ridge.

Gettysburg, Day 2General Robert E. Lee ordered General James Longstreet to attack the Union’s southern flank, aiming for the hills at the southernmost end of Cemetery Ridge. These hills, known as the Little Round Top and Big Round Top had been left unoccupied, and would have afforded the Confederates a good vantage point from which to ravage the Union line.

General Longstreet, disagreeing with Lee’s orders, and hoping that the cavalry under the command of General J.E.B. Stuart would soon come up with the army to participate in the attack, was slow to advance on the hills.

Although Longstreet’s soldiers broke through to the base of the Little Round Top, Union General G. K. Warren perceived the Confederate plan in time to rouse his men to take the strategic hill, fending off the Confederate attack.

General Lee had also commanded General R.S. Ewell to attack the northernmost flank of the Union Army. On one occasion Ewell’s troops took possession of a slope of Culp’s Hill, but the Union remained entrenched both there and on Cemetery Ridge, where General Meade was headquartered.

Library of Congress

Map: National Park Service

On the 2nd of July

… in 1776 the Continental Congress approved a resolution declaring independence. Twelve of the 13 colonies voted in favor. (New York did not approve independence until July 9th.)

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

The Declaration of Independence stating the reasons for independence was approved two days later (and most likely not signed until August).

… in 1863 the second day of battle was fought at Gettysburg.

… in 1877 the Noble laureate Hermann Hesse was born.

… in 1881 Charles J. Guiteau assassinated President James A. Garfield.

On July 2, 1881 … President James A. Garfield was shot at the Baltimore & Potomac station in Washington by a failed lawyer named Charles Guiteau. The President took two months to die, and the trial of his assassin raised issues of criminal responsibility and the insanity defense that American jurisprudence struggles with to this day.

So begins a solid summary of the event and its legal aftermath at AmericanHeritage.com. Be the first kid on your block to know the details of the second presidential assassination in American history. Of course, if you’ve read Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation you already know all there is to know.

… in 1908 Thurgood Marshall was born.

He applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but he was rejected on the basis of race, so he enrolled at Howard University instead. The first thing he did, upon graduation, was use his law degree to sue the University of Maryland for racial discrimination, and he almost couldn’t believe it when he won. Thanks to his efforts, the University of Maryland Law School admitted its first black student in 1935. It was the first time that a black student had ever been admitted to any state law school south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Marshall became the legal director of the NAACP, and of the thirty-two cases he argued for that organization, he won twenty-nine. His biggest case was the landmark Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. He went on to serve as an appeals court judge under Kennedy, and Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1967.

Thurgood Marshall said, “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody—a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns—bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2006)

… in 1925 Medgar Wiley Evers was born in Decatur, Mississippi. In 1963 Evers, a civil rights activist, was assassinated by fertilizer salesman and White Citizens’ Council member Byron De La Beckwith. Beckwith was tried in 1964 but juries of white men deadlocked twice. In 1994 Beckwith was found guilty.

… in 1937 Amelia Earhart was lost.

Coast Guard headquarters here received information that Miss Earhart probably overshot tiny Howland Island because she was blinded by the glare of an ascending sun. The message from the Coast Guard cutter Itasca said it it was believed Miss Earhart passed northwest of Howland Island about 3:20 P.M. [E.D.T.], or about 8 A.M., Howland Island time. The Itasca reported that heavy smoke was bellowing from its funnels at the time, to serve as a signal for the flyer. The cutter’s skipper expressed belief the Earhart plane had descended into the sea within 100 miles of Howland.

The New York Times (1937)

American Heritage has a lengthy essay on Earhart: Searching for Amelia Earhart.

… in 1946 the Air Force says a weather balloon crashed near Roswell, New Mexico.

… in 1961 Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

… in 1962 Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart Discount City store (719 Walnut Ave., Rogers, Arkansas). Walton had operated Walton’s Five and Dime in Bentonville, but the Rogers store was the beginning of Wal-Mart.

… in 1964 President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.

Today is the day Richard Petty turns 74.

Today is the day Luci Baines Johnson, the younger daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, turns 64.

Larry David turns 64 today as well.

Lindsay Lohan is 25 today.

The year 2010 is half over today at 1PM (noon if you’re not on daylight saving time). How are those New Year’s resolutions working out for you?

Photos from the Las Conchas Wildfire

The Las Conchas wildfire in New Mexico spread dangerously close to the Los Alamos National Laboratory this week, causing the evacuation of the town and the shutdown of the lab, which is the headquarters for US military research. The laboratory was created during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb for the Manhattan Project and houses highly sensitive materials. As a precaution, scientists are monitoring radioactivity in the air. The fire is the largest wildfire in the state’s history, covering more than 100,000 acres. … (34 photos total)

Wildfire threatens nuclear facility – The Big Picture

Some mesmerizing photos. 100,000 acres; that’s 156 square miles.

The Albuquerque Journal has an outstanding slide show as well, especially some of the shots of people.

The first day of July

… is the birthday

… of Olivia de Havilland, 95 today. Miss de Havilland was nominated for an acting Oscar five times, winning for To Each His Own and The Heiress. She lost the best supporting actress Oscar for Gone With the Wind to Hattie McDaniel. (Her sister Joan Fontaine is 93.)

… of Cpl. Klinger. Jamie Farr is 77.

… of hockey great Rod Gilbert, 70.

… of Twyla Tharp. The choreographer is 70.

… of one-time Oscar nominee for best actress Geneviève Bujold. She’s 69. The nomination was for Anne of the Thousand Days. (Richard Burton and Anthony Quayle were also nominated for that film.)

… of Deborah Harry of Blondie. She’s 66.

… of Louis Winthorpe III. Canadian-born Dan Aykroyd is 59. Aykroyd was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy.

… of Alan Ruck. He’s 55. Ruck was Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. And he’s 55!

… of Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, 50.

… of The Lord of the Rings‘s Arwen Undómiel, she’s 32. That’s Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv. Her mother, Bebe Buell, model, singer, and former Playboy Playmate, named her for actress Liv Ullmann.

Diana, Princess of Wales, should have been 50 today.

Michael Landon died 20 years ago today. Marlon Brando died seven years ago today.

O Canada

Today is Canada Day, a holiday in that country celebrating its formation independent from Britain on this date in 1867. The holiday was called Dominion Day until 1982 (in Quebec Le Jour de la Confédération). Three British colonies were joined to form Canada — Canada (which included Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Gettysburg: The Battle Begins

The largest and arguably most significant military engagement in North American history began in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1st in 1863.

In a daring venture, Confederate general Robert E. Lee moved his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in June, hoping for a decisive victory on Union soil. Trying to catch up, the Union Army of the Potomac, under new commander George Meade, moved north and west toward the Confederates, who were widely dispersed. Learning the Union Army was on the move, Lee began to consolidate his forces.

On June 30, Union cavalry led by John Buford skirmished with a small Confederate contingent just west of Gettysburg. Buford, realizing that the field provided good defensive ground, determined to hold the Confederates until the main body of the army came up.

Gettysburg Day OneOn July 1, a larger Confederate force moved east toward Gettysburg and met resistance from Buford’s dismounted cavalry, soon joined by the First Corps. The battle ebbed and flowed during the day as troops from both sides moved to the action. Ultimately, Confederate forces arriving from the north were able to flank the Union troops and force them through the town. The Confederates failed to keep the initiative, however, and the Union was able to dig in on the ridge south and east — Cemetery Ridge.

Fifteen thousand Americans were casualties that day.

Map: National Park Service

Gettysburg, Day 2
The Third Day

Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, which won the Pulitzer Prize and is regarded by many as the best Civil War novel, is an excellent way to learn about Gettysburg.

June 30th

Five time nominee for best actress, Susan Hayward was born on June 30th in 1917. She won the Oscar in 1958 for I Want to Live!

The magnificent Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was also born on June 30th in 1917.

Even in her eighties, the legendary Lena Horne has a quality of timelessness about her. Elegant and wise, she personifies both the glamour of Hollywood and the reality of a lifetime spent battling racial and social injustice. Pushed by an ambitious mother into the chorus line of the Cotton Club when she was sixteen, and maneuvered into a film career by the N.A.A.C.P., she was the first African American signed to a long-term studio contract. In her rise beyond Hollywood’s racial stereotypes of maids, butlers, and African natives, she achieved true stardom on the silver screen, and became a catalyst for change even beyond the glittery fringes of studio life.

American Masters

Miss Horne died last year.

Florence Glenda Ballard Chapman was born 68 years ago today. It was she who named the trio she was in The Supremes. But it was also she who was fired from the group by Berry Gordy in 1967. Miss Ballard died at age 32.

Vincent D’Onofrio is 52 today. Deirdre Lovejoy, the D.A. in The Wire, is 49. Mike Tyson is 45.

Factoids of the day

“Researchers examined data on more than 44,000 drivers in single-vehicle crashes who died between 1999 and 2009. They found that 24.9% tested positive for drugs and 37% had blood-alcohol levels in excess of 0.08, the legal limit. Fifty-eight percent had no alcohol in their systems; 5% had less than 0.08.”

USATODAY.com

“But in 2007, the National Roadside Survey found that 16% of nighttime weekend drivers tested positive for illegal drugs.”