Here’s how it works: locals download the free app and enable the CPR alert. In the event of a cardiac emergency, once 911 has been called and paramedics dispatched, the app also alerts people who may be nearby to intervene.
Keeping in mind the potential legal implications of citizen intervention, the app reminds people who sign up to “respond in a safe, responsible and respectful manner.”
Using the phone’s GPS, a map tells the user where the victim is and the location of the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED). The user would then go to the person and help until the fire department arrives.
Sultry-voiced Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies is 50. At 29 People thought she was one of the 50 most beautiful. (Click the image for larger version.)
Peter Fonda’s daughter Bridget is 47.
Jerome Kern was born on this date in 1885.
. . . Then he met Oscar Hammerstein II, who became a lifelong friend, and the two collaborated on Show Boat in 1927. This musical gave us the songs “Ol’ Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.” In 1933, Kern and Hammerstein produced Roberta, which included the famous song “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”
Kern moved to Hollywood in 1935, and he enjoyed success there. He wrote “The Way You Look Tonight” for the movie Swing Time, and the song won an Academy Award. In 1941, Kern and Hammerstein wrote “The Last Time I Saw Paris” because Paris had just been occupied by Nazi Germany, and that song also won an Academy Award.
Billings Learned Hand was born on this date in 1872.
Learned Hand served as a federal judge longer than any other man—52 years. His opinions were prodigious, totaled more than 2,000. covering every phase of the law from maritime liens to complicated antitrust cases. His tart observations (“Judges can be damned fools like anybody else”) were treasured. On the bench. Judge Hand was a formidable figure, a stocky man with the broad shoulders of his Kentish forebears, glittering eyes under dense brows, and craggy features that might have been carved by Gutzon Berglum. Intolerant of lawyers who strayed from the point or became too verbose. Judge Hand sent wayward attorneys scampering back to the facts with an acid query—”May I inquire, sir, what are you trying to tell us?”—or just a furious “Rubbish!”‘ Once, confronting the ferocious old judge at a Yale Law School moot court, a terrified student fainted dead away.
“A Mere Vaudevillian.” In writing his decisions. Hand followed the meticulous painstaking procedure that he demanded in his court. He invariably wrote three or four drafts of every opinion in longhand on yellow foolscap before the language and reasoning finally satisfied him. His opinions cut to the marrow of the issue and proceeded eloquently but rapidly to the point. Hand’s famed 28-page opinion on United States v. Aluminum Co. of America, in which he ruled that “good” monopolies had no more legality than “bad” monopolies, was distilled from 40,000 pages and four years of testimony, has been a model for every subsequent antitrust suit.
“What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.”
Judge Learned Hand to 150,000 new citizens of the United States, Central Park, 1944.
It is ten minutes past eight. I must tell you how much I love you at ten minutes past eight on a Sunday evening, January 27th 1918.
I have been indoors all day (except for posting your letter) and I feel greatly rested. Juliette has come back from a new excursion into the country, with blue irises — do you remember how beautifully they grew in that little house with the trellis tower round by the rocks? — and all sort and kinds of sweet-smelling jonquils. The room is very warm. I have a handful of fire, and the few little flames dance on the log and can’t make up their minds to attack it.
There goes a train. Now it is quiet again except for my watch. I look at the minute hand and think what a spectacle I shall make of myself when I am really coming home to you. How I shall sit in the railway carriage, and put the old watch in my lap and pretend to cover it with a book — but not read or see, but just whip it up with my longing gaze, and simply make it go faster.
My love for you tonight is so deep and tender that it seems to be outside myself as well. I am fast shut up like a little lake in the embrace of some big mountains. If you were to climb up the mountains, you would see me down below, deep and shining — and quite fathomless, my dear. You might drop your heart into me and you’d never hear it touch bottom.
I love you — I love you — Goodnight.
Oh Bogey, what it is to love like this!
Katherine Mansfield to John Middleton Murry, whom she’d been dating for more than seven years. They were married that May but the marriage did not last a year.
. . . to realize that an individual nominated for an Academy Award was born in 1996? December of 1996 at that.
Hailee Steinfeld was born December 11, 1996. She is nominated for best actress in a supporting role for True Grit. She is in every scene except the last (an epilogue years later).
The actor James Cromwell, who is 71 today, was once nominated for best actor in a supporting role. The part? As the farmer in Babe. If that was a supporting role, who was the lead actor, the pig?
New Mexico is more quietly beautiful than some Western states. It isn’t “one National Park after another” like Utah or California. It doesn’t have one spectacular spot like Yellowstone. You might have to spend an entire year in this vast state to hit your photographic stride. But if you do hit that stride, you’ll be in good company with the artists and photographers who’ve been attracted to the light for over a century.
There are three cultures co-existing in New Mexico (if you read the middle third of my Summer 1994 travelogue then you might question the extent to which these actually co-exist). The Indians created interesting pueblos. The Spanish some impressive churches. The Anglos … mostly some houses that look like they could have been imported from Cleveland.
From Philip Greenspun writing about New Mexico at photo.net. There are many gorgeous photos.
Drinking coffee may do more than just keep you awake. A new study suggests an intriguing potential link to mental health later in life, as well.
. . .
After controlling for numerous socioeconomic and health factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the scientists found that the subjects who had reported drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia, compared with those who drank two cups or less.
Coffee, for some is an acquired taste they haven’t acquired. You might want to acquire it — or are you already demented?
“Want a drug that could lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colon cancer? That could lift your mood and treat headaches? That could lower your risk of cavities?”
“Rep. Bachmann’s odd onscreen appearance, in which she seemed to be staring off-camera for the duration of her speech, was initially blamed on ‘a squirrel that got into the studio and distracted her,’ said one Tea Party official.
“But the Minnesota congresswoman offered her own explanation: ‘I was looking off to one side because I was trying to read off Sarah Palin’s hand.’ ”
… joined the Union as the 26th state on this date in 1837.
“Derived from the Indian word Michigama, meaning great or large lake.”
The State Nickname is the “Great Lake State”. Others include “Wolverine State” or “Water Winter Wonderland”.
The State motto is “Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice” (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.)
The Michigan state flower is the apple blossom, the tree the white pine and the bird the robin.
Indigenous people in Michigan at the time of contact were the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi.
I could have been MichiKen.
Addendum: The first bullet above is a quotation from michigan.gov, the “Official State of Michigan Portal.” It should be corrected. It is the equivalent of saying, “Derived from the European word …”
There are no “Indian” words. Indian is not a language.
… is celebrating its 96th anniversary today (1915).
Established on January 26, 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park is a living showcase of the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. With elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the weather-ravaged top of Long’s Peak, a visitor to the park has opportunities for countless breathtaking experiences and adventures.
Elk, mule deer, moose, bighorn sheep, black bears, coyotes, cougars, eagles, hawks and scores of smaller animals delight wildlife-watchers of all ages. Wildflower-lovers are never disappointed in June and July when the meadows and hillsides are splashed with botanical color. Autumn visitors can relax among the golden aspens or enjoy the rowdier antics of the elk rut (mating season).
“The oldest person to summit Long’s Peak was Rev. William Butler, who climbed it on September 2, 1926, his 85th birthday. In 1932, Clerin ‘Zumie’ Zumwalt summited Long’s Peak 53 times.”
But wait a minute, her defenders cried: Ms. Steinfeld’s character, Mattie Ross, is in nearly every scene, she’s the center of the movie, its clear protagonist!
Not so fast. According to Scott Rudin, a producer of the film, Mattie Ross is an instigator for the behavior of the true star, Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn (he was nominated for best actor). Ms. Steinfeld’s character also doesn’t have “an arc,” Mr. Rudin told Kris Tapley at the In Contention blog — despite undergoing some harrowing ordeals, she doesn’t change. The studio, Paramount, promoted her for the best supporting actress category.
“The devil has his grip on the business of the NFL. Former players, like [Troy] Aikman, who are still profiting from their NFL image, see little benefit in questioning the safety of the game. Any such comments would be met by the league as a betrayal, and he would probably be relieved of his post as Fox’s No. 1 guy. And you can be sure he won’t let that happen. Troy Aikman has his dream job, and he will echo the company line. Aaron Rodgers’ brain could be leaking out of his earhole, and Aikman will be talking about James Jones’ inconsistent hands.”
“[E]ight markets – Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Portland (OR), Seattle and Tampa – hit their lowest levels since home prices peaked in 2006 and 2007, meaning that average home prices in those markets have fallen even further than the lows set in the spring of 2009.”
Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards
(Winner’s announced Sunday, February 27th)
Best picture
“127 Hours”
“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King’s Speech”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”
Best actor
Javier Bardem, “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges, “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg, “The Social Network”
Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
James Franco, “127 Hours”
Best actress
Annette Bening, “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman, “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence, “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams, “Blue Valentine”
Best supporting actor
Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
John Hawkes,”Winter’s Bone”
Jeremy Renner, “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo, “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush, “The King’s Speech”
Best supporting actress
Amy Adams, “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter, “The King’s Speech”
Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”
Jackie Weaver, “Animal Kingdom”
Best director
Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”
David Fincher, “The Social Network”
Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”
David O. Russell, “The Fighter”
Joel and Ethan Coen, “True Grit”
Best animated feature
“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3”
Best foreign language film
“Biutiful” (Mexico)
“Dogtooth” (Greece)
“In a Better World” (Denmark)
“Incendies” (Canada)
“Outside the Law” (Algeria)
Etta James is 73 today. She gets her own post just before this one.
Alicia Keys is 30.
I was thinkin’ ’bout Alicia Keys, couldn’t keep from crying
When she was born in Hell’s Kitchen, I was living down the line
I’m wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could be
I been looking for her even clear through Tennessee
Dean Jones is 80. Herbie’s co-star in The Love Bug.
Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on January 25th in 1882. She married Leonard Woolf in 1912.
I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.
Woolf’s note to her husband just before she drowned herself in 1941.
Charles Curtis was born in Kansas on this date in 1860. Curtis was the 31st vice president of the United States, serving under President Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933. Curtis is the first person with non-European ancestry to ever serve as President or Vice President. His mother was part Kansa or Kaw, Osage and Potawatomi and part French. Curtis had a one-eighth Indian blood quantum.
George Edward Pickett was born on this date in 1825. He was 59th out of 59 in the Class of 1846 class at West Point, but was a hero at the Battle of Chapultepec in September 1847. On July 3, 1863, Maj. Gen. Pickett was one of three Confederate generals under Gen. James Longstreet who led their men against the Union forces on Cemetery Ridge outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Pickett’s division suffered over 50% casualties. All three of Pickett’s brigade commanders and all 13 of his regimental commanders were casualties. Pickett himself lived until 1875.
Robert Burns was born on this date 252 years ago.
[B]orn in Alloway, Scotland (1759). He farmed, worked as a tax collector, and wrote poems. And he spent more than a decade gathering traditional Scottish folk songs, humming the airs and making sheet music out of the tunes, and writing lyrics to a lot of the tunes, as well.
He went about songwriting in a very ritualistic manner, making sure that his mood was right and his muse was present. Before he started making up words to go with a folk tune, he said he tried hard to discern the “poetic sentiment” that would correspond to the “idea of the musical expression” of the tune. …
Son-in-law Rob has a “milestone” birthday today. His parents flew coast-to-coast last week to surprise him — they were waiting when Rob and family went out for breakfast on Friday. As Emily reported, “His face as we walked up to them in the restaurant was priceless.” Happy Birthday to you, Rob.
Today is Etta James’ birthday. Tell Mama, Etta James is 73 today.
[B]orn Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles (1938) to a single mom who was 14 years old. Etta sang in gospel choirs in Los Angeles, moved to San Francisco, sang doo-wop, and was discovered there by the famous Johnny Otis when she herself was just 14 years old. He asked her to sing a song with him called “Roll With Me Henry,” and he was so impressed that he took her down to Los Angeles to record with him — without telling her mom. They renamed the song “The Wallflower,” and she nailed it perfectly on the first take in the recording studio. It became a big hit, shooting to the No. 1 spot on the R&B charts in 1955.
It was in 1960 that she first sang the song she’s now most famous for: “At Last.” The song was written 20 years before, and it had been performed by the Glenn Miller Band in the 1940s, but her version is by far the best known, and it’s considered her signature song.
Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records’ legendary producer, describes Etta James as “the greatest of all modern blues singers…the undisputed Earth Mother.” Her raw, unharnessed vocals and hot-blooded eroticism has made disciples of singers ranging from Janis Joplin to Bonnie Raitt. James’ pioneering 1950s hits – “The Wallflower” and “Good Rockin’ Daddy” – assure her place in the early history of rock and roll alongside Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. In the Sixties, as a soulful singer of pop and blues diva compared with the likes of Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday, James truly found her musical direction and made a lasting mark.
Miss James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, same year as Creedence, Cream, the Doors, Sly and the Family Stone, Van Morrison and Dick Clark if you still need a clue.
I mention the three, and Thomas Powers, The Killing of Crazy Horse, a finalist in biography, because I have read the beginnings of these four and found them all exceptionally engrossing. I just haven’t decided whether to continue with them as e-books or in hardbacks (and I have other books to read ahead of them, so no hurry).
Follow the link above to see all the finalists in fiction, biography, autobiography, criticism, nonfiction and poetry. The winners will be announced March 10th.
Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine is 94 today. Borgnine won the best actor Oscar in 1956 for the lead in Marty. The film also won best picture, director and screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky). Borgnine is however, perhaps best known as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale of the sitcom McHale’s Navy.
Ray Stevens is 72. (He was born Harold Ray Ragsdale.)
One of the most popular novelty artists of all time, Ray Stevens enjoyed a remarkably long career, with a stretch of charting singles — some of them major hits — that spanned four decades. Unlike parody king Weird Al Yankovic, Stevens made most of his impact with original material, often based on cultural trends of the day. Yet his knack for sheer silliness translated across generations, not to mention countless compilations and special TV offers. Stevens was a legitimately skilled singer and producer who also performed straight country and pop, scoring the occasional serious hit. But in general, comic novelty songs were his bread and butter, and his brand of humor somehow managed to endure seismic shifts in popular taste and style.
“Ahab the Arab,” “Everything Is Beautiful” and “The Streak” are Stevens’s major contributions to American culture.
Neil Diamond is 70, as is Aaron Neville. Diamond is an inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year.
Mary Lou Retton is 43. Ed Helms is 37. Mischa Barton is 25.
Edith Wharton was born on January 24th in 1862.
[T]he writer who said, “Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.” That’s Edith Wharton, born in New York City (1862). She wrote about frustrated love in novels like The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920), for which she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.
Around 1100 A.D. ancient peoples embarked on an ambitious building project along the Animas River in northwestern New Mexico. Work gangs excavated, filled, and leveled more than two and a half acres of land. Masons laid out sandstone blocks in intricate patterns to form massive stone walls. Wood-workers cut and carried heavy log beams from mountain forests tens of miles away. In less than three decades they built a monumental “great house” three-stories high, longer than a football field, with perhaps 500-rooms including a ceremonial “great kiva” over 41-feet in diameter.
A short trail winds through this massive site offering a surprisingly intimate experience. Along the way visitors discover roofs built 880 years ago, original plaster walls, a reed mat left by the inhabitants, intriguing “T” shaped doorways, provocative north-facing corner doors, and more. The trail culminates with the reconstructed great kiva, a building that inherently inspires contemplation, wonder, and an ancient sense of sacredness.
