School began for four of The Sweeties this morning. Shown here are Kiley (2nd) and Alex (K), Aidan (1st) and senior citizen Mack (4th). All four cousins attend the same school, where their mother/aunt teaches.
Sweetie Sofie in Denver has been in school for several weeks already. She needed a break. She’s shown here “fishing” with her dad.
Sweetie Reid begins his last year of preschool shortly.
NewMexiKen posted about Geronimo’s fourth and final surrender the other day. This post about Geronimo is from 2007.
Now here’s a hall monitor with some street cred
NewMexiKen has been reading Angie Debo’s excellent 1976 biography of Geronimo. I recommend it. Here’s a couple of trivial items I thought were interesting.
When Geronimo’s and Naiche’s (son of Cochise) bands were consolidated at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, in 1887 and 1888, the post doctor was Walter Reed. Yes, THE Walter Reed.
A school was eventually set up at the Alabama camp, where the Apaches were prisoners of war — men, women and children. Geronimo reportedly monitored the children’s attendance and deportment, walking up and down the aisles with a stick.
I’m thinking many of our schools today could use Geronimo patrolling their classrooms.
The [Chiricahua] Apaches were relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894.
Update: Finishing the biography, amused to learn when that Geronimo traveled he would sell photos and autographs and even the buttons off his coat. He’d sell the buttons to people gathered to see him come by at the train station, then before the next station he’d sew on a new set of buttons.
Geronimo also rode in Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in March 1905. The Apache would have been about 75, nearly 76. It was said he could still vault onto his pony. This NewMexiKen post has a photo of Geronimo taken at the St. Louis Fair in 1904. He died in 1909, about age 80.
“After taking an eight on a par four my friend Pat said: ‘You know, except for that one I put in the water I had six great shots on that hole.’ ”
Elizabeth was born on September 7th in 1533. That’s the queen Virginia is named after.
Anna Mary Robertson was born on September 7th in 1860. Grandma Moses lived until 1961, and only started painting at age 76.
Two-time best director Oscar winner, Elia Kazan was born on September 7th in 1909. Kazan won for Gentleman’s Agreement and On the Waterfront. He had three other directing nominations.
David Packard was born on September 7th in 1912. He’s the “P” in HP.
Senator Daniel Inouye was born on September 7th in 1924. He’s 86 today.
Tenor saxophonist Theodore Rollins — Sonny Rollins — was born on September 7th in 1930. He is 80 today.
Buddy Holly was born on September 7th in 1936. Just 22 when the music died.
Gloria Gaynor was born on September 7th in 1949. Still surviving at 61.
Go on now go walk out the door
just turn around now
’cause you’re not welcome anymore
weren’t you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
Did you think I’d crumble
Did you think I’d lay down and die
Oh no, not I
I will survive
Oh as long as i know how to love
I know I will stay alive
I’ve got all my life to live
I’ve got all my love to give
and I’ll survive
I will survive (hey-hey)
Julie Kavner was born on September 7th in 1951. NewMexiKen liked her best in Awakenings, but we all know her as the voice of Marge Simpson. She’s 59 today.
W. Earl Brown was born on September 7th in 1963. He was Dan Dority of Deadwood and 47 today.
Philo T. Farnsworth transmitted an image electronically on this date in 1927. ESPN was founded on this date in 1979.
With the election just 8 weeks away, NewMexiKen wanted to pass along this public service announcement. Because of difficulties counting ballots in Florida after the 2000 vote, and in Ohio after the 2004 vote, and in New Mexico after any vote larger than for 8th grade class president, there has been a change of procedures nationwide.
All who wish to vote for Democratic candidates are still supposed to vote on November 2.
All who wish to vote for Republican candidates are supposed to vote on November 4.
Remember, November 2nd for Democrats, November 4th for Republicans. Don’t show up on the wrong day.
Today is Labor Day. All across America, millions of people are discovering that the best way to celebrate Labor Day is by not working.
Do you live to work, or do you work to live?
If you are married, look at your wedding album: Are there any pictures in there of you at work?
And on your tombstone, do you want it to say, “I wish that I could have spent more time at work”?
Here is what Robert Kennedy had to say about this, 42 years ago:
Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product… if we should judge America by that — counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
When Kennedy said these words, the unemployment rate in America was 3.7%. Today, it is almost three times as high. Too many of our working brothers and sisters are out of work, thanks to more than a decade of economic mismanagement. 10% of us are unemployed, and the other 90% work like dogs to try to avoid joining them. Which is just what the bosses want.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. I look forward to a Labor Day where every worker has a job, every worker has a pension, every worker has paid vacations, and every worker has the health care to enjoy life.
My opponents call that France. I call it America, an America that is Number One.
Not #1 in wasted military expenditures.
Not #1 in number of foreign countries occupied.
Number One in jobs. Number One in health. Number One in education. Number One in happiness.
As Robert Kennedy famously said, “I dream of things that never were, and ask, ‘Why not?'” Why not? Let’s make it happen.
And then all of us who are Americans, including the ones today who are jobless, homeless, sick and suffering, we all can then say, “I am proud to be an American.”
Are you with me?
Truth,
Congressman Alan Grayson
Source:MichaelMoore.com
“JEFFERSON CITY, MO . . . – A rabid Doberman Pinscher jumped on stage at a Tea Party rally in Missouri on Labor Day and barked at the crowd for nearly twenty minutes before people realized he was not a candidate.”
8% humidity.
In a commment Karen says Boston is one of her “top five all time favorite cities.” I’ve asked her to name her other four favorites.
What are your top five favorite cities? To visit? To live? To go back to again (and again)? Why?
I hope some of the $50 billion the President is going to propose for infrastructure goes to resurfacing my street. It’s got more patches than Dolly Parton’s coat.
Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press begins his column:
Among the University of Notre Dame’s many purposes — inspiring movies, polarizing college football fans, and, like, educating people and stuff — is measuring our local teams every September.
In the next two weeks, we will get a feel for how good Michigan and Michigan State are. U-M visits South Bend, Ind., on Saturday, and Notre Dame goes to East Lansing the week after that.
The two state programs have some similarities. (I know, I know: It kills you to think your school has ANYTHING in common with the other one. Michigan fans don’t think Michigan State should be allowed to have the words “Michigan” or “University” in its name; Michigan State fans don’t think Michigan fans should be allowed to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. But let’s play nice for a few minutes, OK?)
Rivalry, as in so many states.
It pained me for decades when asked where I went to school and answered, “The University of Arizona.”
And the yahoo would respond, “Oh, Arizona State.”
“No. The University of Arizona. That other school is Tempe Normal to me.”
Arizona State was founded in 1885 as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory. (A normal school trained high school graduates to be teachers, setting teaching standards or norms, hence normal school.)
Only in 1945 did it become Arizona State College. It became Arizona State University in 1958. (Sun Devils is a cool name, though.)
The University of Arizona was established as The University of Arizona in 1885.
Welcome to Boston. You’ve probably heard a lot about us, and we’re here to inform you that it’s all true. All of it. Well, most of it. OK, some of it. For every history lesson you’ve learned about Boston and for every urban legend you’ve been told, there’s another story lurking in reality. Here are nine Boston myths to familiarize and arm yourself with so that next time you want to look like a learned Bostonian, you’ll be in fine shape.
Moderately amusing and moderately interesting. A lot like Boston itself.
Jane Curtin is 63. JoAnne Worley is 73. Swoosie Kurtz is 66.
Jeff Foxworthy is 52. Some Foxworthiness:
Rosie Perez is 46. Ms. Perez was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar in 1994 for Fearless.
Macy Gray is 43.
Author Alice Sebold is 47.
She was a freshman in college when one night she was attacked while she was walking home, dragged into an underground tunnel, and raped. She thought that she was going to be murdered throughout the experience. When she later talked to the police, they said that a girl had recently been murdered in that same tunnel, and so she should consider herself lucky for having survived. A few weeks later, Sebold spotted the rapist on the street, and she went to the police. He was arrested, and Sebold testified against him at the trial. The rapist was convicted and received the maximum sentence, and Sebold thought that the end of the trial would put the experience behind her.
The Writer’s Almanac (2007)
Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. Follow The Writer’s Almanac link to learn how the aftermath led to Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, the best-selling book of 2002.
Author Robert M. Pirsig was born on this date in 1928.
He’s the author of the cult classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974), a book that has sold more than 5 million copies, which is a lot for a book on philosophy.
It’s an account of his road trip from Minnesota to California, and his quest to reconcile Eastern and Western philosophical traditions. The book begins:“I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the left grip of the cycle, that it is eight-thirty in the morning. The wind, even at sixty miles an hour, is warm and humid. When it’s this hot and muggy at eight-thirty, I’m wondering what it’s going to be like in the afternoon.
“In the wind are pungent odors from the marshes by the road. We are in an area of the Central Plains filled with thousands of duck hunting sloughs, heading northwest from Minneapolis toward the Dakotas. […] I’m happy to be riding back into this country. It is a kind of nowhere, famous for nothing at all and has an appeal because of just that. Tensions disappear along old roads like this.”
The Guardian by Joseph Mills | The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor
It’s a great book.
Jane Addams was born on September 6th in 1860.
Miss Addams has been called “the greatest woman in the world,” the “mother of social service,” “the greatest woman internationalist” and the “first citizen of Chicago.” With her idealism, serene, unafraid, militant, was always paramount. Devoted to the cause of social and political reform, to the betterment of the economic condition of the masses, to world peace and to internationalism, Miss Addams’s influence was world-wide. She was, perhaps, the world’s best-known and best-loved woman.
She made enemies. Her views were sometimes considered dangerously radical. Socialists and other radicals met at Hull House, and her opponents sometimes forgot that her liberal attitude in permitting such meetings did not include a membership in the groups she tolerated. In the World War her efforts for peace were unabated even when the United States entered the struggle and the wartime hysteria which ensued obscured for a time the American public’s realization of Miss Addams’s purity of purpose and character.
Above from Ms. Addams New York Times obituary in 1935.
It’s amazing how much some people resent it when you treat people less fortunate with love, care and fairness.
Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born on this date in 1757. Not yet 20, Lafayette was commissioned a major general in the American army by the Continental Congress. (It helped that he served without pay and funded his own troops.) Lafayette was wounded at Brandywine, served Washington loyally at Valley Forge and during an attempted cabal against the Commander-in-Chief, saved American troops and supplies in Rhode Island, was instrumental in obtaining vital French assistance from Louis XVI, and was on the field at Yorktown in 1781 when the British surrendered. By then Lafayette was 24.
. . . Labor Day is the first of May.
On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Leon Czolgosz, a Polish citizen associated with the Anarchist movement, fired two shots at McKinley who was greeting the public in a receiving line.
McKinley died September 14, whispering the words of his favorite hymn, “Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee.” He was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.
— Source Library of Congress.
Czolgosz died in the electric chair.
See The New York Times articles from the day of the shooting.
I’m reading War and Peace.
On my iPhone.
The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection: More than 1000 of the Greatest Classics
Just $13,413.30 + shipping.
They had 113,090 at the newly renovated Michigan Stadium yesterday. Largest football crowd in American history.
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
“He also told us about the green-yellow-red behavior system and said that he won’t get any reds but we should expect a few yellows.”
That’s Mack’s mom reporting on Mack’s first day of kindergarten in 2006. Mack later said that it’s not that he might purposefully break a rule, it’s that you don’t always know the rules. Indeed. It’s difficult to go through kindergarten, or any other part of life, without a few yellows.
That same Mack debuts for the Grizzlies today at QB. Real football. Helmets. Pads. Tackling.
Jesse James was born on this date in 1847. If James were alive today, he’d be the kind of guy who’d park a Ryder truck in front of a federal building. He was not the Robin Hood character many learned, but rather a racist, anti-emancipation, anti-union murdering terrorist long after the civil war had effectively decided the larger matters. See T.J. Stiles masterful Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War.
“As this patient biography makes clear, violence came to Jesse James more or less with his mother’s milk.” — Larry McMurtry.
“Overall, this is the biography of a violent criminal whose image was promoted and actions extenuated by those who saw him as a useful weapon against black rights and Republican rule.” — Eric Foner
John Milton Cage was born on this date in 1912. On his death in 1992, The New York Times described Cage as a “prolific and influential composer whose Minimalist works have long been a driving force in the world of music, dance and art.” Cage’s most influential and famous piece is 4’33”. It consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. The work was among National Public Radio’s 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century.
The piece, premiered in 1952, directs someone to close the lid of a piano, set a stopwatch, and sit in silence for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Musicians and critics alike initially thought the piece a joke. But its premiere pianist, who never played a note, calls it his most intense listening experience. “4:33” speaks to the nature of sound and the musical nature of silence.
Paul Volcker is 83. Bob Newhart is 81. Carol Lawrence is 78. Raquel Welch is 70. Michael Keaton is 59.
The chief himself was in his late fifties and perhaps decided that it was time to retire from the more athletic activities of his career. Nonetheless, when he finally gave up once and for all, on September 4, 1886, it was a negotiated surrender, and not a capture.
Geronimo and Naiche (son of Cochise) surrendered to Gen. Nelson Miles on this date in 1886 at Skeleton Canyon, near the Arizona-New Mexico line just north of the border with Mexico. It was the fourth time Geronimo had surrendered — and the last. With them were 16 men, 14 women and six children. The band was taken to Fort Bowie and by the 8th were on a train to Florida as prisoners of war.
“General Miles is your friend,” said the interpreter. The Indian gave Miles a defoliating look. “I never saw him,” he said. “I have been in need of friends. Why has he not been with me?”
This photograph was taken at a rest stop along the route to San Antonio. Naiche is third from left, Geronimo third from right (with the straw hat) in the front row.
After time in Florida and Alabama, Geronimo and the other Chiricahua Apaches were moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894. Geronimo, despite remaining a prisoner of war, became a marketable celebrity, paid to appear at expositions and fairs. He died at Fort Sill in 1909, about age 80.
Also pictured are Geronimo at his third surrender in March 1886 (above) and Geronimo on exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair (below).
Quotations are from Geronimo! by E. M. Halliday, published in American Heritage in June 1966.
Many a day when the L.A. Times was delivered the best thing in it was Paul Conrad’s cartoon. Conrad died today at age 86. He was a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner. Digby has a number of his cartoons, including this. I couldn’t resist.
Oregon is defeating New Mexico 59-0.
At the half.
Lobos Coach Mike Locksley should remember to tell his team, in the immortal words of USC Coach John McKay after a particularly lopsided loss, “If you think you need it, take a shower.”
UPDATE:
The final score, Oregon 72 New Mexico 0
And it wasn’t that close. Total offense: Oregon 721 yards, New Mexico 105 (with 5 turnovers).
She’ll win.
Watch it. It’s just 68 seconds.
I know. I just ate a nectarine.
