Idle thought

The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team is ranked #19 in the AP poll out today. It’s the first time the Lobos have been in the Top 25 since the end of the 1998-1999 season. They are 10-0 this year so far.

OK Wally and Tom, when will we start hating Coach Alford? And why?

The Brief and Strangely Interesting History of Christmas Lights

The tradition of stringing electric lights may have started as a Christmas thing in America, but now it’s a global phenomenon used for all kinds winter festivuses (festivi?). It’s a practice we take for granted—come December, they’re everywhere. The evolution of the Christmas light parallels that of the light bulb, with some remarkably ornate—OK, tacky—variations. But regardless of how they look, one thing’s for certain: They’re a much better option than sticking a candle in a tree.

Gizmodo has the story.

December 14th

Today is the birthday

… of jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player Clark Terry, 89.

Clark Terry performed with Charlie Barnet (1947) and in Count Basie’s big band and small groups (1948-51) before beginning an important affiliation with Duke Ellington, which lasted from 1951 to 1959. During this period Terry took part in many of Ellington’s suites and acquired a lasting reputation for his wide range of styles (from swing to hard bop), technical proficiency, and infectious good humor. After leaving Ellington, he became a frequent performer in New York studios and a staff member of NBC; he appeared regularly on the Tonight Show, where his unique “mumbling” scat singing became famous.

PBS – JAZZ


… of Patty Duke. The Oscar-winning actress is 63.

… of Gabriella. Vanessa Hudgens is 21 today.

Best actress Oscar nominee for Days of Wine and Roses, Lee Remick was born on this date in 1935. She is often remembered too for her performance in the classic film Anatomy of a Murder. Miss Remick died of cancer in 1991.

Don Hewitt, the long-time producer of 60 Minutes was born on this date in 1922. He died in August.

Hewitt worked as a copyboy for a New York newspaper for 15 dollars a week, then got a job with a photo agency, and then got hired away by CBS radio — since he had experience with pictures and visual layout — to help produce the new television news programming that the network was trying to launch. It was all brand-new in the 1940s, and Hewitt remembers asking them “What-avision?” He went down to Grand Central Terminal in New York and up to the top floor to take a look at these “little pictures in a box” of which people spoke. He later reminisced, “They also had cameras and lights and makeup artists and stage managers and microphone booms just like in the movies, and I was hooked.” That year, in 1948, he began producing and directing an evening news broadcast for CBS, and he would later become the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

On September 24, 1968 Don Hewitt launched his investigative news magazine, 60 Minutes.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Congressional Medal of Honor winner Jimmy Doolittle was born on this date in 1896. Doolittle led the daring bombing raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Sixteen B-25s from the U.S.S. Hornet did little damage, but the attack on the Japanese homeland was a major public relations and morale-boosting effort for U.S. forces just five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

As predicted, Nostradamus was born on this date in 1503.

George Washington died at his Mount Vernon home on this date in 1799 at the age of 67. According to the Library of Congress, his last words reportedly were: “I feel myself going. I thank you for your attentions; but I pray you to take no more trouble about me. Let me go off quietly. I cannot last long.”

Alabama was admitted to the Union as the 22nd state on this date in 1819.

Roald Amundsen and four others became the first to reach the South Pole on this date in the summer of 1911. See the NOAA South Pole Live Camera.

And it’s the birthday of Veronica, one of the two official daughters-in-law of NewMexiKen. Veronica, like the President a graduate of Columbia University, is the mother of Sweetie Sofie and a law professor and attorney. Happy Birthday, Veronica.

Best summing up our news media line of the day

“At our office we have one of the cable news channels on at all times. And here I am, late in the day, much of the staff gone, hearing Wolf Blitzer on CNN — part of the on-going coverage of the Climate Change debate and the Copenhagen conference. First we hear Al Gore, discussing the evidence for warming. And after that, the latest from Sarah Palin discussing the science on her Facebook page. That’s the debate. Proud moment. ”

Josh Marshall

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

If you love Apple, but hate AT&T — and who doesn’t? — this is a must read.

It includes this:

Used to be, we [in this country] were innovators. We were leaders. We were builders. We were engineers. We were the best and brightest. We were the kind of guys who, if they were running the biggest mobile network in the U.S., would say it’s not enough to be the biggest, we also want to be the best, and once they got to be the best, they’d say, How can we get even better? What can we do to be the best in the whole fucking world? What can we do that would blow people’s fucking minds? They wouldn’t have sat around wondering about ways to fuck over people who loved their product. But then something happened. Guys like you took over the phone company and all you cared about was milking profit and paying off assholes in Congress to fuck over anyone who came along with a better idea, because even though it might be great for consumers it would mean you and your lazy pals would have to get off your asses and start working again in order to keep up.

Law and Order

License, registration, I ain’t got none
but I got a clear conscience
‘Bout the things that I done
Mister state trooper, please don’t stop me
Please don’t stop me, please don’t stop me

Bruce Springsteen, “State Trooper”

Emily, official mother of four-year-old Alex, reports:

“Twice this week, [Alex] has handed me a paper with a name written on it. He then asks me to send the name to Santa because the kid has been naughty at school.”

Mack

Sweetie Mack is 9 today. Mack isn’t his given name. It’s his nickname (from birth) and comes from his middle name — Mackenzie, a family name on his dad’s side. Mackenzie is a Scottish name, from the Gaelic Maccoinneach, meaning son of the fair or comely. (And also meaning son of Kenneth.)

December 13th

Today is the birthday

… of Dick Van Dyke. Rob Petrie is 84. Nine emmy nominations, four wins.

… of Christopher Plummer. Captain Georg von Trapp is 80. More recently Plummer has been in A Beautiful Mind, Syriana, The Lake House and the voice of the bad guy in Up. Six films in 2005, a couple more in 2006, four in 2007, three more in 2008, seven in 2009 counting voice-overs, and a handful in production.

… of Ferguson Jenkins. The baseball hall-of-famer is 66.

Ferguson Jenkins PlaqueCanada’s first Hall of Fame member, Fergie Jenkins used pinpoint control and effectively changed speeds to win 284 games. Cast in the same mold as finesse artists like Catfish Hunter and Robin Roberts, Jenkins forged an impressive 3.34 ERA despite playing 12 of his 19 seasons in hitters’ ballparks – Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. A diligent workhorse, Jenkins used an easy, uncomplicated motion to reach the 20-win mark seven times and capture the National League Cy Young Award in 1971.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

… of Ted Nugent, 61.

… of Wendie Malick. Just shoot her, she’s 59.

… of Ben Bernanke. The chairman of the Federal Reserve is 56.

… of Steve Buscemi. The actor who portrayed the creepy Tony Blundetto (Tony Soprano’s cousin) and the even creepier Carl Showalter in Fargo is 52.

… of Johnny Whitaker. That would be Buffy’s brother Jody on Family Affair. He’s 50. Kathy Garver, the actress who played his older sister Cissy on that show, is 64 today.

… of Jamie Foxx. The Oscar-winner is 42.

… of Taylor Swift, 20.