“I intend to live forever. So far, so good.”
Steven Wright, 54 today. More Wrightisms in the birthday post for today.
Edison Was a Tough Grader
In the 1920s Thomas Edison would give prospective managers a general knowledge test before he would hire them. “The questions covered science, history, literature, current events, math, and even morality.”
The National Park Service has compiled two versions from actual Edison questions — one version of 150 questions (like the original) and another of 30 questions. They’ve made each substantially easier than Edison did by providing multiple-choice answers.
NewMexiKen just missed five of 30 on the shorter version. I thought I was doing well, but by Edison’s standards I failed. Screw it, I didn’t really think the job was a good match anyway.
The tests follow an introduction. This will take you a little while. Click on the “Would Edison Hire You? image on the left side of the page.
Oh yeah, Edison’s home was designated Edison Home National Historic Site on this date 54 years ago today. It was later combined with his laboratory into Edison National Historic Site.
Top of the Pencil Building
On December 6, 1884, workers placed the 3,300 pound marble capstone on the Washington Monument, and topped it with a nine-inch pyramid of cast aluminum, completing construction of the 555-foot Egyptian obelisk.
The Library of Congress has more. That’s their photo (click to view larger version). Looking at the photo, I’m wondering where was the photographer standing?
[The photo is not from the completion in 1884.]
Best redux line of the day
“There best be some of that beer left for Christmas morning.”
Joy on My Name Is Earl
First posted here four years ago today.
December 6th is the birthday
… of Dave Brubeck. Dave’s taken five for 89 years.
… of Tom Hulce. The actor who played Mozart in Amadeus is 56. (The film came out in 1984.) Hulce got an Oscar nomination for that performance. He shows up from time-to-time, but the only other role that comes to mind is Larry Kroger in Animal House.
… of Steven Wright. He’s 54.
- All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.
- If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.
- How do you tell when you’re out of invisible ink?
- Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo!
- Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.
- A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I’m afraid of widths.
- A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space. On the back it said, “Wish you were here.”
- I bought some batteries, but they weren’t included.
- If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?
- What’s another word for Thesaurus?
- If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?
One of America’s great lyricists, Ira Gershwin was born on this date in 1896.
Summertime
And the livin’ is easy,
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high.
Oh yo’ daddy’s rich
An’ yo’ ma is good lookin’
So hush, little baby,
Don’t you cry.
[with Dubose Heyward]
*****
You’ve made my life so glamorous
You can’t blame me for feeling amorous.
Oh! ‘S wonderful! ‘S marvelous!
That you should care for me!
‘S wonderful! ‘S marvelous!
That you should care for me!
‘S awful nice! ‘S paradise!
‘S what I love to see!
*****
The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem’ry of all that —
No, no! They can’t take that away from me!
The way your smile just beams,
The way you sing off key,
The way you haunt my dreams —
No, no! They can’t take that away from me!
Jolly Ole Saint Nicholas
Today is St. Nicholas Day. St. Nicholas lived in the fourth century, and he was the archbishop of Myra in Lycia (which is now Turkey). There are all kinds of stories about him, but one of the most famous is that there was a poor man who could not afford a dowry for his three daughters, which meant they would have to be abandoned to prostitution. St. Nicholas didn’t want to humiliate the man by giving him charity in public, so he left purses of gold in the man’s house at night — according to one version of the story, he dropped them down the chimney, and in another, one of the daughters had set out her stockings to dry and the gold was put in them. And so St. Nicholas, the bringer of anonymous gifts, inspired Jolly Old St. Nick, Father Christmas, and Santa Claus.
What would Wolfgang think?
A phrase I never dreamed I’d see: The Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra.
There’s a video.
Six
Six more banks went under today. That’s 130 this year.
Best line tonight
“It was a bombshell, almost as if full-frontal nudity had been displayed on the cover of The Reader’s Digest.”
Dick Cavett discussing Walter Winchell’s saying “and a president who does not know what the h-e-double-l is going on” over the airwaves.
It’s actually a pretty good essay by Cavett about lost fame.
True or False
There’s a blue moon this month (December 2009), true or false?
Football Championship
If you like your college football to end in a real championship, consider the Football Championship School (FCS) playoffs which continue tomorrow. The eight teams that won in the first round are matched:
Stephen F. Austin State Lumberjacks (10-2) @ Montana Grizzlies (12-0) 2PM ET
Appalachian State Mountaineers (10-2) @ Richmond Spiders (11-1) 7 ET
New Hampshire Wildcats (10-2) @ Villanova Wildcats (11-1) 3:30 ET
William & Mary Tribe (10-2) @ Southern Illinois Salukis (11-1) 12 ET
There are 125 FCS schools (and 120 Football Bowl Schools).
Richmond won the championship last year. Appalachian State won in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Four of the eight teams still contending are from the Colonial Athletic Association. Yet, meanwhile, two of the league’s 12 schools have just announced they are ending their football programs (Northeastern and Hofstra).
Happy Birthday
… to Jeff Bridges. The four-time Oscar nominee is 60 today (three times for supporting, once for leading — Starman). He received his first Oscar nomination in 1972 and is expected to receive another this coming season for Crazy Heart.
… to Marisa Tomei. The three-time nominee and one-time winner of the best supporting actress Oscar is 45 today.
The True Meaning of Christmas
I love nativity sets because of all the Christmas decorations they express most closely the true meaning of the season.
This one with penguins is particularly rich in religious symbolism.
Best line of the day, so far
“Good news! The November jobless rate has fallen to 10 percent. Bad news: we’re now living in a world where that counts as good news.”
Also from Newsdroppings:
“Researchers have conducted a study of anger in America. Anger levels range from ‘slightly angry’ to ‘very angry’ to ‘@#$% you and your @#$%-damn survey!'”
And:
“An Oregon couple spent two nights stuck in the snow after their quest for the perfect Christmas tree. A touching reminder that the only thing we really need for Christmas is family, and sometimes new brains.”
The future of magazines?
Link via Kottke.
Why A Comcast/NBC Merger Is Bad News
Among other isssues, Comcast will now own:
NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, Chiller, CNBC World, mun2, Oxygen, Sleuth, Syfy, Universal HD, USA Network, The Weather Channel, E! Entertainment Channel, G4, Golf Channel, PBS Kids Sprout, Style, TV one, Versus, CN8, Exercise TV, FEARnet, AZN Television, a portion of MLB Network,
NBC owned and operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Bay Area, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington, Miami, San Diego, Connecticut.
Telemundo owned and operated stations in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio, Las Vegas, San Francisco/San Jose, Phoenix, Fresno, Denver, Boston, Tucson, Puerto Rico.
Film: Universal Pictures, Focus Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Internet: Hulu, iVillage, NBC.com, CNBC.com, Weather.com
Imagine this, a good line from the late Jay Leno
“I watched Oprah interview Sarah Palin a couple weeks ago. Spent a whole hour talking to her. And I realized, if John McCain had done that, we never would have heard of Sarah Palin.”
The 10 Best Books of 2009
Tiger
Charles P. Pierce wrote an incredible profile of Tiger Woods for Esquire in 1997.
Here Pierce reflects on the Accident.
But read the 1997 profile.
Thanks Avelino.
Line of the day
“If we had wanted Bush’s wars, and contractors, and corruption, we could have voted for John McCain.”
Garry Wills in a piece titled “The Betrayal”
“I did not think he would lose me so soon—sooner than Bill Clinton did.”
Another good line about the speech
“There were rumors he was going to talk about our obligation to help the oppressed women of Afghanistan and that would have driven me nuts. If the White House could have gotten a semi-stable region that kept all its women cloistered in caves, they’d have jumped at it. Felt terrible, but jumped nonetheless.”
And another from Ms. Collins:
“The president is one of the great speechmakers in American history, but I don’t think he has the capacity to whip himself into a fervor over something he doesn’t believe.”
Provocative line of the day
“Will [the West Point cadets] find the President’s speech useful in inspiring their troops, or in reciting to themselves why they are there? Afghanistan is where their lives might end. This speech is where Obama’s Presidency might end.”
Bank shot
More than one in four American households, including more than half of black households, use check cashers, payday lenders or pawnbrokers rather than a bank, according to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation report to be released today.
Nearly 30 million households have no bank account or have one but also use alternate financial services at least occasionally, according to the FDIC report. The survey, the FDIC’s first in-depth study of the issue, was conducted by the Census Bureau.
The problem is most acute among minorities: 53% of African-American households and 43% of Hispanic households use check cashers or similar services instead of or in addition to banks.
Rudy 21st Century
His name is Rudy Rutgower. He is 18-years old, 5-feet tall and he has a dream: to play college football. While he knows he’s too small to be a starter, the scrappy, never-say-die Rutgower just wants to run on the field for one play. And though he was born and raised in Vandalia, Indiana, the diminutive youngster would prefer to do it at the University of Florida because they’re not as sucky as Notre Dame.
100 days in Glacier National Park
This summer, Glacier Park Magazine editor Chris Peterson undertook a photographic project to take photos of Montana’s Glacier National Park over 100 consecutive days, starting on May 1, 2009, for a traveling photo show in 2010 to commemorate Glacier’s Centennial. He used a mix of film and digital cameras, including an 8 by 10 field camera, a Kodak Pocket Vest camera, circa 1909, and a Speed Graphic, among others. His idea was to use the cameras that would have been used over the course of the Park’s 100 years. While Chris was kind enough to share some of his photos below, you really should check out his whole set of 100. All photos and captions are from Chris Peterson. (24 photos total)