June 11th, already a holiday in Hawai’i

Two-time Oscar nominee Gene Wilder is 76 today. Wilder was nominated for supporting actor for The Producers and as a co-writer with Mel Brooks for Young Frankenstein.

Adrienne Barbeau is 64.

ZZ TopFrank Beard is 60 today. That’s him with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Frank Beard is the one without a beard.

Joe Montana is 53.

Hugh Laurie is 50.

Shia LaBeouf is 23.

William Styron was born on June 11th in 1925. This from American Masters:

After leaving the service, [Styron] moved to New York, where he supported his fledgling writing career working at McGraw-Hill Publishing. He also began taking classes with Hiram Haydn at the New School for Social Research. With guidance and encouragement from Haydn, Styron made his stunning debut at the age of twenty-six with LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS (1951). This novel launched his career and earned him the American Academy’s Prix de Rome. Told under the shadow of the Hiroshima bombing, LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS charts the tragic descent into suicide of a young woman raised in a troubled Virginia family.

He followed LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS with THE LONG MARCH (1957), SET THIS HOUSE ON FIRE (1960), and one of his most famous novels, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER (1967). Published at the height of the civil rights movement, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER is told from the point of view of the historical figure who led a disastrous and bloody slave insurrection which set the stage for the Civil War. Winning a Pulitzer Prize, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER was both praised as a brave look into a rarely represented life, and maligned for what many saw as a clichéd conception of a black man.

Styron’s next novel did not appear for more than ten years. The tragedy of SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1979) is played out between a young Virginia writer and a Polish Holocaust survivor in an urban Jewish enclave of Brooklyn. It takes place during the aftermath of World War II, an era Styron describes as “a nightmarish Sargasso Sea of guilt and apprehensions.” In SOPHIE’S CHOICE, Styron weaves a fictional tale, profound in its engagement, with major recent historical events. Made into a popular movie starring Meryl Streep, SOPHIE’S CHOICE returned Styron to the popular eye as both a controversial personality and a major writer.

Styron’s compelling Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990) describes his crippling, nearly suicidal depression at age 60. Styron died in November 2006.

Vince Lombardi was born on June 11 in 1913. Lombardi is the legendary football coach. You know — the one the Super Bowl trophy is named for.

Some Lombardisms:

  • “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
  • “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
  • “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
  • “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Vince Lombardi died in 1970 at age 57.

Jeanette Rankin was born on this date in 1880 on a ranch near Missoula, Montana. In 1916, Rankin was elected the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was not re-elected in 1918, after voting against entry in the First World War, but was returned to Congress for one term in 1940. In 1941, she cast the sole vote in Congress against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan. Jeanette Rankin was a social worker and a lobbyist for peace and women’s rights. She died just before her 93rd birthday in 1973. She is one of the two Montanans honored in The National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S. Capitol. Read Rankin’s obituary from The New York Times.

And NewMexiKen’s very own sister Martha is celebrating her birthday today, too. Happy Birthday!

Oh, and today is a state holiday in Hawai’i. It’s Kamehameha Day in honor of King Kamehameha I, the chief who united the Hawaiian Islands in 1795.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (Kentucky)

… was authorized on this date in 1940.

Cumberland Gap

Throughout the ages, poets, songwriters, novelists, journal writers, historians and artists have captured the grandeur of the Cumberland Gap. James Smith, in his journal of 1792, penned what is perhaps one of the most poignant descriptions of this national and historically significant landmark: “We started just as the sun began to gild the tops of the high mountains. We ascended Cumberland Mountain, from the top of which the bright luminary of day appeared to our view in all his rising glory; the mists dispersed and the floating clouds hasted away at his appearing. This is the famous Cumberland Gap…” Thanks to the vision of Congress, who in 1940 authorized Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, visitors today can still bask in its beauty and immerse themselves in its rich history.

The story of the first doorway to the west is commemorated at the national park, located where the borders of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia meet. Carved by wind and water, Cumberland Gap forms a major break in the formidable Appalachian Mountain chain. First used by large game animals in their migratory journeys, followed by Native Americans, the Cumberland Gap was the first and best avenue for the settlement of the interior of this nation. From 1775 to 1810, the Gap’s heyday, between 200,000 and 300,000 men, women, and children from all walks of life, crossed the Gap into “Kentuckee.”

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

NewMexiKen and Dad visited Cumberland Gap on our 2006 trip — it’s an inspiring and beautiful site. The highway through the Gap was removed in 1996 (replaced by a tunnel). One can now walk the Wilderness Road through a forest much as the migrants moving west did from Daniel Boone on, including some of my very own ancestors.

The Taking of The Taking of Pelham 123

Attention moviegoers: The people at Columbia Pictures would like to clear something up. Apparently there’s a rumor going around that Tony Scott’s new film, The Taking of Pelham 123, is a remake of Joseph Sargent’s 1974 movie The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. This is false. Scott’s film is an adaptation of John Godey’s 1973 pulp novel, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (on which Sargent’s movie was also based). This is plainly stated in the film’s opening credits. Are we clear?

It’s easy to imagine why Pelham’s producers wouldn’t want Scott’s professional but dull picture to be compared with the 1974 classic.

John Swansburg has a review at Slate Magazine

You go see the new movie if you want. I intend to watch the classic with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw.

Wow line of the day

“Throwing orange peels, coffee grounds and grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash will be against the law in San Francisco, and could even lead to a fine.”

SF Gate has the blue cart, green cart, black cart garbage sorting rules.

Here at Casa NewMexiKen we don’t even have recycling (unless we take it ourselves). We’re told it would be too expensive. Hello! What’s too expensive?

It’s just money

According to this story in the Los Angeles Times housing values in some parts of Southern California have dropped below 1989 values.

To return to the past, take a stroll down Mulberry Avenue in Lancaster. John A. Beatrice, 55, bought his spacious two-story Spanish-style house there brand-new for $120,000 in 1989. It was a price he could comfortably afford, and he planned on staying through retirement, so he wasn’t worried about price swings.

. . .

But he never imagined his neighborhood would drop off the charts. In April, a slightly larger home two doors away sold for $66,500. That’s just over half the $130,000 it went for new in 1992. In 2005, that house sold for $330,000.

Beatrice’s 29-year-old daughter is now shopping for Lancaster houses priced lower than when she was a kid.

Suing to play

A student at my high school alma mater is suing to be allowed to play sports.

In a complaint filed last week, Steven Erly asked the Arizona Interscholastic Association to allow him to participate in sports even though he will be 19 when the school year begins.

The state’s high school sports and activities governing body states that players who turn 19 before Sept. 1 cannot compete during that school year.

According to the story in the Arizona Daily Star, Erly was ill and unable to play sports — or even to attend school full-time — during the 2006-2008 school years. He wants the opportunity he lost. He is suing under the Americans with Disabilities and Arizonans with Disabilities acts.

What do you think? How much accommodation should we make?

Is It Worth It?

Should you pay a little extra upfront in hopes of saving money — or hassle — in the future? Or are you better off spending less and pocketing the savings now?

From warehouse clubs to home and car maintenance, we present you with ten situations for you to decide. Is it worth the cost? Or should you save your money? Take our quiz to find out.

Is It Worth It?

Not much new in this quiz from Kiplinger, but interesting nonetheless.

Best Place

The 10 best places to live:

1. Albuquerque, N.M.

2. Auburn, Ala.

3. Austin, Texas

4. Boise, Idaho

5. Durham, N.C.

6. La Crosse, Wis.

7. Loveland, Colo.

8. San Luis Obispo, Calif.

9. St. Augustine, Fla.

10. Upper St. Clair, Pa.

Each link above is to the U.S. News facts summary page. Or read a short narrative summary for each of the 10.

Thanks to Dwight for the link. He warns “Get ready to be overrun by people moving to Albuquerque. Build a wall around the city? Fire the Chamber of Commerce for doing too good of a job?”

Or see house prices rise again.

Best quote of the day, so far

I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.

Roger Ebert quoted by Will Leitch at Deadspin.

The Joy of Less

I’m not sure I knew the details of all these lives when I was 29, but I did begin to guess that happiness lies less in our circumstances than in what we make of them, in every sense. “There is nothing either good or bad,” I had heard in high school, from Hamlet, “but thinking makes it so.”

An excerpt from Pico Iyer on “The Joy of Less”

Provocative essay. Go read it.

Tim Kreider’s “Reprieve” is worth your time, too.

Thanks to Veronica for pointing to the Iyer piece.