Beautiful

That’s Venus in the evening sky. Don’t miss it.

And on Saturday, Venus and the Moon will be in the sky together, worthy of a stroll where you can see the sky on a late winter, early spring evening. If your sky is clear, take a walk.

Best line of the day, so far

“iTunes displays information based on each music file’s tag information (artist, title, release date, etc.), which often comes from online databases if you’ve ripped CDs to play on your iPod. The only problem is that some of the thoughtful users who have kindly contributed to the databases are, well, morons …”

Randy A. Salas in Make iTunes and iPod classical companions.

Link via dangerousmeta!.

Good Riddance

New Mexico dumped Arizona on this date in 1863 when the Arizona Territory was established.

In 1861, after March conventions in Mesilla and Tucson, the southern portion of New Mexico Territory followed the lead of the southern states and attempted to withdraw from the Union. The Confederate congress approved in 1862. While all this had no legal meaning in the United States, it probably did influence the decision to create the real Arizona Territory by February 24th the next year.

The Confederate Arizona Territory consisted of the bottom half of both present-day states (dividing the two at 34ºN). The U.S. Arizona Territory in 1863 made the division along the north-south border we have today (dividing at 109º 2′ 59.25″W). Too bad. With the Confederate division New Mexico could have been the Grand Canyon State and Arizona could have had the Deming Duck Race.

The capital of the Confederate Arizona Territory was in Mesilla (near present-day Las Cruces).

From the Archives

Two oldies but goodies, both first posted here four years ago today:

Amy, official niece of NewMexiKen, was in a minor traffic collision yesterday. A gentleman Amy describes as “this ancient, tiny, little, old man” was let into traffic by a good samaritan and, while waving to his benefactor, he ran right into Amy.

As Amy tells it:

The funny thing was there was an ambulance right next to me in the 2nd lane. They saw everything (even though there was no damage, my car was quite jostled at the time – it was apparent that something had happened). So they turned on their lights and pulled over and jumped out to make sure everything was ok. You should have seen everyone’s reaction when I got out of the car and they saw my belly. [Amy’s baby is due in May.] They were all hustling around, “Do you need to sit down? Do you need a drink? Do you want us to call the police? Maybe you should lay down.” I thought the little old man was gonna have a heart attack right there. I was amused. Sometimes the belly comes in handy.

Well since there was no damage we exchanged info and such and I sent [the man] on his way. He was very grateful that I was nice about it but really I guess he caught me in a non-hormonal moment.

A good friend’s mother was prescribed a new painkiller Monday. That night she thought she heard a burglar, then saw a woman sitting on her porch. She called the police. A grandson came over as well to make certain everything was OK.

The second night (Tuesday night/Wednesday morning), the mother heard the morning paper arrive before 5. She went out and the same woman she’d seen on the porch the night before went past her into the house and sat on the couch. Then the stranger went into the bathroom. The friend’s mother called the police. When they arrived the stranger was gone. It was clear to the police my friend’s mother was seeing things.

Turns out that one reported side effect of the new painkiller is hallucinations. The mother stopped taking the pills and no strangers arrived last night. Certain as she was that the stranger was there when she called the police (something she may never have done before in 80+ years), she now recognizes it must have been the pill. She’s fine.

NewMexiKen is thinking however, of getting a presecription to this drug. I figure after three or four nights I might be able to hallucinate someone coming in and cleaning the bathroom.

Impeached

The House of Representatives voted 126-47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson on this date in 1868. The New York Times report on the vote begins:

The first act in the great civil drama of the nineteenth century is concluded. Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, stands impeached of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” It is of no use to argue whether his acts were right or wrong, whether the law he violated is constitutional or otherwise, or whether it is good or bad policy to proceed to this extreme. The House of Representatives, with a full realization of all the possible consequences, has solemnly decided that he shall be held to account in the manner prescribed by the Constitution for his alleged misdemeanors, and, be the result what it may, the issue is made. It must be met without delay, and the first step is already complete.

As the War ended in 1865, there were essentially two different approaches to Reconstruction. The first, shared by Lincoln and Johnson, was that the southern states had not left the Union. There had simply been a rebellion by their citizens. The Union’s purpose in the war had been to end the rebellion, replace the southern leaders and restore the state governments, albeit with freedom for all, black and white. The second approach took the view that the south was a conquered nation to be governed by the federal government. This view was held by many Republicans in Congress.

Continue reading Impeached

Best line of the day way back then

Shortly after WWII, an American went to visit Picasso in his Paris studio and asked, “How does it feel to be Picasso, the master of the art?” The artist replied, “Give me a dollar bill.” The American complied, and Picasso signed his name on it. “There, that dollar is now worth $500. That’s how it feels to be Picasso.”

Found at Altercation and first posted here three years ago.

Two-Two-Four

Today is the birthday

… of Abe Vigoda. Fish on Barney Miller and Sal Tessio of The Godfather is 88.

… of Steven Hill. Adam Schiff on Law and Order is 87.

… of Dominic Chianese. Uncle Junior on The Sopranos is 78.

… of Edward James Olmos, 62.

Eddie Murray, the Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, and Paula Zahn, the broadcaster, are each half of 106 today.

Baseball great Honus Wagner was born on this date in 1874.

One of the Hall of Fame’s five original inductees in 1936, Honus Wagner combined rare offensive and defensive excellence throughout a 21-year career. Despite his awkward appearance – stocky, barrel-chested and bow-legged – the longtime Pirates shortstop broke into the big leagues by hitting .344 in 1897 with Louisville, the first of 17 consecutive seasons of hitting over .300, including eight as the National League batting champion. Wagner compiled a lifetime average of .329, and the Flying Dutchman also stole 722 bases, while leading the league in thefts on five occasions.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Coming Storm

Winslow Homer was born on this date in 1836. The painting is his “Coming Storm” (1901). Click for larger version.

From the late 1850s until his death in 1910, Winslow Homer produced a body of work distinguished by its thoughtful expression and its independence from artistic conventions. A man of multiple talents, Homer excelled equally in the arts of illustration, oil painting, and watercolor. Many of his works—depictions of children at play and in school, of farm girls attending to their work, hunters and their prey—have become classic images of nineteenth-century American life. Others speak to more universal themes such as the primal relationship of man to nature.

Source: The National Gallery of Art, which has a fine online Winslow Homer exhibit.

Oscars

Each year Jill, official co-daughter of NewMexiKen, conducts an Oscar picks contest. She sends out a spreadsheet to friends and family listing the nominated films/actors/directors/etc. — the 24 awards announced during the broadcast — and we all pick our winners. We also list how many of the nominated features we’ve seen. (There were 36 films this year, I’d seen four — but two of them twice!)

The best prognosticators this year were Emily and Rob getting 20 of the 24 awards correct. Clearly, they cheated.

The best of the film-goers saw 23 of the 36 films.

The poorest showing was by Mark. But Mark is being cut some slack because he spent more than half of 2008 as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot in Iraq.

Every one of us picked Heath Ledger and WALL-E to win and they did. None of us got the foreign language film, Departures.

Thanks Jill. It makes Oscar night a lot more fun.

Black History Month Sweetie Style

Emily, official co-daughter of NewMexiKen, reports:

As you probably know, February is Black History Month. At our school, the principal organized a voluntary extra essay contest. The kids were asked to research about famous African Americans and write essays on how these people influenced the students’ lives today. The essay was due today [Monday]. Then on Friday, they have to dress up and act like they are in a wax museum.

Well, out of a school with 1,085 students, only two students completed the essay contest . . . Kiley and Mack.

It’s kind of sad for the principal, but I can’t tell you how proud of Kiley and Mack I am. They both took the activity very seriously and produced great essays. I typed up Kiley’s essay below so you could see what she came up with. She is very excited about getting the chance to act like Ruby on Friday. Mack researched Chuck Berry and is all set to play his electric guitar on Friday. We’re not sure exactly who the audience will be for the performances, but it should be a great show.

Here is six-year-old kindergartner Kiley’s essay:

Ruby Bridges

Ruby Bridges is a brave little girl just like me. Ruby was not to upset that she has to eat lunch by her self. Ruby has to eat by her self because her techer ate elsewhere and no one was in her class. No one was in her class because the kids are wite and their folks are not happy with a black girl in the school. Ruby prayed for the pepole in the loud crowd. That teaches me not to be hurtful to others. Ruby did this too . . . she was so brave she could walk being silent. She ignored the pepole that were in the crowd. I would do that to. I have a brother and I sometimes ignore him when he is not nice. Ruby and me are the same in some ways.

Ruby Bridges was a six-year-old girl who attended school alone in 1960 in New Orleans when white parents withdrew their children in opposition to integration. She was depicted in a famous Norman Rockwell illustration.

Welfare for the Rich

“I was just at a White House conference listening to a lot of people talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits for retirees. How can the same government that hands tens of billions of dollars to Citi’s shareholders and top executives cut key benefits for the retirees? Why aren’t the news reports calling attention to this massive give away to some of the nation’s richest people?”

Dean Baker

The Oscars

Hertzberg sums up my feelings as well.

I have to admit, I enjoyed them last night. It didn’t hurt that I watched with agreeable people over ample food and drink, but the new format must have had something to do with it. I liked the fake intimacy of having so many stars grouped in a semicircle around the stage. I liked the acceptance speeches, especially Sean Penn’s shoutout to “Commie homo-loving sons of guns” and his brotherly recognition of Mickey Rourke. I liked having five famous actors or actresses come out together to announce the big-ticket nominees. I liked the pointless, unmusical chaos of the musical numbers. I liked the bit with James Franco and Seth Rogan as two stoners laughing their heads off while watching tragic scenes from nominated pictures. Tina Fey and Steve Martin were funny, too, but I didn’t mind the otherwise almost complete lack of film clips or sustained comedy. Much as I loved Billy Crystal (and Steve Martin) in years past, I didn’t really mind that the usual subversive running commentary was put aside just this once. Sincere, unironic collective self-praise has its place.

As always, I liked the red-carpet stuff beforehand, with the stilted, groveling “interviews” and the absurdity of evening gowns and tuxedos in the blinding mid-afternoon sun. Even the commercials were kind of O.K.

So sue me.

Gulp

Dow at Lowest Point Since 1997

There is, however, one very, very positive fact about the huge drops in the housing and stock markets. The losses are a tremendous transfer of wealth from the older generation(s) to the younger. Everything is a bargain again (or will be when the bottom gets here), and those with enough time should see significant appreciation.

Alas, I’ll be dead by then.

The S&P 500 since 1996 (a graph).

Four Bad Bears brought up to date (graph).