Another reason to make May 27th into a holiday

Hubert Humphrey was born in Wallace, South Dakota, on this date in 1911. Humphrey was first elected mayor of Minneapolis in 1945 and U.S. Senator in 1948. Senator Humphrey introduced his first bill in 1949; it became law in 1965 and we know it as Medicare.

Humphrey became Vice President with the election of President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. After Johnson withdrew from the 1968 campaign, and after Robert Kennedy was killed, Humphrey was nominated as the Democratic candidate for President. He lost to Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in history. Some commented that with the vote trending as it did, had the election been one or two days later Humphrey would have won.

But then we wouldn’t have had Watergate and Nixon to kick around.

May 27th ought to be a holiday

Best-selling mystery author Tony Hillerman was born on this date in 1925.  The Shape Shifter is the 18th book in the series centered on Navajo Tribal policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.  Hillerman had an interesting website with excerpts from all the books, but it has disappeared.  There he told us that:

Leaphorn emerged from a young Hutchinson County, Texas, sheriff who I met and came to admire in 1948 when I was a very green ‘crime and violence” reporter for a paper in the high plains of the Panhandle. He was smart, he was honest, he was wise and humane in his use of police powers–my idealistic young idea of what every cop should be but sometimes isn’t. 
. . . 

Jim Chee emerged several books later. I like to claim he was born from an artistic need for a younger, less sophisticated fellow to make the plot of PEOPLE OF DARKNESS make sense–and that is mostly true. Chee is a mixture of a couple of hundred of those idealistic, romantic, reckless youngsters I had been lecturing to at the University of New Mexico, with their yearnings for Miniver Cheever’s “Days of Old” modified into his wish to keep the Navajo Value System healthy in universe of consumerism.

Mystery writer Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born on this date in 1894.  Hammett departed from the intellectualized mysteries of earlier detective novels (Sherlock Holmes for example) and transformed the genre with his less-than-glamorous realism.  He is considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.  

Hammett actually was a detective with Pinkerton for a few years just before World War I. Contracting TB during military service, he realized his health would keep him from resuming as a detective.  He turned to writing.  He published his first story in 1922, and then about 80 more, many in the popular pulp crime magazine Black Mask. Hammett’s first novel was Red Harvest, published in 1929.  His most famous character, Sam Spade, made his appearance in Hammett’s third novel, The Maltese Falcon (1930). (It was the third—and only successful—attempt to turn that novel into a film when Humphrey Bogart played the role in 1941.) The Thin Man (1934) was the last of Hammett’s novels. 

By the early-thirties, Hammett was established and famous.  He began a relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman that lasted for 30 years despite his drinking and womanizing.  Though both eventually divorced their spouses, they never married. Hammett served in the Army in World War II, enlisting as a private at age 48.  His involvement in left-wing politics and unwillingness to testify about it before Congress however, and the continued drinking, diminished his stature.  Hammett died in 1961.

John Cheever was born on this date in 1912.

He wrote for more than 50 years and published more than 200 short stories. He’s known for writing about the world of American suburbia. Even though he was one of the most popular short-story writers of the 20th century, he once said that he only earned “enough money to feed the family and buy a new suit every other year.”

In 1935 he was published in The New Yorker for the first time, and he would continue to write for the magazine for the rest of his life. His stories were collected in books including The Way Some People Live (1943) and The Enormous Radio and Other Stories (1953). The Stories of John Cheever, published in 1978, won the Pulitzer Prize and became one of the few collections of short stories ever to make the New York Times best-seller list.

The Writer’s Almanac

Cheever died in 1982.

The Golden Gate Bridge

. . . opened on this date in 1937. Vehicular traffic began the next day. Jumping off began three months later.

Read about the world’s leading location for suicide from a 2003 article in The New Yorker.

On the bridge, Baldwin counted to ten and stayed frozen. He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. “I still see my hands coming off the railing,” he said. As he crossed the chord in flight, Baldwin recalls, “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.”

Ken Baldwin, one of 26 known survivors

The Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension span in the world (4,200 feet) until 1964. It’s now ninth.

Best. Image. Ever.

“That is exactly what you think it is: Phoenix descending to the Martian surface underneath its parachute. This incredible shot was taken by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. You can easily see the ‘chute, the lander (still in its shell) and even the tether lines!”

Go see the Best. Image. Ever.

It’s the idea that such an image is possible, not the picture itself that is so amazing.

May 26th

James Arness — Marshall Dillon — is 85.

Brent Musburger is 69. ABC must have some sort of mandatory retirement age.

Levon Helm of The Band is 68.

The Band, more than any other group, put rock and roll back in touch with its roots. With their ageless songs and solid grasp of musical idioms, the Band reached across the decades, making connections for a generation that was, as an era of violent cultural schisms wound down, in desperate search of them. They projected a sense of community in the turbulent late Sixties and early Seventies – a time when the fabric of community in the United States was fraying. Guitarist Robbie Robertson drew from history in his evocative, cinematic story-songs, and the vocal triumvirate of bassist Rick Danko, drummer Levon Helm and keyboardist Richard Manuel joined in rustic harmony and traded lines in rich, conversational exchanges. Multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson provided musical coloration in period styles that evoked everything from rural carnivals of the early 20th century to rock and roll revues of the Fifties.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rolling Stone Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks is 60 today. A moment of silence please.

Finally, the platinum edition of Fleetwood Mac came together in 1975 with the recruitment of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The San Francisco duo had previously cut an album together as Buckingham-Nicks. Drummer Fleetwood heard a tape of theirs at a studio he was auditioning, and the pair were drafted into the group without so much as a formal audition. This lineup proved far and away to be Fleetwood Mac’s most durable and successful. In addition to the most solid rhythm section in rock, this classic lineup contained strong vocalists and songwriters in Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie. Male and female points of view were offered with unusual candor on the watershed albums Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours (1977).

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Sally K. Ride is 57. Ride Sally Ride.

Lenny Kravitz is 44.

Shakespeare is 38. That’s actor Joseph Fiennes.

New Mexico Road Trip

If you’re looking for anyone at home in Texas this weekend, forget it. They’re all in Ruidoso, Cloudcroft, or at the Inn of the Mountain Gods in the Sierra Blanca Mountains of New Mexico.

Every little New Mexico town has a funky but authentic bar and grill with lots of character — an old, often historic bar; somewhat rickety tables and chairs; pool tables; lots of taxidermy; some bikers as customers; etc. There’s the Owl Bar and Cafe in San Antonio, The Outpost in Carrizozo, Los Ojos in Jemez Springs, the Mine Shaft in Madrid, and so on. You think this could actually be some sort of chain-franchise deal?

White Sands National Monument is one of the best places in the world. Why? The beautiful white gypsum sand dunes? The amazing vegetation that seemingly survives without water and soil? The spacious skies and distant mountain views? The stunning sunsets? No. It’s because you can go sledding and not get cold and wet. Scores of children of all ages were riding down the slopes — in 80-degree weather.

White SandsWhite Sands is one of New Mexico’s greatest attractions. If you’ve never been, go soon — though best when the weather is moderate. I recommend arriving before sunset for the best light, then returning the next morning before the sun is too high. Be sure to take a hike — the mile long Dune Life Nature Trail was excellent. (Click image for larger version. That’s not snow you see plowed along the edge of the road — it’s sand.)

Smokey Bear GraveVisiting Smokey Bear’s gravesite in Capitan is a little freaky. Why did I feel I had to be so quiet and respectful — he was just a bear. (Click image for larger version.)

And, seemingly some things never change. The not-to-be-missed Lincoln State Monument in — duh — Lincoln, New Mexico, tells the story of the famed Lincoln County War. President Hayes referred to Lincoln’s main street (now Highway 380) as “the most dangerous street in America.” I had never given this part of New Mexico history much thought, though I had the outline in mind — two factions, Billy the Kid, and so on. I just guessed the fighting erupted over land or sheep vs. cattle like it did in so many places. Nope. It was over government contracts.  

The short film at the Lincoln SM visitor center gives short shrift to the Mexican settlers who founded the community.  Worse, the film is downright disrespectful to the American Indians in the area, past and present.  The film needs to be redone.

Decoration Day

In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade. …

In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended it to honor all soldiers who died in American wars. A few states continue to celebrate Memorial Day on May 30.

Library of Congress

From each end of the Mississippi River

Today, as I’ve noted, Bob Dylan is 67. Thinking about him and listening to four decades of his music — love those iTunes smart playlists — as I was walking around doing other stuff, I concluded Dylan is arguably one of the two or three most significant Americans of the past 100 years — in music I mean.

Who else?

Louis Armstrong certainly. Chuck Berry most likely.

Keep in mind that I am talking significant and that implies influence. These are not necessarily the most important “entertainers” of the past 100 years — Sinatra and Elvis make that list. What I am asking is who had the most significant influence on subsequent music?

I say Armstrong and Dylan.

In McCain’s Court

The question, as always with McCain these days, is whether he means it. Might he really be a “maverick” when it comes to the Supreme Court? The answer, almost certainly, is no. The Senator has long touted his opposition to Roe, and has voted for every one of Bush’s judicial appointments; the rhetoric of his speech shows that he is getting his advice on the Court from the most extreme elements of the conservative movement. With the general election in mind, McCain had to express himself with such elaborate circumlocution because he knows that the constituency for such far-reaching change in our constellation of rights is small, and may be shrinking. In 2004, to stoke turnout among conservatives, Karl Rove engineered the addition of anti-gay-marriage voter initiatives to the ballots in Ohio and other states; last week, though, when the California Supreme Court voted to allow gay marriage in that state, only hard-core activists were able to muster much outrage. When it comes to the Constitution, McCain is on the wrong side of the voters, and of history; thus, his obfuscations.

Jeffrey Toobin

Follow the link to read more of Toobin’s analysis.

No, May 24th REALLY ought to be a holiday

Bob Dylan’s influence on popular music is incalculable. As a songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting, from confessional singer/songwriter to winding, hallucinatory, stream-of-conscious narratives. As a vocalist, he broke down the notions that in order to perform, a singer had to have a conventionally good voice, thereby redefining the role of vocalist in popular music. As a musician, he sparked several genres of pop music, including electrified folk-rock and country-rock. And that just touches on the tip of his achievements. Dylan’s force was evident during his height of popularity in the ’60s — the Beatles’ shift toward introspective songwriting in the mid-’60s never would have happened without him — but his influence echoed throughout several subsequent generations. Many of his songs became popular standards, and his best albums were undisputed classics of the rock & roll canon. Dylan’s influence throughout folk music was equally powerful, and he marks a pivotal turning point in its 20th century evolution, signifying when the genre moved away from traditional songs and toward personal songwriting. Even when his sales declined in the ’80s and ’90s, Dylan’s presence was calculable.

The beginning of Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s profile at allmusic.

Bob Dylan – Thunder On The Mountain

May 24th ought to be a national holiday (and it is in Canada)

Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 24th 67 years ago. That’s Bob Dylan, of course.

From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

Bob Dylan is the pre-eminent poet/lyricist and songwriter of his time. He re-energized the folk-music genre, brought a new lyrical depth to rock and roll when he went electric, and bridged the worlds of rock and country by recording in Nashville. As much as he’s played the role of renegade throughout his career, Dylan has also kept the rock and roll community mindful of its roots by returning often to them. With his songs, Dylan has provided a running commentary on a restless age. His biting, imagistic and often cryptic lyrics served to capture and define the mood of a generation. For this, he’s been elevated to the role of spokesmen – and yet the elusive and reclusive Dylan won’t even admit to being a poet. “I don’t call myself a poet because I don’t like the word,” he has said.

Here’s a video of Tangled Up In Blue.

Tommy Chong, he’s Chong of Cheech and Chong, is 70.

Walter “Radar” O’Reilly, that is Gary Burghoff, is 68.

Patti LaBelle is 64 today.

Priscilla Presley is 63.

Alfred Molina is 55.

Rosanne Cash is 53. She was born a month before her father released his first record, “Cry, Cry, Cry.”

Kristin Scott Thomas is 48.

Michael Chabon is 45 today.

After Wonder Boys, Chabon stumbled on a box of comic books he’d kept since childhood. He hadn’t looked at them in 15 years. He said, “When I opened it up and that smell came pouring out, that old paper smell, I was struck by a rush of memories, a sense of my childhood self that seemed to be contained in there.” It gave him the idea to write a novel about the golden days of the comic book trade called The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It came out in 2000, and won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the story of a Jewish kid who flees the Nazis just before World War II — has to leave his family behind and come to America. Along with his cousin, he creates a comic book super hero called “The Escapist.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

John C. Reilly is 43. “Shake ‘n Bake.”

Victoria was born on May 24, 1819. She was the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III. None of her uncles had legitimate children who survived, so when her uncle William IV died in 1837, she became queen at age 18. Her reign lasted until 1901; the longest of any British monarch. She had nine children and is Elizabeth II’s great great grandmother.

Victoria Day has been celebrated in Canada since 1845. The holiday is now the Monday before May 24th, unless Monday is May 24th.

The first passenger railroad in the U.S. began service between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, on May 24th in 1830. That’s 13 miles.

The first telegraph message was transmitted by Samuel F. B. Morse on May 24th in 1844. Sent from Washington to Baltimore it said, “What hath God wrought!”

The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 24th in 1883. Click here for every fact you ever needed to know about this landmark.

The first Major League Baseball night game was played in Cincinnati on May 24, 1935. The Reds beat the Phillies 2-1. The Reds played seven night games that year (one against each National League opponent).

We’ll take Manhattan

Legend and a number of historical accounts have it that on this date in 1626, Manhattan Island was purchased from the Canarsee Delawares by the Dutchman Peter Minuit. Most accounts state that Dutch beads were part of the deal.

The only known document specifically relating to the acquisition was written in Amsterdam late in 1626 as a report to the board of the West India Company. It said, in part:

They [the crew and passengers of a returning ship] report that our people are in good heart and live in peace there; the women have also borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders; ’tis 11,000 morgens (about 22,00[0] acres) in size.

60 guilders has been estimated as worth from $24 to $300. Manhattan is actually about 15,000 acres, not 22,000.

The late bead historian Peter Francis argued in his prize-winning 1986 article “The Beads That Did Not Buy Manhattan Island” that, because this contemporary report does not mention beads, we cannot assume that beads were part of the transaction. According to Francis, beads were added to the story by Martha J. Lamb in her History of the City of New York (1877). It was only from then on that Dutch beads became part of the story. And, as a result, making the Delawares seem even more ignorant in light of Manhattan’s growing importance and wealth.

NewMexiKen however, wonders whether “for the value of 60 guilders” does not imply trade goods rather than coin. What use would Dutch money have been to the Delawares? And, if the transaction was strictly for money, why not report “for 60 guilders” rather than the vague “for the value of 60 guilders”? Trade goods were used in the purchase of Staten Island in August 1626 according to a copy of the deed – “Some Diffies, Kittles, Axes, Hoes, Wampum, Drilling Awls, Jew’s Harps, and diverse other wares” [Diffies are cloth]. What does “Wampum” mean in this Dutch account if not beads? The word “Wampum” comes from the Narragansett word for white shell beads.

More than likely the Delawares assumed they were “leasing” the use of the land. Permanent title would not have occurred to them. And $24 to $300 for a lease (whether in cash or goods) would not have been unattractive.

As the result of war, the Dutch traded New Amsterdam to the English in 1667 for what is now Suriname (Dutch Guyana).

Been readin’ me some novels

 

NewMexiKen read both of the above these past few days. Both are from series, Blood of Victory (2002), from Furst’s succession of World War II espionage books, and Tularosa (1996), the first of McGarrity’s Kevin Kerney mysteries. It’s the third of Furst’s books I’ve read; the first of McGarrity’s.

Furst’s books describe the kind of world we know from the back story of Casablanca — individuals in small groups, possibly with some sort of “official” sanction or support, doing what they can to thwart the Nazis from one end of Europe to the other. They ride trains, have love affairs, smoke cigarettes, and blow up stuff. All in black in white, too.

McGarrity’s Kerney is the detective novel’s typical ex-cop, wounded in duty, loner, but respected. In Kerney’s case he’s an ex-Santa Fe cop, raised in the Tularosa basin (site of today’s missile range). He drives a pickup, rides horses, wins fights, loses fights, saves the girl, gets the bad guys. Good reading, if somewhat predictable. I expect to try another in the series soon. And another.

Probably not a good idea to fill up the tank in La Jolla

Gas prices 

Photo from The New York Times.

Of course, if you can afford to live in La Jolla, the price of gasoline is not likely to be much of a concern for you.

(That absurd 9/10ths of a cent still hanging in there.)

Update: AAA says the AVERAGE price of a gallon of regular gasoline nationwide went up 4.4 cents since yesterday. I want my 18.4¢ tax rebate! (Gas has gone up TWICE the amount of the tax since McCain and Clinton first proposed suspending the tax last month.)

Harry S Truman National Historic Site (Missouri)

. . . was established on this date in 1983.

Harry S Truman National Historic Site includes the Truman Home in Independence, Missouri, and the Truman Farm Home in Grandview, Missouri.

Truman Home

Harry S Truman (1884-1972), 33rd President of the United States, lived here from 1919 until his death. The white Victorian style house at 219 North Delaware Street was built by the maternal grandfather of Bess Wallace Truman (1885-1982), and was known as the “Summer White House” during the Truman administration (1945-1953).

National Park Service

10 best road-trip cars

Just in time, Kelley Blue Book has provided a list of the top 10 new vehicles best suited for road trips. Based on factors such as driving enjoyment, passenger comfort, cargo space, and — perhaps most important — fuel economy, the experts suggest travelers consider the following options. To sweeten the deal, we’ve offered some fun destinations to consider.

The Top 10
Audi S5
Bugatti Veyron
Chevrolet Malibu
Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
Dodge Grand Caravan
Ford Flex
Infiniti EX35
Mini Cooper Clubman
Toyota Prius
Volkswagen Eos

The 10 best road-trip cars and where to take them from the Los Angeles Times.

May 23rd — the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Jewel is 34 today. Joan Collins is 75. Drew Carey is 50.

Jewel’s last name is Kilcher.

Lauren Chapin, who played the youngest daughter, Kathy or Kitten, on “Father Knows Best,” is 63.

Benjamin Sherman Crothers — known to us better as Scatman Crothers — was born May 23rd in 1910. Crothers is best remembered as the permissive orderly in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the concerned chef in The Shining and as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man. He was also a successful composer and singer and did a number of cartoon voices. The nickname Scatman came from his scat singing. Crothers died in 1986.

Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, on May 23rd in 1934. The FBI has a web page with details about Bonnie and Clyde, including a photo of each. Not exactly Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman (who portrayed Clyde’s brother Buck). All three were nominated for an acting Oscar, as were Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons. Parsons, who played Buck’s wife Blanche in the 1967 film, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

William Harvey Carney was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on May 23rd in 1900 — for duty performed nearly 37 years earlier at Fort Wagner, S.C. Sergeant Carney was the first African-American to receive the Medal of Honor. Carney was a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, the regiment whose story was told in the film Glory (1989) with Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick. Carney was not portrayed in the film by name. The citation for Carney’s Medal of Honor reads: “When the color sergeant was shot down, this soldier grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet, and planted the colors thereon. When the troops fell back he brought off the flag, under a fierce fire in which he was twice severely wounded.”