President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. The act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land after payment of a filing fee and five years of continuous residence. Designed to spur Western migration, the Homestead Act culminated a twenty-year battle to distribute public lands to citizens willing to farm. Concerned that free land would lower property values and reduce the cheap labor supply, Northern businessmen opposed the act. Unlikely allies, Southerners feared homesteaders would add their voices to the call for abolition of slavery. With Southerners out of the picture in 1862, the legislation finally passed.
Why is it?
Why is it that the music they play while you are on telephone hold is (usually) so horrible?
Are they trying to make the waiting that much more difficult irritating?
We Get Emails
Bob Ormond sent along this item:
Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in US schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science — and especially evolutionary biology — tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles.
The quote is from an article at New Scientist
And LP sent along a link to this good story that analyzes some mythology about Thurman Munson, the great Yankee catcher in the 70s, and his competition with Carlton Fisk.
“Obviously, something happened. Somewhere. At some time. But I’ve got three versions of the same story, and none of the versions checks out.”
Raindrops on Roses, Whiskers on Kittens
Local congressional candidate Martin Heinrich finds time two weeks before the primary to list his Ten Favorite Things About Albuquerque.
8. Eating chile-laden breakfast, on the patio at Las Mananitas in the spring when the cottonwoods are greening.
7. The Ta Lin Market, the South Valley Dia de Los Muertos parade, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and all the diverse communities that make up Albuquerque
4. The fact that a pair of boots and a bolo tie is considered formal-wear.
(My friend Donna and I have a running discussion about whether there are one or two restaurants in Albuquerque where blue jeans (or shorts) might not be de rigueur.)
But Martin, why then the rush to go to Washington to live? Trust me, if you don’t have any Sweeties near there like I do, it’s not all that great.
One Down, 62 to Go
Albuquerque averages 63 days each summer when the temperature reaches 90º F.
At Casa NewMexiKen today is the first of those days for 2008. (Currently 90.3º and 7% humidity.)
Got milk?
Via Oh Fair New Mexico —
Several lanes of Interstate Highway 80 were shut down for hours overnight after a truck hauling Oreos crashed into a median, spilling tons of the chocolate cookies across the highway, police said.
The crash occurred at about 3:40 a.m. Monday on I-80 just east of Morris, said Master Sgt. Brian Mahoney of the Illinois State Police.
The truck was westbound, hauling about 20,000 pounds of Oreos, when the driver lost control and the rig hit a median before veering into the eastbound lanes. The impact ripped the trailer open, spilling its cargo across the eastbound lanes of the highway, he said.
The driver was not hurt, but police had to shut down the eastbound lanes for several hours while the cookies were cleaned up, Mahoney said.
I’m thinking the cleanup might have gone faster if the crew didn’t stop and split each cookie to lick the creamy stuff in the middle.
NewMexiKen once blew a VW Bug engine on I-80 near Morris, Illinois. But no, not an Oreo in sight that day.
Little girls have pretty curls
But I like Oreos
‘Topes
Admission for two, ninth row behind the plate: $26
Food and drinks including a margarita: $32.25
Sunny Sunday afternoon doubleheader with 27 runs (including nine home runs): Priceless
Gotta love the Isotopes and AAA baseball.
Malcolm
Malcolm Little was born 83 years ago today in Omaha.
Your assigned reading: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the best book Alex Haley wrote.
Essay question (after reading the autobiography): What would 83-year-old Malcolm say about this year’s presidential election?
May 19th ought to be an international holiday
Dusty Hill is 59 today. It ought to be an American holiday.
The genius of ZZ Top is that they’re reverential about the blues but loose and funny about the subject matter of their songs. Their songs are laden with pop-culture references, sexual double entendres and the determined pursuit of a good time. They have written about fast cars, fishnet stockings, sharp clothes, TV dinners, cheap sunglasses and “tush.” They visually connected with the MTV generation by virtue of Hill’s and Gibbons’ long beards and fur-lined guitars. For many, ZZ Top have been the premiere party band on the planet. Certainly, they have been Texas’s foremost cultural ambassadors.
Pete Townshend is 63. It ought to be a national holiday in Britain too.
From Mod-era “maximum R&B” to rock operas and quintessential Seventies hard rock, the Who reigned across the decades as one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time. At their best, they distilled the pent-up energy and chaos of rock and roll into its purest form while investing their music with literary wiles and visionary insight. In their prime they were a unit whose individual personalities fused into a larger-than-life whole. Pete Townshend provided the slashing guitar work and much of the material. Vocalist Roger Daltrey injected the songs with expressive muscularity and passion. Bassist John Entwistle anchored the band with his stoic demeanor and expert musicianship. Keith Moon, one of the greatest of all rock and roll drummers, embodied their explosive energy and anarchic wit.
And AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd is 54. So it ought to be a national holiday in Australia as well.
For three decades AC/DC has reigned as one of the best-loved and hardest-rocking bands in the world. Featuring guitarist Angus Young as their visual symbol and musical firebrand, they grew from humble origins in Australia to become an arena-filling phenomenon with worldwide popularity. They did so without gimmickry, except for Angus’s schoolboy uniform, which became mandatory stage attire. From the beginning they have been a straight-ahead, no-frills rock and roll band that aimed for the gut. “We’ve never pulled any punches,” vocalist Brian Johnson has said. “We just play music that’s fun and simple–the way our audience likes it.”
Elsewhere, Jim Lehrer is 74, Nora Ephron is 67 and Kevin Garnett is 32.
Ho Chi Minh was born on May 19th in 1890. Pol Pot was born on May 19th in 1925. So probably not a holiday in Cambodia.
Idolatry
In last week’s New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones had an interesting profile of American Idol. It included:
“Idol” watchers have been trained to think about aesthetic concepts like arrangement and song choice, and, by the time the judges weigh in, we have already been sorting out our thoughts. The viewers need compete only with Cowell; Jackson and Abdul both give us plenty of opportunities to feel superior. The self-flummoxing Abdul is physically incapable of not reassuring the contestants. One of the few variables that Jackson seems able to track is pitch.
The Other Boleyn Girl
Anne Boleyn lost her head on this date in 1536.
She was never described as a great beauty, but even those who loathed her admitted that she had a dramatic allure. Her olive complexion and straight black hair gave her an exotic aura in a culture that saw milk-white paleness as essential to beauty. Her eyes were especially striking: ‘black and beautiful’ wrote one contemporary, while another averred they were ‘always most attractive,’ and that she ‘well knew how to use them with effect.’
Karen Lindsey, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry Viii
Anne’s charm lay not so much in her physical appearance as in her vivacious personality, her gracefulness, her quick wit and other accomplishments. She was petite in stature, and had an appealing fragility about her…she shone at singing, making music, dancing and conversation…Not surprisingly, the young men of the court swarmed around her.
Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Whatever, Henry VIII wanted her badly enough to overthrow the Church in England.
Anne was the mother of Elizabeth I. Interesting that two such promiscuous parents gave birth to the Virgin Queen.
Ever Wonder Who Johns Hopkins Was?
Johns Hopkins was born on May 19, 1795, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, to a Quaker family. Convinced that slavery was morally wrong, his parents freed their slaves. As a result, Johns had to leave school at age twelve to work in the family tobacco fields. Hopkins regretted that his formal education ended so early. Ambitious and hardworking, he abandoned farming, and, at his mother’s urging, became an apprentice in his uncle’s wholesale grocery business when he was seventeen. Within a decade, he had created his own Baltimore-based mercantile operation. Hopkins single-mindedly pursued his business ventures. He never married, lived frugally, and retired a rich man at age fifty. A series of wise investments over the next two decades—he was the largest individual stockholder in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, for example—further increased his wealth. He used his fortune to found The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, incorporating them in 1867.
Hopkins died in 1873. His will divided $7 million equally between the hospital and the university. At the time, the gift was the largest philanthropic bequest in U.S. history. Hopkins also endowed an orphanage for African-American children.
Today in New Mexico History
New Mexico Magazine has this item for May 19th. It took place in 1893.
Clandestine leader Vicente Silva kills his wife north of Las Vegas and hires five henchmen to dispose of her body. Dissatisfied with the paltry $10 payment each, they also rob and kill Silva. Two years pass until the Silva deaths are known. Silva ran a prosperous business by day and at night he was the leader of a feared outlaw gang.
The wages of sin were a little low I guess.
It’s Still the Wild West
A 5-year-old Albuquerque boy hiking with his family near Sandia Peak has survived an attack from an unidentified large animal.
Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said the family was hiking on a trail near the popular Balsam Glade area on the east side of the Sandia Mountains on Saturday evening when the boy ran ahead of his parents, who said they heard a scream.
The boy’s parents, Jose and Charlotte Salazar, then saw the animal emerge from the brush and start dragging away their child.
The father gave chase, and tried to jump on the animal’s back, and it let go of the child, identified in a sheriff’s department report as Jose Salazar Jr. The animal fled.
A University of New Mexico Hospital spokeswoman said Monday the parents did not want the boy’s condition disclosed. The boy, who suffered puncture wounds to his head, neck and back, was in serious condition Saturday at University of New Mexico Hospital, White said.
White said Sunday the animal was a mountain lion, but Ross Morgan, a spokesman for the state Department of Game and Fish, said dogs trained to track mountain lions picked up no scent in the area Saturday night or Sunday.
Best Manny line of the day, so far
“Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez, to AP, on his pending milestone after hitting his 498th career homer: ‘I know I have two more to go, but I ain’t counting.'”
Another good line
“Bush urges Pakistan to solve Kashmir problem, says that any threat to the world’s sweater market must be taken seriously”
The other day Fark.com had:
“For those of you still not sure whether the gas tax holiday is actually a good idea or not, Bush is considering it, so that should clear things up”
Best line of the day, so far
“I keep picturing a bunch of rabid fans holding up lighters and calling out their top requests: ‘Social Security reform, Universal Healthcare, Free Bird.'”
Davenetics thinking about the huge crowd for Obama in Portland. Of course, Dave dates himself. No lighters these days. Rock fans hold up their lighted cell phones.
Pretty Good Turnout
Senator Obama in Portland Sunday — an estimated 75,000.
May 18th ought to be a national holiday
Maude’s husband, Walter, is 86. That’s actor Bill Macy. He was recently a character named Whiskey Pete on My Name Is Earl.
The oldest (and sole surviving) Cartwright boy, Adam, is 80. That’s Pernell Roberts.
Dobie Gillis is 74. That’s actor Dwayne Hickman who played the high school chum of Maynard G. Krebs when he was 25 (and Bob Denver was 24).
Brooks Robinson is 71.
Known as The Human Vacuum Cleaner, Brooks Robinson established a standard of excellence for modern-day third basemen. He played 23 seasons for the Orioles, setting major league career records for games, putouts, assists, chances, double plays and fielding percentage. A clutch hitter, Robinson totaled 268 career home runs, at one time an American League record for third basemen. Robinson earned the league’s MVP Award in 1964 and the World Series MVP in 1970, when he hit .429 and made a collection of defensive gems.
Reggie Jackson is 62.
Reggie Jackson earned the nickname Mr. October for his World Series heroics with both the A’s and Yankees. In 27 Fall Classic games, he amassed 10 home runs – including four in consecutive at-bats – 24 RBI and a .357 batting average. As one of the game’s premier power hitters, he blasted 563 career round-trippers. A terrific player in the clutch and an intimidating cleanup hitter, Jackson compiled a lifetime slugging percentage of .490 and earned American League MVP honors in 1973.
George Strait is 56.
George Strait – Amarillo By Morning
Tina Fey is 38.
Frank Capra was born in Bisaquino, Sicily on this date in 1897.
For the next six years, he worked as everything from a prop man to a comedy writer. In 1928, he signed a contract with Columbia. Five years later he made his first big hit, the screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1933), for which he won the first of three Academy Awards for Best Director. In the next fifteen years he made a string of successful movies, most of them about a naïve and idealistic man from small-town America who goes up against greedy politicians and lawyers and journalists. Capra said the moral of his movies was: “A simple honest man, driven into a corner by predatory sophisticates, can, if he will, reach down into his God-given resources and come up with the necessary handfuls of courage, wit, and love to triumph over his environment.”
His movies were so distinctive and so influential that the word “Capraesque” has made it into the dictionary. The 2000 American Heritage Dictionary defined it as “of or evocative of the movies of Frank Capra, often promoting the positive social effects of individual acts of courage.”
His movies include Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), which was also about a small-town hero who battles corruption, but it was darker and more cynical than any of his earlier movies, and it didn’t do very well at the box office. For some reason, Capra didn’t renew its copyright in 1974, and it fell into the public domain. PBS was the first network to play it every year around Christmas. Other stations started picking it up, and now watching It’s a Wonderful Life on TV is a holiday tradition for families across the country.
Jessica Alba The Stare Response
There are worse ways to spend two minutes and four seconds.
Obama’s Story, Written by Obama
Some interesting background on Obama the author from The New York Times. The article includes this:
The books have defined Mr. Obama’s public image in a way that few books by politicians have done. Reporters paw through them for insights into Mr. Obama the candidate, supplied by Mr. Obama the author. Out of his story, he has also drawn the central promise of his campaign: if a biracial son of a Kenyan and a Kansan could reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable in himself, a divided country could do the same.
His memoir is, as one publisher put it, “the single most vetted book in American politics right now.” Written at a time when Mr. Obama says he was thinking less about a career in politics than about simply writing a good book, it leaves an impression of candidness and authenticity that gives it much of its power.
Best advice line of the day, so far
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, quoted in The Last Bite an article asking, “Is the world’s food system collapsing?”
The Weekend Diva
The G Spot has four videos of the great gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Sister Rosetta, who died in 1973, is probably best known as an important precursor to early rock and roll. With her virtuoso rocking guitar playing, she pioneered an original sound all of her own. Musicians from Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to Bob Dylan to Isaac Hayes and Aretha Franklin have cited her as an influence, and both Little Richard and Johnny Cash have said she was their favorite singer.
Best line of the day, so far
“Among today’s larger corporations,” Webb writes, “the average CEO makes more than $10 million a year at the same time his or her workforce receives the lowest compensation package, as a percentage of national wealth, in American history.
“What did these people do to earn these fabulous sums? Did they invent the light bulb? Did they discover the Internet? Did they provide the world with a vaccine that would eliminate some dread disease? No, they examined trends, analyzed data, made phone calls and decided where their clients should risk their assets in buying or selling a stake in the international marketplace.”
Senator Jim Webb, from his new book, A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America, and quoted in The Virginian-Pilot.
Easy Reader
NewMexiKen finished Tony Horwitz’s A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. As always, his descriptions and conversations with people he meets along the way are fascinating. The history is revealing if you aren’t terribly familiar with what was going on in America before the Pilgrims.
Horwitz has a brief video about the book at Amazon.com.
I’ll be turning my attention to Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story later today. It was the one book of his that the library had on the shelf.