Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities say they will step up efforts to move hurricane victims out of more than 35,000 trailers now that tests indicate possibly high levels of formaldehyde contamination.

The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Some of the thousands of trailers purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2005 after hurricanes tore through the Gulf Coast may finally be put to use to help victims of last week’s tornadoes, officials said Tuesday.

The Associated Press

Well, I’d hope

“Pastor openly crosses the line and endorses Huckabee from his pulpit (twice). Also encourages his congregation to vote Huckabee. Guess which three-letter government agency wants to have a chat with him?”

FARK.com

“Under federal tax law, church officials may legally discuss politics, but they cannot endorse candidates or parties without putting their tax-exempt status at risk. Most who do so receive only a warning.” AP

Valentine Babies

Hugh Downs is 87.

The Bradys’ mom and stepmom, Florence Henderson, is 74.

Michael Bloomberg is 66.

Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein is 64.

Pat O’Brien is 60, as is magician-comedian Teller.

Michael Doucet of Beausoleil is 57.

Meg Tilly is 48.

Jack Benny was born as Benjamin Kubelsky on this date in 1894. In The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, the entry for The Jack Benny Program on radio runs for eight pages. And then he was on television. Truly one of the great stars of the mid-20th century. NewMexiKen realizes how corny the jokes and skits would sound now — how corny they undoubtedly were then — but tucked among my fond memories is being at my Great Grandmother’s house in Rensselaer, New York, more than 55 years ago. I was sick, so stayed home with Gram that Sunday evening while the rest of the family socialized. She had to be in her seventies; I no more than five or six. We listened to The Jack Benny Program on radio. And all I can remember is how hard we laughed.

Oregon entered the union as the 33rd state on February 14, 1859.

Arizona entered the union as the 48th state on February 14, 1912.

The two sexes — a story for Valentine’s Day

1. HER DIARY

Tonight I thought he was acting weird.

We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment. Conversation wasn’t flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed but he kept quiet and absent. I asked him what was wrong; he said nothing. I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.

On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept driving. I can’t explain his behavior. I don’t know why he didn’t say I love you too. When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there and watched T.V. He seemed distant and absent.

Finally, I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed, and to my surprise he responded to my caress and we made love, but I still felt that he was distracted and his thoughts were somewhere else.

He fell asleep – I cried. I don’t know what to do. I’m almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.

2. HIS DIARY

I shot the worst round of golf in my life today, but at least I got laid.

Found at Andrew Tobias – Money and Other Subjects in 2006.

President Lincoln’s Cottage

The New York Times takes a look at a new Lincoln museum. The article begins:

WASHINGTON — If you look out the windows of President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home — the idiosyncratic and intriguing museum that is opening to the public on Tuesday after a ceremonial event on Monday — you have to imagine what Abraham Lincoln might have seen during those summer evenings when he stood here. The cottage is on a hilltop, the third highest in the area. And when Lincoln first came here, seeking a respite from the summer heat, the swampy air and the incessant bustle of the White House, he could have looked out over the expanding city below him, with the unfinished Washington Monument and incomplete Capitol dome rising in the distance.

A very technical question

I would like to change the structure of the NewMexiKen permalinks. I know how to do that. What I cannot figure out how to do is create the .htaccess rule that will redirect existing permalinks to the new structure.

The current permalink is ^/%year%/%monthnum%/00%post_id%.php

What I want is ^/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

The existing .htaccess file is:

RewriteRule (^archives/)(.*) $2 [R=301,L]

# BEGIN WordPress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</ifmodule>
# END WordPress

Some not smiling over Juno’s sarcasm

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article describing how some people are offended by a bit of dialogue in Juno, the best picture nominated film.

NewMexiKen has seen the film twice and enjoyed it immensely both times, including the offensive line.

In one scene, the title character sarcastically tells the rich suburban couple hoping to adopt her unborn child, “You shoulda gone to China. You know, ’cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those T-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.”

What do you think? Insensitive writer and director or too sensitive audience?

Taking the Bite Out of a New Mexico Winter

The New York Times takes a look at choice tables in Taos. The article begins:

TAOS is at its moodiest and most beautiful in winter. It’s the time of the silver gray mesa, of ominous clouds, of crackling cedar logs in kiva fireplaces, of snow clouds billowing in across the plain, of the smoke of house fires leaning in lines from the pueblo rooftops. The adobe architecture seems so well suited to winter, both physically and spiritually. It offers the kind of haven from the cold no other building material can.

But northern New Mexico architecture is not just about mud. A large part of its charm comes from its adz-hewn wood — the beams, doors, sideboards, window frames and floorboards made of pine and oak, on which you can still see the blows the adz made.

February 13th

In addition to Chuck Yeager mentioned earlier today, it’s the birthday

… of Kim Novak. Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton (Vertigo) and Madge Owens (Picnic) is 75.

… of George Segal. Jack Gallo (Just Shoot Me) and Nick (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is 74.

… of Carol Lynley. Nonnie Parry (The Poseidon Adventure) and Janet Willard (Blue Denim) is 66.

… of Peter Tork of the Monkees. He’s 66.

… of Jerry Springer. He’s 64.

… of Stockard Channing. Abbey Bartlet (West Wing) and Louisa (‘Ouisa’) Kittredge (Six Degrees of Separation) is 64.

American Gothic

… of Mike Krzyzewski. The Duke coach is 61 today.

… of Peter Gabriel. He’s 58.

… of actor Neal McDonough. He’s 42.

Pauline Frederick, the first woman to be a major correspondent for network news, was born on this date in 1908. (She died in 1990.) Frederick was the first woman to win the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.

Grant Wood was born on this date in 1891.

ASCAP

The writers’ strike is over. It’s just the latest in a long line of efforts to make certain creative artists received fair compensation.

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers was founded [on this date] in New York City in 1914. The founding membership included some of the most popular musicians of the day, including Irving Berlin, John Philip Sousa, and the composer Victor Herbert. The group was formed to protect intellectual property and help musically inclined writers make a living off their art. Technically, there were already laws on the books that should have done this, but many of them weren’t being enforced.

According to ASCAP lore, it was Victor Herbert who realized what a problem enforcement had become when he walked into a hotel one evening and heard one of his own songs being played. Knowing he hadn’t given permission or been paid for his music, Herbert set out to create a union that would stand up for the rights of musicians and composers.

The first office of the ASCAP was little more than a closet in New York’s Fulton Theater Building. The office furniture consisted of a table and a single, broken chair. Today, the organization has more than 300,000 members, and it collects and distributes millions in royalties.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media