Chuck Yeager

Glamorous GlennisThe first person to break the sound barrier is 85 today.

Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, reportedly with two ribs broken two nights before in a drunken horseback ride. The plane, Glamorous Glennis, is hanging from the Air & Space Museum ceiling. Glennis was Mrs. Yeager.

Yeager is the basis for the character played by Sam Shepard in The Right Stuff. Glennis was played by Barbara Hershey.

In his wonderful book The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe explains that West Virginian Yeager is the reason why all airline pilots talk with a drawl — to be like Yeager, “the most righteous of all the posessors of the right stuff.”

Hate to be a nanny, but they’re right — buckle up Hannah and Hannah wannabes

Many parents would agree that 15-year-old superstar Hannah Montana, a.k.a. Miley Cyrus, is a good role model for kids.  But a gaffe in her Disney blockbuster 3-D movie, “Hannah Montana/ Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour” might challenge that opinion. 

Why?  One scene in the movie shows Miley and her dad, country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, riding in the back seat of a Range Rover on the way to rehearsal for the concert tour.  Neither was wearing a seat belt.

Why should we care?  Because, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in about 55 percent of passenger vehicle fatalities in 2006 (the latest data available), the occupants were not wearing seat belts.  Even worse, in the 13- to 15-year-old age group, that percentage climbs to 65 percent.  Unfortunately, we’re not surprised by these grim statistics because a 2002 survey by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that when parents were dropping teens off at school in the morning, nearly half the teens weren’t using seat belts.

Consumer Reports

These numbers actually mean a lot more than they say because approximately 80% do wear belts — in other words, more than half of all vehicle deaths come from the imbecilic 20% not wearing seatbelts.

Of course, if one looks at it from a Darwinian perspective . . .

Most hypocritical line of the day, so far

“I don’t think [Amy Winehouse] should have won [five Grammys]. I think it sends a bad message to our young people who are trying to get into this business, the ones who are trying to do it right and really trying to keep themselves together. We have to stop rewarding bad behavior.”

Natalie Cole, admitted former user of LSD, heroin and crack cocaine.

February 12th

The Writer’s Almanac has some Lincoln trivia.

Today is also the birthday

… of Bill Russell. He’s 74. Back-to-back NCAA championships at the University of San Francisco, 1955-1956 — 55 consecutive wins. Eleven NBA championships with the Celtics in 13 years, 1957-1969 — Russell was the only player there for all 11. Simply the greatest winner in basketball history. (And the best laugh.)

… of author Judy Blume. She’s 70.

… of Ray Manzarek. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 69.

The Doors formed in the summer of 1965 around Morrison and Manzarek, who’d met at UCLA’s film school. A year later the group signed with Elektra Records, recording six landmark studio LPs and a live album for the label. They achieved popular success and critical acclaim for their 1967 debut, The Doors (which included their eleven-minute epic “The End” and “Light My Fire,” a Number One hit at the height of the Summer of Love), and all the other albums that followed.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of actress Maud Adams. Octopussy is 63.

… of Arsenio Hall, 53.

… of Josh Brolin, 40. I wonder if his stepmom will sing “Happy Birthday” to him.

… of actress Christina Ricci. Wednesday Addams is 28.

Lorne Greene (aka Ben Cartwright) was born on this date in 1915.

Omar Bradley, the G.I General, was born on this date in 1893.

Except for his original division assignments, Bradley won his wartime advancement on the battlefield, commanding American soldiers in North Africa, Sicily, across the Normandy beaches, and into Germany itself. His understated personal style of command left newsmen with little to write about, especially when they compared him to the more flamboyant among the Allied commanders, but his reputation as a fighter was secure among his peers and particularly with General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, who considered him indispensable.

Self-effacing and quiet, Bradley showed a concern for the men he led that gave him the reputation as the “soldier’s general.” That same concern made him the ideal choice in 1945 to reinvigorate the Veterans Administration and prepare it to meet the needs of millions of demobilized servicemen. After he left active duty, both political and military leaders continued to seek Bradley’s advice. Perhaps more importantly, he remained in close touch with the Army and served its succeeding generations as the ideal model of a professional soldier.

U.S. Army Center of Military History

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

 

And it’s the birthday of artist Thomas Moran, born on this date in 1837. The National Gallery of Art has an outstanding online exhibit on Moran. Click the image for a larger replica of his classic painting Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

I’ve got your rebate

A Daily Kos diary entry about the economic stimulus tax rebate includes this great little story about one of NewMexiKen’s favorite retailers.

A few years ago I bought a TV from a store which shall remain nameless. (Best Buy) They promised me a $50.00 mail-in rebate on my purchase, need I continue? After filling out the paperwork and waiting the required 6 weeks and guessing the name Rumplestiltskin I began to make phone calls. First they claimed that the date of purchase on the store receipt was illegible, then I hadn’t checked the box on line 27, and all the other hoops that I was required to jump through.

I finally got my rebate after explaining to them that the rebate company and Best Buy were partners in this scam. Best Buy induced me to buy this television with the promise of a rebate and if that rebate was to be denied to me then our contract was void and I would return the now 2-month old TV to Best Buy for a full refund. From then on, whenever I happen to see any product with a mail in rebate, it is immediately disqualified from purchase. I think to myself whenever I see a Best Buy advertisement that they spend millions of advertising dollars trying to lure me into the store but have eternally pissed me off by promising a $50.00 rebate and then trying to worm out of it. Why not eliminate the middleman and just spit on every tenth customer coming through the door?

Obama

I’ve been looking around trying to settle on a way to post more about the presidential candidates — substantive stuff, not just photos of obscene hugs. I thought of doing several posts analyzing the candidates’ positions on two or three issues each, but you can go to CNN.com and find the whole thing. Maybe I should just keep doing what I do and post what I find.

And so, I found an endorsement of Obama by hilzoy at Obsidian Wings. The original has much more with many links, so you might want to just click and check it out at the source, but I found this excerpt rather impressive.

I came to Obama by an unusual route: as I explained here, I follow some issues pretty closely, and over and over again, Barack Obama kept popping up, doing really good substantive things. There he was, working for nuclear non-proliferation and securing loose stockpiles of conventional weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles. There he was again, passing what the Washington Post called “the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet” — though not as strong as Obama would have liked. Look — he’s over there, passing a bill that created a searchable database of recipients of federal contracts and grants, proposing legislation on avian flu back when most people hadn’t even heard of it, working to make sure that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were screened for traumatic brain injury and to prevent homelessness among veterans, successfully fighting a proposal by the VA to reexamine all PTSD cases in which full benefits had been awarded, working to ban no-bid contracts in Katrina reconstruction, and introducing legislation to criminalize deceptive political tactics and voter intimidation.

Lake Powell’s sandstone walls speak after 232 years

[A] rare historical marking has been authenticated on one of the canyon cliffs that surround Lake Powell in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The inscription was carved when the United States was only six months old.

It was left in November 1776 by Friars Dominguez and Escalante when their exploring party became trapped in a fierce storm along the Colorado River. In a hidden canyon up from the main river channel in what is now Padre Bay, someone carved in elegant script “paso por aqui, 1776.” The words are Spanish for “we passed by here.”

There’s more details at High Country News.

Lourdes

It began 150 years ago today.

Bernadette Soubirous was born in 1844, the first child of an extremely poor miller in the town of Lourdes in southern France. The family was living in the basement of a dilapidated building when on February 11, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette in a cave above the banks of the Gave River near Lourdes. Bernadette, 14 years old, was known as a virtuous girl though a dull student who had not even made her first Holy Communion. In poor health, she had suffered from asthma from an early age.

There were 18 appearances in all, the final one occurring on the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, July 16. Although Bernadette’s initial reports provoked skepticism, her daily visions of “the Lady” brought great crowds of the curious. The Lady, Bernadette explained, had instructed her to have a chapel built on the spot of the visions. There the people were to come to wash in and drink of the water of the spring that had welled up from the very spot where Bernadette had been instructed to dig.

According to Bernadette, the Lady of her visions was a girl of 16 or 17 who wore a white robe with a blue sash. Yellow roses covered her feet, a large rosary was on her right arm. In the vision on March 25 she told Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” It was only when the words were explained to her that Bernadette came to realize who the Lady was.

Few visions have ever undergone the scrutiny that these appearances of the Immaculate Virgin were subject to. Lourdes became one of the most popular Marian shrines in the world, attracting millions of visitors. Miracles were reported at the shrine and in the waters of the spring. After thorough investigation Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862.

American Catholic

Bernadette Soubirous died, a nun, at age 35. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1933.

One wonders exactly what “scrutiny” means in this case.

24-year-old Jennifer Jones won the best actress Oscar for playing the 14-year-old French girl in the 1943 film Song of Bernadette.

Artificial Sweeteners May Lead to Weight Gain

This isn’t the first time diet products have been suspected of causing weight gain; some studies show that diet soda might show a similar pattern.

Study author Susan Swithers told the LA Times that sweet tastes prompt the body’s digestive system to get ready to process caloric food. But when the calories don’t arrive because the sweetness was artificial, the body learns not to crank up the metabolic furnace. Over time that adjustment makes it it harder to burn calories and shed weight.

Wall Street Journal

Why Obama isn’t ahead (according to the Clinton view)

Iowa didn’t matter because it was a caucus state, and it’s undemocratic. Same goes for every other caucus state including Maine. The only caucus state that mattered was Nevada.

Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Alaska, and Utah don’t matter because they’re small Red states that Democrats won’t carry in November.

Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana don’t matter because they have black people. Expect the same spin out of DC this Tuesday. Black people don’t apparently count.

Washington and Minnesota don’t matter because they have educated white people.

In any case, Washington, Nebraska, and Louisiana didn’t matter on Saturday because everyone expected Obama to win them anyway.

Virginia and Maryland, assuming they’re won by Obama, will be a combination of the “black people” and “educated people” rationalizations. Throw a little of “Obama was expected to win anyway”, and you’ve got the trifecta.

Illinois doesn’t matter because that’s Obama’s home state. Expect the same spin when Obama wins Hawaii by double-digit margins in two weeks.

Missouri doesn’t matter because Clinton sent out a press release claiming she won it.

Colorado was a caucus state, so that leaves Delaware and Connecticut. Those are the only two states that apparently matter, giving Hillary Clinton a commanding 10-2 lead among states that matter.

kos

Worst president ever line of the day

George W. Bush: “[B]ut most people in America understand that the rich people hire good accountants and figure out how not to necessarily pay all the taxes and the middle class gets stuck.”

Wouldn’t that be an argument for raising taxes on the “rich people” to even the playing field?

Oh, and Ephraim, didn’t you say here last September that “Only the rich pay taxes”? Seems your president disagrees with you. 🙂

The blogger as celebrity

Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, reports:

So, [Saturday], I went into work for a little while, and then took a break to buy a birthday gift for a friend of mine. I was shopping at a very cool store near Union Square when I saw a familiar-looking, ultra-hip woman sitting on a couch. I couldn’t help but recognize her — it was Heather Armstrong of dooce. I went up to her and said, “You’ve been recognized.” She laughed, and we introduced ourselves.

I told her a really liked her website, etc., and we chatted for about 10 minutes. She’s…really pleasant. I thought it funny that I felt a bit star-struck when talking with her — the blogger as celebrity. When I got back to my office, I wished I’d asked her: “So is it weird talking to me knowing that I read your website and therefore know all these intimate things about you while you know nothing about me?”

February 11th

Today is the birthday

… of actor Leslie Nielsen. Lt. Frank Drebin is 82.

… of Conrad Janis. Mindy’s father on Mork and Mindy is 80.

… of Tina Louise. Ginger, the movie star from Gilligan’s Island, is 74.

… of Burt Reynolds. Bandit is 72. Burt — his real name is Burton Reynolds — was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for Boogie Nights.

… of Gerry Goffin. Married to Carole King while they were still teenagers, Goffin is 69.

Songwriting partners Gerry Goffin and Carole King composed a string of classic hits and cherished album tracks for a variety of artists during the Sixties. A brief sampling: “Up On the Roof” (the Drifters), “One Fine Day” (the Chiffons), “I’m Into Something Good” (Herman’s Hermits), “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (the Shirelles), “Take Good Care of My Baby” (Bobby Vee), “Chains” (the Cookies), “Don’t Bring Me Down” (the Animals), “Take a Giant Step” (the Monkees) and “Goin’ Back” (the Byrds). The prolific duo, who remained married for much of the Sixties, even tapped their babysitter to sing one of the songs they’d written, and the result was a Number One hit and a new dance craze: “The Loco-Motion,” by Little Eva. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of Sheryl Crow. She’s 46.

All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard

… of Jennifer Aniston. She’s 39. Had her photo taken enough to be 139.

… of Q’orianka. Pocahontas in The New World is 18.

Thomas Alva Edison

… was born in Milan, Ohio, on this date in 1847.

Edison’s stature has diminished since his death; technology has evolved so much since then. But he was still a hero when he died in 1931. These are the sub-headlines from his obituary in The New York Times:

World Made Over By Edison’s Magic

He Did More Than Any One Man to Put Luxuries Into the Lives of the Masses

Created Millions Of Jobs

Electric Light, the Phonograph, Motion Pictures and Radio Improvements Among Gifts

Lamp Ended “Dark Ages”

He Held the Miracle of Menlo Park, Produced on a Gusty Night 50 Years Ago, His Greatest Work

The Undiscovered World of Thomas Edison is an informative and interesting essay from the December 1995 Atlantic Monthly.

Death Valley (California)

… was proclaimed a national monument on this date in 1933. It became a national park in 1994.

Death Valley

Hottest, Driest, Lowest: Death Valley is a land of extremes. It is one of the hottest places on the surface of the Earth with summer temperatures averaging well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. At 282 feet below the level of the sea, it is the driest place in North America with an average rainfall of only 1.96 inches a year.

This valley is also a land of subtle beauties: Morning light creeping across the eroded badlands of Zabriskie Point to strike Manly Beacon, the setting sun and lengthening shadows on the Sand Dunes at Stovepipe Wells, and the colors of myriad wildflowers on the golden hills above Harmony Borax on a warm spring day.

Death Valley National Park

Sacajawea gives birth

From the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 203 years ago today:

Meriwether Lewis:

The party that were ordered last evening set out early this morning. the weather was fair and could wind N. W. about five oclock this evening one of the wives of Charbono was delivered of a fine boy. [1] it is worthy of remark that this was the first child which this woman had boarn and as is common in such cases her labour was tedious and the pain violent; Mr. Jessome informed me that he had freequently adminstered a small portion of the rattle of the rattle-snake, which he assured me had never failed to produce the desired effect, that of hastening the birth of the child; having the rattle of a snake by me I gave it to him and he administered two rings of it to the woman broken in small pieces with the fingers and added to a small quantity of water. Whether this medicine was truly the cause or not I shall not undertake to determine, but I was informed that she had not taken it more than ten minutes before she brought forth perhaps this remedy may be worthy of future experiments, but I must confess that I want faith as to it’s efficacy.—

Background by Journals editor:

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau would have a varied and lengthy career on the frontier, starting with his role as the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery. Clark nicknamed him Pomp or “Pompy,” and named Pompey’s Pillar (more properly Clark’s “Pompy’s Tower”) on the Yellowstone after him in 1806. Clark offered to educate the boy as if he were his own son, and apparently took him into his own home in St. Louis when the child was about six. In 1823 he attracted the notice of the traveling Prince Paul of Wurttemburg, who took him to Europe for six years. On his return to the United States he became a mountain man and fur trader, and later a guide for such explorers and soldiers as John C. Frémont, Philip St. George Cooke, W. H. Emory, and James Abert. He eventually settled in California and died in Oregon while traveling to Montana in 1866.

Source: Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online February 11, 1805