September 24th

Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets, should have been 71 today.

Muppets

Jim McKay, the long-time Wide World of Sports host, is 86.

Not-so-mean-anymore Joe Greene is 61.

Nia Vardalos, the actress-screenwriter from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is 45. She received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896. The Writer’s Almanac begins an interesting brief essay on Fitzgerald with:

It’s the birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald, … born in St. Paul (1896), who was a student at Princeton University when he fell in love with a beautiful rich girl named Ginevra King. She got engaged to somebody else because Fitzgerald didn’t have many prospects. He later said, “She was the first girl I ever loved … [and] she ended up by throwing me over with the most supreme boredom and indifference.”

John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, but surely the most important, was born on this date in 1755.

Marshall’s impact on American constitutional law is peerless. He served for more than 34 years (a record that few others have broken), he participated in more than 1000 decisions and authored over 500 opinions. As the single most important figure on constitutional law, Marshall’s imprint can still be fathomed in the great issues of contemporary America. Other justices will surpass his single accomplishments, but no one will replace him as the Babe Ruth of the Supreme Court!

Oyez

At least not without steroids.

Bubba Isn’t Who You Think

What this reflects, in turn, is the odd fact that income levels seem to matter much more for voting in the South. Contrary to what you may have read, the old-fashioned notion that rich people vote Republican, while poorer people vote Democratic, is as true as ever – in fact, more true than it was a generation ago. But in rich states like New Jersey or Connecticut, the relationship is weak; even the very well off tend to be only slightly more Republican than working-class voters. In the poorer South, however, the relationship is very strong indeed.

Paul Krugman

The political party may have changed, but I think that class distinction in the South is pretty consistent with history.

No National Park Entrance Fees Saturday

All National Park Service sites will offer free visitor admission on September 29 for National Public Lands Day.

In addition to waiving entrance fees, national parks and other public lands will host special programs and volunteer work parties to commemorate the 14th annual event. Anyone who volunteers at a National Park Service area on National Public Lands Day will receive a free one day pass valid for future use at any site.

National Park Service

The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal

… was acquired from the B&O Railroad on this date in 1938. The property became a National Historical Park in 1971. According to the National Park Service:

Great Falls

The C&O Canal follows the route of the Potomac River for 184.5 miles from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, MD. The canal operated from 1828-1924 as a transportation route, primarily hauling coal from western Maryland to the port of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of original structures, including locks, lockhouses, and aqueducts, serve as reminders of the canal’s role as a transportation system during the Canal Era. In addition, the canal’s towpath provides a nearly level, continuous trail through the spectacular scenery of the Potomac River Valley.

Fall

Autumn began in the northern hemisphere at 3:15 am Mountain Daylight Time.

This evening, just as the sun sets, take note of its direction in relation to neighborhood landmarks — trees, other houses, water towers, what have you. Write it down, make a diagram, or take a photo. Share the moment with your kids.

Then compare it with the solstice in three months. Pretend you lived in a simpler time when people found entertainment in noticing their sky.

September 23rd

It’s the birthday of John Coltrane (1926), Ray Charles (1930) and Bruce Springsteen (1949).

It ought to be a damn holiday.

Oh, and four-time Oscar nominee Mickey Rooney is 87, Julio Iglesias is 64, Emmy winner Mary Kay Place is 60, and seven-time Emmy nominee Jason Alexander is 48.

Trane.

“My music,” John Coltrane said, “is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being…” The grandson of ministers, he began his career in the blues clubs of Philadelphia, and throughout his career combined the sacred and the secular in the intense, earnest sound of his saxophone. His musical sermons, by turns somber and ecstatic, radiated his undying faith in music’s power to heal.

Coltrane fell under the spell of Charlie Parker at age 18 and dedicated himself to a practice regime that sometimes found him asleep, fingers still ghosting the keys. He first gained fame as a member of Miles Davis’s classic quintet in 1955, worked with Thelonious Monk, then took the lessons he’d learned from those masters and became a leader in his own right — and the most admired, most influential and most adventurous saxophonist of the 1960s.

“There is never any end,” Coltrane said. “There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that … we can give … the best of what we are.” (Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame)

The Genius.

Many musicians possess elements of genius, but only one — the great Ray Charles — so completely embodies the term that it’s been bestowed upon him as a nickname. Charles displayed his genius by combining elements of gospel and blues into a fervid, exuberant style that would come to be known as soul music. While recording for Atlantic Records during the Fifties, the innovative singer, pianist and bandleader broke down the barriers between sacred and secular music. The gospel sound he’d heard growing up in the church found its way into the music he made as an adult. In his own words, he fostered “a crossover between gospel music and the rhythm patterns of the blues.” But he didn’t stop there: over the decades, elements of country & western and big-band jazz have infused his music as well. He is as complete and well-rounded a musical talent as this century has produced. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

The Boss.

Bruce Springsteen ranks alongside such rock and roll figureheads as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Just as those artists shaped popular music, Springsteen served as a pivotal figure in its evolution with his rise to prominence in the mid-Seventies. Early on, he was touted as one of several heirs to Bob Dylan’s mantle. All of these would-be “new Dylans”-who also included Loudon Wainwright, John Prine and Elliott Murphy-rose above the hype, but Springsteen soared highest, catapulting himself to fame on the unrestrained energy of his live shows, the evocative power of his songwriting, and the direct connection he forged with his listeners.

Springsteen lifted rock and roll from its early Seventies doldrums, providing continuity and renewal at a point when it was sorely in need of both. During a decade in which disco, glam-rock, heavy-metal and arena-rock provided different forms of escape into fantasy, Springsteen restored a note of urgency and realism to the rock and roll landscape. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

I had a friend was a big baseball player
Back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
But all he kept talking about was

Glory days well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days

Where do they get these guys?

NewMexiKen has been listening to the radio broadcast of the California-Arizona football game on the Cal network. We all misspeak, but really …

“He hit the right crossbar.” (Isn’t it the right upright?)

“The motivation has changed.” (Isn’t it the momentum that changes?)

“Tuitama is over center.” (Aren’t quarterbacks under center?)

And all these in the first half.

A little New Mexico history

The first American governor of New Mexico, Charles Bent, was beaten, murdered and mutilated in his Taos home in front of his family on January 19, 1847. The assassins were from the nearby pueblo but their action was part of a larger insurrection by Mexicans and Indians against the American conquest. Several other Americans were killed.

If you’ve been to Taos Pueblo, you’ve seen the ruins of San Jeronimo church. To capture the insurgents taking refuge inside, the U.S. Army destroyed the church with fire and artillery on February 4, 1847. An estimated 150 Indians were killed in that and the subsequent pursuit, and several more were tried and hanged as ringleaders. (The father of one of the American victims presided over the trial.)

All part of that “peaceful” conquest of New Mexico we learned about.

Pure car porn

Let’s assume there’s a bright side to the universe, a place where mercy and justice prevail, where the good are rewarded and the bad punished with equal alacrity. On this sunny shore, public school teachers make six figures, all stray kittens find good homes, and yard gnomes never get their little ceramic heads caved in.

Do not look for the Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG there. This is the Car of Sauron, a black-hearted sin of mechanical seduction, an automobile to make you eat all your pretty little words about carbon footprints and warming greenhouses. A veritable neutron star of gas-burning evil, this stupendous, beautiful two-door — the rakish coupe version of the obsidian-souled S63 sedan — has the power to corrupt, oh yeah, absolutely. I honestly believe if you loaned this car to Ralph Nader and Ed Begley Jr. for the weekend, by Sunday night they’d be doing doughnuts in a Ralphs parking lot.

Dan Neil

0-to-155 in less than 30 seconds. 518 hp. Neil was getting “about 9 miles per gallon at one point.”

Handy Safari Add-on (and more)

A Safari plug-in that adds the following:
– Open tabs with a double click on the tab bar.
– Open new tabs with the URL in the clipboard.
– Close tabs by middle-clicking.

Apple – Downloads – Internet Utilities – Twicetab

A neat, free piece of software that helps you build fantastic playlists from the music stored on your Mac. It’s like a musical assistant who knows exactly which songs will fit together and which songs won’t.

Apple – Downloads – iPod + iTunes – The Filter

Canada Is Giddy About the Loonie

After 31 years of playing second fiddle, the Canadian loonie, so-called because of the bird on the dollar coin, overtook the U.S. greenback this week. A nation that has long been the butt of jokes from its neighbor to the south puffed out its chest and grinned.

At the start of the year, one U.S. dollar bought 1.166 Canadian dollars. Late Friday in New York, it bought just 1.0008 — a slide of 14%. On Thursday, the two currencies hit parity for the first time since 1976. In January of 2002, the U.S. currency touched its recent high against the loonie, with one dollar buying 1.6143 Canadian dollars.

The Wall Street Journal

Mexico will be building a wall along its northern border in a few years if the dollar continues its slide.

An exciting new NewMexiKen poll

This poll was suggested by a NewMexiKen reader, who wonders how often people clean their bathrooms. Coincidentally, NewMexiKen saw an Oprah rerun about this very topic recently — it was the only Oprah I’ve ever watched — no, really.

Oprah’s producers had found this woman who had 30-year-old pillows and a disgusting kitchen sponge and just yuck everywhere. Surprisingly, the woman was very put together. I mean it was Oprah, not Jerry Springer.

Anyway, Oprah had some expert there to tell the woman and the audience how and when to clean. I was amazed — aghast — at some of what he said — do you vacuum your mattresses? — but gave it no more thought until the idea for a poll came along.

{democracy:18}

AFTER you answer the poll, here’s An Easy Guide to a Sparkling Bathroom.

Random Acts of Kindness

NewMexiKen remembers living in the San Francisco Bay area when the tolls on the bridges were 50¢ and it was not uncommon to give the toll taker a buck and tell him you were paying for the car behind you, too.

Now the toll is $3 and most locals use FasTrak. Alas, such is progress.

Anyway the story that follows reminded me of that lost tradition in a random acts of kindness kind of way. I never actually do this kind of thing myself, but I think it’s really nice that others do.

I was in the drive-thru at Tim Hortons by my house and had just ordered a coffee and croissant. I waited to get to the window and they handed me my order and said it had been paid for already. I curiously asked, “Who paid for it?” And the girl said, “The woman ahead of you. She does it all the time for people. And all she asks me to tell you is ‘pay it forward.'”

This made my entire day, and I made sure to tell everyone at work about it!

The next time I was in the same drive through, I paid for the person behind me. The best part about the whole thing was that I could spend the rest of the day imagining how that person felt. I know how good it made me feel, and it stuck with me.

You never know how someones day is going, and a small act like paying for a persons coffee can turn their entire day around.

Help Others.org

And to think this used to be the ‘land of the free’

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.
…

The DHS database generally includes “passenger name record” (PNR) information, as well as notes taken during secondary screenings of travelers. PNR data — often provided to airlines and other companies when reservations are made — routinely include names, addresses and credit-card information, as well as telephone and e-mail contact details, itineraries, hotel and rental car reservations, and even the type of bed requested in a hotel.

The records the Identity Project obtained confirmed that the government is receiving data directly from commercial reservation systems, such as Galileo and Sabre, but also showed that the data, in some cases, are more detailed than the information to which the airlines have access.

The Washington Post

But Homeland Security says it’s only going to retain your personal information for 15 years, so what the heck.

Though there is this:

A federal agent for the U.S. Department of Commerce is facing charges of illegally accessing computer information about a former girlfriend who jilted him and lying to government officials about it.

Benjamin Robinson, 40, of Oakland, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San Jose on one count of unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and another count of making a false statement to his employer about his alleged acts. Robinson was a special agent for the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security.

Robinson is accused of logging on to the government’s internal computer system at least 163 times over a period of months between mid-2003 and mid-2004 to track the travel patterns of the girlfriend who left him, and her family.

San Jose Mercury News

Best line of the day, so far

“Do you know the average IQ is only 100? That’s terribly low, isn’t it? One hundred. It’s no wonder the world’s in such a mess.”

— Clive Wearing as reported by his wife Deborah in her memoir, Forever Today.

In a New Yorker article, A Neurologist’s Notebook: The Abyss, Dr. Oliver Sacks tells the fascinating story of Wearing, who after a brain infection in 1985 has been left with no episodic memory whatsoever: “He was left with a memory span of only seconds—the most devastating case of amnesia ever recorded. New events and experiences were effaced almost instantly.”

It’s a fascinating article about something incomprehensibly frightening to imagine. Blink your eyes and your life starts all over again.

It’s also interesting to learn about the various types of memory — semantic, emotional, procedural — that Wearing retains. How amazingly compartmentalized our brains are.

September 22nd

Tommy Lasorda, the former Dodgers manager, is 80 today.

University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson is 73.

Harry’s daughter Shari is 54 and Pat’s daughter Debby is 51. Belafonte and Boone, respectively.

Joan Jett is 49.

I saw him dancin’ there by the record machine
I knew he must a been about seventeen
The beat was goin’ strong
Playin’ my favorite song
An’ I could tell it wouldn’t be long
Till he was with me, yeah me, singin’

I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n’ roll
So come an’ take your time an’ dance with me

Chachi is 46. That’s Scott Baio.

Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, the Brazilian football star, is 31.

And NewMexiKen’s baby brother John is a year older, too. Happy Birthday John!

John Houseman was born on this date in 1902. This from the Times obituary when Houseman died in 1988:

John Houseman, who spent more than half a century in the theater as an influential producer and director but who did not achieve fame until, at the age of 71, he portrayed a crusty law school professor in the film ”The Paper Chase” and its subsequent television series, died of spinal cancer yesterday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 86 years old and despite his failing health had been working on various projects until three days ago.

Professor Kingsfield, the role he played in ”The Paper Chase,” led to another well-known part, that of a haughty spokesman for a brokerage house in its television commercials, delivering the lines: ”They make money the old-fashioned way. They earn it.”

Houseman won a supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Professor Kingsfield.

On this date in 1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation, in effect threatening the Confederate states to quit the rebellion or he’d free the slaves:

“That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

The rebellion continued so, indeed, on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

Nathan Hale was hanged by the British as a spy on this date in 1776. Hale was in fact spying on the British for General Washington — he had volunteered for the duty.

A statue of Nathan Hale is located between the [CIA] Auditorium and the Original Headquarters Building. Hale was the first American executed for spying for his country. This statue is a copy of the original work created in 1914 for Yale University, Nathan Hale’s alma mater. The Agency’s statue was erected on the grounds in 1973, 200 years after his graduation from Yale.

There is no known portrait of Nathan Hale; this life-size statue portrays what little written description there is of him. The statue captures the spirit of the moment before his execution – a 21-year-old man prepared to meet his death for honor and country, hands and feet bound, face resolute, and his eyes on the horizon. His last words, “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” circle the base around his feet.

He stands vigilant guard on the Agency and is a continuing reminder to its employees of the duties and sacrifices of an intelligence officer.

Central Intelligence Agency

Best court ruling of the day, so far

A New Hampshire prison inmate’s file drove a federal judge to rhyme. U.S. District Court Judge James Muirhead reached for Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” for inspiration when a prison inmate protesting his diet attached a hard-boiled egg to documents sent to court.

“I do not like eggs in the file. I do not like them in any style. I will not take them fried or boiled. I will not take them poached or broiled. I will not take them soft or scrambled Despite an argument well-rambled,” Muirhead wrote in his response to inmate Charles Jay Wolff.

He then ordered the egg destroyed: “No fan I am Of the egg at hand. Destroy that egg! Today! Today! Today I say! Without delay!”

Yahoo! News

Muirhead’s food ruling is good, but NewMexiKen’s favorite food ruling is from the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit:

Mr. Jeffrey Collier is a prisoner in the El Dorado Correctional Facility in El Dorado, Kansas. One day at lunch, he did not receive the full portion of meat to which he believed he was entitled (one hot dog rather than two). Feeling wronged, he threw a temper tantrum by kicking and screaming, which put him into a pickle with the prison authorities. Whining over his wiener failed to secure Mr. Collier a second hot dog, but it did get him ten days in disciplinary segregation and a ten-dollar fine. Red hot, Mr. Collier filed a civil rights complaint in the district court, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Mr. Collier’s complaint stated three claims. The district court quickly dismissed two of the claims – alleged violations of his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy. Sandwiched between these two meritless claims, however, was a claim for denial of procedural due process, which the district court did not dismiss outright. Suspecting Mr. Collier could not go forward with his procedural due process claim because of Heck v. Humphrey , 512 U.S. 477 (1994), the district court afforded him an opportunity to show why the claim should not be dismissed. Mr. Collier was unable to make such a showing, and the district court dismissed the claim for being premature.

Mr. Collier appeals the district court’s decisions to this court. While this court does not relish the idea of prisoners going hungry, Mr. Collier’s first and third claims do not have any legal merit for the reasons provided by the district court in its two orders: the withholding of one hot dog is not “sufficiently serious” to rise to the level of an Eighth Amendment violation, see Farmer v. Brennan , 511 U.S. 825, 834 (1994); and the denial of one hot dog is not punishment for Double Jeopardy purposes.

…

FindLaw

By my count, there are five hot dog word associations — some of the cleverest legal writing since Justice Frankfurter was on the Supreme Court.

The Nine

No, not baseball. It’s the title of Jeffrey Toobin’s new book: The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court.

David Margolick has the review in The New York Times. His summary:

So, not surprisingly, “The Nine” is engaging, erudite, candid and accessible, often hard to put down. Toobin is a natural storyteller, and the stories he tells — how a coalition of centrist justices saved Roe v. Wade; why Rehnquist, despite having loathed the rights granted to criminal suspects by Miranda v. Arizona, eventually declined to overturn the decision; how right-wing firebrands deep-sixed the Supreme Court candidacies of Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers — are gripping. But its greatest surprise is that there are few great surprises. Toobin writes about the court more fluidly and fluently than anyone, but his buddies on the bench didn’t tell him much we don’t already know.

Here’s the “first chapter” of The Nine.

Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick review the reviewers of Toobin’s book.

Tough and Smart

Views of Hillary Clinton are more sharply drawn than those of other leading candidates in either political party. As many as 67% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say Clinton is the Democratic candidate who first comes to mind when they hear the word tough and more than half (52%) associate Clinton with the word smart. No other candidate – Democrat or Republican – comes close to Clinton in being linked with each of these traits.

The Pew Research Center has all the details.

I wonder if Senator Clinton is afraid of horses.

Proudly Plantagenet Since 1215

Charles Pierce gets on a roll not to be missed. Here’s just a sample:

Not to put too fine a point on it, but has anybody checked to see if Harry Reid is, you know, actually alive? Conscious? Ambulatory? Clothed and in his right mind? Put a mirror under his nose for a second, will you? If you’re keeping score at home, the Democratic majority of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body this week failed to get the WGDB to pass a bill to give overstretched soldiers what amounts to their statutorily required stateside respite. It also found itself unable to endorse the general concept of habeas corpus, thereby putting the WGDB somewhere up the track behind John Lackland of England on the subject of civil liberties. It also then — with six more votes than it was able to muster for soldier’s relief, and with 22 Democratic senators forming a eunuch chorus — resolutely got pissed off at a newspaper ad.