Most politically incorrect headline of the day, so far

The Day Santa Fe Emptied Out

That Albuquerque Journal online headline refers to August 21, 1680, when the Spanish were forced to abandon Santa Fe.

Emptied out? Well, only if you ignore the several thousand Pueblo Indians that remained in the area and the leader of the revolt, Popé, who personally occupied the Palace of the Governors.

Getting to the real issues

As reported by the Daily Howler:

A real discussion had broken out about the way to exit Iraq! It was by far the most intelligent discussion we’ve seen in any debate this year; the hopefuls were even beginning to question each other about their respective views. But our press corps flees intelligent discourse as bats avoid exposure to light. Abruptly, George Stephanopoulos brought the discussion to a halt so he could ask this question:

STEPHANOPOULOS (8/19/07): Let me move on now. We’ve got a question—we got an e-mail question from Seth Ford of South Jordan, Utah. And he said, “My question is to understand each candidate’s view of a personal God. Do they believe that through the power of prayer disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the Minnesota bridge collapse could have been prevented or lessened? I’d like each of you to answer it.”

Let me start with you, Senator Clinton.

And so, instead of explaining how she’d act in Iraq, Clinton had to explain if we could have prayed and made that bridge hold up.

August 21

Kenny Rogers is 69.

Patty McCormack is 62. The actress, known now as Patricia McCormack, was nominated for the supporting actress Oscar as an 11-year-old for her performance in The Bad Seed.

Kim Cattrall of Sex in the City is 51.

Hayden Panettiere of Heroes is 18.

William “Count” Basie was born on this date in 1904.

Count Basie was a leading figure of the swing era in jazz and, alongside Duke Ellington, an outstanding representative of big band style.

Quotation from the PBS website for Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns. The page has a nice biography of Basie with some audio clips, including Basie’s 1937 recording of “One O’Clock Jump,” one of NPR’s 100 “most important American musical works of the 20th century.”

Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia 71 years ago today. Usually called “The Stilt” because it rhymed with Wilt, Chamberlain actually preferred the nickname “The Big Dipper.”

  • Scored 800 points in first 16 high school games.
  • Unanimous All-American at Kansas 1957, 1958, averaging nearly 30 points per game.
  • Four-time NBA MVP.
  • Scored 31,419 points (30.1 ppg) in 1,045 pro games, including 100 in one game against the Knicks.
  • All-time scoring leader when he retired, since surpassed.

Chamberlain died in 1999.

Hawaii entered the Union as the 50th state on this date in 1959. The eight major islands in the chain are Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lāna’i, Kaho’olawe, Maui and Hawai’i.

Odds

Odds of winning the Powerball jackpot tomorrow of $245 million ($114.7 million in cash) are the same as always — one in 146,107,962.

Odds of an asteroid wiping out life on earth in this century — one in 5,000.

With my luck I’d win Powerball and the asteroid would hit.

Blue Blood

“[T]he smallness of people and the grandeur of their demands.”

Edward Condon Conlon, in Blue Blood, his first-rate memoir of life in the NYPD.

Conlon, a detective, formerly wrote the “Cop Diary” columns for The New Yorker.

“The entire criminal-justice system functions as an editorial process, as a story is refined, supported, and checked from the complainant to the cop, to the sergeant and maybe the lieutenant, and then to the ADA, and then to the judge, and sometimes to the jury.”

Where in the world

Once again NewMexiKen is amazed — no, dumbfounded — at the routing of some packages.

I was charged $3.99 for shipping and handling for some software I ordered on August 11th. I can see why it was so much (for a 12 ounce package). It’s had a lot of shipping and handling.

The package was received by UPS in Groveport, Ohio, a week ago tomorrow, the 14th.

UPS sent it to Austin, Texas, on the 15th.

It was received in Austin on the 16th. That’s 620 miles from here, so it had made it half way.

The next day, Friday, UPS sent it to the U.S. Postal Service in Dallas. Dallas is no closer than Austin.

Saturday, USPS sent it from Dallas to Denver. Denver is about 350 miles from Albuquerque.

I have no idea where it is today; still en route from Dallas to Denver is my most informed guess.

For $2.57 they could have mailed 12 ounces first class from Ohio to Albuquerque.

Parallel Play

The essay by Tim Page that NewMexiKen mentioned last week is now available online. I found it fascinating.

In the years since the phrase became a cliché, I have received any number of compliments for my supposed ability to “think outside the box.” Actually, it has been a struggle for me to perceive just what these “boxes” were—why they were there, why other people regarded them as important, where their borderlines might be, how to live safely within and without them. My efforts have been only partly successful: after fifty-two years, I am left with the melancholy sensation that my life has been spent in a perpetual state of parallel play, alongside, but distinctly apart from, the rest of humanity.

August 20th is the birthday

… of Issac Hayes. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 65.

Isaac Hayes is a multi-faceted talent: songwriter, producer, sideman, solo artist, film scorer, actor, rapper and deejay. He has been hugely influential on the rap movement as both a spoken-word pioneer and larger-than-life persona who’s influenced everyone from Barry White to Puff Daddy. Hayes is best known for his soundtrack to Shaft, one of the first and best “blaxploitation” films, and for the song “Theme from ‘Shaft,’” a Top Ten hit. But his varied resume boasts everything from backing up Otis Redding and writing for Sam and Dave and others at Stax Records in the Sixties to serving as the voice of Chef on South Park in the Nineties.

… of Connie Chung. The newscaster is 61.

… of Robert Plant. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (as part of Led Zeppelin) is 59.

… of Al Roker. The weatherman who’s not half of what he used to be is 53.

… of Joan Allen. The three-time Oscar nominee — Nixon, The Crucible, The Contender — is 51.

Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, was born on this date in 1833. Until Jenna or Barbara Bush gets the job, Harrison remains the only grandchild of a president to also be president.

Missed opportunity

No one won Powerball Saturday, so the jackpot is now up to $245 million ($114.7 million cash).

I was real disappointed I didn’t win Saturday. It wasn’t the money so much (around $100 million cash). I just had my acceptance speech all prepared.

“NewMexiKen, what are you going to do with all that money?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about getting some new tires and I’ve been wanting a set of those thingys you use to hold corn-on-the-cob when you eat it.”

Judging quality in a restaurant

NewMexiKen had a poor experience in a Taos restaurant Saturday night. Bottom line, the cook had an “emergency wedding” to attend and the replacement wasn’t up to the task.

The replacement appeared to be a serial cook — the orders came out one at a time with every indication the next table’s entree was started when the previous table’s dinner was served. (We waited more than an hour after ordering.)

And let’s just say, that even after the wait, things weren’t cooked to order.

It was an otherwise fine restaurant (other than the food Mrs. Lincoln … ), not at all like those described below, but it reminded me of my list, published here before, of the top ten reasons to judge a restaurant unsuitable for a pleasant night out:

10. You pay before you eat

9. You pay after you eat, but you stand in line and pay a cashier

8. More men eating with caps on than those without caps

7. The piped-in-music is louder than the TVs

6. Soup served with soup spoon already in soup

5. They fill the condiments while you’re at the table

4. Menu includes photos of the food

3. Menu includes samples of the food stuck to pages

2. They wipe your table with a wet rag

And the number one reason to chose another restaurant if you want to impress your date or customer:

They wipe the seats of the chairs with the same rag

Shake … and Bake

While its use has mainly been to usher green-minded celebrities to premieres and events, the BMW Hydrogen 7 is finally going to have an owner for more than one night. Comedian Will Ferrell has been chosen as the first celebrity to take home the vehicle for extended use. Through the Hydrogen 7 Pioneer Program, BMW plans on handing out additional cars to industry leaders and prominent figures in entertainment, politics, business.
…

“Running in hydrogen mode, the BMW Hydrogen 7 essentially emits nothing but water vapor, representing a major step in reducing harmful CO2 emissions.

ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

Whacko in Waco

Bill Nye, the harmless children’s edu-tainer known as “The Science Guy,” managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun.
…

But nothing got people as riled as when he brought up Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

The lesser light, he pointed out, is not a light at all, but only a reflector.

At this point, several people in the audience stormed out in fury.

BSAlert.com

The event took place last year. I’m certain they’re better informed in Waco now.

The Santa Fe Indian Martket

… is this weekend.

Each year the Santa Fe Indian Market includes 1,200 artists from about 100 tribes who show their work in over 600 booths. The event attracts an estimated 100,000 visitors to Santa Fe from all over the world. Buyers, collectors and gallery owners come to Indian Market to take advantage of the opportunity to buy directly from the artists. For many visitors, this is a rare opportunity to meet the artists and learn about contemporary Indian arts and cultures. Quality is the hallmark of the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Southwestern Association for Indian Arts

As for NewMexiKen, it’s Taos this weekend. High temp 88º, low 55º. Or maybe Red River, high 83º, low 49º. Fall!

August 18th

… of Rosalynn Carter; she’s 80.

… of Robert Redford; he’s 70. Redford has been nominated for two directing Oscars, winning for Ordinary People. His only acting nomination was for The Sting.

… of Rockabilly great Johnny Preston, singer of the classic “Running Bear.” He’s 68.

… of Martin Mull; he’s 64.

… of Patrick Swayze; he’s 55.

… of Madeleine Stowe; she’s 49.

… of Edward Norton; he’s 38. Norton has both a leading and a supporting Oscar nomination but no wins yet.

… of Christian Slater; he too is 38.

Roberto Clemente should have been 73 today. The Puerto Rican born Baseball Hall of Fame inductee won four National League batting titles, was MVP in 1966 and finished his shortened career with exactly 3,000 hits. Clemente died at age 38 in a plane crash while delivering supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year Year’s Eve 1972.

Antonio Salieri was born on this date in 1750. After his characterization as a villain in Peter Shaffer’s play and film Amadeus, it seems Salieri has made a bit of a comeback. According to a December 2003 article at Guardian Unlimited and other sources, while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.

Meriwether Lewis was born on this date in 1774. Lewis had this to say on his 31st birthday 202 years ago today, camped just east of Lemhi Pass near the present-day Montana-Idaho border. (From the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online at the University of Nebraska.)

This day I completed my thirty first year, and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this Sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. but since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least indeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestoed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.—

His birthday doubts are made all the more poignant, of course, with the knowledge that just more than four years later Lewis took his own life at age 35.

August 17th

Maureen O’Hara is 87 today. Once voted one of the five most beautiful women in the world, Miss O’Hara is proabably best known now as Natalie Wood’s unbelieving mother in the classic Miracle on 34th Street; or perhaps as Esmeralda to Charles Laughton’s Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Robert De Niro is 64 today. De Niro has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar five times, winning for Raging Bull in 1981. He also won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as the young Vito Corleone in Godfather II. De Niro’s nominations were for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings and Cape Fear.

Sean Penn is 47 today. Penn has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar four times, winning for Mystic River. Penn’s other nominations were for Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown and I Am Sam.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen is 48 today. The Corrections won the 2001 National Book Award.

Football coach Jon Gruden is 44.

After seeing Mae’s jewelry the coat check girl exclaims, “Goodness, what lovely diamonds!” Mae replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it.” That’s Screen Legend Mae West in Night After Night. Ms. West was born on this date in 1893.