Grrr

I know that I am pretty much inclined to being a grouchy old crank to begin with, but I find that the computer-generated “music” one often gets while waiting on hold does the opposite of real music. Rather than soothing, it’s just plain annoying. If the hold is long enough (and they all are), I find I just get more and more aggravated.

Does anyone like this stuff?

103 years of ice cream cones

From the Library of Congress:

It is said that on July 23, 1904, Charles E. Menches of St. Louis, Missouri conceived the idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream and thereby invented the ice cream cone. Yet there are other, perhaps stronger, claimants to that honor: Ernest Hamwi, Abe Doumar, Albert and Nick Kabbaz, Arnold Fornachou and David Avayou have all been touted as the inventor(s) of the first edible cone. Interestingly, these individuals have in common the fact that they all made or sold confections at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World’s Fair and it is from the time of the Fair that the edible “cornucopia,” a cone made from a rolled waffle, vaulted into popularity.

ICE

NewMexiKen posted an item a year ago pointing out that emergency personnel (police, fire, EMT) often search a victim’s cell phone contacts for the “ICE” contact — In Case of Emergency.

So, right now when you’re thinking about it, get your cell phone and, even if your emergency contact is already listed, enter their number again under the name ICE.

Besides, ICE (short for Iceman) always was a better nickname than Maverick or Goose.

World’s First Motorist

NewMexiKen posted another excerpt and a link to this Dan Neil article last July, but Amy recently sent me a link to a retelling of this story:

If it sounds as if it would take an expert machinist to operate it, well, Benz might have thought so too, until his wife borrowed the family car without telling him. On a summer morning in August 1888, Bertha Benz got up early, loaded her sons Eugen and Richard on board and set out in the Motorwagen for her mother’s house in Pforzheim, a journey of some 50 miles. Karl Benz awoke to find a note his wife had left saying she was going to visit Grandma. He must have been panicked. The Motorwagen had never been tested for more than a few miles.

That evening, Bertha wired Karl to say they had arrived safely. But not, as it turned out, without incident. Bertha was obliged to clean out a clogged fuel line with her hatpin and mend an ignition wire with one of her garters. When the brake shoe started to give way, she stopped at a farrier’s in Bauschlott for a block of leather to replace it. In Wiesloch, she stopped at an apothecary to fill up on benzene (this pharmacy still bills itself as the world’s first filling station). And so it happened that the world’s first motorist was, in fact, a woman.

Dan Neil

Not many people know that Karl Benz patented the first gasoline-powered vehicle in 1886.

July 23rd

Daniel Radcliffe is 18 today. That’s Harry Potter to you.

At the other end of the acting spectrum, Gloria DeHaven is 82.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is 71. Kennedy is the swing vote on the Court, though he has seldom swung the right direction of late.

Actor Ronny Cox is 69. Cox, a New Mexican, is perhaps most famous as Lt. Andrew Bogomil of the Beverly Hills Police Department, but he has more than 100 credits listed at IMDB.

The unemployed Don Imus is 67 today.

Woody Harrelson is 46. Harrelson was nominated for best actor for The People vs. Larry Flynt and won one Emmy for playing Woody on Cheers.

Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman is 40.

Alison Krauss is 36.

On second thought

A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car.

Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40.

Several days later, he received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of handcuffs.

He immediately mailed in his $40.

Top Idiots

Follow the link. There are several good stories.

VIP

Limo

I saw this guy drive by in Washington last week (twice actually). It seemed like he might be somebody important.

Click photo for larger version.

The view from the top

NewMexiKen, Jill, and her three Sweeties ventured to the top of the Washington Monument last week. The observation area (inside) is 500 feet above the National Mall and offers splendid views even on a hazy summer day (through dirty windows). Click each photo for a larger version.

Looking south. That’s the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin. Across the Potomac the flat area is National Airport. On the left are the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Holocaust Museum. South
Looking west. The Lincoln Memorial in the distance (Virginia beyond). That’s the World War II Memorial in the foreground. On the right are the Federal Reserve, the Department of State and the Kennedy Center. West
Looking north. That’s the White House and the Ellipse. The Eisenhower Building (formerly the Executive Office Building) in left of the White House, the Treasury Department right of it (one of the oldest public buildings). The Commerce Department is in the right foreground (along 15th Street). North
Looking east. The National Mall with the Capitol. On the left the American History and Natural History musuems and National Gallery. On the right, working back, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Castle. The round building is the Hirshorn Museum. The tents are left from the folklife festival. East

July 21st is the birthday

… of Janet Reno, the first woman attorney general of the United States. She is 69.

… of actor Edward Herrmann. He is 64.

… of Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau. He’s 59.

… of Mork. Robin Williams is 56. Williams has been nominated for the best actor Oscar three times without winning. He did win the best supporting actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting.

… of Jon Lovitz. He’s 50. Fresh!

… of Brandi Chastain. She’s 39.

Ernest Hemingway was born on this date in 1899. He died a few weeks before his 62nd birthday in 1961. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.” The New York Times has an extraordinary wealth of reviews, articles, interviews and other material collected on Hemingway.

Marshall McLuhan was born on this date in 1911.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

White House

NewMexiKen is actually safely home in Albuquerque but I thought you might like to see a photo of my daughters’ place in Virginia. At least I think that’s what this is. (Click photo for larger version.)

I was going to post this photo earlier in the week (it was taken Tuesday morning) and say, “Having a wonderful time, wish you were here. — Well, not you Ephraim.”

Jon’s Left Foot

NewMexiKen’s buddy Jon, known to the internets as Johnny Mango, has met a bump in the road. Here, let him tell it (excerpted from Duke City Fix):

[Friday] I am to start a bike trip across America, going from Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia. The 4300 mile trek should take about 3 months.

I plan to finish sometime in the middle of October. This is not an organized tour. My buddy Mike Moye is to ride with me to Missoula, Montana and then I’ll be on my own.

I was going to post FAQ’s about the trip, but I’m too depressed for all that. I may not be going. But here are the answers I would have given if I were in a better mood.

1. About 50 miles a day.
2. No, we camp out.
3. In a trailer…it must weigh about 40 pounds loaded.
4. We eat in every restaurant we pass.
5 Sometimes…like whenever we need a shower.
6. I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.
7. Yes. A Macbook.
8. On Albloggerque.

Jon’s at the doctor’s at this moment to find out what’s wrong with his left ankle, injured recently in a — you guessed it — bike accident.

Learn all about it at Albloggerque.

Stumbling on Happiness

Last week NewMexiKen read Daniel Gilibert’s Stumbling on Happiness. This is an informative and funny book by a Harvard psychologist that explains how our brain, mind, memory and emotions work — and why they lead us to such poor decisions about what makes us happy.

As Malcolm Gladwell has written about the book, “If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it. Trust me.”

Trust me, too.

First, because Gilbert is an amusing writer, throwing in unexpected delights.

Emotional happiness is like that. It is the feeling common to the feelings we have when we see our new granddaughter smile for the first time, receive word of a promotion, help a wayward tourist find the art museum, taste Belgian chocolate toward the back of our tongue, inhale the scent of our lover’s shampoo, hear the song we used to like so much in high school but haven’t heard in years, touch our cheek to kitten fur, cure cancer, or get a really good snootful of cocaine.

… [O]r trying to predict how proud you will be of your spouse’s accomplishment without knowing which accomplishment (winning a Nobel Prize or finding the best divorce lawyer in the city?) …

“There are many good things about getting older, but no one knows what they are.”

Second, because Gilbert writes about us, human beings, “the only animal that thinks about the future.” Able to think about the future, we make predictions; we make predictions so that we can control our future. Gilbert explains we are captains of a boat on “the river of time.” We get pleasure from controlling the boat. We also get pleasure from controlling the destination, the place that will bring us happiness. The problem is, our future destinations are “fundamentally different” than they appear.

The book explains why. Happiness itself is subjective. Our imaginations are defective — our memory unknowingly fills in details that didn’t happen and forgets details that did; we base too much on the present; we rationalize outcomes, good becomes better, bad becomes worse. We are unable to recall our real feelings once an event has passed.

Stumbling on Happiness is not a self-help book. You may learn how you make decisions about future happiness, even why you make those decisions, but not how to make better decisions — at least not directly. But just learning may be a good start.

Sharpest critical lines of the day, so far

“But on the whole her book is bound to be dull, because she is averse to examining what actually happened.”

Tim Parks reviewing a new biography of Garibaldi.

“Long ago, when the impact of ‘Star Wars’ was beefed up by a line of merchandise, some of us noticed that the five-inch Lukes and Leias possessed a depth and mobility that was denied to their onscreen counterparts….”

Anthony Lane in a review of Transformers.

July 9th

Ed Ames, the singer and actor, is 80. Ames, whose parents were Ukrainian Jews played the Indian Mingo on “Daniel Boone.” He was responsible for the classic incident with Johnny Carson throwing a tomahawk. Ames threw at a two-dimensional silhouette and managed to add some three-dimensional anatomy.

Lee Hazelwood, writer of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” and “Houston,” is 78.

Donald Rumsfeld is 75.

Doctor and author Oliver Sacks is 74 today.

Brian Dennehy is 69 — guess he’ll be playing one of the old folks in any re-make of Cocoon. Dennehy won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award for his portrayal of Willy Loman in the 2000 made-for-TV presentation of Death of a Salesman.

Chris Cooper is 56. Cooper has appeared in over 50 films and television productions, winning a best supporting actor Oscar for Adaptation.

Jimmy Smits is 52. Smits was nominated six times for an Emmy for supporting actor for L.A. Law. He won once. He was nominated five times for best actor for NYPD Blue. No nominations for his work as Senator Bail Organa in Star Wars. But then, he was elected President on West Wing.

Tom Hanks is 51 today. Hanks has been nominated for the Academy Award for best actor five times, winning for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994). His other nominations were for Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.

Kelly McGillis is 50, Courtney Love is 43, and Fred Savage is 31.

And Orenthal James Simpson is 60 today.

(Gonna find ’em)
(Gonna find ’em)
(Gonna find ’em)
(Gonna find ’em)

Yeah, I’ve been searchin’
A-a searchin’
Oh, yeah, searchin’ every which a-way
Yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah, searchin’
I’m searchin’
Searchin’ every which a-way
Yeah, yeah
But I’m like the Northwest Mounties
You know I’ll bring ’em in someday
(Gonna find ’em)
(Gonna find ’em)

Well, now, if I have to swim a river
You know I will
And a if I have to climb a mountain
You know I will
And a if he’s a hiding up
On a blueberry hill
Am I gonna find ’em, child
You know I will
‘Cause I’ve been searchin’
Oh, yeah, searchin’
My goodness, searchin’ every which a-way
Yeah, yeah
But I’m like the Northwest Mounties
You know I’ll bring ’em in some day
(Gonna find ’em)
(Gonna find ’em)

Well, Sherlock Holmes
Sam Spade got nothin’, child, on me
Sergeant Friday, Charlie Chan
And Boston Blackie
No matter where he’s a hiding
He’s gonna hear me a comin’
Gonna walk right down that street
Like Bulldog Drummond
‘Cause I’ve been searchin’
Oooh, Lord, searchin’, mm child
Searchin’ every which a-way
Yeah, yeah
But I’m like the Northwest Mounties
You know I’ll bring ’em in some day
(Gonna find ’em)
(Gonna find ’em)

Lyrics and Music by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Idle thoughts

You’d need a good hat, lots of sunscreen and a long shower after, but would that we could take a long summer afternoon’s float in an inner tube down the Rio Grande. I swear, the Rio is more restricted here than it is downstream where it’s the international border.

All the Hechts, May Company and Foleys stores are Macy’s now. I don’t know about you, but here it seems that the combined store has noticeably less than either had before the merger. What a sad place.

Speaking of retail, NewMexiKen was in Boulder, Colorado, a few weeks ago. The Pearl Street Mall is a great urban scene, but I laughed and laughed at the term “mall.” It couldn’t be a real mall. Where’s the Spencers Gifts? Where’s the Things Remembered?