They got the shocking news Sarah was pregnant around noon that day. They were excited, thinking Sarah was maybe a couple of months along. But by that afternoon, they were checking into the hospital, and their surprise full-term baby was delivered by Caesarean section at 9:22 p.m.
Link via Out in Left Field via Wash Park Prophet.
NewMexiKen liked this item from Out in Left Field, too: “It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Starts Spittin’ Chiclets.”
And even better: Scary, Scarier, Scariest.
The study e-mailed on Friday from eldest siblings to underlings everywhere — the one showing that they “had a slight but significant edge in I.Q.” — was punctured with one tiny hole today in Britain. Georgia Brown, a two-year-old with an IQ of 152, is the youngest of five children, a British newspaper reported.
Her IQ puts her on par with Stephen Hawking, who stops The Lede’s ad hoc exercise in study debunking right in its tracks. He’s the oldest of four children.
There’s a great discussion today at Duke City Fix about the “livability” of various parts of town.
The debate is between those that think their neighborhood is cool — and therefore all other neighborhoods must be uncool — and those that realize that where you live is always a compromise.
Recommended for Albuquerqueans and Albuquerquean wannabes.
NewMexiKen read Alcatraz
It’s a quick read, just 145 pages, much of it on Coon’s criminal career, which culminated in a federal armed robbery conviction and an eventual transfer from Leavenworth to Alcatraz. Though brief, the details about life in the island prison are interesting. Coon claims to have lent his raincoat to the infamous Morris-Anglin escape (portrayed in the Clint Eastwood movie, Escape from Alcatraz) and there are a number of other short vignettes and profiles. The writing is fast-paced, if somewhat basic.
Amazon has several interesting reviews.
NewMexiKen and family toured the prison about 25 years ago. If you haven’t been, I’d recommend it.
Thanks Byron for sending the book, autographed by #1422.
Best line: China has more honors kids (top 25%) than the U.S. has kids.
Thanks to Debby for the link.
“Evan Almighty — an update on Noah’s Ark for Christian-conservative families everywhere — is the most expensive Hollywood comedy ever made. Problem? It’s not that funny. I compute that every laugh cost about $20 million. And most of those of are poop jokes.”
In NewMexiKen’s opinion the best “list” of pop music is “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.” This is the list that was compiled by curators, rock critics and historians in 1995 for the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
I’m up to 428 in my iTunes library.
The complete list, alphabetical by artist:
… of June Lockhart. The mom on Lassie (104 episodes) and Lost in Space is 82.
… of Willis Reed. The basketball hall-of-famer is 65.
… of Carly Simon. She’s 62. NewMexiKen was just reminded the other day that Simon and James Taylor have two children, Sarah and Ben. Ben is a singer, sounding much (much!) like his dad. IMDb says Simon’s “You’re So Vain” is about Warren Beatty.
… of Jimmie Walker. He’s 60. Dyno-mite!
… of Ricky Gervais, 46.
… of George Michael, the singer not the deejay turned sportscaster. He’s 44.
Eric Arthur Blair was born on June 25th in 1903.
The experience persuaded him that it wasn’t Fascism or Communism that was evil, but simply idealism taken to any extreme. And as World War II broke out, he began to worry that idealism was about to conquer Europe and stamp out any kind of freedom. He was so pessimistic about the future of the world that he found it impossible to write fiction. He took a job with the BBC, and got a chance to witness how governments on all sides of the war were using propaganda to rewrite the history what was happening. So in 1943, Orwell resigned his position at the BBC. He had wanted for years to write a book about his idea that utopias so easily turn into nightmares, so he finally did.
The book was only about 100 pages long, and most of the main characters were talking animals. When he submitted it to publishers in London, they all turned him down. Orwell considered publishing the book himself as a pamphlet, but finally a small publisher picked it up, and when Animal Farm came out in 1945, the book made Orwell famous.
Having persuaded a majority of Americans that creationism is correct, lets get rid of some of the other “myths.”
The “wall of separation” is a metaphor deeply embedded in the American consciousness. Most Americans assume that the First Amendment prevents the mixing of politics and religion. The freedom of religion clauses protect individuals from the entanglement of religion with government and secure the right to freely exercise religious faith. America is a religiously pluralistic culture guided by a secular government.
But is this conventional wisdom of “secularized” government exactly what our Founding Fathers intended when they established our nation and wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Some scholars think so. Other scholars claim that a contextualization of Colonial American culture and politics reveals a radically different definition of religious establishment and church/state relations than we have today. Some even claim it is the exact opposite of what the Founders intended.
That’s right. It’s a press release for a PBS distributed film, Wall of Separation. More of that liberal media. (Now there’s a real myth!)
In response to a question about global warming, Barrasso said he didn’t support “Gore rhetoric,” referring to Vice-President Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Barrasso said that when he was in college, scientists were worried about a new ice age on the horizon. He said Wyoming is rich in energy and that technology would find the answers in converting Wyoming coal to gas and liquid fuels.
If I based my beliefs on what some college professor said — oh, never mind.
Just your usual Santa Fe crowd —
Eve Ensler, the founder of a worldwide movement to end violence against women and girls, welcomed three local men to the stage Sunday evening at St. Francis Auditorium for readings from a new collection of monologues by Ensler’s author friends titled A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer.
“The time has come for men to stand with us in the struggle to end violence against women,” Ensler told a mostly female, standing-room-only crowd.
Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a new Santa Fe resident, actor Val Kilmer and actor/writer/cartoonist Jonathan Richards joined Wilson’s wife and former CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame, radio host Mary-Charlotte Domandi, actresses Jane Fonda and Ali MacGraw, activist Cynthia Ruffin and Ensler in reading pieces from the new book.
NewMexiKen has already posted a lengthy item about Little Bighorn, fought 131 years ago today, but I thought the contemporary news reports were interesting, including this from The New York Times:
On June 25 Gen. Custer’s command came upon the main camp of Sitting Bull, and at once attacked it, charging the thickest part of it with five companies, Major Reno, with seven companies attacking on the other side. The soldiers were repulsed and a wholesale slaughter ensued. Gen. Custer, his brother, his nephew, and his brother-in-law were killed, and not one of his detachment escaped. The Indians surrounded Major Reno’s command and held them in the hills during a whole day, but Gibbon’s command came up and the Indians left. The number of killed is stated at 300 and the wounded at 31. Two hundred and seven men are said to have been buried in one place. The list of killed includes seventeen commissioned officers.
It is the opinion of Army officers in Chicago, Washington, and Philadelphia, including Gens. Sherman and Sheridan, that Gen. Custer was rashly imprudent to attack such a large number of Indians, Sitting Bull’s force being 4,000 strong.
Custer, often a reckless but previously a lucky commander, was to have his reputation rescued by what became the life-long work of Mrs. Custer.
Click image for larger version and to learn more.
The Commonwealth of Virginia ratified the Constitution on this date in 1788, thereby becoming the tenth state.
Virginia has 7.64 million people (including five Sweeties).
Virginia has 42,769 square miles, making it the 35th largest state.
The highest point in Virginia is Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet above sea level. The lowest point is sea level.
Eight presidents were born in Virginia.
Do you think Biden, Brownback, Clinton, Dodd, Hunter, Kucinich, McCain, Obama, Paul and Tancredo are having their pay reduced?
The Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives (upon certification by the Clerk of the House of Representatives), respectively, shall deduct from the monthly payments (or other periodic payments authorized by law) of each Member or Delegate the amount of his salary for each day that he has been absent from the Senate or House, respectively, unless such Member or Delegate assigns as the reason for such absence the sickness of himself or of some member of his family.
McCain has missed something approaching 50 votes this year.
… took place 130 years ago today. Dee Brown wrote the following for The Reader’s Companion to American History [login now required]:
In 1876, under command of Gen. Alfred Terry, Custer led the Seventh Cavalry as one force in a three-pronged campaign against Sitting Bull’s alliance of Sioux and Cheyenne camps in Montana. During the morning of June 25, Custer’s scouts reported spotting smoke from cooking fires and other signs of Indians in the valley of the Little Bighorn. Disregarding Terry’s orders, Custer decided to attack before infantry and other support arrived. Although scouts warned that he was facing superior numbers (perhaps 2,500 warriors), Custer divided his regiment of 647 men, ordering Capt. Frederick Benteen’s battalion to scout along a ridge to the left and sending Maj. Marcus Reno’s battalion up the valley of the Little Bighorn to attack the Indian encampment. With the remainder of the regiment, Custer continued along high ground on the right side of the valley. In the resulting battle, he and about 250 of his men, outnumbered by the warriors of Crazy Horse and Gall, were surrounded and annihilated. Reno and Benteen suffered heavy casualties but managed to escape to a defensive position.
Evan S. Connell’s Son of the Morning Star is generally regarded as the finest book on the battle; indeed, one of the finest on western American history. James Welch’s Killing Custer tells the story more from the Indian perspective. NewMexiKen posted a short — but compelling — excerpt from the latter two years ago: On the other side of the river.
“A Cheney favorite is playing ‘Marco Polo’ with waterboarded detainees.”
Joel Achenbach in a post titled “Rogue Operative.”
Two articles on red light cameras this morning.
Santa Fe Sheriff Greg Solano sums up the situation and reiterates his opposition.
“I feel the fines are too high, the private company ‘RedFlex’ which the City of Albuquerque contracts with makes too much of a cut, the lights must be timed correctly, and I am too worried that Red Light Camera’s cause more accidents then they prevent.”
Eye On Albuquerque wonders what possible reason Mayor Marty could have for continuing such an unpopular program in light of his political ambitions.
“What’s keeping the mayor so solidly behind this program? It can’t be public safety, and it’s surely not public opinion. It has to be something else.”
The new findings, from a landmark study published Friday, showed that eldest children had a slight but significant edge in I.Q. — an average of three points over the closest sibling. And it found that the difference was not because of biological factors but the psychological interplay of parents and children.
From an article in The New York Times, Findings on Birth Order and I.Q. Prompt Debate on Influence of Family Dynamics.
NewMexiKen has seen A Mighty Heart, the new film starring Angelina Jolie as the wife of kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl. Pearl, a reporter for the The Wall Street Journal, was taken in Karachi in 2002 and eventually beheaded by terrorists. The movie tells the story of the search from the pregnant wife and police point of view, with some memory flashbacks and a minor bit of epilogue. It is based on A Mighty Heart: The Inside Story of the Al Qaeda Kidnapping of Danny Pearl
It’s a good film, exceptionally fast-paced. Jolie is superb — and “the star” — but the other roles are quite well-played as well. It’s a heavy story that could I suppose have been told like Munich, a film which pretty much made me give up all faith in human nature. A Mighty Heart, on the other hand, tries — and largely succeeds — in rising above bitterness and despair.
I think Annette has written an excellent brief review of Al Gore’s book — and made the case that you should read it.
Some pretty good stuff from the “first chapter” of Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America
A sample:
Hal is the oldest licensed pilot in the nation. He joined the UFOs (United Flying Octogenarians)-although technically he’s too old. Has he considered starting a club for nonagenarian pilots? “No,” he answers, “I don’t want to be the president, secretary, treasurer, and the board of directors.”
In addition to his other duties at the Sierra Booster, Hal is also in charge of circulation and is its only paperboy. In this sparsely populated area, with subscribers scattered over six hundred square miles, he decided to deliver papers to the ranches in his airplane. Hal invites me along on his paper route. Driving out to the airstrip, he tells of his three (or is it five?) heart operations, at which point our cameraman, Gilbert, says that, although he’d love to come along, he’ll be mounting a camera inside the cockpit and staying on the ground. It’s a sunny day. I mention to Hal that his windshield wipers are on.
Read more from the book.
From a report in the Los Angeles Times:
U-Haul, the nation’s largest provider of rental trailers, says it is “highly conservative” about safety. But a yearlong Times investigation, which included more than 200 interviews and a review of thousands of pages of court records, police reports, consumer complaints and other documents, found that company practices have heightened the risk of towing accidents.
The safest way to tow is with a vehicle that weighs much more than the trailer. A leading trailer expert and U-Haul consultant has likened this principle to “motherhood and apple pie.”
Yet U-Haul allows customers to pull trailers as heavy as or heavier than their own vehicles.
It often allows trailers to stay on the road for months without a thorough safety inspection, in violation of its own policies.
Bad brakes have been a recurring problem with its large trailers. The one Sternberg rented lacked working brakes.
Its small and midsize trailers have no brakes at all, a policy that conflicts with the laws of at least 14 states.
“The fact that he has no accomplishments makes him uniquely qualified for the modern presidency. The fact that he has no accomplishments and has been on Law and Order makes him well nigh a freaking political superstar.”
Matt Taibbi on Fred Thompson.
Taibbi also says, “[I]f you think my coverage of the Bush administration is unkind, wait until Hillary Clinton becomes president.”
