Taking steps to squash daylight-saving bug

For three weeks in March and April, Microsoft Corp. warns that users of its calendar programs “should view any appointments … as suspect until they communicate with all meeting invitees.”

Wow, that’s sort of jarring–is something treacherous afoot?

Actually, it’s a potential problem in any software that was programmed before a 2005 law decreed that daylight-saving time would start three weeks earlier and end one week later, beginning this year. Congress decided that more early-evening daylight would translate into energy savings.

Software created before 2005 is set to automatically advance its timekeeping by one hour on the first Sunday in April, not the second Sunday in March. That’s March 11 this year.

Chicago Tribune

Microsoft’s DST Help.

February 19th is the birthday

… of William “Smokey” Robinson, born in Detroit on this date in 1940.

Some Smokey Robinson trivia:

  • The nickname Smokey was given him as a child by an uncle.
  • The Robinsons were neighbors of the Franklins; Smokey is two years older than Aretha.
  • They both attended Detroit’s Northern Senior High School (as did NewMexiKen’s mom).
  • Smokey wrote both “My Guy” and “My Girl.”
  • Bob Dylan called Smokey “America’s greatest living poet.”
  • Smokey has written more than 4,000 songs.

… of author Amy Tan, 55 today.

… of Jeff Daniels, 52. Daniels has been nominated for several acting awards, most recently for The Squid and the Whale.

… of “Family Ties” actress Justine Bateman. Mallory Keaton is 41.

… of Benicio Del Toro. The supporting actor Oscar winner, for Traffic, is 40. Del Toro was nominated for the supporting actor Oscar again for 21 Grams.

Author Carson McCullers was born on in Columbus, Georgia, on this date in 1917.

Her most famous novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, published in 1940, delves into the “lonely hearts” of four individuals—an adolescent girl, an embittered radical, a black physician, and a widower who owns a cafe—struggling to find their way in a Southern mill town during the Great Depression. (Library of Congress)

One of his 1,093 patents

Thomas Edison received a patent for the phonograph on this date in 1878.

The phonograph was developed as a result of Thomas Edison’s work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. In 1877, Edison was working on a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape…This development led Edison to speculate that a telephone message could also be recorded in a similar fashion. He experimented with a diaphragm which had an embossing point and was held against rapidly-moving paraffin paper. The speaking vibrations made indentations in the paper. Edison later changed the paper to a metal cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. The machine had two diaphragm-and-needle units, one for recording, and one for playback. When one would speak into a mouthpiece, the sound vibrations would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle in a vertical (or hill and dale) groove pattern. Edison gave a sketch of the machine to his mechanic, John Kreusi, to build, which Kreusi supposedly did within 30 hours. Edison immediately tested the machine by speaking the nursery rhyme into the mouthpiece, “Mary had a little lamb.” To his amazement, the machine played his words back to him. …

The invention was highly original. The only other recorded evidence of such an invention was in a paper by French scientist Charles Cros, written on April 18, 1877. There were some differences, however, between the two men’s ideas, and Cros’s work remained only a theory, since he did not produce a working model of it.

Source: Library of Congress

Didn’t look much like an iPod.

Not much to do in Bismarck I guess

Bismarck AngelsFor about half a minute on Saturday, the State Capitol Grounds became the 10th largest population center in North Dakota.

Nearly 9,000 people showed up to flap their arms and legs in the snow, apparently shattering the world snow angel record.

The results will be unofficial until Tuesday, but event organizer Marilyn Snyder said 8,911 people made snow angels at the same time at the Capitol on Saturday afternoon. The previous record, set last year in Michigan, was 3,784.

“The people of North Dakota are fantastic. They stepped up to the plate and hit more than a homerun today,” Snyder said. “I asked the governor to ask the Legislature to proclaim us the Snow Capital of the World.”

Gov. John Hoeven and first lady Mikey did their part to break the record. He announced the start of the event, and the couple promptly plopped down in the snow to make their marks.

Also in the front row of angels on Saturday was Pauline Jaeger, who was celebrating her 99th birthday.

“It started out as kind of a joke, but when I found out it was really happening I got pretty excited,” Jaeger, the aunt of North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger, said. “This is going to be my first snow angel, and what a time for it. This is really a great birthday party.”

The Bismarck Tribune

February 18th is the birthday

… of George Kennedy. Dragline is 82.

… of Toni Morrison. The Nobel laureate is 76.

… of the woman who broke up the Beatles. She’s 74 today. That’s Yoko Ono.

… of Cybill Shepherd. She’s 57.

… of Vinnie Barbarino. He’s 53 today. So are Vincent Vega, Chili Palmer, Michael, Buford ‘Bud’ Uan Davis, Tod Lubitch, Danny Zuko and Tony Manero. And so is John Travolta.

… of the letter turner. Vanna White is 50 today.

… of Matt Dillon, 43.

… of Molly Ringwald. She’s 39.

In 1999, San Francisco Chronicle readers ranked the 100 best non-fiction and fiction books of the 20th century written in, about, or by an author from the Western United States.

NewMexiKen has posted the top 10 from the lists several times, but repeats them each year — because the lists are interesting, but primarily to honor Wallace Stegner, who was born on this date in 1909.

Stegner is first in fiction, second in non-fiction; now that’s a writer.

TOP 10 FICTION
1. “Angle of Repose,” by Wallace Stegner
2. “The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck
3. “Sometimes a Great Notion,” by Ken Kesey
4. “The Call of the Wild,” by Jack London
5. “The Big Sleep,” by Raymond Chandler
6. “Animal Dreams,” by Barbara Kingsolver
7. “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” by Willa Cather
8. “The Day of the Locust,” by Nathanael West
9. “Blood Meridian,” by Cormac McCarthy
10. “The Maltese Falcon,” by Dashiell Hammett

TOP 10 NON-FICTION
1. “Land of Little Rain,” Mary Austin
2. “Beyond the Hundredth Meridian,” Wallace Stegner
3. “Desert Solitaire,” Edward Abbey
4. “This House of Sky,” Ivan Doig
5. “Son of the Morning Star,” Evan S. Connell
6. Western trilogy, Bernard DeVoto
7. “Assembling California,” John McPhee
8. “My First Summer in the Sierra,” John Muir
9. “The White Album,” Joan Didion
10. “City of Quartz,” Mike Davis

[Stegner had] already begun writing fiction, but he wanted to write a new kind of novel about the American West. At that time, the only novels being published about the West were full of cowboys and heroic pioneers. Stegner said, “I wanted to write about what happens to the pioneer virtues and the pioneer type of family when the frontiers are gone and the opportunities all used up. “The result was his first big success, his novel The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943), loosely based on the experiences of his own family. It tells the story of a man named Bo Mason and his wife, Elsa, who travel over the American West, trying to make it rich.

Stegner went on to write dozens of novels about the West, including Angle of Repose (1971) and The Spectator Bird (1976). But he also started one of the most influential creative writing programs in the country, at Stanford University, where his students included Wendell Berry, Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone, Ken Kesey, Raymond Carver, and Scott Turow. (The Writer’s Almanac)

George Washington’s Birthday

According to some of the calendars and appointment books floating around this office, Monday, February 19th, is Presidents’ Day. Others say it’s President’s Day. Still others opt for Presidents Day. Which is it? The bouncing apostrophe bespeaks a certain uncertainty. President’s Day suggests that only one holder of the nation’s supreme magistracy is being commemorated—presumably the first. Presidents’ Day hints at more than one, most likely the Sage of Mount Vernon plus Abraham Lincoln, generally agreed to be the greatest of them all. And Presidents Day, apostropheless, implies a promiscuous celebration of all forty-two—Jefferson but also Pierce, F.D.R. but also Buchanan, Truman but also Harding. To say nothing of the incumbent, of whom, perhaps, the less said the better.

So which is it? Trick question. The answer, strictly speaking, is none of the above. Ever since 1968, when, in one of the last gasps of Great Society reformism, holidays were rejiggered to create more three-day weekends, federal law has decreed the third Monday in February to be Washington’s Birthday. And Presidents’/’s/s Day? According to Prologue, the magazine of the National Archives, it was a local department-store promotion that went national when retailers discovered that, mysteriously, generic Presidents clear more inventory than particular ones, even the Father of His Country. Now everybody thinks it’s official, but it’s not. (Note to Fox News: could be a War on Washington’s Birthday angle here, similar to the War on Christmas. Over to you, Bill.)

Hendrik Hertzberg

He has more.

Ballsy decision by librarians

The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.

Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and re-opened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books. …

The New York Times

February 17th is the birthday

… of Jim Brown, 71 today. Brown was listed as the 4th greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. (Which makes him the second greatest athlete born on this date.)

“For mercurial speed, airy nimbleness, and explosive violence in one package of undistilled evil, there is no other like Mr. Brown,” wrote Pulitzer Prize winning sports columnist Red Smith.

Read the entire ESPN essay on Jim Brown: Brown was hard to bring down.

… of Michael Jordan, 44 today.

Jordan was the ranked the top athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. Here’s what they had to say: Michael Jordan transcends hoops.

“What has made Michael Jordan the First Celebrity of the World is not merely his athletic talent,” Sports Illustrated wrote, “but also a unique confluence of artistry, dignity and history.”

… of Hal Holbrook, 82.

… of Rene Russo, 53.

… of Lou Diamond Phillips, 45.

… of Paris Hilton, 26 today. Age and IQ, at last a match.

I’m beginning to think I’ll just keep my money under the mattress

Banks. Yuck.

If you’ve been reading NewMexiKen lately you know how I feel about Capital One Direct Banking. I’d sooner send my money to the widow of a Nigerian oil minister. Still, after a 28 minute call yesterday, I seemingly got some action. I’m told today that I should expect to receive a check within 10 business days. Of course, the person who was going to call me back today did not, but as long as I don’t have to do business with Capital One ever again, who cares?

Some of the Capital One individuals, by the way, were responsive and helpful. Collectively their system was anything but.

Oh, and Capital One’s telephone hold music sounded exactly like a shortwave broadcast of martial-classical type music from Radio Moscow vintage 1960, static included.

But the best banking story is with Bank of America. When I closed out an account last week they included the interest right up to date. However, the interest had not actually been posted and when they zeroed the account it was officially 46 cents overdrawn. Danger, Will Robinson! Account in arrears! There was a $33 dollar charge (for being 46 cents overdrawn). That took another trip back to the bank.

Realtors Hate Levitt

The Freakonomics Blog has an update on Levitt v. The Realtors.

The article included an interesting piece of research by Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti which showed that even during a real-estate boom, the typical agent doesn’t make a whole lot of money. Why not? Because the barriers to entry are so low that a hot real-estate market is soon flooded with new agents, who cannibalize existing agents’ profits.

You can have agent after agent in to discuss a listing and every friggin’ one of them is going to take you through the same damn list of comps as if you just landed from Mars. I tried rolling my eyes. I tried standing up. I tried saying we’d been through them with others. All to no avail. Seems they have a little performance anxiety: “We don’t really do very much, so we must share the little homework we do with you. We simply must.” They might as well just tape it to the refrigerator.

Sibling rivalry is brutal

Much effort, none of it mine, has gone into preparing for this moment. She’s bought and read them countless books about sibling rivalry; taken them to endless sibling prep classes at the hospital; rented many sibling-themed videos narrated by respected authorities—Dora the Explorer for Dixie, Arthur for Quinn; watched with them, every Sunday night, their own old baby videos; and even bought presents to give to them from the baby when they visit him in the hospital. Before this propaganda blitz, our children may or may not have suspected that they were victims of a robbery, but afterward they were certain of it. Hardly a day has passed in months without melodramatic suffering. One afternoon I collected Dixie from her pre-school—to take one of approximately 6,000 examples—and learned that she’d moped around the playground until a teacher finally asked her what was troubling her. “When the baby comes, my parents won’t love me as much,” she’d said. Asked where she’d got that idea from, she said, “My big sister told me.”

From the second installment of a series by Michael Lewis on the birth of his third child, first son.

One Hot Archaeological Find

Inhabitants of the New World had chili peppers and the makings of taco chips 6,100 years ago, according to new research that examined the bowl-scrapings of people sprinkled throughout Central America and the Amazon basin.

Upcoming questions on the research agenda — and this is not a joke — include: Did they have salsa? When did they get beer?

The findings described today in a 15-author report in the journal Science make the chili pepper the oldest spice in use in the Americas, and one of the oldest in the world.

The Washington Post

I’m thinking they also had to have had better half-time shows than we do.

February 16th is the birthday

… of Richard Ford. The Pulitzer-winning novelist is 63.

When asked what his advice is for aspiring writers, Ford said, “Try to talk yourself out of it. As a life, it’s much too solitary, it makes you obsessive, the rewards seem to be much too inward for most people, and too much rides on luck. Other than that, it’s great.” (The Writer’s Almanac)

… of LeVar Burton. Kunta Kinte is 50.

… of Ice-T. Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola is 49. His real name is Tracy Marrow and his son is Tracy Marrow Jr., not Ice-T Jr.

… of John McEnroe. The tennis hall-of-famer is 48.

… of Jerome Bettis. “The Bus” is 35.

Hands off

Starting today, Albuquerque drivers had better keep their hands on the wheel and away from the cell phone.

The ban on driving while holding a mobile phone legally takes effect today, though it’ll be at least 60 days before anyone gets a citation. . . .

Mayor Martin Chávez said police won’t actually cite drivers and levy fines for another 60 days. It will cost $100 for the first offense and $200 for subsequent violations.

The Albuquerque Journal

I have a question. NewMexiKen doesn’t live in Albuquerque. The city limits are around here somewhere, but there are no signs. Ignorance of the law, of course, is no excuse, but how can the city enforce a ban (a ban I support, so this question is somewhat rhetorical) without properly posting its limits?

Remember The Maine

In 1976, Adm. Hyman Rickover of the U.S. Navy mounted yet another investigation into the cause of the Maine disaster. His team of experts found that the ship’s demise was self-inflicted—likely the result of a coal bunker fire. There are those, however, who still maintain that an external blast was to blame. Some people, it seems, just won’t let you forget the Maine.

Smithsonian Magazine

Dominoes

First published two years ago today:

No, not the pizza. The kind of dominoes you play. NewMexiKen got out a set of dominoes for the grandkids to play with while they were here. First thing we knew, 12 of the 28 tiles were missing.

They’re still missing, and keep in mind the entire house has been torn apart and reassembled to accomodate the installation of new carpet.

Where are the dominoes?

I’m just hoping none of the grandkids saw Maria Full of Grace.

Harold Arlen

… was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York, on this date in 1905.

A short list from the more than 400 tunes written by Harold Arlen:

  • Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive
  • Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
  • Come Rain Or Come Shine
  • Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead
  • Hooray For Love
  • It’s Only A Paper Moon
  • I’ve Got the World on A String
  • One For My Baby
  • Over The Rainbow
  • Stormy Weather
  • That Old Black Magic

Arlen worked with many lyricists through the years, most notably Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer and even Truman Capote. Harburg, for example, wrote the lyrics for the Wizard of Oz songs. Though it’s the lyrics we most remember, it’s the melody that makes a song memorable. That was Arlen.