For those who think if it’s a desert it must be hot, or at least warm in the winter, I’d like to note that at Casa NewMexiKen at noon today, with the sun shining so brightly I’m wearing sunglasses indoors, it was 25°F.
It got down to 15°F this morning officially.
In Tucson it dropped to 20°F early today, a record (for the date).
“For those of you who don’t have a blog yet, think of one as a large yellow Labrador: friendly, fun, not all that bright, but constantly demanding your attention.”
David Carr in an excellent column about blogging and newspapers.
Art Garfunkel reads a lot of books and keeps lists.
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
December 10, 1964
Library of Congress
… was born on this date in 1929.
Many may question some of King’s choices and perhaps even some of his motives, but no one can question his unparalleled leadership in a great cause, or his abilities with both the spoken and written word.
There are 10 federal holidays, but only four of them are dedicated to one man: one for Jesus, one for the man given credit for discovering our continent, one for the military and political founder George Washington, and one for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
An interesting post from our very own Natalie on books, bookstores, closed-minded people and such at her blog, Petroglyph Paradox. Natalie titles her posting How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, but it’s more interesting that that.
From Shakespeare’s Sister, photos of morans.
There’s an article in today’s N.Y. Times about how many women buy luxury items with cash instead of a credit card so their boyfriends or husbands won’t find out and hassle them. “His tastes aren’t as expensive as mine, and he doesn’t understand the need to have so many pricey things,” says one woman who is paying cash for a $2,000 black Chanel tote. “Even though I have my own income, paying for my shopping in cash is so much easier than having a discussion about what I’m buying.”
The woman quoted above is Shalla Azizian, a 50-year-old woman in Manhattan who owns a lingerie boutique. But here’s what I don’t follow:
See what Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner questions.
… this year for double numbers.
Andy Rooney, 88.
Faye Dunaway, 66.
Maureen Dowd, 55.
Steven Soderbergh, 44.
Johnny Cash performed his historic concert at Folsom Prison on this date in 1968.
I hear the train a comin’
It’s rollin’ ’round the bend,
And I ain’t seen the sunshine,
Since, I don’t know when,
I’m stuck in Folsom Prison,
And time keeps draggin’ on,
But that train keeps a-rollin’,
On down to San Antone.
[The song itself was originally recorded at Sun in 1956.]
On January 13, 1832, President Andrew Jackson wrote Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina’s defiance of federal authority.
The conflict erupted the previous November when South Carolina nullified a federal tariff that favored Northern manufacturing over Southern agriculture. Complicating matters, Jackson’s vice president at that time, South Carolina native John C. Calhoun, firmly believed states had the right to overrule federal laws. South Carolinians agreed and planned to use armed force to prevent duty collection in the state after February 1, 1833.
Calhoun developed the idea of nullification—first put forth in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798—as a strategy for the South to preserve slavery in the face of a Northern majority in Congress. His support of the measure, disclosed midway through his term, was not shared by President Jackson who feared nullification’s power to split the Union. This difference of opinion permanently distanced the president and vice president.
On December 10, 1832, Jackson responded to South Carolina’s recalcitrance with a Proclamation to the People of South Carolina. Considered the greatest state paper of the era, Jackson promised to uphold the federal tariff and warned “disunion by armed force is treason.” The president reiterated these points in his January 13 letter to Van Buren, closing with the assertion, “nothing must be permitted to weaken our government at home or abroad.”
The Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833 was resolved without bloodshed in March 1833. Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who left the vice presidency at the end of 1832 to serve South Carolina in the Senate, drafted a reduced tariff agreement that pacified South Carolina while allowing the Federal government to stand firm. Calhoun represented his home state until his death in 1850. His final years in office were spent trying to unite the South against attacks on slavery.
… of two hotties and one semi-hottie.
Orlando Bloom is 30, Patrick Dempsey is 41 and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is 46.
W. always acts like he’s upping the ante in a board game where you roll the dice and bet your plastic army divisions on the outcome. This doesn’t surprise some of his old classmates at Yale, who remember Junior as the riskiest Risk player of them all, known for dropping by the rooms of friends, especially when they were trying to study for exams, for extended bouts of “The Game of Global Domination.”
Junior was known as an extremely aggressive player in the venerable Parker Brothers board game, a brutal contest that requires bluster and bluffing as you invade countries, all the while betraying alliances. Notably, it’s almost impossible to win Risk and conquer the world if you start the game in the Middle East, because you’re surrounded by enemies.
. . .W.’s best friend when he was a teenager in Houston, Doug Hannah, told Ms. Sheehy: “If you were playing basketball and you were playing to 11 and he was down, you went to 15.”
The Worst President Ever has spent 365 days, that is one full year of his six as president, at Camp David.
Source: The Caucus
Disgruntled mom #1: I told you kids to behave! I’m going to tell your father about this! No treats for you today, no treats! [To Disgruntled mom #2] They never listen to me.
Disgruntled mom #2: So, have you decided whether you’re going to go back to work instead of your husband?
Disgruntled mom #1, as one child shakes salt onto tables and licks it off: Well, we’ve talked about it. The problem is, I just don’t think my kids would get the same kind of attention and care.
–McDonald’s, Lincoln Center
A really, really good essay from Functional Ambivalent. Read it all, but Tom includes this:
Bad as the Bush Administration is — and it is historically, massively, terrifyingly bad — and stupid as the President’s Iraq strategy is — bone-chillingly, take-your-breath-away stupid — part of our system is that the President is the Commander in Chief. Centralizing that command has, history shows, worked very well. Changing the way we fight forever to solve the temporary, though huge, problem of George W. Bush is not something we should do any more than we should toss out the First Amendment because we don’t like Howard Stern.
Seriously: Anyone out there think, in the long term, that it’s a good idea to let Congress run a war?
Good stuff, Tom.
… of Ray Price. Still for the good times at 81.
When Ray Noble Price was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, many noted that the honor was long overdue. Such feelings weren’t based so much on the longevity of his career or on the number of major hits he has recorded, for in those regards Price was no different from many other deserving artists awaiting induction. More importantly, Price has been one of country’s great innovators. He changed the sound of country music from the late 1950s forward by developing a rhythmic brand of honky-tonk that has been hugely influential ever since. As steel guitarist Don Helms, a veteran of Hank Williams’s Drifting Cowboys once put it, “Ray Price created an era.” (Country Music Hall of Fame)
… of William Lee Golden. The bearded member, but not the bass voice, of the Oak Ridge Boys is 68.
… of Smokin’ Joe Frazier. The champ is 63.
… of Cynthia Robinson. She’s dancing to the music at 61.
You might like to hear the horns blowin’,
Cynthia on the throne, yeah!
Cynthia & Jerry got a message they’re sayin’:
[Cynthia:] All the squares, go home!
… of Kirstie Alley. She’s 56.
… of the most dangerous man in America, Rush Limbaugh. The audio-terrorist is 56.
… of Howard Stern. He’s 53.
… of broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour. She’s 49.
… of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The billionaire is 43.
The Writer’s Almanac has a great essay on Jack London, born in San Francisco on this date in 1876. You really should go read it all, but here is the final paragraph:
When he returned to California, he finally had some stories to write. His first big success was his novel The Call of the Wild (1903), about a dog named Buck who goes from living as a domestic pet to living on its own in the wilderness of Alaska. His most famous short story is “To Build a Fire” (1908), about a man struggling and failing to light a single fire in the snowy wilderness. It is one of the most widely anthologized and translated stories ever written by an American author.
The previous poll concerning New Year’s resolutions is off to a lopsided — not to say dumb — start so I thought of another burning issue.
In light of President Bush’s obstinacy in pushing for more troops in Iraq despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, would you say that —
Cat’s mom reports:
As of this week, we have heard from all 50 states, including 33 governors and 4 senators and the mail continues to come in a little at a time. I have lost track of total postcards but think we are well over 125. When I get some free time, I will send a final tally. It changes daily.
Thank you to you and your friends and family who generously took the time to send Cat a postcard. As you know, I am a working mom and I sometimes feel guilty that I am not there for Cat and Tate 24/7. This project probably meant far more to me than to Cat because I looked at each card that arrived as a Valentine to Cat to let her know that her mom loves her, even when we are apart during the day. Cat feels like the queen of her class and enjoys mail call. I go to sleep each night feeling a little goofy and less guilty. Lord only knows what I will come up with for Tate.
A good friend of mine is going to help Cat and I assemble a scrapbook of all of the cards and then we will bring it back to school for the unit on the U.S. Clearly, the children will see that there are kind people all over.
NewMexiKen is of the opinion that Cat’s mom has very little to feel guilty about.
Well, except for the fact that she hasn’t sent a photo of Cat with her postcard collection.
Update: Cat wants a Disney princess birthday party, but when her mother asked what kind of birthday party she, the mother, should have, Cat replied: “That’s easy mom, you will have a Super Woman party because you are always Super Mommy to the rescue.” So much for the guilt. Photo forthcoming.
A meme from a year ago.
Name the locations where you spent the night last year:
Albuquerque
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Virginia near Washington, D.C.
Durango, Colorado
Vallecito, Colorado
Near Oakland, California
Archer City, Texas
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Corinth, Mississippi
Lenoir City, Tennessee
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Cloverdale, Indiana
St. Louis, Missouri
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Cortez, Colorado
Montrose, Colorado
Lakewood, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
Thirteen states. Other states visited, but did not stay overnight: Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, Utah; 21 in all, plus the District of Columbia.
President Bush said, “The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people – and it is unacceptable to me.”
Now that you mention it, you President Bush are unacceptable to me, too.
A friend, the chief operating officer for an organization of nearly 1,000 people, visited the doctor today for what turned out to be a sinus infection. The doctor kept asking her if she needed a doctor’s excuse or a request for time off while she recovered. She assured him she did not.
And in her mind kept thinking, “Quit being so free with those things.”
How resounding was Florida’s 41-14 triumph in the BCS Championship Game on Monday?
The Buckeyes already have been downgraded to merely An Ohio State University.