Why is Music Legal?

Scott Adams asks:

Sometimes I wonder why music is legal. Music can alter your mood and your body chemistry just like any illegal drug. The fact that it goes into your body through your ear shouldn’t make a difference. We take drugs via practically every other hole in our body – mouth, butt, eyeballs, nose – you name it. Ain’t nothing special about an ear.

Music is clearly unsafe. Suppose you’re in a perfectly good mood and a depressing song comes on. That could make you sad and break down your body’s natural defenses. You could get sick and die. Thank you very much Tori Amos.

He continues.

As the Expression Goes

… pardon our dust.

Something had been amiss with either NewMexiKen’s code or the hosting service’s servers. In an attempt to eliminate the possibility that it is the site’s code, I became rebuilding it last night from the default.

Please bear with the cosmetic changes while I fiddle. The content is otherwise unchanged.

Update Saturday Morning: Since I’ve switched to the default format (and posted a variation of the above at 11:12 last night), things seem to be working much, much better. The format will change gradually as I implement changes a little at a time, find what works and get back to a look I want.

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

…became law on this date in 1980, more than doubling the size of the national park system.

Mt. Wrangell

According to America’s National Park System: The Critical Documents edited by Lary M. Dilsaver:

In the waning days of the Carter Democratic administration, Congress acted to further protect and expand preserved areas in Alaska, many rescued from exploitation two years earlier by presidential proclamation. This complex and lengthy act defines preserved parks, forests, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, and Native American corporation lands and the degrees of preservation and usage for each. It prescribes timber, fish, and wildlife protection and use by Native Americans and other citizens.

New areas for the national park system included Aniakchak National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Noatak National Preserve, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. The act also added new lands to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Katmai National Monument and Preserve, and Denali National Park and Preserve (renamed from Mount McKinley National Park).

New wild and scenic rivers under Park Service administration included Alagnak, Alatna, Aniakchak, Charley, Chilikadrotna, John, Kobuk, Mulchatna, Noatak, North Fork of the Koyukuk, Salmon, Tinayguk, and Tlikakila rivers. Other wild and scenic rivers are designated or expanded in wildlife refuges and in other areas.

The vast majority of acreage in the Denali, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Noatak, and Wrangell-St. Elias units is designated wilderness.

Photo taken by Ken, official oldest son of NewMexiKen, 1998.

Best opening line in a movie review ever, so far

“It’s best to think of ‘The Nativity Story’ as a Hollywood version of the kind of Christmas production some of the ‘Peanuts’ kids put on in ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’ This is not meant as a criticism. Quite the contrary.”

A.O Scott in The New York Times.

At the Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan wasn’t as positive.

“Hardwicke, whose work includes the fake-transgressive ‘Thirteen’ and ‘Lords of Dogtown,’ has made a super-earnest Classics Illustrated version of the Nativity story, a cinematic Bible class that flatters the chosen but has little to offer anyone who is not already a believer.”

Brrrr!

13º was the lowest it’s been at Casa NewMexiKen (yesterday early). 19º last night.

Garret says 0º this morning in Santa Fe. John Farr reported 13º below yesterday in Taos.

High desert ain’t the same as just desert, as some think. (It’s not the same as just desserts either for that matter.)

Sky’s clear, sun’s out, 35º at 11:15. Gorgeous.

Ups and Downs

The coffee looks like I messed up the math — I mean it is seriously strong coffee. Typing may become a little jittery soon.

Went to Kohl’s last night (it’s a department store chain). All their Christmas decorations and related items were marked down 50-55%. Not only does the Christmas season seem to come earlier every year, now the Day After Christmas sales are coming earlier, too. If stuff is half-price now, what will it be December 26th?

I bought a cool Christmas stocking holder. It’s St. Nick with a long trailing list of naughty and nice kids to serve as the hook for the stocking. Half-price.

There are holiday lights up all over the neighborhood, of course. And, as always, there are some idiots leaving them on all night. Get a timer guys; how hard can it be? We are expected to turn our porch lights off in this neighborhood at 10PM (unless we need them, of course.) We get to see the stars that way.

The chicken club tacos at Chili’s are pretty good.

Last week I saw a young woman I’ve known for several years. She was carrying a small dog. Apparently this Jack Russell went with her everywhere. Inseparable.

I learned last night that she had broken up with the guy who gave her the dog. And he took the dog back! I suppose the only good side to that story is that his taking back the dog confirmed the rightness of the breaking up.

NewMexiKen did spend a lot of time yesterday redoing some of the underlying code for this site. You may notice I’ve added an Astronomy Picture of the Day thumbnail and link, and an Albuquerque weather sticker. (Right sidebar.) I failed at getting either Picasa Web Albums or Flickr to work — that is, to load thumbnails from them to this page. Anyone know the secret?

Don’t forget to send Cat a postcard.

And this, your most important assignment today, go read Bill Moyer’s talk at West Point. Allow time to recover.

Recycling December 1st

With this colder weather it’s important to save energy. Accordingly, here’s some stuff from NewMexiKen from December 1st of last year:

‘I never wanted to kill anybody, but if a man had it in his mind to kill me, I made it my business to get him first.’

Fifty years ago today. It’s 51 years now since Rosa Parks resisted.

27 years ago today. Twenty-eight since President Jimmy Carter preserved all that land in Alaska.

Allen Stewart Konigsberg was born in Brooklyn on this date in 1935. That makes Woody Allen 71 in 2006. Here’s Some words of wisdom from Woody Allen.

Bette Midler was born on this date in 1945. So she’s 61 in 2006.

Best line of the day, so far

“Forget about whatever Bill Gates did in the past that made you curl up with your free copy of Linux and cry. In his first week in office he’d probably link Microsoft Virtual Earth to the government’s spy satellites so you can look for Osama yourself.”

Scott Adams, pressing his choice: Bill Gates for President.

“For my president I want a mixture of Mother Teresa, Carl Sagan, Warren Buffet, and Darth Vader.”

Sounds right.

Why Americans Keep Getting, Shall We Say, Larger

This just in from Jill, official oldest daughter of NewMexiKen:

I just received an e-mail from the Richmond chapter of the William and Mary alumni association, inviting me to their annual holiday party this weekend.

As I skimmed it, I thought, “Why is the Richmond chapter sending things to me? That’s two hours away.”

Then I saw this, noted below the list of appetizers:

Mashed Potato Bar
(Mashed potatos served into martini glasses for a walk-around treat
…choose from a variety of toppings. Delish!)

Oh, well then that makes sense. My reputation obviously has spread throughout the Old Dominion.

So I’ll be heading to Richmond on Saturday…

Bush fell in love with his program

“Why does Bush love Estonia so? Aren’t the cultural clues fairly obvious? Having read a single book, Laar came to ‘believe, erroneously, that the flat tax had been put into practice throughout the West!’ Now, there was a gut-level governing strategy our own Decider could quickly warm up to! Read one book—then swing into action!”

Daily Howler, which again today should NOT be missed.

“But then, these gentlemen’s cluelessness has long been matched by the people who write about such matters in our own great Gotham Times.”

Did You Know This?

Send a text message to 46645 (that’s “Google”; leave off the last E for efficiency). In the body of the message, type what you’re looking for, like “Roger McBride 10025” or “chiropractor dallas tx.” Seconds later, you get a return message from Google, complete with the name, address, and phone number.

Google’s 46645 text-messaging service can fetch much more than phone numbers. It can also send you the weather report (in the body, type, for example, “weather sacramento”), stock quotes (“amzn”), where a movie is showing nearby (type “flushed away 44120”), what a word means (“define schadenfreude”), driving directions (“miami fl to 60609”), unit conversions (“liters in 5 gallons”), currency conversions (“25 usd in euros”), and so on.

Every cell carrier charges for text messages — about 10 cents each, unless you have a plan that includes them. But Google itself doesn’t charge for any of this. It’s not only ad-free, it’s free free.

David Pogue, The New York Times

NewMexiKen tried “weather albuquerque” and got back current conditions and a four-day forecast in a few seconds.

Why do people still have landline phones?

November 30th is the birthday

… of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Inspector Lewis Erskine and Stuart Bailey is 88.

… of Dick Clark. America’s oldest teenager is 77.

… of movie director Ridley Scott. He’s 69. Three nominations for the best director Oscar. Can you name the films?

… of David Mamet. The playwright is 59. Two Oscar nomintations for writing, Wag the Dog and The Verdict.

… of Mandy Patinkin. Inigo Montoya is 54.

… of Ben Stiller. He’s 41.

… of Sandra Oh. The actress (Sideways, Arli$$, Grey’s Anatomy) is 36.

Oliver Winchester was born on this date in 1810. A clothing manufacturer, Winchester bought a small failing division of Smith & Wesson in 1850, the division that made a rudimentary repeating rifle. In 1860, an engineer working for Winchester, Benjamin Tyler Henry, developed the first successful repeating rifle. It was improved upon and became known as the Winchester in 1866.

It was on this date in 1835 that Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born.

He’s best known to us today for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, but in his own lifetime his best-selling books were his travel books such as Roughing It (1872), A Tramp Abroad (1880), and Life on the Mississippi (1883).

The Writer’s Almanac has much more.

And Winston Churchill was born on this date in 1874.

Churchillian quotes:

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

“He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”

“Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”

You Think Soccer Moms are Competitive?

They’ve got nothing on “Postcard Mom.” This is from Tanya, official friend of NewMexiKen’s official oldest daughter, Jill.

Cat’s pre-kindergarten/kindergarten class recently studied the state of Delaware and learned all about it. (I learned that the state bug is a ladybug.) Anyway, they are now starting to branch out and learn about the other parts of the United States. The teacher has asked us to reach out to friends and family around the country and ask them to send a post card with a note about where they live. The goal is to get something from all 50 states. Of course Cat received this assignment two weeks after I came back from trips to Las Vegas, Toronto and DC.

Motherhood has mellowed me somewhat but I still enjoy 1). competition and 2). making Cat smile, not even remotely in that order. So, I wanted to see if we could get postcards from all 50 states, or at least darned close. So I am starting with you.

Would you please send a post card showing a picture from your state to Cat in care of her class? She loves to get mail and she is starting to read so this would be a huge treat for her. … Apparently this exercise will go on for a little while.

Also, some of you know each other and know that you live in the same state. Don’t let that discourage you as they are trying to get cards from different cities in the same state in order to give more detail.

If you decide to send the card, please send it to:
Miss Cat Cunningham c/o Pre-K/K
EEC, Inc.
730 Halstead Rd.
Wilmington, DE 19803

Obviously the goal is to foster education and the joy of learning. However the wicked evil Tanya part of me would also like Cat to crush the other children by the sheer volume of mail that she gets. Okay, that may be over the top, and I don’t want any children to actually be injured or frightened, but you get the picture. I am irrationally in love with my child and want her to get an outpouring from all over.

Here’s the deal NewMexipolitans. I don’t ask much for the hours of enjoyment, information and heart-warming stories I post here. Oh yeah, once in a while I pout and seven of you (chosen by committee I have always assumed) write comments saying how much you love NewMexiKen and don’t quit blogging and blah blah blah.

So, how about as payment to me we give little Cat a few postcards? 25 cents for the pretty postcard and 24 cents for the stamp (really). Tell your friends at work who are going home for the holidays to join in. The more the merrier. Overseas, too! (You know who you are.)

Put a tiny little “NMK” on the card and maybe Cat and Tanya will let us now how we did. Seven is my guess.

It Would Be Nice to Show You a Photo

… of the snow and ice on the beautiful Sandia Mountains this morning.

But the photos taken through the windows really never come out that sharp.

And it’s 15 degrees outside. Snow and cold are for looking, not feeling.

Update: Ah, if I wait for the perfect light I will never get anything done. Here’s a few, from inside. Note the windsock on the ridge to the right of the Tram tower in one of the shots. (Click it first to enlarge the photo, silly.)

Snowy Sandias Snowy Sandias

Snowy Sandias Snowy Sandias

Shoe-In

As recruiting goes, this one was a shoe-in.

John Robinson, the former USC football coach, once paid a visit to a top high-school prospect — only to find Bo Schembechler, his Michigan counterpart, already ensconced in the kid’s living room. “When Robinson finally got inside,” wrote Bill McGraw of the Detroit Free Press, “Schembechler put his arm around him and told the parents that Robinson is a fine man, but he added, ‘You can’t trust a man who wears shoes like that.’

“And all during the visit, Robinson said, the parents and their son kept looking at his shoes.

“The recruit went to Michigan.”

The Seattle Times: Sideline Chatter

Belief

Two years ago today I posted this:

The oldest of The Sweeties, Mack, who won’t be four for a couple more weeks, asked his mother yesterday, “Is Santa fake?”

He’s obviously intelligent, already doing the analysis necessary to reach this conclusion.

Of course, if he was really smart he’d have kept his beliefs under wraps for a few more years.

Mack's Letter to SantaJill reports that Mack, now nearly six, “seems to be going along without questioning it this year.” (That’s his letter to Santa on the right.) Jill also reports that she is sad at the prospect of telling him the truth soon enough. She remembers learning herself, and she was just five.

Funny thing is, I can remember my mom telling me, too. I must have been about five. I can remember that we were in the car and I can even tell you we were driving on Grand River Avenue near the post office in Redford (a part of Detroit, not Redford Township where we lived).

Anyone else remember when they found out?

Peace in Pagosa

Peace Wreath in Pagosa Springs

Peace is fighting back in Pagosa Springs.

Last week, a couple were threatened with fines of $25 a day by their homeowners’ association unless they removed a four-foot wreath shaped like a peace symbol from the front of their house.

The fines have been dropped, and the three-member board of the association has resigned, according to an e-mail message sent to residents on Monday.

Two board members have disconnected their telephones, apparently to escape the waves of callers asking what the board could have been thinking, residents said. The third board member, with a working phone, did not return a call for comment.

In its original letter to the couple, Lisa Jensen and Bill Trimarco, the association said some neighbors had found the peace symbol politically “divisive.”

A board member later told a newspaper that he thought the familiar circle with angled lines was also, perhaps, a sign of the devil.

The New York Times

Pagosa Springs is a resort-retirement community in southern Colorado.