“Arizona Sen. John McCain, a likely Republican presidential contender in 2008, joked on Wednesday he would ‘commit suicide’ if Democrats win the Senate in November.”
IE7
Walt Mossberg takes a look at Internet Explorer 7 — now available — and finds “that it’s much improved.”
But, more importantly, he adds, “It’s mostly a catch-up release, adding to IE some features long present in Firefox and other browsers.”
Bottom line, “The new Internet Explorer is a solid upgrade, but it’s disappointing that after five years, the best Microsoft could do was to mostly catch up to smaller competitors.”
NewMexiKen continues to use Firefox and occasionally Safari (Mac only). Firefox 2.0, not quite ready for prime time, has some nice new features.
Meanwhile, my reaction to Windows Vista — and in all honesty I haven’t really worked with it that much — is that it will make millions of adopters very unhappy. I can’t explain it actually, it’s just a sense that it’s too different and somehow there’s no obvious consistency to all the changes.
If I had Microsoft stock I’d sell it short in the first months after the Vista release.
Best line of the day, so far, reacting to craziness
“We got a look at the No Fly List from March. And included on that list were 14 of the 19 September 11th hijackers. How do you explain that?”
— Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes questioning Donna Bucella, who has run the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center since it began operations in 2003.
Saddam Hussein is on the list, too.
Fascinating
Go watch this video.
Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Just watch.
Thanks to Veronica and Tory for the link.
Best line of the day, so far
“And yet Hillary always struck me as the sort of buttoned-up and driven woman who would be really fun if you could get her out for a night of dulces de leche in Cuba, as Marlon Brando did Jean Simmons in ‘Guys and Dolls.'”
— Maureen Dowd in a column primarily about Senator McCain’s prevarication.
Just Wince, Baby
The Oakland Raiders are 0-5 this season, and their 13-3 loss to the Broncos on Sunday night was the 17th in their past 18 games against AFC West rivals.
“The Raiders have become room service,” wrote Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News. “They are waxed fruit. They only look like the real thing, fooling no one with half an eye or a working nose. You used to lock up your silverware and children when the Raiders came to town.
“Now you send minivans to meet their plane.”
Jerry Lee
The UPS delivery came while I was messing with the NewMexiKen database and I did get to listen to Jerry Lee Lewis’ new CD Last Man Standing
The 21 tracks each feature another artist, but Jerry Lee and his piano are the stars.
NewMexiKen read in Rolling Stone that Lewis faced the recording of this album with some trepidation. According to the article he’d spent most of the last decade watching Gunsmoke re-runs. The producer told Lewis not to worry, that most of the rock stars appearing on the album had wanted to be him when they grew up.
Nostalgia
Wow, I did something really stupid (with the NewMexiKen database) and it took 90 minutes of lost productivity to undo it.
It was just like being in a real job again.
Whoa, Nelly!
Keith Jackson is 78 today.
Actor Peter Boyle is 71.
Football hall-of-famer Mike Ditka is 67.
Pam Dawber, Mork’s Mindy, is 55.
Martina Navratilova is 50.
Joanie Cunningham is 46. That’s Erin Moran.
And, as already noted, roll over Beethoven, Charles Edward Anderson Berry is 80 today.
And This
George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley:
People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to Dancing With the Stars. It’s otherworldly..People clearly don’t realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I’m not too sure we’re gonna change back anytime soon.
Quoted from appearance on Countdown by Crooks and Liars.
Best paragraphs of the day
You should read the whole post from Functional Ambivalent, but here’s an excerpt:
When I was a kid I was so enthralled with language that I would sit for hours reading the dictionary. I’ve spent my professional life using words to convey ideas, and I lack the vocabulary to describe how strongly I feel at this moment. It’s almost like a state of mourning. President Bush and his followers are killing the Constitution, giving some future authoritarian all the tools he needs to enslave the nation that was once a shining city on a hill. This gang of idiots, led by a vacuous nimrod who knows nothing but politics and his own, irresistable Oedipal scorn, has whipped the Grand Old Party into a fear frenzy. Bush Republicans, quivering chickens that they apparently are, are tearing the Constitution apart in front of our very eyes and telling us its for our own good.
That the Democrats sat silently while this abomination passed tells me that the Democratic Party might as well be dead. They can fillibuster a federal judge’s nomination but not the enfeeblement of the Constitution? The pathetic, dumb bastards, standing silently by for fear that Karl Rove will commission a 30 second attack ad claiming they’re soft on terror. We need to run every one of the useless clowns out of office.
The only appropriate reaction to the Republican rape of the Constitution is sputtering rage. That we aren’t marching on the White House with torches and pitchforks, demanding that this horrendous law be repealed, indicates that we, the people, may not really be much worth protecting. Retire the eagle as the symbol of the United States; we’re a nation of sheep.
The Pueblos from A to Z
The Seattle Times provides a brief description of the 19 New Mexico pueblos — “the oldest tribal communities in the United States, having descended from the ancestral Pueblo cultures that once inhabited Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and Bandelier.”
The accompanying article — Catching glimpses of tradition in New Mexico’s native villages.
Thanks to Ah, Wilderness! for the link to the above, which was first posted at NewMexiKen a year ago.
Best line of the day, so far
“PUBLIC SPLIT ON WHETHER BUSH IS A DIVIDER”
— CNN scrolling banner via Altercation, first posted at NewMexiKen two years ago today.
It Ought to Be a National Holiday
Chuck Berry is 80 today.
Birthdays
Rita Hayworth, born on this date in 1918.
Arthur Miller, the playwright (The Crucible, Death of a Salesman) and one-time husband of Marilyn Monroe, was born on this date in 1915.
Montgomery Clift was born on October 17 in 1920. Clift was nominated for the best actor Oscar three times and supporting actor once. He played Prewitt, the bugler who won’t box, in From Here to Eternity.
It’s also the birthday
… of Jimmy Breslin. The columnist is 76.
… of Evel Knievel. The daredevil is 68.
… of Margot Kidder. Lois Lane is 58.
… of George Wendt. Norm is 58.
“What’ll you have Norm?”
“Fame, fortune, fast women.”
“How about a beer?”
“Even better.”
… of country singer Alan Jackson; he’s 48.
… of golfer Ernie Els; 37.
And of Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem. He’s 34.
Soggy Mountain Boys
Singer Dan Tyminski of Union Station (Alison Krauss’ band) tells the story of getting to sing the voice over for I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow for the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. When he told his wife, she asked him, “What’s a voice over?”
“It’s where you see George Clooney, but hear my voice,” Dan told her.
“Oh Dan,” she replied, “that’s been my fantasy.”
Worth repeating
Donald Rumsfeld is giving President Bush his daily briefing.
He concludes by saying: “Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed.”
“OH NO!” the president exclaims. “That’s terrible!”
His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.
Finally, President Bush looks up and asks, “How many is a brazillion?”
Re-posted from a year ago.
Brrr!
Albuquerque is expecting fall’s first official temperature in the 30s tonight.
I guess I’m going to have to light the Casa NewMexiKen furnace. Darn, I just love those no cooling, no heat utility bills these past several weeks.
Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?
Excerpted from Jeff Stein writing on the op-ed page of Tuesday’s New York Times:
For the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?”
A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want?
After all, wouldn’t British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants? In a remotely similar but far more lethal vein, the 1,400-year Sunni-Shiite rivalry is playing out in the streets of Baghdad, raising the specter of a breakup of Iraq into antagonistic states, one backed by Shiite Iran and the other by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states.
[…]
But so far, most American officials I’ve interviewed don’t have a clue.
He continues with examples. We’re protected by idiots.
Walking the Line
Douglas Brinkley has a good review of Michael Streissguth’s richly detailed Johnny Cash: The Biography
Good antidote to the movie.
Been Doin’ Other Stuff
Among other things, NewMexiKen has been importing CDs into my iTunes music collection, now over 10,000 tracks. I decided with that many I really shouldn’t count on the shuffle to get nice sets of tunes. I had to make some playlists.
So then I began thinking up ideas for playlists. How about a tune for each of the 50 states I thought.
Here’s what I’ve got so far (just from what I had):
- Sweet Home Alabama / Lynyrd Skynyrd
- North to Alaska / Johnny Horton
- By the Time I Get to Phoenix / Glen Campbell
- California Dreamin’ / The Mamas & The Papas
- Rocky Mountain High / John Denver
- Georgia on My Mind / Ray Charles
- Hawai’i ’78 / Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
- Chicago / Frank Sinatra
- On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe / Johnny Mercer
- Kentucky Rain / Elvis Presley
- Louisiana 1927 / Randy Newman
- Streets of Baltimore / The Little Willies
- M.T.A. / The Kingston Trio
- Saginaw, Michigan / Lefty Frizzell
- Mississippi / Bob Dylan
- Kansas City / Wilbert Harrison
- Meet Me In Montana / Marie Osmond & Dan Seals
- Nebraska / Bruce Springsteen
- All the Way to Reno / R.E.M.
- New York City / The Peter Malick Group Featuring Norah Jones
- Carolina in My Mind / James Taylor
- Ohio / Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
- Take Me Back to Tulsa / Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
- Portland, Oregon / Loretta Lynn with Jack White
- Philadelphia Freedom / Elton John
- Tennessee Waltz / Eva Cassidy
- Waltz Across Texas / Ernest Tubb
- Moonlight in Vermont / Willie Nelson
- East Virginia / Joan Baez
- Grand Coulee Dam / Woody Guthrie
- Take Me Home, Country Roads / John Denver
- What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me) / Jerry Lee Lewis
Jill suggests George Thorogood’s “Delaware Slide.” And there’s Lee Ann Womack’s “A Little Past Little Rock.” (Reba’s “Little Rock” is another kind of rock.) Neil Young has a song “Albuquerque” and there’s Joe Glaser’s “The Lights of Albuquerque.”
How about it, any ideas?
300,000,000
The estimated resident population of the United States reached 300 million about 5:45 this morning (Mountain Time).
The population has doubled in 57 years (1949).
Doubling again, it would be 600 million in 2063.
The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century
Throughout the year 2000, NPR presented the stories behind 100 of the most important American musical works of the 20th century. These special features cover music from a wide variety of genres — classical, jazz, rock’n’roll, country, R&B, musical theatre and film scores. NPR 100 stories aired on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and NPR’s weekend news magazine programs.
Here are the 100, but follow this link to learn more, including audio of the original reports.
- ADAGIO FOR STRINGS, SAMUEL BARBER (prem. 1938)
- AIN’T THAT A SHAME, words/music FATS DOMINO (1955); as performed by FATS DOMINO
- ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND, words/music IRVING BERLIN (1911); as performed by IRVING BERLIN
- ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL, words/music JACK LAWRENCE/ARTHUR ALTMAN (1940), as performed by FRANK SINATRA and HARRY JAMES & HIS ORCHESTRA (1943)
- APPALACHIAN SPRING, AARON COPLAND (1944)
- AS TIME GOES BY, words/music HERMAN HUPFELD (1931)
- BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN, words/music RAYWHITLEY/GENE AUTRY (1939); as performed by GENE AUTRY
- BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND, words/music BOB DYLAN (1962)
- BLUE MOON OF KENTUCKY, BILL MONROE (1947)
- BLUE SUEDE SHOES, CARL PERKINS (1956)
- BODY & SOUL, instrumental version by COLEMAN HAWKINS (1939)
- BORN TO RUN (LP), BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (1975)
- CHORUS LINE (musical), music MARVIN HAMLISCH/words EDWARD KLEBAN (1975)
- COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER, LORETTA LYNN (1971)
- CRAZY, words/music by WILLIE NELSON, performed by PATSY CLINE (1961)
- DJANGO, music JOHN LEWIS; performed by MODERN JAZZ QUARTET (1955)
- DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME, GUS KAHN/WILBER SCHWANDT/FABIAN ANDRE performed by Kate Smith (1931); revived by Mama Cass Elliot (1963)
- DRUMMING, STEVE REICH (1971)
- FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (musical), SHELDON HARNICK/JERRY BOCK (1964)
- FINE & MELLOW, words/music BILLIE HOLIDAY (1940)
- FIRE AND RAIN, words/music JAMES TAYLOR; as performed by JAMES TAYLOR (1970)
- FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN, music EARL SCRUGGS, performed by EARLE FLATT/ LESTER SCRUGGS and THE FOGGY MOUNTAIN BOYS (1949)
- 4:33, JOHN CAGE (1952)
- GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY, GEORGE M. COHAN (1904)
- GONE WITH THE WIND (film score), MAX STEINER (1939)
- GOOD VIBRATIONS, THE BEACH BOYS (1966)
- GRACELAND (LP), PAUL SIMON (1986)
- GRAND CANYON SUITE, FERDE GROFE (1931)
- GREAT BALLS OF FIRE, JERRY LEE LEWIS (1957)
- THE GREAT PRETENDER, THE PLATTERS (1955)
- GUYS & DOLLS (musical), FRANK LOESSER (prem. 1950)
- HELLHOUND ON MY TRAIL, ROBERT JOHNSON (1937)
- HELLO DOLLY (tune), words/music JERRY HERMAN; as performed by LOUIS ARMSTRONG (1964)
- HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW, words/music C.D. MARTIN/C.H. GABRIEL; as performed by MAHALIA JACKSON (1958)
- HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN, words/music WILLIE DIXON; as performed by MUDDY WATERS (1954)
- HOUND DOG/DON’T BE CRUEL, words/music JERRY LEIBER/MIKE STOLLER; OTIS BLACKWELL/ELVIS PRESLEY; as performed by ELVIS PRESLEY (1956)
- I GOT RHYTHM, GEORGE & IRA GERSHWIN (1930)
- I WALK THE LINE, words/music JOHNNY CASH; as performed by JOHNNY CASH (1956)
- I WANNA BE SEDATED, THE RAMONES (1977)
- I’M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY, words/music HANK WILLIAMS; as performed by HANK WILLIAMS (1949)
- IN THE MOOD, words ANDY RAZAF, music JOE GARLAND (1939), performed/recorded GLENN MILLER & HIS ORCHESTRA (1940)
- (GOODNIGHT) IRENE, words/music HUDDIE LEDBETTER (LEAD BELLY) and JOHN LOMAX (1950), as performed by THE WEAVERS
- KIND OF BLUE (LP), MILES DAVIS (1959)
- KING PORTER STOMP, JELLY ROLL MORTON (1924)
- KO KO, CHARLIE PARKER (rec. 1945)
- LA BAMBA, words/music WILLIAM CLAUSON; as performed by RITCHIE VALENS (1958)
- LET’S STAY TOGETHER, words/music AL GREEN/WILLIE MITCHELL/AL JACKSON; as performed by AL GREEN (1971)
- LIGHT MY FIRE, THE DOORS (1967)
- LIKE A ROLLING STONE, BOB DYLAN (1965)
- A LOVE SUPREME (LP), JOHN COLTRANE (1964)
- MACK THE KNIFE, words MARC BLITZSTEIN (after BERTOLT BRECHT)/music KURT WEILL; as performed by ELLA FITZGERALD (1960)
- MAYBELLENE, words/music by CHUCK BERRY, RUSS FRATTO, and ALAN FREED; performed by CHUCK BERRY (1955)
- MOOD INDIGO, DUKE ELLINGTON (1931)
- MY FAIR LADY (musical), LERNER & LOWE (1956)
- MY FUNNY VALENTINE, music RICHARD RODGERS/words LORENZ HART (1937)
- MY GIRL, words/music by WILLIAM ROBINSON and RONALD WHITE; as performed by THE TEMPTATIONS (1965)
- NIGHT & DAY, COLE PORTER (1932)
- A NIGHT IN TUNISIA, DIZZY GILLESPIE (1946)
- OKLAHOMA! (musical), RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN (1943)
- ONCE IN A LIFETIME, THE TALKING HEADS (1983)
- ONE O’CLOCK JUMP, COUNT BASIE (1938)
- OYE COMO VA, words/music TITO PUENTE (1963); recorded by SANTANA (1971)
- PAPA’S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG, JAMES BROWN (1965)
- PEGGY SUE, words/music JERRY ALLISON/BUDDY HOLLY/NORMAN PETTY; as recorded by BUDDY HOLLY (1957)
- PORGY AND BESS, music GEORGE GERSHWIN/words IRA GERSHWIN/DUBOSE HEYWARD (1935)
- PSYCHO (film score), BERNARD HERMANN (1960)
- PURPLE HAZE, JIMI HENDRIX (1967)
- RAPPER’S DELIGHT, SUGARHILL GANG (1979)
- RESPECT, words/music OTIS REDDING (1965); as performed by ARETHA FRANKLIN (1967)
- RHAPSODY IN BLUE, GEORGE GERSHWIN (1924); orchestrated FERDE GROFE (1926)
- ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, words/music MAX FREEDMAN and JIMMY DE KNIGHT (1953); first recorded by BILL HALEY (1955)
- ROUND MIDNIGHT, music THELONIUS MONK (1946)
- (GET YOUR KICKS ON) ROUTE 66, words/music BOB TROUP (1946); performed by NAT KING COLE
- ST. LOUIS BLUES, words/music W.C. HANDY (1914); as performed by BESSIE SMITH
- SHAFT (single), ISAAC HAYES (1971)
- SHOWBOAT (musical), HAMMERSTEIN/KERN (1927)
- SING, SING, SING, words/music LOUIS PRIMA (1936), as performed by BENNY GOODMAN & HIS ORCHESTRA at Carnegie Hall 1938
- SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (film musical), words/music ARTHUR FREED/NACIO HERB BROWN (1952)
- SITTIN’ ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY, words/music OTIS REDDING and STEVE CROPPER (1968); recorded by OTIS REDDING
- SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT, NIRVANA (1991)
- STAND BY YOUR MAN, words/music TAMMY WYNNETTE and BILLY SHERRILL (1968); as performed by TAMMY WYNNETTE
- STARDUST, words MITCHELL PARISH/music HOAGY CARMICHAEL (1929)
- SYMPHONY OF PSALMS, IGOR STRAVINSKY (1948)
- TAKE FIVE, music PAUL DESMOND (1960); recorded by DAVE BRUBECK
- TAKE MY HAND, PRECIOUS LORD, words/music THOMAS A. DORSEY (1932)
- TAKE THE A TRAIN, BILLY STRAYHORN (1941), performed by DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA
- TALKING BOOK (LP), STEVIE WONDER (1972)
- TAPESTRY (LP), CAROLE KING (1971)
- THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, WOODY GUTHRIE (1956)
- TOM DOOLEY (traditional), arranged by DAVE GUARD (1958); as performed by THE KINGSTON TRIO
- THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO (LP), THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (1967)
- WARNER BROS. CARTOONS, music CARL STALLINGS (1940s & 1950s)
- WE SHALL OVERCOME, words/music ZILPHIA HORTON, FRANK HAMILTON, GUY CARAWAN, PETE SEEGER (1960); believed to have originated from C. ALBERT TINDLEY’S 1901 Baptist hymn I’LL OVERCOME SOME DAY
- WEST END BLUES, words by CLARENCE WILLIAMS/music by JOE OLIVER (1928); as performed by LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS HOT FIVE
- WEST SIDE STORY (musical), LEONARD BERNSTEIN/STEPHEN SONDHEIM (1957)
- WHAT’D I SAY, RAY CHARLES (1959)
- WHAT’S GOING ON, words/music by AL CLEVELAND, MARVIN GAYE, and RENAULDO BENSON (1970); recorded by MARVIN GAYE
- WHITE CHRISTMAS, IRVING BERLIN (1942); as performed by BING CROSBY
- WILDWOOD FLOWER, CARTER FAMILY (1927)
- WIZARD OF OZ (film musical), words E.Y. HARBURG/music HAROLD ARLEN (1939)
Thanks to Annette for the idea.
It’s the birthday
… of John Wooden. The Wizard of Westwood is 96.
… of Roger Moore. The oldest of the James Bonds in 79.
… of Ralph Lauren. The founder of Polo is 67.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas, on this date in 1890.
Three for Saturday
Last week’s New Yorker was particularly good and these stood out.
Surgeon Atul Gawande surveys recent developments in childbirth — as he describes it “How childbirth went industrial.”
Historian Jill Lepore reviews Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
Mark Singer has a profile of murderer and escapee Richard McNair. The article is not available, but here’s a video of the suspect confronted by a police officer the day of his last escape. Priceless.