A well-done map where you drag the name of 35 middle eastern and north African countries to their location on the map. For NewMexiKen it started of easy, but once I got to the “stans,” much more difficult. The map tells you when you make a mistake — you have to get them all correct to finish.
Also, via Andrew Tobias.
Warren Buffet gave $100,000 in order to caddy for Tiger Woods at a charity golf event. “It wasn’t the hardest job,” Buffet told the Omaha World-Herald. “I mostly rode in the cart.” Woods suggested making a wager for “serious money” on the 18th hole, to which Buffet replied, “All money is serious, Tiger.” The bet was for $5.00, and Woods had to play the hole from his knees. Woods made bogey, and won the hole and the bet. After Buffet gave Woods the $5.00, he cleared his throat and said, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Woods couldn’t imagine what it was. “My [caddy’s] 10%. You owe me 50¢.”
From Rick Reilly’s Who’s Your Caddy? via Andrew Tobias.
… was authorized on this date in 1962.
From its thunderous ocean breakers crashing against rocky headlands and expansive sand beaches through its open grasslands to its brushy hillsides and forested ridges, visitors can discover over 1000 species of plants and animals. Home to several cultures over thousands of years, Point Reyes preserves a tapestry of stories and interactions of people.
… is the birthday:
… of Milton S. Hershey, born on this date in 1857. Hershey, who only completed the fourth grade, developed a formula for milk chocolate that made what had been a luxury product into the first nationally marketed candy.
… of Sherwood Anderson, born on this date in 1876 in Camden, Ohio.
[Anderson] is best known for his short stories, “brooding Midwest tales” which reveal “their author’s sympathetic insight into the thwarted lives of ordinary people.” Between World War I and World War II, Anderson helped to break down formulaic approaches to writing, influencing a subsequent generation of writers, most notably Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Anderson, who lived in New Orleans for a brief time, befriended Faulkner there in 1924 and encouraged him to write about his home county in Mississippi. (Library of Congress)
… of Bill Monroe, born on this date in 1911. The Father of Bluegrass Music was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1993, Monroe was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an honor that placed him in the company of Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Paul McCartney. Monroe died in 1996.
Monroe is also an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
Musical pioneer Bill Monroe is known as “the father of bluegrass music.” While Monroe would humbly say, “I’m a farmer with a mandolin and a high tenor voice,” he and His Blue Grass Boys essentially created a new musical genre out of the regional stirrings that also led to the birth of such related genres as Western Swing and honky-tonk. From his founding of the original bluegrass band in the Thirties, he refined his craft during six decades of performing. In so doing, he brought a new level of musical sophistication to what had previously been dismissed as “rural music.” Both as ensemble players and as soloists, Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys upped the ante in their chosen genre much the way Duke Ellington’s and Miles Davis’s bands did in jazz. Moreover, the tight, rhythmic drive of Monroe’s string bands helped clear a path for rock and roll in the Fifties. That connection became clear when a reworked song of Monroe’s, “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” became part of rock and roll history as the B side of Elvis Presley’s first single for Sun Records in 1954. Carl Perkins claimed that the first words Presley spoke to him were, “Do you like Bill Monroe?”
… of Mel Torme, born on this date in 1925. The “Velvet Fog” was a wonderful jazz singer, but his greatest legacy is writing “The Christmas Song” — “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”. Torme died in 1999.
And it’s the anniversary of the inspiration for our most famous song:
As the evening of September 13, 1814, approached, Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer who had come to negotiate the release of an American friend, was detained in Baltimore harbor on board a British vessel. Throughout the night and into the early hours of the next morning, Key watched as the British bombed nearby Fort McHenry with military rockets. As dawn broke, he was amazed to find the Stars and Stripes, tattered but intact, still flying above Fort McHenry.
…Key’s experience during the bombardment of Fort McHenry inspired him to pen the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He adapted his lyrics to the tune of a popular drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and the song soon became the de facto national anthem of the United States of America, though Congress did not officially recognize it as such until 1931.
The Smithsonian Institution, which has the original “star-spangled banner,” has details about the flag.
The warehouse retail giant in its 2006 fiscal year, which just ended, sold more than 1.5 million TVs and $300 million worth of digital cameras on end-cap displays, said CEO Jim Sinegal. It also filled 26.3 million prescriptions, sold 2 million pairs of glasses, printed more than a billion photos and served up 63 million hot dog and soda combinations. The combo sells for $1.50, which has been the same price for 18 years.
“Forty-seven million people have Costco membership cards …
… It also sold $805 million worth of wine, a figure that included $390 million of fine wines.
“We are the largest wine merchant in the country,” Sinegal said.
Overall revenue for the chain for the first 52 weeks of fiscal 2006 (which ended Sept. 3) came to $57.8 billion, although the company cut the earnings forecast for the entire year. The average sales per store come to more than $125 million a year. The chain now has 487 stores and an online operation that accounted for $880 million in revenue the last fiscal year. …
The retailer, which is now fifth in the U.S. and seventh worldwide, in some ways thrives on surprise. In the public mind, the chain is associated with blue-collar or middle-class shoppers. In reality, the average Costco shopper in the U.S. has an average annual income of $72,000, higher than the $59,600 average for the nation as a whole. Over 50 percent of the women and men in the top 10 percent income bracket shop at the chain.
NewMexiKen just goes to Costco for the hot dog and soda.
The Writer’s Almanac has a little bit about H.L. Mencken today, his birthday (1880). NewMexiKen particularly liked this, Mencken’s translation of the Declaration of Independence into American English from Mencken’s The American Language (1919):
“When things get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they out to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody.”
AOL is making it’s radio player and stations available for free.
Free Internet Radio Stations featuring XM Satellite Radio
There’s a pretty nice player for Mac, too. And XM (for free) is a real bonus, though it’s only a few stations.
As NewMexiKen already noted, the new iTunes 7 is a major upgrade. If you have an iPod or use iTunes to manage your music, don’t hesitate to upload the new version.
Seen above is one of two new browsing interfaces. This is Cover Flow. With it, you can browse your music as if you were thumbing through albums — and if you don’t have the art, iTunes will get it for you.
Much better interface for managing iPods, too.
Update: How To: Back up your music using iTunes 7 from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).
This is a lot worse than that stupid case in Utah with the intentional walk.
I can’t get over the defense attorney saying the kid was “terrible.” Who the hell ARE these people.
I might consider macramé for my kids.
Comparing official mortality data with the number of Americans who have been killed inside the United States by terrorism since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma reveals that scores of threats are far more likely to kill an American than any terrorist — at least, statistically speaking.
In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida is.
There’s a larger version of the chart (easier to read) if you follow the link.
The iTunes Music Store is down this morning — big changes expected today.
What will they be? What will they be? Steve Jobs speech later today.
Update: Here are some highlights:
60 million iPods sold through last quarter.
New earbuds. Look the same, sound better.
New iPods: 80GB, $349. More for less. Brighter screen.
New Nanos: Colors, or aluminum case. Battery lasts 24 hours. New 8GB model for $249, same price as 4MB was.
New iShuffle. 1GB $79. Smaller. Aluminum case.
iTunes 7. Separate sections for music, TV, movies. Album art for all your iTunes tracks (if you have an iTunes account). 3.5 million songs of album art. Will now let you move purchased music between authorized computers via iPod. iPod management now within iTunes (not just in Preferences).
CoverFlow is now built into iTunes. Search your music by album covers!
Video resolution increased 4-fold.
And movies now available. DVD-near quality. Surround sound.
And, as Ken has already added to the comments, the last item was iTV, to be released in early 2007. It will be a wireless networking box that will allow you to play your iTunes audio or video files on your home theater. $299.
Considering that Mack got a “Yellow Light” and lost his car on the second day, it seems only fair to update you with his most recent chart.
And, he reports, kids are getting “Red Lights.” In fact, it appears, using the “f-bomb” in kindergarten will get you a red without delay.
But Mack has four greens and one yellow after a week.
In a survey on SI.com, we asked readers to rank their hometown parks on a variety of criteria, from parking prices to the availability of restrooms to the quality of concessions. We also asked for opinions on what makes the park special — or disappointing.
Number One: Angel Stadium (which was an even better deal back when we used to go for $2.50, $1.25 for the kids).
30th: RFK.
“George W. Bush is the right man to lead us in the era post whatever horrible calamity he leads us into next.”
— John Oliver, Senior White House Correspondent, The Daily Show
“While watching Olbermann, it occurred to me that George Bush is bad in all the ways Ronald Reagan was bad, but Bush is also bad in all the ways Reagan was good.
“If Reagan returned ‘Morning’ to America, what time of day has Bush brought us to?”
— Jill in comment
View 28 of the 100 Photographs that Changed the World, originally from Life magazine. NewMexiKen has posted this link each year on this date and I hesitated this morning. I mean, why repeat it for the fourth time?
I then went and looked at the 28 photos and said to myself, “Oh, that’s why.”
Life Books has all 100.
These two items are from NewMexiKen’s “first thing in the morning” daily read, Sideline Chatter:
Pay raises for everyone!
“The Yankees have a $200 million payroll,” exclaimed Twins outfielder Torii Hunter, “and we play for minimum wage.”
Responded Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel, pointing out that Hunter is getting by on $10.75 million this season: “Employees at Taco Bell were surprised and thrilled to learn the minimum wage has been raised to $5,168.27 per hour.”
Leave it to Tiger Woods to turn an errant shot at the Bridgestone Classic — a 9-iron that sailed over the green, bounced off the clubhouse roof and landed in a caterer’s cart of cream pies on the other side — into nothing worse than a bogey.
“In fact,” wrote Dan Daly of the Washington Times, “I’m surprised McDonald’s hasn’t gotten him to do one of those ‘nothing but net’-type commercials — a la Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.
“Picture Tiger standing over his tee ball and saying to Phil Mickelson: ‘Off the fan’s hand … around the tree … over the clubhouse roof … in the hole’ (possibly via a drainpipe).”
Tin Cup could make it.
… essayist and editor, was born on this date in 1880. Some Mencken quotes:
Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. shook hands with both John Quincy Adams (who had been the sixth president of the U.S.) and John F. Kennedy (who became the 35th).
Holmes, who was seriously wounded in the Civil War, served on the Court from 1902-1932. He was born in 1841 and died in 1935.
Mentioned by Roger Angell in last week’s New Yorker.
Strong and meaningful words tonight from Keith Olbermann. You can read the full transcript or watch the video at Crooks and Liars.
This is just the opening:
And lastly tonight a Special Comment on why we are here. Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space.
And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter.
And all the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and — as I discovered from those “missing posters” seared still into my soul — two more in the Towers.
And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors.
I belabor this to emphasize that, for me… this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.
And anyone who claims that I and others like me are “soft”, or have “forgotten” the lessons of what happened here — is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante — and at worst, an idiot — whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.
However. Of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could have forecast — of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the others that unfolded only in our minds… none of us could have predicted… this.
Five years later this space… is still empty.
Five years later there is no Memorial to the dead.
Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.
Five years later this country’s wound is still open.
Five years… later this country’s mass grave is still unmarked.
Five years later… this is still… just a background for a photo-op.
It is beyond shameful.
NewMexiKen urges you to read or watch it all via Crooks and Liars.
Poynter.org has a gallery of front pages from September 11 and 12, 2001.
Dan Neil checks out the Sky Mall. An excerpt:
And so, deprived of my usual carry-on, I arrived at what is surely a universal moment for air travelers: flipping through the glossy pages—remote control toy shark, laser-guided pool cue and, of course, the comically dangerous lawn aerator sandals—wondering: Who the hell buys this junk? Honestly, your Maslow hierarchy of needs would have to be a mile high before you could find yourself craving a dedicated bug vacuum with gel-filled “kill” cartridges. If you’re considering ordering the replica of the Evenstar Pendant of Arwen (“The Lord of the Rings”), it’s almost a certainty your mom drove you to the airport.
A sense of superiority comes easy, and that’s part of the pleasure of Sky Mall. In the copy for a corn-dog cooker, we’re advised the device can fry other things, too, like “Twinkies, Snickers bars.” Just be sure not to burn down the trailer. And yet, I can’t help admiring Sky Mall, or at least the hyper-prosperity of the society from which it arises. This cornucopia of crapola reflects a certain collective genius, and an astonishing rate of technical dissemination. Flexible rollout keyboards, wrap-around eyewear that plays iPod videos, electronic pens that translate type from other languages, fingerprint-reading door locks—all this stuff was science fiction a decade ago.
Actually, though I doubt you’ll believe me, I really don’t care all that much about Path to 9/11 anymore — as I’ve said, nine out of ten Americans probably WON’T watch it (including me).
But the more one learns about it, the more one’s jaw just drops:
This from AMERICAblog, where the writer has seen the film:
Here’s what the “Path to 9/11” claims American Airlines did on the morning of September 11. According to Disney/ABC, American Airlines had Mohammad Atta at its ticket counter and a warning came up on the screen when he tried to check in. The AA employee called a supervisor who kind of shrugged and said, blithely, just let him through. The first employee, shocked, turned to her supervisor and said, shouldn’t we search him? The American Airlines supervisor responds, nah, just hold his luggage until he boards the plane. The scene is clearly intended to make American Airlines look negligent.
Only problem? It never happened.
First off, Disney/ABC got the airport wrong. The warning for Mohammad Atta’s ticket popped up in Portland, Maine, not at Boston Logan as the tv show claims (this is on page 1 of the September 11 Commission report).
Second, the security rules at the time said nothing about searching a passenger who has a “warning” pop up, they only required that the bags be held until the passenger boarded. The Disney/ABC tv show, on the other hand, clearly tries to imply that American Airlines violated the security rules in letting Atta go. This simply isn’t true. (This is also on page 1 of the report.)
But most importantly, Disney/ABC implicated the wrong airline. And I quote the Director of the FBI:
On September 11, at 6:00 AM, Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari boarded a U.S. Airways flight leaving Portland, Maine en route to Boston’s Logan Airport.
I think American Airlines is going to be very unhappy. [Update: They were. See my comment.]
Some background on Cyrus Nowrasteh, the screenwriter behind Path to 9/11:
He then graduated to the world of feature films – writing, producing and directing a 1998 comedy film titled “The Island” that put forward the hilarious premise that neither Marilyn Monroe nor JFK had died but were both actually living the wild life on a boozy island paradise. Portrayed on screen by Sally Kirkland and Michael Murphy respectively.
Martin Lewis: The Huffington Post, who has more.
What was ABC/Disney smoking thinking when they put this $30 million project in this guy’s hands?
From Peter Guralnick’s excellent Last Train to Memphis:
On September 9 he was scheduled to appear on the premier Ed Sullivan Show of the season. Sullivan, however, was recuperating from an August automobile accident and, as a result, was not going to be able to host the program, which Elvis would perform from the CBS studio in Los Angeles. Elvis sent Sullivan a get-well card and a picture autographed to “Mr. Ed Sullivan” and was thrilled to learn that the show would be guest-hosted by Charles Laughton, star of Mutiny an the Bounty. Steve Allen, who had presented him in his last television appearance, was not even going to challenge Sullivan on the night in question: NBC was simply going to show a movie.
He opened with “Don’t Be Cruel,” strolling out alone from the darkened wings onto a stage spotlighted with silhouettes of guitars and a bass fiddle. He was wearing a loud plaid jacket and an open-necked shirt, but his performance was relatively subdued, as every shoulder shrug, every clearing of his throat and probing of his mouth with his tongue, evoked screams and uncontrolled paroxysms of emotion. Then he announced he was going to sing a brand-new song, “it’s completely different from anything we’ve ever done. This is the title of our brand-new Twentieth Century Fox movie and also my newest RCA Victor escape – er, release.” There was an apologetic shrug in response to the audience’s laughter, and then, after an altogether sincere tribute to the studio, the director, and all the members of the cast, and “with the help of the very wonderful Jordanaires,” he sang “Love Me Tender.” It is a curious moment. Just after beginning the song he takes the guitar off and hands it to an unseen stagehand, and there are those awkward moments when he doesn’t seem to know quite what to do without his prop and shrugs his shoulders or twitchily adjusts his lapels, but the moans which greet the song — of surprise? of shock? of delight? most likely all three — clearly gratify him, and at the end of the song he bows and gestures graciously to the Jordanaires.
When he comes back for the second sequence, the band is shown, with Jordanaire Gordon Stoker at the piano and the other Jordanaires in plaid jackets at least as loud (but nowhere near as cool) as his own. They rock out on Little Richard’s “Ready Teddy,” but when Elvis goes into his dance the camera pulls away and, as reviews in the following days will note, “censors” his movements. It doesn’t matter. The girls scream just when he stands still, and when he does two verses of “Hound Dog” to end the performance, the West Coast studio audience goes crazy, though the New York Journal-American‘s Jack O’Brian, after first taking note of Presley’s “ridiculously tasteless jacket and hairdo (hairdon’t)” and granting that “Elvis added to his gamut (A to B) by crossing his eyes,” pointed out that the New York audience “laughed and hooted.” “Well, what did someone say?” remarked host Charles Laughton, with good humor, at the conclusion of the performance. “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast?”
The show got a 43.7 Trendex rating (it reached 82.6 percent of the television audience), and in the Colonel’s view, which he shared gleefully with Steve Sholes, really boosted Presley’s stock with an adult audience for the first time.
It was about this time that Elvis began dying his hair from its natural sandy-dark blond to jet black — “Clairol Black Velvet.”
