New Mexico

New Mexico officially became part of the United States 165 years ago today when 1,600 troops under General Stephen Watts Kearny raised the American flag over the plaza in the Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis (Santa Fe), reportedly as the sun broke through the overcast sky. There had been little or no resistance. (It came at Taos the following January.)

August 18. Gen. Kearney proceeded through the pass and at 5 pm reached hill that overlooks Santa Fe.

Major Clark’s artillery was put into line, and the mounted troops and infantry were marched through town to the Palace (as it is called) and his staff dismounted and were received by the acting governor and other dignitaries and conducted to a large room. The general gave the assurance of safety and protection to all unoffending citizens. The stars and stripes were hoisted on the staff which is attached to the Palace by Major Swords. As soon as it was seen to wave above the buildings, it was hailed by a national salute from the battery of Captains Fischer and Weightman, under the command of Major Clark. While the general was proclaiming the conquest of New Mexico as a part of the United States, the first gun was heard. “There,” said he, “my guns proclaim that the flag of the United States floats over this capitol.” The people appeared satisfied. The general slept in the palace. (we democrats must call it the governor’s house.) One company of dragoons ws kept in the city as a guard and the business of the day was ended.

As reported in Niles’ National Register

So, what do you think is the over/under on S&P’s death?

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Top chart, equities drop (which means investors are selling stocks), and bottom chart, U.S. Government bond interest rates drop (which means investors are buying bonds because they consider treasuries the safest place to be).

(The fact that the top chart above is also S&P is incidental. The S&P 500 is just a good measure of the market.)

The Dark Side

A fascinating article about the night sky from 2007. I linked to it then, but it wasn’t available for free online. It is now. First, this excerpt:

In the early nineteen-nineties, Daniel worked in Los Angeles and he and his family lived in Glendale. His wife, Gina, told me that the street lights and other lights in their neighborhood were so bright that their bedrooms never got fully dark at night, even though they had curtains. When the Northridge earthquake struck, in 1994, the first thing she noticed, after the shaking had awakened her, was that she couldn’t see. “The earthquake had knocked out the power all over the city, and everything was black,” she said. “When we got the kids and ran outside, we found all our neighbors standing in the street, looking up at the sky and saying, ‘Wow.’ “

The Dark Side

Today’s Birthdays: August 17th

Maureen O’Hara is 91 today. Once voted one of the five most beautiful women in the world, Miss O’Hara is proabably best known now as Natalie Wood’s unbelieving mother in the classic Miracle on 34th Street (filmed when O’Hara was 26); or perhaps as Esmeralda to Charles Laughton’s Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul is 79.

Robert De Niro is 68 today. De Niro has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar five times, winning for Raging Bull in 1981. He also won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as the young Vito Corleone in Godfather II. De Niro’s other nominations were for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings and Cape Fear.

Belinda Carlisle is 53.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen is 52 today. His The Corrections won the 2001 National Book Award.

Sean Penn is 51 today. Penn has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar five times, winning for Mystic River and Milk. Penn’s other nominations were for Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown and I Am Sam.

Football coach/commentator Jon Gruden is 48.

Jorge Posada is 40 today. It’s over, Jorge. See ya’.

Davy Crockett — frontiersman, soldier, three-term congressman, restless soul — was born on this day in 1786. As congressman 1827-1831 and 1833-1835, Crockett opposed many of President Andrew Jackson policies, particularly the Indian Removal Act. Crockett published A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett. Written by Himself in 1834. When he lost reelection that year he went to Texas, where he died at the Alamo on March 6, 1836.

After seeing Mae’s jewelry the coat check girl exclaims, “Goodness, what lovely diamonds!” Mae replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it.” That’s screen legend Mae West in Night After Night. Ms. West was born on this date in 1893.

Francis Gary Powers was born on August 17, 1929. The CIA pilot was shot down over Soviet airspace on May 1, 1960, flying in a U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. It was a major international incident. He was convicted of espionage but released in 1962 in a prisoner exchange. Upon arriving home he was criticized for not activating the plane’s self-destruct mechanism (he said it didn’t work) and not killing himself. He was largely exonerated and was ultimately highly decorated much of it long after his death. Powers died in 1977 when his Los Angles news helicopter crashed.

Texas Jobs

Gov. Perry is running on his record of saving Texas from the recession, which is ironic when you think about it because he is also running against government.

But, in any case, here’s the real story.

From 2007-2010 Texas had a net loss of just 53,000 jobs. In a nation that lost 8 million jobs, Texas looks good.

Look a little closer and you will see however, that Texas lost 178,000 private jobs but gained 125,000 public jobs.

Of all the public jobs NATIONWIDE added during the four years, Texas added 47% of them.

And how did they add all those public funded jobs? They used federal Recovery Act (the stimulus money) to hire people.

Sounds like Keynes to me.

Today’s Graphic

THE NOAA NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER REPORTS THAT THE FIRST SEVEN MONTHS OF 2011 HAD BEEN THE DRIEST START TO ANY YEAR ON RECORD FOR NEW MEXICO. THROUGH JULY OF 2011…STATEWIDE PRECIPITATION WAS ONLY 42 PERCENT OF NORMAL.

AS OF EARLY AUGUST 2011…47 PERCENT OF NEW MEXICO WAS IN EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT…THE WORST DROUGHT CATEGORY POSSIBLE. EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT IS ESSENTIALLY A 50 YEAR RECURRENCE EVENT. ABOUT 93 PERCENT OF NEW MEXICO WAS IN SEVERE TO EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT AS SPOTTY SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS HAD YET TO RESULT IN WIDESPREAD SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS.

National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary

Line of the day

“A presidential term is 48 months; that the political media is transfixed by campaign coverage for 18 months every cycle means that a President can wield power with substantially reduced media attention for mor[e] than 1/3 of his term.  Thus, he can wage a blatantly illegal war in Libya for months on end, work to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past his repeatedly touted deadline, scheme to cut Social Security and Medicare as wealth inequality explodes and thereby please the oligarchical base funding his campaign, use black sites in Somalia to interrogate Terrorist suspects, all while his Party’s Chairwoman works literally to destroy Internet privacy — all with virtually no attention paid.”

Glenn Greenwald

It’s a provocative piece about the election cycle and our meaningless choices.

Six Hundred

Minnesota Twins DH Jim Thome joined an elite group last night, hitting his 599th and 600th career home runs to join this group:

Barry Bonds 762
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Ken Griffey Jr. 630
Alex Rodriguez 626
Sammy Sosa 609
Jim Thome 600

Jill wrote me last night to say she, Byron and 10-year-old Mack had seen five of the eight play in person. Only two for me I think, Rodriguez and Griffey. (Jill also reminded me that we saw Rodriguez play in the first series of his career, July 1994 Seattle at Boston.)

Joe Posnanski has a nice tribute to Thome.

Cougar on the Rise

NewWest has a story about mountain lions. It begins:

In rural New Mexico, trailheads leading into cougar country often are posted with signs that explain what a hiker should do in case of an encounter.

Maybe Robert Giannini had read such advice, because he did the right thing—eventually.

In June, Giannini and Parker Smith, 23, of Georgia were cycling at night in the New Mexico backcountry for a fundraiser when they encountered two lions. Smith tried to pedal faster to get away, and then realized he’d made a mistake when one lion gave chase.

“I knew we couldn’t outrun it,” Smith told the Athens Banner-Herald, “so I jumped off the bike and held it up between me and the mountain lion. Then I just started jumping around, yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs and trying to make myself as big and scary as possible.

“It was growling. I was screaming. It was intense. It probably only lasted about 20 seconds. But it felt like forever.”

Note: Author seems to have confused the two riders, but whatever, it’s an interesting article.

Hardball

Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was hit by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds on this date in 1920. Chapman apparently never saw the pitch. It hit his head hard enough that Mays thought it had hit the bat; the pitcher fielded the carom and tossed it to first for the presumed out. Chapman took a few steps and collapsed (some reports say he collapsed immediately). He died the next day.

The tragedy caused Major League Baseball to direct umpires to replace the baseball whenever it became dirty. The spitball was outlawed as well, partially in response to Chapman’s death. Previously pitchers dirtied every ball as soon as it was put in play, with dirt, tar, tobacco juice, petroleum jelly. A sticky, dirty off-balance ball could be thrown contrary to the batters expectations — and was hard to see.

Batting helmets were not made mandatory until 1971, though some teams adopted them earlier. Older players could choose not to wear a helmet. The last was in 1979.

On April 12, 1909, Philadelphia Athletics catcher Michael Riley “Doc” Powers crashed into the wall chasing a pop up. He died of of peritonitis as a result of the surgeries two weeks later. And he himself was a physician. It was opening day.

Those are the only two fatalities from on-field action in Major League history.

I attended a game, probably in 1957. Kansas City vs. Detroit at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium. If I’ve found the right game, it was Jim Bunning vs. Don Larsen. I do remember Vic Power coming to the plate as a pinch hitter and declining a batting helmet. Bunning made him reconsider quickly however, and Power made a great show of going to the dugout and putting on a helmet.

Today’s Birthdays: August 16th

Football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg was born on this date in 1862. Skull and Bones at Yale, Stagg was on the first All-America team ever (1889). He coached most famously at the University of Chicago, 1892-1932. Stagg developed the man-in-motion and the lateral pass — and developed basketball as a five man game. He is in both the college football and basketball halls of fame.

Amos Alonzo Stagg is a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame, elected as both player and coach in 1951. He was born August 16, 1862, in West Orange, New Jersey, and enrolled at Yale as a divinity student. He played five seasons for the Bulldogs and took up football as a sport secondary to baseball. He was an accomplished pitcher receiving offers to play professionally as he led Yale to five championships. He saw little action in his first two seasons, but in 1888 Stagg was a regular on one of the greatest teams of all time. That year Yale won 13 games, out-scoring the opposition 698-0. Besides Stagg, the team featured three other Hall of Fame members, William Corbin, Pudge Heffelfinger and George Woodruff. Entering his final collegiate game against Princeton in 1889, Yale had won 37 consecutive games. In the second half of a scoreless game, Stagg prevented a touchdown by tackling Hall of Famer “Snake” Ames deep in Yale territory. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Princeton later pushed across two scores to defeat Yale 10-0. For his career, Stagg and his teammates posted a 53-2-1 record, and he was chosen a member of the first All-America team in 1889. After his playing career he went on to coach for 54 seasons, winning 314 games at Springfield College, University of Chicago and the College of the Pacific. He invented the batting cage for baseball and the trough for overflow in swimming pools. Stagg died March 17, 1965, at age 102 in Stockton, California.

College Football Hall of Fame

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Amos Alonzo Stagg, whose roots in basketball go as far back as James Naismith and the Springfield Y, was instrumental to basketball’s development during its formative years. An All-American football player at Yale, Stagg coached on the gridiron at the University of Chicago in 1899. In 1892, he brought basketball from Springfield to Chicago. While coach and director of athletics at the University of Chicago, he popularized the practice of five-man basketball. In 1917, Stagg organized the University of Chicago National Interscholastic Basketball Tournament, which, until its demise in 1931, did wonders to improve and standardize the rules and interpretation for high school play. Stagg coached the University of Chicago against the University of Iowa in the first college game played with five players on a side on January 16, 1896.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Stagg was 5-6 and weighed 147 pounds as a player at Yale.

Julie Newmar, Catwoman on the Batman TV series, is 78 today.

Frank Gifford is 81 today. Kathie Lee Gifford is 58 today.

One-time Oscar nominee for best supporting actress, for her performance in Victor Victoria, Lesley Ann Warren is 63 today.

Oscar-winner James Cameron is 57. Cameron won, of course, for Titanic — film editing, director, best picture.

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone is 53. She has sold more than 300 million records — and has a Golden Globe for her performance in Evita.

Madonna is one of the most recognizable names in the world – and not just the world of music. She became the first multimedia pop icon, crossing from dance-oriented pop music into movies, television, videos, fashion and books while achieving a level of celebrity comparable to that of a primary inspiration, Marilyn Monroe. Madonna has been a ubiquitous and, at times, controversial figure since erupting on the scene with her debut single, Everybody,” in 1982. No one in the pop realm has manipulated the media with such a savvy sense of self-promotion. Yet Madonna’s career has always had a solid musical footing, and her life – however outrageous and calculated at certain points – has proceeded on an unfolding path of self-discovery and open-hearted revelation.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Best actress Oscar nominee Angela Bassett is 53 today too. She was nominated for her performance as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It.

Laura Innes is 52. She was the longest serving member of the E.R. cast (Noah Wyle had more episodes).

Supporting actor Oscar-winner for Ordinary People when he was 20, Timothy Hutton is 51.

Steve Carrell is 49.

Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks is 39. Originally Emily Erwin (Robison is her married name), she and her sister Martie (now Maguire) founded the group with two other classmates. The other two left and the group added Natalie Maines as the lead singer in 1995.

Fess Parker and Robert Culp, both big stars on TV, were born on August 16th — Parker in 1924, Culp in 1930. Parker was most famously Davy Crockett, discovered by Disney after seeing Them!, where Parker had a bit part. The Crockett role was both Parker’s professional success and doom, the latter because Disney wouldn’t let the actor portray any other type of character but the soft-spoken, pioneer hero type. Ultimately that led to his portrayal of Daniel Boone on NBC, 165 episodes 1964-1970. Culp was best known as the tennis player-secret agent on I Spy with co-star Bill Cosby, 1965-1968.

The first issue of Sports Illustrated was published 57 years ago.

Best line of the day I should have posted yesterday

“We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt on signing the Social Security Act, August 14, 1935.

Who Lived Here?

That’s a part of Cliff Palace, one of the large cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park.

Did you answer the question about who lived here with Anasazi? That’s what most people with some familiarity reply. But that term isn’t accurate; indeed, it is offensive to some. More correctly (politically and otherwise) the people who lived in the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and throughout the four corners area from 1100 to 700 years ago are called the Ancestral Puebloans. Their descendants are the Pueblo Indians of modern New Mexico and Arizona.

Anasazi derives from the Navajo words for ancient and enemy. The term was first applied to the cliff dwellings and other deserted settlements by Richard Wetherill, a rancher who was among the first Anglos to explore the area. It was adapted by archaeologists in the 1920s and came into popular usage in part as a result of ranger-led tours and National Park Service literature. In the past decade Ancestral Puebloans has become the generally preferred term.

NewMexiKen photo, August 9, 2006. Click for larger version.

Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (Georgia)

… was authorized on this date in 1978.

Chattahoochee.jpg

The Chattahoochee River and its valley is a place rich in natural and cultural resources. Sometimes the river is clear, cold, and slow-moving, while at other times it is a muddy torrent, plunging through rocky shoals. The valley contains a rich, diverse mix of plants and animals that represent an environment much larger than itself. For centuries, humans have been drawn to this river valley for life’s basics: food, water, and shelter as well as transportation and power to support the increasing numbers of mills and factories. By the 1970’s, the resources that made the river valley a special place to so many people were being threatened. On August 15, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the legislation that set aside a 48-mile stretch of river with a series of parklands to preserve a part of the river valley for future generations.

Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area