Sideline Clucker

From Dwight Perry’s Sideline Chatter:

Bromley Lowe, a former Baltimore Orioles mascot, is one old Bird who was only too happy to fly.

Sweltering summer days in a costume made of synthetic feathers, foam and fiberglass will do that to a guy.

“Parades are the worst,” Lowe told USA Today. “I was in a Fourth of July parade in Laurel, Md., in 1995, and it felt like it would never end. I was treated in an ambulance. They hooked me up to an IV.

“I think the San Diego Chicken put it best: ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the chicken.'”

Worth knowing

Lawsuits against doctors are just one of several factors that have driven up the cost of malpractice insurance, specialists say. Lately, the more important factors appear to be the declining investment earnings of insurance companies and the changing nature of competition in the industry.

The recent spike in premiums – which is now showing signs of steadying – says more about the insurance business than it does about the judicial system.

The New York Times

Some yuks

“Now Bush, Clinton, and Al Gore have all admitted to smoking marijuana. This is kind of like a presidential version of the Doobie Brothers.”

“The seven-year-old Kyoto Accord went into effect this week, forcing 35 nations and the European Union to cut emissions in an effort to combat global warming. See I don’t think President Bush quite understands this. Like today when they asked him about the Kyoto Accord, President Bush says he much prefers the Camry.”

“According to ‘Variety,’ Disney is now working on a prequel to ‘Peter Pan.’ In this story Peter tries to recover a trunk full of magical stuff before it falls into the hands of the Santa Barbara District Attorney.”

“The NBA All Star Game was yesterday and L.A. fans got a chance to root for their favorite Laker. The bad news it’s still Shaq.”

— Jay Leno

“Have you seen the big Gates exhibit in Central Park? Everyone is going crazy about it. The most commonly heard phrase heard about the Gates is, ‘Thank God that was free.'”

— David Letterman

The Father of Our Country

To describe George Washington as enigmatic may strike some as strange, for every young student knows about him (or did when students could be counted on to know anything). He was born into a minor family in Virginia’s plantation gentry, worked as a surveyor in the West as a young man, was a hero of sorts during the French and Indian War, became an extremely wealthy planter (after marrying a rich widow), served as commander in chief of the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War (including the terrible winter at Valley Forge), defeated the British at the Battle of Yorktown, suppressed a threatened mutiny by his officers at Newburgh, N.Y., then astonished the world and won its applause by laying down his sword in 1783. Called out of retirement, he presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787, reluctantly accepted the presidency in 1789 and served for two terms, thus assuring the success of the American experiment in self-government.
…

Washington was, after all, a magnificent physical specimen. He towered several inches over six feet, had broad shoulders and slender hips (in a nation consisting mainly of short, fat people), was powerful and a superb athlete. He carried himself with a dignity that astonished; when she first laid eyes on him Abigail Adams, a veteran of receptions at royal courts and a difficult woman to impress, gushed like a schoolgirl. On horseback he rode with a presence that declared him the commander in chief even if he had not been in uniform.

Other characteristics smack of the supernatural. He was impervious to gunfire. Repeatedly, he was caught in cross-fires and yet no bullet ever touched him. In a 1754 letter to his brother he wrote that “I heard Bullets whistle and believe me there was something charming in the Sound.” During the Revolutionary War he had horses shot from under him but it seemed that no bullet dared strike him personally. Moreover, when the Continental Army was ravaged by a smallpox epidemic, Washington, having had the disease as a youngster, proved to be as immune to it as he was to bullets.

— Forrest McDonald in his review of Joseph J. Ellis’ His Excellency: George Washington.

George Washington’s birthday

George Washington was born on February 11, 1731, according to the Julian calendar. In 1752 Britain and her colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar, the calendar we use today. The change added 11 days and designated January rather than March as the beginning of the year. As a result, Washington’s birthday became February 22, 1732.

It’s the birthday

… of Don Pardo. The original “Jeopardy!” and “Saturday Night Live” announcer is 87.

… of Senator Edward Kennedy. He’s 73.

… of Julius Erving. Dr. J is 55.

… of Steve Irwin. The Crocodile Hunter is 43.

… of Vijay Singh. He’s 42.

The Miracle

The U.S. defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in Olympic hockey 25 years ago today. Here’s the lead from The New York Times:

In one of the most startling and dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog United States hockey team, composed in great part of collegians, defeated the defending champion Soviet squad by 4-3 tonight.

The victory brought a congratulatory phone call to the dressing room from President Carter and set off fireworks over this tiny Adirondack village. The triumph also put the Americans in a commanding position to take the gold medal in the XIII Olympic Winter Games, which will end Sunday.

Howard Hughes

The Historical Society of Southern California has an informative biography of Howard Hughes, which begins with the following:

The peaks and valleys of his life were startling. As an aviator, he once held every speed record of consequence and was hailed as the world’s greatest flyer, “a second Lindbergh.” At various points in his life he owned an international airline, two regional airlines, an aircraft company, a major motion picture studio, mining properties, a tool company, gambling casinos and hotels in Las Vegas, a medical research institute, and a vast amount of real estate; he had built and flown the world’s largest airplane; he had produced and directed “Hell’s Angels,” a Hollywood film classic.

Yet by the time he died in 1976, under circumstances that can only be described as bizarre, he had become a mentally ill recluse, wasted in body, incoherent in thought, alone in the world except for his doctors and bodyguards. He had squandered millions and brought famous companies to the financial brink. For much of his life, he seemed larger than life, but his end could not have been sadder.

The Aviator

Well, that changes everything.

NewMexiKen saw The Aviator this evening and must admit that Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of Howard Hughes was first rate. More was demanded in this role than in Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of Ray Charles, superb as that was. Not every note was perfect, but overall I’d say DiCaprio played a more complex piece.

Overall, The Aviator was excellent; much more the “major motion picture” than Million Dollar Baby or Ray, great as both are. Cate Blanchett deserved her Oscar nomination for playing Katharine Hepburn and Alan Alda his for the venal Senator Brewster, though in a relatively minor role (contrast with Jamie Foxx in Collateral).

Still need to see Sideways, Finding Neverland and Hotel Rwanda by Sunday evening.

Best line of the day, so far

“Same thing with household fixtures, appliances, pipes and other things that break, or begin to leak, or show signs of being at the end of their days. You could spend a lot of money bringing in a pricey professional to fix them, and you could also try to fix them yourself. But sometimes you just have to do nothing, and hope that these things somehow manage to heal.”

Joel Achenbach echoing NewMexiKen’s philosophy exactly.

Hunter S. Thompson

Joel Achenbach writes about Hunter Thompson, including this:

For all of Thompson’s theatrics and self-abuse, he could write like a demon. His prose accelerated across the page like a sportscar with the top down. He kept himself squarely in the picture, to great comic effect. We understood that he needed drugs the way other people needed oxygen, that he had an odd fondness for guns and violence, and that he loathed Richard Nixon and most authoritarian institutions. Otherwise, he wasn’t very complicated. He didn’t gum up his narrative with soul-searching. He really served as a big eyeball, if perhaps a rather glazed one.

Kiss the court

Greg Hansen writes about Salim Stoudamire’s last game at the McKale Center (Arizona’s home arena). The senior had nine threes and finished with 31 points in under 30 minutes.

If he had one regret about Sunday’s game it’s that he didn’t time his exit to stoop down and “kiss the court” as he was removed from the game.

Already a favorite, that move, had he made it, would have brought down the house.

I’m shocked, just shocked

“I got the impression [real estate agents] weren’t working solely in their clients’ best interest.”

From The New York Times:

But a recent study by two University of Chicago economists suggests that home sellers should regard agents with some caution. The study does not suggest that agents are inherently untrustworthy. Rather, it says, the housing market remains inefficient, and the incentives for agents to maximize profits for their clients aren’t powerful enough. …

Professor Levitt had fixed up and sold several houses in Oak Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. When working with real estate agents, he said, “I got the impression they weren’t working solely in their clients’ best interest.”

Along with a colleague, Chad Syverson, Professor Levitt set out to prove it by comparing data on homes that agents sold on behalf of others with those that they owned and sold for themselves. They analyzed sales from 1992 to 2002 of 98,000 homes in suburban Chicago, of which 3,300 were owned by real estate agents. When the economists constructed an analysis that controlled for amenities, location and the adjectives used to describe the houses, they found that agent-owned homes, on average, stayed on the market 9.5 days longer and commanded median prices that were 3.7 percent higher than comparable homes owned by clients.

Potty mouth

From Sideline Chatter:

It won’t make anybody forget George Carlin’s “seven words you can’t say on television,” but Tiger Woods certainly gave it a try in his TV debut at age 2.

And all because, 27 years ago, Earl Woods somehow talked Jim Hill of Los Angeles’ KCBS-TV into doing a profile of his toddling golf prodigy.

“After shooting some footage of Woods hitting balls and rolling in a series of amazingly lengthy putts,” wrote Steve Elling of the Orlando Sentinel, “Hill’s crew propped Tiger on his dad’s knee and did everything possible to get him to speak.

“Hill said he practically pleaded with Woods to utter something. Anything. Please.

“Finally, Tiger turned his head, let out an audible sigh and said, ‘I have to go poo-poo.’ ”

The outtake never aired, but Hill saved it and showed it to Woods last year.

More Africans Enter U.S. Than in Days of Slavery

From The New York Times:

Since 1990, according to immigration figures, more [Africans] have arrived voluntarily than the total who disembarked in chains before the United States outlawed international slave trafficking in 1807. More have been coming here annually – about 50,000 legal immigrants – than in any of the peak years of the middle passage across the Atlantic, and more have migrated here from Africa since 1990 than in nearly the entire preceding two centuries.

Carpet update

The carpet installation was completed yesterday, 11 days after is began. It looks good.

The ceiling still leaks. Probably not the fault of the roof, but rather rain water seeping through cracks in the stucco and working its way across the ceiling. Sigh!

It’s already nearly the wettest January-February in Albuquerque history, with a week to go in the month. The forecast for this week is rain and snow resuming tomorrow.

It’s the birthday

… of Blanche Elizabeth Hollingsworth Devereaux. Rue McClanahan is 70 today.

… of Mary Beth Lacey. Tyne Daly is 59.

… of Patricia Nixon Cox. The former first daughter is 59.

… of Frasier Crane. Kelsey Grammer is 50 today.

… of Mary Chapin Carpenter. Celebrating, one hopes, at the Twist and Shout, she’s 47 today.

… of Charlotte Church. She’s 19. Hasn’t she been one of the PBS fund drive specials for about 20 years?

By George, IT IS Washington’s Birthday!

By historian C. L. Arbelbide in the quarterly publication of the National Archives, Prologue, an article on the history of the Washington’s Birthday holiday. The article corrects some of the Internet folklore about the holiday (including that posted here last year). A few excerpts:

In the late 1870s, Senator Steven Wallace Dorsey (R-Arkansas) proposed the unprecedented idea of adding “citizen” Washington’s birth date, February 22, to the four existing bank holidays previously approved in 1870.

Originally federal worker absenteeism had forced Congress to take a cue from surrounding states and formally declare New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day as federal holidays in the District of Columbia.

The idea of adding Washington’s Birthday to the federal holiday list simply made official an unofficial celebration in existence long before Washington’s death. A popular proposal, the holiday bill required little debate. Signed into law January 31, 1879, by President Rutherford B. Hayes, the law was implemented in 1880 and applied only to District federal workers. In 1885 the holiday was extended to federal workers in the thirty-eight states.

*****

Although storm clouds were gathering around the idea of shifting Veterans Day from one month to another, it was the proposal to shift the Washington’s Birthday federal holiday from February 22 to the third Monday in February that caused both a congressional and public outcry. That Washington’s identity would be lost forced McClory to insist, “We are not changing George Washington’s birthday” and further note, “We would make George Washington’s Birthday more meaningful to many more people by having it observed on a Monday.”

Opponents were not convinced. It had been McClory—a representative from “the land of Lincoln”—who had attempted in committee to rename “Washington’s Birthday” as “President’s Day.” The bill stalled. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 27 [1968]: “To win more support, Mr. McClory and his allies dropped the earlier goal of renaming Washington’s Birthday [as] Presidents’ Day, [which] mollified some Virginia lawmakers. He also agreed to sweeten the package by including Columbus Day as a Federal holiday, a goal sought for years by Italian-American groups.”

*****

Had the name of the holiday been changed to Presidents’ Day, McClory would have gained instant federal holiday recognition for Illinois native son Abraham Lincoln. With the name change no longer a possibility, McClory positioned the federal holiday on the third Monday in February—a date closer to Lincoln’s February 12 birth date, knowing the dual presidential birthday spotlight could be shared by Lincoln.

McClory went so far as to suggest a direct link between the February 22 birth date and the third Monday existed: “Indeed, his [Washington’s] birthday will be celebrated frequently on February 22, which in many cases will be the third Monday in February. It will also be celebrated on February 23, just as it is at the present time when February 22 falls on the Sunday preceding.”

Virginia representatives Richard Harding Poff and William Lloyd Scott—believing that removing the direct date removed the heritage the date represented—countered the inaccurate information. Poff declared, “Now what that really means is never again will the birthday of the Father of our Country be observed on February 22 because the third Monday will always fall between the 15th of February and the 21st of February.” Poff proposed an amendment to retain the February 22 date. …

Knowing that future generations were caretakers of the past, Dan Heflin Kuykendall (R-Tennessee) cut to the heart of the matter. “If we do this, 10 years from now our schoolchildren will not know or care when George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of February they will have a 3-day weekend for some reason. This will come.”

*****

Then there was the response by state governments. While Congress could create a uniform federal holiday law, there would not be a uniform holiday title agreement among the states. While a majority of states with individual holidays honoring Washington and Lincoln shifted their state recognition date of Washington’s Birthday to correspond to the third Monday in February, a few states chose not to retain the federal holiday title, including Texas, which by 1971 renamed their state holiday “President’s Day.”

Crossing state borders on Washington’s Birthday could lead to holiday title confusion. Then came the power of advertising.

For advertisers, the Monday holiday change was the goose that laid the golden “promotional” egg. Using Labor Day marketing as a guide, three-day weekend sales were expanded to include the new Monday holidays. Once the “Uniform Monday Holiday Law” was implemented, it took just under a decade to build a head of national promotional sales steam.

Local advertisers morphed both “Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday” and “George Washington’s Birthday” into the sales sound bite “President’s Day,” expanding the traditional three-day sales to begin before Lincoln’s birth date and end after Washington’s February 22 birth.

Sidney Poitier …

is 78 today.

American Masters from PBS sums it up nicely:

More than an actor (and Academy-Award winner), Sidney Poitier is an artist. A writer and director, a thinker and critic, a humanitarian and diplomat, his presence as a cultural icon has long been one of protest and humanity. His career defined and documented the modern history of blacks in American film, and his depiction of proud and powerful characters was and remains revolutionary.

Lilies of the Field — with Poitier’s Oscar winning performance — has been one of NewMexiKen’s favorites since it was released more than 40 years ago. If you don’t know the film, you should.

Days of Wine and Roses

Is Miles an alcoholic? “Is a Wine-Soaked Film [Sideways] Too, Er, Rosé?” An article in The New York Times addresses the subject.

Stephan Gonzalez, coordinator at an adult treatment program of the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in Santa Barbara, Calif., said Miles reminded him of some of the council’s clients. He said Miles’s stealing from his mother, drinking while driving and going on binges shows a lack of control that makes him, if not an outright addict, an alcohol abuser, “all under the wonderful guise of sophisticated social drinking.”

What’s an alcoholic?

Alcoholism is generally characterized by compulsive drinking, preoccupation with drinking and tolerance for alcohol. “What makes people an alcoholic is not how often they drink or how much,” Mr. Schwarzlose [of the Betty Ford Clinic] added. “What makes somebody an alcoholic is repeated use despite the consequences. The alcoholic will keep drinking anyway because he’s addicted.”