Should have flossed

From The Week Newsletter:

Good Week For…
Dumb luck, after a Colorado man complaining of a persistent toothache went to his dentist for an X-ray. The dentist found a 4-inch nail imbedded in the man’s skull, fired there the week before in an accident with a nail gun.

Bad Week For…
Survivors, after Richard Hatch, who became famous as the winner of the first season of Survivor, was charged with tax evasion for failing to report his $1 million prize.

Not a Brad Pitt fan

From a series of interviews with video store clerks in The Albuquerque Tribune:

Now, if the choice is root canal or Brad Pitt Film Festival, then I’ve got to go with the root canal. In every freakin’ movie, he’s just atrocious. Have you noticed that in every single movie, he uses three fingers to point at things? Every single one. ‘Troy,’ ‘Fight Club,’ whatever, he uses three fingers to point. What’s up with that?”

Help!?

Does $4 a square foot (for carpet, pad, installation, moving furniture and removing old carpet) sound like a good value?

Update: Apparently so, for good quality. I’ll let you know once it’s installed.

Another extraordinary film

Maria Full of Grace, starring Catalina Sandino Moreno in the title role, is a moving, dramatic film.

A Colombian, Maria swallows pellets of drugs to bring them to New York. She is, in drug parlance, a mule. She does this simply enough for money — and to escape a loser boyfriend (the father of her unborn child), a demanding mother, an irritating sister and a degrading job.

Maria Full of Grace is almost documentary in style. But it is Maria’s story, not the story of drugs or the drug cartel that is documented. And it is Maria’s story that you should see.

The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Five ristras on NewMexiKen’s scale of one-to-five (five being best).

(In the beginning of the film Maria works at a flower plantation trimming the torns from roses. I’d never thought about it before, but I guess the florist doesn’t just snip them out back in his little green house anymore.)

Carmen San Diego in Albuquerque

The Christmas package is on a truck for delivery. I’m so excited and I’ve put my Christmas decorations back up.

Update: The package arrived this afternoon. FYI It is a wonderful framed, panoramic photograph of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta during inflation and mass ascension. A true delight. And well-traveled.

Inauguration Day

Today’s is the 55th presidential inauguration.

The 20th Amendment to the Constitution states that the “terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January.” The Amendment was ratified in 1933 — the first inauguration on the new date was January 20, 1937.

Before the 20th Amendment, the Constitution did not provide the date when the terms began and ended. The terms of the first President and Vice President were fixed by an act of the Continental Congress adopted September 13, 1788. That act called for “the first Wednesday in March next to be the time for commencing proceedings under the Constitution.” It happened that the first Wednesday in March was the 4th day of March, and hence the terms of the President and Vice President and Members of Congress began on March 4, 1789. (Washington did not take the oath of office until April 30, 1789, but technically his term began March 4th.)

The Constitution set the terms of the President and Vice President at four years. Any change from March 4th then required an Amendment because a date change would mean that the incumbents would not serve exactly four years. Indeed, Franklin Roosevelt’s and John Nance Garner’s first terms were 43 days less than four years — March 4, 1933 – January 20, 1937.

Oops!

According to the Kitsap Sun, a 22-year-old man from Vancouver held up a local gas station at knifepoint last week. The unnamed robber then sped off in a red Honda, leading police from four towns on a wild 100-mph chase. Thanks to the winding back roads of the area, the robber managed to lose his pursuers. Unfortunately, he became lost on the rural roads and had to pull into a gas station to ask for directions to nearby Seattle. Even more unfortunately, he had gone in circles and ended up at the exact same gas station he had just robbed.

Reported by the Albuquerque Alibi.

Maybe they should recruit a few language and history students to help with the name

From The Albuquerque Tribune:

High Tech High Albuquerque is the new name of the charter school Mayor Martin Chavez sponsored.

The Albuquerque Board of Education is scheduled to approve the name today.

The tech school – originally called MAST High – is planning to open on schedule in August with 90 ninth-graders, Principal Robin Troup said. MAST is an acronym for math, science and technology.

High Tech High. Other secondary schools in Albuquerque include El Dorado, Manzano, Sandia, Cibola, La Cueva, Rio Grande.

Acadia National Park …

was established on this date in 1929. From the National Park Service:

Acadia.jpg

Located on the rugged coast of Maine, Acadia National Park encompasses over 47,000 acres of granite-domed mountains, woodlands, lakes and ponds, and ocean shoreline. Such diverse habitats create striking scenery and make the park a haven for wildlife and plants.

Entwined with the natural diversity of Acadia is the story of people. Evidence suggests native people first lived here at least 5,000 years ago. Subsequent centuries brought explorers from far lands, settlers of European descent, and, arising directly from the beauty of the landscape, tourism and preservation.

Security blanket

Snow Causes Traffic Problems Across Region (washingtonpost.com):

The weather, in a city that quakes at flakes, also threatened to further complicate the coming and going of traffic in a downtown already locked down for the most secure inauguration — perhaps the most secure anything — in the history of the nation’s capital.

More than 100 square blocks of Washington will be closed for the inauguration, some starting this afternoon.

Fine film

NewMexiKen watched the film Before Sunset this afternoon and recommends it highly. (There are, however, no shootings, crucifixions or car chases.)

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy played a young couple during a brief romantic encounter in Vienna in the 1995 film Before Sunrise, a warm telling of boy-meets-girl. (I haven’t seen that film.) This is the sequel — they meet again in Paris, now in their early 30s. The film, shot as if in real time, is essentially their conversation over about 75 minutes as they walk through Paris (they also have coffee, take a boat ride, ride in a car). The dialogue is simply superb as they analyze love and life.

Five ristras on the NewMexiKen scale (five being the best).