And got out of stocks two weeks ago.
The S&P 500 — which tracks 500 stocks rather than just 30 like the Dow — was down 80 points today, its 4th worse point loss ever and its 10th worse percentage loss (-6.65%).
The S&P 500 has lost 16.2% in two weeks.
95º 6% humidity at 1:30.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4hfdaC7eL4
“Carnage in stock markets as I write — and all of the headlines I see attribute it to S&P’s downgrade.
“They really are trying to make my head explode, aren’t they?
“Once again: S&P declared that US debt is no longer a safe investment; yet investors are piling into US debt, not out of it, driving the 10-year interest rate below 2.4%. This amounts to a massive market rejection of S&P’s concerns.”
To the point, money is coming out of the stock market and being invested in U.S. debt, still considered by actual investors the safest investment in the world.
A mother bear and her cub crashed a Taos wedding.
And she caught the bride’s garter.
A Utah County woman has sued her former employer, claiming she was sexually harassed at work, where she at one point received a suggestive Monday-through-Friday “schedule” outlining what she should wear.
The schedule given to 44-year-old Trudy Nycole Anderson included “Mini-skirt Monday,” “Tube-top Tuesday,” “Wet T-shirt Wednesday,” “No bra Thursday” and “Bikini top Friday,” according to a civil complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court against Derek Wright, the owner of Pleasant Grove-based Lone Peak Controls and D& L Electric Control Company.
Anderson worked as an office manager starting in September 2007, and Wright was her supervisor.
My question, a rhetorical one I suppose, is why did it take her four years to sue the ass?
Today is the birthday
… of Esther Williams, 90. When the national AAU 100 meter freestyle champion found out the 1940 Olympics were cancelled because of the war, she went to Hollywood.
… of The Shark, Jerry Tarkanian. The coach is 81 today.
… of Dustin Hoffman, 74 today. Hoffman has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role seven times, winning for Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man. Dustin Lee Hoffman is his actual name.
… of Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingoglia, known as Connie Stevens. She’s 73 today.
… of John Renbourn, 67.
… of Larry Wilcox, 64 today. That’s CHiPs officer Jon Baker.
… of Ralph Malph of Happy Days. Don Most is 58.
… of The Edge, 50 today. His given name is David Howell Evans.
… of Roger Federer, 30.
… of the magnificently endowed John Holmes, born 67 years ago today. He died in 1988.
… of Randy Shilts, author of And the Band Played On, a history of the early years of AIDS, born 60 years ago today. He died in 1994.
… of Marjorie Rawlings, born on this date in 1896. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Yearling.
… of Emiliano Zapata, born on this date in 1879. “There have been men who, dying, have become stronger. I can think of many of them — Benito Juárez, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ — Perhaps it might be that way with me.”
Arthur J. Goldberg was born on this date in 1908. Goldberg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Kennedy in 1962. He subsequently made one of the great sacrifices for his country:
Three years after Goldberg took his seat on the Supreme Court, President Lyndon Johnson asked him to step down and accept an appointment as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. At first, Goldberg declined the offer, but after much prodding by Johnson, he finally accepted. Goldberg’s change of mind was prompted by his sense of duty to the country during the war in Vietnam. He said, “I thought I could persuade Johnson that we were fighting the wrong war in the wrong place, [and] to get out…. I would have loved to have stayed on the Court, but my sense of priorities was [that] this war would be disastrous” (Stebenne, 348). On July 26, 1965, Goldberg assumed the responsibilities of Ambassador to the UN.
The ambassadorship proved frustrating for Goldberg, involving many confrontations with Johnson concerning the war in Vietnam. Goldberg came to believe that he could affect American foreign policy better as a private citizen than through a governmental position, and on April 23, 1968, he resigned from the ambassadorship. He returned to the practice of law in New York City from 1968 to 1971 with the firm of Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, Wharton, & Garrison.
[Source: The Supreme Court Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg, Northwestern University School of Law]
Goldberg died in 1990. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery near his friend, Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Academy Award winning actress Patricia Neal died a year ago today.
Click to hear a sound bite from this date in history, August 8th. [33k WAV file]
“Greenspan shared his wisdom on Face the Nation yesterday. His wise words were presented in the top of the hour news segment on Morning Edition.
“Greenspan is best known for being unable to see the $8 trillion housing bubble, the collapse of which wrecked the economy. Given Greenspan’s obviously limited understanding of economics, one wonders if Face the Nation and NPR were unable to find a street drunk to share their views.”
“No, S&P was flat-out wrong — no caveats. They are, to put it very bluntly, idiots, and they deserve every bit of opprobrium coming their way. They were embarrassingly wrong on the basic budget numbers, as everyone knows now, so they were forced to remove that section from their report, and change their rationale for the downgrade. (Always a sign that you’re dealing with hacks.)”
He goes on, including this: “Naturally, before meeting with a rating agency, we would plan out our arguments — you want to make sure you’re making your strongest arguments, that everyone is on the same page about the deal’s positive attributes, etc. With S&P, it got to the point where we were constantly saying, ‘that’s a good point, but is S&P smart enough to understand that argument?'”
“[Adam] Scott closed with a 5-under 65 and brought smiles to his caddie, Steve Williams, whom Tiger Woods fired last month after 12 years. Williams had been with Woods for 16 world titles, including seven at Firestone.”
It was Scott’s first World Title. Williams, the caddy, now has 17.
What Happened to Obama’s Passion?
This came to my attention this morning from several sources. Highly recommended.
… of Nathanael Greene, born on this date in 1742. Greene was a major general in the American army during the Revolutionary War and was the primary architect of American success in the south.
… of Billie Burke, known to most of us as Glinda the Good Witch of the North, born on August 7th in 1884. Ms. Burke was nominated for an Academy Award in 1938 for her performance in Merrily We Live. Earlier she had been a musical star on Broadway and was married to Florenz Ziegfeld 1914-1932 (his death). That’s her in the photo.
… of archaeologist Louis Leakey, born August 7, 1903. Leakey was instrumental in research on human evolutionary development in Africa.
… of Ralph Bunche, born on this date in 1904.
Like his world, Dr. Bunche was a man of many faces and talents, full of paradox and struggle. By training and temperament, he was an ideal international civil servant, a black man of learning and experience open to men and ideas of all shades.
At the United Nations, he had been a key diplomat for more than two decades since his triumphal success in negotiating the difficult 1949 armistice between the new state of Israel and the Arab states.
As the architect of the Palestine accord, he won the Nobel Peace Prize of 1950.
The New York Times obituary for Bunche, 1971
… of comedian, satirist, voice actor, and maker of some of the great commercials, Stan Freberg, 85 today. His satirical version of Dragnet still resonates with anyone who ever watched that cop show.
… of the Amazing Randi, 83 today. James Randi, born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, retired as a magician at age 60. Since he has investigated claims of the paranormal and supernatural — what he calls “woo-woo.”
The James Randi Educational Foundation was founded in 1996 to help people defend themselves from paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. The JREF offers a still-unclaimed million-dollar reward for anyone who can produce evidence of paranormal abilities under controlled conditions. Through scholarships, workshops, and innovative resources for educators, the JREF works to inspire this investigative spirit in a new generation of critical thinkers.
We need your help to create a world where everyone has access to the tools of science and critical thinking, and charlatans can’t get rich by deceiving people. You can make a difference by becoming a member, taking action with us to stop paranormal and pseudoscientific frauds, or joining us at the Amaz!ng Meeting, the world’s premier gathering of skeptical thinkers.
… of Don Larsen, only pitcher to throw a perfect game (or no-hitter) in the World Series (1956), 82 today.
… of Gary Edward “Garrison” Keillor, born in Anoka (not Lake Wobegon), Minnesota, 69 years ago today.
… of Steve Martin, born in Waco, Texas (but grew up near Disneyland), 66 years ago today.
… of Newman. Actor Wayne Knight is 56 today. He was also the bad guy computer programmer in Jurassic Park.
… of Oscar winner, for Monster, Charlize Theron, born in South Africa, 36 years ago today.
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born 48 years ago today to the President and Mrs. Kennedy. The child died two days later.
Caring for Your Introvert by Jonathan Rauch.
[First posted by NewMexiKen eight years ago today.]
… was authorized 50 years ago today.
Cape Cod National Seashore comprises 43,604 acres of shoreline and upland landscape features, including a forty-mile long stretch of pristine sandy beach, dozens of clear, deep, freshwater kettle ponds, and upland scenes that depict evidence of how people have used the land. A variety of historic structures are within the boundary of the Seashore, including lighthouses, a lifesaving station, and numerous Cape Cod style houses. The Seashore offers six swimming beaches, eleven self-guiding nature trails, and a variety of picnic areas and scenic overlooks.
Source: Cape Code National Seashore
Today is the 66th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan. The radius of total destruction was about one mile; the radius of fires was about 4.4 miles. 70,000-80,000 people, or about a third of population, were killed instantly. About twice that many or more eventually died from the effects.
The best single work you can read about Hiroshima is John Hersey’s Hiroshima
Though Collier’s Weekly had previously published an account of the bombing, the editors of the New Yorker recognized the impact that the article would have by providing a human face to the victims, and devoted the entire August 31, 1946 edition to it. Although the four chapters were intended for serialization in four consecutive issues of the magazine, the editors decided to devote one entire issue only to it. There were no other articles and none of the magazine’s signature cartoons. Readers, who had never before been exposed to the horrors of nuclear war from the perspective of the actual people who lived through it, were quick to pick up copies, and the edition sold out within just a few hours. The article was read in its entirety over the radio and discussed by newspapers. Shortly after it appeared, the Book-of-the-Month Club printed it as a book and distributed it free of charge to all of its members. Only in Japan was the distribution of the book discouraged by the American Occupation Government.
The opening sentence:
“At, exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her head to speak to the girl at the next desk.”
Modern editions of the book include a chapter, “The Aftermath,” written 40 years later. Hersey’s report, is perhaps, the best piece of wartime journalism ever.
Hersey had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for his novel, A Bell of Adano. He was that kind of writer.
“On August 6, 1991, [Tim Berners-Lee] posted a short summary of the World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. This date also marked the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet.”
Just watched a couple of Lucy clips via Google and remembered how incredibly funny she could be. So, a little more about Lucille Ball on her 100th birthday.
This from American Masters (the beginning of their brief biography):
For more than thirty years, Lucille Ball was one of the most recognized and loved entertainers in the world. Known to all simply as Lucy, she portrayed a scatterbrained housewife with the ability to turn simple chores into unparalleled fiascoes. Clumsy and unsophisticated at nearly everything she tried (and she tried nearly everything), the television Lucy won the hearts of average Americans across all social and cultural lines with her wacky schemes. Ironically, it was Ball’s wide range of experience and talents that made her such a success in this role.
Dropping out of high school at the age of fifteen, Ball moved to New York to study acting and found her first stage work as a chorus girl in 1927. She had her first break as a poster-girl for Chesterfield cigarettes and soon found herself in tinsel town as one of twelve slave-girls in the Eddie Cantor film, Roman Candles (1933). By the mid-1930s, if you went to the movies (and in the 1930s everyone went to the movies) you would be certain to see Lucille Ball. Sometimes a nurse or a dancer, sometimes a flower clerk or a college girl, but always there. By the end of the decade she had been in forty-three films and was known as “Queen of the B Movies.”
Click the channel change knob (wow, how long since we’ve had those?) for various clips.
America does have a long-run fiscal problem, driven by the combination of rising health costs, an aging population, and the unwillingness to raise taxes to pay for the programs we already have. If we don’t come to grips with that problem, bad things will happen. But what happens to the deficit in the medium term is almost irrelevant to the question of whether our long-run finances will get under control.
Yet S&P (and others) obsess about those medium-term numbers, without ever explaining why. Maybe they think there’s some critical level of debt — but they don’t know that. Maybe they think that fiscal austerity over the next decade will somehow guarantee good behavior further out — but that didn’t work in the 1990s. Or maybe they’re just pulling stuff out of regions I can’t mention in the Times.
Paul Krugman, who has been remarkably prescient for several years now, from a blog item, The Arithmetic of Near-term Deficits and Debt.
Lucille Ball was born 100 years ago today. It has been said that Ms. Ball’s image has been seen more times by more people than that of any other person in history.
Miss Ball, noted for impeccable timing, deft pantomime and an endearing talent for making the outrageous believable, was a Hollywood legend: a contract player at RKO in the 1930’s and 40’s who later bought the studio with Desi Arnaz, her first husband.
. . .The elastic-faced, husky-voiced comedian was a national institution from 1951 to 1974 in three series and many specials on television that centered on her “Lucy” character. The first series, “I Love Lucy,” was for six years the most successful comedy series on television, never ranking lower than third. The series, on CBS, chronicled the life of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban band leader played by Mr. Arnaz, who was Miss Ball’s husband on and off screen for nearly 20 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiCwDBJB5Y0
Cavett interview was in 1974.
A year or so ago I saw an early Three Stooges film with Lucille Ball in a bit part.
If Lucy isn’t enough for a holiday, how about Andy Warhol? He was born Andrew Warhola on this date 83 years ago.
His father was a Czechoslovakian immigrant and a coal miner. His mother was extremely protective, and she let him spend all his time as a child drawing copies of Maybelline advertisements.
He got a job as an advertising illustrator in New York City in the 1950s, but he wanted to be a serious artist. One day, he got the idea to start painting pictures of advertisements, movie stars, and other popular images. He made silk-screened pictures of Campbell’s soup cans and sculptures of Brillo boxes, and his style became known as Pop Art.
Though he was surrounded by hard-partying rock stars and artists, he lived with his mother, and he went to a Catholic church almost every Sunday. His friends said that he never took drugs and only drank occasionally.
Or maybe one of America’s foremost historians, Richard Hofstadter, born on this date in 1916. Sam Tanenhaus, writing five years ago in a review of a Hofstadter biography:
At his death in 1970, Richard Hofstadter was probably this country’s most renowned historian, best known as the originator of the “consensus” school, whose measured siftings of the American past de-emphasized conflict — whether economic, regional or ideological — and highlighted instead the nation’s long tradition of shared ideas, principles and values.
This school had a limited shelf life, but Hofstadter’s work has outlived it, owing to the clarity and nuance of his thought and his talent for drawing parallels between disparate episodes in our national narrative, almost always bringing the argument around to the concerns of midcentury America. “I know it is risky,” he acknowledged in 1960, “but I still write history out of my engagement with the present.” The gamble, of course, was whether questions so pressing in his time would continue to engage later generations. To a remarkable extent they have, and so Hofstadter remains relevant — in some respects more relevant than ever.
Record producer Norman Granz was born on August 6, 1918. Granz was a fundamental figure in Jazz from after WWII to 1960. He was progressive on matters of race and paid his artists more than most. Granz’s most famous label was Verve, now part of Universal.
Peter Bonerz, Bob Newhart’s dentist buddy, is 73.
“The Admiral,” David Robinson is 46 today. M. Night Shyamalan is 41. Academy Award nominee (for Up in the Air) Vera Farmiga is 38. She’s a Jersey girl.
This repeat post is from just two years ago today, but this stuff fascinates me. Maybe some of you missed it the first time. Read the profile.
The playwright David Mamet and the theatre director Gregory Mosher affirm that some years ago, late one night in the bar of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago, this happened:
Ricky Jay, who is perhaps the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist alive, was performing magic with a deck of cards. Also present was a friend of Mamet and Mosher’s named Christ Nogulich, the director of food and beverage at the hotel. After twenty minutes of disbelief-suspending manipulations, Jay spread the deck face up on the bar counter and asked Nogulich to concentrate on a specific card but not to reveal it. Jay then assembled the deck face down, shuffled, cut it into two piles, and asked Nogulich to point to one of the piles and name his card.
“Three of clubs,” Nogulich said, and he was then instructed to turn over the top card.
He turned over the three of clubs.
Mosher, in what could be interpreted as a passive-aggressive act, quietly announced, “Ricky, you know, I also concentrated on a card.”
After an interval of silence, Jay said, “That’s interesting, Gregory, but I only do this for one person at a time.”
Mosher persisted: “Well, Ricky, I really was thinking of a card.”
Jay paused, frowned, stared at Mosher, and said, “This is a distinct change of procedure.” A longer pause. “All right—what was the card?”
“Two of spades.”
Jay nodded, and gestured toward the other pile, and Mosher turned over its top card.
The deuce of spades.
A small riot ensued.
From the beginning of a Mark Singer profile of Ricky Jay in The New Yorker (1993).
The next trick described is even more fantastic. If you ever play cards (especially if you play for stakes), you should read at least the first part of this lengthy piece.
Ricky Jay portrayed the character Eddie Sawyer in Deadwood.
The Sweeties Alex and Kiley, with their mom and dad, Emily and Rob, and the Pacific Ocean at San Diego at 6:45 PDT this evening.
