2003 National Book Critics Award Nominees

National Book Critics Circle chooses award nominees:

Fiction
Monica Ali, Brick Lane
Edward P. Jones, The Known World
Caryl Phillips, A Distant Shore
Richard Powers, The Time of Our Singing
Tobias Wolff, Old School

General Nonfiction
Carolyn Alexander, The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
Anne Applebaum, Gulag
Paul Hendrickson, Sons of Mississippi
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx
William T. Vollmann, Rising Up and Rising Down

Biography/Autobiography
Blake Bailey, A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates
Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage
George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards
Carol Loeb Shloss, Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake
William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era

Poetry
Carolyn Forche, Blue Hour
Tony Hoagland, What Narcissism Means To Me
Venus Khoury-Ghata, She Says
Susan Stewart, Columbarium
Mary Szybist, Granted

Criticism
Dagoberto Gilb, Gritos
Nick Hornby, Songbook
Ross King, Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling
Rebecca Solnit, River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others

Wacky Warning Labels

The Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch Seventh Annual Wacky Warning Label Contest:

A five-inch fishing lure which sports three steel hooks and cautions users that it is, “Harmful if swallowed,” has been identified as one of the nation’s wackiest warning labels in an annual contest sponsored by a consumer watchdog group….

The $500 grand prize for the wackiest label was awarded to Robert Brocone of Euclid, Ohio for a warning he found on a bottle of drain cleaner which says: “If you do not understand, or cannot read, all directions, cautions and warnings, do not use this product.”

Phenoms

Tony Kornhiser on LeBron, Freddy and Michelle.

And in that vein let me digress to speak of the trio of sports prodigies who stand in front of us: Michelle Wie, Freddy Adu and LeBron James. The three of them may have unprecedented talent. As a sportswriter for nearly 35 years I can only think of a few phenoms I’d put in their class: Tiger Woods, Chris Evert, Wayne Gretzky, Jim Ryun, maybe Dwight Gooden, who was electrifying at 19; if we look worldwide I’d include Pele, Boris Becker, Nadia Comaneci.

Part of the fun of sports is ranking people arbitrarily, so here goes: LeBron James is even better than advertised. Of all the high school kids who’ve come into the league since Kevin Garnett, James is the only one who actually looks to make his teammates better. At 19, James might be one of the NBA’s 10 best players already. But at 19 James isn’t that much younger than Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson were when you’d have said the same about them. At 14, Freddy Adu appears to be the Mozart of American soccer (by way of Ghana, of course). But Adu has yet to compete against men. Adu’s big “Wow Factor” came in under-17 competition. For him to do what Michelle Wie did, he’d have to score goals in the World Cup in 2006, when he’s 16.

What Wie did is astonishing, going to the tips and shooting 68 in a PGA tournament against an array of the best golfers in the world. It would be astonishing if a 14-year-old boy had gone to the tips and shot two-under in a PGA tournament. It’s more astonishing that a girl did it. Wie was even-par after two rounds, same as Jim Furyk and Ben Curtis, who last year won a couple of little things I like to call the U.S. Open and British Open. This is like a Little Leaguer getting Nomar and Manny to ground out. Well, no, it’s not like that. I don’t know what it’s like.

Golf is not football, basketball or tennis. It doesn’t reward strength and speed in the same ways. Women can play golf with men, though they usually have to hit longer irons into greens — shots that are harder to stop. But look how impressed folks were when Annika Sorenstam shot 71 in the first round at Colonial last May (she shot 74 in the second round). And Sorenstam is a 33-year-old adult in her golfing prime, with 48 career tournament wins; she’s probably the best woman golfer of all time. Michelle Wie is in ninth grade! I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything like this. This doesn’t mean Michelle Wie will win the Masters next year, or ever. But it’s not hard to imagine Wie, say at 18, leaping over the LPGA tour and saying, “Howdy, fellas, here I am.”

Double jeopardy

TMQ writes:

In Double Jeopardy the Ashley Judd character is framed for the murder of her husband, convicted and sent to jail. Years later, paroled, she realizes her husband is alive and set her up — then decides to hunt him down and kill him. She can do this, the movie announces, because, having already been convicted of his murder, she can’t be tried for it again under the “double jeopardy” clause of the Constitution. As reader Robert Boardman, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, points out, this is nonsense. “The safeguard against double jeopardy states that a person cannot be tried for the same offense twice,” Boardman notes. But an offense is a specific act on a specific day in a specific place. Convicted of one crime on the a specific day at the a specific place, Ashley Judd could not be placed on trial for that crime again. But if her evil husband’s alive and she kills him, that would occur at a different specific time and place — and be a different crime, for which she could be tried. Crimes must be defined as specific events at specific times and places. Otherwise if someone robbed a bank, served time and got out, he could rob any bank he wanted, arguing, “Since I’ve already been convicted of robbing a bank, double jeopardy means I can’t be tried for robbing another bank.”

NewMexiKen was wondering about the Tommy Lee Jones character. He’s apparently Ashley Judd’s parole officer but he chases her from state to state. I thought that’s what U.S. Marshals did. Or am I just confusing Double Jeopardy with The Fugitive?

If only he’d had a laser printer

On this date in 1961, 87-year-old Robert Frost recited his poem “The Gift Outright” at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. Although Frost had written a new poem for the occasion, titled “Dedication,” faint ink in his typewriter ribbon made the words difficult to read in the bright sunlight, so Frost recited “The Gift Outright” from memory.

Inauguration day…

is a year from today.

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 day 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.

Inflation

From the Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times

Tickets to the first Super Bowl were priced at $6 and $12. Still, more than 30,000 went unsold.

Tickets to this year’s Super Bowl are priced at $500, and it is a sellout.

Go figure

It comes to light that 1,300 Texas residents who reside within 135 miles of New Mexico State University, which is in Las Cruces 46 miles from El Paso, may attend NMSU and have their non-resident tuition waived — a savings of about $4,000. According to a report by the Legislative Finance Committee, New Mexico is subsidizing Texas students in an amount almost equal to what it provides in financial aid to New Mexico’s own neediest students.

The Raven

The Raven and other works of Poe on-line.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more.”

Edgar Allan Poe…

was born in Boston on this date in 1809 but moved to Richmond as a small child. According to the Poe Museum

After attending schools in England and Richmond, young Poe registered at the University of Virginia on February 14, 1826, the second session of the University. He lived in Room 13, West Range. He became an active member of the Jefferson Literary Society, and passed his courses with good grades at the end of the session in December. Mr. Allan [Poe’s foster father] failed to give him enough money for necessary expenses, and Poe made debts of which his so-called father did not approve. When Mr. Allan refused to let him return to the University, a quarrel ensued, and Poe was driven from the Allan home without money. Mr. Allan probably sent him a little money later, and Poe went to Boston. There he published a little volume of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems. It is such a rare book now that a single copy has sold for $200,000.

The Poe Museum biography continues the story.

Robert E. Lee…

was born in Stratford, Virginia, on this date in 1807, the son of Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee and Ann Hill Carter Lee.

In 1810 the Lee family moved to Alexandria, then in the District of Columbia. The Lee’s lived first at 611 Cameron, but from 1811 or 1812 at 607 Oronoco.

Lee graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1829, second in his class and reputedly the only cadet to this day to have no demerits on his record. Lee married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, great granddaughter of Martha Washington, at Arlington House in 1831. Arlington House was in the District of Columbia from the time it was constructed until 1847 when the Virginia portion of the District of Columbia was receded to Virginia.

So, although Lee supposedly supported preservation of the Union that his father and uncles had helped create and opposed slavery, and although his residence had been in Virginia no more than 17 of his 54 years, in 1861 he turned down command of the Union forces to remain loyal to Virginia. I suggest that nullified his record of no demerits.

Appropriately enough Lee’s strategic vision was limited to the Virginia theater. This shortcoming, common among the Confederate leadership, contributed significantly to the rebellion’s ultimate failure.

After the surrender at Appomattox Court House Lee was a prisoner of war but paroled. He returned to Richmond. He was indicted for treason but, with the support of Grant argued that the parole superseded any prosecution. On June 13, 1865, Lee wrote to General Grant about the parole and to President Johnson to request a pardon under the requirements of Johnson’s amnesty proclamation.

Richmond, Virginia, June 13, 1865.

Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant, Commanding the Armies of the United States.

General: Upon reading the President’s proclamation of the 29th ult., I came to Richmond to ascertain what was proper or required of me to do, when I learned that, with others, I was to be indicted for treason by the grand jury at Norfolk. I had supposed that the officers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia were, by the terms of their surrender, protected by the United States Government from molestation so long as they conformed to its conditions. I am ready to meet any charges that may be preferred against me, and do not wish to avoid trial; but, if I am correct as to the protection granted by my parole, and am not to be prosecuted, I desire to comply with the provisions of the President’s proclamation, and, therefore, inclose the required application, which I request, in that event, may be acted on. I am, with great respect,

Your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE.

Richmond, Virginia, June 13, 1865.

His Excellency Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States.

Sir: Being excluded from the provisions of the amnesty and pardon contained in the proclamation of the 29th ult., I hereby apply for the benefits and full restoration of all rights and privileges extended to those included in its terms. I graduated at the Military Academy at West Point in June, 1829; resigned from the United States Army, April, 1861; was a general in the Confederate Army, and included in the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, April 9, 1865. I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE.

Possibly due to clerical error concerning the requirement for a loyalty oath (Lee’s 1865 oath was lost until 1970) Lee was never individually pardoned. Nor was he prosecuted for treason. His citizenship was restored in 1975 in conformance with his original appeal to Johnson.

Lee was offered and accepted the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee) and served from September 1865 until his death in October 1870.

Lee’s letter accepting appointment to United States Military Academy.

Matthew Brady photo of Lee a few days after the surrender.

From Douglas Southall Freeman’s 4-volume biography of Lee.

General Lee was returning to his camp and was close to it when he met a cavalcade in blue and was greeted with a cheery “good morning, General” from a bearded man, who removed his cap as he spoke. For the moment Lee did not recognize the speaker, but the latter recalled himself as none other than George Gordon Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, and an old friend of kindly days.

“But what are you doing with all that gray in your beard?” Lee asked.

“You have to answer for most of it!” Meade magnanimously replied.

Iowa’s decision huge, until maybe tomorrow

Dave Barry reports from Iowa

This actually happened here, according to a Des Moines Register story that I swear I am not making up. A woman named DeAnna Rankins was working in a tax-preparation office, when a guy with a knife came in and demanded money. So Rankins grabbed a stapler — that’s correct: a stapler — and threatened him with it. And he ran away!

Rankins is quoted as saying: “I would have stapled him.”…

I’ll resume these reports Saturday from New Hampshire, the next crucial step in this strange — yet, at the same time, bizarre — process that we use to decide who should lead our nation.

Right now, I’m leaning toward DeAnna Rankins.

I Have A Dream

Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

… I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Google Improves Searches In a Number of Ways

Report in The Washington Post

Google added five features last week that boost its numerical smarts, providing specific results in response to particular numeric searches.

Enter an airline flight number — for example, “united 80,” — and the popular search engine will provide links to reports on that flight’s status at Travelocity.com and Fboweb.com, including maps showing its progress.

Type an area code into the search box, and you’ll be pointed to a MapQuest.com map of the general region that area code covers. A U.S. Postal Service package tracking number yields a link to a delivery-status page at the Postal Service’s Web site. A vehicle identification number will call up a page describing the car’s year, make and model type.

Or you can type in a universal product code number — minus the dashes, but including any tiny numbers appearing to the far left or right under the bar code — and Google will look up the product’s full name, then generate a list of Web sites selling the item or providing other information about it. This can spare shoppers from trying to guess which search keywords would bring up the same information.

White Sands…

was proclaimed a national monument by President Herbert Hoover on this date in 1933.

At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain ringed valley called the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world’s great natural wonders – the glistening white sands of New Mexico.

Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and have created the world’s largest gypsum dune field. The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path.

Most stressful cities

From Reuters and AP via CNN.com

1. Tacoma
2. Miami
3. New Orleans
4. Las Vegas
5. New York
6. Portland
7. Mobile, Alabama
8. Stockton-Lodi, California
9. Detroit
10. Dallas

Move over New York, take a hike Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Dallas and Detroit. You may have stress but none of you have that rare combination of suicide, unemployment, theft and gloomy weather that Tacoma, Washington, has.

The city of 195,000 just 30 miles south of Seattle was named America’s most stressful city in a survey…

Tacoma ranked at the top of 100 large metro areas surveyed by the BestPlaces ranking researcher, which also took into account other factors such as commute times, alcohol consumption and self-reported mental health.

“America leads the world in stressful living,” said Bert Sperling, who runs Portland, Oregon, based BestPlaces, “The average vacation time in Europe is five weeks a year but our attitude is almost ‘Thank God it’s Monday”‘

The city where convicted Washington, D.C. area sniper John Muhammad lived is home to large blue-collar and military populations. “On a brighter note, Tacomans can feel safe from bodily harm thanks to the low violent crime rate,” Sperling wrote in his report.

High violent crime put Miami second on the list of most stressful cities, in addition to high property crime, long commutes, high unemployment and a high divorce rate.

The third most stressful U.S. city was New Orleans, despite being known as the “Big Easy,” followed by Las Vegas, which had the highest suicide and divorce rates in the study, and New York, which boasted the longest commute times.

The sixth most stressful city was Portland, followed by Mobile, Alabama, Stockton-Lodi in California, Detroit and Dallas. Sperling, whose BestPlaces ranking is published yearly by Money magazine, said he used publicly available census, crime, weather and health data to create a “stress index” in order to rank the cities.

“One of the key factors was the unemployment rate, but we also used the suicide rate — that’s the ultimate unhappiness factor,” Sperling said.

The study also produced the least stressful cities in the United States, which all share low unemployment rates, as well as short commutes, lower divorce rates, less crime and lower suicide rates.

The multiple-city enclaves of Albany-Schenectady-Troy in New York and Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle in Pennsylvania tied for the least stressful metropolitan areas.

Other metro areas with less stress included Orange County, California, Nassau-Suffolk in New York, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Losing it: But there’s a price for everything

“I have lost 147 pounds. I weigh less than my photo.”

James Lileks is on the Atkins diet.

“Atkins it was, then. Here’s my new diet.

Breakfast: Sixty-seven eggs with cheese. Fourteen strips of bacon washed down with the drippings. The plates are made of sausage; save those for last. If someone offers juice, recoil in horror: Are you trying to KILL me?

Your juiceless future is the hardest thing to accept at first; after all, nothing says Healthful Morning Breakfast like a bright orange glass of citric goodness, but there are 10 billion carbs in a single juice molecule. You could have some toast, but no-carb bread costs too much. All the Atkins stuff is preposterously priced. A package of lo-carb pancake mix costs $6.19. Apparently the process of extracting carbs is hideously expensive. Probably requires zero gravity. That’s what they’re doing on the International Space Station. It’s one big orbital Atkins factory.

Lunch: a small pig.

Supper: Now we get down to the serious business. Good news: It’s steak time! Bad news: It’s steak time! Again! Somewhere in the second week of your new regimen you’ll actually weep at the thought of another bacon-wrapped filet mignon. I can’t do it. I just can’t. I’ve eaten 2.3 cows in the past week. I had a tongue smoothie for an afternoon snack and a butt-steak non-dairy sundae with Bac-o-Bits sprinkles for dessert.

You beg to the ghost of Dr. Atkins: Please, sir, a carrot. One small tiny fresh wet crunchy baby carrot. Don’t tell me to mince some steak and form it into the shape of a carrot. I can’t do it. I need milk! Can’t I have milk? It comes from cows! Can’t we call it liquid steak?

This is the hardest phase, and it passes. I’ve jumped the hump; I’m in that blissful state of ketosis psychosis. I have an absurd amount of energy, and frankly I’ve never felt better. When I’ve lost a few more pounds, I’ll start cutting back on the meat.

Because these daily heart attacks are really getting annoying. Did you know that the ambulances hand out punch cards? They do. My 10th myocardial infarction will be absolutely free.

Read the whole Backfence column.

Driving on ice can be costly joyride

Geez Dad, didn’t we do this when I was a kid?

From the Detroit Free Press

Matt Vermeulen grew up near Lake St. Clair and knows the frozen lake’s slippery ways and how to stay safe. Or so he thought.

On Tuesday, he drove his Tahoe onto what he assumed was solid ice. But without visible indication, the ice thickness was no longer a sturdy 12 inches — instead it was a mere 5 inches that cracked, sending the rear end of his 1997 sport-utility vehicle into the icy water.

“There’s nothing you can do,” said Vermeulen, 25, of Fair Haven. “You just jump out.”

“It’s embarrassing, and very, very expensive,” he said Friday, declining to estimate the cost.

Every winter across Michigan, cars, trucks and other vehicles go crashing through the ice on lakes and rivers. Salvage companies charge thousands of dollars to haul out the vehicles, and drivers can face hefty traffic and environmental penalties.

During Prohibition, bootleggers scooted across the ice from Windsor, but today it’s usually sportsmen or reckless young drivers who may have to make the humiliating admission: “Honey, I sunk the car.”

Hmmm! Interesting

“[R]etirement is often a special hell for super achievers. As they’re suffering for success, it seems like an oasis in a dessert of demands and sacrifices. But, for many, when they get there, the cool refreshing water is an illusion. They long for the old rat race. And especially the company of their fellow rodents.”

Thomas Boswell in today’s Washington Post