America’s sweetheart

“The tropical emotion that has created a legendary Sacajawea awaits study by some connoisseur of American sentiments. I have referred to the statement…that more statues have been erected to her than to any other American woman. Few others have had so much sentimental fantasy expended on them. A good many men who have written about her, including a couple with some standing as historians, have obviously fallen in love with her. Almost every woman who has written about her has become Sacajawea in her inner reverie. And she has received what in the United States counts as canonization if not deification; she has become an object of state pride and interstate rivalry.”
Bernard DeVoto, Course of Empire

And this was written 48 years before the Sacagawea dollar.

The Bolinas Bag Lady

San Francisco Chronicle: Bolinas supports nature bid

The author, Jane Blethen, whose nickname is “Dakar,” moved to the Bay Area from Minnesota sometime in the 1960s and studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. She moved to Bolinas around 1980 and took up residence in the bushes.

Her erratic speech, unusual wardrobe and choice of habitation at first attracted the attention of local bullies, but the rest of the town soon adopted her as one of their own. A local rock band called “Don’t Kill Jane” was formed in an attempt to spread the word that their lovable loner was off limits.

Blethen now walks around with a burlap headband and strips of burlap tied around her legs. Her face is a mask of smeared dark brown chocolate. Grains of pepper form speckles on the chocolate, like glitter.

“She’s definitely a character’s character,” said Erik Festin, 68, of Bolinas, who used to give her rides and take her out for toast and coffee. “Her message is really pretty simple: ‘take care of the animals and preserve the beauty of the place.’ ”

In the days before the election, several Bolinas residents confessed that they signed the petition mainly in order to avoid hurting Blethen’s feelings. Whatever the motive, there were enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot — and aside from some collateral damage to the English language and ambiguity about the fate of motor boats, hotels and airplanes, there did not seem to be any harm that could come in voting for Measure G.

There’s a photo of Dakar and another of downtown Bolinas if you follow the link.

66 Things to Think About When Flying Into Reagan National Airport

David Corn (from 1998)

“The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott Abrams lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics, budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks, redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.”

There’s more.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site…

was established on this date in 2000.

“On November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington led approximately 700 U.S. volunteer soldiers to a village of about 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped along the banks of Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado. Although the Cheyenne and Arapaho people believed they were under the protection of the U.S. Army, Chivington’s troops attacked and killed about 150 people, mainly women, children, and the elderly.”

Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield Dies

The Righteous Brothers — blue-eyed soul. No one believed they were white. The name had something to do with that, but it was the sound that fooled everyone.

Bobby Hatfield had the higher voice; Bill Medley the lower. In the book accompanying the Phil Spector compilation, Back to Mono, songwriter Cynthia Weil recalls that:

After Phil, Barry [co-writer Barry Mann] and I finished the song, we took it over to The Righteous Brothers. Bill Medley, who has the low voice, seemed to like the song. I remember Bobby Hatfield saying, “But what do I do while he’s singing the whole first verse?” and Phil said, “You can go directly to the bank!”

On AM radio in those days deejays didn’t like songs that lasted more than three minutes. Lovin’ Feelin’ is 3:46. On the label Spector printed 3:05. It was number one for two weeks in February 1965.

The Righteous Brothers had four other top five hits. Unchained Melody made it to number four; Ebb Tide to five. [You’re My] Soul and Inspiration was number one for three weeks in 1966. In 1974 Rock and Roll Heaven got to number three.

Hatfield was found dead in his hotel room yesterday. He was 63.

Civic leader identified

From the Coastal Post Online May 2003 Letters to the Editor

On Trimming Trees…

Plan in the Fire Department is for trimming the trees a lot. I don’t like any trimming because it requires the experience of the whole tree to understand if it is exotic, fascinating and interesting to yourself including your friends. Like how you find things in the store for yourself and also appropriate to your friends. This appropriateness without science is medically substantial to find plants. What you see as exotic, extremely interesting, extremely fascinating is good to you; boring things different for different persons — broccoli better than broccoli sprouts, better than iron, calcium, enzymes, protein and other inedibles in dirt. Broccoli the best.

Vote for Bolinas, Socially Acknowledged Nature Loving Town. Because to like to drink the water out of the lakes, to like to eat the blueberries, to like the bears is not hatred to hotels and motorboats.

Dakar
Bolinas

Life Imitates The Simpsons

“Ned Flanders decides to open his own business called the Leftorium, a store that sells tools and products aimed at left-handed consumers.”–“The Simpsons” episode description, “When Flanders Failed,” original airdate Oct. 3, 1991

“In a communist country being overrun by capitalism, Ma Bo may be the most enthusiastic leftist of them all. Ma, 56, an entrepreneur in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, has opened what the official Xinhua News Agency bills as the country’s first shop for left-handed people.”–Associated Press, Nov. 5, 2003

From OpinionJournal

Ya’ think?

“Reds outfielder Dernell Stenson was found dead Wednesday on a residential street after he was shot and apparently run over in a Phoenix suburb, police said. Chandler police said the death was being treated as a homicide.” — Associated Press, Nov. 6

Autumn morning near the Sandias

This photo was taken through the clerestory window from NewMexiKen’s living room this morning (8:25 AM). The morning and evening light always show the Sandias at their best, though this photo was taken a few minutes too late. In the mornings, with the sun at the right angle, you can see the Tram cables, the lower part of which are visible here.

Sandia means watermelon in Spanish. Some historians, overthinking the obvious, wonder if it wasn’t the evening color of the mountains that prompted the name. The mountains to the south are the Manzano (apple). The mountains to the north are the Sangre de Cristo (blood of Christ). Red? You think?

Can you hear me now?

NewMexiKen understands the impact when jobs move off shore. Nevertheless he thought that this brief essay at the Canadian National Post provided an interesting perspective: Upwardly mobile phone jockey… or ‘cyber-coolie’?.

“In India, which has been most successful in stealing call-centre business from the rich countries, companies teach their operators to understand American accents and imitate them. They watch American movies together, and those who can easily comprehend Sylvester Stallone’s dialogue are said to be approaching perfection. Some companies try to create an American ambience by putting little American flags on the desks and providing pizza.”

Air today, gone tomorrow

From The New York Times: Lawyers at E.P.A. Say It Will Drop Pollution Cases

“Congressional critics, environmental groups and officials in some Northeast states described the change as a major victory for the utility industry and a defeat for environmentalists, who had viewed the cases as the best way to require the companies to install billions of dollars of new pollution controls.

Representatives of the utility industry have been among President Bush’s biggest campaign donors, and a change in the enforcement policies has been a top priority of the industry’s lobbyists.”

How many of the 19 can you name?

The Polling Company: “Most Americans are unable to identify even a single department in the United States Cabinet, according to a recent national poll of 800 adults. Specifically, the survey found that a majority (58%) could not provide any department names whatsoever; 41% could. Only 4% of those surveyed specified at least five of the 19 executive-level departments…”

Currently, the Federal Government includes executive level departments that advise the President. The heads of these departments are collectively known as the Cabinet. Could you please name as many departments as you can that are part of the current United States Cabinet? (Note: This question was open-ended and multiple responses were accepted, meaning, all respondents were invited to name as few or as many departments as they could. If a respondent provided the specific name of a cabinet secretary or administrator, e.g., “Colin Powell,” they were credited with a correct response.)

Speaking of too much caf

Also from The Kicker:

Advance.net President Jeff Jarvis weighs in with his own anti-Starbucks rant: “I like my coffee. I like it large (not vente, damnit, just large). I like it black. So I grit my teeth and go to Starbucks to drink the grit. But they do find new ways to irritate me. Lately, they have taken to asking for a name — ‘first name only’ — with every order. And I want to shout: What happens when three Ashleighs come in and order caf and decaf and halfcaf and they all get the wrong frigging coffee and end up in caf-induced fits and you end up with a riot of over-and-under-caffed Ashleighs? Huh? Can’t you just give somebody a number? Can’t you just make the coffee faster instead?”