Trumpeter Tony Horowitz, one of those portrayed playing chess with Ray Charles, wrote in to compliment Charles on his chess acumen, and acumen at life in general. Take a look again at Ray Charles and Tony Horowitz playing Chess Games of the Rich and Famous.
Tony Horowitz on Ray Charles and chess
September 21, 2010
1 Comment | 
Chess, History, History images, Music | Tagged: Chess, History, History images, Music, Ray Charles, Tony Horowitz | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
One more place to lose your heart, or stir it, near San Francisco
September 20, 2010Did I mention that San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the world?
A lot of reasons. My father had businesses there (1930s?). My parents wooed in and around there. Our Favorite Aunt Linda did well in the area (Marin County, but that just adds to the beauty).
I was accepted at Hastings College of Law. We figured we had enough saved that we could either pay tuition at Hastings, and live on what Kathryn could earn, if she could get a job; or we could buy a house in the D.C. area, keep our jobs on Senate staff, and pay tuition.
We had a wonderful week in San Francisco getting no job interviews. On our last night we found a Tower Record Store and stocked up (back in the days of vinyl) for the next four years at George Washington, and sadly left the city. In a fit of irony, Tower Records opened a store across the street from GW’s law school two years later.
Earlier, after the 1976 elections, I hid out at Aunt Linda’s joint, Red Robin Catering, tending bar, washing dishes, washing a lot of lettuce, and generally trying to make a car payment and enjoy San Francisco. She catered the opening of the Marin/San Francisco ferry, which meant more than a dozen trips overall, as I recall, serving champagne mostly. Now I look back on how unfair it was that my youth did not include electronic cameras.
Early mornings — and there were more than a few — the city is just unsurpassed in beauty. Cousin Steve pushed me out of bed to go see the Muir Woods at near dawn (I confess I did not go often enough). Some nights I’d just cruise across the Golden Gate Bridge for the views.
Like this one, a composition from several shots from the same place, woven together with the wonders of electronic camera software:
Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco, and fog, from Marin County - Wikimedia image, panorama photo stitching by Mila Zinkova
It’s shot from Marin County, west of the Golden Gate Bridge, I think — that’s the North Tower of the bridge, with the Bay Bridge and the city of San Francisco in the background.
Discussion at Wikimedia: Those are crepuscular rays coming through the trees. There’s an SAT vocabulary word for you: Crepuscular.
More crepuscular rays from Marin County, Wikimedia photo by Mila Zinkova
More:
2 Comments | Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, photography, Travel | Tagged: Fog, geography, Golden Gate Bridge, History, photography, San Francisco, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “273 words toward a new nation”
September 20, 2010Librarians have it good, living among books. Librarians at the Library of Congress have it best, with the amazingly complete collection of books, top-notch scholars, and just plain old curious stuff lying around.
Like copies of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Garry Wills argues that Lincoln rethought and recast America’s image in that speech, in less than two minutes — though it took a century before the recasting was complete.
The Library of Congress just has the history, and notes the power of the speech overall.
11 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Famous quotes, Libraries, Quotes | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Famous quotes, Gettysburg Address, Great Speeches, Library of Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Still evil and wrong: McIlhinney still leads a cover up of malaria facts
September 20, 2010
U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) Africa Indoor Residual Spraying (AIRS) Project found this warehouse with 119 tons of leftover, surplus and expired DDT in Ethiopia. In total, PMI AIRS Progect found 930 tons of unused DDT in Ethiopia, in 1,600 tons of expired pesticides total. Other nations have other surplus DDT stocks. Africa never suffered a shortage of DDT.
Watch the video, and you can see God trying to stop her from talking, putting that frog in her throat.
Ann McIlhinney was wrong when she made the movie “Not Evil, Just Wrong,” and she’s still spreading false tales. I found her diatribe, interestingly enough at a site called 2012 Doomsday Predictions.
I only respond to the first six minutes or so — you get the idea. McIlhinney leaves no falsehood untold, no crazy charge not leveled at Rachel Carson and “environmentalists.”
Here’s the film clip of McIlhinney misleading the masses:
Here is my quick and dirty response:
1. Environmentalists are not calling for a ban on coal, oil or gas. Fear talk. Why would anyone tell such a whopping lie? How do we know the film lies? Who is this “environmentalist” they fear to name?
2. Rachel Carson was right — DDT kills ecosystems. Carson said we needed to restrict the use of DDT in order to keep it viable as a pesticide. But few listened (not McIlhinney, that’s for sure). Consequently, DDT became ineffective against mosquitoes that carry malaria, scuttling the World Health Organization’s ambitious campaign to eradicate malaria. Had that not happened, and had we eradicated malaria by 1975 as planned, millions of lives could have been saved. McIlhinney is the one with blood on her hands.
3. DDT has never been banned worldwide, was never banned in Africa, and is still used in those places it still works, under a special treaty signed in 2001. McIlhinney hopes you won’t know about that treaty, and fails to mention it herself. What’s she trying to hide?
4. Carson did not say DDT was the sole culprit for the decline of birds — but by 1962, it was the sole culprit preventing their recovery. Bald eagles and brown pelicans have come off the endangered species list, populations recovering in almost lock-step with the decline of DDT in the birds’ flesh — proof that Carson was right.
5. Under U.S. law, no agency could ban a useful pesticide without mountains of evidence that the pesticide was dangerous. Four separate court proceedings looked at DDT, two before the EPA acted, and two appeals after EPA banned DDT use on crops. All four courts found DDT to be dangerous and uncontrollable in the wild. The two appeals of EPA’s labeling change were both decided on summary judgment — the science was so powerfully on Carson’s side. In May 1963 the President’s Science Advisory Council reported on their fact checking of Carson’s book — they said Carson was dead right in everything but one: Carson was too easy on DDT. That panel, with its significant population of Nobel winners, called for quick action against DDT. Why doesn’t McIlhinney give the facts here?
6. The claim that EPA’s ban influenced WHO is pure bullfeathers. WHO had to end its malaria eradication campaign, using DDT, in 1965 — the mosquitoes were immune to the stuff. EPA didn’t act until seven years later, and EPA’s jurisdiction extends only to the borders of the U.S. In fact, EPA’s “ban” left DDT to be manufactured in the U.S. for export to Africa. Can’t McIlhinney read a calendar? The “ban” in 1972 did not travel back through time to stop WHO from using DDT. (For that matter, WHO never completely stopped DDT — wherever it could work, they used it, and still do.)
7. DDT has always been available for any government in Africa to use. What that guy in the film is really saying is racist: He’s claiming Africans were too stupid to use DDT, though it was cheap and available, and though it would save their lives. Don’t listen to him. Africans are not stupid: They’d use DDT were it effective and safe. Shame on McIlhinney for entertaining such a claim.
8. Malaria did not skyrocket after DDT was banned in the U.S. Mosquitoes don’t migrate that far. There was an uptick in malaria 20 years later, when the pharmaceuticals that cure malaria in humans, ceased to be effective.
But today, malaria rates are the lowest they’ve been in recorded history, and malaria death rates are the lowest they’ve been in human history. When the U.S. banned DDT spraying on cotton in 1972, about 2 million people a year died from malaria. Today, the death toll is under 900,000. Don’t be frightened or stampeded by erroneous, large figures.
In the end, we can’t poison Africa to health, and if we could, it would be immoral to do that instead of building health care to fight diseases.
Children die because hard-hearted politicos like Ann McIlhinney frustrate the work of malaria fighters, and mislead policy makers away from solutions that would save children’s lives.
Shame on her.
7 Comments | DDT, Environmental protection, Malaria, Political Smear, Politics, Rachel Carson, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Tagged: DDT, Environmental protection, Malaria, Politics, Rachel Carson, Science, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas poet: Edit out all the unwanted words . . . newspaper blackout
September 19, 2010Great story about a Texas poet, Austin Kleon — and wouldn’t this be an interesting project for poetry study? The method is called “newspaper blackout” in the story; a new genre of poetry?
From PBS’s Newshour, September 14, 2010 (transcript here):
I am reminded of the story of the sculptor who, when asked how he made such wonderful statues, said he merely chipped away from the stone everything that wasn’t the sculpture he wanted. Who was that?
PBS Newshour provides the best coverage of literature and poetry of any major television news operation, another good reason to keep PBS well-funded.
1 Comment | Creativity, Newspapers, Poetry, Student projects, Texas | Tagged: Austin Kleon, Creativity, Newspaper Blackout, Newspapers, PBS Newshour, Poetry, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Everybody works harder than Rick Perry
September 19, 2010Bill White is rising in the polls, and, according to some watchers, has a good chance to unseat Texas Gov. Rick Perry, seeking an unprecedented fourth term in office (he succeeded George W. Bush when Bush won the presidency).
Perry is scared, as illustrated by his chickening out of debates (he said that he wouldn’t debate White unless white released tax returns dating back nearly two decades, more than Perry has by a long stretch; plus, the period covered includes White’s service in the federal government, which required an annual report of financial information more detailed than tax returns).
White’s been combing Perry’s record to document where he and Perry differ — and in the doing, White’s team discovered that the official records from the governor’s office show he puts in fewer than ten hours of work a week.
If just half the Texans who put in more work hours than Rick Perry were to vote for White, White would win in a landlside.
At a minimum, it makes for an interesting political ad.
3 Comments | 2010 Elections, Campaigns, Elections, Texas | Tagged: 2010 Elections, Bill White for Governor, Campaigns, Rick Perry, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
DDT can’t fight bedbugs
September 19, 2010Newsweek magazine, even in its much reduced form (bolstered by a good on-line site), still provides essential reporting.
A week or so ago Newsweek published a piece of reporting on the politics of bedbugs. To wit:
- DDT doesn’t work against bedbugs, and hasn’t worked against them since the late 1950s.
- Astroturf organizations, so-called “think-tanks” set up by corporate interests jumped on bedbugs as another way of attacking the 46-years dead Rachel Carson, environmentalists, scientists and government — falsely. The Heartland Institute is singled out as one group spreading false claims in favor of poison and against environmental protection.
- The recent resurgence of bedbugs is more related to changes in fighting other pests than in the discontinuation of DDT against them. Had DDT been the magic answer, bedbugs should have made a resurgence in 1960 when DDT use against them was stopped, not 2010, a full half-century later.
- The many screeds in favor of DDT are politically driven, not science driven.
Think about that — every claim that we need DDT to fight bedbugs is a planted, political advertisement, and not a fact-based policy argument. Each of those claims is based in a political smear, and not based on science.
The really weird part is that so many writers and bloggers spread the false claims without being paid. Selling one’s soul for money is understandable; giving one’s soul away for nothing is stupid, or evil, or both.
Newsweek reported:
DDT “devastated” bedbug populations when it was introduced in the 1940s, says Richard Cooper, technical director for Cooper Pest Solutions and a widely quoted authority on bedbug control. Mattresses were soaked in it, wallpaper came pre-treated with it. It also killed boll weevils, which fed on cotton buds and flowers (by far, the majority of DDT was applied to cotton fields), and, incidentally, it killed bald eagles and numerous other species of birds, the phenomenon that gave Carson her title. In the laboratory, DDT can cause cancer in animals; its effect on human beings has long been debated, but since it accumulates up the food chain, and stays in the body for years, the consensus among public-health experts was that it was better to act before effects showed up in the population. But long before the United States banned most uses of it in 1972, DDT had lost its effectiveness against bedbugs—which, like many fast-breeding insects, are extremely adept at evolving resistance to pesticides. “Bloggers talk about bringing back DDT,” says Bob Rosenberg, director of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association, “but we had stopped using it even before 1972.”
Resources:
- National Pest Management Association: Press release on study of the extent of bedbug problems; Bedbug Hub, one-stop site for bedbug information (notice how the National Pest Management Association itself makes no call for a return of DDT)
- Cornell University entomologist Dr. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann said there is no one solution to bedbugs, especially not a pesticide
- Martha Teichner with a nine-minute report on bedbugs for CBS Sunday Morning
Evolution has bred DDT-resistant bedbugs. Chart from “Understanding Evolution, Bed Bugs Bite Back Thanks to Evolution,”
6 Comments | DDT, Entomology, Environmental protection, Journalism, Political Smear, Politics, Rachel Carson, Regulation, Science | Tagged: bedbugs, DDT, Entomology, Environmental protection, Journalism, Mainstream Media, Newsweek, Political Smear, Politics, Rachel Carson, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Stupidity is easy, parody is hard: Jesus removed from Texas Bibles
September 18, 2010First, read and laugh with this: “Jesus removed from Texas Bibles”
The Texas Board of Education announced Monday that it will order new Bibles for Texas schools that remove all references to Jesus on the grounds that his teachings are “too liberal” for the classroom. The changes will likely impact Bibles sold throughout the U.S. because Texas buys more Bibles than any other state.
The board approved the changes in a 10 to 5 party-line vote with unanimous support from Republicans. Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist and leader of the board’s conservative faction, said the changes were approved without any input from theologians, in keeping with the board’s practice of editing schoolbooks on its own and ignoring experts.
“I know there’s folks who will say we in Texas have no business teaching religion in the classroom, well frankly a bunch of ignorant zealots like us have no business meddling with textbooks either but that’s didn’t stop us from doing so,” McLeroy said. “Here in the republic of Texas we don’t give a lick what the rest of the country thinks, unless of course we need federal money or help with stuff like hurricanes.”
Quotes from Don McLeroy are a little creepy, no? You know it’s parody — isn’t it? — and yet the quotes and tone just ring so . . . true.
It’s a parody, right? Isn’t it? This can’t be accurate, right?
Oh. My. Cthulu. Look at this: “Blessed are the conservative in Bible translation.”
The project, an online effort to create a Bible suitable for contemporary conservative sensibilities, claims Jesus’ quote is a disputed addition abetted by liberal biblical scholars, even if it appears in some form in almost every translation of the Bible.
The project’s authors argue that contemporary scholars have inserted liberal views and ahistorical passages into the Bible, turning Jesus into little more than a well-meaning social worker with a store of watered-down platitudes.
“Professors are the most liberal group of people in the world, and it’s professors who are doing the popular modern translations of the Bible,” said Andy Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia.com, the project’s online home.
Wait. That’s got to be a parody, right? No?
That’s not parody? “Andy Schlafly” really exists, and despite his appearing to be so stupid as to have to be reminded to breathe, he’s complaining about Jesus’s liberal views?
Gods forgive them For Christ’s sake, God, stop them now, for they know nothing. They know NOTHING.
You can be sure that, were Glenn Beck still alive today, he’d be out there to complain about people like Schlafly “rewriting the words of the founders.”
Tip of the old scrub brush to Kathryn, whose friend observed of Andy Schlafly, “This just goes to show you that the shit doesn’t fall very far from the bat.” The line has already been copyrighted, but feel free to use it in pursuit of enlightenment, education, and human rights.
12 Comments | Education, History Revisionism, Hoaxes, Parody, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Religion, War on Education | Tagged: Andy Schlafly, Bat Guano Psychic Pathology, Conservapedia, Education, Parody, Politics, Radical Religion, Rampant stupidity, Religion, Religious Extremists | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Impeachment trial TODAY! More background . . .
September 15, 2010Government teachers especially, take note.
Remember last summer I told you about the impeachment of New Orleans federal Judge Thomas Porteus?
The trial started yesterday in the U.S. Senate.
I gather that George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley joined the defense of Judge Porteus. Turley is very much the patron saint-attorney for almost-lost legal causes. His always-interesting blog has links to some of the papers filed to dismiss Article II of the impeachment, and other documents. That may be a very good site from which to observe the proceedings, especially for government and AP government and politics classes.
Turley’s motion for dismissal goes to the heart of what kinds of conduct may be impeachable, and when the jurisdiction of the impeachment clauses apply — maybe subtle, maybe somewhat obscure, but still delicious constitutional issues. I can imagine a government class reading the motion as a group and discussing it, in a more perfect world.
Is your government class watching this trial at all?
More:
3 Comments | Advanced Placement, DBQ sources, Government, History, Impeachment, Judicial Branch, Law, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: AP Government and Politics, Article III, DBQ, Federal Judiciary, Government, Impeachment, Jonathan Turley, Judicial Branch, Original Documents, Thomas Porteus, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
BSA awards Bill Gates the Silver Buffalo
September 15, 2010News came out during the Jamboree, but yesterday in Seattle the Boy Scouts of America made it tangibly official.
Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, Jr. received the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest honor BSA gives to any Scouter.
Gates was a Life Scout; his father, William Gates, Sr., is an Eagle Scout. The awards ceremony was scheduled to include members of Gates’s Cub Scout Pack 144 and Boy Scout Troop 186.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates receiving the Silver Buffalo award from Boy Scouts of America. BBC image
More:
- Associated Press photos may be viewed at UK’s Daily Mail site
- BBC’s story will warm you
- You may view the video prepared by Chief Seattle Council, B.S.A., at the Cracker Barrel, the blog of Scouting Magazine
- Full list of 2010 Silver Buffalo awardees, including Rex Tillerson of Irving, Texas (CEO of Exxon-Mobil); this list suggests that news media from several other American cities are falling down on their reportorial jobs (have you heard of the other ceremonies?)
2 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Citizenship, Heroes, Leadership, Technology | Tagged: Bill Gates, Boy Scouts of America, Citizenship, computers, Leadership, Silver Buffalo | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Anthony Watts targets Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub, ends up getting scrubbed
September 14, 2010Continuing comedy/tragedy at Watts Up With That, Anthony Watts’ staunchly anti-global-warming-science blog.
Funny in the denial of the obvious, funny in the dance to get around the science, tragic in that anyone grants much credence to the denials of the obvious and science — Watts steams on.
Watts and his moderators haven’t completely blocked my comments, and I can sneak one in on occasion just slipping under their radar. We are all plagued by a recent spate of pro-DDT publicity, prompted by what I am not sure but encompassing a full-court press from anti-science moguls like Paul Driessen, pro-poison advocates, and a film by a crank (quack?) physician-to-the-stars who appears fearful of revealing his full name, Rutledge Taylor and “3 Billion and Counting.” (Taylor’s film is sort of the “Expelled!” of the Chronically Obsessed with Rachel Carson (COWRC) set, but without the charm and science of Ben Stein’s film, since the scientists refused to sit for an interview with Taylor.) (Taylor’s publicity refers to him as “Dr. Rutledge.” Perhaps he aspires to the heights of academic and science credence granted Dr. Phil.)
Watts gave his pedestal over to an engineer, Indur Goklany, for a diatribe against Bill Gates. In comments, I tried to insert some data into an increasingly shrill and increasingly error-prone howl against Gates. Of Gates I am no great fan (unfairly; I use Windows), but sometimes one needs to stand up for accuracy and fairness, just for the sake of accuracy and fairness.
Watts gave Goklany a platform to go after my two comments. I’m Watts’ target for the day.
Dancing on the edge of science is treacherous, as Watts and Goklany may have discovered. Goklany claims I make many errors in my comments, but he cites no evidence suggesting I err at all. I merely pointed to the decline in death totals from malaria, and to the real work of the Gates Foundation. Nothing in those comments has been tagged as incorrect.
In comments, however, truth breaks out. Franklin’s adage about truth winning in a fair fight holds true, especially on a topic like malaria and DDT, where Watts and Goklany together, even were they the acme of broadcast meteorology and dissident engineering, can’t snuff out factual comments fast enough to keep up the tirade. [You fellows there on the side: Stop your betting about whether Goklany is a creationist! Gambling is not allowed here, especially when the fix is in. He confesses he is “an engineer,” after all.]
I may err; but take a look, Dear Reader, and see if the contrived case against Rachel Carson and for poisoning Africa with DDT doesn’t take a few hits, especially in comments.
Sometime, perhaps this week, I hope to get a substantial comment about the flurry of crank science on DDT, and Rutledge Taylor’s contemptible falsehoods. But I am without time, and without computer most of the day.
Now, if only being Watts’ target would persuade his readers to actually come here to find the facts about DDT, it would be worth it.
_____________
Tim Lambert at Deltoid explains where Goklany runs off the rails of accurate information, and as usual, has more comments than we get in the Bathtub.
29 Comments | DDT, History, Rachel Carson, Science | Tagged: Climate change, DDT, Global warming, Rachel Carson, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Watermelon salad, blueberry bock pie
September 14, 2010It was a benefit for the Arlington Master Chorale (Kathryn’s group); it sure turned pleasant to discover that Olenjack’s, at Lincoln Square in Arlington, Texas, has some stunning things on its menu.
Kathryn swears by the watermelon and onion salad, crisp, sweet watermelon and sweet onions with greens and a great dressing.
For dessert I took the blueberry bock pie. The one slice must have contained (barely) a pint of fresh blueberries. The crust complemented the blueberries perfectly, crisp and exploding at the fork. The bock? It’s made with bock beer, Shiner Bock. I suspect chef Brian Olenjack reduces sugar considerably to add the beer, then probably simmers it down. As a result, it’s the sweetness of the blueberries one gets, and not a sugary, syrupy, sweet goo. With hints of nutmeg, it’s a wonderful concoction.
At $4, it’s one of the best pie buys in Texas right now.
Kathryn took a bowl of cinnamon ice cream, another steal at $2.
Blueberry bock pie and cinnamon ice cream, together?
(Also: I stuck with appetizers — the lamb lollipops will make lamb lovers, also love Olenjacks.)
We’ll be back. Rumor is the fruit pie changes ever few days. There’s a strawberry rhubarb in the mix.
More:
- Olenjack’s sits almost across the street from JerryWorld, where the Cowboys play. Great game day gathering spot for before and after the game — close to the Rangers’ Ballpark in Arlington, too. Playoff headquarters?
- Arlington Master Chorale concert coming soon, October 4 and 5
1 Comment | Food history, Personal, Travel | Tagged: Arlington Master Chorale, Arlington Texas, food, Olenjacks, Pie, Texas, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas Attorney General refuses to enforce the law
September 13, 2010Here’s a good reason to vote him out this fall: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott officially notified the federal government he won’t enforce clean air laws. (Rude letter that follows, here.)
Can you imagine the contretemps had he announced he won’t enforce federal immigration laws, nor support their enforcement by federal officials?
Abbott is once again putting politics far, far ahead of science, no matter how it damages Texas (Texas pays premiums in home insurance already because of damage from global warming).
If it’s something in the water that generates such craziness, I hope it enters the water systems well south of Dallas.
Abbott’s opponent is a well-respected, deeply experienced, honorable attorney named Barbara Ann Radnofsky. Almost every big polluting corporation in America is supporting Abbott. You may want to consider that as you contribute to candidates this week (hurry!), and as you vote this fall.
More information, more resources:
- Information about EPA’s plans to regulate sulfur hexafluoride, an incredibly powerful greenhouse gas that is among those Abbott now refuses to regulate, I presume.
- Issues in Barbara Ann Radnofsky’s campaign against Abbott (more from Barbara below)
- EPA’s fact sheet on the “tailoring” plan; an index to other current EPA rules on greenhouse gases and air pollution
2 Comments | Clean Air Act, Climate change, climate_change, Environmental protection, Global warming, Law, Politics, Regulation, Texas | Tagged: Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Clean Air, Climate change, Environmental protection, EPA, Global warming, Greg Abbott, Law, Politics, Regulation, Rule of Law, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
O, say! Does that woman’s lamp still burn beside the golden door?
September 12, 2010Liberty stands gazing out at about 265 feet* above the water of New York Harbor, a fixture there since construction in the 1880s.
The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for her centennial on July 4, 1986.
The Statue of Liberty has been a fixture in the U.S. and American psyche, too. Excuse me, or join me, in wondering whether we have not lost something of our former dedication to the Statue of Liberty, and the reasons France and Americans joined to build it.
Poem-a-Day sent Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” out this morning (Poem-a-Day is a wonderful service of the American Academy of Poets — you may subscribe and I recommend it). There it was, waiting for me in e-mail. My students generally have not heard nor read the poem, I discover year after year — some sort of Texas-wide failure in enculturation prompted by too-specific requirements of federal law and state law, combining to make a slatwork of culture taught in our classrooms with too many cracks into which culture actually falls, out of sight, out of mind; out of memory. I fear it may be a nationwide failure as well.
Have you read the poem lately? It once encouraged American school children to send pennies to build a home for the statue. Today it wouldn’t get a majority of U.S. Congressmen to sign on to consponsor a reading of it. Glenn Beck would contest its history, Rush Limbaugh would discount the politics of the “giveaways” in the poem, John Boehner would scoriate the victims in the poem for having missed his meeting of lobbyists (‘they just missed the right boat’), and Sarah Palin would complain about “an air-bridge to nowhere,” or complain that masses who huddle are probably up to no good (they might touch, you know).
Have you read it lately?
The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus
Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde - Wikimedia Commons image
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
AAP makes poems available for iPhones, too, and you can see how it appears, phrase by phrase. “The New Colossus” takes on more of its power and majesty delivered that way.
Is the Academy of American Poets playing politics here? It’s September 12. Yesterday many Americans took part in ceremonies and service projects in remembrance of the victims of the attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001. In much of the rest of America, there is an active movement to nail shut the “golden door,” to turn out a sign that would say “No tired, no poor nor huddled masses yearning to breathe free; especially no wretched refuse, no homeless, and let the tempest-tost stay in Guatemala and Pakistan.”
Would Americans bother to contribute to build a Statue of Liberty today? Or would they protest against it?
Does that lamp still shine beside the golden door?
Stereoscopic image of the arm and torch of Liberty, at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia; Robert N. Dennis Collection, New York Public Library. The arm was displayed to encourage contributions to the fund to build a pedestal for the statue, from private donations.
_____________
* I’m calculating Liberty’s gaze at about 40 feet below the tip of the torch, which is just over 305 feet above the base of the statue on the ground. The base is probably 20 feet higher than the water, but this isn’t exact science we’re talking about here.
32 Comments | History, Homelessness, Icons of history, Immigration, Patriotism, Poetry, Poverty | Tagged: Emma Lazarus, Golden Door, History, Homelessness, Icons of History, Immigration, New Colossus, Patriotism, Poetry, Poverty, Statue of Liberty | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Dan Valentine, Hosteling is a gas
September 11, 2010By Dan Valentine
I like a hostel. More than once I’ve said I love a hostel. I’m downgrading my heartfelt affection a notch or two.
My stay here, which up to now comes to a little more than four months — twice as long as my second marriage — has been killing me from day one, or so I believe — little by little, slowly but surely, softly with its song.
“Sssssssssss!”
I don’t feel well — and haven’t for weeks. I can hardly lift a finger, take a single step. I walk around like — well, like the living dead.
For many months now — no doubt, way before I ever arrived — there has been a leak in a gas pipe just outside the kitchen door, which is left open during the daylight hours. It’s a miracle of sorts that nothing disastrous has happened despite the fact that guests have been cooking all the while on the gas stove, the leak just a short ways away.
From the online edition of The Hindu, India’s National Newspaper, 2008: “Two died as gas exploded in a hostel kitchen in Bangalore. The explosion damaged window panes of the hostel as well as those of neighboring houses.”
From BBC News: “Last September four Brits were among 13 guests at an alpine hostel in Tyrol, Austria, who were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning from a leak from a faulty heating system after some of the guests complained of dizziness, headaches, and blurred vision.”
Dizziness? I can relate to that of late.
A few weeks ago, I got up one morning, lit a cigarette on the back veranda, took a puff or two, stood up, and had to catch myself, gripping firmly onto the iron grate of a nearby Spanish gate, afraid I was going to faint.
Headaches? I can relate to that, too.
When I was younger, I suffered mightily from severe migraines. After getting the holy crap beat out of me in D.C. a few years ago, the migraines mysteriously went away. I was mugged and beaten so bad that the culprits, afraid they had killed me, ran off without taking my wallet and money. As a result of the beating, my daily migraines vanished. Poof! Some good came from bad. But, in the past few weeks, the headaches have returned.
Blurred vision? That, too I can relate to, but it’s not a recent development. In my youth, I worked for Sen. Orrin Hatch. That’s what brought me Washington, the nation’s murder capital at the time.
From “Messageboards – Bolivia: “Our first night we had carbon monoxide poisoning from the hostel we stayed in. People were passing out, being sick and we all had massive headaches.”
Being sick? That I have been. Very, very sick. Massive headaches? Not massive but, as I mentioned, headaches have become a part of my daily life once again.
I haven’t passed out, but I can barely stand at times. One morning Rodreigo, daytime receptionist/nighttime musician, happened to come out the back door to the veranda, where I was bracing myself again, one hand grasping a nearby rail. I had just had my first morning puff of a cigarette. I handed him my newly-bought pack. “Take ‘em!” I said. “They’re killing me!” I went for a long walk along the beach down the road.
From Wikipedia: “Oxygen works as an antidote as it increases the removal of carbon monoxide.”
Soon after talking in the fresh sea air I felt much better — for a short time.
From Wikipedia again: Symptoms of mild acute poisoning include headaches (check), vertigo (check), and flu-like effects.”
A few weeks back a visitor from Finland stayed here for a time. We became fast friends. He was moving to Canada for the warm weather. (That’s how cold Finland is!) He did not enjoy his time here. He was sick with the flu almost his entire stay, as I was long after he left. He thought he had caught it from two visiting Germans who had the flu. They, too, without knowing it, may well have been suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.
From Wikipedia once again: “Chronic exposure to low levels of carbon monoxide can lead to depression.
I was sitting one day on the veranda. Two guests were sitting talking at the picnic bench — one from the mainland of Mexico, one from Switzerland. Both where jovial and happy — on vacation from worry and woe. The Mexican smiled and asked me, “Enjoying life?”
“Nope!” I replied and I was deadly serious.
Shortly after, the two rose from their seats and returned inside. I could read their thoughts: “What’s his problem? He’s no fun!”
I’m almost always “up”. I rarely, if ever, get depressed. And when I am, I try my best to hide the fact. But when you feel like you’re dying . . .
From the website “Silent shadow : silent killer”:
“Carbon monoxide, also known as CO, is a potentially deadly gas that can have devastating effects upon your life — assuming, of course, that it doesn’t kill you.”
I’ve been inhaling the fumes for months now. One day, some weeks back, I felt so sick that I strolled slowly up the street to the nearest hospital, which wasn’t that close, to the emergency entrance. Gathered outside were countless poor. Standing and sitting in the waiting room were countless more. The receptionist didn’t speak English. We tried to communicate with each other best we could. She asked one of those waiting to show me her card. It was in Spanish, but I got the gist. It was a Mexican social security card. The receptionist wanted to know if I had one. I shook my head no and went on my way.
From some internet source (I’ve misplaced my notes; I’m not thinking straight): “Exposure to carbon monoxide can lead to confusion.”
To say the least! A month or so ago, I lost my debit card. The cash machines here are in Spanish. Of course! I pressed the wrong button and it ate my card. I had to take the bus to the border an hour and half away, to the closest Chase Bank to get cash. Gabrielle/Gabby, the hostel manager, lent me money for the fare.
The bad news: Chase won’t mail me a new card until I have a U.S. address to mail it to.
The good news: When I withdrew much-needed cash, I found several hundred dollars that I didn’t know was there. My bestest best friend in the world had deposited it into my account. Who does that but a saint? She has little money to spare. She was up for tenure this year as full professor at the University of Houston-Clear Lake but was let go — only to be rehired directly afterward as an adjunct professor, teaching the same classes she’s been teaching the past five years at the same university at half or so the salary. And she’s not the only one! Class-action law-suit stuff!
In the movies. Not in real life.
Once again, from “Silent shadow : silent killer”: “The effects of carbon monoxide poisoning can and does kill thousands of people each year. Some people simply slip away into unconsciousness or a deep sleep from which they will never reawaken.”
Thank heaven for the frequent all-night drinking parties on the back veranda. Few guests if any — carbon monoxide or no — are likely to slip away into a deep sleep here.
From some source on the internet (I forget which one): “Carbon monoxide poisoning can cause memory loss.”
Memory loss. Memory loss. Hmmm. What’s that? Oh, yes, memory loss! (Check.)
Just kidding. I can well remember the night a gas leak was first suspected. Three or so weeks back, I was out on the back veranda again, chatting with a young London couple and a young backpacker from Australia.
One of them asked, “Can you smell that?”
I said, “No, what?” My nose has been broken so man times I can’t smell a thing.
“Smells like rotten eggs.”
“It’s gas,” said another. “Leaking gas.”
“Holy shit!” said a third.
From “Silent shadow : silent killer”: “Carbon monoxide has no taste, color or odor, and can be breathed in over a short or long time without you ever knowing that it is present.”
Suppliers add a rotten egg scent to signal that harmful gas vapors are loose in the air. Until that night, no one had complained about it. Except for the Danes, and they had pointed their fingers at me! Those damn Danes!
I immediately informed Gabby, who wrinkled her brow and said she had been having headaches for months.
A few days later, the owner — of the business, not the building — who lives in Switzerland, paid a short visit with his wife, whom he had met here at the hostel. He’s Mexican-born and very dashing. She’s Parisian and very lovely. They both look like movie stars. I like movie stars. But, at that present time, for this particular precarious predicament, what the place needed was a GLS — a Gas-Leak Specialist.
Hostels are wonderfully inexpensive because they’re run on the cheap. A buck saved here, a buck saved there. Some bad comes with good. Life is a two-sided coin.
Shortly after his arrival, the owner of the hostel business (not the building) smeared soap suds from a cloth on the gas pipes in and around the boiler, watching for bubbles to arise, exposing the leak. Unable to detect one, the dashing pair dashed on their way — they were on vacation — the scent of leaking gas still in the air.
The task and glory of finding the leak fell upon the shoulders of Rodreigo, the daytime receptionist/nighttime musician. Several days went by without success. Then one morning on bended knee, he leaned an ear down to listen.
“Sssssssssss!”
The sssss-hissing sound was coming from a puncture in a very thin pipe on the ground by the kitchen door. He smeared soap on it and the bubbling suds billowed up as if it were a boiling mud pot in Yellowstone National Park. You had to see it to believe it! Caught on film, it surely would have been a huge hit on YouTube. Rodreigo covered the leak with a wet towel. Ole!
A professional Gas-Leak Specialist was contracted to replace the punctured pipe. While doing so, he told Gabby a story about another leak he had recently fixed. After leaving the premises upon completion of his task, according to the specialist, the gentleman residing there had lit himself a cigar and — boom! — one of the walls exploded outward in flames, leaving a major peep-hole in his bedroom. Fumes from the gas leak had seeped into the paint on the wall.
But, anyway, back to the hostel here . . .
So all’s well, right? Perhaps, perhaps not. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I can’t write. I can’t walk but for a few short steps at a time. When I’m not resting in my bunk, I’m resting on the one “comfortable” chair on the back veranda.
Gabby has told me more than once: Everyone else is okay! — though, she herself experienced headaches many days after the leak was fixed. (But, then again, perhaps the headaches were caused by me! That could very well be!)
I, in rebuttal, have replied: Most everyone else stays for a couple of days or so. I’ve been here for four straight months. Most everyone else takes in the sights, so they’re out and about. I’ve been staying inside, day in and day out, writing and typing away at the computer here. I rarely leave the place.
A couple of nights ago I came out from resting in my room for a bite to eat in the kitchen. “Are you okay?” she asked. She, too, now is concerned about my health.
I lied and said I was.
First thing the next morning, gazing at me with deep concern, she asked, “You want me to take you to the Red Cross?”
I told her there was a VA medical center in La Jolla and that I was going to take the bus there in the next couple of days.
“I have business to do in Tijuana,” she said. “I will drive you to the border.”
From Googling again: “In many cases, the symptoms may wear off within a short period.”
Good to hear, comforting to know!
“However, in some cases the effects are permanent, particularly in the case of brain damage.”
This, I must admit, is worrisome. When you’re down and out, you get through each day thinking to yourself that you’ll get out of the mess you’ve got yourself into — somehow, someway. There are still opportunities out there, you tell yourself, if you can just hang in there and brave it out.
But with brain damage, well, you have no options but one: being bused to Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin rallies.
4 Comments | air pollution, Dan Valentine, Health care, Mexico, Travel | Tagged: Clean Air, Dan Valentine, Ensenada, Health care, Mexico, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 