Dear Reader,
My apologies. Posting is slow — as it always is when the new school year begins. But this year is complicated by a death in the family.
Find a thread and comment.
How are things at your school this year, so far?
Slow posting
August 27, 2009
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Happy birthday, Toni Novello
August 23, 2009She looks stuffy in the photographs, but Toni Novello is one of the most genuine people and funniest women I’ve ever worked with — sometimes without intention. When veterans of the old Senate Labor Committee chairman’s staff get together, we still laugh over Toni’s return from a weekend health care seminar raving about “Cahoon cooking.”
We were puzzled until somebody remembered the seminar she spoke at was in New Orleans. In her Puerto Rican view, Cajun was just pronounced a little differently.
Brilliance packaged in a human exterior.
Today in Science History tells us Toni was born on August 23, 19√∞. “Physician and public official, the first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as surgeon general of the United States.”
Leave a Comment » | Health care, History, Life, Personal, U.S. Senate | Tagged: Antonia Novello, Health care, Life, Personal, U.S. Senate | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Happy Birthday, Judge Ben Davidian
July 3, 2009George M. Cohan sang that he was a “real-live nephew of my Uncle Sam, born on the Fourth of July.”
Ben Davidian would have liked that birthdate, but truth be told, he wanted to savor the full day — so he was born on the third of July.
In April he was named by Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggar to a judgeship in Sacramento.
Happy birthday, Ben. (Which is it: 39? 40?) I won’t tell anyone that secretly you’re a great fan of Joan Baez.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Happy Birthday, too
April 1, 2009
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Posted by Ed Darrell
New prize plaque for the Bathtub, a sunny day on the slopes
March 29, 2009Café Philos awarded a Sun Mountain Award to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.
We’re flattered, thankful, and shy on words. It’s nice that someone is reading. It’s nice that readers of Café Philos may sneak over here for a look, and join in some of the conversations (as a few already have).
Sun Mountain Award
Café Philos is the blog that posted the best summary of the John Freshwater affair in Wisconsin that exists on the internet, and probably in daily media, too. Paul Sunstone writes good stuff, and has a good following of thoughtful commenters and readers.
Plus, I love the early morning sun on that mountain, that can only be part of the Rockies, where I grew up.
Welcome to the Bathtub, you readers of Café Philos. And, thanks for thinking of us, Paul. Now we have to write as if it really matters, as if people are really reading. You spur people to higher standards with these positive strokes.
It always matters, of course.
3 Comments | Administrivia, Personal, Weblogs | Tagged: Awards, Cafe Philos, Personal, Sun Mountain Award | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fixing personal history
October 22, 2008You know how you think about things in history, about your view of things, and then come to realize that how you had been thinking about them, it couldn’t have happened that way?
I just came to the realization that my father couldn’t have been working on Liberty Ships during World War II, I don’t think. He was north of Los Angeles, in the Bay Area during World War II. His plumbing and pipefitting would have had to have been in the 1930s.
Who is left alive to tell? Another case of “I wish he’d written it down,” and “I shoulda got the tape recorder and wired myself up to ask those questions.”
(Here’s where we discover my older siblings don’t read this blog, as we’ve suspected all along.)
5 Comments | Accuracy, Family, History, Personal | Tagged: Accuracy, Family, History, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
UTEP class
October 12, 2008Hey, UTEP. Just for my own gratification, could someone let me know what class it is that is using which material from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub?
Thanks.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Thanks a million
September 29, 2008Sometime Monday afternoon or evening at approximately 4:40 p.m. Central Daylight Time, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub will pass passed the million total views milestone.
It’s nowhere near the readership of Pharyngula, Eduwonks, Daily Kos or others. For some reason, many readers feel no need to scrawl on the bathroom wall here (comments are always welcomed, edited only for profanity), so the comments don’t reflect total readership, I think.
Thank you to each and every reader, and especially to the faithful readers who keep coming back day after day. Thank you to the large handful who send story ideas.
In periods like the current one, when there is so little time to post on key issues, it’s especially gratifying that readership continues to rise.
Thank you, Dear Readers.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
What a road trip!
September 20, 2008We may have crossed paths with P. Z. Myers — but he didn’t recognize the rented Saturn I was driving in Wisconsin, I’m sure.
He only drove across two states. I flew to Chicago, drove to Appleton, Wisconsin, and then drove back to Dallas, Texas. We didn’t take nearly the number of photos we should have, but there are some observations on technology and the open road to come.
In the meantime, readers were generally polite — but as always, not enough of you left comments.
Comments are open. Always. Take advantage.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Ike, armadilloes, and a Texas send off
September 14, 2008Younger son James is on his way to Wisconsin and college. Assuming Texas is as sad as his mother about it, it has some odd ways of showing it.
Some time Wednesday or Thursday an armadillo, the quintessential Texas critter, crawled into the bushes and undergrowth outside the front door, and died. By Thursday night it had made its presence known.
James mowed the lawn in one last show of good deeds before he left, but in order to survive that section of the yard the ‘dillo influenced, he had to find and dispose of the corpse. A dead armadillo (wounded by an auto?) isn’t the same as a horse’s head in your bed, but it makes you wonder.
Then, James and his mother drove out Saturday morning, just after the first arms of Hurricane Ike reached our area. They drove in rain all day, but most of the rain was from a Pacific tropical depression. They had left Ike behind, they hoped.
This morning they awoke in St. Louis to discover Ike had caught up with them. For most of their drive to Appleton, Wisconsin, they’ll have Hurricane Ike cleaning the windshield for them.
James is the only native-born Texan in the family. What is Texas trying to say?
4 Comments | Family, Personal, Texas, Travel | Tagged: Family, Personal, Texas, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
900,000
August 14, 2008Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub passed the 900,000 clicks mark about 8 a.m. Central Time.
Thanks to readers.
Dear Readers, leave more comments! Anonymous visitors, you know who you are. Exercise your right to free speech, here, at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.
"As people like Emma Goldman were prevented from speaking, societies formed to protect the right to free speech. A pamphlet created by Alden Freeman alerted people to the fight for free speech. It contains a tongue-in-cheek New York Times account of his attempt to hold a meeting where Emma Goldman could speak freely and without police restriction."
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Blue Collar Scientist, Jeff Medkeff
August 4, 2008Blue Collar Scientist burst on the blogosphere last December. News from Pharyngula is that Jeff Medkeff’s liver cancer took him — he died last night.
With luck, someone will be sure his on-line and in-print work is archived. His voice, his activism, his enthusiasm, his patience and deep knowledge seem irreplaceable. Scientists and other rational people will have to work much harder to fill in the gaps.
So long, Jeff.
Leave a Comment » | Health care, Point of personal privilege, Science, Weblogs | Tagged: blogs, health, Personal, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Less than a month to a million
July 29, 2008About midnight Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub got its 875,000th click. We should make a million by September.
Maybe viewership would be higher if I retitled the blog, “I CAN HAS CHEESE HISTORY,” or if I changed the format to “Strange History.”
Eh, we’ll stick to the knitting we know. Thanks to the many readers.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
850,000
July 15, 2008The milestone of 850,000 clicks sneaked by last week. Thanks to you, Dear Reader.
1 Comment | Administrivia, Personal, Weblogs | Tagged: Administrivia, blogging, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Back from the brink
July 12, 2008Literally. Lots of brinks — the brink of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the brink of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the brink of Bryce Canyon, the brinks of canyons in Zion National Park . . .
Just got back from the tour of southern Utah and northern Arizona. WiFi is available out there, but it’s not always easy to use. We’ll be doing some catch up here.
Thanks to all the kind folk who dropped by and left comments. Thanks to the unkind folk, too.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 