Archive For December 2009
Recalling a Few New Year’s Eve Traditions
on December 31, 2009 by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Ring out the grief that saps the mind.
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor;
Ring in redress of all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manner, purer laws.
– “New Year’s Eve” a poem written by Lord Tennyson, 1850
The year dismally known as the Great Recession is almost behind us; (or so they say); let’s hope 2010 is more prosperous, less stressful, with expectations less people lose their homes and more, many more, find new jobs after such a dreadful year.
As we prepare to ring in the New Year, here are a few historic facts we can mull over while waiting for the ball to come down on a wet frigid night at Times Square in New York.
• In medieval times, the beginning of the New Year was celebrated on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation or Lady Day until Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, a system used to this day which configured the 365 days of the year to accommodate a seven-day week. It wasn’t until 1752, however, that England and America recognized this new system.
• The month of January gets its name from the Roman god “Janus,” or “Januarus,” a god said to have two heads and two sets of eyes, each facing the opposite direction., one looking back the other forward. From this, the New Year tradition of welcoming the future and saying goodbye to the past was conceived.
• The most popular song associated with New Year’s Eve “Auld Lang Syne” (which translates to “old long ago”), was originally an anonymous 15th century poem, when it first turned up in a book of Scottish poetry by George Bannatyne under the title “Auld Kyndness Forgot”. Another version was published in 1711, “Old Long Syne” (believed to be Francis Sempill), and in 1724, Allan Ramsay turned it into a song, Auld Lang Syne” in the “Tea Table Miscella”; before Scottish poet Robert Burns added two verses (3 and 4), which was then published 5 months after his death in 1796 in a collection entitled Scots Musical Museum.
• In 1837, Charles Dickens ruminating on the ringing in the New Year wrote in Sketches by Boz: “We measure man’s life by years, and it is a solemn knell that warns us we have passed another of the landmarks which stand between us the grave. Disguise it as we may, the reflection will force itself on our minds, that when the next bell announces the arrival of a new year, we may be insensible alike of the timely warning we have so often neglected, and all the warm feelings that within us now.”
• Beginning in 1886, members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers while parading through the streets of Pasadena, Calif., in celebration of the ripe orange crop, which was then followed by a polo match, a tug of war, or greased pig-catching competition.
End of Year, 2009
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
2009 was certainly not a year of triumphs for mankind nor human kindliness. The world economic crisis is neither diagnostically nor therapeutically on the way to a solution. The theatres of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the caves of Waziristan and the bitter feuds in the Middle East between Israel, the Palestinians, the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah are still in the headlines. The Iran crisis is the most serious trial of strength for the ‘open society’. Were a peaceful solution to fail a costly war might be inevitable. Yet left unresolved a bloody day of judgement later on would exact much greater casualties.
For Europe, 2009 was in a certain sense a year of limited success, since the Lisbon Treaty became at last a reality. Yet the old continent is far away from being capable of acting in unison. The old triangle, Germany, France, Great Britain, has once again shrunk to a strengthened axis: Berlin-Paris. Though Frau Merkel and Monsieur Sarkozy might not be temperamentally ideally suited their closer collaboration is influenced by the uncertain political situation in London which limits the effectiveness of Gordon Brown’s leadership. Elections next May will very probably bring David Cameron’s young Tory crew to power. The governing Labour party is far too preoccupied with its own future. The Conservatives have unfortunately no constructive foreign policy and their relationship with the United States is incomparably cooler than it was with Tony Blair. Republicans mistrust Cameron’s critical attitude to the Bush regime and the Democrats feel that the Tories are still ideologically far from Obama’s position.
As for Europe, the Tories’ uncompromising Euro-scepticism and their exodus from the Conservative bloc at the Strasburg parliament, where they joined forces with radical Right Poles and Balts, embittered influential conservative groups, notably Germany’s CDU and CSU.
Tony Blair’s failure to become President of the European Union harmed Great Britain because he, more than any other candidate, had, through his charisma and energy, been an influential British voice in Europe. The election of a pale Labour lady from the British House of Lords as Europe’s Foreign Minister with increased powers as successor to so weighty a personality as Spain’s Javier Solana was certainly no compensation. All the more so as the French, through Michel Barnier’s appointment as Commissioner for Europe’s Internal Market, will now have a decisive influence on the important financial sector and the trading of the City of London.
The End Of A Decade: We Are All Harry Whittington
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
A few weeks ago, Newsweek produced a video, which condensed the major news events of the past decade into one seven-minute mashup video. This interested me! So, I merrily sat down at my desk, queued it up, and prepared to watch it unfold. At the time, I thought: “Oh, this will be fun.”
It was not fun. Not at all. You know what? This past decade was pretty terrible!
The good thing about memory is that it protects you from realizations like this. And the nice thing about history is that it unfolds very slowly as you page back through it, with an emphasis on patiently allowing the reader to make sense of it all. But as I watched the decade replay itself before my eyes, it was a weird combination of warp speed images and strangely elongated memories as the “what I lived through” and the “how I lived through it” attempted to co-exist in my brain at the same time.
As the video began, the first big event was the Y2K concerns that everyone had at the beginning of the decade. This was a breezy, easy way to begin. I recall, perhaps incorrectly, that Y2K was this big concern that was rather easily surmounted, and maybe wasn’t that big a deal to begin with. For an instant, I smiled inwardly. I relaxed, just a little bit. I allowed myself to lower my guard.
That was a big mistake! Because a few instants later, the decade was off and running, it’s awfulness blooming anew in my face. September 11th. Katrina. Lehmann Brothers. War, collapse, ruination, privation, recession. This decade, and its relentless pummel, was coming at me hard, like a shot to the face. And as an audience to it and participant in it, I could do nothing else but take it.
And damned if after it was all over, I didn’t think to myself, “Wow. This must be like how it felt to be Harry Whittington.”
Let’s cast our minds back to Saturday, February 11, 2006. Harry Whittington was, at the time, a 78 year old lawyer who lived in Texas, and whose life, as far as history was concerned, was largely unremarkable, save for one thing: he was an intimate of Vice President Dick Cheney. And on that day, Whittington and Cheney were members of a hunting party, casting after quail at the Armstrong Ranch in Texas. The two men were reportedly friends. Maybe even BFFs — I do not know. What’s important is that on the morning of February 11th, Harry Whittington awoke safe in the knowledge that Dick Cheney was among his well-wishers. That’s not nothing! There are billions of people across this planet who Dick Cheney literally wishes to be visited with some sort of indiscriminate harm.
10 Years Ago: How Doodlings Helped Me Survive Y2K
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
I’ve always loved writing. I grew up writing short stories, making up characters and plots, and just letting my imagination run wild.
Fiction was my favorite. But in late 1999, I tried my hand at something different and far too “real”: chronicling the final 100 days of Planet Earth. You know, just in case.
I was 13 years old and you know how kids are…impressionable. So all the Y2K talk in the media got to my head. I was hoping my words — if it really was the end — could serve as an archive of human history, what life was like before the extinction. (And I’m not kidding. I sincerely thought that.)
Funny thing is I was documenting what mattered to ME, so it’s a rather humorous look into my past (the life of a 13-year-old), and hardly an archive for mankind as I intended.
Jokes aside, it was therapeutic for me in a sense. Every night, the pen and paper helped keep me sane as my mother stocked up on water and food, and the media constantly focused on the implications of Y2K.
A decade later, I thought it appropriate to look back on these entries, which began Sept. 27, 1999. Here are some excerpts, particularly as the “end” drew near.
*******************************
Sometimes the entries were so plain and matter-of-fact, it’s almost comical.
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999 — 37 days left:
-Woke up at 7:00 a.m.
-Went to school at 7:40 a.m., dismissed early (because of mass)….8:31 a.m.
-Play practice (music) at school today, 10:30-11:20. I’m Nick, if you didn’t know
-Did Language/Religion homework
-I played NFL Quarterback Club 98 (N64) with dad, he was the NY Jets, beat me, the Buffalo Bills, 76-65!
-I watched “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”…again! Last day of that show is tomorrow!
-It’s 9:55 p.m. now…. YAWN!!!! Oh, 9:56 p.m. now. Over and out.
For those also from Buffalo, N.Y., one bullet a few days later made it CLEAR it was the 90s:
Sunday, Nov. 28, 1999 — 32 days left:
-Bills won over the Patriots 17-7, now 8-4! Moulds touchdown, Gash touchdown, Christie field goal.
My family’s journey into high-speed Internet (at least “high speed” at the time) was documented.
Saturday, Dec. 4, 1999 — 26 days left:
Adelphia PowerLink was hooked up today! I tried it! It’s sooooo fast and soooo neat! You can listen to any radio station in the world. And, over 1,000 music videos at www.launch.com! Plus the phone line is never tied up. I’m so glad we got this!
Another big moment in my life came a few days later. (It was a crazy time — with the world ending, might as well do everything at once, you know?)
Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1999 — 22 days left:
It’s in stone now: I’m getting glasses to see better for objects far away. I picked out a really nice brown frame. I am near-sighted.
CNN’s Sanchez Grills Ensign On His Affair (VIDEO)
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Some generally awkward television took place Thursday afternoon when Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) — invited on CNN to discuss the botched Christmas terrorist attack — was quizzed about ethics allegations that he set up and aided the husband of his mistress with a lobbying gig.
The Nevada Republican insisted throughout the segment that he had done nothing unethical or untoward in arranging for his former staffer Doug Hampton to join a political consulting firm and then setting him up with clients. But with each attempt at evasion, host Rick Sanchez came back with another the excruciating question.
“Did you help [Hampton] get a job because you felt bad for him or because you had been sleeping with his wife and you wanted to get him out of the way,” the CNN anchor asked at one point.
For his part, Ensign didn’t walk off the set. But it seemed pretty clear that the senator and his staff had secured a promise from CNN beforehand that the topic of his affair would not be discussed.
Here is video courtesy of Talking Points Memo:
“I commented all I was going to comment on that,” said Ensign. “And we told you when we were going to come on here that I’m going to be focused on health care, I’m going to be focused on the economy… You can ask it all the ways you want to ask it.”
Ensign largely dropped off the national political scene after his affair with Hampton’s wife, Cynthia Hampton, became public this past June. The CNN appearance was his first on the network since the story broke, Sanchez said.
But a New York Times story months later raised the possibility that the senator skirted ethics rules in order to outfit his mistress’s jilted husband with a consulting gig, one in which he was allowed to lobby Ensign’s staff. In addition, the senator reportedly encouraged friends and associates to give Hampton business when money started going dry.
Asked by Sanchez whether the arrangement violated restrictions on staffers lobbying their former bosses, Ensign replied, succinctly: “That’s his problem. That’s not my problem…. I believe that based on facts, the ethics committee will clear me and I will go on being a senator.”
Sanchez would persist, but get little further. “I will applaud you for your efforts but I told you before, I have answered the questions I’m going to answer,” said Ensign.
How the Top Ten Animal Stories of the Decade Reveal the Connection Between Animal Welfare and Public Health
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
This past decade was, arguably, the decade of animals. More news stories covered animal welfare issues than ever before and some of the major events of the past decade involved animals. Animal protection has become a considerable social issue. But there is more to animal protection than the well-being of animals; human welfare is integrally tied with it and during this past decade, this connection was highlighted in unprecedented ways. The following top ten animal stories of the past ten years, listed in no particular order, reveal just how connected human and animal welfare and health are:
1. Michael Vick and dog fighting. Vick’s conviction for running a dog fighting ring brought unparalleled attention to the underground world of animal fighting and the immense cruelty involved. The human welfare connection was also illustrated as animal fighting is associated with other illegal crimes. Up to two-thirds of those who commit animal cruelty also commit at least one other criminal offense, including violence towards other humans, particularly women and children.
2. Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, the world watched, horrified, as many people refused to evacuate their homes and in some cases, risk death to avoid losing their companion animals (who were not welcome in local shelters). Indeed, the most common reason people return to evacuation sites is to rescue their animal. Post-Katrina studies show that the loss of companion animals worsened the mental trauma many people suffered. This was a wake-up call for emergency rescue agencies to take animal rescue seriously.
3. and 4. Swine and Avian influenzas. It’s now apparent that what happens on the farm doesn’t always stay on the farm. When avian (H5N1) influenza spread rapidly across poultry farms in Asia in 2003 and jumped the species barrier to infect humans, questions were raised about the potential for the next pandemic to originate from animal farms. The current swine (H1N1) flu pandemic, though relatively mild, confirms that animal agriculture can play a significant role in the emergence of new, deadlier strains of flu viruses. Animals raised for food are increasingly crammed into intensive animal operations or “factory farms”, living in profoundly unhygienic and stressful conditions. The animal’s reduced immunity, due to prolonged stress and high crowding, create perfect breeding grounds for new diseases.
5. and 6. Exotic pet attacks. The horrendous 2009 attack of a woman in Connecticut by a “pet” chimpanzee and the 2003 tiger attack against Roy Horn of the “Siegfried and Roy” animal act underscored the dangers of keeping exotic animals as pets or for entertainment. No one knows why these particular animals attacked, but exotic animals raised as pets or used for entertainment are too often kept in deplorable or inadequate housing conditions or are subjected to other forms of abuse. Exotic animals can’t be handled safely and can carry infectious diseases, posing immense public health risks.
9 Best Books From Small Publishers
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Running the small press section at Powell’s in Portland and running my own little press has put me in a position to see a lot of cool stuff from authors before anyone else has even heard of them. 2009 was no exception. Here are the highlights from my own personal reading list…
“Some Things That Meant the World To Me” by Joshua Mohr (novel, Two Dollar Radio)
Mohr takes the loser-guy down-on-his-luck story and turns it on its head. This bizarre story of a guy named Rhonda is like a weird Kafka-Murakami-Bukowski smoothie with a lot of chunky bits.
“A Jello Horse” by Matthew Simmons (novella, Publishing Genius)
An odd little road story, complete with surreal roadside attractions and a melancholy tone that will pleasantly haunt you when it’s all over.
Gagaku Meat: The Steve Richmond Story by Mike Daily (biography zine)
This is an engaging and meticulously researched biography (in oversized chapbook form) about the enigmatic California poet (who died a few months after it came out). A wonderfully illustrated and revealing look at one mad dude.
“Everything Was Fine Until Whatever” by Chelsea Martin (stories, art, Future Tense Books)
Ok–so I actually published this one on my press, but it’s such a weird little stew of stories, lists, meta-poems, and art that I can’t keep my mind off of how brilliant and fresh it all is.
“The Collected Fanzines” by Harmony Korine (Drag City)
Published by the fine folks at Drag City record label, this thick tome includes all of Harmony’s pre-famous filmmaker zines. And they’re just as weird as his movies.
“Big World” by Mary Miller (short stories, Hobart)
Mary Miller writes likes a fine combo of Ray Carver and A.M. Homes. This is one of those books where you just think: Where the hell did this lady come from?!
“Ever” by Blake Butler (novella, Calamari Press)
Blake Butler published two books on great small presses this year and they’re both saturated in their own lunatic worlds. Ever, if my brain translated it correctly, is about a woman trapped inside a house that won’t let her out. A tormented and highly stylized wonder of a book.
“Scary No Scary” by Zachary Schomburg (poems, Black Ocean)
Schomburg is possibly the man who will save poetry for all of those readers who are about to give up on the genre. Scary No Scary is both funny and ridiculously original. A playful, mournful, and sometimes sweet collection full of fantastic images and odd dialogue.
“Capacity” by Theo Ellsworth (graphic novel, Secret Acres)
Ellsworth’s weird little tales sometimes read like acid trips of the future, complete with lonely robots and unknown creatures. But there’s also a nice personal story threading through this. I have no idea why this guy isn’t considered a comics God yet. Maybe someday he rightfully will be.
The Best Behind-The-Scenes White House Photos From Obama’s First Year
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Whatever your opinion of President Obama’s first year in office, it’s undeniable that 2009 produced some amazing behind-the-scenes White House photography. Here are the best pictures of the president, his family and staff at work and at play. Take a look and tell us your favorite:
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Arianna Says Obama’s Focus On Wall Street Rather Than Main Street At Root Of Public Anger (VIDEO)
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
President Obama’s support for Wall Street, rather than Main street, is behind the public anger and frustration, Arianna argued on Morning Joe.
She weighed in on the president’s job performance during a taped appearance that aired Thursday morning. Obama, she says, campaigned on a platform of change, but instead of real change many of his policies have bolstered the status quo. Now, he is surprised with the results.
“…[Obama], after all, painted a very dark picture of what was happening, a broken system, the special interests dominating everything, and he said yes we can change that. And he also said in Denver, remember, that the greatest risk would be to surround ourselves with the same people, playing the same political game, expecting different results. And then he went into the White House and did exactly that. He surrounded himself with the same political people, you know Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel, he kept Gates, he kept Bernanke, he played the same political game and he expected different results and he didn’t get them. And in the middle of all that, he basically decided that he was for Wall Street, rather than Main street. The anger is very clearly about that.”
David Gregory agreed with Arianna’s questions about Obama and the middle class, explaining that it’s hard for Americans to see record profits for Wall Street firms while experiencing some of the highest unemployment numbers in decades.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Ten Things That Totally Sucked About The Media In 2009
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
So, earlier today, I offered up the Ten Things That Did Not Suck About The Media in 2009. You know what’s coming now! The stuff in 2009 that straight up sucked canal water! Let’s hit it and quit it.
CHRIS MATTHEWS’ “OH GOD” MOMENT
Back in February, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal provided the rebuttal to an address from President Barack Obama, where he would go on to express his passion for not paying attention to volcanoes. If you were watching MSNBC that night, you were treated to the sound of somebody muttering “Oh, God” as Jindal walked to the cameras. That person was Chris Matthews, who isn’t exactly known for being able to keep his internal monologue from manifesting itself externally. He offered this weird explanation for his outburst:
I was taken aback by that peculiar stagecraft, the walking from somewhere in the back of this narrow hall, this winding staircase looming there, the odd anti-bellum [sic] look of the scene. Was this some mimicking of a president walking along the state floor to the East Room?
Blame it on the architecture!
CNN BLOWS THE BALLOON BOY STORY
There were a multitude of reasons to put CNN on this list in 2009. There was that time they called an 84-year old woman, stuck waiting tables in this recession was “lucky.” There was CNN reporter Susan Roesgen pointlessly manufacturing a confrontation at a Tea Party protest so she could work out her grievances with Fox News. There was also that time they fact-checked Saturday Night Live, because they are just so FEARLESS. But for me, the Golden Moment came when CNN took credit for the balloon boy scoop THAT THEY ACTUALLY MISSED WHEN IT HAPPENED.
GEORGE WILL ABUSES WAPO’S READERS, WITH WAPO’s PERMISSION
The Washington Post’s “worst opinion section in America” offered their readers a healthy amount of pure, sneering contempt this year, but they truly hit their stride when they allowed George Will to make a malformed argument about climate change in a column that “contained outright misrepresentations of scientific data, on a level that goes far beyond honest differences of opinion.” Fred Hiatt idiotically responded by saying:
If you want to start telling me that columnists can’t make inferences which you disagree with–and, you know, they want to run a campaign online to pressure newspapers into suppressing minority views on this subject–I think that’s really inappropriate. It may well be that he is drawing inferences from data that most scientists reject — so, you know, fine, I welcome anyone to make that point. But don’t make it by suggesting that George Will shouldn’t be allowed to make the contrary point. Debate him.
Yes! Let’s have a debate between people who pursue actual science and draw conclusions from their evidence and a columnist that counters by saying, “No, no. What you really mean to conclude is the opposite, because I say so!”