Archive Madness

A short film from two University of Denver LIS Students, who created in for a Visual Media Class on perceptions in Libraries. It's a silent film. Filmed at Denver's Westminster Law Library.

Did You Ever Get the Feeling You Were Being Watched?

I mention here frequently how much I enjoy the site, kottke.org. I posted about the "When Nixon Met Elvis" site back when I noted that the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death had rolled to the top of the calendar.

Well, Mr. Kottke got around to noticing the National Archives and the Elvis/Nixon site in April 2008. I'm just saying. There is a case to be made for staying off his radar, but it's nice to get the plug from a site that has lots of visitors.

Now Wait Just a Minute . . .

I am off tonight to the "prom," the dinner/dance that precedes the social event of the season here in my town, Cheverly Day. If you are in the neighborhood, you should stop by. I am given to understand that the fireworks tomorrow night are spectacular.

So you don't miss me, here is a list that I shamelessly "borrowed" from the New York Times Op-Ed page today (it even bumped the list that was scheduled for today to another Friday) . . .

• Every 2 seconds someone requires a blood donation. (American Red Cross)
  
• Every 6 seconds someone dies from tobacco use. (World Health Organization)
• Every 6 seconds an Australian buys an item of clothing on eBay. (The Age)
• Every 6 second someone is killed or injured on a road somewhere in the world. (Make Roads Safe)
• Every 15 seconds the Large Synoptic Survey telescope in Chile photographs a section of the night sky. A complete panorama of the firmament is completed every three days. (The Guardian)
• Every 25 seconds someone in the United States is burned or scalded at home. (Health News Digest)
• Every 26 seconds a student drops out of an American public high school. (America's Promise Alliance)
• Every 30 seconds someone in the world commits suicide. (World Health Organization)
• Every 30 seconds a child with birth defects is born in China. (China Daily)
• Every 30 seconds someone loses a limb as a consequence of diabetes. (U.S. News & World Report)
• Every 35 seconds a child in the United States is reported neglected or abused. (KansasCity.com)
• Every 45 seconds a plane lands or takes off at Heathrow Airport, London. (The Economist)
• Every minute 1,000 people around the world sign up for a cellphone. (TheStar.com)
• Every minute 253 children are born into the world. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Every 4-8 minutes violent, profane, or sexual content appears during prime time "family hour" television programming. (Parents Television Council)
• Every 8 minutes a woman in a developing county dies of complications from an unsafe abortion. (World Health Organization)
• Every 15 minutes someone in Scotland has a heart attack. (British Heart Foundation)
• Every 38 minutes Louisiana loses a football field-sized portion of its wetlands. (Science Daily)
• Every 104 minutes there is a case of "dowry death" in India. (The Guardian)
• Every 2 hours someone in New Zealand fractures a hip. (Osteoporosis New Zealand)
• Every 10 hours a driver with a suspended license crashes in Maine. (The Morning Sentinel)
• Every day more than 1.6 million blog posts appear online. (Technocrati)
• Every day 6,800 people are infected with H.I.V. (United Nations)
• Every fortnight (fourteen days) a language falls out of use. (New York Times)
• Every month 300 specialist nurses leave South Africa. (World Health Organization)
• Every month the American government adds around 20,000 names to its terrorist watch lists. (A.C.L.U.)
• Every month about 130 million rides are taken on the New York City subway (M.T.A.)
• Every year the average American eats nearly 200 pounds of meat, poultry, and fish. (New York Times)

You Call This a Library?

From Overheard in the Office:

Patron: Ummm, I'm looking for a book.
Librarian: Okay, well, do you know what it's called?
Patron: No.
Librarian: Do you know who wrote it?
Patron: No.
Librarian: Are you just hoping that we have some sort of book?
Patron: Yeah.
Librarian: You know you're in a f***in' library, right?

- Austin Public Library
- Austin, Texas

Another nugget from the Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine:

"Books account for 23% of the items in the Library of Congress. The rest of the library's collection of 134 million items consist of recordings, photos, maps, music, and manuscripts. But despite making up only about a fourth of the holdings, books still play a big role in the world's largest library. The Washington D.C., institution houses 32 million of them, stored on about 530 miles of bookshelves. And that number will only increase as the library adds about 10,000 items a day. Our favorite find? Old King Cole, a book so small - about 1 millimeter square - that you have to turn the pages with a needle. Talk about light reading."

#18 - Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1877

U.S. Grant is one of my favorite presidents, although he is consistently found in the lower fourth of presidential rankings. I think it comes partly from a class that I took in college where one of the required reading was his memoirs. The work is one of the best works I have ever read. Grant, in the final year of his life, turned to Mark Twain to help him provide a windfall for his family. Grant finished writing the book a month before his death from throat cancer.

Grant was not the first, nor the last, military man to gain the Presidency. He quarreled with President Johnson and became a hero to the Radical Republicans, who sought him out to run for President in 1868. He was a reluctant politician, accepting the nomination of the Republicans by replying, "Let us Have Peace," which became the slogan for Grant's campaign. His presidency featured the final days of Reconstruction and Grant also signed legislation that established, among other things, Yellowstone National Park (1872) and made Christmas a National Holiday (1870).

The economic Panic of 1873 cost the Republicans control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1856 and the economic shockwaves took several years to recede, ultimately resulting in the Democrats winning the White House in 1876, but that's a story for next week. The Grant Administration was not without scandal, most notably the Whiskey Ring scandal and the Credit Mobilier, which brought down Grant's first vice president, Schuyler Colfax. While Grant was not directly involved with the scandals, it is his tolerance of corruption that pushes him toward the bottom of the list of presidents.

During his post-presidency, Grant traveled extensively around the world. He returned to the United States and was drafted to run for a third term as president in 1880. The nomination went to James Garfield and Grant campaigned for him, but that's a story for two weeks from now.

The Facts

• born April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio
• died July 23, 1885 on Mount MacGregor, New York (age 63)
• Party: Republican (Grant was a career military man and only declared his party affiliation to run for the presidency.)
  

The Election of 1868

• Ulysses S. Grant & Schuyler Colfax (R) - 3,013,650 popular votes / 214 EVs
• Horatio Seymour & Francis Blair, Jr. (D) - 2,708,744 popular votes / 80 EVs
  

The Election of 1872

• Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson (R) - 3,598,235 popular votes / 286 EVs
• Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown (D) - 2,834,761 popular votes / 66 EVs (Greeley died between the election and when the electors met to cast their votes. His 66 votes were dispersed among other Democrats.)
  

Trivia

• Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. When nominated to the United States Military Academy, the Congressman referred to him as Ulysses S. Grant, while Grant signed the register at West Point, "Ulysses Hiram Grant," to avoid getting the nickname "H.U.G." West Point only accepted the nominated name and Grant became Ulysses S. Grant.
  
• Grant was the first president to serve two full terms since Andrew Jackson, forty years earlier.
• Grant was the second president from Ohio, which is second only to Virginia in providing the country with presidential timber.
• When he entered the presidency, he was, at 46, the youngest President to date.
• Julia Grant was a supporter of women's rights and in 1872, her friend, Susan B. Anthony, supported her husband over Victoria C. Woodhull, the first woman to run for President.
  
• After leaving the presidency, he was elected president of the National Rifle Association (1883).
• And yet another reason for me to like him - while serving as President, Grant was cited for speeding in his horse and buggy, fined $20, and forced to walk back to the White House.
  

Links

• White House Biography
• Miller Center Biography
• Internet Public Library Biography
• Britannica
  
• Wikipedia
• The Ulysses S. Grant homepage (interesting)
• The Ulysses S. Grant Association (at Southern Illinois University Carbondale)
• PBS's American Experience Ulysses S. Grant
• The Grant Obituary (from the New York Times)
  
• The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
• The Grant National Historic Site (in Missouri) (no)
• The Grant Cottage in Mount MacGregor, New York
  
• So you can really find out "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?"
  

Pat Nixon's Meatloaf

OK, I can so see "Tricky Dick" eating the loaf. I ate a lot of meatloaf growing up. My mother's was a very "low-rent" meatloaf, with ground beef, bread crumbs, some chopped onions, ketchup, and then a few bacon slices across the top. The best part was the crunchy pieces that sat in the pan after the meatloaf was done. I know, it's a wonder I survived my childhood.

Pat Nixon's Meatloaf

This recipe for family-style meatloaf is from the Nixon administration and belonged to first lady Pat Nixon. It was so popular that the recipe was printed on White House stationery to be mailed on request. It appeared in "The White House Family Cookbook" by Henry Haller, 1987

• 2 Tbsp. butter
  
• 1 cup finely chopped onions
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
• 3 slices white bead
  
• 1 cup milk
  
• 2 pounds lean ground beef
  
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• Ground black pepper, to taste
  
• 1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
  
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
  
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs

Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Melt butter in a saute pan, add garlic and saute until just golden - do not brown. Let cool. Dice bread and soak it in milk. In a large mixing bowl, mix ground beef by hand with sauteed onions and garlic and bread pieces. Add eggs, salt, pepper, parsley, thyme and marjoram and mix by hand in a circular motion. Turn this mixture into the prepared baking pan and pat into a loaf shape, leaving at least one inch of space around the edges to allow fat to run off. Brush the top with the tomato puree and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Refrigerate for 1 hour to allow the flavors to penetrate and to firm up the loaf. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake meatloaf on lower shelf of oven for 1 hour, or until meat is cooked through. Pour off accumulated fat several times while baking and after meat is fully cooked. Let stand on wire rack for five minutes before slicing. Makes 6 servings.

Whither the Atari

When the Atari 2600 was the hottest gift of the Christmas season in 1977, I begged my parents for one. I may have made the statement, "I don't want anything else, just that." Cue the music, "What Kind of Fool am I?" My parents took me seriously. Leading up to Christmas, I was notorious for checking and rechecking the "haul." I will even admit here that I might have unwrapped a gift or two to see what was coming my way. Is it any wonder why my mother "punished" me with socks and underwear each year? So this particular Christmas, I was satisfied with the pile of presents with my name on it.

Come Christmas morning, I began to attack the pile with a great fervor. First gift, a stack of old magazines. Second gift, the socks and underwear. Third gift, an actual brick. I begin to become a little unglued as my family laughed at me. As I make my way through a pile of gag gifts, one of my siblings finally took pity on me and told me to go look on a chair in the dining room. I leap up and run to the dining room, pull out a chair and scream, "There's nothing here!" I am then told to look on the other chair. And there, on the chair, is the dream gift, the Atari 2600. I learn later that my father had bought one of the last ones (it being the Wii of its day) around. My family then produced a few games and Christmas was saved for everyone.

I played that game every day for years. I had all the great games, Missile Command, Pitfall, Pac-Man, Asteroids. The game got retired as I got into high school and put away. When I went off to college, I was having a conversation with my suite mates one evening and it was determined that I should bring it back to school after winter break. In fact, my roommate called me at home at like 2:00 in the morning (drunk) to remind me not to forget it. I have this vision of me sitting on the floor in my parents room, who have come to get me, thinking it was some emergency, but no, just Joe (drunk) reminding me to bring the game. So I did.

One game that I don't recall if I had was the subject of a nugget in the Southwest Airlines magazine that I was reading on my recent trip to Buffalo. E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial game involved bicycle riding and getting E.T. out of jams and onto a spacecraft home. However, Atari fans did not respond. In the fall of 1983, Atari buried 14 truckloads of E.T. game cartridges in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill. The company was facing slowing sales and $300 million in losses and pulled an alleged "millions" of games from the shelves and literally, buried them.

This all reminds me of my years as a video game geek. There were countless hours spent in game rooms around Long Island (including the great Nathan's game room and the one in Bayville). This may indeed turn out to be a seminal post as there are lots of ideas that could be expanded to give you, my faithful readers, more glimpses into my "storied" past.

Friday's List - Nyoo Yawk City?

Here is a list of 98 nicknames for New York City (with some explanatory links added). Growing up on Long Island, we always just called it #20. And remember that everywhere north of the Throgs Neck Bridge is "upstate." The list comes from kottke, who picked it up from the Gothamist. As you may see, I take issue with some of these. Really, trust me, I've been there. God, are New Yorkers that pretentious? I apologize in advance.

1. America's Leading Tourist Resort
2. America's Mecca
3. Father Knickerbocker (referring to the type of trousers worn by the early Dutch settlers)
4. Gotham (name given to New York City by Washington Irving in the Salmagundi Papers, 1807)
5. Babylonian Bedlam (allusion to the confusion of tongues at Babel, described in Genesis XI)
6. Baghdad of the Subway
7. Baghdad on the Hudson
8. The Banking Center of the World
9. The Big Apple
10. The Big Burg
11. The Big City
12. The Big Town
13. The Biggest Gateway to Immigrants
14. The Burg
15. The Business Capital of the Nation
16. The Business Capital of the World
17. The Capital of Finance
18. The Capital of the World
19. The Center of the World (Trygve Lie, first United Nations general secretary, on Sept. 7, 1962)
20. The City
21. The City at the Crossroads of High Diplomacy
22. The City of Cities (book by Hulbert Foother)
23. The City of Friendly People (sorry, what was that one?)
    
24. The City of Golden Dreams
25. The City of Islands (the borough of Manhattan and numerous other small islands within the city limits)
26. The City of Light (wait a minute, is that this city?)
    
27. The City of Orchestras (music center and "Tin Pan Alley")
28. The City of Skyscrapers (the tallest building in the world; the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, 60 Wall Tower, etc.)
29. The City of Superlatives
30. The City of the World
31. The City of Towers
32. The City that Belongs to the World
33. The City that Never Sleeps
34. The City with Everything
35. The Cleanest Big City in the World (*choke*)
    
36. The Coliseum City
37. The Commercial Capital of America
38. The Commercial Emporium
39. The Corporate Capital of America
40. The Crossroads of the World
41. The Cuisine Capital of the World
42. The Cultural Capital of America
43. The Cultural Center of the Nation
44. The Cultural City
45. The Empire City
46. The Entertainment Capital of the World
47. The Fashion Capital of the World
48. The Fear City
49. The Financial Capital of the World
50. The Financial Hub
51. The First City of the World (the most populated city in the United States, approximately 8 million) (*gasp*)
52. The Friendly City (*snicker*)
53. The Frog and Toe
54. The Front Office of American Business
55. The Fun City
56. The Fun City on the Hudson
57. The Greatest All-Year Round Vacation City
58. The Greatest Industrial Center in the World
59. The Headquarters of World Banking
60. The Hong Kong of the Hudson
61. The Host of the World
62. The Hub City of the World
63. The Hub of Transport
64. The Information City
65. The Land of Surprising Contrasts
66. The Mecca for Young Adults
67. The Media City
68. The Melting Pot (drama by Israel Zangwill, 1908)
69. The Metropolis
70. The Metropolis of a Continent
71. The Metropolis of America
72. The Metropolitan City
73. The Mighty Manhattan
74. The Modern Gomorrah (one of the cities if the plains destroyed by fire and brimstone because of wickedness, mentioned in the Old Testament)
75. The Money Town
76. The Most Colorful Exciting City in the World
77. The Movie-Making City
78. The Nation's First City
79. The Nation's Greatest City
80. The Nation's Largest Communications Center
81. The Nation's Largest Port
82. The Port of Many Ports
83. The Printing Capital of the World
84. The Restaurant City
85. The Science City
86. The Seat of Empire (named in 1784 by George Washington)
87. The Super City
    
88. The University of Telephony
89. The Vacation City
90. The Wonder City
91. The Wonder City of the World
92. The Wonderful Town
93. The World Capital of Fashion
94. The World's Capital City
95. The World's Fair City
96. The World's Financial Capital
97. The World's Metropolis
98. The World's Most Exciting All Year Round Vacation Center