Putting pen to paper lights more fire than matches ever will.
– Malcolm Forbes
Campaign 2008
Nearly fifty years ago, Theodore H. White revolutionized the political reporting of presidential campaigns with The Making of the President 1960. While by no means a complete narrative history, and largely reflective of the Kennedy campaign perspective, it remains a classic of the genre.
White followed that work with The Making of the President 1964 and The Making of the President 1968, and many subsequent campaigns have yielded a similar post mortem (for example, Jules Witcover’s Marathon: The Pursuit of the Presidency 1972-1976).
Among the most interesting aspects of this genre of political campaign reporting is the degree to which changing technology, trends in media and message, and the evolving political context have altered the American presidential campaign over the course of the intervening five decades.
In The Way It Really Works in the New Republic, Thomas Edsall reviews the latest, yet very different, addition to this tradition: Kate Kenski, Bruce W. Hardy and Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s The Obama Victory: How Media, Money, and Message Shaped the 2008 Election.
As Edsall explains, the book draws heavily upon voter data available from the National Annenberg Election Survey and interviews with key advisors to each campaign, with an eye toward illuminating how media, money, and messages shaped the course of the 2008 election.
Ice Cream Cone at 106
Thomas Jefferson's Recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream (Library of Congress)
In one of a number of competing accounts, today is the anniversary of the day, 106 years ago, that the ice cream cone debuted at the St. Louis World’s Fair. (Importantly, nearly all the competing accounts also place the invention of the ice cream cone at that same Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in July of 1904). The story is that Charles E. Menches rolled a waffle pastry into a cone shape, filled it with two scoops of ice cream, and the ice cream cone was born.
Delightful.
On Books, #54
Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
– Paul Valery
Trinity
Nagasaki Bomb -- Mushroom Cloud -- August 9 1945
Sixty-five years ago today, at precisely 5:30 AM local time, the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated in the deserts of New Mexico.
Within one month, bombs had been dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6th) and Nagasaki (August 9th).
'Fat Man' -- The Atomic Bomb Dropped On Nagasaki)
Voter Registration for Primary
Monday July 19th is the last day to register to vote or to change party affiliation to vote in the upcoming Primary Election to be held on Tuesday August 3rd.
If you need a copy of the voter registration form, or require any other information about registering to vote or voting in the impending primary, drop by the Haysville Community Library or visit the Sedgwick County Elections Office online.
City-Wide Garage Sale Permits Soon On Sale
Saturday and Sunday, August 14th and 15th
It’s that time of year again: the Annual City-Wide Garage Sale will be held on Saturday, August 14th and Sunday, August 15th. Permits will soon go on sale — on Monday, July 19th — at the library, and also at True Value Hardware.
Saturday Only permits will be $6, while Saturday And Sunday permits are $7. If you are a current member of the Friends of the Library, permits are $1 less. (These permits MUST be displayed in a prominent location visible from the street.)
On Garage Sale Day, the library will provide lists of all sales locations and a map to guide avid customers to each and every sale site.
Incidentally, the Friends of the Library will be sponsoring a community garage sale on the library’s south parking lot. Those participating will secure a permit and then pay $10 for a space.
We’d encourage you to join the Friends of the Library when you pick up your permit. For a $10 membership you get a great deal more than just $1 off on your permit. (See the latest Friends newsletter for just a few of the benefits.)
Another Morning Filled With Music and Fun
While numerous workshops and special sessions continue, the last Haysville Community Library Special Performance wrapped up this morning with Adam Miller leading 76 children, 15 parents and 2 young adults in a rousing festival of sing-along and participatory interplay.
Nearly 300 Haysville children enrolled for this year’s Summer Reading Program, not counting dozens upon dozens who have participated in the Accelerated Reader programs, craft workshops, and a host of other library-centered activities.
It’s been a great summer, with much more yet to come.
Intro to Polo
On Tuesday the 27th of July at 7 pm, the Haysville Community Library will sponsor a very special evening session, free and open for all, exploring the exciting sport of polo.
It’s a lot more important and lot closer to you than you may think
Just shy of 3 miles south of the intersection of Grand and Broadway (at 9420 South Broadway), a lefthand turn will bring you to the premier location in all the metroplex for the sport of polo: the Wichita Regional Polo Center in Haysville.
On Sunday afternoons at 2 from June through September you can watch as this more than 2,500 year-old sport is played, and learn why it has endured for so very long, exciting fans from ancient Persia to the modern Great Plains.
As the website of the Fairfield Polo Club explains, polo has been played in the Wichita area continuously since 1931 – nearly eighty years. And since the fall of 2008, Haysville has been the home of the arena in which a dozen tournaments are held each summer. (Haysville is the home of two of the four polo fields in the metropolitan area.)
In fact, there are eight more tournaments on the schedule this summer. (For the schedule, see this page on the Fairfield site.)
In consequence, and as a result of popular demand, the library is sponsoring a special evening of Introduction to Polo.
It’s free, and it’s fun — so join us Tuesday July 27th.
Singing Genes
Karyotype (National Human Genome Research Institute)
Tomorrow, a 40-voice New London Chamber Choir will perform the composition Allele at the Royal Society of Medicine – each choir member singing notes derived from his or her decoded DNA.
In Choir to Sing the ‘Code of Life’, the BBC News reports the details of this “evocation of the extraordinary wonder that is the genome.”
On Books, #53
I pray that no child of mine would ever descend into such a place as a library. They are indeed most dangerous places and unfortunate is she or he who is lured into such a hellhole of enjoyment, stimulus, facts, passion and fun.
– Willy Russell
One Year Old Today: Come Celebrate With Us
One year ago today, it was Opening Day at the brand new Haysville Community Library. Hundreds of Haysvilleans celebrated that grand event, so long anticipated (see the Construction category of posts for a retrospective).
Today, we’re celebrating our first anniversary in the new library with a reception, free and open to all members of the public: cake, punch, and camaraderie. Please join us to celebrate this year of rapid change.
