For halfmoon_mollie

Many happy returns! I thought I could postdate this and have it show up tomorrow morning instead of tonight, but I guess I don't know how to do that.

(He says "happy birthday Roy Kelton," but I'm sure he really meant halfmoon_mollie!)

P.S. -- I've posted links for all the segments of The Fastest Guitar Alive on that links post. If you have nothing else going for tonight, you can treat yourself to some happy birthday popcorn and the worst singing cowboy movie evah! But the best singing cowboy, of course!

Meanwhile, in my Day Job

Now that I have a Real Camera, folks are calling on me to be staff photographer. So I did double duty here at the Mayor's press conference to honor student competitors in the National History Day competition. (I also offered some brief remarks on the importance of special collections libraries for primary source research.)

Shown here are my friend and colleague, V. Chapman-Smith, regional administrator of the National Archives at Philadelphia, left; and Michael A. Nutter, Mayor, City of Philadelphia. I uploaded 81 photos in this set, including heaps of students.

(EDIT: I was seated in the front row and didn't have a lot of choice in POV, so I there's an unfortunate telemon / atlas in many of the pictures causing some comic juxtapositions.)

Too big to fail?

I really don't think that any entities are inherently Too Big To Fail, but there are two right now that I would prefer to see no more wounded than they already are:

1. British Petroleum. Yes, they need to man up and do everything in their power and then some to clean up the mess they made. But please consider the fact that the company has lost more than 1/3 of its value since the spill. If investors keep fleeing, we may find the cupboard is bare when we go looking for restitution money.
   
   
2. Barack Obama. I will be very happy to see him be a one term president and then go on to the job I suspect he's wanted all along -- a high level functionary at the U.N. But despite my personal opinions of the guy, we are facing any number of bad actors abroad who aren't interested in sitting down at the campfire and singing kumbaya. The last thing we need is a president who is seen as commanding no power and no respect at home. (Or to put it in psychobabble terms...when a parent is perceived as distracted or upset, the kids become fundamentally uneasy and start acting out. In certain real senses America has been the world's paterfamilias for many decades. Now dad is worried about some other stuff and the kids are reacting.)