12/22/12

Looking for Lincoln Hall... Again

I've been thinking about the scenic panels on the outside of Lincoln Hall for weeks, so I finally went back and took pictures of all of them. We first saw terra cotta versions at the Macon County Historical Museum in Decatur. I don't recall if they were replicas or originals that were replaced by a sturdier material. I also got a couple pictures of other features on the building's exterior. I got a lot of stares from teenaged freshmen as I circled the building in the rain. I doubt any of them could tell you the following:

Portraits
This is just one of the 20 portraits across the northern and southern ends of the building of famous individuals who played a significant role in Lincoln's life. This one shows William Henry Seward, a rival for the Republican nomination in the 1860 presidential race.


Lincoln won the nomination and the race and asked Seward to serve as Secretary of State. The Republican party, formed from an uneasy union of former Whigs, Northern Democrats, and No Nothings, teetered on the brink of collapse even after securing the office of President. Lincoln sought to unify the party by filling his cabinet with members of the ideologically and geographically diverse rival factions within the party. This shrewd move solidified the party, but gave Lincoln perpetual headaches for the next four years. Part of his genius as executive was negotiating these factions within his party. All were loyal to Lincoln, but none of them liked the others. Doris Kearns Goodwin's novel Team of Rivals (on which, the recent film Lincoln was based) tells the story of Lincoln's attempts to wrangle these guys together to pass the 13th Amendment. It seems like everytime I hear a report about Obama and Boehner negotiating the so-called Fiscal Cliff, someone references the movie.

Seward initially refused Lincoln's offer. After reconsidering, Seward, a seasoned Washington political operative, decided he could run the administration through the bumpkin novice that just became President. He tried some early shenanigans, but after a Come-to-Jesus talk from Lincoln, the two became close friends and strong allies through the tumultuous four years of war.

To see all the quote panels and portraits, see the U of I site:
http://www.lincolnhall.illinois.edu/history/quotes/

Fasces
Behind each of the medallions that flank the quote panels and the scenic panels you can see a double bladed axe inside a bundle of sticks. One of these is called a fascis, the Latin word for "bundle." Certain Roman officials (consuls, for instance) would walk around town with a small entourage of guys called lictors. Lictors had various duties, the most important being walking around carrying a fascis. The fascis, made of birch rods tied into a cylinder with ribbon, symbolized strength through unity. One birch rod can be easily snapped in two. A bundle of birch rods not so much. The axe represents the power over life and death held by the official in question. Needless to say, the symbol became quite popular in the United States. You can see fasces above the door to the Oval Office, on the seal of the National Guard Bureau, on the back of the Mercury dime (1916-1945), behind the podium in the US House of Representatives, on the seal of the US Senate, on the Supreme Court Building, and (importantly for us) beneath Lincoln's hands on the Lincoln Memorial Statue (without the axe). You can see them in the replica from Lincoln's tomb:


Don't suppose that the Romans were original. They got the idea of the fascis from the Etruscans. Authoritarian groups that came into power after World War I liked fasces so much, they took the name and called themselves Fascists.

Owls
There are 69 of them around the building. After circling the building twice looking for little carved owls nestled high in the cornice and mullions, I realized they had been at eye level the entire time. I mean, they were still on mullions (the vertical support between two windows), I just had the wrong mullions.

They all look as grumpy as this little guy:


Panels
Lincoln Hall has ten panels depicting scenes from either Lincoln's life or events influenced by Lincoln. Three of the ten panels don't have Lincoln in them. Go figure. My pictures aren't very good at all. I took them to prove that I had been there. Apparently, when the building was initially constructed, the faculty hated the scenic panels and didn't want them hung.

If you want to see clear close-ups of the scenic panels, check out the U of I site:
http://www.lincolnhall.illinois.edu/renovation/features/scenes/

Rail Splitter 1830


This scene depicts Lincoln as a teenager, splitting rails for a fence. When his candidacy for President became evident, Lincoln's team knew he needed a nickname or a tagline to make him marketable. Andrew Jackson was known as Old Hickory, Harrison was the Hero of Tippecanoe. Folks on the circuit had called Lincoln Honest Abe for years, but his team worried that made him sound too old. During the Illinois State Republican convention, Lincoln's supporters tore down two rails from his father's fence and paraded them through the hall, touting Lincoln as The Rail Splitter. The appellation, though mostly a fiction, made Lincoln sound hardworking and salt of the earth and won him the support of Illinois Republicans. It's true, Lincoln did split rails on his father's farm. It was a chore. Like when kids take out the trash or mow the lawn today. But Lincoln abhorred physical labor. That's why he became a lawyer.

Slave Auction 1831


According to popular myth, while in his early 20s, Lincoln took a trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans where he saw his first slave auction. The scene so horrified him, that he swore to fight against slavery. This supposed pivotal moment in his life, according to modern scholars, didn't really happen. It doesn't stop it from sounding romantic. In the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, they have a wax model of an auctioneer splitting a family to sell them into slavery. Even the Vampire Hunter movie features a scene where Lincoln first encounters slavery at a riverfront dock. In that movie, though, the slave owner has a supernatural thirst for blood. Truth is, slavery had long been a part of public and private debate. His parents moved from Kentucky because they hated the peculiar institution and Lincoln had been raised to believe that slavery was morally corrupt.

Circuit Rider 1849


This panel shows Lincoln taking the case of a Revolutionary War widow defrauded by an agent she hired to secure her war pension of $500. The agent took $200 from her pension as a fee. According to the popular version, handed down by Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon, Lincoln sued the agent and won the money back. In Herndon's biography of Lincoln, we see that typical Lincoln tenacity when, in his notes for his closing argument, he writes, "Skin Defendant." It's known as his Skin Defendant Case. This is how we like to remember it. Court records show that, contrary to Herndon's account, the widow only won $35. Court records also show that Lincoln was far from a moral crusader, but would take any case he could (he had bills to pay). He represented a runaway slave in a case against his owner, represented a slave owner in a case to recollect his runaway slave, the railroads against barge captains, canals against railroads, corporations against individuals, and individuals against corporations.

The important thing to remember: Lincoln practiced law on the 8th Circuit in Illinois for a quarter of a century, probably the most formative years of his life. There he learned the intricacies of law, debated politics with lawyers and judges in taverns, and created a sphere of political contacts that would help propel him to the presidency.

The war widow case is romantic. Everyone loves a war widow. But his most important legal moment came when he sued James Barrett, a shareholder, on behalf of the Alton and Sangamon Railroad. Barrett refused to shell out cash for his share when the railroad replotted the line away from his property. Lincoln labored to create an airtight case before the Illinois Supreme Court and won. Lawyers cited the case in at least 25 other cases across the country.

Freeport Debate 1858


This panel represents a turning point in the Lincoln Douglas debates. Lincoln, previously, made a weak showing. At Freeport, he called Douglas out on a point that would later haunt the Little Giant in his 1860 presidential bid. In the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision (1857), the court ruled that the federal government could not prohibit slavery in federal territories since it would violate the 5th Amendment's due process clause. The Popular Sovereignty doctrine touted by Douglas claimed that citizens of a territory could decide whether to enter the Union as a slave state or a free state by popular vote. Lincoln, in essence, posed a question that made Douglas choose between supporting Popular Sovereignty and supporting the Supreme Court's decision. Douglas' response, an attempt to reconcile the two ideologies, said that in spite of Dred Scott, state level legislation determined the legality of slavery. Known thereafter as the Freeport Doctrine, it killed his support among Southern Democrats. In the 1860 presidential elections, Douglas only won the 9 electoral votes of Missouri. Then he died of typhoid fever.

First Inaugural Address 1861


Lincoln's first inaugural address gives a glimpse of his genius as an orator, as a politician, and as a leader. Lincoln, in his years as an Illinois lawyer, had developed the skill to argue any side of any argument. However, in crucial historical moments, rather than argue a side, he demonstrated a capacity to redefine the argument.

On December 20, 1860, one week after the Electoral College met to choose Lincoln as the 16th President of the US, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union. South Carolinian troops surrounded Fort Sumter and declared that the US should vacate the fort. Any attempts to resupply it would be construed as an act of war.

In his speech, rather than negotiate the situation before him, Lincoln denied that the states had any legal ability to secede and vowed that, in keeping with his oath of office, he would protect and maintain federally owned property in the southern states. Any insurrection threatening the operation of federal business in the south would be met with force. In effect, Lincoln refused to acknowledge that the southern states were no longer part of the Union. He never recognized the Confederate States of America as a separate national entity. He wasn't invading a sovereign nation to conquer it, but suppressing insurrection within the borders of the US. Any conflict would be initiated by insurrectionists in the southern states, rather than by the US government, since the US government was only carrying on business as usual.

In closing this speech, he said what would be some of his most often quoted lines:
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Call to Arms 1861


This is one of the three panel scenes that doesn't portray Lincoln. In response to secession by Virginia and the imminent threat to Washington DC, Lincoln requested militia from the governors of the northern states. The 6th Massachusetts Regiment were the first to respond. It's important to note that the militia from Massachusetts were the first into the fray in April 1775. Massachusettsians are War Mongers.

Things got awkward when the regiment arrived in Baltimore. Up to that point, no one knew what Maryland planned to do. Since Maryland is the bread on top of the DC Sandwich, this caused quite a bit of stress for pretty much everyone in the District. In Baltimore, the 6th Massachusetts came under attack from a secessionist mob. Shots were exchanged. People died. In exchange for a peaceable Maryland, all future troop reinforcements from northern states had to take the long way around Baltimore.

The University website will tell you this was the 24th Massachusetts Regiment which is sort of completely untrue. Sorry.

Rising Sun 1863


In this panel, Lincoln points to the rising sun while a black couple grovels at his feet. I don't think this represents an actual event. Maybe it's a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation which went into effect January 1st, 1863.

Here's what the Emancipation Proclamation did: nothing. It freed slaves only in the rebellious southern states. Slaves in states loyal to the Union were still slaves. It didn't touch them. In effect, it only held in areas physically occupied by a Union army. Slaves escaped and attempted to make it to Union lines, which left Union commanders with the quandary: how do we feed all these people? No such luck if you didn't have Union troops in the neighborhood. I hope you appreciate the irony here. If the southern states were still part of United States, then the Proclamation would violate Due Process.

On the other hand, the Emancipation Proclamation created political momentum that lead to the passage of the 13th Amendment.

All that said, this panel makes me a little uncomfortable.

Gettysburg Address 1863


Again, we have Lincoln redefining the argument. In the few minutes it took him deliver this speech, Lincoln transformed the war from a conflict over legal interpretation of the US Constitution to a crusade to end slavery. We all memorized this speech in junior high and then forgot all but the first six words, but this is probably the Greatest Speech in American History. I imagine you would say, well, James, what about Washington's Farewell Address? To that I would say that 90% of the speech was written by Hamilton and Washington never actually delivered it as a speech, he had it printed in newspapers. So there.

Surrender at Appomattox 1865


No Lincoln. After a last ditch attempt to break free from Grant's chokehold, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant on April 9th. It was actually Grant's victories in the western theater that decided the outcome of the war and it would still be another month until General Kirby Smith, the commander of the last large Confederate Army, surrendered in Galveston, Texas. However, the newspapers followed Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. It was the vacillating fortune of this battered fighting force that Americans at that time and since have regarded as the True Civil War. After Appomattox, the War was pretty much a done deal. Lincoln attended Ford's Theater six days later.

Return Home 1865


No Lincoln. This shows a Civil War veteran returning home after the long years of fighting.

Parting Shot
I know what you want to ask. You want to ask, James, what events do you think are missing from these panels? Well, I'll tell you.

1. The Spot Resolutions 1847
Lincoln, a Freshman Congressman still in his 30s, declared the Polk's war against Mexico illegal. In a series of resolutions, he demanded that Polk show the American People the Exact Spot (hence the name) that Mexican Troops invaded US territory. These resolutions were pretty much ignored by Polk and Congressmen of both parties. The resolutions had no effect other than ensure Lincoln would be a one term Congressman and cause some political headaches down the road. But they are further evidence of Lincoln's gigantic cojones.

2. Vampire Battle 1863
When the the South deployed vampires against the Union troops at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln personally ensured the delivery of silver ammunition to the troops in Pennsylvania. In order to do this, he had to have an epic fist fight on top of a train travelling over a massive burning bridge. He did this while in his 50s. I think that's impressive. Actually, I don't know if that actually happened, but it was in the Vampire Hunter movie. I haven't gotten to that part in the David Herbert Donald biography yet, but I'll keep you posted.

3. Signing the 13th Amendment 1865
Pretty much the topic of the recent Lincoln movie and the Doris Kearns Goodwin book. The Amendment passed the House on January 31st (Aine's birthday... I think.) and the Senate on April 8th (one day before Appomattox, seven days before Ford's Theater).

The text:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
These two sentences freed all slaves anywhere within the United States.

Interesting Note:
The 13th Amendment only abolished slavery. Blacks were not granted citizenship until the 14th Amendment (1868). Black men were given the right to vote in 15th Amendment (1870). Women, white or black, weren't given the right to vote until the 19th Amendment, signed by Woodrow Wilson in 1920. Another great historical blunder of the Democratic Party. Luckily, the God-fearing Patriotic Deep South held out on ratification until the 50s and 60s. Mississippi didn't ratify the 19th Amendment until 1984. In fact, the President of the Tea Party in Mississipi, asserted in October 2012, that women were too emotional and unstable to be entrusted with so important a decision.

12/21/12

In the Meadow We Can Build a Snowman

A very small snowman. According to the Chicago Weather Center Blog, Winter Storm Draco left us between 1 and 4 inches of snow last night.

The fluffy and entirely glorious precipitation began yesterday around 3pm. It fell heavily until around 5pm, but you could still see it coming down at 10pm when I went to bed. I recorded the first snowfall of the 2012/2013 winter season with both video and digital camera. On the morning many expected the world to end, we woke up to a Champaign blanketed in a fresh layer of snow. Last night when it began snowing, the light filtering through the clouds had a bluish tint to it, making everything look, well, blue. It was kooky.

December 20, 2012 3:15 PM


December 20, 2012 4:15 PM


December 20, 2012 6:15 PM





December 21, 2012 8:15 AM





See that?
Snow on the Douglas Fir. Just like Bob Friggin' Ross.


Parting Shot
Snagglepuss and Huckleberry Hound are not impressed with the cold weather.


12/19/12

The Midwest in the News

Organized Labor
Michigan governor, Rick Snyder (Republican), signed Michigan's first Right to Work bill into effect last week. This occurred only months after Indiana passed a similar law, indicating an ebb of organized labor's political influence in the Midwest. Pundits consider Michigan, the birthplace of the American Auto Industry and historical bastion of organized labor, the "defining domino." Whatever that means. I don't do metaphor.

The provisions in the law state that membership in a union can't be required as a prerequisite for employment, and, more importantly, that a union can't take money out of your paycheck even if you aren't a member. This is usually the defining factor of union political influence. Unions claim that all workers in an industry should pay dues, even if they refuse membership, since all workers benefit from union activity. Of course, you don't have to belong to the union, a provision that sounds eerily reminiscent of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War. A new kid opts out of the voluntary school fund raiser, selling chocolate, and soon becomes a social pariah, scorned by both students and teachers. The book ends with him beaten to an unrecognizable pulp. It's a kid's book. Check it out.

According to theory, since the union can't force you to pay, union revenue shrinks and the union can no longer effectively represent its members. Proponents of organized labor vilify this legislation as a political move to undermine union power and that Right to Work will actually kill the Michigan economy. Opponents state a fear of losing commercial enterprise to Indiana and claim breaking union power will invite more industry to Michigan and improve the economic conditions of the state.

Unsurprisingly, the economic claims of both sides, made by partisans rather than economists, have no real basis in reality. Economics unfolds slowly, so Indiana is too fresh to produce revealing data. Most of the southern states passed Right to Work legislation in the late 40s, seeing a steady economic increase. Economic historians think this has more to do with Eisenhower's interstate highways and the invention of the air conditioner. The former making southern industry accessible and the latter making factory work bearable in the summer months.

The only states to pass Right to Work legislation in the measurable past from which economists can gather relevant data have been Idaho (1985) and Oklahoma (2001). Okies actually wrote a Right to Work section into their state constitution rather than enact legislation. I don't know that you can tell much from Idaho: the state has a population around the size of the Austin Metro Area. Results from Oklahoma have been mixed. Mostly due to bad timing on the part of Okies. They went Right to Work just in time to catch two national recessions.

Long story short, we don't have enough information, aside from partisan rhetoric, to say how Right to Work versus Organized Labor affects a state's economy. It's entirely possible that the union question is entirely beside the economic point. Texas is Right to Work. New York is not. They have similar populations and nearly identical state GDPs.

Right to Work States
Wikimedia Commons - Scott5114
Concealed Carry
Last week in Moore v. Madigan, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision that the Illinois law banning concealed firearms was unconstitutional. Illinois was the only state in the union banning concealed firearms. The court called the law the "most restrictive gun law in the US" and gave the state legislature 180 days to come up with a better idea. Word on the interwebs is that State Attorney General Lisa Madigan may be preparing to appeal the decision before the Supreme Court, a worrisome proposition for both sides of the argument as the Supreme Court's decision would impact all states and not just Illinois. I know what you're wondering. You're wondering, on what basis can she appeal and how does this case fit into legal history? You're lucky I'm here.

Bill of Rights 1789
The 2nd Amendment established the right to bear arms with a single line: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." To the Classically-trained Founders, a line like this, which would make perfect sense in Latin or Greek, comes across a wee bit ambiguous in English. Centuries of bickering has ensued, basically over whether the Founders would have put a so or an and between "free state" and "the right of the people." Foremost in the Founders' minds was fear of the political influence of a standing army and the reluctance to shell out the cash for one. State militias with self-armed citizens had long been the first line of defense through the several wars of the 1600s and 1700s. Implicit in this was the necessity of firearms for personal defense and hunting since over 90% of the population lived in the boonies. Also important are the due process clauses of the 5th Amendment, which says the federal government can't take your property without the due process of law, and the later 14th Amendment, which says the states can't do it either.

Robertson v. Baldwin 1897
The Supremes ruled that a ban on concealed weapons does not infringe on the right to bear arms.

District of Columbia v. Heller 2008
In a landmark case, the Court (split 5-4 as always) interpreted the right to bear arms as a right to self defense within the home. This ruling only applied to Federal Enclaves, which pretty much meant Washington DC.

McDonald v. Chicago 2010
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Chicago ban on firearm ownership in the home. This case shuffled up to the Supremes, who, in another 5-4 decision, expanded Heller to include the states. The Court explained that gun ownership is protected by the 2nd Amendment and any state law to the contrary would violate the 14th Amendment.

Kachalsky et al v. County of Westchester 2012
A month before the Illinois decision, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled unanimously that concealed carry is not protected under the 2nd Amendment and only extended the concealed carry to those with a "distinguishable need" above that of the general population and folks engaged in a relevant profession. Translation: you can only carry a concealed firearm in New York if you get a badge or a sex change operation.

Moore v. Madigan 2012
The 7th Circuit decided that the state did not make a convincing argument that prohibiting concealed carry increased public safety and went on to expand Heller: the right of self defense extends beyond your front door since one is more likely to encounter violent situations outside the home. Especially in Chicago.

Since Moore came close on the heels of Kachalsky and the two are contradictory, an escalation to the Supreme Court is being anticipated to settle the matter. It's notoriously difficult to get a case into the Supreme Court. A case has to be relevant, it has to compel an interpretation of the Constitution. It has to be fresh, not an issue clearly decided in a previous case. It helps if the issue has been decided differently by different courts. Moore meets all these criteria. Gun ownership is a done deal. Protected by the 2nd Amendment. However, still open are questions about what types of guns you can own, where you can take them, and how much say a state has in the matter.

Concealed Carry History
Wikimedia Commons - Jeff Dege
Look Here:
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/publicact/htm/2012-PA-0348.htm
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm
http://laws.findlaw.com/us/165/275.html
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZS.html
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/08-1521
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/summary/opinion/us-2nd-circuit/2012/11/27/260729.html
http://www.isra.org/lawsuits/coa.pdf

12/17/12

Blue Ribbon Weather

The Weather
Like I mentioned in the last post, we had an arctic front move through the neighborhood early last week and temperatures dipped down into the 20s. Snowflakes flurried as snowflakes are wont to do. This weekend warmed up a bit, into the high 40s. According to weatherchannel.com, this is NOT a harbinger of spring. Apparently, we still have more cold weather waiting in the wings, with snow expected next weekend.

Food
We've nearly worn our soup repertoire threadbare, so the other night we made Chicken Cordon Bleu. This dish dates all the way back to 1940s Switzerland. Since they declared neutrality during World War II, they had the time and resources to invent new schnitzels. The original dish calls for veal and gruyere instead of prosciutto and swiss. We're not so fancy, so we just used ham and swiss. At some point, before it migrated to the US in the 1960s, this schnitzel (a blanket term for any breaded cutlet) picked up the name cordon bleu, which means blue ribbon in French. It has absolutely no relation to the culinary education system.


I found the Tyler Florence recipe online and served it with the extra long grain wild rice we bought to make the Aunt Sheri Girls' Movie Night Wild Rice Soup and baby sugar snap peas, which are pretty much the final word on green beans.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-cordon-bleu-recipe2/index.html

School 
This is the end of the Grad School Semester for Ainers. She's been busy grading and taking exams and writing papers. I last saw her, briefly, Wednesday evening. I assume she's still alive since the fluid level of the milk carton continues to drop and the dirty clothes pile continues to increase in size. I'm hoping to see her again next Sunday. We'll be driving to Oklahoma together.

Goins On
The squirrels have gotten fat. The Fox Squirrel of Texas has no real winter for which it needs any sort of preparation. Our Eastern Gray Squirrels feed from the dumpster all autumn long in preparation of the cold weather to come. As early as August, you can see them hopping across the parking lot carrying apples and sandwiches and other food items that clearly outweigh them. Now, they sort of waddle around on the sidewalks looking gassy.

Pig has grown more affectionate. She wants to play fetch all day long. She doesn't like cat toys, however, all she wants is the little plastic ring you get off of milk cartons or soda bottles. A little plastic ring is pretty much the pinnacle of bliss for her. So she brings the little plastic ring for me to throw, but she drops it quietly behind my chair. When I don't hear the plastic hit the carpet, she sinks her claws into my back as friendly way of saying, "hey there, let's play." The other day, I thought I had her fooled. I sat all the way forward in my chair so she couldn't reach me through the Amish slats in the chair back. She responded by leaping from the floor to my back with all four feet, sinking no less that 18 talons into my unsuspecting flesh. When I started screaming, she climbed to my shoulders and lay down, staring at me as though I had lost my mind. I nearly did.

I also realized that the elementary school for the kiddos that live in my apartment complex sits due west of here. If you want to walk your child to school you can go the long way, up to busy Kirby and then down Prospect, a 15 minute walk one way. or you can cut your walk in half, like a few of my neighbors do, by walking your child through the unfenced backyard of the house behind my unit and cutting through the neighborhood. Every morning I watch one or two parents lead their children across this guy's lawn. I thought, if he had any decency, he would pour a concrete walk for them and hand out warm breakfast tacos.


12/15/12

Baby It's Cold Outside

We had this arctic front come through the other day. It was cold. Outside. After I extracted Aine from campus, the perennial holiday favorite, Baby It's Cold Outside, came on the radio. We spent the next fifteen minutes arguing about who was singing that particular version.

I should note: the oldies station, during the month of December, plays only Christmas songs 24/7. At first, this information alarmed me. I thought, there are only so many Christmas songs out there, are they going to play the same ones over and over and over? Then I remembered, that this same station, for the other 11 months of the year, has four decades of music from which to select their repertoire, and every time I get in the car, I hear the same three or four songs. So, since December 1st, I have actually heard a greater variety of music.

Thinking about the aforementioned song, I wondered who sang the best version. Rather, I didn't care so much about the best version, but which version I liked the best. So I listened to 25 versions and rated them on a 9 point scale. The parameters included male performance, female performance, mood, and tempo. I found myself surprised by the results. Before we get to the results, though, a little history.

Frank Loesser wrote Baby, It's Cold Outside in 1944 as a conversational duet between two individuals he marked as the mouse and the wolf. He's the same guy that wrote the musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He first performed the song with his wife, Lynn Garland, at a party hosted at their home, as a tactful way of inviting his guest to start gathering their coats and scarves. They performed the song at parties for years and Lynn always thought of it as "their song." When Loesser sold MGM the rights in 1948, Lynn was not very pleased.

The song gained its first national audience in the 1949 movie Neptune's Daughter, earning Loesser an Academy Award.

That year saw 8 different recordings of the song, two of them, the Dinah Shore/Buddy Clark version and the Margaret Whiting/John Mercer version, reached number 4 on the Billboard charts. The Whiting/Mercer, I gather from internetal evidence, is the popular standard.

The song teaches us two very important things: 1) the female brain is impaired by the cold and 2) if you just keep insisting, eventually she'll change her mind. Baby, It's Cold Outside has received its share of controversy and, indeed, it can be creepy at times. Take the line: "say, what's in this drink?" See also: rohypnol. The more times you hear this song in a row, the less romantic and the more insidious it sounds. After listening to it over 100 times across two days, all I can say for certain is that I never want to hear it again.

In explaining my results, I want to stress that they are completely subjective and not open for discussion or dissent.

The Wolf and Mouse parts can change from version to version. In some versions, they are both performed by men. In some, the man sings Mouse and the woman sings Wolf. I'm fine with both of those, but Wolf needs to sound dominant, but not manipulative. Mouse needs to sound savvy and complicit. I prefer Wolf to have a middle range sort of voice, like a cello. Too high and it doesn't sound dominant, too low and it's just off-putting. Mouse needs a smoky, sultry sort of voice, to let you know that Mouse knows what's going on, but he or she is putting a token resistance as a matter of form. Too high and Mouse sounds naive and in a bad situation. Too low and Mouse sounds like a dude. I also found the pacing important. I don't like the faster, frenetic versions of this song. I want to enjoy it. I will not be rushed. However, if the song is performed too slowly, it crumples like a soggy pumpkin. I prefer that Wolf and Mouse take turns. In some versions they constantly sing over each other and chaos ensues.

The very nearly perfect version of this song, by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors (actually a husband-wife duet) loses points for being just a touch too fast. Otherwise, this is my go-to version. The Cee Lo Green/Christina Aguilera only suffers because Christina Aguilera's voice gets annoying at certain points. Best Wolf performances include Bob Hope, Cee Lo Green, Drew Holcomb, and Ben Folds. Best Mouse performances go to Nora Jones, Zoey Deschanel, Haley Reinhart, and Ellie Holcomb. Worst performances include Willie Nelson, Cerys Matthews, Tallulah Bankhead, and Lyle Lovett. The Absolute Worst Version was Nick and Jessica. I don't really know how to describe how abhorrent this version is. Don't listen to it.

Here are the results:

Score Version Year
8 Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera 2012
8 Louis Armstrong, Velma Middleton 1949
8 Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors 2009
8 Ben Folds, Sara Bareilles 2011
7 Zoey Deschanel, Leon Redbone (Elf Soundtrack) 2003
7 Zach Braff, Donald Faison (Scrubs Version) 2011
7 Bob Hope, Doris Day 1949
6 Chris Colfer, Darren Criss (Glee Version) 2010
6 Lady Antebellum 2008
6 Haley Reinhart, Casey Abrams (American Idol Season 10) 2011
6 Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald 1949
6 Eugene Ruffolo, Margaret Fiellin 2009
6 Zoey Deschanel, Matthew Ward (She & Him) 2011
6 Don Cornell, Laura Leslie 1949
6 Dean Martin, Chorus 1959
5 Nora Jones, Willie Nelson 2010
5 Michael Buble, Anne Murray 2009
5 Tom Jones, Cerys Matthews 1999
5 Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton 2004
5 Ray Charles, Betty Carter 1961
5 Dinah Shore, Buddy Clark 1949
5 Lyle Lovett, Kat Edmonson 2012
4 Margaret Whiting, John Mercer 1949
4 Tallulah Bankhead, Jack Carson 1950
3 Jessica Simpson, Nick Lachey 2004

12/4/12

Looking for Lincoln with Lisa

So, Mom came for a visit in October and we knocked down a few more Lincolns. We took a trip to Springfield and toured the Lincoln Museum on Saturday. On Sunday, we toured campus and I finally gained access to the legendary Lincoln Hall. All the pictures in this post were taken by Lisa Webb, unless she's in the picture, obviously.

Lincoln #13
I saw this on my first trip to Springfield. As we were driving away. Remember Union Park? The square with the Richardsonian Romanesque Union Station, the Acts of Intolerance statue, and Lincoln #7? On the other side of the park, a bronze Lincoln sits on a bench. Which affords one excellent photographic opportunities.


Mark Lundeen of Colorado sculpted this Lincoln, installed in 2006. In his hand, he holds a copy of his second inaugural address.


Lincoln delivered the short speech March 4, 1865 as he began his second term as president. He used the opportunity to defend his moderate plan for Reconstruction. Lincoln intended the reunification of the states to proceed as swiftly and painlessly as possible. Under his original plan, the US would readmit former Confederate states when 10% of the state's population voted to re-join the union. Lincoln allowed states that had already met the requirements to form their own Reconstruction governments and planned to grant suffrage to former Confederate officials. Lincoln said:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 
In the midterm elections, however, the Radical Republicans swept Congress and Johnson lost control of the party. The new, more stringent measures Congress adopted dissolved the civilian governments in former Confederate states and regrouped them into military districts administered and supervised by the the US Army. The resulting Reconstruction became a long and painful affair.


Attending the second inaugural address was actor John Wilkes Booth. He would see Lincoln again, 41 days later, at Ford's Theater.

Lincoln Hall
Commissioned by the State Legislature in 1909, Lincoln Hall honored the president who signed the Morrill Land Grant Act, without which, the University of Illinois would never have existed. Costing $250 thousand ($6 million in Today Dollars), the building opened its doors onto the main quad in 1911. Judge Simeon W. King, the last surviving pallbearer from Lincoln's funeral, attended the dedication ceremony.


Carved on the outside of the building, according to trusty internet sources, you'll find 10 terra cotta panels depicting scenes from Lincoln's life, 20 portraits of individuals influential in his life, 15 quotes, and (inexplicably) 69 owls.


The eastern entrance hall features a bronze plaque inscribed with the Gettysburg Address as well as...

Lincoln #14
This 1923 Lincoln comes to us courtesy of Hermon Atkins MacNeil, designer of the 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter and the sculptures on the Eastern Pediment of US Supreme Court Building (the one with Moses).


We arrived just in time. Starting in 2010, Lincoln Hall underwent $58 million in renovations. They removed the bust and gave it a $6,800 face lift. Including a nose job. So many students had rubbed the nose over the years, that the patina wore off and you could see the shiny bronze underneath. Like all the other Lincolns we've seen. Patina People expertly reapplied a patina to this schnoz, but, as you can see, it's started to wear thin again.


In October of 1979, the bust mysteriously disappeared. It turned up sitting on a tree stump on the 8th hole of the University Golf Course. A note delivered to the Daily Illini, allegedly written by the statue, saying, “Gone out for a breath of fresh air. I’ll be back by the end of the week.”

Architecture Stuff
All state funded building projects are designed by the State Architect. W. Carbys Zimmerman, who held the office for 9 years, drew up the plans for the Lincoln Hall. The building has no official architectural style, but according to the only source who has anything to say about this (Melvyn Skvarla), Lincoln Hall represents a combination of Italian Renaissance and Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style.

The ceilings are done in plaster and gold and silver leaf, as you can see in the 650 seat theater, still used for classes.


If you take our favorite arch, the Roman arch, and stretch it out like a Caramello, you get a Barrel Vault. Lincoln Hall has one. All proper Italian Renaissance buildings do.


You'll also find in Italian Renaissance buildings coffered ceilings. Back when builders only had stone to work with, ceilings could get heavy. If you coffer the ceiling, that is, fill it with a bunch of holes, it lightens the load and looks spiffy. Now, in the days of concrete, steel, and plaster, a coffered ceiling no longer has a physical function, but it still looks spiffy.


The classes of 1917 and 1918 dedicated this little courtyard as a memorial to the fallen soldiers of World War One:


The Main Library
Zimmerman also designed the Main Library, built in 1926, an insanely immense building that provides a home to 12 million books.


As you can probably tell, Zimmerman designed the library in the wildly popular Georgian Revival Style.


Lincoln in Wax
Here's Mom posing with the Lincoln Family.