Sunday, October 14, 2012

Always Carry A Camera With You


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Tucson Weather Today


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I came home yesterday morning from a week's stay at the mansion in the desert where I occasionally go to house-sit and dog-sit with Eva while the owners are away (this time near Johns Hopkins University in Maryland) -- I will be going back out there tonight to spend another week while they are off to some similar location.


Last Thursday Eva erupted into an explosion of barking outside, so I hastened over to the door to the pool deck to see what she was raising Cain about; she was being taunted by an over-sized Roadrunner that was perched atop the back fence. I hurried into the bedroom to fetch my camera and managed to get a few shots before my close approach frightened the bird and it hopped down to the ground and sped away into the desert. Boy can those things run fast. It might have mistaken me for a wily ol' coyote.


Roadrunner From About 50 Feet Away


Cropped From Above Image

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Yesterday (Saturday 10/13/2012) while returning from my daily walk I espied a sidewalk display in front of Mesquite Valley Nurseries -- a cute depiction of animal hi-jinks.



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WORD FOR TODAY

diktat  [dik-TAHT]
Noun
1. A harsh, unilaterally imposed settlement with a defeated party.
2. An authoritative or dogmatic statement or decree.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- A diktat is a statute, harsh penalty or settlement imposed upon a defeated party by the victor, or a dogmatic decree. Historically, it was particularly used in Germany to refer to the Treaty of Versailles.

Additionally, a diktat generally means "to dictate" For example, in World War I, the Victorious Powers were seen to completely dictate what happened to Germany. E.g. The colonial people had no say as to what happened to the colonies. This was a diktat - unfair and completely dictated by. So Cameroons went to France and Tanghanyika went to Great Britain.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Harry Anderson
Born Oct 14, 1952
Age: 59 years old.

Harry Laverne Anderson is an American actor and magician. He is best known for the role of Judge Harry Stone on the 1984-1992 television series Night Court. In addition to eight appearances on Saturday Night Live between 1981 and 1985, Anderson had a recurring guest role as con man "Harry the Hat" on Cheers, toured extensively as a magician, and did several magic/comedy shows for broadcast, including Harry Anderson's Sideshow (1987).



Born Oct. 14, 1890
Died Mar. 28, 1969

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He had previously been a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II, and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; he had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.

Note:
My mother was born on Ike's birthday and when he was elected President she sent a birthday card to him at the White House -- and received one back, signed by him. She received another card from the White House each year that he was the president.


Born Oct. 14, 1893
Died Feb. 27, 1993

Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987. She was called "The First Lady of American Cinema".

She was a prominent film star of the 1910s and 1920s, particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith, including her leading role in Griffith's seminal Birth of a Nation (1915). Her sound-era film appearances were sporadic, but included memorable roles in the controversial western Duel in the Sun (1946) and the offbeat thriller Night of the Hunter (1955). She did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s, and closed her career playing, for the first time, opposite Bette Davis in the 1987 film The Whales of August.

The American Film Institute (AFI) named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time. She was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1971, and in 1984 she received an AFI Life Achievement Award.



e.e. cummings


Born Oct 14, 1894
Died Sept 3, 1962

Edward Estlin Cummings, popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings in the style of some of his poems, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. His body of work encompasses approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays and several essays, as well as numerous drawings and paintings. He is remembered as a preeminent voice of 20th century poetry.

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Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
--Denis Diderot


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