Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Sunday 2013


____________________


Wee Warrior


The new puppy, who was eventually named "Tracker" after he'd been with us a little over a week, is now becoming most brave.

He barks at intruders, which has so far included Christen's laundry basket and the stuff stored behind a door.

He terrorizes the cat, which is obvious in the way they tussle together.

He wrestles things into submission when needed, which has included his food bowl and the towel he naps on.

He attacks anything he thinks needs attacking, which usually means it's moving, and most certainly includes our feet as we walk across the room.

It took about two weeks for him to realize he could actually be in another room -- away from us -- and not immediately die. It took him a little longer than that to realize that yes, he could indeed sleep on the floor (in a plush doggie bed) while we slept two stories above him in the bed, and not immediately die.

It took until last week for him to discover that if he antagonizes the cat too often, he could very well die. (Actually, that's not true; even though the cat did manage to get a few yelps from him, he really hasn't learned anything and didn't even leave the cat alone for a full day.)

Life is a learning adventure, and we aren't excluded. The wonder of the first raindrops on his nose, the sureness in those little eyes that the rain is coming from you (this must be *your* fault!), the excitement of unrolling toilet paper... we're finding things on the floor we didn't even know were there. Every waking second is a joy and wonderment, with so many possibilities to explore and so many crannies to get stuck in, we don't know where to start.

But he does. He has no doubts, no hesitation. If it doesn't move, it must be for chewing on. If it moves, he chases it, growls at it, or barks. If it was moving and stopped when growled at, it must be good to eat.

He's a relentless wee warrior, rarely still. Whose idea was this, again?


Copyright 2013 Michelle Hakala
http://www.winebird.com/

Saturday, March 30, 2013

3-30-13

     
Tucson Weather Today


___________________________


On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John Hinckley Jr.


The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his entourage to his limousine when Hinckley, standing among a group of reporters, fired six shots at the president, hitting Reagan and three of his attendants. White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head and critically wounded, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy was shot in the side, and District of Columbia policeman Thomas Delahaney was shot in the neck. After firing the shots, Hinckley was overpowered and pinned against a wall, and President Reagan, apparently unaware that he'd been shot, was shoved into his limousine by a Secret Service agent and rushed to the hospital.

The president was shot in the left lung, and the .22 caliber bullet just missed his heart. In an impressive feat for a 70-year-old man with a collapsed lung, he walked into George Washington University Hospital under his own power. As he was treated and prepared for surgery, he was in good spirits and quipped to his wife, Nancy, ''Honey, I forgot to duck,'' and to his surgeons, "Please tell me you're Republicans." Reagan's surgery lasted two hours, and he was listed in stable and good condition afterward.

_____


WORD FOR TODAY

geriatric

adjective
1. Of or relating to geriatrics.
2. Of or relating to the aged or to characteristics of the aging process.
noun
An aged person.
medical
Geriatrics differs from standard adult medicine because it focuses on the unique needs of the elderly person. The aged body is different physiologically from the younger adult body, and during old age, the decline of various organ systems becomes manifest. Previous health issues and lifestyle choices produce a different constellation of diseases and symptoms in different people. The appearance of symptoms depends on the remaining healthy reserves in the organs. Smokers, for example, consume their respiratory system reserve early and rapidly.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Warren Beatty
 Born Mar 30, 1937
Age:   75 years old

Henry Warren Beatty is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director.

Beatty produced, directed and played the title role as comic strip based detective Dick Tracy in the film of the same name. He produced and starred as the real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in the critically and commercially acclaimed Bugsy, and is remembered for his role as Clyed Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde.




Born Mar 30, 1950
Age:   62 years old

Robbie Coltrane (born Anthony Robert McMillan) is a Scottish actor, comedian and author. He is known both for his role as Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the British TV series Cracker during the 1990s and as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter films.



 Born Mar 30, 1957
Age:   55 years old

Paul Reiser is an American comedian, actor, television personality, author, screenwriter and musician. He is most widely known for his role on the long-running television sitcom Mad About You.



 Born Mar 30, 1913
Died   Feb 6, 2007

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio, was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. His hits included "That's My Desire", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Mule Train", "Cry of the Wild Goose," "Jezebel", "High Noon", "I Believe", "Hey Joe!", "The Kid's Last Fight", "Cool Water", "Moonlight Gambler," "Love Is a Golden Ring," "Rawhide", and "Lord, You Gave Me a Mountain." He also sang well-known theme songs for many movie Western soundtracks, including 3:10 To Yuma, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and Blazing Saddles, although he was not a country/western singer


__________

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
--Francis Bacon
   

Friday, March 29, 2013

Today Is Good Friday, I'm Told

     
Tucson Weather Today

___________________________


So, once again We The People are being deluged by Religious Organizations, Retail Outlets, and The Mass Media with the idea that today is Good Friday and thus is a special day, a Holy Day.

Good Friday is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, or Black Friday.

And to celebrate the cruel crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Christians are persuaded to buy overpriced sugar-filled Candy Easter Eggs for their kids and expensive, glittery gilded Greeting Cards to send to family and friends.

_____


What do these two women have in common?

If you don't know, just ask me and I'll tell you.


_____


Historical Incident

On  March 29, 1973 the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam

Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam as Hanoi frees the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America's direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end.

The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular foreign war in U.S. history and cost 58,000 American lives. As many as two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

hypocrisy
noun
The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess.

Hypocrisy is the state of promoting or trying to enforce standards, attitudes, lifestyles, virtues, beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually hold.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Marina Sirtis
 
 Born Mar 29, 1955
Age:   57 years old

Marina Sirtis is a British-American actress. She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the four feature films that followed.



 
 Born Mar 29, 1943
Age:   69 years old

Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer and comedic composer. Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python, a member of the Rutles on Saturday Night Live, and the author of the Broadway musical Spamalot.



 
 Born Mar 29, 1968
Age:   44 years old

Lucy Lawless (born Lucille Frances Ryan) is a New Zealand actress and musician best known for playing the title character of the internationally successful television series Xena: Warrior Princess.

She is also widely known for her role, D'Anna Biers/Number Three (Cylon), on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. Most recently she appeared on the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, its prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, and Spartacus: Vengeance. She plays the major character Lucretia.


 
 Born Mar 29, 1964
Age:   48 years old

Elle Macpherson is an Australian businesswoman, television host, model, and actress. She is well known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s, leading to her nickname "The Body". She is also known as the founder primary model and creative director for a series of business ventures, including Elle Macpherson Intimates, a lingerie line, and The Body, a line of skin care products.

__________

"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."
--Roger Allen LaPorte

Note: Roger Allen LaPorte is best known as a protester of the Vietnam War who set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in New York City on November 9, 1965, to protest the United States involvement in the war.

In front of the Dag Hammarskjold Library at the United Nations in New York, he composed himself in the position of the Buddhist monks who had immolated themselves in Vietnam earlier, doused himself with gasoline, and set himself aflame.

La Porte died the next day from second and third degree burns covering 95 percent of his body. Despite his burns, he remained conscious and able to speak. When asked why he had burned himself, La Porte calmly replied, "I'm a Catholic Worker. I'm against war, all wars. I did this as a religious action."


Thursday, March 28, 2013

A Couple Of Things . . .

     
Tucson Weather Today


___________________________


Having walked daily by the Emeritus senior living facility on East Speedway Boulevard near Pantano for two years now, I decided it was time to investigate the place. Who knows when I might take a turn for the worst, become feeble or senile, and need some professional care in my old age?

Did I go inside and take the "tour" advertised on a sign out in front? No, of course not. That would be too easy, too normal. Instead, I did a Google search and found all the information I needed.



_____


What Do I Think About Same Sex Marriage?

Should two men or two women be allowed by force of law to enter into a marriage contract?

Certainly. They already have that right. A gay men can legally marry a woman just like a straight man can marry either a lesbian or a straight woman. It's legal. And a lesbian can marry either a gay or straight man. What's the problem?

No, no . . . Pay attention. Here's the question: Should two men be allowed to legally marry each other? And should two women be allowed to marry each other?

Oh. Okay. Well, that's a different thing.

The only argument, it seems to me, against a man marrying another man, or a woman marrying another woman is based upon religious belief. People when they are children are taught by their parents, teachers, priests or protestant ministers, that doctrines consisting of superstitious nonsense about listening to an All-Powerful and really nice Father-God, or listening to frightening devils and evil magic demons trying to lead us astray, into sin -- taught and convinced that this crap is absolutely, unquestionably TRUE. And that our creator, our magnificent God does not want homosexual men and women to marry, because marriage is a holy union between one man and one woman and was created by God and should not be profaned.

Good Gravy!

Lying to kids like that is nothing more than child abuse.

And child abuse is against the law.

Ain't it?





 

To tell the absolute truth, I really don't care about this same-sex marriage argument. I am not a gay man and I am certainly not a lesbian, so I cannot walk a mile in their shoes. I have no dog in the hunt.

To tell the truth, I just don't give a damn, either way.

(How's that for being truthful?)

_____


Historical Incident

At 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry began when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island fails to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat.

A bubble of highly flammable hydrogen gas was discovered within the reactor building.

Experts were uncertain if the hydrogen bubble would create further meltdown or possibly a giant explosion, and as a precaution Governor Thornburgh advised "pregnant women and pre-school age children to leave the area within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility until further notice." This led to the panic the governor had hoped to avoid; within days, more than 100,000 people had fled surrounding towns.

On April 1, President Jimmy Carter arrived at Three Mile Island to inspect the plant. Carter's visit achieved its aim of calming local residents and the nation. That afternoon, experts agreed that the hydrogen bubble was not in danger of exploding. Slowly, the hydrogen was bled from the system as the reactor cooled.

In the more than two decades since the accident at Three Mile Island, not a single new nuclear power plant has been ordered in the United States.

Details here

_____


WORD FOR TODAY

emeritus
adjective
retired or honorably discharged from active professional duty but retaining the title of one's office or position: professor emeritus of history.
noun
an emeritus professor, minister, etc.

Emeritus is a Latin past participle that means "having served one's time" or "having merited one's discharge by service". In current usage, it is a postpositive adjective used to designate a retired professor, bishop, president, prime minister, or other professional; as such it refers to the post-retirement status of at least one pope.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Lady Gaga
 
Born Mar 28, 1986
Age:   26 years old

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, activist, businesswoman, fashion designer, actress and philanthropist.

Lady Gaga came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut album, The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped charts around the world and included the international number-one singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face".

In 2012 she launched the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF), a non-profit organization that focuses on youth empowerment and issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring, and career development.



 
 Born Mar 28, 1970
Age:   42 years old

Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian and activist. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers. He has since appeared in a number of films, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Return to Paradise, Old School, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Wedding Crashers, The Break Up, Fred Claus, Couples Retreat and The Watch. He is one of the tallest leading men in Hollywood at 6 feet 5 inches.



 
 Born Mar 28, 1955
Age:   57 years old

Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress.

Signing with MCA Nashville Records, McEntire took creative control over her MCA album, My Kind of Country (1984) and produced two number one singles: "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave". The album brought her breakthrough success, bringing her a series of successful albums and number one singles in the 1980s and 1990s.

McEntire has since released 26 studio albums, acquired 40 number one singles, 14 number one albums, and 28 albums have been certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America. She has sometimes been referred to as "The Queen of Country", having sold more than 72 million records worldwide. In the United States, she ranks as both the tenth best-selling female artist in all genres and the second best-selling female country artist.

In the early 1990s, McEntire branched into film starting with 1990's Tremors. She has since starred in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun and in her television sitcom, Reba (2001–2007) for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series–Musical or Comedy. She currently stars as Reba McKenzie in the ABC sitcom Malibu Country.



 
Born Mar 28, 1943
Age:   69 years old

Conchata Galen Ferrell is an American actress. She is best known for playing Berta the housekeeper in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 2005 and 2007.

__________

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm.
--Aldous Huxley
    

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Tobacco -- U.S. Govermental Shame


The elected lawmakers of the government of the United States of America are complicit in the murder of American citizens; they continue to aid and abet the growing, manufacturing, and marketing of tobacco products even though they (and every 21st century American) now know that smoking tobacco kills smokers.



Why? Because tobacco usage is so wonderfully profitable. Tobacco is highly addictive. Tobacco addiction is unbelievably lucrative. The industry provides jobs. The sales provide outlandish profits to multi-millionaire company owners. The taxes levied on tobacco products provide many, many dollars to corrupt government officials and uncaring lobbyists.

That's Why!

Except for the follow the money motive, there is no legitimate excuse for this or any other government-sanctioned wholesale murder.

And History will surely reveal the shameful truth.

_____


Tucson Weather Today


___________________________


Regarding HISTORY: On this day, March 27 in 1973, the actor Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather. The Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather attended the ceremony in Brando’s place, stating that the actor “very regretfully” could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film.

Brando was the second performer to turn down a Best Actor Oscar; the first was George C. Scott, who politely declined to accept his award for Patton in 1971 and reportedly said of the Academy Awards hoopla: “I don’t want any part of it.” Scott had previously declined a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Hustler (1961).

Interesting details about this subject here

_____


WORD FOR TODAY

complicit  (kuhm-plis-it)
adjective
Associated with or participating in a questionable act or a crime.

An individual or group of individuals is complicit in a crime if he/she is aware of its occurrence and has the ability to report or stop the crime, but fails to do so. As such, the individual or group effectively allows criminals to carry out a crime despite possibly being able to stop them, thus making the individual or group a de facto accessory to the crime rather than an innocent bystander.


_____



BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


David Janssen
 Born Mar 27, 1931
Died  Feb 13, 1980

David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967), the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–1960), and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.



 Born Mar 27, 1970
Age:   42 years old

Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and philanthropist. Carey released her self-titled debut studio album Mariah Carey in 1990; it went multi-platinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

With her success with hit records Emotions (1991), Music Box (1993), and Merry Christmas (1994), Carey was established as Columbia's highest-selling act. Daydream (1995) made music history when its second single "One Sweet Day".

In a career spanning over two decades, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.



Born Mar 27, 1963
Age:   49 years old

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor.

His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed My Best Friend's Birthday; its screenplay would form the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs (1992); regarded as a classic and cult hit, it was opined as the "Greatest Independent Film of All Time" by Empire magazine. Its popularity was boosted by the release of his second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), a neo-noir crime film that became a major critical and commercial success, widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Paying homage to 1970s blaxploitation films, Tarantino released Jackie Brown in 1997, an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch.

Kill Bill followed six years later -- released as two films, Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004) -- a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Chinese martial arts, spaghetti westerns and Italian horror. He released Death Proof (2007) as part of a double feature with friend Robert Rodriguez under the collective title Grindhouse. His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds (2009) became Tarantino's second highest-grossing film to date ($321 million), which tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership. His most recent and highest grossing work is Django Unchained (2012), a western film set in the antebellum era of the Deep South, receiving critical acclaim.



Born Mar 27, 1924
Died:  Apr 3, 1990

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century." Nicknamed "Sailor" (for her salty speech), "Sassy" and "The Divine One", Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its "highest honor in jazz", the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989.


__________

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
--Everett Dirksen
(U.S. Senator, 1950–1969)

Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception.
--Sophocles
 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Happenstance In A Small World

     
Tucson Weather Today


___________________________


Yesterday, over at The Writer's Almanac I read about March 26 being the birthday of author Kate DiCamillo.



Kate happens to be the sister of Curt DiCamillo. Curt owned a Health Food store right next to my Candy Store (Gene & Donna's) on Montrose Street in Clermont, Florida back in 1987. I got to know him fairly well.

I did a search for Curt DiCamillo and found that he is listed in Wikipedia and is now a well-known personality, of sorts.



Also, in 1987, on March 26, responding to a 911 call, police raided the Philadelphia home of Gary Heidnik and find an appalling crime scene. In the basement of Heidnik's dilapidated house was a veritable torture chamber where three naked women were found chained to a sewer pipe. A fourth woman, Josefina Rivera, had escaped and called police.

Six women were kidnapped and held in Heidnik's dungeon. All were raped and tortured while the others were forced to watch. He killed one of the women by putting her in the pit, filling it with water and putting a live electrical wire into the water. Another of the women was killed when Heidnik let her starve to death while chained to the wall. In perhaps the most grisly and horrid episode of the entire incident, Heidnik dismembered one of his victims, cooking parts of her body and feeding it to his other captives.
Gary Heidnik

Although Heidnik was clearly mentally disturbed, he was found guilty and convicted of murder on July 1, 1988. He received a death sentence, and was executed on July 6, 1999.

Details . . .


Oh... and by the way: A New Orleans judge ruled last Thursday that a law forbidding felons from owning firearms infringes their rights to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the state's newly amended constitution.

LINK . . .

_____


WORD FOR TODAY


happenstance [hap-uhn-stans]
noun
a chance happening or event.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Leonard Nimoy
Born Mar 26, 1931
Age:   81 years old

Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, singer and photographer. Nimoy is best known for his role of Spock in the original Star Trek series (1966–1969), and in multiple film, television, and video game sequels.



 Born Mar 26, 1944
Age:   68 years old

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American vocalist, music artist and actress. Ross first rose to fame as a founding member and lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s.

After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that has included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), for which she won a Golden Globe award for most promising female newcomer.



 Born Mar 26, 1950
Age:   62 years old

Martin Hayter Short is a Canadian American actor comedian, writer, singer , voice actor and producer. He is best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live. He starred in such comedic films as Three Amigos, Innerspace, Pure Luck, Jungle 2 Jungle, Mars Attacks!, Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II and created the characters of Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley.



 Born Mar 26, 1960
Age:   52 years old

Jennifer Grey is an American actress known for her roles in the 1980s films Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Dirty Dancing, the latter for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She is also known for her 2010 victory in the eleventh season of the American version of Dancing with the Stars. Grey is the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Joel Grey


__________

“It takes, unhappily, no more than a desk and writing supplies to turn any room into a confessional.”
--Thomas Pynchon
   

Monday, March 25, 2013

You Can't Say That . . .

    
Tucson Weather Today


___________________________


On March 25, 1955 the U.S. Customs Department confiscated 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg's book Howl, which had been printed in England. Officials alleged that the book was obscene.

City Lights, a publishing company and bookstore in San Francisco owned by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, proceeded to publish the book in the fall of 1956. The publication led to Ferlinghetti's arrest on obscenity charges. Ferlinghetti was bailed out by the American Civil Liberties Union, which led the legal defense. Nine literary experts testified at the trial that the poem was not obscene, and Ferlinghetti was found not guilty.


I have discovered that non-governmental censorship exists today, in March of 2013. Exists and thrives by the hand of creators of supposed flawless poetry, poets who wield self-centered big sticks to feed an ever-growing mass of artificial ego.

Unaware, in their blindness, of the negative possibilities.

_____


WORD FOR TODAY


obscene  [ahb-seen]
adjective
1. Offensive to accepted standards of decency or modesty.
2. Inciting lustful feelings; lewd.
3. Repulsive; disgusting.
4. So large in amount as to be objectionable or outrageous.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Elton John
 
Born Mar 25, 1947
Age:   65 years old

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight), is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor.

In his four-decade career John has sold more than 250 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single "Candle in the Wind 1997" has sold over 33 million copies worldwide, and is the best selling single in the history of the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 56 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won six Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.



 
Born Mar 25, 1965
Age:  47 years old

Sarah Jessica Parker is an American actress, model, singer and producer. She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City (1998–2004). She played the same role in the 2008 feature film based on the show, Sex and the City: The Movie, and in its sequel, Sex and the City 2, which opened on May 26, 2010. Parker has also appeared in many other films.



 
Born March 25, 1918
Died  April 23, 1995

Howard William Cosell (born Howard William Cohen) was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. There's no question that I'm all of those things.

Cosell rose to prominence covering boxer Muhammad Ali, starting when he still fought under his birth name, Cassius Clay. The two seemed to be friends despite their very different personalities, and complemented each other in broadcasts. Cosell was one of the first sportscasters to refer to the boxer as Muhammad Ali after he changed his name and supported him when he refused to be inducted into the military.



 
Born Mar 25, 1934
Age:   78 years old

Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s.


__________

The only thing that is obscene is censorship.
--Craig Bruce

Women should be obscene and not heard.
Groucho Marx
    

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Meaning Of Life?

     
Tucson Weather Today


___________________________


Why do we assume there is a meaning for life? That life has a purpose? Why do we feel that human life is special? Because someone told us so?

I have read that Mormons profess to believe that the meaning of life is to serve God, who has a plan for human life. Most of the religious denominations, in one form or another, seem to echo that belief.

But Leo Tolstoy said "The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity." That statement is probably true, if serving humanity is synonymous with preserving and advancing the human species.

It is somewhat evident that the primary goal of even the lower? animals is to preserve their species. Why do honey bees spend their lives gathering nectar from plants, converting it chemically within their guts, and vomiting it back up as honey to feed the colony?



Honey bees transform nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation and evaporation



They store it as a primary food source in wax honeycombs inside the beehive
 



From Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle:

In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness.

And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat, looked around, and spoke. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.

"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.

"Certainly," said man.

"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.

And He went away.”


_____


WORD FOR TODAY

aphorism
noun
a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation, as “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”

An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a concise and memorable form.

The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. It was later applied to maxims of physical science, then statements of all kinds of philosophical, moral, or literary principles.

In modern usage an aphorism is generally understood to be a concise statement containing a subjective truth or observation cleverly and pithily written.

_____
 
 
BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


 
 Born Mar 24, 1973
Age:   39 years old

James Joseph "Jim" Parsons is an American actor. He is best known for playing Sheldon Cooper on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, with his performance often cited as a significant reason for the program's success.



 
Born Mar 24, 1960
Age:   52 years old

Kelly LeBrock is an American actress and model. Her acting debut was in The Woman in Red co-starring with comedian Gene Wilder. She also starred in the film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes.



 
Born Mar. 24, 1930
Died  Nov. 7, 1980

Terence Stephen "Steve" McQueen was an American actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Magnificent Seven, The Blob, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, Papillon, and The Towering Inferno. In 1974, he became the highest-paid movie star in the world.



 
Born Mar 24, 1949
Age   63 years old

Tabitha King is an American author and activist. King's first novel, Small World, was published in 1981 by Signet Books. She has published eight novels and two works of non-fiction. In 2006 she published Candles Burning through Berkley Books.

She is married to writer Stephen King.

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"The purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in nature -- all it tries to do is stay alive. It doesn't care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever any animal's behavior puts it out of touch with the realities of its existence, it becomes extinct."
--Michael Crichton, Congo



    

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Reading And Writing Books

     
Tucson Weather Today


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On March 23, 1999, bestselling author Thomas Harris delivered the 600-page manuscript for his new novel, Hannibal, to Delacorte press. Hannibal was part of a two-book contract that paid Harris a $5.2 million advance. The book was the third novel featuring serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter, who first appeared in Harris' 1981 book Red Dragon as a minor character. He played a larger role in The Silence of the Lambs (1988), which sold some 10 million copies and was made into an Academy Award-winning movie in 1991.





Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter

Personal Opinion:
The book is great -- the movie, in my estimation, is not. The movie takes such flagrant liberties with the plot, such as, among other things, leaving out the character of Mason Verger's sister (a fascinating study) and completely changing the book's ending. The movie utterly destroys the story's original magnificence.

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WORD FOR TODAY

motivation
noun
the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way.

Motivation is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal directed behaviors. It can be considered a driving force; a psychological drive that compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas.

Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure. It can also originate from specific physical needs such as eating, sleeping or resting, and sex.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Wernher Von Braun
 Born Mar. 23, 1912
Died June 16, 1977

Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and, subsequently, in the United States. He is credited as being the "Father of Rocket Science".



 Born Mar 23, 1905
Died May 10, 1977

Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theater. She starred in Mildred Pierce (1945), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. after Crawford's death, daughter Christina wrote a "tell-all" memoir, Mommie Dearest, in which she alleged a lifelong pattern of physical and emotional abuse perpetrated by Crawford.



 Born Mar 23, 1929
Age:   83 years old

Roger Gilbert Bannister is an English former athlete best known for running the first mile in less than 4 minutes.



 Born Mar 23, 1957
Age:   55 years old

Amanda Michael Plummer is an actress best known for her work on stage and for her roles in films such as The Fisher King (1991), So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), and Pulp Fiction (1994).

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You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
C. S. Lewis