Motorcycles, Etc.

     

Tucson Weather Today


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Since I have no interest in riding motorcycles, I am not conversant with the Arizona laws regarding riding them, such as the wearing of helmets and  other such safety apparel. But as I was walking toward the Fry's Market yesterday I observed a motorcycle that turned  just a few feet in front of me into the  market's entrance road. It was being piloted by a beefy young woman dressed in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops, with no helmet, goggles, or anything like that.

True, she handled the bike with an appearance of professional skill, but I couldn't help wondering if the motor vehicle laws in Arizona wee actually as lax as all that or if perhaps she simply did not pay attention to laws.

I do not intend to look up the laws, though,because I really don't care all that much.


I eat a lot of fish. And I am pretty sure it is good for me. I like it, so I eat it. Strangely enough, one of the more popular kinds of fish seems to be Talapia. But when I first tasted it I found that I did not care much for its fatty flavor. It reminded me of the taste of carp, which I ate when I was just a kid because it was so easy to catch in the river near my home. But it was my least favorite. Talapia was better than the oil soaked carp, but not by a whole lot.

Imagine my surprise when I read an article in Science Daily that began: "Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine."

The researchers say the combination could be a potentially dangerous food source for some patients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto-immune diseases that are particularly vulnerable to an "exaggerated inflammatory response." Inflammation is known to cause damage to blood vessels, the heart, lung and joint tissues, skin, and the digestive tract.

More about Talapia

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On this day In New York City, George Washington, the great military leader of the American Revolution, was inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

More about the inauguration


And on April 30 in 1803, representatives of the United States and Napoleonic France conclude negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, a massive land sale that doubles the size of the young American republic.


Also, on this day, April 30 in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler's dreams of a "1,000-year" Reich.

Details and video

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WORD FOR TODAY

grandiose
adjective
-  Impressive or magnificent in appearance or style, esp. pretentiously so.
-  Excessively grand or ambitious.
synonyms
grand - magnificent - stately - pompous

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Willie Hugh Nelson
(born April 30, 1933)

Willie Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music.

Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten. During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school, in 1950, he joined the Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music.

During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote "Family Bible" and recorded the song "Lumberjack" in 1956. In 1960, he signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist. During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls", "Pretty Paper", and "Crazy". In 1962, he recorded his first album, And Then I Wrote. Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, Texas. The rise of the popularity of hippie music in Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters.

In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages. In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album, Red Headed Stranger. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted! The Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser.

During the mid-1980s, while creating hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and recording hit songs like "On the Road Again", "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", and "Pancho & Lefty", he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. In 1990 Nelson's assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed that he owed US $32,000,000. It was later discovered that his accountants, Price Waterhouse, did not pay Nelson's taxes for years. The difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s. In 1991, Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?; by 1993, the profits of the double album, destined to the IRS, and the auction of Nelson's assets cleared his debt.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, and released albums every year. Reviews ranged from positive to mixed. He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, and folk. Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television.

Kirsten Caroline Dunst
(born April 30, 1982)

Kirsten Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories (1989). At the age of 12, Dunst gained widespread recognition playing the role of vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire (1994), a performance for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. She appeared in Little Women the same year and in Jumanji the following year to further acclaim. After supporting roles in the television series ER (1996) and films such as Wag the Dog (1997), Small Soldiers (1998) and The Virgin Suicides (1999), Dunst transitioned into romantic comedies and comedy dramas, starring in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Bring It On (2000), Get Over It and Crazy/Beautiful (both 2001).

Dunst achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–07). Since then her films have included the romantic comedy Wimbledon (2004), the romantic science fiction Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Cameron Crowe's tragicomedy Elizabethtown (2005). She played the title role in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006) and starred in the comedy How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008). She won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Saturn Award for Best Actress for her performance in Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011).

John Mark "Johnny" Galecki 

(born April 30, 1975)

Johnny Galecki is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as David Healy in the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Leonard Hofstadter in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

Kunal Nayyar
(born April 30, 1981)

Kunal Nayyar is a British Indian actor best known for his role as Rajesh Koothrappali on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and Gupta in Ice Age: Continental Drift.


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The ode lives upon the ideal, the epic upon the grandiose, the drama upon the real.
--Victor Hugo

4-29-13

     

Tucson Weather Today


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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld
(born April 29, 1954)

Jerry Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television/film producer, best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons, co-executive-produced.

In his first major foray back into the media since the finale of Seinfeld, he co-wrote and co-produced the film Bee Movie, also voicing the lead role of Barry B. Benson. In February 2010, Seinfeld premiered a reality TV series called The Marriage Ref on NBC. Seinfeld directed Colin Quinn in the Broadway show Long Story Short at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York which ran until January 8, 2011.

Seinfeld is known for specializing in observational humor, often focusing on personal relationships and uncomfortable social obligations. In 2005, Comedy Central ranked Jerry Seinfeld 12th out of 100 as the greatest comedians of all time in its four-part special The 100 Greatest Standups Of All Time.

Michelle Marie Pfeiffer
(born April 29, 1958)

Michelle Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Scarface (1983). Pfeiffer received Academy Award nominations as Best Supporting Actress for Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Best Actress in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and Love Field (1992). She has had her greatest commercial successes with Batman Returns (1992), What Lies Beneath (2000), and Hairspray (2007). Her other films include Ladyhawke (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Married to the Mob (1988), The Age of Innocence (1993), Wolf (1994), Dangerous Minds (1995), and I Am Sam (2001).

Tom Ewell
(April 29, 1909 - September 12, 1994)

Tom Ewell was an American actor. Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky. Ewell began acting in summer stock in 1928 with Don Ameche, before moving to New York in 1931. He enrolled in the Actors Studio alongside classmates Montgomery Clift and Karl Malden.

His most successful and arguably most identifiable role came in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch with Marilyn Monroe. The scene of Ewell slyly admiring Monroe as she stood over a subway grate with her skirt billowing has become one of the most iconic moments in film.

Tom Ewell And Marilyn Monroe
(The Seven Year Itch)

Ewell enjoyed other film successes, including The Lieutenant Wore Skirts with Sheree North and The Girl Can't Help It (both 1956) opposite Jayne Mansfield. In The Girl Can't Help It, sultry Julie London appears as a mirage to Tom Miller (Ewell) singing her signature song, Cry Me A River.

However, as his film and theater careers seemed to have reached their peaks, he turned his attention to television. Over several years he played guest roles in numerous series, and received an Emmy Award nomination for his continuing role in the television series Baretta, with Ewell commenting that working on that series had given him greater pleasure than any project he had ever worked on. His final acting performance was in a 1986 episode of Murder, She Wrote.

Uma Karuna Thurman
(born April 29, 1970)

Uma Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Following early roles in films such as Dangerous Liaisons (1988), she rose to international prominence in 1994 following her role in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. She starred in several more films throughout the 1990's such as Batman & Robin, Gattaca and Les Misérables.

She won a Golden Globe Award for the miniseries Hysterical Blindness (2002). She reunited with director Quentin Tarantino to play the central role in two Kill Bill films (2003/2004) which brought her an additional two Golden Globe Award nominations and a BAFTA Award nomination.

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4-28-13

     

Tucson Weather Today

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Penélope Cruz Sánchez
(born April 28, 1974)

Penélope Cruz is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón (1992), to critical acclaim. Her subsequent roles in the 1990s and 2000s included Open Your Eyes (1997), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000) and Woman on Top (2000). Cruz achieved recognition for her lead roles in the 2001 films Vanilla Sky and Blow.

She has since built a successful career, appearing in films from a wide range of genres, including the comedy Waking Up in Reno (2002), the thriller Gothika (2003), the Christmas movie Noel (2004), and the action adventure Sahara (2005).

Jay Leno
(born April 28, 1950)

Jay Leno (born James Douglas Muir Leno) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, writer, producer and television host. He was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), also on NBC. After The Jay Leno Show was canceled in January 2010 amid a host controversy, Leno returned to host The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 1, 2010. On April 3, 2013, NBC announced that Jimmy Fallon will replace Leno as host of The Tonight Show at the conclusion of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Ann-Margret
(born April 28, 1941)

Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer, and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She is best known for her roles in Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Viva Las Vegas (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Carnal Knowledge (1971), and Tommy (1975). She has won five Golden Globe Awards and been nominated for two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and six Emmy Awards. In 2010, she won her first Emmy Award for her guest appearance on Law & Order: SVU.

Saddam Hussein
(April 28, 1937 - 30 December 2006)

Saddam Hussein was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. In March 2003, a coalition led by the U.S. and U.K. invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, after U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda.

Following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi interim government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites and was sentenced to death by hanging. His execution was carried out on 30 December 2006.
 

4-27-13

    

Tucson Weather Today

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NO PERSONAL TEXT TODAY

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Sheena Easton
(born  April 27, 1959)

 

 

Sheena Easton (born Sheena Shirley Orr) is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time. Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop hits "9 to 5" (known as "Morning Train" in the United States), "For Your Eyes Only", "Strut", "Sugar Walls", "U Got the Look" with Prince, and "The Lover in Me". She went on to become successful in the United States and Japan, working with prominent vocalists and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, Luis Miguel, L.A. Reid and Babyface, Patrice Rushen, and Nile Rodgers.

Jacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman
(April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012)

 

Jack Klugman began his career in the late 1940s on the stage. He later moved on to television and film work with roles in 12 Angry Men (1957) and Cry Terror! (1958). During the 1960s, he guest starred on numerous television series. Klugman won his first Primetime Emmy Award for his guest starring role on The Defenders, in 1964. He also made a total of four appearances on The Twilight Zone from 1960 to 1963.

In 1970, Klugman reprised his Broadway role of Oscar Madison in the television adaptation of The Odd Couple, opposite Tony Randall. The series aired from 1970 to 1975. Klugman won his second and third Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his work on the series. From 1976 to 1983, he starred in the title role in Quincy, M.E. for which he earned four Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Judy Carne
(born 27 April 1939)

 

 

Judy Carne is an English actress best remembered for the phrase "Sock it to me!" on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

Coretta Scott King
(April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006)

 

 

Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Mrs. King played a prominent role in the years after her husband's 1968 assassination when she took on the leadership of the struggle for racial equality herself and became active in the Women's Movement and the LGBT rights movement.
    

4-26-13

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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On this day, April 26, in 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident to date occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in Ukraine. The full toll from this disaster is still being tallied, but experts believe that thousands of people died and as many as 70,000 suffered severe poisoning. In addition, a large area of land may not be livable for as much as 150 years. The 18-mile radius around Chernobyl was home to almost 150,000 people who had to be permanently relocated.

LINK

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WORD FOR TODAY
clade
noun
A group of organisms, such as a species, whose members share homologous features derived from a common ancestor.

A clade or monophylum (see monophyletic) is a group consisting of an ancestor and all its descendants, a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The ancestor may be an individual, a breeding pair, a population or even a species (extinct or extant). Many familiar groups, the rodents and the insects for example, are clades; others, like the lizards and the monkeys, are not.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Kevin James
(born April 26, 1965)

 

 

Kevin James (born Kevin George Knipfing) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is widely known for playing Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens. James is also known for his lead roles in the comedy films I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Grown Ups, and Zookeeper. He also starred in 2005 romantic comedy film Hitch alongside Will Smith.

Carol Burnett
(born April 26, 1933)

 

 

Carol Burnett is an American actress, comedienne, singer, and writer. She is best known for her long-running TV variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, for CBS. She has achieved success on stage, television, and film in varying genres including dramatic and comedy roles.

Jet Li
(born April 26, 1963)

 

 

Jet Li (born Li Lianjie) is a Chinese film actor, film producer, martial artist, and wushu champion who was born in Beijing. He is a naturalized Singaporean citizen. After three years of intensive training with Wu Bin, Li won his first national championship for the Beijing Wushu Team. After retiring from Wushu at age 19, he went on to win great acclaim in China as an actor making his debut with the film Shaolin Temple (1982). He went on to star in many critically acclaimed martial arts epic films, most notably the Once Upon A Time In China series, in which he portrayed folk hero Wong Fei-hung.

Li's first role in a Hollywood film was as a villain in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), but his first Hollywood film leading role was in Romeo Must Die (2000). He has gone on to star in many Hollywood action films, including Kiss of the Dragon and Unleashed. He co-starred in The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) with Jackie Chan, The Expendables (2010) with Sylvester Stallone, and as the title character villain in The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (2008) opposite Brendan Fraser. He also appeared in the Hong Kong film Ocean Heaven (2010), directed and written by Xue Xiaolu.

Bobby Rydell
(born April 26, 1942)

 

 

Bobby Rydell (born Robert Louis Ridarelli) is an American professional singer, mainly of rock and roll music. In the early 1960s he was considered a "teen idol". According to Allmusic music journalist Kim Summers, Rydell, whose interest in show business began at the age of four years, "is one of the most sought-after nightclub and concert acts in the US. His performance in Bye Bye Birdie and his recordings "Wild One" and "Volare" made him a famous performer in the 1960s.

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Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism.
--Noam Chomsky
    

4-25-13

     

Tucson Weather Today


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WORD FOR TODAY

cacophony
noun
1.
harsh discordance of sound; dissonance: a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.
2.
a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds: the cacophony produced by city traffic at midday.
3.
Music. frequent use of discords of a harshness and relationship difficult to understand.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Al Pacino
(born April 25, 1940)

 

Al Pacino (born Alfredo Hames Pacino) is an American film and stage actor and director. Pacino made his major breakthrough when he was given the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather in 1972, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Other Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor were for Dick Tracy and Glengarry Glen Ross. Oscar nominations for Best Actor include The Godfather Part II, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice for All and Scent of a Woman.

Although he has never married, Pacino has had several relationships with actresses and has three children.

Renée Kathleen Zellweger
(born April 25, 1969)

 

 Renée Zellweger is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire (1996), and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago (2002). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Cold Mountain (2003).

Jason Michael Lee
(born April 25, 1970)

 

Jason Lee is an American actor, comedian and professional skateboarder, best known for his roles as the title character on the NBC television series, My Name is Earl, Syndrome in the film The Incredibles, Dave Seville in the Alvin and the Chipmunks films, and his work with director Kevin Smith.

Talia Shire
(born April 25, 1946)

 

Talia Shire is an American actress most known for her roles as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films and Adrian Balboa (née Pennino) in the Rocky series.

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If Obama had his way no one would win a football game. Each score would be distributed equally and everyone gets a trophy even if they suck.
--Rudy Espinoza
    

On A Silver Platter

     

Tucson Weather Today


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As I age, my memory weakens more and more each day. The concept remains but the actual word for which I search just disappears, and the harder I try to remember it, the farther away it recedes. I wanted to find the word 'nepotism' but couldn't recall it. So I thought, there is probably an app for that. I did a search for "Reverse Dictionary" and, by way of Google magic, it came into view.

In the Reverse Dictionary's search field, I typed: "hiring family members" and clicked Find Word -- instantly 100 words appeared, the first one of which was 'nepotism,' the word for which I was searching.

Reverse Dictionary

Certain that I will be using this handy dandy feature often, I placed a shortcut icon on my desktop.

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Did you know:

The Kennedy family comprises a president (John F. Kennedy), an attorney general (Robert F. Kennedy), three senators (John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy) and three congressmen (Patrick Kennedy, Joseph Kennedy II and his son Joseph Kennedy III), one lieutenant governor (Kathleen Kennedy Townsend) and two ambassadors (family patriarch Joseph Kennedy, who served as ambassador to England in Franklin Roosevelt's administration, and his daughter Jean, who was an ambassador to Ireland during the Clinton administration). And soon, President John F. Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, might become ambassador to Japan.

And that's not all. There is lots more to be said about how political dynasties are not necessarily good for America.

Keli Goff asks: Do We Need Any More Clintons or Bushes?

Keli Goff

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On April 24, 1980, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued. President Jimmy Carter gave a press conference in which he took full responsibility for the tragedy. The hostages were not released for another 270 days.

In November, Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan, On the day of Reagan's inauguration, January 20, 1981, the United States freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and the 52 hostages were released after 444 days.

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WORD FOR TODAY

dynasty
noun
1. A succession of rulers from the same family or line.
2. A family or group that maintains power for several generations: 'a political dynasty controlling the state.'

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Barbra Joan Streisand
(April 24, 1942)

Barbara Streisand is an American singer-songwriter, actress, writer, film producer, and director. S is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million records sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Album Artists list.

After beginning a successful recording career in the 1960s, by the end of the decade, Streisand ventured into film starring in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl (1968) and Hello, Dolly! (1969). Other notable films include The Owl and the Pussycat, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born for which she received her second Academy Award for composing the lyrics to the picture’s main song, Evergreen.

Michael Parks
(April 24, 1940)

Michael Parks (born Harry Samuel Parks) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in almost fifty films and has made frequent TV appearances, but is probably best known for his work in recent years with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith as well as the 1969 television series Then Came Bronson.

Shirley MacLean Beatty
(born April 24, 1934)

Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author. She has won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress -- Motion Picture Musical or Comedy twice, for her roles in The Apartment and Irma la Douce, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress -- Motion Picture Drama twice for Terms of Endearment and Madame Sousatzka. Her younger brother is Warren Beatty. She is known for her New Age beliefs and interest in spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career.

Kelly Brianne Clarkson
(born April 24, 1982)

Kelly Clarkson is an American singer, songwriter, and occasional actress. In 2002, she came to prominence after winning the first season of American Idol, and has since been established as "The Original American Idol". Her debut single "A Moment Like This" topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and broke the record for the biggest jump to number one in the chart's history; it became the best-selling single of the year in the country.

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Everybody gets everything handed to them. The rich inherit it. I don't mean just inheritance of money. I mean what people take for granted among the middle and upper classes, which is nepotism, the old-boy network.
--Toni Morrison
   

Indoctrination

    

Tucson Weather Today

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Most Americans have been so subtly indoctrinated by their parents and then by kindergarten morality and subsequent schooling that personal conclusions based on logical thought are almost impossible to attain. Not every student is so affected, of course. But the great majority.

I have more to say about this, but I'd rather wait and expand my thoughts on the subject within the confines of future fiction.

If I can.

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The old "they/them/their" in reference to a singular, indefinite someone controversy has been revisited. I heartily agree with the conclusion.

Details HERE

I do not believe that I have ever written anything so ludicrous as, "It was apparent that the lone perpetrator did not drag their feet while making their escape."

In fact, I know I haven't.

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On this day in 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death after being convicted in the assassination of politician Robert F. Kennedy. In 1972, Sirhan's sentence was commuted to life in prison after California abolished the death penalty.

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WORD FOR TODAY

Indoctrinate
verb
1. To instruct in a body of doctrine or principles.
2. To imbue with a partisan or ideological point of view.

Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology (see doctrine) which is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned. As such the term may be used pejoratively, often in the context of education, political opinions, theology or religious dogma. The term is closely linked to socialization; in common discourse, indoctrination is often associated with negative connotations, while socialization refers to cultural or educational learning.

Religious indoctrination, the original sense of indoctrination, refers to a process of imparting doctrine in an authoritative way, as in catechism. Most religious groups among the revealed religions instruct new members in the principles of the religion; this is now not usually referred to as indoctrination by the religions themselves, in part because of the negative connotations the word has acquired.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Shirley Temple Black
(born April 23, 1928)

Shirley Temple is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, and former U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She began her film career in 1932 at the age of three, and in 1934, found international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935, and film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi.  A succession of films followed: The Little Colonel, Our Little Girl, Curly Top (with the signature song "Animal Crackers in My Soup"), and The Littlest Rebel in 1935. Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel were named to Variety's list of top box office draws for 1935. In 1936, Captain January, Poor Little Rich Girl, Dimples, and Stowaway were released.

Michael Francis Moore
(born April 23, 1954)

Michael Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic, and political activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time and winner of the Palme d'Or. His films Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Sicko (2007) also placed in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries, and the former won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. In September 2008, he released his first free movie on the Internet, Slacker Uprising, which documented his personal quest to encourage more Americans to vote in presidential elections. He has also written and starred in the TV shows TV Nation and The Awful Truth.

Sandra Dee
(April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005)

Sandra Dee was an American actress. She became known for her wholesome ingenue roles in such films as The Reluctant Debutante, Gidget, Imitation of Life, and A Summer Place. She later played "Tammy" in two Universal sequels to Tammy and the Bachelor, in the role created by Debbie Reynolds. Her highly publicized marriage to Bobby Darin (1960–1967) ended in divorce.

Valerie Anne Bertinelli
(born April 23, 1960)

Valerie Bertinelli is an American actress, best known for her roles as Barbara Cooper Royer on the television series One Day at a Time (1975–1984), Gloria on the television series Touched by an Angel (2001–2003) and Melanie Moretti on the sitcom Hot in Cleveland (2010–present).

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“Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?”
--Peter Hitchens

"All you have to do to educate a child is leave him alone and teach him to read. The rest is brainwashing."
--Ellen Gilchrist

EARTH DAY

     

Tucson Weather Today


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April 22 is Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Earth Day is observed on April 22 each year. The April 22 date was designated as International Mother Earth Day by a consensus resolution adopted by the United Nations in 2009. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 192 countries every year.

Lyrics for the Earth Day Anthem set to "Ode to Joy" by Ludwig van Beethoven are provided below:

Joyful joyful we adore our Earth in all its wonderment
Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world

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Recently I read a quite interesting article in Boston Review regarding  extreme cases of moral virtue

It is titled Lives of the Moral Saints and is an interview with Larissa MacFarquhar, staff writer at The New Yorker, by former philosophy professor David V. Johnson.

Larissa MacFarquhar

 

excerpt:
For instance, I’m writing about  a couple in Philadelphia who’ve adopted 20 special needs kids. There aren’t many people like that floating around. When I mention this couple to people, often the response I’ll get is either, “Who do they think they are, that they think they can bring up 20 kids?” (in fact it’s 22 children because they had 2 biological children), or, “Surely that must be damaging to those children to have so many siblings. How can they possibly make it work as a family?” I’ve come to realize that this is one of the dividing lines between the people I’m writing about and regular people. For a regular person, caring more for your own child than for other children is not only morally permissible, it is required, and not doing so is kind of monstrous; but the people I’m writing about don’t feel that way. An ordinary couple considering whether or not to adopt a new kid would ask themselves how this would affect the children they already have. The couple I’m talking about do ask themselves that question, but they also ask themselves how the potential adoptees will be affected. The answer might be, well, it might reduce the quality of life of the children I already have somewhat. But will it increase the quality of life of the children I adopt? Enormously. And that thought is going to win. Most people don’t think that way.

The reason why this  interview interested me is because some of the information it reveals can help provide some verisimilitude (some motivation)) for a character in a story I am outlining at this time. And, of greater importance, I learned a great deal from reading the piece.

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WORD FOR TODAY

Utilitarianism
noun
-  The doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority.
-  The ethical doctrine that virtue is based on utility, and that conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of persons.

Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, specifically defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering. Utilitarianism has often been considered the natural ethic of a democracy operating by simple majority without protection of individual rights.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson
(born April 22, 1937)

 

Jack Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer, and writer. Nicholson has twice won the Academy Award for Best Actor, for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and for As Good as It Gets. He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment. Nicholson is well known for playing villainous roles, such as Frank Costello in The Departed, Jack Torrance in The Shining and the Joker in 1989's Batman. Notable films in which he has starred include Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail, Chinatown, The Passenger, The Shining, Reds, Wolf, A Few Good Men, The Pledge, About Schmidt and The Departed.

Glen Travis Campbell
(born April 22, 1936)

 

Glen Campbell is an American country music singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. During his 50 years in show business, Campbell has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and accumulated 12 RIAA Gold albums, 4 Platinum albums and 1 Double-Platinum album. Of the 74 trips up the country charts, 27 landed in the Top 10. Campbell's hits include John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind", Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston", Larry Weiss's "Rhinestone Cowboy" and Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights".

His movies include Baby the Rain Must Fall,The Cool Ones, True Grit, Norwood, Any Which Way You Can, Uphill All the Way, and Rock-A-Doodle

Edward Albert Heimberger
(April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005)

Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid. Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma!, and the corrupt prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television situation comedy Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch.

Marilyn Chambers
(April 22, 1952 – April 12, 2009)

 

Marilyn Chambers was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate. She was best known for her 1972 hardcore film debut Behind the Green Door and her 1980 pornographic film Insatiable. She was voted #6 on the list of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time by AVN, and ranked as one of Playboy's Top 100 Sex Stars of the Century in 1999. Although she was primarily known for her adult film work, she made a successful transition to mainstream projects. She has been called "porn's most famous crossover."

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Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
--Francis of Assisi
    

Of Questionable Interest

    
Tucson Weather Today


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On April 21, 1930 a fire at an Ohio prison killed 320 inmates, some of whom burned to death when they were not unlocked from their cells. The prison was built to hold 1,500 people, but at the time of the fire, there were 4,300 prisoners living in the jail. The inmates begged to be let out of their cells as smoke filled the cell block. However,the guards not only refused to unlock the cells, they continued to lock up other prisoners. By the time the fire was controlled, 320 people were dead and another 130 were seriously injured.

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WORD FOR TODAY

entity
noun
-  That which has a distinct existence as an individual unit.
-  The state or quality of being or existence.
-  An existent something that has the properties of being real, and having a real existence.

An entity is something that exists by itself, although it need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually regarded as entities. In general, there is also no presumption that an entity is animate. Sometimes, the word entity is used in a general sense of a being, whether or not the referent has material existence, e.g., is often referred to as an entity with no corporeal form (non-physical entity), such as a language. It is also often used to refer to ghosts and other spirits.
--Wikipedia

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Andie MacDowell
(born April 21, 1958)

 

Rosalie Anderson "Andie" MacDowell is an American model and actress. Her 1984 film debut was in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, a role in which her lines were dubbed by Glenn Close because her Southern accent was too pronounced for her to play the role of an Englishwoman. In 1985, she had a small part in St. Elmo's Fire.

Steven Soderbergh cast her in the independent film Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). Her performance led to a series of starring roles in films such as Green Card, The Object of Beauty, and Short Cuts. In the 1990s, MacDowell achieved stardom due to the box office success of the 1993 comedy by Harold Ramis, Groundhog Day, and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), opposite Hugh Grant.

Tony Danza
April 21, 1951)

 

Tony Danza (born Antonio Salvatore Iadanza) is an American actor known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards. In 1998, Danza won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series for his work on the 1997 sitcom The Tony Danza Show.

Elizabeth II
(born 21 April 1926)

 

Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Mountbatten-Windsor) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states, known as the Commonwealth realms, and their territories and dependencies, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. She is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and, in some of her realms, carries the title of Defender of the Faith as part of her full title.

Charles Grodin
(born 21 April 1935)

 

Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author, and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968. In the 1970s he moved into film acting, including playing the lead in The Heartbreak Kid and a supporting role in Catch-22. He became a familiar face as a supporting actor in many 1980s Hollywood comedies, including Midnight Run, Taking Care of Business, Seems Like Old Times, The Great Muppet Caper, The Woman in Red, The Lonely Guy, Ishtar and The Couch Trip. He is probably best known for his role as George Newton in the 1990s John Hughes comedy franchise Beethoven.


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Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.
--Pablo Picasso
    

Grilled Chees And Other Stuff

     

Tucson Weather Today


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April is National Grilled Cheese Month

The Sargento De-Clutter Challenge -
Win a Year Supply of Cheese Snacks

Tell us how you removed clutter in your life and how it improved your health and overall well-being.

April 1st - April 30th
The winner will be selected based on originality, creativity, and adherence to challenge theme, and will receive a one year's supply of Sargento Cheese Snacks!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

You don't have to be a professional writer to enter. You could win just by being your own cheerful, inventive, clever self. Have some fun and give it a try.

You will find the Sargento ENTER THE CHALLENGE button HERE

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On April 20, 1914, ending a bitter coal-miners' strike, Colorado militiamen attacked a tent colony of strikers, killing dozens of men, women, and children.

About 11,000 miners in southern Colorado had gone on strike against the powerful Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation (CF&I) to protest low pay, dangerous working conditions. The CF&I, which was owned by the Rockefeller family and Standard Oil, hired private detectives that attacked the tent colonies with rifles and Gatling guns. Two companies of the National Guard attacked the largest tent colony of strikers near the town of Ludlow.

Sixty-six men, women, and children died during the strike, but not a single militiaman or private detective was charged with any crime.

LINK

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WORD FOR TODAY

verklempt [fer-klempt]
adjective
-  overcome with emotion; clenched.
synonyms
overwhelmed, flustered, nervous, excited, overjoyed, happy

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Carmen Electra
(born April 20, 1972)

 Carmen Electra, born Tara Leigh Patrick, is an American glamor model, actress, television personality, singer, and dancer. She gained fame for her appearances in Playboy magazine, on the MTV game show Singled Out, on the TV series Baywatch, and dancing with the Pussycat Dolls, and has since had roles in the parody films Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and Disaster Movie.

George Hosato Takei
(April 20, 1937)

George Takei is an American actor and author, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek. He also portrayed the character in six Star Trek feature films and in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. He is a proponent of gay rights and active in state and local politics as well as continuing his acting career.

Jessica Phyllis Lange
(born April 20, 1949)

Jessica Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theater, and television. She made her professional film debut in his 1976 remake of the 1933 action-adventure classic, King Kong.

In 1982, Lange became the first performer in forty years to receive two Oscar nominations within the same year. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a soap opera star in Tootsie and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the troubled actress, Frances Farmer, in Frances.  She received three more nominations, for Country (1984), Sweet Dreams (1985) and Music Box (1989), before being nominated a sixth time and winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a manic depressive housewife in Blue Sky (1994). She later won her first Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' famed aunt, Big Edie, in HBO's Grey Gardens (2009) and won her first Screen Actors Guild Award, along with a second Primetime Emmy Award for her performance as a murderous neighbor in FX's anthology horror show American Horror Story (2011–2012).

Adolf Hitler
(April 20 1889 - 30 April 1945)

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the center of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust.

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