Others Are Saying . . .

    

Tucson Weather Today

 



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Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: "Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

Now that is meaningful and helpful advice indeed. That is my idea of sharing useful insight.

But, wait a minute . . . Who in the world cares what my idea about anything is?  Everybody has their own interpretation of a subject, or an object, or an event, or even a half-formed mental vision of a possible concept. And who's to say that one is superior to that of another? It would take a veritable god indeed to truthfully do so.

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PZ Myers answers the question: "What Does Evil Look Like?" in a short but effective blog entry with photo.

Read it HERE

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Today's Passing Asteroid

NASA is inviting members of the media and public to participate in online and television events May 30-31 with NASA officials and experts discussing the agency's asteroid initiative and the Earth flyby of the 1.7-mile-long asteroid 1998 QE2.

At 4:59 p.m. EDT, Friday, May 31, 1998 QE2 will pass by Earth at a distance of about 3.6 million miles -- its closest approach for at least the next two centuries. The asteroid was discovered Aug. 19, 1998, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Program near Socorro, N.M.

More at the NASA Asteroid and Comet watch

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TRIVIA

If you drop a penny off of the Empire State Building, it will be going 106 miles per hour when it reaches the ground. Something moving this fast may actually cause head injuries if it lands on you.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

A killer who couldn't keep his mouth shut

On this day, May 31 in 1964, fifteen-year-old Alleen Rowe was killed by Charles Schmid in the desert outside Tucson, Arizona. Earlier in the night, Schmid allegedly had said to his friends, "I want to kill a girl! I want to do it tonight. I think I can get away with it!" Schmid went on to kill three other teenage girls before being caught by police.

Schmid was convicted and sentenced to death, but he survived because the Supreme Court invalidated most death sentences in 1972.

More  . . .

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WORD FOR TODAY

preamble
noun
an introductory statement; preface; introduction
Synonyms
opening, beginning; foreword, prologue, prelude

A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr.
(born May 31, 1930)

 Clint Eastwood is an American film actor, director, and producer. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide (1959–1966). He rose to fame for playing the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) during the late 1960s, and as Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool) throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others including Play Misty for Me (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008), have all received commercial success and critical acclaim. Eastwood's only comedies have been Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980), which are his two most commercially successful films after adjustment for inflation.

Brooke Shields
(born May 31, 1965)

Brooke Shields is an American actress, model and former child star. Shields, initially a child model, gained critical acclaim for her leading role in Louis Malle's wildly controversial film Pretty Baby (1978), in which she played a child prostitute in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century. The role garnered Shields widespread notoriety, and she continued to model into her late teenage years and starred in several dramas in the 1980s, including The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love (1981).

 

Joseph William "Joe" Namath
(born May 31, 1943)

Joe Namath, nicknamed "Broadway Joe" is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. Namath was an American Football League icon. He played for that league's New York Jets for most of his professional football career, and finished his career with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.

Lea Kathleen Thompson
(born May 31, 1961)

Leah Thompson is an American actress, television director and television producer. She is known for her role as Lorraine Baines in the Back to the Future trilogy and as the title character in the 1990s NBC sitcom Caroline in the City. Other films she is known for include All the Right Moves, The Beverly Hillbillies, Howard the Duck, Jaws 3-D, Red Dawn, and Some Kind of Wonderful. Since 2011 she has co-starred as Kathryn Kennish in the ABC Family series Switched at Birth.

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The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.
--Robert Frost

Cleanliness And Yellow Flowers

     

Tucson Weather Today

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One season when I was young and somewhat  strapped for money, I moonlighted as a dish washer in an Interstate Truck Stop restaurant on the midnight shift. One thing I was shown early on was that all bread left on a customer's plate, whether bitten into of not, was brought back into the dish-washing area and lifted (by bare dirty hands of the bus boy) and deposited in a special 'bread only' trash-style can that was meant for storing the main ingredient for the next day's bread pudding.

Behind-the-scenes hand washing by employees in that specific eatery, as well in many other restaurants I've observed over the years, is nearly always a hit or miss activity, usually consisting of nothing more than a splash and sprinkle of water (no soap) across the fingers.

While loitering one day in the vicinity of a Florida Mall Food Court, I espied an employee grilling cheeseburgers. At one point the busy, busy young girl inadvertently nudged a large stack of cheese slices off the counter and onto the dirty, dirty floor. She quickly bent down and retrieved the errant stack and set it aside. In a few minutes, after a darting  look around the area, she reached over and brought the stack back to the grill and began using from it again. She did not remove the end slices which had come in contact with the floor, but she did give them a quick rub against her grime-smeared apron.

Restaurants aside, I noticed that every one of the ladies with whom I have enjoyed marriage or cohabitation and a modicum of domestic bliss exhibited this same lack of strict cleanliness. They washed their hands at all the appropriate times, but this (soapless) hand washing usually consisted of a quick flip of the fingers through a stream of cool running water.

That was once my method, too, at a young age, before I was taught the right way to wash. But when I was once delegated, at about the age of thirteen or so, to assist the two school janitors for a couple hours I learned the proper way to wash one's hands. I watched at lunch time as the two hard working men wet their hands with hot water at the restroom sink, applied liquid soap liberally, and vigorously rubbed their hand together, paying attention to getting every inch of exposed flesh soapy and then rinsing all the soap from their hands thoroughly under the hot, hot water.

And that's how I washed my hands, at that time and ever afterward.

Well, almost always afterward.

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Yellow Flowers Growing Alongside The Road

Tucson, Arizona - May 29, 2013

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TRIVIA

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan continues to draw his Army salary (currently $278,000) while awaiting trial. In May of 2013, 42 months after the Fort Hood shootings, a Dallas TV station reported that Hasan has been drawing his pay in the three and a half years since the incident. Hasan's confinement and medical expenses are also being pied by the military.

Confirmed by Snopes

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WORD FOR TODAY

ablution
noun
-  a cleansing with water or other liquid
-  washing yourself: the act of washing the hands or the whole of the body
-  the act of washing (as in the phrase "perform one's ablutions")
synonyms
cleansing, sanitizing, decontamination

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Gale Eugene Gale Eugene Sayers
(born May 30, 1943)

Gale Sayers, also known as "The Kansas Comet", is a former American college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons during the 1960s and early 1970s. He played college football for the University of Kansas, and was twice recognized as an All-American. He was a first-round pick in the 1965 NFL Draft, and played his entire pro career for the NFL's Chicago Bears.

Meredith Lynn MacRae
(May 30, 1944 - July 14, 2000)

Meredith MacRae was an American actress and singer, known for her roles as Sally Ann on My Three Sons (1963–1965) and as Billie Jo on Petticoat Junction (1966–1970). On July 14, 2000, MacRae died from complications of brain cancer

.

Michael J. Pollard
(born May 30, 1939)

Michael J. Pollard (born Michael John Pollack, Jr.) is an American actor known for playing the character C.W. Moss in 1967 crime film Bonnie and Clyde. In Star Trek Season 1 Episode 8 "Miri", at age 27, he played a barely pre-pubescent boy, leader of a band of orphaned children.

Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc
(May 30, 1908 - July 10, 1989)

Mel Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros. as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, the Tasmanian Devil and many of the other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons, during the "Golden age of American animation". He later worked for Hanna-Barbera's television cartoons, most notably as the voices of Barney Rubble in The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely in The Jetsons.

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"Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely."
--P. J. O'Rourke
   

Overweight, Obesity, And Natural Gullibility

     

Tucson Weather Today

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We here in the United States have been indoctrinated by the food industry, aided by those loosely associated with that industry, the chefs, the TV cooking show personalities, and the profiteering charlatans who claim to know the secrets of vitamins, nutrition, and gastronomical health. The indoctrination to which I refer is the unquestioned absoluteness of the notion that the only food that should be eaten is food that has been prepared for consumption by enhancing that food's flavor or adding other elements to create additional pleasant flavors to the food being prepared.

This, to me, makes no sense. One of the most prevalent maladies in the United States is reported to be obesity. What is the most probable reason for this? I would guess that it is the ubiquitous practice of pleasure-seeking overeating. Why do obese people continue to eat more (much more) food than their bodies  actually need, and often much more than they actually want to eat?

Why?

Because it tastes so damned good. That's why. If a little bit is good, then more has to be even better.

And yet Rachael Ray, the once perky (now porky) queen of the popular daytime cooking show continues to prepare tubs and overflowing  platters of yummy, delicious, flavor-filled foods before your very eyes each weekday. And proclaims them to be healthy and nutritious.

And yet, Martha Stewart (no longer svelte and fetching) teaches you How To Bake by whipping up Cakes and Pastries loaded with tons of butter, cream, sugar, and wheat flower. And declares it to be luscious... and soooo good.

And yet, Lidia Bastianich (large and larded Italian Mama) graces the PBS television screen with recipes filled with high-calorie, high-fat, delicious food, And delicious wines.

To be fair, all of the above showmen (show-people?) appear to be cooking for a huge crowd and, of course, expecting you, the viewer, to eat only a small, normal, sensible portion of the sumptuous spread they've shown you how to prepare and present to your friends and families.

And you will. You, being the strong-willed, intelligent, in-charge person that you are, you will treat yourself to only a tiny piece of that sweet, creamy cake with the butter creme frosting.

Sure, you will.


How much do I weigh, now, at age 74? My weight varies between 172 and 175 pounds.

How much should I weigh?

Well, I felt pretty well when I weighed 160 pounds, back in 2008, 2009, and 2010... and even better a few years back when I averaged 150 pounds for about ten years. And I felt GREAT during the early to middle 1980s, when I weighed between 145 to 150 pounds.

That's about as well as I can describe myself relative to body weight.

I would like to get my weight down to somewhere between 150 and 160 pounds. Maybe I will start recording my daily weight here on the blog. And perhaps a record of my daily food intake -- what I eat, and how much of it. And eschewing, of course, all added sugars, all wheat products, and as few fats as possible.

I'll think about it.

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TRIVIA

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit will damage it.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Some 35 U.S. states declared it to be Bob Hope Day on this day, May 29, in 2003, when the iconic comedic actor and entertainer turned 100 years old. Hope died on July 27, 2003, less than two months after his 100th birthday celebration.

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WORD FOR TODAY

gastronomy
-  the art or science of good eating
-  culinary customs or style

Gastronomy is the art of food eating. It is also the study of food and culture, with a particular focus on gourmet cuisine. One who is well versed in gastronomy is called a gastronome, while a gastronomist is one who unites theory and practice in the study of gastronomy.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy
(May 29, 1917 - Nov, 22, 1963)

John F. Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his death in 1963.

After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts' 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election.

At 43 years of age, he is the youngest to have been elected to the office, the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. A Catholic, Kennedy is the only non-Protestant president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War.

Annette Carol Bening
(born May 29, 1958)

Annette Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films.

Bob Hope
(May 29, 1903 - July 27, 2003)

Bob Hope was an English-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, author, and athlete who appeared on Broadway, in vaudeville, movies, television, and on the radio. He was noted for his numerous United Service Organizations (USO) shows entertaining American military personnel; he made 57 tours for the USO between 1942 and 1988. Throughout his long career, he was honored for this work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress declared him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces."

Over a career spanning 60 years (1934 to 1994), Hope appeared in over 70 films and shorts, including a series of "Road" movies co-starring Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. In addition to hosting the Academy Awards fourteen times, he appeared in many stage productions and television roles, and was the author of fourteen books. He participated in the sports of golf and boxing, and owned a small stake in his hometown baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. He was married to his wife, fellow performer Dolores Hope for 69 years.

Danielle Riley Keough
(born May 29, 1989)

Riley Keough is an American model and actress. She is the daughter of singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough and the eldest grandchild of Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

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Gluttony is not a secret vice.
--Orson Welles
  

Who Cares About Correct Language?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Early this morning I again heard a local TV channel's newscaster (attractive, makeup-enhanced young female) describe an object as being very unique -- and once again I caught myself gritting my teeth in righteous anger. But, why, I asked myself, is this incorrect usage phenomenon repeated so often? The answer soon came to me. It is because the newest generations are not being taught that 'unique' means 'one of a kind' and so is not subject to degree. One cannot say that an object is very one-of-a-kind. This distinction is not being taught to  students, probably because even the teachers do not know (were never taught) the meaning.

Why do I care? Why I get my boxers all in a twist when I hear someone say, "very unique?"

I like to think it's because, not that I'm a grouchy old curmudgeon, but because I care about the casual, heedless, lackadaisical degradation of the English (or American) language.

But... like... wait a sec; do I really ...like... you know... care? Ya' know what I'm sayin'? It's... like... you know, what's the 'diff? Know what I mean?' WTF... ROTFL.

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TRIVIA

In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their nearly exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than one hundred years before either moon was discovered.

More . . .

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, May 28, in 1998, the comedian and actor Phil Hartman, famous for his work on Saturday Night Live and NewsRadio, was shot to death by his troubled wife, Brynn, in a murder-suicide. He was 49.

The murder-suicide occurred early on the morning at the couple’s home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. According to news reports, Brynn had a history of drug and alcohol problems. The couple had two children.

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WORDS FOR TODAY

rotate
verb
To turn around on an axis or center.

revolve
verb
To orbit a central point.

Strictly speaking, there is a difference between 'revolve' and 'rotate', which is most noticeable in the terminology of astronomers. For them, the earth rotates every 24 hours but takes a year to revolve around the sun. The rule about which verb to use is based on the position of the axis of rotation. If the body turns on an axis within itself it rotates but if the axis is outside it revolves.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Christa Miller
(born May 28, 1964)

Christa Miller is an American actress who has achieved success in television comedy. Her foremost roles include Kate O'Brien on The Drew Carey Show and Jordan Sullivan on Scrubs (which was created by her husband Bill Lawrence). She has also appeared in Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and CSI: Miami. Since 2009, she has had a starring role in the TBS (formerly ABC) sitcom Cougar Town, also created by husband Bill Lawrence.

Marco Antonio Rubio
(born May 28, 1971)

Marco Rubio is the junior United States Senator from Florida, serving since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (2007–2009). Rubio has been called the "crown prince of the Tea Party movement" although Rubio has no direct connection to that movement. In June 2012. Rubio gave the Republican response to President Barack Obama's 2013 State of the Union Address.

Elizabeth "Beth" Howland
(born May 28, 1941

Beth Howland is an American actress who has worked extensively on stage and television. Howland is best known for playing Vera on the sitcom Alice, inspired by the popular Martin Scorsese film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

James Michael Tyler
(born May 28, 1962)

James Michael Tyler is an American actor best known for his role as Gunther on the NBC sitcom Friends.

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One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we'll need a new definition.
--Alvin Toffler
   

5-27-13

 

Tucson Weather Today


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NOTHING TODAY

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5-26-13

Tucson Weather Today


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TRIVIA

The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day. May 26, 1897, horror writer Bram Stoker's classic vampire tale, Dracula, was first offered for sale in London.

Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the Gothic novel and invasion literature. The novel touches on themes such as the role of women in Victorian culture, sexual conventions, immigration, colonialism, and post-colonialism. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, he defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film and television interpretations.

More . . .

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WORD FOR TODAY

roustabout
noun
1. A laborer employed for temporary or unskilled jobs, as in an oil field.
2. A circus laborer.
3. A deck or wharf laborer, especially on the Mississippi River.

An oil "roustabout" refers to a worker who maintains all things in the oil field. He or she sets up oil well "heads," oil lead lines connected to stock tanks. Roustabouts will maintain saltwater disposal pumps, lease roads, lease mowing, create dukes around tank batteries on a lease, etc. An oil roustabout has no limits in the oil industry and can, and will do any and all oil field work, including roughneck drilling, oil well completion and well service, and even chemical work.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


John Wayne
May 26, 1907 - June 11, 1979)

John Wayne was an American film actor, director and producer. An Academy Award-winner, Wayne was among the top box office draws for three decades, and was named the all-time top money-making star. An enduring American icon, he epitomized rugged masculinity and is famous for his demeanor, including his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height.

Among his best known later films are The Quiet Man (1952), which follows him as an Irish-American boxer and his love affair with a fiery spinster played by Maureen O'Hara; The Searchers (1956), in which he plays a Civil War veteran who seeks out his abducted niece; Rio Bravo (1959), playing a Sheriff with Dean Martin; True Grit (1969), playing a humorous U.S. Marshal who sets out to avenge a man's death in the role that won Wayne an Academy Award; and The Shootist (1976), his final screen performance in which he plays an aging gunslinger battling cancer.

Sally Kristen Ride
(May 26, 1951 - July 23, 2012)

Sally Ride was an American physicist and astronaut. Ride joined NASA in 1978 and at the age of 32, became the first American woman to enter into low Earth orbit in 1983. She left NASA in 1987 to work at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control and had served on the investigation panels for two space shuttle disasters (Challenger and Columbia) -- the only person to serve on both.

Sally Ride died on July 23, 2012, at age 61, seventeen months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

Jay Silverheels
(May 26, 1912 - March 5, 1980)

Jay Silverheels (born Harold J. Smith) was a Canadian Mohawk First Nations actor. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the faithful American Indian companion of the character, The Lone Ranger in a long-running American television series.

Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait
(born May 26, 1962)

Bobcat Goldthwait is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is commonly known for his energetic stage personality, his dark, acerbic black comedy, and his gruff but high-pitched voice.

Goldthwait has appeared in several movies. His first major role was Zed in the Police Academy series. He starred in the 1986 comedy film One Crazy Summer, which also starred John Cusack, and his other big role was in the 1987 comedy film Burglar with Whoopi Goldberg and John Goodman. He also starred in Scrooged with Bill Murray. He notably starred in Hot to Trot in 1988 with John Candy and Dabney Coleman. In 1992, Goldthwait wrote, directed, and starred in the movie Shakes the Clown.

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The strongest continuous thread in America's political tradition is skepticism about government.
--George Will

Gettin' Old Ain't Much Fun

  

Tucson Weather Today

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Yesterday I was afflicted by one of the most disturbing experiences within this decade I refer to as my 70s. After my usual uploading of my daily blog, I tuned in to the morning's CBS World News, during which I ate my breakfast, an egg and cheese on a bun sandwich. About an hour later, I felt such an overpowering fatigue that I could do nothing more than crawl into bed and close my eyes. There was no sleep involved. I merely lay there with my eyes closed and hoped for the recovery of sufficient energy to get up and do something.

At nine o'clock I roused myself enough to switch on my bedside radio, which was tuned to the local talk-radio station (KNST), and listened to the various rants and ravings of good ol' Rush Limbaugh. There must have been some magic in the talk-meister's words because at eleven o'clock I arose and went about my daily business just as if that weird hiatus of physical activity and mental reasoning had not occurred.

While reading some of my usual blogs, I remembered: Thursday night after watching a repeat episode of The Big Bang Theory followed by Two and a half Men, I went off to bed to read from my Kindle. Fell asleep at eight thirty -- and didn't realize until now that I had missed the current Thursday night showing of Hannibal.

I wonder if that could possibly have something to do with my strange malady.

No. That's ridiculous.

The next day I went to the NBC website and watched the Hannibal episode I'd missed.

It was slow, dull, boring, and I decided that I would stop watching it on Thursday nights. It is just a badly written, badly presented show.

I wonder how others judge it.

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TRIVIA

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.

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On this day, May 25, in 1977, 20th Century Fox released George Lucas' space odyssey Star Wars. Though Fox released Star Wars in only 42 theaters, it primed its target audience of science-fiction fans with a massive publicity campaign. By the end of its first week, the film had made $3 million, and by the end of the summer it would rake in some $100 million.

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WORD FOR TODAY

sublime
adjective
1. Characterized by nobility; majestic.
2.
a. Of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual worth.
b. Not to be excelled; supreme.
3. Inspiring awe; impressive.
Synonyms
amazing, astonishing, astounding, awesome, fabulous, miraculous, stunning, stupendous, marvelous, surprising, wonderful, wondrous

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Michael John "Mike" Myers
(born May 25, 1963)

Mike Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, singer, screenwriter, and film producer. He is most known for his roles in various popular films, including playing the title characters of the films Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and Shrek. He has also been a recurring member of the cast of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live.

Anne Celeste Heche
(born May 25, 1969)

Anne Heche is an American actress. She has had leading roles in two theatrically released films, Six Days Seven Nights and Return to Paradise, as well as many supporting roles in films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Volcano, John Q, Donnie Brasco, Spread, and Cedar Rapids. She also starred in the television series Men in Trees and Hung.

Heche's same-sex relationship with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and the events following their breakup became subjects of widespread media interest. The couple started dating in 1997. They broke up in August 2000. Heche has stated that all of her other romantic relationships have been with men. Prior to DeGeneres she dated I Know What You Did Last Summer producer Neal Moritz.

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
(May 25, 1878 - November 25, 1949)

Bill Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive face.

A figure in both the black and white entertainment worlds of his era, he is best known today for his dancing with Shirley Temple in a series of films during the 1930s, and for starring in the 1943 musical Stormy Weather, loosely based on Robinson's own life.

Claude Marion Akins
(May 25, 1926 - January 27, 1994)

Claude Akins was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen and television. Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever (or less than clever) tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series, with Ben Cooper appearing as Waverly.

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The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is to not hate them, but to be indifferent to them.
--George Bernard Shaw
 

The Face Of Good And Evil

To search out and reveal those who were not wholly devout was good -

while for common folk to criticize holy members of the clergy was evil.
But that was in the past; that was history; was Christian doctrinal truth.

Faces of good and evil are not fixed in human affairs. Time reverses that which was but yesterday, so apparently unchangeable.

Two are one.

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Tucson Weather Today


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TRIVIA

Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to digest a piece of celery than the celery has in it.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this date, May 24 in 1844, In a demonstration witnessed by members of Congress, American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse dispatched a telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland. The message -- "What Hath God Wrought?" -- was telegraphed back to the Capitol a moment later by Vail. The question was taken from the Bible (Numbers 23:23).

Just a decade after the first line opened, more than 20,000 miles of telegraph cable crisscrossed the country. The rapid communication it enabled greatly aided American expansion, making railroad travel safer as it provided a boost to business conducted across the great distances of a growing United States.

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WORD FOR TODAY

carnage
noun
-  Massive slaughter, as in war; a massacre.
-  Corpses, especially of those killed in battle.
-  The flesh of slain animals or men
synonyms
bloodshed, slaughter, massacre, butchery and bloodbath.

Carnage is one of the most powerful words in the language. But already TV reporters are watering down the word by using it to describe the building debris left by a tornado or hurricane, even when no bodies are present.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Gary Burghoff
(born May 24, 1943)

Gary Burghoff is an American actor, known for playing Charlie Brown in the 1967 Off-Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and the character Corporal Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly in the M*A*S*H movie and TV series.

Priscilla Presley
(born May 24, 1945)

Priscilla Presley is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the ex-wife of singer Elvis Presley, and the mother of singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley.

Bob Dylan
(born May 24, 1941)

 Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, music producer, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest.

A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" radically altered the parameters of popular music in 1965. His recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.

Rosanne Cash
(born May 24, 1955)

Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country music icon Johnny Cash.

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I am struck by how casually we as a nation react to the carnage in Iraq.
--Charles Rangel

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE

 

Tucson Weather Today


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TRIVIA

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, May 23, in 1934, wanted outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police officers as they attempt to escape apprehension in a stolen 1934 Ford Deluxe near Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

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WORD FOR TODAY
    
austerian
noun
 Pejorative. A person who advocates austerity, that is, the cutting government expenditures, particularly social expenditures, in an effort to cut governmental deficits. (A comic formation based on the word "austerity" blended with the word "Austrian," since austerity policies are associated with the "Austrian School of Economics")
adjective
of or pertaining to policies advocated by austerians or to austerians themselves.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Michael William Chambers
(Born May 23, 1960)

Drew Allison Carey
(born May 23, 1958)

Drew Carey is an American actor, comedian, sports executive, and game show host. After making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey eventually gained popularity starring on his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and serving as host of the U.S. version of the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, both of which aired on ABC.

Karen Duffy
(born May 23, 1962)

Karen Duffy is an American model, television personality, and actress. She has had small roles in a handful of films including Dumb & Dumber, and by 1995 she was working as a correspondent for documentary film-maker Michael Moore on his television shows TV Nation and The Awful Truth.

Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers
(May 23, 1910 - November 22, 1986)

Scatman Crothers was an American actor, singer, dancer and musician known for his work as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and as Dick Hallorann in The Shining in 1980. He was also a prolific voiceover artist, and provided the voices of Meadowlark Lemon in the animated TV version of The Harlem Globetrotters, Jazz the Autobot in The Transformers, the title character in Hong Kong Phooey, and Scat Cat in the 1970 film The Aristocats.

Joan Henrietta Collins
(born 23 May 1933)

Joan Collins is a British actress, author and columnist. After making her stage debut in A Doll's House at the age of 9, she was trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

At the age of 22, Collins headed to Hollywood and landed sultry roles in several popular films, including The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) and Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958).  She starred in two films based on best-selling novels by her younger sister Jackie Collins: The Stud (1978) and its sequel The Bitch (1979). Returning to her theatrical roots, she played the title role in the 1980 British revival of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and later had a lead role in the 1990 revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives. In 1981, Collins landed Alexis Carrington Colby, the role for which she is perhaps best known, in the long-running 1980s television soap opera Dynasty.

By the time the soap opera had been cancelled, Collins followed in her sister's footsteps and published her first novel Prime Time (1988) which became a bestseller despite critical pans. Despite a protracted legal battle with Random House in 1996, she has since published many books: both fictional, non-fictional and autobiographical. Flamboyant in her personal life and in roles she pursues, Collins continues to act in theatre, film and television in a career that has spanned more than 60 years.


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“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
--Tacitus

5-22-13

  

Tucson Weather Today


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On May 22, 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls Of Fire" fame dropped a bombshell in London by revealing that his new bride, Myra Gail Lewis was not only his first cousin but was only 13 years old. England did not take the news well, and on his return to the U.S, he found himself under a black cloud from which he never completely emerged.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Richard Benjamin
(born May 22, 1938)

Richard Benjamin is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of well-known film productions, including Goodbye, Columbus (1969), based on the novella by Philip Roth; Catch-22 (1970), from the Joseph Heller best-seller; Westworld (1973), a science-fiction thriller by Michael Crichton, and The Sunshine Boys (1978), written by Neil Simon.

Susan Elizabeth Strasberg
(May 22, 1938 - January 21, 1999)

Susan Strasberg was an American film and stage actress. After a widely praised performance as a teenager in Picnic, Strasberg originated the title role in the Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank and was nominated for a Tony Award at the age of 18. Strasberg became the youngest actress to star on Broadway with her name above the marquee title.

From the 1960s through the 1980s she guest-starred in such television series as The Virginian, The Invaders, Bonanza, The F.B.I., Breaking Point, Burke's Law, The Streets of San Francisco, Night Gallery, McCloud, Alias Smith & Jones, The Big Valley, Remington Steele and twice on The Rockford Files (as Deborah Ryder and as Karen Stiles (Rockford's ex-girlfriend.

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier
May 22, 1907 - July 11, 1989)

Laurence Olivier was a British actor, director, and producer. He eventually came to be regarded as one of the foremost Shakespeare interpreters of the 20th century. His three Shakespeare films as actor-director, Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955), are among the pinnacles of the bard at the cinema. Olivier played many other roles on stage and screen.

On stage his more than 120 roles included Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly 60 films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights (1939), Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960), and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth (1972). His other Shakespeare roles for the cinema were as Orlando in As You Like It (1936) and the lead in Othello (1965),

Margaret Denise Quigley
(born May 22, 1979)

Margaret Denise Quigley professionally known as Maggie Q, is an American actress and former fashion model. As of 2010, she stars in the title role on The CW's action-thriller series Nikita.

In 1998, she started her acting career in the TV drama House of the Dragon, which was a huge hit in Asia. In 2002 she appeared in the horror film Model from Hell, and went on to star as an FBI agent Jane Quigley in the action thriller Gen-Y Cops the same year. Her appearance in Gen-Y Cops impressed Jackie Chan so much that she was cast in Manhattan Midnight and Rush Hour 2.

In 2002, she starred as martial artist assassin Charlene Ching in the action film Naked Weapon. In 2005, Q played Harmony in the German-Singaporean TV mini-series House of Harmony, opposite Fann Wong. The same year she also co-produced the animal treatment documentary Earthlings narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.

In 2006, she starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III. She played Zhen, the only female member of the IMF team. In 2007, she appeared as Mai Linh in the Bruce Willis movie Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth film in the Die Hard series, and as Maggie in Balls of Fury.

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5-21-13

Tucson Weather Today


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TRIVIA

What was the first CD pressed in the USA?
(Answer at bottom)

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On May 21 in 1927, American pilot Charles A. Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget Field in Paris, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. His single-engine monoplane,

The Spirit of St. Louis, had lifted off from Roosevelt Field in New York 33 1/2 hours before.

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WORD FOR TODAY

bloviate [BLO-vee-ate]
verb
To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner

This word -- meaning to speak pompously -- is almost entirely restricted to the United States; it doesn’t appear in any of my British English dictionaries, not even the big Oxford English Dictionary or the very recent New Oxford Dictionary of English. Yet it has a long history.

It’s most closely associated with U S President Warren Gamaliel Harding, who used it a lot and who was by all accounts the classic example of somebody who orates verbosely and windily.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Lisa Edelstein
(born May 21, 1966)

 Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright. She spent the early 1990s appearing in guest roles on several popular comedies, including Mad About You, Wings, The Larry Sanders Show, Sports Night and Seinfeld, where she played George Costanza's frustrated girlfriend, the "Risotto Girl".

Bigger roles in TV dramas soon followed, among them the lesbian sister on ABC's Relativity (1996); a high-priced call girl turned Rob Lowe's date on The West Wing (1999); an assigned male at birth (AMAB) transgender woman on Ally McBeal (2000); and Ben Covington's girlfriend on Felicity (2001). She also continued to land guest star spots on such shows as ER, Frasier, Just Shoot Me!, Without a Trace, and Judging Amy.

From 2004 to 2011, she played Dr. Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and frequent character foil and ex-girlfriend to title character Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) on Fox's TV series House, M.D.

Alan Stuart "Al" Franken
(born May 21, 1951)

 Al Franken is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Minnesota, serving since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman in 2008. Prior to serving in the Senate, he was a writer and performer for the television show Saturday Night Live from its conception in 1975 to 1980, returning in 1985 until 1995.

Judge Reinhold
(born May 21, 1957)

 Judge Reinhold is an American actor, known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause trilogy.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer
(May 21, 1960 - November 28, 1994)

 Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders involved rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. On Nov. 28, 1994, he was beaten to death by an inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution, where he had been incarcerated.

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Answer to todays' TRIVIA question:
Bruce Springstein's 'Born in the USA.'