Young Earth Creatioism . . . Etc.

     

Tucson Weather Today

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FYI:

Delancey Place has a short excerpt from the book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink. The brief piece explains in simple, easy to understand terms, the functions and interactions of the two sides of the human brain.

The title of the excerpt is left brain versus right brain

It is informative and quite interesting.

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Daniel C. Dennett, in 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life' wrote: "To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant -- inexcusably ignorant, in a world where three out of four people have learned to read and write."

Young Earth Creationists, the ones who actually believe that the Earth is only about 6,000 years old are people who appear to me to lack even the basics of a proper education. Fortunately, there is an intelligent man who writes a blog, and who has been selfless enough to condense that proper education into a single blog entry. Unfortunately, those who would profit the most from reading it will probably not do so. Those are the uneducated people who, besides being incredibly ignorant, are also unbelievably stupid.

If you are one of the ignorant (uneducated) ones, but are not stupid, you can become educated by reading 'Young Earth Creationism -- Why It Will Never Do,' posted on his blog by Martin S, Pribble.

LINK

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While walking along without a care in the world yesterday morning, I suddenly heard the musical tinkling of water falling onto rocks -- it was only a tiny trickling, but loud enough to catch the attention of alert passersby.

Fountain Adorning The Desert Scrub

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TRIVIA

More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 30 in 1936, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, was published.

Gone with the Wind caused a sensation in Atlanta and went on to sell millions of copies in the United States and throughout the world. While the book drew some criticism for its romanticized view of the Old South and its slaveholding elite, its epic tale of war, passion and loss captivated readers far and wide.

By the time Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937, a movie project was already in the works. The film was produced by Hollywood giant David O. Selznick. Mitchell attended its star-studded premiere in December 1939 in Atlanta. Tragically, she died just 10 years later, after she was struck by a speeding car while crossing Atlanta's Peachtree Street.

WORD FOR TODAY

abiogenesis  [ay-bahy-oh-jen-uh-sis]
noun
(Biology)
the now discredited theory that living organisms can arise spontaneously from inanimate matter; spontaneous generation.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Monica Potter

(born June 30, 1971)

Monica Potter (born Monica Gregg Brokaw) is an American film and television actress. She has appeared in several feature films, including Con Air (playing the wife of Nicolas Cage's character) and starring opposite Robin Williams in Patch Adams. In 1998, she played the love interest of doomed distance runner Steve Prefontaine in the movie Without Limits.

In 2001, she had two major roles, co-starring with Freddie Prinze Jr. in Head Over Heels, and in the thriller Along Came a Spider with Morgan Freeman.  Potter currently plays the role of Kristina Braverman in NBC's comedy-drama Parenthood.

Paris K.C. Barclay

(born June 30, 1956)

Paris Barclay is an American television director and producer. He is a two-time Emmy Award winner and is currently among the busiest single-camera television directors, having directed over 130 episodes of television to date, for series such as NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, CSI, Lost, The Shield, House, Law & Order, Monk, Numb3rs, City of Angels, Cold Case, and more recently Sons of Anarchy, The Mentalist, Weeds, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Good Wife, In Treatment, Glee, and Smash.

Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson

(born June 30, 1966)

Mike Tyson is a retired American professional boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old.

Mike Tyson dropped out of high school as a junior and never graduated. In 1989, along with Don King, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio by university President Arthur E. Thomas. (Explain that one to me)

Tyson was arrested in July 1991 for the rape of 18-year-old Desiree Washington, Miss Black Rhode Island, in an Indianapolis hotel room. Tyson's rape trial took place in the Indianapolis courthouse from January 26 to February 10, 1992. On March 26, he was sentenced to six years in prison followed by four years on probation. He was released in March 1995 after serving three years. During his incarceration, Tyson converted to Islam

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne

(June 30, 1917 - May 9, 2010)

Lena Horne was an African American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather.

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"You ever noticed how people who believe in Creationism look really un-evolved?"
--Bill Hicks

NASA TV

About To Give Up On Stuff

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I read an article titled Hands On with Windows 8.1: Microsoft's 'do-over' OS is loaded with features. 

After reading and rereading enough to finally absorb most of  its content, I came to the conclusion that I want absolutely nothing to do with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8 point anything. When Windows 7, which I use and like very much, is discontinued I will most likely switch to something else, perhaps the Linux OS mentioned in the above described article's comments section. Or even (gasp, choke) an Apple product.

Why?

Because Windows 7 is just right for me; Windows 8 is more than I want or need.

Way the hell more.


A long time ago I stopped using Internet Explorer as my default browser because of several irritating behaviors. Must have been at least five years ago. Since then I have been running Firefox and until recently had no problems with it. But a couple weeks ago I started having trouble opening some of my most used applications; they would not open immediately after I clicked on my desktop shortcuts, but instead I sometimes had to wait for up to 30 seconds for each one to finally open.

Talk about irritating.

Well, I'm not a computer whiz, by any means, and I didn't know what to do about it. Then I had an idea. Why not forget about Firefox and try Google Chrome?

I downloaded it, synced it in with my Gmail account and with Blogger and who knows what all, and gave it a try. Wow! It works great. No problems.

Not yet, anyway.


There is another complaint I want to get off my chest. It's about being charged sales tax for online purchases. Overall, my opinion is that charging sales tax online is no better than thievery... even if it has been made legal. But I will continue to buy merchandise online, as long as the total price is less than the same product when sold by a local retailer.

BUT . . .

I feel that Amazon is stretching things to the limit when they charge sales tax on downloadable Kindle books. A couple days ago I bought a Kindle book titled The Lottery And Other Stories, written by Shirley Jackson. According to Amazon, the book was being sold through them by Macmillan, the book's publisher, and Macmillan requires sales tax to be collected.

The cost of the book was $3.02, to which sales tax of 23 cents was added, resulting in a total of $3.25.

Getting Kindle books from Amazon can be restricted to those which are offered FREE of charge, and I just might start doing that -- only downloading those free books -- after all, there are thousands of free titles to choose from. Any other books I wish to read can be checked out from the public library.

This sales tax scam probably shouldn't bother me so much. It's only a few cents more.

But I'm a 74-year-old self-recognized curmudgeon, and I hate that we the people, (most consumers not realizing it) are now-a-days being nickel-and-dimed to death.


Oh, and there is one other gripe. This morning I snapped a really close close-up of a hovering hummingbird; then when I transferred the photo to my computer, the bird was missing. Evidently it had flown off during the digitalizing process.

Darn!

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TRIVIA

A pregnant goldfish is called a twerp.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On June 29 in 1967, blonde bombshell actress Jayne Mansfield was killed instantly when the car in which she is riding struck the rear of a trailer truck on Interstate-90 east of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Ronald B. Harrison, a driver for the Gus Stevens Dinner Club, was driving Mansfield and her lawyer and companion, Samuel S. Brody, along with 3 of Mansfield's children, in Stevens' 1966 Buick Electra. Mansfield, Harrison, and Brody were all killed in the accident. Eight-year-old Mickey, six-year-old Zoltan and three-year-old Mariska, had apparently been sleeping on the rear seat; they were injured but survived.

It was claimed, and became common knowledge, that Jayne Mansfield was decapitated in the car crash. That is not true. This is what really happened, according to Snopes

Mariska Hargitay, injured in the accident that killed her mother, later launched her own acting career, most memorably starring in the long-running television drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

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WORD FOR TODAY

condign
adjective
appropriate to the crime or wrongdoing; fitting and deserved.
synonyms
just - deserved

Note: I first encountered the word condign in one of George Will's columns.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Melora Diane Hardin

(born June 29, 1967)

Melora Hardin is an American actress, best known for her roles as Jan Levenson on NBC's The Office and Trudy Monk on USA's Monk.

William Gary Busey

(born June 29, 1944)

Gary Busey is an American film and stage actor, and artist. He has appeared in a variety of films, including Lethal Weapon, Point Break, and Under Siege, as well as guest appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1978 for his role in The Buddy Holly Story.

Sharon Elizabeth Lawrence

(born June 29, 1961)

Sharon Lawrence is an American actress. She is best known for the role of Sylvia Costas Sipowicz in the Television series NYPD Blue. The role garnered her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination three times for Outstanding Supporting actress in a Drama series.

Slim Pickens

(June 29, 1919 - Dec. 8, 1983),

Slim Pickens (born Louis Burton Lindley, Jr.) was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr. Strangelove and Blazing Saddles.

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Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
--Andy Rooney

NASA TV

I've Heard That Writers Write

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I was recently asked if it bothers me when readers of my blog have commented about its sparseness, its mediocre, pedestrian, and mostly uninteresting content, and its apparent lack of even a shred of recognizable intellectualism. I didn't bother to provide an intelligent answer to this query. Mainly because I did not (and still do not) have one.

My blog, to me, is a means of ensuring that I will write, and by that I mean that having this venue demands that I write something every day.

A long time ago I decided to include in the blog whatever struck my fancy at the time of writing, no matter how inane, simple-minded, or meaningless it might appear to be to its few readers. Most of the entries are just that... off the top of my head jottings, barely edited first drafts, sometimes nothing more than unequivocal spouting of nose-wrinkling drivel.

Well, so what?

I write. I write almost every day.

Do you?


A thought occurred to me while I was watching the TV new. What I was viewing was a bit about the construction of field after field of giant wind-driven devices. And I asked myself, "Will this massive proliferation of wind-driven power generators (windmills) someday affect regional climate? Become a cause of unrecognizable future climate change?"

In other words, does the same amount of air in the wind reach the same areas it would have reached if there had been no windmills to impede its progress?

Yes, I realize that on the surface those questions appear to be ludicrous, possibly being the product of a warped or at least naive mind. But it's been said that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in one location can affect the course of a tornado or the force of a hurricane hundreds of miles away. And no one seems able to scientifically prove that this theory is false.

Here is another related thought that just struck me. It's a sudden flash of memory. It's one of the phrases I remember my dad saying, over and over and over again when I was a sub-teen and then when I was a rowdy teenager. It was this: "That's just another one of your hare-brained ideas."

So . . . Has this proposition ever been studied -- this effect on climate change arising from the blocking effect and other types of interference of these seemingly benign modern windmills?

No, I don't think so.

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TRIVIA

A shrimp's heart is in its head.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On June 28, 1997, Mike Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s right ear and then spit it onto the canvas in the third round of their heavyweight rematch. The attack led to his disqualification from the match and suspension from boxing, and was the strangest chapter yet in the champion’s roller-coaster career.

Tyson was accused of rape by Desiree Washington, a contestant in a beauty pageant he was judging in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was convicted on February 10, 1992, and served three years and one month in a federal penitentiary.

Events in Tyson’s life took repeated turns for the worse in the aftermath of the fight, and culminated in his declaring bankruptcy--in part due to $400,000 a year spent on maintaining a flock of pet pigeons--and an arrest for cocaine possession. In 2006, Tyson agreed to join Heidi Fleiss’ legal brothel in Nevada as a prostitute.

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WORD FOR TODAY

aeolist [ee-OH-luhst]
noun
a pompous person, pretending to have inspiration or spiritual insight.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Mel Brooks

(born June 28, 1926)

Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky) is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner, The 2000 Year Old Man. 

In middle age he became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s. His most well known films include The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World, Part I, Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. More recently he has had a smash hit on Broadway with the musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers.

Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates

(born June 28, 1948)

Kathy Bates is an American actress and film director. Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery (1990), for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe. She followed this with major roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Dolores Claiborne (1995), before playing a featured role as Molly Brown in Titanic (1997).

She won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in Primary Colors (1998), and she was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for About Schmidt (2002). Her television work has resulted in eleven Emmy Award nominations, two of which were for her starring role on the television series Harry's Law and most recently, a win for her acclaimed guest appearance on the CBS sitcom, Two and a Half Men as the ghost of Charlie Harper, a role formerly portrayed by Charlie Sheen. It was confirmed in March 2013 that she would co-star in the third season of the FX television series American Horror Story.

John Paul Cusack

(born June 28, 1966)

John Cusack is an American actor, producer, and screenwriter. He has appeared in films such as Say Anything..., Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity, Con Air, Being John Malkovich. He also played in Must Love Dogs, Martian Child and Americas Sweethearts.

Gilda Susan Radner

(June 28, 1946 - May 20, 1989)

Gilda Radner was an American comedienne and actress. She was best known as one of the original cast members of the hit NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy Award in 1978. She and Gene Wilder were married on September 18, 1984

Gilda died from ovarian cancer at 6:20 a.m. on May 20, 1989

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Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
--Aldous Huxley

NASA TV
   

Sayin' It Don't Make It So

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Astronomers discover new planets, 3 are habitable

The above is a headline published June 25, 2013 by FoxNews.com

Of course the Gliese 667C star which the planets orbit is 22 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius. 22 light-years is equal to a bit over 129 trillion miles. I repeat... just a little bit more than 129,000,000,000,000 miles. That's a long, long way from here.

It is reported by the scientists involved that the Gliese 667C solar system is strikingly similar to ours and the three planets identified as habitable are confirmed to be super-Earths: planets that have more mass than Earth but less mass than larger planets like Uranus and Neptune.

And that, I believe, is the result of many magnitudes of scientific guess work. After all, as Albert Einstein once said, "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."

Fox News

Also, at gizmag

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TRIVIA

In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one has reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand, or even attempted to do so.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 27 in 1844. Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Mormon religion, was murdered along with his brother Hyrum when an anti-Mormon mob broke into a jail where they were being held in Carthage, Illinois.

Two years later, Smith's successor, Brigham Young, led an exodus of persecuted Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois along the western wagon trails in search of religious and political freedom. In July 1847, the 148 initial Mormon pioneers reached Utah's Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Upon viewing the valley, Young declared, "This is the place," and the pioneers began preparations for the tens of thousands of Mormon migrants who would follow them to settle there.

Details

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WORD FOR TODAY

pleonasm [plee-uh-naz-uhm]
noun
the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; redundancy

Pleonasm is the use of more words or word-parts than is necessary for clear expression: examples are black darkness, or burning fire. Such redundancy is, by traditional rhetorical criteria, a manifestation of tautology.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire

(born June 27, 1975)

Tobey Maguire is an American actor and film producer who began his career in the late 1980s. He is known for his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007), as well as for his roles in Pleasantville (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999), Wonder Boys (2000), Seabiscuit (2003), Brothers (2009), and The Great Gatsby (2013).

Madylin Anne Michele Sweeten

(born June 27, 1991)

Madylin Sweeten is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing the role of Ally Barone on the CBS television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005. Her younger twin brothers Sullivan and Sawyer played her twin brothers Geoffrey and Michael Barone on the sitcom.

Henry Ross Perot

(born June 27, 1930)

Ross Perot is an American businessman best known for being an Independent Party Presidential Candidate in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot Systems in 1988. Perot Systems was bought by Dell for $3.9 billion in 2009.

Julia Duffy

(born June 27, 1951)

Julia Duffy (born Julia Margaret Hinds) is an American actress from Minneapolis, Minnesota, specializing in character roles, best known as the spoiled rich girl and Dick Loudon's (played by Bob Newhart) inn maid, Stephanie Vanderkellen, on the 1980s sitcom, Newhart. 

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Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
--Mark Twain

NASA TV
   

A Little Child Shall Lead Them

     

Tucson Weather Today


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The first paragraph in a news item from the online Minneapolis Star Tribune made me do a double-take, shake my head in disbelief, and then read the complete story.

Here is that paragraph: "A Colorado civil rights panel has ruled that a suburban Colorado Springs school district likely discriminated against a 6-year-old transgender girl when it prevented her from using the girls' bathroom at her elementary school."

Wait a minute. How in the world can a six-year-old child possibly know which sex he or she is? Biologically, if he has a functioning penis, he is a boy, and must use the Boys restroom. Also biologically, if she has a functioning vagina, she is a girl, and must use the Girls restroom. Otherwise, any and all of the other students in the school can use the restroom of their choice. If challenged, all any student has to do is declare himself or herself a member of the opposite sex no matter what is biologically indicated. If then not allowed to use the restroom of choice, this (in our litigious age) becomes a matter of discrimination.

That's how I see it.

LINK to story

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While walking on the sidewalk alongside Speedway Blvd. early Tuesday morning, I espied in the scrub, at the base of a tree, what appeared to be a plastic fork sticking in the earth.

On closer inspection, I deduced that the small space might have been constructed by one of the homeless folks who frequent the area, perhaps building with stones and a plastic fork a temporary shrine of sorts.

Or a dining room.

Of course, I've been told that I have a vivid imagination.

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TRIVIA

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

With a string of pop hits in the mid-1960s that began with the career-defining "I Got You Babe" (1965), Sonny and Cher Bono established themselves as the most prominent and appealing married couple in the world of popular music. Sonny and Cher projected an image of marital harmony that a lot of people could relate to -- an image not so much of perfect bliss, but of a clearly imperfect yet happy mismatch.

Mr. and Mrs. Bono traded on that image professionally for a solid decade, even several years past the point that it was true. After 13 years together, Sonny and Cher were legally divorced on this day, June 26 in 1975.

Their daughter, Chastity Bono, changed her name to Chaz Bono and, using hormones and other pharmaceuticals, physically changed her gender from female to male.

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WORD FOR TODAY

transgender
adjective
appearing as, wishing to be considered as, or having undergone surgery to become a member of the opposite sex.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Eleanor Jean Parker
(born June 26, 1922)

Eleanor Parker is an American actress. Her versatility led to her being dubbed Woman of a Thousand Faces, the title of her biography by Doug McClelland.

By 1946, Parker had starred in Between Two Worlds, Hollywood Canteen, Pride of the Marines, Never Say Goodbye, and played Mildred in the remake of Of Human Bondage.

Parker's most famous screen role is probably that of Baroness Elsa Schraeder, the second female lead in the 1965 Oscar-winning global success The Sound Of Music

Christopher Eugene "Chris" O'Donnell
(born June 26, 1970)

Chris O'Donnell is an American actor. He played Dick Grayson/Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Charlie Simms in Scent of a Woman, Finn Dandridge in Grey's Anatomy, Peter Garrett in Vertical Limit, and Jack McAuliffe in The Company. O'Donnell stars as NCIS Special Agent G. Callen on the CBS crime drama television series NCIS: Los Angeles.

Jennette Michelle Faye McCurdy
(born June 26, 1992)

Jennette McCurdy is an American film and television actress and country pop singer-songwriter. She is best known for her role as Sam Puckett on the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly and is currently reprising her role in the spin-off series Sam & Cat. She has also appeared in a number of notable television series, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Malcolm in the Middle, Lincoln Heights, Will & Grace, Penguins of Madagascar, Zoey 101, True Jackson, VP, Law and Order SVU, Medium, Judging Amy, The Inside, Karen Sisco, Over There and Close to Home.

Peter Lorre
(June 26 1904 - March 23, 1964)

Peter Lorre was a Hungarian-American actor. Lorre caused an international sensation with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M (1931). He later became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries (in particular with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet), and, though frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner, became star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.

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A lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again; that's not the case in my family.
--Chaz Bono

NASA TV
 

Hobgoblins On The Loose

    
Tucson Weather Today

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Yesterday, over at The Writer's Almanac, I read a fine poem titled On the Death of a Colleague by Stephen Dunn. It brought to my mind another poet of my acquaintance and the ravages Alcoholic Drink can wreak upon the human mind... and on the human liver. How prone to unthinking self-abuse we all are -- how weak we humans are -- each in our own way, each in our own allotted time. I hope that a goodly number of readers will click on over and read the poem.

On the Death of a Colleague

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I was told a while back that I lack consistency... well, not in those words exactly, but that's what he meant. I think. And, in a way, it's true, of course. Some of my pronouncements, both in face-to-face speech and written here in the blog are not always consistent with what I have pointed out or expounded on previously.

Why is that?

Well, I'm not quite sure. The only excuse I can provide is that I do, at times, change my mind. I may see a thing in one way at one particular time, and view the same subject differently at another time.

Or else I am getting senile (extremely forgetful) as I age.

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TRIVIA

'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 25 in 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeated the U.S. Army troops of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana's Little Bighorn River.

The Battle of Little Bighorn -- also called Custer's Last Stand -- marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. The gruesome fate of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations.

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WORD FOR TODAY

inconsistent
adjective
-  not staying the same throughout; having self-contradictory elements.
-  acting at variance with one's own principles or former conduct.
synonyms
contradictory - conflicting

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

George Orwell
(25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950)

 George Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair) was an English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.

Considered perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture, Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author.

In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Carly Elisabeth Simon
(born June 25, 1945)

 Carly Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 hits include "Anticipation", "You're So Vain", "Nobody Does It Better", and "Coming Around Again".

Her 1988 hit "Let the River Run" was the first song in history to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for a song both written and performed by a single artist. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "You're So Vain" in 2004, and awarded the ASCAP Founders Award in 2012.

James Carter "Jimmie" Walker
(born June 25, 1947)

Jimmie Walker is an American actor and stand-up comedian, known for portraying J.J. Evans on the television series Good Times, which ran from 1974 to 1979. While on the show, Walker's character was known for the catchphrase "Dy-no-mite!", which he also used in his mid-1970s TV commercial for a Panasonic line of cassette and 8-track tape players.

June Lockhart
(born June 25, 1925)

 June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, but with memorable performances on stage and in film too. She is remembered as the mother in two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction (1968–70).

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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

NASA TV
  

Upon Reflection . . .

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

From:
A Tale Of Starvation
by Amy Lowell

There once was a man whom the gods didn't love,
And a disagreeable man was he.
He loathed his neighbours, and his neighbours hated him,
And he cursed eternally.
He damned the sun, and he damned the stars,
And he blasted the winds in the sky.
He sent to Hell every green, growing thing,
And he raved at the birds as they fly.
His oaths were many, and his range was wide,
He swore in fancy ways;
But his meaning was plain: that no created thing
Was other than a hurt to his gaze.

Read Entire Poem

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Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I watched an older black & white movie titled The Miracle Worker. This was the 1962 American biographical film directed by Arthur Penn. The screenplay by William Gibson is based on his 1959 play of the same title. Gibson's original source material was The Story of My Life, the 1902 autobiography of Helen Keller.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director for Arthur Penn, and won two awards, Best Actress for Anne Bancroft and Best Supporting Actress for Patty Duke.

Plot Synopsis:

Young Helen Keller, blind and deaf since infancy due to a severe case of scarlet fever, is frustrated by her inability to communicate and subject to frequent violent and uncontrollable outbursts as a result. Unable to deal with her, her terrified and helpless parents contact the Perkins School for the Blind for assistance. In response they send Anne Sullivan, a former student, to the Keller home to tutor her. What ensues is a battle of wills as Anne breaks down Helen's walls of silence and darkness through persistence, love, and sheer stubbornness.

I had seen this 1962 movie many years ago but had forgotten much of it. And I have to admit that, while it is a gripping story, I find myself wondering about the validity of it. How in the world could a young child with such an affliction actually be taught to understand people and become able to talk and communicate, as was Helen Keller?

I just can't accept it as presented, and I feel that some facts were left out of the film. Perhaps the child was able to remember more of her life from an earlier time, before the Scarlet Fever episode.

Yes, it could be that I am too cynical, too much of a skeptic.

I enjoyed the movie, though.

I find that it was remade twice for television, in 1979 with Patty Duke as Anne and Melissa Gilbert as Helen and in 2000 with Alison Elliott and Hallie Kate Eisenberg in the lead roles.

I think I'll seek them out, maybe at the Public Library as DVDs and view them.

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TRIVIA

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 24 in 1997, U.S. Air Force officials released a 231-page report dismissing long standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.

Barely a week before the extravagant 50th anniversary celebration of the incident, the Air Force released a report on the controversial subject. Titled "The Roswell Report, Case Closed," the document stated definitively that there was no Pentagon evidence that any kind of life form was found in the Roswell area in connection with the reported UFO sightings, and that the "bodies" recovered were not aliens but dummies used in parachute tests conducted in the region.

Any hopes that this would put an end to the cover-up debate were in vain, as ufologists rushed to point out the report's inconsistencies.

Roswell continues to thrive as a tourist destination for UFO enthusiasts far and wide.

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WORD FOR TODAY

skepticism
noun
-  A doubting or questioning attitude.
-  Doubt or disbelief of religious tenets.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Sherry Lea Stringfield
(born June 24, 1967)

Sherry Stringfield is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Dr. Susan Lewis on the medical television drama ER, a role for which she received three Emmy Award nominations. She is also known for her regular roles on NYPD Blue and Guiding Light. She has acted mainly on television, but she has also played various parts in films.

Nancy Anne Allen
(born June 24, 1950)

Nancy Allen is an American actress and cancer activist . Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). A pivotal supporting role in Carrie (1976) brought her recognition, and after marrying the director Brian De Palma, she appeared in several of his films, including Dressed to Kill (1980) and Blow Out (1981). Her subsequent films include Strange Invaders (1983), The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), Poltergeist III (1988), Limit Up (1990), Out of Sight (1998), and the RoboCop trilogy.

Mindy Kaling
(born June 24, 1979)

Mindy Kaling (born Vera Mindy Chokalingam) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer who portrayed Kelly Kapoor on the NBC sitcom The Office and created and currently stars in the Fox sitcom The Mindy Project. She is also a co-executive producer, director and writer of several of the show's episodes; she also wrote, executive produced and directed various episodes of The Office.

William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey
 (June 24, 1895 - May 31, 1983)

Jack Dempsey, known as "The Manassa Mauler" was an American professional boxer. He was a cultural icon of the 1920s. He held the World Heavyweight Championship from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history.

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Skepticism is the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.
--John Dewey

NASA TV

Crime . . . And Punishment?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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While out for my daily walk, I espied a bird coming in for a landing on one of the buds of a tall Saguaro Cactus, so I pulled my little Canon camera out of my pocket and snapped a few shots. The first captured the bird, but it was too far away. So I dialed up the telephoto lens and took another one. But the bird had flown by then.

Bird On Cactus Flower

Cropped From Above Photo

Flowers Atop A Saguaro

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Either the crime rate in both Tucson and in the U.S. is getting higher, or the TV news shows are concentrating more heavily lately on crooks and criminality. Every day, it seems, reports of a murder or theft or the police apprehension of drugs and drug smugglers abound on the television screen.

Evidently, crime in all its varied nuances does pay; it pays the Media; it is supremely entertaining, you see.

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TRIVIA

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 23 in 1992 Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the "Teflon Don" after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds of Gotti's supporters stormed the building and overturned and smashed cars before being forced back by police reinforcements.

Gotti was sentenced to multiple life terms without the possibility of parole.

While still imprisoned, Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002.

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WORD FOR TODAY

mafia
noun
-  A secret criminal organization operating mainly in the United States and Italy and engaged in illegal activities such as gambling, drug-dealing, protection, and prostitution.
-  Any of various similar criminal organizations, especially when dominated by members of the same nationality.

According to the classic definition, the Mafia is a criminal organization originating in Sicily. However, the term "mafia" has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Melissa Ivy Rauch
(born June 23, 1980)

Melissa Rauch is an American actress and comedienne. She is best known for her role as Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

Clarence Thomas
(born June 23, 1948)

Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court. Since joining the Court, Thomas has taken a textualist approach, seeking to uphold what he sees as the original meaning of the United States Constitution and statutes. He is generally viewed as the most conservative member of the Court.

Valerie June Carter Cash
(June 23, 1929 - May 15, 2003)

June Carter Cash was an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedian and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash.

She played the guitar, banjo, harmonica and auto harp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009. She was ranked No. 31 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002.

Randall Darius "Randy" Jackson
(born June 23, 1956)

Randy Jackson is an American bassist, singer, record producer, entrepreneur and television personality. He is best known as a judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. Jackson has won a Grammy Award as a producer.

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The cure for crime is not the electric chair, but the high chair.
--J. Edgar Hoover

NASA TV
 

Just Fell Off The Turnip Truck?

  
Tucson Weather Today

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Courage is being scared to death
. . .  and saddling up anyway.
--John Wayne


I have come to the conclusion that the phrase,'The fact of the matter is...' should be deleted from the speech of every politician, elected official, and former military big-wig that stoops to using it. All it is good for is that a speechifier can use it as a verbal pause for gaining time to mentally form the next easily recognized sound bite. It's a hackneyed and near meaningless term. I hate it.

Hate it!


I flipped on the TV at noon yesterday and saw a news clip of Joe Biden giving a speech, ranting and shouting about how he is 'sick and tired' of this and is sick and tired of that. Joe Biden says he is sick and tired of so many things. But he can't seem to do anything about any of those things.


We always hear so much about which political party has captured the Hispanic vote, the Womens' vote, the Black vote -- Why the splits and divisions? Why can't candidates just be satisfied with being honest and straightforward enough to win the hearts and minds of the majority of American voters? After all, that's how one should go about getting elected... right?

E pluribus unum, and all that jazz.


By the way, what exactly is a knee-jerk liberal? I am too lazy to thoroughly research it.

The dictionary defines a knee-jerk liberal thusly: "a person of strong liberal convictions who reacts predictably and emotionally to certain events."

That indicates to me that a knee-jerk liberal is a person who has made up his mind that he is absolutely right about his views on social issues and then closed that stubborn mind, and will not change it no matter how much and how many times his liberal efforts are proven wrong.

Something like that.

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My Newest Favorite Fruit Juice

Yum!

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TRIVIA

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 22 in 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the GI bill to provide financial aid to veterans returning from World War II. Upon signing the legislation, Roosevelt voiced his belief that ensuring veterans' employability was critical to a sound postwar economy.

In his speech at the signing of the bill, Roosevelt acknowledged the sacrifices of America's men and women in uniform and emphasized the moral responsibility of the American people not to let their veterans down once they returned to civilian life.

More details HERE

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WORD FOR TODAY

pestilence
noun
-  a deadly or virulent epidemic disease.
-  any epidemic outbreak of a deadly and highly infectious disease, such as the plague.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Meryl Streep
(born June 22, 1949)

Meryl Streep is an American actress who has worked in theater, television, and film. Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season (1977).

In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia (1977). Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and then has appeared in Sophie's Choice (1982), Out of Africa (1985), The Iron Lady (2011). In 2013, she will appear in the comedy drama film adaptation of Tracy Letts' play of the same name, August: Osage County with Julia Roberts.

Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson
(born June 22, 1936)

Kris Kristofferson is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and film actor. He is known for such hits as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in forming the country music supergroup "The Highwaymen".

As an actor, Kristofferson appeared in Blume in Love, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Convoy, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Vigilante Force, A Star Is Born, Flashpoint, Heaven's Gate, The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James, Millennium, Lone Star, Blade, Blade II, Blade: Trinity, Payback, Planet of the Apes, Dolphin Tale, and was in Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah.

Lindsay Jean Wagner
(born June 22, 1949)

Lindsay Wagner is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Jaime Sommers in the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman (for which she won an Emmy Award), though she has maintained a lengthy career in a variety of other film and television productions since.

Freddie James Prinze
(June 22, 1954 - Jan. 29, 1977)

Freddie Prinze was an American actor and stand-up comedian. Prinze was the star of 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man. He was also the father of the actor Freddie Prinze, Jr.

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Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
--Albert Einstein

NASA TV