9-30-13

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Dog Dreaming is a strange little poem I read this morning over at The Writer's Almanac. Even those who do not care much for classical poetry (like me) might appreciate this one. That post also has a birthday salute to Truman Capote.

Read it here.

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TRIVIA

On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, September 30 in 1955, 24-year-old actor James Dean was killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche he was driving hit a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection. The driver of the other car, 23-year-old California Polytechnic State University student Donald Turnupseed, was dazed but mostly uninjured; Dean’s passenger, German Porsche mechanic Rolf Wütherich was badly injured but survived. Only one of Dean’s movies, "East of Eden," had been released at the time of his death ("Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant" opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom -- and the crash made him a legend.

Rumor has it that Dean’s car, which he’d nicknamed the Little Bastard, was cursed. After the accident, the car rolled off the back of a truck and crushed the legs of a mechanic standing nearby. Later, after a used-car dealer sold its parts to buyers all over the country, the strange incidents multiplied: The car’s engine, transmission and tires were all transplanted into cars that were subsequently involved in deadly crashes, and a truck carrying the Spyder’s chassis to a highway-safety exhibition skidded off the road, killing its driver. The remains of the car vanished from the scene of that accident and haven’t been seen since.

Wütherich, whose feelings of guilt after the car accident never abated, tried to commit suicide twice during the 1960s--and in 1967, he stabbed his wife 14 times with a kitchen knife in a failed murder/suicide--and he died in a drunk-driving accident in 1981.

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WORD FOR TODAY

actor
noun
1. A theatrical performer.
2. One who takes part; a participant.

An actor (alternatively actress for a female) is a person who acts in a dramatic or comic production and works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Angie Dickinson

(born September 30, 1931)

Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Rio Bravo and Dressed to Kill, and for starring on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.

Jennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman

(born September 30, 1971)

Jenna Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles as Dharma Freedom Finkelstein Montgomery on the 1997–2002 American television sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Anna Riley in the 2000 feature film Keeping the Faith.

Francine Joy "Fran" Drescher

(born September 30, 1957)

Fran Drescher is an American film and television actress, comedian, producer, and activist. She is best known for her role as Fran Fine in the hit TV series The Nanny, and for her nasal voice and thick New York accent.

Drescher made her screen debut with a small role in the 1977 blockbuster film Saturday Night Fever, and later appeared in American Hot Wax (1978) and Wes Craven's horror tale Summer of Fear (1978). In the 1980s, she gained recognition as a comedic actress in the films The Hollywood Knights (1980), Doctor Detroit (1983), This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and UHF (1989. In 1993, she achieved wider fame as Fran Fine in her own sitcom vehicle The Nanny. She received further recognition for her performances in Jack (1996) and The Beautician and the Beast (1997).

Crystal Lynn Bernard

(born September 30, 1961)

Crystal Barnard is an American singer-songwriter and television and film actress, most widely known for her seven-year-long role on the situation comedy Wings.

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When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.
--James Dean

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