Always Got Yer Nose In A Book

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Since kindergarten was not yet offered in my hometown back in 1944, I learned to read the following year, when I was in the first grade. The first book I ever read was Dick And  Jane.

See Dick.
See Dick run.

See Jane.
See Jane run.

See Spot.
See Spot run.

Run, Spot, run.
Run, run, run.

By the time the book was finished, I could read it from the opening page to the very last... without even opening the book. It seems that I had an excellent memory.

In second grade we were allowed to get a Public Library card and check out a maximum of two books per day. My first book from the library was titled The Story of Little Black Sambo.

Sambo is a little boy from India who meets up with four hungry tigers. He gives them his beautiful new clothes, his shoes, and hes umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers each thinks he looks better than the other three. They chase each other around a tree, going faster and faster until they turn into to a puddle of melted butter. Sambo then gets his clothes back and his mother makes a big plate of pancakes and uses the melted-tiger butter. And how Sambo ate more than a hundred of the delicious pancakes.

In my mind I can still see the illustrations of the whirling tigers, and of Black Sambo, Black Mambo, and Black Jumbo in the book.

Of course I am aware of how the book was banned for being racist and how it was later republished without offensive words, and all that nonsense. I still remember it as a fine, suspense-filled, and utterly thrilling book

So, sue me.

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TRIVIA

The first public library in America was opened in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1698.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, September 3 in 1777, the American flag was flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch's Bridge, Maryland. Patriot General William Maxwell ordered the stars and stripes banner raised as a detachment of his infantry and cavalry met an advance guard of British and Hessian troops. The rebels were defeated and forced to retreat to General George Washington's main force near Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania.

Three months before, on June 14, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." The national flag, which became known as the "Stars and Stripes," was based on the "Grand Union" flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George Washington.

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WORD FOR TODAY

banal [buh-nahl']
adjective
-  lacking force or originality; trite; commonplace
-  overfamiliar through overuse
-  devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed

Banal describes something that is common in a boring way, to the point of being predictable.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Charlie Sheen

(born September 3, 1965)

Charlie Sheen (born Carlos Irwin Estévez ) is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as Platoon (1986), The Wraith (1986), Wall Street (1987), Major League (1989), Hot Shots! (1991), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), Scary Movie 3 (2003), and Scary Movie 4 (2006). On television, Sheen is known for his roles on Spin City, Two and a Half Men, and Anger Management. In 2010, Sheen was the highest paid actor on television and earned $1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men.

Nichole Marie Hiltz

(born September 3, 1978) 

Nichole Hiltz is an American actress. She has appeared in several films, made for TV movies and television series. Her most recent long-running television credit is for USA Network's In Plain Sight from 2008 to 2012 in which she portrayed Brandi Shannon, younger sister of the main character.

Hiltz has made guest appearances on several television shows including NYPD Blue, The O.C., Strong Medicine, Cold Case, The Shield, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, V.I.P., CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Bones, and Smallville. She also appeared in three episodes of Desperate Housewives. She played the semi-regular character Ginny Dannegan in The Riches.

Steven Ralph "Steve" Schirripa

(born September 3, 1957)

Steve Schirripa is an American actor, producer, voice artist, and author. He is best known for playing Bobby Baccalieri on The Sopranos. Schirripa is the host of two Investigation Discovery series Karma's a B*tch! and Nothing Personal. He was a regular cast member of ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and the voice of Roberto in the Open Season franchise.

Eileen Brennan

(Sept 3, 1932 - July 28, 2013)

Eileen Brennan was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Brennan was best known for her role as Doreen Lewis in Private Benjamin, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role for the TV adaptation, winning both a Golden Globe and Emmy for her performance. She received Emmy nominations for her guest starring roles on Newhart, Thirtysomething, Taxi and Will & Grace.

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"All good and true book-lovers practice the pleasing and improving avocation of reading in bed ... No book can be appreciated until it has been slept with and dreamed over."
--Eugene Field

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