HEY! It's Halloween!

    

Tucson Weather Today

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Tomorrow NaNoWriMo 2013 begins and I am still planning to attempt it again. That means, of course, that future blog entries here will usually be sparse to nonexistent during the month of November. But I might try to do a minimal entry on some of those days. To indicate that I'm still alive and (relatively) well, ya' know?

And the usual Sunday Guest Blogger entries by Winebird will continue.

Wish me luck.

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Did you know that . . . ?

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of  war or other emergencies.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

The southeastern face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest is the site of four gigantic carved sculptures depicting the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Led by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, work on the project began in 1927 and was finally completed on this day, October 31 in 1941. Over that time period, some 400 workers erected the sculpture under dangerous conditions, removing a total of 450,000 tons of rock in order to create the enormous carved heads, each of which reached a height of 60 feet (18 meters). In sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s original design, the four presidents were meant to be represented from the waist up, but insufficient funding brought the carving to a halt after completion of their faces. Known as the "Shrine of Democracy," Mount Rushmore welcomes upwards of 2 million visitors every year, and is one of America's most popular tourist attractions.

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WORD FOR TODAY

perseverance
noun
1.  steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
2.  Theology continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.
Synonyms
doggedness, steadfastness, persistence, tenacity, pertinacity.

Perseverance commonly suggests activity maintained in spite of difficulties or steadfast and long-continued application: Endurance and perseverance combined to win in the end.  It is regularly used in a favorable sense. Persistence which may be used in either a favorable or an unfavorable sense, implies unremitting (and sometimes annoying) perseverance: persistence in a belief; persistence in talking when others wish to study. Tenacity with the original meaning of adhesiveness, as of glue, is a dogged and determined holding on.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Michael Landon
(October 31, 1936 - July 1, 1991)

Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989).

Lee Grant
(born October 31, 1926)

Lee Grant is an American stage, film and television actress, and film director. She was blacklisted for 12 years from film work beginning in the mid-1950s, but worked in the theatre, and would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Karpf in Shampoo (1975).

John Franklin Candy
(October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994)

John Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian who rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, Summer Rental, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle Buck. One of his most renowned onscreen performances was as Del Griffith, the loquacious, on-the-move shower-curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Dale Evans
(October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001)

Dale Evans was an American writer, film star and singer-songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

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Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.
--Benjamin Disraeli

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

"YAAAWN!"

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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"Oh my goodness, Eva . . . it's only five o'clock in the morning. What? You want to go out? But it's still dark outside."

Eva is definitely a morning person.

Did you ever wake up in the morning and find that you're feeling more tired than you were when you went to bed the night before? And it's happening more and more often lately?

Welcome to old age, my friend.

"Okay, Eva . . . Let's go."

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Did you know that . . . ?

 "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 30 in 1938, Orson Welles caused a nationwide panic with his broadcast of "War of the Worlds" -- a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth.  "War of the Worlds" was not planned as a radio hoax, and Welles had little idea of the havoc it would cause.

Perhaps as many as a million radio listeners believed that a real Martian invasion was underway. Panic broke out across the country. When news of the real-life panic leaked into the CBS studio, Welles went on the air as himself to remind listeners that it was just fiction.

The Federal Communications Commission investigated the program but found no law was broken.

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WORD FOR TODAY

hysteria
noun
1. a psychoneurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks, disturbances of sensory and motor functions, and various abnormal effects due to autosuggestion.
2. an uncontrollable emotional outburst, as from fear or grief, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc.
3. a state of intense agitation, anxiety, or excitement, esp. as manifested by large groups or segments of society.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Henry Franklin Winkler
(born October 30, 1945)

Henry Winkler is an American actor, director, producer and author.

Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie in the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days. "The Fonz", a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic, started out as a minor character at the show's beginning, but had achieved top billing by the time the show ended. He currently stars as Sy Mittleman on Childrens Hospital.

Sarah Sanguin Carter
(born October 30, 1980)

Sarah Carter is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Maggie in the TNT science fiction series Falling Skies.

Harry Robinson Hamlin
(born October 30, 1951)

Harry Hamlin is an American film and television actor, known for his roles as Perseus in the 1981 fantasy film Clash of the Titans, Bart McGuire in the groundbreaking 1982 film on gay relationships Making Love, and as Michael Kuzak in the legal drama series L.A. Law.

Andrea Mitchell
(born October 30, 1946)

Andrea Mitchell is an American television journalist, anchor, reporter and commentator for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C.

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"Do days exist without calendars? Does time pass when there are no human hands left to wind the clocks?"
--Howard Koch

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

Design Implies A Designer

    

Tucson Weather Today

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I regularly read a couple of the more popular blogs written by intelligent atheists, such as The Friendly Atheist written by Hemant Mehta.

Hemant Mehta is the chair of Foundation Beyond Belief and a high school math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He began writing the Friendly Atheist blog in 2006. His latest book is called The Young Atheist's Survival Guide.

A recent entry into his blog presents a three-minute Youtube video of Hemant himself tackling the often used statement that design implies a designer. A teleological argument.

Watch the video

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Did you know that . . . ?

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from and old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 29 in 1929, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression.

After October 29, 1929, stock prices had nowhere to go but up, so there was considerable recovery during succeeding weeks. Overall, however, prices continued to drop as the United States slumped into the Great Depression, and by 1932 stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929. The stock market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic collapse of which it was also a symptom. By 1933, nearly half of America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce. It would take World War II, and the massive level of armaments production taken on by the United States, to finally bring the country out of the Depression after a decade of suffering.

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WORD FOR TODAY

teleology  [tell-ee-OL'-uh-jee]
noun
1. The study of design or purpose in natural phenomena.
2. The use of ultimate purpose or design as a means of explaining phenomena.
3. Belief in or the perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in nature or history.

A teleology is any philosophical account that holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that, analogous to purposes found in human actions, nature inherently tends toward definite ends.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Winona Ryder
(born October 29, 1971)

Winona Ryder is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. Ryder's first significant role, in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988), was as Lydia Deetz, a goth teenager, and won her critical and popular recognition. After various appearances in film and on television, Ryder continued her career with the cult film Heathers (1988.) She later appeared in Mermaids (1990), earning a Golden Globe nomination, in Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990), and in Francis Ford Coppola's gothic romance Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

Ryder won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for her role in The Age of Innocence in 1993 as well as another Academy Award nomination for Little Women. She later appeared in the Generation X cult hit Reality Bites (1994), Alien Resurrection (1997), the Woody Allen comedy Celebrity (1998), and Girl, Interrupted (1999), which she also executive-produced.

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss
(born October 29, 1947)

Richard Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Goodbye Girl. Dreyfuss won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1977 for The Goodbye Girl, and was nominated in 1995 for Mr. Holland's Opus.

Gabrielle Monique Union
(born October 29, 1972)

Gabrielle Union is an American actress and former model. Among her notable roles is her performance of the cheerleader opposite Kirsten Dunst in the film Bring It On, (2000). In 2000, she played a medical doctor in the CBS drama series City of Angels. In 2003, Union starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the blockbuster film Bad Boys II. Also in 2003, she starred with LL Cool J in Deliver Us from Eva. In 2008, she featured in the film Cadillac Records with Adrien Brody, Beyoncé Knowles and Jeffrey Wright. In 2011, Union featured in an ensemble cast of the film version of Think Like a Man.

Brendan Jacob Joel Fehr
(born October 29, 1977)

Brendan Fehr is a Canadian film and television actor, perhaps best known for portraying Michael Guerin in the WB television series Roswell and for portraying Laboratory Tech Dan Cooper in CSI: Miami. In 2008, Fehr won a Gemini Award for "Hottest Canadian Male TV Star".

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Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
--Albert Einstein

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

Thirteen Point One Billion Dollars

     

Tucson Weather Today

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According to the Associated Press: JPMorgan announced a broad $13.1 billion settlement with the Justice Department earlier this week over the bank's activities leading up to the financial crisis of 2008. This settlement is is part of that deal.

What I wonder is: Where does the $13.1 billion go: Who takes charge of all that money? To whom is it paid? Does anyone reading this know the answer?

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A couple days ago I found myself debating whether to download to my Kindle a new adventure novel of some sort, such as a legal thriller, a Science Fiction classic, or perhaps a Stephen King type of horror story. Then I decided instead to search for something a little more in the way of literature.

On the blog, The Dish under the heading The "Anti-Gatsby," I read "Tim Kreider praises John Williams’s Stoner as "a great, chronically under appreciated American novel" -- this spurred me to seek out a review of Stoner.

From The New Yorker

THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVEL YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF

It turned out that this was more than a simple review. It was a complete article. The first paragraph begins: In one of those few gratifying instances of belated artistic justice, John Williams’s "Stoner" has become an unexpected bestseller in Europe after being translated and championed by the French writer Anna Gavalda. Once every decade or so, someone like me tries to do the same service for it in the U.S., writing an essay arguing that "Stoner" is a great, chronically under appreciated American novel.

I read the entire article and, as you might suspect, then visited Amazon and read the 'Look Inside' preview. Of course, I downloaded the Kindle version of the book. If it turns out to be as satisfactory as I hope it will be, I'll announce it in a future blog entry.

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Did You Know . . .?

 Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 28 in 1961 the second so-called "Apache trial" began for rock-and-roller Chuck Berry.

Chuck Berry was one of the biggest pop stars of the late 1950s when he began to have legal problems. While charges in yet another Mann Act violation were pending (which were dismissed in 1960), Berry met Janice Escalante, a 14-year-old Native American. According to Berry, who took the young woman on the road with his traveling rock show, Escalante claimed to be 21 years old. After there was a falling out between the two, Escalante complained about Berry to the authorities.

During his second trial, Berry was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. After a short stretch in Leavenworth Federal Prison, he was transferred to a Missouri jail, where he spent his time writing songs. Among the songs he wrote before his release from prison in October 1963 was "No Particular Place to Go".

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WORD FOR TODAY

genuine  [JEN'-yoo-ihn]
adjective
1. Actually possessing the alleged or apparent attribute or character: genuine leather.
2. Not spurious or counterfeit; authentic.
3.
a. Honestly felt or experienced: genuine devotion.
b. Actual; real: a genuine dilemma.
4. Free from hypocrisy or dishonesty; sincere.
5. Being of pure or original stock: a genuine Hawaiian.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

William Henry "Bill" Gates III

(born October 28, 1955)

Bill Gates is an American business magnate, investor, programmer, inventor and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen.

Julia Fiona Roberts

(born October 28, 1967)

Julia Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), which grossed $464 million worldwide. After receiving Golden Globe Awards and Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). Her films Mystic Pizza (1988), The Pelican Brief (1993), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Notting Hill (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004), Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Valentine's Day (2010), Eat Pray Love (2010), and Mirror Mirror (2012) have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.6 billion, making her one of the most successful actresses in terms of box office receipts

Dennis Franz

(born October 28, 1944)

Dennis Franz is an American actor best known for his role as Andy Sipowicz, a hard-boiled police detective, in the television series NYPD Blue. He previously appeared as Lt. Norman Buntz on Hill Street Blues, and earlier played Detective Benedetto on the same show.

Lauren Michael Holly

(born October 28, 1963)

Lauren Holly is an American-born Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Deputy Sheriff Maxine Stewart in the TV series Picket Fences, as Mary Swanson in the 1994 film Dumb & Dumber, and as Jenny Shepard on the TV series NCIS. She was married to comic actor Jim Carrey from 1996 to 1997.

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The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

Agnes by Guest Blogger

   

Agnes

My memories of childhood are very unclear. I can't say for sure if I didn't know my grandmother's name for quite some time or if I just submerged it because I didn't like it. How do you tell your grandmother you don't like her name? Later, I came to realize you don't choose your own name in most cases, so she really had no control. Besides, I think she liked it. Regardless, to me she was always Grandma.

I spent two weeks of every summer in her house, for as far back as I can remember. Mostly, I think I looked forward to those times -- an adventure, because I never knew for sure what was in store. There were times I distinctly remember I didn't want to go, but once I got there, it was fine. (Especially those times when I reconnected with friends my own age in that area.)

My grandmother introduced me to the local Grange, and a similar group for women. When I joined Toastmasters in 2001, I already knew who they were and what they were about; perhaps it was my grandmother who introduced me to them. I remember her as a good speaker, and remember attending at least one function where she stood and spoke to a large group. She taught me about cleaning house (not that I kept that knowledge very long) and snuck in snippets of right and wrong. (And yes, I did get those things at home, too, but who believes their parents?)

She was an energetic woman with firm convictions. I always thought of her as physically old (she was much older than my parents and they were "ancient" in my young eyes) but never truly "old" in the slow, run-down sense of the word. She stood up for her beliefs and she went against popular opinion when she thought it was wrong.

She would go to great lengths to bond with me, although I didn't recognize that then for what it was. For instance, I had a fondness (unusual in a girl, I think) for reptiles, insects, pond life, and spiders. One summer, while helping her clean her basement, I found the greatest spider in the whole world. It was big, bigger than any I'd seen, and very beautiful. Trouble was, it was in hiding down there. Had a nice home in a pipe in the wall and whenever I'd try to get a look, whoosh! back in the pipe it'd go.

I was so disappointed I couldn't see this beauty closer, or shine a light on it to see it more clearly. Grandma to the rescue! She helped me think of ways to coax that spider out of its hole. Did we know it was a black widow? Of course we did. Did it matter? Of course! That was why I wanted to see the spider closer. However, nothing we tried seemed to work. Then Grandma got the idea of all ideas . . . and brought the vacuum cleaner down there. It was a small model, with only a hose attachment. She sucked that spider right out of its pipe.

Taking the vacuum up to the daylight and emptying out the bag, we found that the spider was quite dead. It's the thought that counts?

All these years, I've never forgotten my grandmother's efforts on my behalf that day. As I grew older, I realized what a wonder it really was, because I found she didn't like spiders.

I remember she stocked fish in her rock pond fountain every summer. I don't recall what kind they were, but I know she did it just for me; in the winter that pond was dry. I remember she and I sharing an attic bedroom and how she'd fall asleep while reading. In a bit, she'd wake up enough to tuck her bookmark in, put the book down and turn out her light. I remember being scared to sleep in that room alone because of the eerie door leading to the rest of the attic, where it was dusty and dim. Anything could come out of that door if she wasn't there to protect me!

I remember being allowed to do things I couldn't do at home, like stay up that little bit later.

She almost always had a little dog, too; a Min Pin (Miniature Pinscher, like a tiny Doberman) or Miniature Poodle, usually. I think even in her RV years she had a dog to travel with. Sometimes a boyfriend, too. She stopped by our house several times. Once, she collected all our walnuts. A few months later we received walnut-chocolate bars in the mail. They had melted into one large bar after sitting in our mailbox all day in 90 degree heat.

She was someone who was always there throughout my life, a solid rock on my shoreline, even though after I grew up I didn't see her every year or even very often. I always knew she was out there, somewhere.

Early Sunday morning, Grandma died.  I'm told she went quietly, with relatives in attendance: a son, my dad, telling her it was okay for her to go, and a grandson with his fiancee. She was 93.

The walnuts will be falling soon. I'll miss you, Grandma.

Copyright 2013 Michelle Hakala
http://www.winebird.com/

   

A Couple Items

     

Tucson Weather Today

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NASA - RELEASE 13-312

NASA's Great Observatories Begin Deepest Ever Probe of the Universe

NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes are teaming up to look deeper into the universe than ever before. With a boost from natural "zoom lenses" found in space, they should be able to uncover galaxies that are as much as 100 times fainter than what these three great observatories typically can see.


Hmm... I wonder what would happen if when the telescopes get powerful enough to peer even deeper into the cosmos the observers discover two colossal eyes staring back at them. Would they capture the visage in a quick snapshot and share it with the people of Earth? Or would the government declare it to be 'classified' and keep it  under wraps?

Who's to say? But then again, this is the era of the Whistleblower, of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.

Edward Snowden?

JOHN CASSIDY, writing in The New Yorker, said: Is Edward Snowden, the twenty-nine-year-old N.S.A. whistle-blower who was last said to be hiding in Hong Kong awaiting his fate, a hero or a traitor? He is a hero. (My colleague Jeffrey Toobin disagrees.) In revealing the colossal scale of the U.S. government’s eavesdropping on Americans and other people around the world, he has performed a great public service that more than outweighs any breach of trust he may have committed. Like Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department official who released the Pentagon Papers, and Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who revealed the existence of Israel’s weapons program, before him, Snowden has brought to light important information that deserved to be in the public domain, while doing no lasting harm to the national security of his country.

More . . .


If the subject of whistleblowers interests you, Wikipedia has a long list of them, each with a capsule description of who they are and what they did.

LINK

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Did You Know . . .?

 The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target,it got "the whole 9 yards."

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 26 in 1948, Betty Ferreri killed her husband, Jerry, in their Los Angeles, California, home with the help of house caretaker Alan Adron. When Jerry, a notorious womanizer, brought a young model to the couple's home in the upscale Hancock Park neighborhood, Betty became upset and threatened him with a large wrench. Although Jerry fled, Betty was worried that he would return in a violent state, so she asked for Adron's assistance. When Jerry later returned, he began dragging Betty by her hair. Adron shot him twice, but the gun jammed before he was dead, so Betty finished him off with a meat cleaver, striking him in the head 23 times.

But their marriage had more than its share of problems. Beating Betty on a regular basis, Jerry once asked his wife to have sex with an auto mechanic to pay off a bill he owed. When she refused, he ruptured her eardrum. Then, angry about the doctor's bill, he struck her other ear, reportedly saying, "Maybe he'll give you two for the price of one." On another occasion, he brought a puppy home for the couple's young child but then killed the poor animal with a baseball bat in front of the boy. Despite the clear evidence of abuse, prosecutors decided to charge Betty Ferreri and Alan Adron with premeditated murder.

In 1949, both Betty Ferreri and Alan Adron were acquitted.

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WORD FOR TODAY

whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who exposes misconduct, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton

(born October 26, 1947)

Hillary Clinton was the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, serving under President Barack Obama. She was previously a U.S. Senator from New York (2001 to 2009). Before that, as the wife of President Bill Clinton, she was First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election, Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Pat Sajak

(born October 26, 1946)

Pat Sajak is an American television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.

Jacquelyn Ellen "Jaclyn" Smith

(born October 26, 1945)

Jaclyn Smith is an American actress and businesswoman. She is best known as Kelly Garrett in the iconic television series Charlie's Angels, and was the only original female lead to remain with the series for its complete run (1976–81). Beginning in the 1980s, she began developing and marketing her own brands of clothing and perfume.

Mark Anthony McDermott

(born October 26, 1961)

Dylan McDermott is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the television legal drama The Practice, which earned him a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination, and his roles in the first two seasons of American Horror Story. He also starred in the TNT series Dark Blue as Lt. Carter Shaw.

McDermott currently stars as FBI Special Agent Duncan Carlisle in the CBS drama Hostages.

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The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.
--Lao Tzu

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

What Do I Know About Anything?

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

The consumer in today's world has been relegated to the status of a slave by the clever machinations of Corporations. Especially by the banks. The Big Banks and other too big to fail financial corporations.

Huge many-tentacled corporations, having bought out or otherwise acquired all of their competition by various means, not all strictly legal, now hold sway, now rule (through duplicity, usually behind the scenes) the unwitting populace by promising devices to entertain and provide questionable conveniences to the citizenry.

The enormous power and the ravenous greed of this modern aristocracy is so great that they are enabled to enact laws, even against the will of the people, This is a trait known in the past, owned and implemented by the aristocracy, the blue-bloods, the Lords and their Ladies secure in the royal raiment of wealth and control.


The above is an example of what I wrote early this morning. But I had to stop. When I started it seemed I had something important to say. But now I've changed my mind. My own modern-day slave mentality, the craving for acquiring today's vast array of diversions and conveniences has intervened. And so I say to myself, "Let it go." and I will myself to forget it. After all, this kind of slavery is not so bad. In fact, it's kind of comfortable.

Right?

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Did You Know . . .?

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2nd, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 25 in 1994, Susan Smith reports that she was carjacked in South Carolina by a man who took her two small children in the backseat of her car. Although authorities immediately began searching for three-year-old Michael and one-year-old Alex, they could find no trace of them or of Smith's car. After nine days of intense national media attention, Smith finally confessed that the carjacking tale was false and that she had driven her Mazda into the John D. Long Lake in order to drown her children.

Both Susan and her husband, David Smith, who had had multiple affairs during their on-and-off relationship, had used their children as pawns in their tempestuous marriage. Apparently, Susan was involved with another man who did not want children, and she thought that killing her children was the only way to continue the relationship.

 She was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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WORD FOR TODAY

aristocrat
noun
1. A member of a ruling class or of the nobility.
2. A person having the tastes, manners, or other characteristics of the aristocracy.
3. A person who advocates government by an aristocracy.
4. One considered the best of its kind: the aristocrat of cars.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Marion Ross

(born October 25, 1928)

Marion Ross is an American actress best known for her role as Marion Cunningham on the ABC television series, Happy Days from 1974 to 1984.

Michael Patrick Boatman

(born October 25, 1964)

Michael Boatman is an Image Award-nominated American actor and writer. He is best known for his roles as New York City mayoral aide Carter Heywood in the ABC sitcom Spin City, as U.S. Army Specialist Samuel Beckett in the ABC drama series China Beach, and as sports agent Stanley Babson in the HBO comedy series Arli$$.

Katheryn Elizabeth "Katy" Hudson

(born October 25, 1984)

Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter, businesswoman, philanthropist, and actress. She was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. Having had very little exposure to mainstream pop music in her childhood, she pursued a career in gospel music as a teen and released her debut studio album, Katy Hudson, in March 2001. She also recorded a second solo album which was never released.

Billy Barty

(Oct 25, 1924 - Dec 23, 2000)

Billy Barty was an American film actor. In adult life he stood three feet, nine inches (114 cm), and because of his short stature he was often cast in movies opposite taller performers for comic effect. He specialized in outspoken or wisecracking characters. During the 1950s he became a TV star, appearing regularly in the Spike Jones ensemble.

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If the rich could hire someone else to die for them, the poor would make a wonderful living.
--Jewish proverb

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

The Truth, The Whole Truth, and . . .

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I ran across an item that I found to be a bit strange:

Sycamore Row, the new novel by John Grisham is being offered directly from Random House in a hardcover edition for $28.95 and in a Large Print Trade Paperback for $29.00. On down farther it lists a special Hardcover edition, leather-bound, signed and numbered, with printed endpapers, gold stamping, a slipcase, and a ribbon marker, selling for $250.00.

No, I am not kidding you.

See for yourself

Amazon lists a hardcover price of $16.36 and paperback is $17.40. Kindle edition is $11.99.

John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American author of legal thrillers

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Re: Richard Dawkins

The Richard Dawkins Foundation For Reason And Science has a remarkably frank and lucid home page on their website.For example, one of the headings reads: "Only 1 in 10 UK Christians seeks moral guidance from religion." This single page is quite enlightening for those who will take the brief time needed to read it.

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.

A worthy goal, don't you think?

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Poetry:

I really do not know what a poem is anymore. It seems that the definition for poetry is nothing more than a piece of writing that is not prose. It seems to me that the Literary Authority (if there is such a thing) could, and would, come up with a proper appellation for each of the various divisions of what is now all lumped together under the broad designation, Poetry. At this time there seems to be only the distinction between 'Rhyme' and 'Free Verse.'

Seems like there's should be a better way of categorizing it.

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Did You Know . . .?

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 24 in 1861, workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company link the eastern and western telegraph networks of the nation at Salt Lake City, Utah, completing a transcontinental line that for the first time allows instantaneous communication between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Stephen J. Field, chief justice of California, sent the first transcontinental telegram to President Abraham Lincoln, predicting that the new communication link would help ensure the loyalty of the western states to the Union during the Civil War.

The push to create a transcontinental telegraph line had begun only a little more than year before when Congress authorized a subsidy of $40,000 a year to any company building a telegraph line that would join the eastern and western networks. The Western Union Telegraph Company, as its name suggests, took up the challenge, and the company immediately began work on the critical link that would span the territory between the western edge of Missouri and Salt Lake City.

The Western Union was able to connect the East and West Coasts of the nation much earlier than anyone had expected and a full eight years before the transcontinental railroad would be completed.

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WORD FOR TODAY

feign [fayn]
verb
-  to give a false appearance of : feign death
-  to assert as if true :  pretend

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Bradley Darryl "BD" Wong

(born October 24, 1960)

BD Wong is an American actor, best known for his roles as Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as Father Ray Mukada on Oz, as Dr. John Lee on Awake, Henry Wu in the movie Jurassic Park, his portrayal of Ngawang Jigme in the movie Seven Years in Tibet, as well as voice-over and stage acting.

Amy Allen

(born October 24, 1976)

Amy Allen is an American actress and film crew member who portrayed the character Aayla Secura in Star Wars films released in 2002 and 2005. She worked behind the scenes on many different movies, including A.I. Artificial Intelligence, before she acted in Star Wars.

Kevin Delaney Kline

(born October 24, 1947)

Kevin Kline is an American stage and film actor. Kline is an Academy Award winner for his supporting role in the comedy hit A Fish Called Wanda. In Alan J. Pakula's Sophie's Choice he won the coveted role of the tormented and mercurial Nathan opposite Meryl Streep. He made several films with director Lawrence Kasdan, including The Big Chill, Silverado, Grand Canyon, I Love You to Death, and French Kiss.

Katie Elizabeth McGrath

(born October 24, 1983)

Katie McGrath is an Irish actress and model from Ashford, County Wicklow, Ireland, best known for playing Morgana in the BBC One TV series Merlin.

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People say satire is dead. It's not dead; it's alive and living in the White House.
--Robin Williams

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NaNoWriMo . . .

     

Tucson Weather Today

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National Novel Writing Month, shortened as NaNoWriMo (na-noh-ry-moh) is an annual Internet-based creative writing project that takes place every November. NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel between November 1 and 30. It accepts entries from around the world. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing, no matter how bad the writing is, through the end of a first draft. The idea is that many people are scared to start writing because it won't be any good, and if there's a time to celebrate length, rather than quality, more people will write an entire first draft, which they can then proceed to edit if they wish.

November 1st will be here soon and once again I am contemplating joining in the competition. Only the first time of three attempts over the last three years was I successful in writing within the one month time frame the entire 50,000 words needed for completion. A digital image of my certificate is stored somewhere on my computer's hard drive, and also on a couple of memory sticks.

I also saved the novel. But it's poorly written. Not really a 'novel' at all; it's a hodge-podge of way too many unrelated sentences and paragraphs thrown together into artificial chapters. It stinks. If I knew where it is stored, I would go to it right this instant and delete, delete, delete.

One good thing came out of the first year's project, though. A fellow writer that I like to call my dear friend purchased and mailed to me a set of NaNoWriMo memorabilia as an incentive for me to persevere. One of the pieces of the set was a sturdy, thick coffee mug emblazoned with the NaNoWriMo logo on its side. I still have it and still drink my coffee from it every morning.

But . . .

I hate the idea of NaNoWriMo, and I hate the process, every single day of it. Which is thoroughly understandable because I have hated bowing to the dictates of any authority figure all throughout my lifetime... even when the 'authority' was myself.

But I am almost convinced that I am going to do it again this year.

Pretty sure . . .


NaNoWriMo Information

Ready to Write a Novel? Start HERE

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Did You Know . . .?

 If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle;  if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On October 23 in 2002, about 50 Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater, taking up to 700 people hostage during a sold-out performance of a popular musical.

The second act of the musical "Nord Ost" was just beginning at the Moscow Ball-Bearing Plant's Palace of Culture when an armed man walked onstage and fired a machine gun into the air. The terrorists -- including a number of women with explosives strapped to their bodies -- identified themselves as members of the Chechen Army. They had one demand: that Russian military forces begin an immediate and complete withdrawal from Chechnya, the war-torn region located north of the Caucasus Mountains.

After a 57-hour-standoff at the Palace of Culture, during which two hostages were killed, Russian special forces surrounded and raided the theater on the morning of October 26. Later it was revealed that they had pumped a powerful narcotic gas into the building, knocking nearly all of the terrorists and hostages unconscious before breaking into the walls and roof and entering through underground sewage tunnels. Most of the guerrillas and 120 hostages were killed during the raid.

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WORD FOR TODAY

tumid [TOO-mihd or TYOO-mihd]
adjective
1. Swollen; distended. Used of a body part or organ.
2. Of a bulging shape; protuberant.
3. Overblown; bombastic: tumid political prose.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

John William "Johnny" Carson

(Oct 23, 1925 - Jan 23, 2005)

Johnny Carson was an American television host and comedian, known for thirty years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992). Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Governor's Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Johnny Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.

Amandla Stenberg

(born October 23, 1998)

Amandla Stenberg is an American teen actress. She is best known for her portrayal of young Cataleya in Colombiana and Rue in The Hunger Games.

John Michael Crichton

(Oct 23, 1942 - Nov 5, 2008)

Michael Crichton was an American best-selling author, doctor, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide. His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. 

Many of his future history novels have either medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. He was the author of, among others, The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Congo, Travels, Sphere, Rising Sun, Disclosure, The Lost World, Airframe, Timeline, Prey, State of Fear, Next (the final book published before his death), Pirate Latitudes (published November 24, 2009), and a final unfinished techno-thriller, Micro, which was published in November 2011.

Nancy Ann Grace

(born October 23, 19590

Nancy Grace is an American legal commentator, television host, and former prosecutor. She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a victims' rights standpoint, with an outspoken style that has won her both praise and criticism. She is the host of Nancy Grace, a nightly celebrity news and current affairs show on HLN, and she was the host of Court TV's Closing Arguments. She also co-wrote the book Objection! -- How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System

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"I could inform the dullest author how he might write an interesting book -- let him relate the events of his own Life with honesty, not disguising the feelings that accompanied them."
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Relatively Strange Stuff Sometimes Happens

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

I sat down on Fry's loafers bench next to a quite attractive young lady who was diddling with her smartphone and I asked her if she would mind if I sit next to her.

She said, "Not at all" and smiled fetchingly.

I didn't speak to her any further, as I could see she was so caught up in her smartphone diddling.

After a short time, though, she turned to look me in the face and broke the silence, inquiring, "You're not one of those weird old Betty White dudes, are you?"

I assured her I was not, to which she again favored me with that dazzling smile. And I couldn't help noticing that she was pleasantly endowed in the breasts department, mainly because her simple peasant's blouse was so low-cut. Now I know what the poets of old meant when they spoke of alabaster as a color. I always thought it meant pale white.

It does not.

I will not fill you in, even though it was surprisingly interesting, as to where the ensuing conversation took the two of us.

You would not believe me if I did.


A little while ago I was watching a short video wherein the narrator was attempting, to explain Einstein's mathematical concept of gravitational warping of the 'fabric' of Space/Time. But he lost me. Or I got lost all by myself. I cannot grasp Space/Time in terms of a 'fabric.' To me, a fabric is a physical object, while Space/Time seems to me to be something  non-physical, a concept of unknown (possibly unknowable) dimensions.

Just a thought.

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Did You Know . . .?

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.  Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 22 in 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, which he declined.

In his novels, essays, and plays, Sartre advanced the philosophy of existentialism, arguing that each individual must create meaning for his or her own life, because life itself had no innate meaning.

Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject -- not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.

Sartre's health and vision declined in his later years, and he died in 1980.

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WORD FOR TODAY

alabaster
noun
1. A dense translucent, white or tinted fine-grained gypsum.
2. A variety of hard calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.
3. A pale yellowish pink to yellowish gray.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Annette Joanne Funicello

(October 22, 1942 - April 8, 2013)

Annette Funicello  was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She rose to prominence as one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. As a teenager, she transitioned to a successful career as a singer with the pop singles "O Dio Mio," "Tall Paul" and "Pineapple Princess", as well as establishing herself as an actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party" genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon during the mid-1960s.

In 1992, Funicello announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She died from complications of the disease on April 8, 2013

Curly Howard

(October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952)

Curly Howard (born Jerome Lester Horwitz) was an American comedian and vaudevillian actor. He was best known as the most outrageous member of the American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges, which also featured his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard and actor Larry Fine. Curly was generally considered the most popular and recognizable of the Stooges. He was well known for his high-pitched voice and vocal expressions ("nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!", "woob-woob-woob!", "soitenly!" and barking like a dog) as well as his physical comedy, improvisations, and athleticism.

Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum

(born October 22, 1952)

Jeff Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day. He starred as Detective Zach Nichols for the eighth and ninth seasons of the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Christopher Allen Lloyd

(born October 22, 1938)

Christopher Lloyd is an American actor. Among his best-known roles are Emmett "Doc" Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi.

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If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
--Jean-Paul Sartre


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