Last Full Day Of 2013

     

Tucson Weather Today

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So. Today is the last day of this measured year. Who'd have thought I would last this long. Seventy-four and three-quarter years. Not me. I can remember bragging to all my teen-aged friends that I'd never see thirty... and watching me perform all  those crazy, foolish, dangerous, juvenile antics -- they all agreed with me.

I was a wild-ass kid.

I was.

And really stupid.

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News From NASA

NASA astronauts will help ring in 2014 by sending greetings from space and from Earth to the crowd gathered in New York's Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The New Year’s countdown will be shown from 6 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. EST on the Toshiba Vision screen atop One Times Square, right below the New Year countdown ball.

Also . . .

Date: Jan. 23, 2014
Mission: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-L (TDRS-L)
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 41
Launch Window: 9:05 to 9:45 p.m. EST

The TDRS-L spacecraft is the second of three next-generation satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for NASA by expanding the lifespan of the fleet, which presently consists of eight satellites in geostationary orbit. These spacecraft will provide tracking, telemetry, command and high bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth. These include NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. TDRS-L has a high-performance solar panel designed for more spacecraft power to meet the growing S-band communications requirements.

Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems in El Segundo, California, built TDRS-L.

Latest Updates HERE

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Did You Know . . .?

Cats have over 100 vocal chords.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, December 31 in 1985 former teen idol Rick Nelson, younger son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, died in plane crash in De Kalb, Texas.

Beginning with his hit debut single, "I'm Walkin" in 1957, Nelson reeled off a string of 30 rockabilly-tinged top 40 hits in the next five years -- more than any other artist in the same period save for Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. Nelson saw his commercial appeal take a major hit with the arrival of the Beatles in 1964. But after a brief revival in the early 1970s fueled by the #6 pop hit "Garden Party" (1972), Nelson's career as a recording artist essentially ended. He continued to tour frequently, however, and it was on one such tour that he boarded a chartered DC-3 in Guntersville, Alabama, bound for a New Year's Eve appearance in Dallas. Shortly before reaching Dallas, the cabin of Nelson's plane filled with smoke due to a fire of undetermined origin. While the two pilots of the plane would survive their attempted emergency landing in a field outside De Kalb, Texas, all seven passengers on board were killed, including Rick Nelson.

Note: Ricky Nelson married the niece of a good friend of my Grandma Morris.

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WORD FOR TODAY

antelucan
adjective
-  occurring before the arrival of daylight, relating to the hours before dawn.
-  the gloom before the dawn

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Philip Anthony Hopkins

(born December 31 1937)

Anthony Hopkins is a Welsh actor. In 1968, he got his break in film in The Lion in Winter playing Richard I. Hopkins is well known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, its sequel Hannibal, and the prequel Red Dragon. Other notable films include The Mask of Zorro, The Bounty, Meet Joe Black, The Elephant Man, Magic, 84 Charing Cross Road, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Legends of the Fall, The Remains of the Day, Amistad, Nixon, The World's Fastest Indian, Instinct, and Fracture.

Beatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth

(born December 31, 1958)

Bebe Neuwirth is an American actress, musician and dancer. She has worked in television and is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Crane's wife (later ex-wife), on both the TV sitcom Cheers and its spin-off Frasier. On stage, she is also known for the role of Nickie in the revival of Sweet Charity, the role of Velma Kelly in the revival of Chicago and for the role of Morticia Addams in The Addams Family musical.

Val Edward Kilmer

(born December 31, 1959)

Val Kilmer is an American actor. Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! (1984), then the cult classic Real Genius (1985), as well as the blockbuster action films Top Gun and Willow. His film roles include Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors, Doc Holliday in Tombstone, Chris Shiherilis in Michael Mann's Heat and Bruce Wayne/Batman in Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever.

John Denver

(Dec 31, 1943 - Oct 12, 1997)

John Denver was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success was as a solo singer, starting in the 1970s. Throughout his life, Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed. His  signature songs were "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Annie's Song", "Rocky Mountain High", and "Sunshine on My Shoulders".

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A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.
--Stewart Alsop

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This Is Who I Am

   

More On Getting Old

     

Tucson Weather Today

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It seems that I have reached the age wherein I feel the need for a nap in the afternoon and to retire to my bed earlier than formerly each night. Why this is I do not know, as I rise each morning feeling just as fatigued as I had felt the night before.

Even the relative excitement of gift-giving and receiving at Christmas-time doesn't seem to upset this newest routine of momentarily slipping away.

Dozing Off On Christmas Eve

Tucson, Arizona

December 24, 2013

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Since there is no scientific evidence that suggests consciousness survives the death of an organism, this indicates (to me) that there is a Heaven after all.

Think about it.

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Did You Know . . .?

The Grand Canyon can hold around 900 trillion footballs.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1994, John Salvi III walked into two separate abortion clinics in Brookline, Mass. and shot workers with a rifle, killing two receptionists and wounding five other employees. He was captured the next day after firing 23 shots at a Norfolk, Virginia, medical clinic.

In March 1996, Salvi's trial jury rejected his insanity defense and convicted him of murder. After receiving two life sentences, he killed himself in prison in November 1996.

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WORD FOR TODAY

death
noun
-  The state of being dead.
-  The act of dying; the end of life.
-  The total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions of an organism.

Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include biological aging (senescence), predation, malnutrition, disease, suicide, murder and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death. There is no scientific evidence that suggests consciousness survives the death of an organism.
--Wikipedia

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods

(born December 30, 1975)

Tiger Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years according to Forbes.

Matt Lauer

(born December 30, 1957)

Matt Lauer is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1996. He is also a contributor for NBC's Dateline NBC.

Robert Michael Nesmith

(born December 30, 1942)

Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the rock band The Monkees and co-star of The Monkees TV series (1966–1968).

David Thomas "Davy" Jones

(Dec 30 1945 - 29 Feb 2012)

Davy Jones was an English actor, musician, recording artist, performing artist, and businessman best known as a member of the pop rock band, The Monkees, and star of the TV series of the same name. His acting credits include a Tony-nominated role as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! as well as roles in The Brady Bunch film and television show; My Two Dads, and Love, American Style. Jones is considered by some to be one of the great teen idols

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I actually think there's an incredible amount of self-knowledge that comes with getting older.
--Jamie Lee Curtis

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This Is Who I Am

   

Framing by Guest Blogger

Framing

It's a bad horror movie.

I'm trapped in a back room of my house while evil creatures tear apart the roof, trying to get in.

Oh, wait, it's only more construction work on HexHouse's new Fox Room.

This weekend the crew pushed to get certain stages done as the weather threatened to make mush out of what they'd already completed. A host of storms came through, drenching insulation and then subfloor.

Today, they're ripping off part of the roof to finish attaching the Fox Room's roof support. I trust that when they're done for the day, my existing roof will be protected from the elements. It's an uncomfortable thing for me, having faith in so many strangers to do something so important correctly.

Inside the house, it does indeed sound like I'm in a horror movie. Saws buzz, hammers bang, pieces fall, and heavy footsteps tromp above me. The cat is in hiding and the dog is curled up at my feet, occasionally looking at me apologetically. He's tried, but his most furious barking won't chase these evil creatures away. I can't make him understand that they're okay, nor do I really want to.

When they're done, they once again won't be okay and I don't want him to forget how to bark.

The framing is up for the Fox Room, and today they're adding plywood siding. It's exciting to see how it changes every day, and to learn what the steps are in construction. So far, I've learned:

* The forms for the foundation need to be inspected before the concrete is poured. (Did I get that right? I had a lesson in the difference between cement and concrete, too.)
* The plans aren't always right; sometimes the wall really isn't ten feet long.
* The plumbing has to be inspected before any subfloor can go on.
* One day you frame the room, and the next day you frame the roof, and the third day you undo the roof you framed yesterday. On the fourth day, you frame the roof right.
* When it rains, you hustle.
* Too many cooks really do spoil the broth, since there's only so much room on one roof.
* When you take part of the old roof off, you need to unframe the sliding glass door spot to make room for things going out (or in).

Even as I type this, I hear a cascade of roof pieces falling onto the new subfloor. I see why they take the old roof apart before they finish the new section.


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

   
 

I Shall Not Want

     

Tucson Weather Today

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The following is intended to he a beginning and the ending of an attempt at writing a story of fiction -- a  segment from a tentatively recalled tale of easy human lies and one man's attempts at discovering and revealing the simple truths attendant upon his life choices.

An Improbable  Account

Until I enlisted in the military at the age of eighteen I lived in various stages of poverty and did not realize it. Before I became a teenager and could earn my own money, I was a typical ragamuffin, although I did not know that ragamuffin was a noun meaning: a person, typically a child, in ragged, dirty clothes. And I did not know that I was considered by the average observer (my schoolteacher, pastor, and most of my classmates) to be an unfortunate urchin, a waif, a guttersnipe... you know, a street kid.

I have witnessed a great many varied and relatively minor incidents interspersed among the inconsequential years of a less than inspiring lifetime.

Below are some of them:

. . .

. . .

. . .

Now, in my old age, I find it curious and passing strange to realize that during the earliest period of my life while my parents were alive they never wanted to touch me.

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Did You Know . . .?

If you add up all the numbers from 1 to 100 consecutively (1 + 2 + 3...) it totals 5050.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1793 Thomas Paine was arrested in France for treason. Though the charges against him were never detailed, he had been tried in absentia on December 26 and convicted. Before moving to France, Paine was an instrumental figure in the American Revolution as the author of Common Sense, writings used by George Washington to inspire the American troops. Paine moved to Paris to become involved with the French Revolution, but the chaotic political climate turned against him, and he was arrested and jailed for crimes against the country.

Paine's imprisonment in France caused a general uproar in America and future President James Monroe used all of his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. Ironically, it wasn't long before Paine came to be despised in the United States, as well. After The Age of Reason was published, he was called anti-Christ and his reputation was ruined. Thomas Paine died a poor man in 1809 in New York.

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WORD FOR TODAY

poverty
noun
1.  the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support.
2.  deficiency of necessary or desirable ingredients, qualities, etc.: poverty of the soil.

Poverty is scarcity, dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live.
--Wikipedia

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr.

(born December 28, 1954)

Denzel Washington is an American actor, film director, and film producer. He has received much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including for his portrayals of real-life figures such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas, and Herman Boone. Washington is a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and was a frequent collaborator of the late director Tony Scott.

Washington has received two Golden Globe awards and a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and Best Actor for Training Day (2001).

Nichelle Nichols

(born December 28, 1932)

Nichelle Nichols is an American actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting. Nichols' most famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series (1966-1969), as well as the succeeding motion pictures, where her character was eventually promoted in Starfleet to the rank of commander. Her Star Trek character was groundbreaking in U.S society at the time, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. personally praised her work on the show and asked her to remain when she was considering leaving the series.

Stan Lee

(born December 28, 1922)

Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor, voice actor and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

In collaboration with several artists, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many other fictional characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Noomi Rapace

(born December 28, 1979)

Noomi Rapace is a Swedish actress. She achieved international fame with her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish/Danish film adaptations of the Millennium series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. She is also known for playing Leena in Beyond (2010), Anna in The Monitor (2011), Madame Simza Heron in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), the lead role of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in the Ridley Scott science fiction film Prometheus (2012), and Beatrice in Dead Man Down (2013).

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He is now rising from affluence to poverty.
--Mark Twain

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This Is Who I Am

   

12-27-13

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Did You Know . . .?

The longest street in the world is Yonge street in Toronto Canada measuring 1,178 miles.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1900 prohibitionist Carry Nation smashed up the bar at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas, causing several thousand dollars in damage and landing in jail. Nation, who was released shortly after the incident, became famous for carrying a hatchet and wrecking saloons as part of her anti-alcohol crusade. Carry Amelia Moore was born in Kentucky in 1846. As a young woman, she married Charles Gloyd, whose hard-drinking soon killed him and left Nation alone to support their young child. The experience instilled in Nation a lifelong distaste for alcohol.

In Kansas she was involved with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The WCTU was founded in 1874 by women "concerned about the problems alcohol was causing their families and society." Nation came to believe she needed to abandon the nonviolent methods of the WCTU in order to make an impact. After the incident at the Carey Hotel, her fame increased as she continued her saloon-smashing campaign in other locations and traveled extensively to speak out in favor of temperance. She sold souvenir hatchets to help fund her activities and used the name Carry A. Nation. Some people viewed her as crusader, while others saw her as a crank.

Nation died in 1911, never living to see nationwide prohibition in America, which was established with the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and went into effect on

January 16, 1920. Prohibition, considered a failure, was repealed on December 5, 1933, by the 21st Amendment.

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WORD FOR TODAY

ridiculous  [rih-DIK-you-luhs]
adjective
Deserving or inspiring ridicule; absurd, preposterous, or silly.

More and more I have been hearing radio broadcasters, TV actors, and speechifying politicians pronounce the word ree-dik-you-luhs instead of the correct way, which is rih-DIK-you-luhs. I suppose the word with the initial syllable pronounced 'ree' will soon become acceptable and then finally become correct.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Savannah Clark Guthrie

(born December 27, 1971)

Savannah Guthrie is an American journalist and attorney, working for NBC News. Guthrie joined NBC in September 2007 as a legal analyst and correspondent, regularly reporting on trials throughout the country. After serving as a White House correspondent between 2008 and 2011 and as co-anchor of the MSNBC program The Daily Rundown in 2010 and 2011, Guthrie was announced as the co-host of The Today Show's third hour alongside Natalie Morales and Al Roker. In that role she substituted as news anchor and main co-host, and appeared as the Chief Legal Analyst across all NBC platforms.

On June 29, 2012, Guthrie was named co-anchor of Today following Ann Curry's reassignment at the network. She debuted as co-anchor, alongside Matt Lauer, Morales and Roker, on Monday, July 9, 2012.

John Amos

(born December 27, 1939)

John Amos is an American actor who played James Evans, Sr. on the 1970s television series Good Times. His television work includes roles in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the miniseries Roots, for which he received an Emmy nomination, and a recurring role in The West Wing. He also played the father of Will Smith's character's girlfriend, Lisa Wilkes, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He has also appeared on Broadway and in numerous motion pictures in a career that spans four decades.

Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Roberts

(born December 27, 1943)

Cokie Roberts is an American journalist and author. She is a contributing senior news analyst for National Public Radio as well as a regular roundtable analyst for the current This Week With George Stephanopoulos. Roberts also works as a political commentator for ABC News, serving as an on-air analyst for the network.

Louis Pasteur

(Dec 27, 1822 - Sept 28, 1895)

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist who is well known for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of diseases, and his discoveries have saved countless lives ever since. Pasteur reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax. His medical discoveries provided direct support for the germ theory of disease and its application in clinical medicine.

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It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
--Voltaire

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

A Few Incosequential Facts

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I do not own a cell phone... -- I don't want a cell phone. I do not own an Ipod... -- I don't want an Ipod. I do not own a microwave oven. . . -- I don't want a microwave oven.

Today is the first day of Kwanzaa, a made-up African-American holiday created in the 1960s and called a harvest festival.

The old proverb, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is so true, in my studied opinion. A PBS documentary titled Christmas In Yellowstone contains (too) many instances of the narrator describing mountainous panoramas as beautiful, but they did not strike me as being beautiful at all. They appeared to me, not as beautiful landscapes, but as strange and somewhat scary geological formations transformed from instant to instant by random meteorological meanderings of winds and weather.

That's all.

Towering Gothic cathedrals? Not beautiful, but simply a foolish waste of time, effort, and wealth.

Beauty, however, most certainly does exist.

There Is A Deep Beauty In Jennifer Aniston's Smile

I still can't figure out why the word 'either' is pronounced both 'ee-thur' and 'eye-thur.' And the two of them are, it seems to me, the only 'ei' words that use the 'eye' sound.


It is so interesting  to me to watch TV reruns of some of the more popular shows, such as The Big Bang Theory. After the third of fourth time, I no longer have to concentrate on the story line to enjoy the episode and can merely laugh at the funniest jokes and comedic responses while my attention is actually riveted on the overly subdued actions and necessarily bland physical features of the bit part players in the background -- especially the women. who are almost always trim and fit looking, and usually quite attractive. And I think about each of those actors who probably have high hopes of getting ahead in the acting business. I admit that I sometimes muse upon their relative successes and failures, and often even going to the trouble of creating fictional mini-stories wherein they find success in obtaining parts for themselves in the future.


Yes, I know I am one of the weird folk. I've been told that nearly all my life.

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Did You Know . . .?

The worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century was the eruption of Mount Pelée in 1902 on the island of Martinique. It killed 30,000 people.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1972, former President Harry S. Truman died in Independence, Missouri.

Truman, the son of a farmer, he could not afford to go to college, so he too worked as a farmer before joining the army in 1916 to fight in World War I. After the war, Truman opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. When that business went bankrupt in 1922, he entered Missouri politics.

Truman went on to serve in the U.S. Senate from 1934 until he was chosen as Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth vice president in 1945; it was during his Senate terms that he became known for his honesty and integrity.

Upon FDR's death Truman became the 33rd president of the United States, assuming the role of commander in chief of a country still embroiled in World War II. Just four months into his tenure, Truman authorized the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945. The use of the new weapon, dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August, succeeded in forcing Japan's surrender.

Truman served as president for two terms from 1945 to 1953, when he and his wife Bess happily retired to Independence.

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WORD FOR TODAY

trope
noun
a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression

A literary trope is the use of figurative language. For example, the sitting United States administration might be referred to as "Washington". Since the 1970s, the word has also come to mean a commonly recurring literary device, motif, or cliché.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen

(Dec 26, 1921 - Oct 30, 2000)

Steve Allen was an American TV personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line?

Sandra Taylor

(born December 26, 1966)

Sandra Taylor  is an American model and actress. Taylor landed her first feature film with Garry Marshall, Exit to Eden. She was approached by Hugh Hefner to appear on the cover and in a feature pictorial in the July 1995 edition of Playboy, promoting her appearance in the movie Under Siege 2: Dark Territory in which she played a train bartender. She went on to star in films such as Batman & Robin, L.A. Confidential, The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2, Tomcats, Keeping Up with the Steins, Runaway Bride, and Raising Helen.

Sandra appeared in the Warner Brothers films Valentine's Day playing opposite Eric Dane and Ashton Kutcher, and in New Year's Eve starring opposite Josh Duhamel and Michelle Pfieffer. She has also appeared in episodes of the television series Married... with Children, ER, The King of Queens and Just Shoot Me!.

Alan King

(Dec 26, 1927 - May 9, 2004)

Alan King was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of movies and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and appeared in plays. In later years, he helped many philanthropic causes.

King, who smoked cigars (a fact that came up in his routines from time to time), died at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan on May 9, 2004, from lung cancer

Eden Rebecca Sher

(born December 26, 1991)

Eden Sher is an American actress . Sher has been acting since she was eight years old. She has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the short film Stuck, and ads for Capital One and Fruity Pebbles. She had the recurring role of Gretchen in the second season of the Showtime series Weeds. She is also known for her role as Carrie Fenton in the television series Sons and Daughters.

As of 2009 Sher starred in ABC comedy series The Middle as Sue Heck - a dorky, quirky, ever-hopeful teenager. In 2013 she has won Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Supporting Actress for her role in The Middle

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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
--Oscar Wilde

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Wishing You Happiness Throughout This Day

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Tucson Weather Today

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I recently read a short biographical piece about Lenny Bruce which contained two sentences that both startled and started me to thinking. Those two sentences were: "He died in 1966 of a heroin overdose, still waiting to hear an appeal of his case. It wasn't until 2003 that Governor George Pataki granted him a posthumous pardon."

How do you make sense of a "posthumous" pardon, or for that matter, a posthumous anything?

When a person is dead, he (or she) is dead. He (or she) is unable to recognize a change in his (or her) earthly status. Or for that matter, he (or she), no longer having a functional brain, no longer can care about such mundane and strictly earthly matters.

So, what does it matter that George Pataki pardoned him?

I can only imagine with what utter contempt Lenny Bruce might have responded to Pataki's seeming beneficence.

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Christmas Sparrow is the title of a poem by Billy Collins, and it's a good one.

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Did You Know . . .?

stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Supposedly, on this day in the year 0, Jesus was born.

Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. The oldest existing record of a Christmas celebration is found in a Roman almanac that tells of a Christ's Nativity festival led by the church of Rome in 336 A.D. The precise reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains obscure, but most researchers believe that Christmas originated as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.

The word Christmas entered the English language originally as Christes maesse, meaning "Christ's mass" or "festival of Christ" in Old English. A popular medieval feast was that of St. Nicholas of Myra, a saint said to visit children with gifts and admonitions just before Christmas. This story evolved into the modern practice of leaving gifts for children said to be brought by "Santa Claus," a derivative of the Dutch name for St. Nicholas--Sinterklaas.

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WORD FOR TODAY

beneficence
noun
1.  The state or quality of being kind, charitable, or beneficial.
2.  A charitable act or gift.

Beneficence comes from the Latin word benefactum, meaning "good deed." That's exactly what beneficence is -- helping someone just because you care, not because you want to be praised for being nice. Giving your time, skills, or even a donation of money or items shows beneficence. This word can also describe the character of a person who is helpful, caring, and compassionate.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Humphrey DeForest Bogart

(Dec 25, 1899 - Jan 14, 1957)

Humphrey Bogart was an American actor and is widely regarded as an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.

Sissy Spacek

(born December 25, 1949)

Sissy Spaceck is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her roles as Holly Sargis in Terrence Malick's 1973 film Badlands, and as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie (based on the first novel by Stephen King) for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as country star Loretta Lynn in the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter. She also received Oscar nominations for her roles in Missing (1982), The River (1984), Crimes of the Heart (1986) and In the Bedroom (2001).

Rodman E. "Rod" Serling

(Dec 25, 1924 - June 28, 1975)

Rod Serling was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone.

Sir Isaac Newton

(Dec 25, 1642 - March 20, 1727)

Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics and shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the invention of the infinitesimal calculus.

Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. It also demonstrated that the motion of objects on the Earth and that of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the cosmos.

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The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
--George Carlin

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This Is Who I Am

   

The Night Before Christmas

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Last Saturday I watched a movie titled The Last  Picture Show, a black & white film from 1971. The Last Picture Show is an American drama film adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry. I read the book a couple years ago, but watching it onscreen is a totally different experience.

Although I had viewed it several years ago, I found myself fascinated, not so much by the story nor the plot itself, but by the backgrounds in each scene and the proliferation of all the period music, such as the haunting vocals sung by Hank Williams, Senior. The entire movie was, scene by scene, an excitingly vivid yet slowly sentimental reminder of how things actually were back in those long-gone days -- the nostalgic lonesomeness of those bittersweet days I lived through, and remember so well.

Just imagine a young Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Randy Quade...

And Just Imagine . . .

A Young Cybill Shepherd

Seven minutes of clips from The Last Picture Show

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My grandson's father-in-law was recently featured on a short TV interview about his clock repair business in Phoenix.

View it HERE

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Did You Know . . .?

Tennessee is bordered by eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia - more than any other in the US.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge touched a button and lit up the first national Christmas tree to grace the White House grounds. Not only was this the first White House "community" Christmas tree, but it was the first to be decorated with electric lights -- a strand of 2,500 red, white and green bulbs.

Coolidge's "inauguration" of the first outdoor national Christmas tree initiated a tradition that has been repeated with every administration. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan began another custom by authorizing the first official White House ornament, copies of which were made available for purchase.

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WORD FOR TODAY

frisson  [frih-SAWn]
noun
-  a shudder or shiver; thrill
-  a sudden, brief moment of excitement or fear
-  a moment of intense excitement; a shudder: The story's ending arouses a frisson of terror.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Ava Lavinia Gardner

(Dec 24, 1922 - Jan 25, 1990)

Ava Gardner was an American actress. She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers (1946). She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses and was considered one of the most beautiful women of her day. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Mogambo (1953).

Gardner appeared in several high-profile films from the 1950s to 1970s, including The Hucksters (1947), Show Boat (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), On the Beach (1959), Seven Days in May (1964), The Night of the Iguana (1964), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Earthquake (1974), and The Cassandra Crossing (1976).

Karl Diedrich Bader

(born December 24, 1966)

Diedrich Bader is an American actor, voice actor and comedian known for his roles in Napoleon Dynamite, The Drew Carey Show and Outsourced. He has also performed the voice over work of Batman on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, android Zeta in The Zeta Project, Warp Darkmatter in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the Fiskerton Phantom in The Secret Saturdays, and his recurring role as Hoss Delgado in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

Stephenie Meyer

(born December 24, 1973)

Stephenie Meyer is an American young adult author and producer, best known for her vampire romance series Twilight.

Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark

(born December 24, 1929

Mary Higgins Clark is an American author of suspense novels. Each of her 42 books has been a bestseller in the United States and various European countries, and all of her novels remained in print as of 2007, with her debut suspense novel, Where Are The Children, in its seventy-fifth printing.

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Nostalgia, the vice of the aged. We watch so many old movies our memories come in monochrome.
--Angela Carter

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Drinking Alcoholic Beverages Is Self Abuse

     

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The Center For Disease Control And Prevention reports that binge drinking is the most common pattern of excessive alcohol use in the United States.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women consume 4 or more drinks, in about 2 hours.

Strangely enough, most people who binge drink are not alcohol dependent.

More at the CDC Fact Sheet


In my younger years, from age 16 and into my twenties I drank heavily, indulging in binge drinking and late-night partying to a startling excess, then tapering off after I married and we had children. My last glass of beer was served to me in 1983 at an outdoor cafe on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, and my last drink of alcohol of any kind (it was a Screwdriver) was also in the 1980s, the day before my daughter was married -- at the bar of the motel where we were staying in Rome NY.

That was around thirty years ago.

(Then I quit smoking in 1985, April 12 at twelve noon.)

(And I don't chase after women, either.)

(Still enjoy looking, though.)

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Did You Know . . .?

Although college students commonly binge drink, 70% of binge drinking episodes involve adults age 26 years and older

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1783, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, General George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

In his departing speech, Washington said: "Having now finished the work assigned to me, I retire from the great theatre of action; and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take any leave of all the employments of public life."

General Washington's respite proved extremely brief. He was unanimously elected to the first of two terms as president of the United States in 1788.

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WORD FOR TODAY

alcoholism
noun
-  an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency.

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing. It is medically considered a disease, specifically an addictive illness.
--Wikipedia

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

José Greco

(Dec 23, 1918 - Dec 31, 2000)

José Greco was a flamenco dancer and choreographer. He made his professional dancing debut in 1937 at the Hippodrome Theatre in Manhattan. In 1949, he started the José Greco Dance Company, with which he toured extensively. He also appeared in a number of films, including Sombrero (1953), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Holiday for Lovers (1959), Ship of Fools (1965), and The Proud and the Damned (1972).

Jacqueline Bracamontes van Hoorde

(born December 23, 1979)

Jacqeline Brqacamontes is a Mexican actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who won Nuestra Belleza México 2001 and represented her country at Miss Universe 2002 .

Isabella Castillo Díaz

(born 23 December 1994)

Isabella Castillo is a singer and actress born in Havana, Cuba. Her best known role is that of Graciela "Grachi" Alonso, main character of the Nickelodeon Latin America's series Grachi. Castillo has released several songs from the soundtrack of Grachi, sung alongside other members of the cast such as Sol Rodríguez, Kimberly Dos Ramos, Andrés Mercado, Maria Gabriela de Faria, Lance Dos Ramos and Willy Martin.

Joan Severance

(born December 23, 1958)

Joan Severance is an American actress and former fashion model. She made her debut in a small role in the first Lethal Weapon film in 1987. She usually takes the femme fatale roles in lower budget horror and murder-mystery movies, most notably Lake Consequence (1993), Criminal Passion (1994) and Payback (1995).

She was featured alongside Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in the 1989 comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and as Hulk Hogan's love interest, Samantha N. Moore, in the wrestling film No Holds Barred (1989). She had leading roles in Roger Corman's Black Scorpion (1995) (she later starred in and co-produced a sequel, Black Scorpion II: Aftershock (1997)), and The Last Seduction II (1999).

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Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

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Fusillade by Guest Blogger

     

Fusillade

When the flush of the toilet is followed by the sound of gunshots, you're either in the wrong neighborhood... or you're at HexHouse.
   
H-2-Uh-Oh, our water poltergeist, is at it again, only this time I think he brought friends along. It's a mass possession this time, as every appliance that holds, uses, touches, or even dreams about water acts up.
   
The pipes have air, hence the explosions under the house. The bathroom faucet smokes when the back toilet is flushed. The kitchen faucet sprays multi-directionally, and most of them are not into the sink.
   
...And the shower... shudder:  I don't even want to think about it.
   
It's been awhile since we've heard from our poltergeist buddy. Well, except for the leak in the back sink, which won't stop no matter what we do. And ditto in the backyard at the shop (I have plans to turn that drip into a dog self-waterer!).
   
But all-in-all, it's been pretty quiet. Relatively.
   
So I'm going to hit up one of my friends to come take a shower at their place, and I have an emergency call in to the pump people, because they think it's a well or a well pump issue.
   
I hope they bring incense and a cross.
   
HexHouse doesn't need a plumber; it needs an exorcism.


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

The Coward In Winter

Winter officially began today, December 21, 2013 at 12:11 a.m. EST, marking the slow return of the sun making the days become longer for those north of the equator. The day itself is the darkest and shortest day of the year, when the sun reaches its southernmost point in the sky. On this day, the United States will receive only 9 hours and 32 minutes of daylight.

Why is Christmas tied to the Winter Solstice?

Long before there was a man called Jesus, the winter solstice was celebrated as a the return of the sun. In Scandinavia, the time would be marked by burning large logs -- believing that each spark from the fire would represent a new pig or calf in the new year. In Rome, early Romans observed Saturnalia, a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture, and Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome.

The early Christian Church decided to "adopt" December 25 as the day to celebrate the birth of Christ in an effort to absorb pagan celebrations and popularize the holiday.


Note: How Jesus Got His Name is the title of an interesting piece I read yesterday.

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"A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once."
--William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar


"'The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one...' (The man who first said that) was probably a coward.... He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them."
--Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms


The concept of cowardice should probably be deprecated, because really what it boils down to is having a certain set of priorities and a certain level of risk averseness that cannot necessarily be objectively proven better or worse than someone else's.
--Essay: Courage and cowardice


I have nothing to say, at this time, regarding my personal thoughts on courage or cowardice. I was going to; had it pretty well prepared in my thoughts. But then I realized that to do so could be hurtful to close friends and especially to family members. Also, I do not feel that I am intelligent enough yet to offer a true and definitive opinion that makes much sense.

If ever I feel a pressing need to expound in print upon these traits I will do so in fictional form.

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Did You Know . . .?

When lightning strikes it can reach up to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1970, rock star Elvis Presley was greeted at the White House by President Richard M. Nixon. Presley's visit was not just a social call: He wanted to meet Nixon in order to offer his services in the government's war on drugs.

On December 31, Nixon wrote a thank-you note to Presley for the gift of a World War II-era Colt .45 pistol, and for visiting him at the White House. He said nothing about enlisting Presley's aid in the war on drugs, however.

Presley died from heart failure in 1977, which the coroner's report said was due to "undetermined causes."

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WORD FOR TODAY

craven
adjective
1.  cowardly; contemptibly timid.
2.  lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful.
noun
a coward.

A craven man is no Superman or Spiderman, nor is he a firefighter or a soldier. A craven man is the opposite of those guys: he has not an ounce of courage.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Jane Fonda

(born December 21, 1937)

Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She won two Academy Awards, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and received movie awards and nominations in more than 50 years as an actress.

After 15 years in retirement, she returned to film in 2005 with Monster-in-Law, followed by Georgia Rule two years later. She produced and starred in exercise videos released between 1982 and 1995, and again in 2010.

Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland

(born 21 December 1966)

Kiefer Sutherland is an actor, film producer, and film director. He is best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox series 24 for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Satellite Awards. He also starred as Martin Bohm in the Fox drama Touch.

Stand by Me was the first film Sutherland made in the United States. He played the neighborhood bully in this coming of age story about the search for a dead body. Sutherland has appeared in more than 70 films, most notably Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, A Few Good Men, Flatliners, Young Guns, The Vanishing, The Three Musketeers, Eye for an Eye, Dark City, A Time To Kill, and The Sentinel.

Sutherland was born in London, the son of Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, both of whom are successful Canadian actors.

Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano

(born December 21, 1957)

Ray Romano is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter and voice actor, best known for his roles on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and voicing Manny in the Ice Age film series. He appeared in the TNT comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age.

Samuel Leroy Jackson

(born December 21, 1948)

Samuel L. Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee. After gaining critical acclaim for his role in Jungle Fever in 1991, he appeared in films such as Patriot Games, Amos & Andrew, True Romance and Jurassic Park. In 1994, he was cast as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction.

Jackson has since appeared in over 100 films, including Die Hard with a Vengeance, The 51st State, Jackie Brown, Unbreakable, The Incredibles, Black Snake Moan, Shaft, Snakes on a Plane, Django Unchained, as well as the Star Wars prequel trilogy and small roles in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Inglourious Basterds.

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"The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes."
--George R.R. Martin

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