Jots & Tittles: 4-25-14

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175 pounds

"Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian."
--Robert Orben

George Will's latest column is titled Barack Obama, The Adolescent President and it's an eye opener (in my opinion) --

Read it HERE

ALSO

The Writer's Almanac has a fine piece describing the life of Daniel DeFoe.

Read it HERE

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Did You Know . . .?

Humans are not appropriate prey for great white sharks because shark digestion is too slow to cope with the high ratio of bone to muscle and fat.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 19900 the crew of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery placed the Hubble Space Telescope, a long-term space-based observatory, into a low orbit around Earth. The space telescope, conceived in the 1940s, designed in the 1970s, and built in the 1980s, was designed to give astronomers an unparalleled view of the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe. Free of atmospheric distortions, Hubble has a resolution 10 times that of ground-based observatories. About the size of a bus, the telescope is solar-powered and orbits Earth once every 97 minutes.

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WORD FOR TODAY

apocryphal
adjective
1. of doubtful authorship or authenticity.
2. Ecclesiastical .
a. ( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to the Apocrypha.
b. of doubtful sanction; uncanonical.
3. false; spurious: He told an apocryphal story about the sword, but the truth was later revealed.

Apocrypha are statements or claims that are of dubious authenticity. It is commonly applied in Christian religious contexts involving certain disagreements about biblical canonicity.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Alfredo James "Al" Pacino

(born April 25, 1940)

Al Pacino is an American film and stage actor. He is well known for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy and Tony Montana in Scarface, and as a police officer, a detective and lawyer. For his performance as Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992. Pacino made his major breakthrough with the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, and for Dick Tracy and Glengarry Glen Ross. Oscar nominations for Best Actor include The Godfather Part II, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice for All.

Renee Kathleen Zellweger

(born April 25, 1969)

Renee Zellweger is an American actress. She first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire (1996), and subsequently for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago (2002). Zellweger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Cold Mountain (2003).

Meadow "Meadowlark" Lemon III

(born April 25, 1932)

Meadowlark Lemon is an American basketball player, actor, and minister. For 22 years, Lemon was known as the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. He played in more than 16,000 games for the Globetrotters and is a 2003 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Talia Shire

(born April 25, 1946)