Jots & Tittles: Choices

____________________

They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.
--Arthur Schopenhauer

I was going to write about my opinion on the relative merits of exhibiting courage or excessive caution when thrust into a dangerous situation.

But then I decided not to do so.

I chickened out.

Cowardice... is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination.
--Ernest Hemingway

_____

Did You Know . . .?

In 1875 the largest recorded swarm of locusts in American history descended upon the Great Plains. It was a swarm about 1,800 miles long and 110 miles wide, from Canada down to Texas.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1916, a massive parade held in San Francisco, California, to celebrate Preparedness Day, in anticipation of the United States entrance into World War I, was disrupted by the explosion of a suitcase bomb, which killed 10 bystanders and wounded 40 more. Two radical labor leaders, Thomas Mooney and Warren K. Billings, were subsequently arrested and tried for the attack. Mooney was sentenced to death, Billings to Life Imprisonment. Investigation into the case continued over the next two decades; by 1939, evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had so mounted that Governor Culbert Olson pardoned both men. The true identity of the Preparedness Day bomber (or bombers) remains unknown.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

pusillanimous
adjective
1. lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid.
2. proceeding from or indicating a cowardly spirit.
Synonyms
timorous, fearful, frightened.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

George Alexander "Alex" Trebek

(born July 22, 1940)

Alex Trebek is a Canadian-American television personality. He has been the host of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! since 1984.

David Wayne Spade

(born July 22, 1964)

David Spade is an American actor, comedian, writer and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1990s as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, for co-starring in the 1995 comedy Tommy Boy, and from 1997 until 2003 when he starred as Dennis Finch on Just Shoot Me!. He also starred as C. J. Barnes, along with Katey Sagal, James Garner, and Kaley Cuoco on 8 Simple Rules.

Daniel Lebern "Danny" Glover

(born July 22, 1946)

Danny Glover is an American actor, film director and political activist. Glover is known for his roles as Mr. Albert Johnson in The Color Purple, as Michael Harrigan in Predator 2, as corrupt cop James McFee in Witness, as Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series, and as George Knox in Angels in the Outfield. He has also appeared in many other movies, television shows, and theatrical productions

Robert Joseph Dole

(born July 22, 1923)

Bob Dole is an American politician who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996 and in the House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. In the 1976 presidential election, Dole was the Republican Party nominee for Vice President and incumbent President Gerald Ford's running mate. In the presidential election of 1996, Dole was the Republican nominee for President, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent President Bill Clinton.

__________

The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.
--Jim Hightower

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am