What In The Hell Is Deicide?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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It seems that there is an English word for anything an American wishes to bring up in conversation. Some of them I have had great difficulty comprehending. One of those words is deicide.

According to TheFreeDictionary, deicide is the killing (or the killer) of a god. That makes absolutely no sense to  me. How can a mortal man kill a divine (unkillable) being? A man cannot perform such a feat. Besides, according to a truly enlightened person (me) ... there is no (currently existing) god.

Who am I though, to deny that some godly being might at some time mysteriously explode (or sneak) into terrestrial existence?

I've been told that on Star Trek, Klingon mythology included a tale of deicide in which the Klingons slew their gods, who "brought more trouble than it was worth."

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Oh! Hey!

Before I forget . . .

Yesterday was the opening of the  . . 

National Cowboy Poetry Gathering -

January 27 through February 1, 2014

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Did You Know . . .?

Froot Loops are actually all the same flavor, just different colors.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28 in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe was on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger's launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa's family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle exploded in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.

CNN YouTube video

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WORD FOR TODAY

bloviate
verb
-  talk at length, esp. in an inflated or empty way
-  To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner

Bloviation is a style of empty, pompous political speech particularly associated with Ohio due to the term's popularization by United States President Warren G. Harding, who described it as "the art of speaking for as long as the occasion warrants, and saying nothing".

Note: A fitting synonym for Bloviation might be State Of The Union Message.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Alan Alda

(born January 28, 1936)

Alan Alda is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. He is best known for his starring roles as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H and Arnold Vinick in The West Wing, and his supporting role in the 2004 film The Aviator. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Journalism and a member of the advisory board of The Center for Communicating Science.

Elijah Jordan Wood

(born January 28, 1981)

Elijah Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II (1989), then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. As a child actor he starred in the films Radio Flyer (1992), The Good Son (1993), North (1994) and Flipper (1996), and began to transfer to teenage roles in the films The Ice Storm (1997), Deep Impact and The Faculty (both 1998). He is best known for his high-profile leading role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and its prequel The Hobbit (2012). Since then, he has had varied roles in critically acclaimed films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Sin City, Green Street and Everything Is Illuminated (all 2005) and Bobby (2006).

John Banner

(Jan 28, 1910 – Jan 28, 1973)

John Banner was a film and television actor, who was born and died in Vienna, Austria. He is best known for his role as Master Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz in the situation comedy Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971). Schultz, constantly encountering evidence that the inmates of his stalag were planning mayhem, frequently feigned ignorance with the catchphrase, "I know nothing! I see nothing! I hear nothing!"

Barbi Benton

(born January 28, 1950)

Barbi Benton is an American model, actress and singer. She was featured on the cover of Playboy several times and in nude photo layouts in the March 1970, December 1973, January 1975, and December 1985 issues, although she was never one of the magazine's "Playmates of the Month". Benton is known for her years as a regular on the country variety series Hee Haw, appearing in comic sketches with other cast members.

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"You sir are a Grade A, Class One, Top Tier, bloviating BUFFOON."
--Jon Richardson
(Wisconsin State Legislator)

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Readin', Writin', And . . .

Tucson Weather Today

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I just bought another book from Amazon. The title is Learn Mexican Spanish - Word Power 101 [Kindle Edition] -- And, as usual, the price was $0.

Even though I am still able to somewhat communicate with patient and kindly neighborhood Mexicans, using the Spanish language, I have lost a big share of the Spanish vocabulary I once had from my one year in High School (back in 1955) plus the many, many additional words I learned from my two best friends (from Puerto Rico) who were stationed with me at Homestead AFB (near Miami, FL) back in the late 1950s. Juan Munoz and Luis Gracia taught me a great deal of and about the Spanish language. But, as I wrote earlier, I have lost much of the vocabulary from lack of usage and with advancing age.

Here in Tucson I receive via indoor-antenna about six Spanish language TV channels, and I occasionally tune into some of the nature shows, especially the ones featuring wild animals in their native habitats. Time after time while watching them I have heard the word "peligroso" and each time I vowed to look up that word, as it is one I had forgotten. Well, I now have a Spanish language book, and, well... while browsing through it today, I came across that word -- it means dangerous. I don't think I will forget it again.

And I intend to watch more of those Spanish language programs, maybe even the soap operas. They seem to be pretty steamy.


The Kindle book I am currently in the process of reading is a collection of modern short stories and I must say that I am enjoying it immensely. Its title is The Games Men Play and it was written by a talented author by the name of Joe Schwartz. The stories remind me of how things seem (to me) to really be in middle-class America in these early years of the twenty-first century.

I downloaded it from Amazon.com last week and I do not at all regret doing so. The price was $0 -- If you are interested in checking it out, you can go to Amazon and click on the book's image and then "Look Inside" for a preview. The link to that site is below.

LINK


From Reading To Writing . . .

Robert Burdette Sweet, in Writing Towards Wisdom; The Writer as Shaman advised:

Write at least until you become blithering and exhausted and have no control over your pen. Then write more. The point is to permit what you repress to surface, to dream through words.

Trust yourself.

When reading over what you’ve written in this uninhibited manner, circle whatever images, ideas, names or events that repeat. And if you write long enough in a submerged state something will repeat. After all what Hawthorne did was write guilt, guilt, guilt, guilt. And Kafka did write father, punishment, father, father, father and Hemingway did growl cowardice, courage, cowardice, cowardice.

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WORD FOR TODAY


vainglorious [vane-glohr-ee-uhs]
 adj
boastful or vain; ostentatious.

 From:
vainglory [vane-glohr-ee]
noun   
Inordinate pride in oneself or one's achievements; excessive vanity.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Christa McAuliffe

Born Sept. 2, 1948
Died Jan 28, 1986

Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Mark Harmon


Born Sept 2, 1951
Age: 60 years old

Thomas Mark Harmon is an American actor. Since the mid 1970s, he has appeared in a variety of television, film and stage roles following a brief career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the hit CBS series NCIS. Harmon has two older sisters, actress and painter Kristin Nelson, the former wife of singer Ricky Nelson, and actress-model Kelly Harmon
.

Note:
I remember Mark Harmon for his excellent portrayal of the fascination serial killer Ted Bundy in the movie The Deliberate Stranger.

Selma Hayek

 Born Sept 2, 1966

Age: 45 years old

Salma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican born American film actress, director and producer. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film
Frida.

Keanu Reeves


Born Sept 2, 1964
Age: 47 years old

Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian film actor. Reeves is known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure as well as Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix.


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The first draft of everything is shit.
--Ernest Hemingway