Home Again, Temporarily...

     

Tucson Weather Today

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When you write non-fiction, you sit down at your desk with a pile of notebooks, newspaper clippings, and books and you research and put a book together the way you would a jigsaw puzzle.
--Janine di Giovanni

I'm back home for the weekend but will return Sunday evening to reside with Eva for another week. She will be accompanied in her home for the next two days by Cedric and Tycho.

A curious thing happened yesterday. I received an email from a man who asked me to remove a semi-nude photo of a celebrity from one of my earlier blog entries. He said he had taken the (autographed) picture and he owned the copyright, and that he would rather it not be bandied around the internet. I removed it immediately and replied to his email letting him know that I had complied with his wishes.

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Did You Know . . .?

The population of Ireland still hasn't returned to where it was before the Potato Famine of 1845 to 1852.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt welcomed approximately 4,000 women attending a women's division meeting of the Democratic National Committee to Washington D.C. He and his wife Eleanor's plans to host the event at the White House, however, had to be modified at the last minute, as they had originally expected only 100 guests. Documents recounting that day do not reveal exactly how many women showed up at the White House on May 3, nor where on the grounds FDR addressed them.

FDR's openness to the idea, originally Eleanor's, reflected his support for women's political advocacy.

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WORD FOR TODAY

conundrum  [kuh-NUHN-druhm]
noun
1.  anything that puzzles.
2.  a puzzling question or problem
3.  a riddle, the answer to which involves a pun or play on words, as What is black and white and read all over? A newspaper.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

James Joseph Brown, Jr.

(May 3, 1933 - Dec 25, 2006)

James Brown was an American recording artist and musician. One of the founding fathers of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as "The Godfather of Soul" in a career that spanned six decades,

Christina Rene Hendricks

(born May 3, 1975)

Christina Hendricks is an American actress. She is most known for her role as Joan Harris on the AMC television series Mad Men and as Saffron on the FOX series Firefly.

Dule Hill

(born May 3, 1975)

Dule Hill is an American actor. He is known for his roles as personal presidential aide Charlie Young on the NBC drama television series The West Wing, and as pharmaceutical salesman-private detective Burton "Gus" Guster on the USA Network television comedy-drama Psych. He has also had minor roles in the movies Holes and She's All That.

Genevieve Nnaji

(born May 3, 1979)

Genevieve Nnaji is a Nigerian actress and singer. In 2005 she won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Nnaji started her acting career as a child actress in the then popular TV soap opera Ripples. In 1998 at the age of 19 she was introduced into the growing Nigerian film industry with the movie "Most Wanted". Her subsequent movies include Last Party, Mark of the Beast and Ijele. Nnaji has starred in over 80 Nollywood movies.

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Golf is a puzzle without an answer. I've played the game for 40 years and I still haven't the slightest idea how to play.
--Gary Player

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Latter Day Saints

Tucson Weather Today

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During my daily walk yesterday I was stopped on the sidewalk by two bicycling young men wearing white shirts with ID Badges and ties around their necks. They were Mormons and they were out to make me  pray for enlightenment from God and for His wonderful gift of FAITH. One of them tried to shake my hand but I said I don't shake, or bump fists, or give high-fives, and I don't even touch other people whenever I can keep from it.

One of the questions the 19 year old whose badge identified him as being Elder Flake, asked me was, "Do you believe in God?" Trying to keep the conversation short, I said, simply, "No." "Well then if there is no God, where did we come from? How did we get here?" I said, "I don't know. - and I'm pretty sure you don't either."

"But I do know," he said. "God created me and you and the Earth and everything that exists."

Well, you can probably imagine how that little flame inside me was getting stoked and growing larger and larger and hotter and hotter.

But after listening to a few more of their canned platitudes and missionarial inanities, I politely thanked them for their concern and told them I was not interested in listening to any more children's fairy tales.

And I resumed my walk.

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Did You Know . . .?

After President Kennedy's autopsy, his brain, tissue slides, and other autopsy materials immediately disappeared and have not been found since.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1933, a deranged brick layer named Giuseppe Zangara shouted, "Too many people are starving!" and fired a gun at America's president-elect, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Roosevelt had just delivered a speech in Miami's Bayfront Park from the back seat of his open touring car when Zangara opened fire with six rounds. Five people were hit. The president escaped injury but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who was also in attendance, received a mortal stomach wound in the attack.

Zangara was initially tried for attempted murder and sentenced to 80 years in prison, but when Mayor Cermak later died of his wounds, Zangara was retried and sentenced to death. He died in the electric chair on March 5, 1933.

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WORD FOR TODAY

faith
noun
1.  Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
2.  Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
3.  Loyalty to a person or thing; allegiance: keeping faith with one's supporters.
4.  Christianity The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God's will.
5. The body of dogma of a religion: the Muslim faith.
6. A set of principles or beliefs.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Harvey Herschel Korman

(Feb 15, 1927 - May 29, 2008)

Harvey Korman was an American comedic actor who performed in television and movie productions beginning in 1960. His big break was being a featured performer on CBS's The Danny Kaye Show, but he is best remembered for his performances on the sketch comedy series The Carol Burnett Show and in several films by Mel Brooks, most notably as Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles.

Evelyn Renee O'Connor

(born Feb. 15, 1971)

Renee O'Connor is an American actress, producer and director best known for playing the role of Gabrielle on the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess.

Christopher McDonald

(born February 15, 1955)

Christopher McDonald is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, Tappy Tibbons in Requiem for a Dream, and Mel Allen in the HBO film 61*.

Sarah Wynter

(born 15 February 1973)

Sarah Wynter is an Australian actress, most widely known for her roles on American television - such as Kate Warner on the television drama 24 and as Beth on Windfall.

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NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

To Shamelessly Lie

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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Yesterday morning on the History Channel (H2) I viewed a compilation of home movies made in Nazi Germany before and during WWII. The first part was a two-hour episode titled Third Reich - The Rise. This was followed immediately by part 2,  another two hours titled Third Reich - The Fall.

The main theme running through the entire four hours was, to me, that horrendous damage can be inflicted on the people of the world by the arrogant misuse of power by a single person, when backed by unscrupulous people who enable him.

"By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise."
--Adolf Hitler

Make the lie big, make it simple,

keep saying it, and eventually

they will believe it.
--Adolf Hitler

And the simple moral of the above is:
"Beware of leaders who lie."

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Did you know that . . . ?

The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver".

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1944 Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was reelected president of the United States for a record third time, handily defeating his Republican challenger, Thomas Dewey, the governor of New York, and becoming the first and only president in history to win a fourth term in office.

Three months after his inauguration, while resting at his retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia, Roosevelt died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. Following a solemn parade of his coffin through the streets of the nation's capital, his body was buried in a family plot in Hyde Park, New York.

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WORD FOR TODAY

prevaricate
verb
To stray from or evade the truth; equivocate.
synonyms
fabricate, falsify, misrepresent, misspeak

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr.
(born November 7, 1918)

Billy Graham is an American Christian evangelist, ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, who rose to celebrity status in 1949 reaching a core constituency of white, middle-class, moderately conservative Protestants. He held large indoor and outdoor rallies; sermons were broadcast on radio and television, some still being re-broadcast today.

Marie Curie
(Nov 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934)

Marie Curie was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.

Archie Campbell
(Nov 7, 1914 – Aug 29, 1987)

Archie Campbell was an American writer and star of Hee Haw, a popular long-running country-flavored network television variety show. He was also a recording artist with several hits on the RCA label in the 1960s.

Dana Michelle Plato
(Nov 7, 1964 - May 8, 1999)

Dana Plato was an American actress notable for playing the role of Kimberly Drummond on the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. After leaving the cast of Diff'rent Strokes, Plato attempted to establish herself as a successful actress, with mixed success: she worked sporadically in made-for-TV movies and in independent films, and also did voice-over work.

At age 34, after years of struggling with poverty and substance abuse, Plato took a lethal overdose of the painkiller Lortab and the muscle-relaxant Soma.

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Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.
--Adolf Hitler

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

Conspiracy Theory Or Simply Conspiracy?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I recently read a quote attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt that went like this: "A financial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson."

What exactly does that mean? It seems to me (and to others) to be either a gem of revealed truth, or a type of paranoia, a conspiracy theory. There is an almost endless discussion about this at debunking websites... such as Metabunk.org


A term I have never been able to understand the meaning of is: "larger then life." -- as in, "Abraham Lincoln was a man who was larger than life."

What does that mean?

According to the dictionary, it means: more interesting and more exciting than an ordinary person or thing.

Is that all there is to it?

Who'd have thought so?


Oh! By the way . . .

Last week I posted a picture of graffiti on a sidewall of Robb Wash.

Here it is again.

It seems that Mother Nature didn't appreciate the vandalism

She dropped some dead limbs to conceal it.

This picture was taken yesterday morning

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TRIVIA

A shrimp's heart is in its head.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, September 24 in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson received a special commission's report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which had occurred on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Since the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by a man named Jack Ruby almost immediately after murdering Kennedy, Oswald's motive for assassinating the president remained unknown. Seven days after the assassination, Johnson appointed the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy to investigate Kennedy's death. The commission was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren and became known as the Warren Commission. It concluded that Oswald had acted alone and that the Secret Service had made poor preparations for JFK's visit to Dallas and had failed to sufficiently protect him.

The circumstances surrounding Kennedy's death, however, have since given rise to several conspiracy theories involving such disparate characters as the Mafia, Cuban exiles, military leaders and even Lyndon Johnson. So persistent was the controversy that another congressional investigation was conducted in 1979; that committee reached the same conclusion as the Warren Commission.

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WORD FOR TODAY

conspiracy  [kuhn-speer'-uh-see]
noun
1.  An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2.  A group of conspirators.
3.  A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.
4.  Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

John Watts Young

(born September 24, 1930)

John Young is a retired American astronaut, Naval officer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer, who became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.

Young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut, becoming the first person to make six space flights, over the course of 42 years of active NASA service, and is the only person to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.

Erin Chambers

(born September 24, 1979)

Erin Chambers is an American actress commonly known for her roles in LDS films and as the Irish girl Siobhan McKenna Spencer on General Hospital. She has made guest appearances in a number of television shows such as Drake & Josh, ER, Veronica Mars, Joan of Arcadia, Stargate: Atlantis, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, Bones, Standoff, and Cold Case. Chambers starred as Priscilla Presley in the 2007 film Tears of a King alongside Matt Lewis as Elvis Presley, which depicts Elvis's last years.

Louis Carl "Lou" Dobbs

(born September 24, 1945)

Lou Dobbs is an American television personality and radio host on the Fox Business Network, and author. He anchored CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight until November 2009 when he announced on the air that he would leave the network.

On November 10, 2010, Fox Business Network announced that Dobbs would host a show on the channel. The network announced on March 3, 2011 the start date, show title, and time slot of Dobbs' new show. The show is titled Lou Dobbs Tonight and began on March 14, 2011, airing at 7 PM Eastern. That is the same title and time slot that Dobbs' old CNN show had.

Audra Marie Lindley

(Sept 24, 1918 - Oct 16, 1997)

Audra Lindley was an American actress, most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.

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Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.
--Jeremy Bentham

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

A Date That Will Live In Infamy

December 7, 1941
(Pearl Harbor Day)

The Presidential Address to Congress of December 8, 1941 (known as the Infamy Speech or Day of Infamy Speech was delivered at 12:30 p.m. that day to a Joint Session of Congress by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one day after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. The name derives from the first line of the speech: Roosevelt describing the previous day as "a date which will live in infamy".

Within an hour of the speech, Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan and officially brought the U.S. into World War II. The address is regarded as one of the most famous American political speeches of the 20th century.

United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt

On that day in history I was 2 years and 7 months old.

The speech can be heard at Wikipedia.

Japan Declares War On The United States

IMPERIAL RESCRIPT

By the grace of Heaven, Emperor of Japan [Emperor Showa], seated on the throne occupied by the same dynasty from time immemorial, enjoin upon ye, Our loyal and brave subjects:

We hereby declare War on the United States of America and the British Empire. The men and officers of Our Army and Navy shall do their utmost in prosecuting the war. Our public servants of various departments shall perform faithfully and diligently their respective duties; the entire nation with a united will shall mobilize their total strength so that nothing will miscarry in the attainment of Our war aims.

To insure the stability of East Asia and to contribute to world peace is the far-sighted policy which was formulated by Our Great Illustrious Imperial Grandsire [Emperor Meiji] and Our Great Imperial Sire succeeding Him [Emperor Taisho], and which We lay constantly to heart. To cultivate friendship among nations and to enjoy prosperity in common with all nations, has always been the guiding principle of Our Empire's foreign policy. It has been truly unavoidable and far from Our wishes that Our Empire has been brought to cross swords with America and Britain. More than four years have passed since China, failing to comprehend the true intentions of Our Empire, and recklessly courting trouble, disturbed the peace of East Asia and compelled Our Empire to take up arms. Although there has been reestablished the National Government of China, with which Japan had effected neighborly intercourse and cooperation, the regime which has survived in Chungking, relying upon American and British protection, still continues its fratricidal opposition. Eager for the realization of their inordinate ambition to dominate the Orient, both America and Britain, giving support to the Chungking regime, have aggravated the disturbances in East Asia. Moreover these two Powers, inducing other countries to follow suit, increased military preparations on all sides of Our Empire to challenge Us. They have obstructed by every means Our peaceful commerce and finally resorted to a direct severance of economic relations, menacing gravely the existence of Our Empire. Patiently have We waited and long have We endured, in the hope that Our government might retrieve the situation in peace. But Our adversaries, showing not the least spirit of conciliation, have unduly delayed a settlement; and in the meantime they have intensified the economic and political pressure to compel thereby Our Empire to submission. This trend of affairs, would, if left unchecked, not only nullify Our Empire's efforts of many years for the sake of the stabilization of East Asia, but also endanger the very existence of Our nation. The situation being such as it is, Our Empire, for its existence and self-defense has no other recourse but to appeal to arms and to crush every obstacle in its path.

The hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors guarding Us from above, We rely upon the loyalty and courage of Our subjects in Our confident expectation that the task bequeathed by Our forefathers will be carried forward and that the sources of evil will be speedily eradicated and an enduring peace immutably established in East Asia, preserving thereby the glory of Our Empire.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hand and caused the Grand Seal of the Empire to be affixed at the Imperial Palace, Tokyo, this seventh day of the 12th month of the 15th year of Showa, corresponding to the 2,652nd year from the accession to the throne of Emperor Jimmu.

Released by the Board of Information,
December 8, 1941. Japan Times & Advertiser

Hirohito

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Nothing To Fear But . . .

FEAR

Via Google, this is what I have learned about FEAR so far.

The emotion of fear stems from several hormonal and neurochemical responses in the brain. The source of fear is there.

Hormones are released throughout the body. They trigger defensive mechanisms such as raising adrenaline and cortisol levels, and increasing heart rate and respiration. The "fight-or-flight" response. The chemical action is meant to stay active for only a few seconds or minutes, just enough time for a person to react to the object of his fear.

What do you think happens, however, when that object is not real? What if it's simply a situation created by your imagination? In this case, for many people, the high levels of adrenaline and increased cardiorespiratory rates remain in the body for longer periods, adding more stress and consequently making the body experience "burnout" and total exhaustion.

So, it seems that fear is basically nothing more than a chemical reaction within the brain. Oh Wow! Just knowing that makes my fear more controllable.

Right . . .

FDR had something to say about Fear:

"The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself."

And so did Adam Rulli-Gibbs:

Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself

Villagers scurry like ants at

the howl of the chimera

and the griffon's call.

Nowhere to hide from the hydra,

the centaur, or the dragon.

Man-eaters one and all.

One man alone will stand his ground

and, like a mountain,

bars the way.

The stance, the face, the attitude.

All say he fears nothing but fear.

...

We visited his grave today.

Copyright Adam Rulli-Gibbs

2004 - 2006

No, that is not all I have to say about FEAR. But I am still contemplating the years I've lived with my own fear and how I have reacted to it throughout a lifetime. And I am not sure how much of this recollection and self-examination I wish to reveal about (or to) myself. Or how to do it. Personal Memoir? Essay? Fictional Account?

More about this later . . .

It takes time, you know.