HALLOWEEN 2015

Tucson Weather Today

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Halloween is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.

It was not until mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.

HEY! It's Halloween!

    

Tucson Weather Today

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Tomorrow NaNoWriMo 2013 begins and I am still planning to attempt it again. That means, of course, that future blog entries here will usually be sparse to nonexistent during the month of November. But I might try to do a minimal entry on some of those days. To indicate that I'm still alive and (relatively) well, ya' know?

And the usual Sunday Guest Blogger entries by Winebird will continue.

Wish me luck.

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Did you know that . . . ?

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of  war or other emergencies.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

The southeastern face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest is the site of four gigantic carved sculptures depicting the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Led by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, work on the project began in 1927 and was finally completed on this day, October 31 in 1941. Over that time period, some 400 workers erected the sculpture under dangerous conditions, removing a total of 450,000 tons of rock in order to create the enormous carved heads, each of which reached a height of 60 feet (18 meters). In sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s original design, the four presidents were meant to be represented from the waist up, but insufficient funding brought the carving to a halt after completion of their faces. Known as the "Shrine of Democracy," Mount Rushmore welcomes upwards of 2 million visitors every year, and is one of America's most popular tourist attractions.

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WORD FOR TODAY

perseverance
noun
1.  steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
2.  Theology continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.
Synonyms
doggedness, steadfastness, persistence, tenacity, pertinacity.

Perseverance commonly suggests activity maintained in spite of difficulties or steadfast and long-continued application: Endurance and perseverance combined to win in the end.  It is regularly used in a favorable sense. Persistence which may be used in either a favorable or an unfavorable sense, implies unremitting (and sometimes annoying) perseverance: persistence in a belief; persistence in talking when others wish to study. Tenacity with the original meaning of adhesiveness, as of glue, is a dogged and determined holding on.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Michael Landon
(October 31, 1936 - July 1, 1991)

Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989).

Lee Grant
(born October 31, 1926)

Lee Grant is an American stage, film and television actress, and film director. She was blacklisted for 12 years from film work beginning in the mid-1950s, but worked in the theatre, and would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Karpf in Shampoo (1975).

John Franklin Candy
(October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994)

John Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian who rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, Summer Rental, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle Buck. One of his most renowned onscreen performances was as Del Griffith, the loquacious, on-the-move shower-curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Dale Evans
(October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001)

Dale Evans was an American writer, film star and singer-songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

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Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.
--Benjamin Disraeli

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

A Mid-Week Effort

Tucson Weather Today

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Tomorrow is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month and I will be participating again this year. Last year I did not complete a 50,000 word novel, but the year before last I did finish it. Not worth a revision or a rewrite, though.

 

Wish me good luck this time.

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* HALLOWEEN FLASH FICTION *

Below is a complete Flash Fiction story --

with a five word title, five words of text,
and only one single says-it-all illustration.

Meeting My New Facebook Friend

"Come in, the door's open."

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Would you believe that a person could have been given by his parents the unlikely name of Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer? Well, it's true. There was such a person with that name..

If you don't believe me, click HERE

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WORD FOR TODAY

vilify [vil-uh-fie]
Verb:
Speak or write about in an abusively disparaging manner.
Synonyms ;
slander - defame - traduce - malign - calumniate

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


John Candy

Born Oct 31, 1950
Died: Mar 4, 1994

John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle Buck. One of his most renowned onscreen performances was as Del Griffith, the loquacious, on-the-move shower-curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. On March 4, 1994, while filming the Western parody Wagons East!, Candy died of a heart attack in his sleep in Durango, Mexico at 43.

Dale Evans

Born Oct 31, 1912
Died: Feb 7, 2001

Dale Evans (born Lucille Wood Smith) was an American writer, movie star, and singer-songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

From 1951 to 1957, Dale Evans and her husband starred in the highly successful television series The Roy Rogers Show, in which they continued their cowboy and cowgirl roles, with her riding her trusty buckskin horse, Buttermilk. In addition to her successful TV shows, more than thirty films and some two hundred songs, Evans wrote the well-known song "Happy Trails."

Michael Landon

Born Oct 31, 1936
Died: July 1, 1991

Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his popular roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989).

Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball (TV Guide, July 6, 1991).

Michael Collins

Born Oct 31, 1930
Age: 81 years old

Michael Collins is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, in which he and command pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins undertook two EVAs. His second spaceflight was as the command module pilot for Apollo 11. While he orbited the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first manned landing on the lunar surface. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon.



For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else.
--Stephen King

Today Is Merely Halloween . .

But tomorrow Is NaNoWriMo Day!

While busily writing my non-edited novel during the entire month of November, I do not intend to abandon this blog completely, but entries will be short, perhaps no more than a statement of how many words I've written the day before, or perhaps occasionally an excerpt copied from the work in progress (WIP) and pasted into the blog.

You have been warned.

. . .

Making up one's mind is the ability to select a single course of action from the jumble of contradictory perceived possibilities erupting and tumbling all around within the brain and then convincing one's self that this choice is the best of the lot.

Yes, I originated the preceding sentence.

And I (somewhat shakily) stand by it.

Signed:
Gene Chambers

. . .

The NaNoWriMo team sent me an image of their logo.

What am I supposed to do with it?

. . .

Mind Altering Drugs

My few experiments (twice) with drugs (marijuana only) way back in the 1070s produced forgetfulness, a runny nose, and salt & sugar cravings, plus a solemn promise to myself that there would be no more such lapses of judgment. Thirty years later, I have kept that vow. So far.

A friend (we'll call him Bob) who persuaded me to take my initial try at smoking marijuana was at first perplexed that I exhibited no outwardly apparent effects. But then he said that it was because I was probably always high, meaning that my normal level of awareness was higher in its ambient happiness than the level of most normal people. And I think he might have been right about that.

. . .

Prediction

The media, the TV and the Published Word (printed magazines and newspapers) as well as the Internet blogs are already preparing the viewers and readers for the next big scare -- the tenth anniversary of Nine-Eleven, which is one year away, September 11, 2011. Throughout the days of the next year there are sure to be the most lurid and frightening speculations depicting upcoming tragic horrors set to occur on that most momentous date in American history.

What's worse, all the speculative hype could very well instill in the minds of the many radical nuts a slew of nefarious ideas as how to concoct a workable plot and then to create just such a terrible occurrence in emulation of the destruction of the World Trade towers.

. . .

A long-time friend (and fellow Amateur Radio Operator) sent me a photo of his simple, compact, but extremely effective Ham station.

Radio Station N9BLK

To which I respond,
FB OM 73

(That's the Morse Code equivalent of . . .
"Fine Business, Old Man, Best Regards.")

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Words For The Day

Misogyny is hatred (or contempt) of women or girls. Misogyny comes from Greek misogunia from misos (hatred) and -gyne (woman). It is parallel to misandry -- the hatred of men or boys.

Misogamy is hatred of marriage. From Greek miso- (hate) + -gamy (marriage).

Those two words are confusingly similar in sound but have a tremendous difference in meaning.

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Writers who don’t know words are like doctors who don’t know anatomy.
--James Alan Gardner

The Oxford Comma, etc.

Jeff Weintraub asks, "Why it is vitally necessary to prevent the extinction of the final serial comma?"

I always insert the final serial comma. As do most Americans. It just makes more sense to me.

Jeff Weintraub is a social & political theorist, political sociologist, and democratic socialist who currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. (Also an Affiliated Professor with the University of Haifa in Israel & an opponent of academic blacklists.) And, more importantly, he is a blogspot blogger, like me.

(ha ha)

. . .

"The Dead Sea Scrolls will soon be available online!" screams an ecstatic Glen Beck in an exciting, seemingly portentous Fox News announcement.

To the TV screen I say, "So what?" What is the specific significance of that?"

Then comes a deluge of fatuous evangelical nonsense. So I switched over to CNN. For about five minutes; then I turned off the TV and went into the game room and climbed onto the stationary bike and worked out for a while.

I'm not a complete dummy.

. . .

A woman advertised in church that she was seeking a white, female, Christian, roommate and was then notified that she was breaking the law by putting this in a print ad -- this was broadcast on Fox News, on Kelly's Law, 10/25/2010 -- here is the link in case anyone reading this is even remotely interested.

. . .

Below is an outdoor Halloween decoration I observed and snapped during one of my late Autumn daily walks in East Tucson.

Happy Halloween

. . .

On my desk beside my computer monitor sits a small bowl of snacks, raisins, mixed nuts, and dried tropical fruits. Healthy? Who knows? Darned good tasting, though.

Mixed Nuts, Raisins, & Tropical Mix Dried Fruit

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The Washington Post headline announces: The tea party warns of a New Elite. They're right.

Intriguing.

Exactly who is this New Elite? Am I one of them, by some chance? I suppose I should mosey on over there and have me a look-see.

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