Of Life And Death

     

Tucson Weather Today

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By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
--Oscar Wilde

I am not totally isolated while keeping Eva company out here in the somewhat arid land of scrub and sand East of Tucson.

I do have occasional visitors at the door.

Last Sunday, two well-dressed and personable young gentlemen rang the doorbell, exciting Eva to no end. I calmed her and coaxed her to lie down in the parlor while I joined the two visitors on the porch outside the front entrance.

They were members of the Jehovah's Witness cult.

Not feeling it necessary to inform them that I have had discussions with myriad misguided representatives from their laughable but strangely persistent church many times throughout my seventy-five years of life, I politely listened to their so obviously canned patter.

They gave me a brochure titled "Where can we find answers to life's big questions?" It was a folded one-page message displaying the address of a website... jw.org (the jw stands for Jehovah's Witness.)

Of course, as soon as  they left, I ran to the computer so i could, at last, find the answers to life's big questions.

Of course I did.


Then, yesterday I had another visitor.  He was a federal officer, a Special Agent who flashed an impressive set of credentials. He was investigating a former neighbor. I told him I did not live here but was merely watching the house and  the dog while the owners were away.

We concluded the interview to both our satisfactions.


And it rained here several times throughout last night and this morning. Poor Eva got wet during her morning pee.


And... of course, Robin Williams killed himself.

I have no comment about that.

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Did You Know . . .?

Some individuals are allergic to water due to a rare disease know as Aquagenic Urticaria

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1953, less than one year after the United States tested its first hydrogen bomb, the Soviets detonated a 400-kiloton device in Kazakhstan. The explosive power was 30 times that of the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the mushroom cloud produced by it stretched five miles into the sky. Known as the "Layer Cake," the bomb was fueled by layers of uranium and lithium deuteride, a hydrogen isotope. The Soviet bomb was smaller and more portable than the American hydrogen bomb, so its development once again upped the ante in the dangerous nuclear arms race between the Cold War superpowers.

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WORD FOR TODAY

unique  [yoo-NEEK]
adjective
1. existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics.
2. having no like or equal; unparalleled; incomparable.
3. limited in occurrence to a given class, situation.
4. limited to a single outcome or result; without alternative possibilities.
5. not typical; unusual: She has a very unique smile.

Note: Number 5 is a definition recently added due to popular misuse by the uneducated masses.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

George Stevens Hamilton

(born August 12, 1939)

George Hamilton is an American film and television actor.

Margaret Cassidy "Maggie" Lawson

(born August 12, 1980)

Maggie Lawson is an American actress who is best known for her role as Detective Juliet "Jules" O'Hara in the TV show Psych. She also has starred in the sitcoms Inside Schwartz, It's All Relative, and Crumbs, as well as the television movie Nancy Drew.

Peter William Krause

(born August 12, 1965)

Peter Krause is an American film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his lead roles as Nate Fisher on Six Feet Under, Adam Braverman on Parenthood, Nick George on Dirty Sexy Money, and Casey McCall on Sports Night.

Dominique Swain

(born August 12, 1980)

Dominique Swain is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as the title character in the 1997 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, and as Jamie Archer in the film Face/Off.

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The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
--Aristotle

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Using Religion To Bilk The Masses

Tucson Weather Today

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Callista Gingrich phoned me yesterday via a voice-recording begging me to help her bring an important message from God to the American people.

According to Wikipedia, Callista Louise Gingrich (née Bisek, born March 4, 1966) is the President of Gingrich Productions, a production company based in Washington, D.C. She is married to former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Callista Gingrich

 Gingrich and her husband host and produce historical and public policy documentaries, editorials and advocacy films. Recent films include A City Upon a Hill; America at Risk; Nine Days that Changed the World; Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny; Rediscovering God in America; Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage and We Have the Power.

Gingrich is the voice for several of her husband's audio books, including To Save America; Valley Forge; 5 Principles for a Successful Life; Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less; The Art of Transformation; Real Change; Contract with the Earth; and Rediscovering God in America.

Also according to Wikipedia, Callista Bisek met Newt Gingrich in 1993 when he was House Minority Whip and she was working in the office of Congressman Gunderson. Callista testified in 1999 as part of Gingrich's divorce proceedings that the couple began a six-year affair in 1993 while Newt was married to his second wife, Marianne. Newt divorced Marianne in December 1999, and on August 18, 2000, Callista and Newt were married in a private ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia.[4] In 2002, Newt Gingrich asked the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta to annul his 19-year marriage to Marianne on the basis that she had been previously married. Callista, a lifelong Catholic, was instrumental in her husband's conversion to that faith in 2009.

This woman is asking me to send money.

So she can do God's work.

Imagine that.

Gives additional impetus to ROTFLMAO.

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WORD FOR TODAY

maar [mahr]
noun
volcanic crater without a cone, usually filled by a lake.

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Born On This Date In History


Robin Williams

 Born July 21, 1951
Age: 60 years old.

Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. He has also won two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.

Don Knotts

Born July 21, 1924
Died Feb 24, 2006.

Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards. He also played landlord Ralph Furley on the 1970s and 1980s television sitcom Three's Company.

   
Ernest Hemingway

 Birthday: July 21, 1899
Death Date: Jul 2, 1961

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections and two non-fiction works. Three novels, four collections of short stories and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of these are considered classics of American literature.

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All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened.
--Ernest Hemingway