That's Entertainment?

Tucson Weather Today

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It seems I will never learn that it is folly to download (and read) those 99-cent books touted by Amazon... and that without fail each of them was written by a rank beginner who has yet to learn the fundamentals of composition, editing, and even the basics of thinking, for that matter. But I cannot bring myself to pay the $15 to $17 and more they are currently asking for works of popular authors, such as Stephen King, et al.

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Would you watch a crude and boorish TV show that captures celebrities at indelicate instants or in embarrassing situations, such as during the unintentional but loudly explosive emission of a great quantity of gas?

Would I?

Hell yes!

Would you allow your children to watch such a show?

Hell yes! I always loved hearing my kids laugh.

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"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
--Herman Melville 

This Is Who I Am

Hmmm . . .

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.
--Salman Rushdie

Watched a new (new to me) TV cop show called The Mysteries Of Laura, starring Debra Messing. You've never viewed it? Don't. It stinks.

Also re-watched last night's PBS Nature special, A Murder Of Crows. Enjoyed it immensely, again. And I learned much.

Here's what TV Guide said about it:

One of the world's most intelligent creatures is highlighted: the crow. The "feathered apes," as one researcher calls them, possess a sophisticated language of 250 calls and at least two dialects. They also can recognize (and remember) human faces, pass knowledge to their offspring and, on an island near New Zealand, use tools (making them one of the few creatures beside humans to do so). Other interesting facts: They mate for life, mourn their dead and raise their young for up to five years.


Later last night, after a week's reading, I finished a  curious novel, one that intrigued me greatly. I don't know if I enjoyed reading it or not, but I couldn't stop until I had completed it. It's title is Light From A Distant Star and it was written by Mary McGarry Morris. If you have never read any of her work, I strongly recommend you do so soon, starting with this one.

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Did You Know . . .?

The lunula (little moon in Latin), is the crescent-shaped whitish area of the bed of a fingernail or toenail.

The lunula is located at the end of the nail (that is closest to the skin of the finger), but it still lies under the nail.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1998, Doctor Barnett Slepian was shot to death inside his home in Amherst, New York, by an anti-abortion radical, marking the fifth straight year that a doctor who was willing to perform abortions in upstate New York and Canada had been the victim of a sniper attack. Investigators in both Canada and the United States believe that James Charles Kopp, known among abortion opponents as "Atomic Dog," was responsible for Slepian's murder. In March 2001, the authorities caught up with Kopp in Europe, and he was extradited from France on the condition he would not receive the death penalty. On May 9, 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

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WORD FOR TODAY

charisma [kuh-RIZ-muh]
noun
1. Theology: a divinely conferred gift or power.
2. a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.
3. the special virtue of an office, function, position, etc., that confers or is thought to confer on the person holding it an unusual ability for leadership, worthiness of veneration, or the like.

The plural for charisma is charismata.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Ryan Rodney Reynolds

(born October 23, 1976)

Ryan Reynolds is a Canadian film and television actor. Reynolds is known for playing Michael Bergen on the ABC sitcom Two Guys and a Girl, Billy Simpson in the YTV Canadian teen soap opera Hillside, as well as Marvel Comics characters Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity and Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He has starred in films such as Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Finder's Fee, Just Friends, Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal, The Amityville Horror, The Change-Up, Smokin' Aces, Adventureland, Buried, and Safe House.

Nancy Ann Grace

(born October 23, 1959)

Nancy Grace is an American legal commentator, television host, television journalist, and former prosecutor. She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a "victims' rights" standpoint, with an outspoken style that has brought her both praise and criticism.

Dwight David Yoakam

(born October 23, 1956)

Dwight Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music. Popular since the early 1980s, he has recorded more than 21 albums and compilations, charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and sold more than 25 million records. Yoakam has recorded 5 Billboard #1 Albums, 12 Gold Albums, and 9 Platinum Albums, including the Triple Platinum This Time. In addition to his many achievements in the performing arts, Yoakam is also the most frequent musical guest in the history of The Tonight Show.

Kaleena Kiff

(born October 23, 1974)

Kaleena Kiff is an American actress, producer, and director. Kiff is best known for her roles in the sitcoms Love, Sidney and The New Leave It to Beaver. Kaleena is correctly pronounced (kuh-LEE-nuh).

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Even the choicest literature should be taken as the condiment, and not as the sustenance of life. It should be neither the warp nor the woof of existence, but only the flowery edging upon its borders.
--Horace Mann

This Is Who I Am

   

Television And Me

     

Tucson Weather Today

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It was brought to my attention recently (by process of self-observation) that I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in an easy chair and watching television programs. (Inordinate is an adjective meaning: Exceeding reasonable limits; immoderate: excessive; not regulated; disorderly.)

This curious past-time, requiring little effort, seems to have become a pleasant habit with me. And very few of the shows I watch are new ones; most of them are re-runs, such as:

 M*A*S*H (the series that ran from 1972 to 1983)

House M.D.

The Big Bang Theory

Two and-a-half Men

(with Charley Sheen)

(I dislike Ashton Kutcher intensely)

And, of course

Seinfeld

I was told a while back that viewing old shows such as those described above is an indicator of advanced age, is a great waste of time, and that I could better be using those intervals to compose stories and engage in other writerly pursuits. That's probably true. But established habits can be difficult to break. Especially enjoyable ones. Replacing a bad habit with a good one is the best way to go about it, or so I have been told.

Perhaps I'll give it a try.

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TRIVIA

The first pitched ball death occurred August 17, 1920 when Ray Chapman was hit on the head by a Carl Mays pitch the day before.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, August 26 in 1939 (the year in which I was born) the first televised Major League baseball game was broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York.

At the time, television was still in its infancy. Regular programming did not yet exist, and very few people owned television sets -- there were only about 400 in the New York area. Not until 1946 did regular network broadcasting catch on in the United States, and only in the mid-1950s did television sets become more common in the American household.

(I was 15 years old in 1954 when I saw my first TV set and viewed my first TV program: Howdy Doody)

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WORD FOR TODAY

broadcast
verb
1. To transmit (a radio or television program) for public or general use.
2. To send out or communicate, especially by radio or television.
3. To make known over a wide area.
4. To sow (seed) over a wide area, especially by hand.

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio or visual mass communications medium, but usually one using electromagnetic radiation (radio waves). The receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset thereof. Broadcasting has been used for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication such as amateur (ham) radio and amateur television (ATV) in addition to commercial purposes like popular radio or TV stations with advertisements.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Mother Teresa

(Aug 26, 1910 - 5 Sep 1997)

Mother Teresa was an Albanian born, Indian Roman Catholic Religious Sister. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; children's and family counseling programs; orphanages; and schools.

Admired and respected by many, she has also been accused of failing to provide medical care or painkillers, misusing charitable money, and maintaining positive relationships with dictators.

Macaulay Culkin

(born August 26, 1980)

Macaulay Culkin is an American actor. He became widely known for his portrayal of Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He is also known for his roles in Richie Rich, Uncle Buck, My Girl, The Pagemaster, and Party Monster, as well as Michael Jackson's music video "Black or White". At the height of his fame, he was regarded as the most successful child actor since Shirley Temple.

Geraldine Anne Ferraro

(Aug 26, 1935 - Mar 26, 2011)

Geraldine Ferraro was an American attorney, a Democratic Party politician, and a member of the United States House of Representatives. She was the first female vice presidential candidate representing a major American political party.

John Blaha

(born August 26,1942)

John Blaha accomplished an important yet seldom remarked first. He was the first astronaut to directly follow a previous U.S. Mir resident. He thus forged the first link in a six-flight, two-and-a-half-year chain of Shuttle-Mir missions.

Before, during, and after his mission, Blaha worked to make sure all future missions would go as smoothly as possible. This included improving the "handover" from one increment to the next and working on communications -- between Mir and the visiting Space Shuttles, between the NASA astronaut and the ground, and between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the International Space Station Program.

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When television is good, nothing -- not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers -- nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there for a day without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.
--Newton N. Minow

Newton Norman Minow is a former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. His speech referring to television as a "vast wasteland" is cited even as the speech has passed its 50th anniversary.

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Unexplained Phenomena Abound

     

Tucson Weather Today

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A little over a year ago, back in August 2011, being the monetarily careful cheapskate that I am, I purchased a new TCL wide screen HD television set from Amazon.com at a real bargain price. And being that same careful guy, I do not pay through the nose to some cable or satellite TV company when I can receive 12 channels (plus 5 or 6 Spanish Language channels) through my indoor electronic antenna which receives broadcasts directly from a mountain based relay just a few miles from where I live.

For the first few months all worked fine. Than one day the sound disappeared form Channel 18, which is a local channel from which I faithfully watched old daily reruns of great comedy shows, such as The Big Bank Theory, Two And A Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, M*A*S*H, and Seinfeld. Inquiring around, I discovered that others in the neighborhood were still receiving this channel with no problem.

This indicated that the problem lay , not with the transmitter, but within my own set. I figured that the frequency of that particular channel had drifted due to a malfunctioning part with my set's tuner.

So, being a resourceful individual as well as an old tightwad, I hooked up an ancient Analog-To-Digital converter I'd used back when TV reception went Digital and I was not ready yet to spend money to replace my old Analog set with a new Digital TV.

Well, this worked. All I had to do whenever I wished to view channel 18 was power up the converter and tune it to channel 18 while tuning the malfunctioning set to channel 3. In this age of remote control, that is not a major problem in any sense of the word.

However, a few days ago, as the years changed from 2012 to 2013, I was astounded to find that suddenly, mysteriously, the sound returned to channel 18... on my TV set. I no longer need the old converter. My TV set again now works just as it had when new.

Explain that if you can.

I, for one, cannot.

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WORD FOR TODAY

indigent
Adjective
Poor; needy.
Noun
A needy person.
Synonyms
poor - needy - destitute

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


George Reeves

 

Born: Jan. 5, 1914
Died Jun 16, 1959

George Reeves (born George Keefer Brewer) was an American actor best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program Adventures of Superman.

His death at age 45 from a gunshot remains a polarizing issue. The official finding was suicide, but some believe he was murdered or the victim of an accidental shooting.

Robert Duvall

 

Born Jan. 5, 1931
Age: 81 years old

Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career.

A veteran actor, Duvall has starred in some of the most acclaimed and popular films and TV shows of all time, among them The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, To Kill a Mockingbird, THX 1138, Joe Kidd, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, M*A*S*H, Network, True Grit, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, Falling Down, Tender Mercies, The Natural and Lonesome Dove.

He began appearing in theater during the late 1950s, moving into television and film roles during the early 1960s in such works as To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (as Boo Radley) and Captain Newman, M.D. (1963). He landed many of his most famous roles during the early 1970s with films like the blockbuster comedy M*A*S*H (1970) (as Major Frank Burns) and the lead in George Lucas' THX 1138 (1971), as well as Duvall's own favorite, Horton Foote's adaptation of William Faulkner's Tomorrow (1972), a project developed at The Actors Studio. This was followed by a series of critically lauded performances in films which were also commercial successes.

Since then Duvall has continued to act in both film and television with such productions as Tender Mercies (1983) (for which he won an Academy Award), The Natural (1984), Colors (1988), the television mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989), Stalin (1992), The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996), A Family Thing (1996), The Apostle (1997) (which he also wrote and directed), A Civil Action (1998), Gods and Generals (2003), Broken Trail (2006) and Get Low (2010).

Diane Keaton

 

Born Jan. 5, 1946
Age: 66 years old

Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather (1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen beginning with Play It Again, Sam in 1972. Her next two films with Allen, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, Annie Hall (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Keaton subsequently expanded her range to avoid becoming typecast as her Annie Hall persona. She became an accomplished dramatic performer, starring in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and received Academy Award nominations for Reds (1981) and Marvin's Room (1996). Some of her popular later films include Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), The First Wives Club (1996), Something's Gotta Give (2003) and The Family Stone (2005). Keaton's films have earned a cumulative gross of over US$1.1 billion in North America.

Jane Wyman

 

Born: Jan. 5, 1917
Died Sep 10, 2007

Jane Wyman, born Sarah Jane Mayfield was an American singer, dancer, and film/television actress. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Johnny Belinda (1948), and later achieved renewed success in the 1980s as Angela Channing on Falcon Crest.

She was the first wife of Ronald Reagan; they married in 1940 and divorced in June 28, 1948; Reagan was still a Democrat and had not yet made his first run for public office.

In 1939, Wyman starred in Torchy Plays With Dynamite. In 1941, she appeared in You're in the Army Now, in which she and Regis Toomey had the longest screen kiss in cinema history: 3 minutes and 5 seconds, until Elena Undone beat it by eighteen seconds almost 70 years later, in 2010.

Wyman finally gained critical notice in the film noir The Lost Weekend (1945). She was nominated for the 1946 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Yearling (1946), and won two years later for her role as a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948). She worked with such directors as Alfred Hitchcock on Stage Fright (1950), Frank Capra on Here Comes the Groom (1951) and Michael Curtiz on The Story of Will Rogers (1952). She starred in The Glass Menagerie (1950), Just for You (1952), Let's Do It Again (1953), The Blue Veil (1951), the remake of Edna Ferber's So Big (1953), Magnificent Obsession (1954) (Oscar nomination), Lucy Gallant (1955), All That Heaven Allows (1955), and Miracle in the Rain (1956). She replaced the ailing Gene Tierney in Holiday for Lovers (1959), and next appeared in Pollyanna (1960), Bon Voyage! (1962), and her final big screen movie, How to Commit Marriage (1969).

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The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
--H. L. Mencken
    

Same ol' Same ol' -- Why Not?

Tucson Weather Today

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I have been considering some major changes in the direction of these last years of my life.

A wise person, it seems to me, will as much as possible set a course through life that runs through a succession of climes that promise varying degrees of relative happiness, But if one does not do so while young, then this can surely still be done, more moderately of course, throughout the remnants of the final span of years.

Instead of continuing to strive for some limited success as a professional writer, which is now become no more than foolish folly, I have decided to abandon the task of creative writing completely.

What do I enjoy at this stage of my life? Reading. Listening to interesting radio programs. Watching engaging TV and compelling movies.

Why should I not do those things then, instead of attempting to do that which I am no longer able to do?

How about maintaining my blog?

I can do that.

But only in a simplistic manner, continuing to announce birthdays of well-known persons and producing my Word Of The Day, and things like that.

Why not?

Why the hell not?

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WORD FOR TODAY

plangent
 adj
1.   having a loud deep sound
2.   resonant and mournful in sound

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

John Goodman

Born June 20,1952

John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne (1988–1997) for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993.

ALSO


Anne Murray

Born June 20,1945

Morna Anne Murray is a multiple award-winning Canadian singer in pop, country, and adult contemporary music whose albums have sold over 54 million copies. Among other songs, she is much remembered for her recording of Snowbird.

ALSO


Audie Murphy


Born June 20, 1924
Died May 28, 1971

Audie Leon Murphy was a highly decorated and famous soldier. Through LIFE magazine's July 16, 1945 issue ("Most Decorated Soldier"/cover photo), he became one of the most famous soldiers of World War II and widely regarded as the most decorated American soldier of the war. After the war he became a celebrated movie star for over two decades, appearing in 44 films

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Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
--Søren Kierkegaard

Book, Stories, And The Like

Tucson Weather Today

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Well, I did not go out for my usual walk for the last two days. Wasn't feeling quite up to it. Instead, I indulged myself in the activity I have most enjoyed for the greater part of my life... reading.


Stayed inside, out of the cold rain, and read printed books of fiction and factual blog postings about fictioneers. No, I did not miss my TV watching of old reruns such as Two and a half Men and The Big Bang Theory. But mostly I just read, both online and from real books. At this moment I find myself about three-quarters through the long, long (dare I say 'tiresome?') 1074 page Stephen King novel Under The Dome -- which I passed over back when it first came out.

And I haven't even gone outside to the mail box to check my mail, from neither yesterday's delivery nor Saturday's. I, for one, suspect that I will not be sad over the elimination of a Saturday mail delivery if it comes.

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"I spent the morning putting in a comma and the afternoon removing it."
--Gustave Flaubert

Why Do I Write?

.

What purpose do I have in this day-by-day entering of my thoughts in this blog?

The only purpose I can think of is that I wish to simply write down my thoughts and feelings as they occur to me. It's a type of diary. Or a personal log, or a journal of sorts. If at any point in the writing or in the reading, some observation seems at all profound or meaningful, then that's fine with me. If not, that's fine too.

My purpose is to write . . .

. . .

I recently read a Wired interview with Steve Jobs on modern technology and how the web will affect peoples' lives. At one point Steve said, "It's certainly not going to be like the first time somebody saw a television."

Which set me to reminiscing...

The first time I saw a television set was in 1950 (or perhaps '51) when I was 11 or 12 years old. I remember it well... while I was attending a classmates birthday party, the host's mother turned on their new television set and sat us all down to watch and listen to Buffalo Bob call out, "Hey kids... what time is it?" And the loud answering outcry was,
"Howdy Doody time!"

I was astounded. A movie theater right in their own home. True it was a small 6 or 9 inch dark-green screen and the show was in black-and-white, but it was right there on a table in the Orville Moore's family living room. Amazing!

When the show eventually presented a back-to-back pair of filmed movies of cowboys Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson in big white sombreros riding galloping horses with the dust-raising posses chasing the fleeing bad guys in black hats and shooting loud booming guns and the rousing music sounding so loud in the background... well, the experience was so new and so different that it truly did send chills coursing up and down my spine... and boy-oh-boy, I was absolutely stunned.

I remember it well . . .

Steve Jobs, in that same interview, said, "We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It's been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much -- if at all.
--Steve Jobs
Feb. 1996

. . .

The sudden storm that erupted here in East Tucson a couple days ago left a tremendous amount of detritus in the swimming pool and on the deck. The wind was strong and long-lasting. And it took me almost an hour the next morning to skim the pool's surface and sweep off the deck. I took some pictures of the scattered, submerged, and floating debris...

The pool and deck

. . .

Surface of the water

Hey! I'm not complaining. Skimming the pool, while Eva stands faithful guard, barking against any covert invasion of lizards or ground squirrels (or humming birds) is a calming and relaxing endeavor, probably because I don't have to do it... I just want to.

. . .

That's all for now.

Toodles.

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Same Ol' Same Ol'

Don't feel like writing today. Went for my usual three and a half mile walk early this morning but then later began to feel extremely tired, so I just sat and watched TV... the House marathon, The Doctors, Dr. Oz, Oprah, etc. Walked Eva around the pool several times, practiced nine-ball break shots, and read some blogs.

That's about it. I think my old age is finally catching up with me.

Or maybe it's a temporary thing.

We'll see . . .