Beauty Abounds

Tucson Weather Today

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177 pounds

While walking West on the sidewalk alongside Speedway Boulevard I encountered a still young but nearing middle-age blond lady with an extremely attractive face, trim athlete's body, and a long, free-flowing ponytail. She was someone I had said "Hi" to several times in passing, a seemingly happy, smiling woman who was usually breezing along at a brisk clip, evidently running  for her health.

But this time she was walking slowly, and appeared to be limping a bit. Being the enquiring (nosy) fellow that I am, I stopped and asked if she was all right. She said she was and that she had just fallen a moment ago and had bruised her knee and hit her chin on the concrete. She told me thanks for asking but she couldn't spare any of her time for self-pity because she was training for an upcoming race.

I wished  her all the best in that upcoming race, and we went our separate ways, each at our self-appointed pace.


Farther along to the West I spotted a flowering cactus pair that begged for me to photograph them.

So I did.

Scene In The 8,000 Block Of Speedway Boulevard

Tucson, Arizona   March 2014

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We had some excitement here at Toscana Cove Apartments; we had a fire that did quite a bit of damage to building 10, the building right across from where I live. The fire broke out in a single apartment but (according to what the manager told me) eighteen units were rendered temporarily unlivable (smoke damage, etc.) -- the residents were temporarily moved to other units.

Some of the fire-damaged apartments

Here is some more information on and photos of the fire.

Fire Department

If I get any more information I will be sure to reveal it in a future entry.

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Did You Know . . .?

Government vehicles in Cuba are legally required to pick up any hitchhikers.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1945, the commander of the German Home Army, Gen. Friedrich Fromm, was shot by a firing squad for his part in the July plot to assassinate the Fuhrer. Many high-ranking German officials had made up their minds that Hitler must die. He was leading Germany in a suicidal war on two fronts, and they believed that assassination was the only way to stop him.

Fromm's last-ditch effort to distance himself from the plot failed. Fromm was arrested. In February 1945, and he was tried before the People's Court and denigrated for his cowardice in refusing to stand up to the plotters. But he was spared the worst punishment afforded convicted conspirators -- strangulation on a meat hook. He was shot by a firing squad on March 19.

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WORD FOR TODAY

beauty [byoo-tee]
noun
something that is beautiful in nature or in some natural or artificial environment.

Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection.
--Wikipedia

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Walter Bruce Willis

(born March 19, 1955)

Bruce Willis is an American actor, producer, and singer. His career began on the Off-Broadway stage and then in television in the 1980s, most notably as David Addison in Moonlighting (1985-89) and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles. Probably best known for his role of John McClane in the Die Hard series. He has also appeared in over sixty films, including the box office hits, Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), and Sin City (2005).

Glenn Close

(born March 19, 1947)

Glenn Close is an American film, television and stage actress. Close began her professional stage career in 1974 in Love for Love, and was in The World According to Garp (1982), which she followed up with supporting roles in The Big Chill (1983), and The Natural (1984). She would later receive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress in Fatal Attraction (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and Albert Nobbs (2011). Since 2005, she has been known for her television roles in The Shield and as Patty Hewes in the FX TV series Damages.

Phyllis Newman

(born March 19, 1933)

Phyllis Newman is an American actress and singer. She guest starred in an episode of Beverly Garland's groundbreaking crime drama, Decoy. She was then cast in 1960 as Doris Hudson in the CBS summer replacement series Diagnosis: Unknown. Newman became a major television celebrity of the 1960s and 1970s, a frequent panelist on the top-rated network game shows What's My Line?, Match Game, and To Tell the Truth and a perennial guest of Johnny Carson's on NBC's The Tonight Show.

Newman created the role of Rene Buchanan on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live and was a regular on the primetime series 100 Centre Street and the NBC satirical series That Was The Week That Was. Other television credits include The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Burke's Law, ABC Stage 67, thirtysomething, Murder, She Wrote, The Wild Wild West, and Coming of Age. On screen, she appeared in Bye Bye Braverman, The Beautician and the Beast, A Price Above Rubies, Mannequin (1987), and The Human Stain.

Ursula Andress

(born March 19, 1936)

Ursula Andress is a Swiss-American actress and sex symbol of the 1960s. She is known for her role as Bond girl Honey Rider in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962), for which she won a Golden Globe. She later starred as Vesper Lynd in the Bond-parody Casino Royale (1967).

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Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
--Edgar Allan Poe

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State Of The Union, Authors, Etc.

     

Tucson Weather Today

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George Will has a quite interesting column in The Washington Post concerning the State of the Union message and a few related items.

At one point he writes:
"Obama probably also will urge measures to increase college enrollments. The Center for College Affordability and Productivity reports that about 48 percent of those college graduates who are employed are occupying jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests require less than a four-year college education. Thirty-seven percent are in jobs that require no more than a high-school diploma, and about 5 million are in jobs that require less than a high-school education. About 14 percent of waiters and waitresses, 16.5 percent of bartenders, 18 percent of telemarketers and 24.6 percent of retail salespeople-- not including the 14.5 percent of counter and sales clerks -- have college degrees."

The political exhibitionism of the State of the Union


Another Post article:

Five myths about the State of the Union address

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J.D. Salinger,

Author of Catcher In The Rye

Jerome David Salinger

died on this day

Jan. 27, 2010

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I recently read a book review by  William H. Pritchard in The Weekly Standard regarding Jack London.

From this review I learned that during his brief life of 40 years, Jack London, produced 50 books, 200 short stories, and 400 nonfiction pieces on varied subjects. A critic says of The Call of the Wild (1903) that London "had found in the canine species the selfless unconditional love celebrated in the Christian concept of agape."

Now, to me, that is an interesting fact followed by a thought-provoking conjecture.

The Ice Palace - Jack London’s thousand words a day.

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Did You Know . . .?

In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus decided to wipe out mankind by flooding the Earth. The world was repopulated by a man and a woman who survived the flood by building an ark.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, January 27 in1967 a launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, killed astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chafee. An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire. The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for the next month.

The Apollo program was initiated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) following President John F. Kennedy's 1961 declaration of the goal of landing men on the moon and bringing them safely back to Earth by the end of the decade. The so-called "moon shot" was the largest scientific and technological undertaking in history. In December 1968, Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to travel to the moon, and on July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. walked on the lunar surface. In all, there were 17 Apollo missions and six lunar landings.

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WORD FOR TODAY

agape  [ah-GAH-pay]
noun
1.  Love that is spiritual, not sexual, in its nature.
2.  Christianity Love as revealed in Jesus, seen as spiritual and selfless and a model for humanity.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Patton Oswalt

(born January 27, 1969)

Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor known for roles such as Spencer Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens and for voicing Remy in the film Ratatouille. Oswalt is an atheist, and has referenced his atheism in his comedy specials, No Reason to Complain, Feelin' Kind of Patton, My Weakness is Strong, and Finest Hour.

Bridget Jane Fonda

(born January 27, 1964)

Bridget Fonda is a former American actress. She is known for her roles in such films as The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, Point of No Return, It Could Happen to You, and Jackie Brown. She also provides the voice for Jenna in the 1995 animated feature film Balto. She took on cameo roles in projects until 2002, and has not appeared in films since then. She is the daughter of Peter Fonda, niece of Jane Fonda and granddaughter of Henry Fonda.

Donna Reed

(Jan 27, 1921 - Jan 14, 1986)

Donna Reed was an American film and television actress. With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Lorene Burke in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also well known for her role as Mary Hatch in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). She worked extensively in television, notably as Donna Stone, an American middle class mother in the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966).

Miriam "Mimi" Rogers

(born January 27, 1956)

Mimi Rogers is an American film and television actress. Her notable film roles include Gung Ho (1986), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), and Desperate Hours (1990). She garnered the greatest acclaim of her career for her role in the religious drama, The Rapture (1991). Rogers has since appeared in Reflections on a Crime (1994), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Lost in Space (1998), Ginger Snaps (2000), The Door in the Floor (2004), and For a Good Time, Call... (2012). Her extensive work in television includes Paper Dolls (1984), Weapons of Mass Distraction (1997), The Loop (2006–2007), and recurring roles on The X-Files (1998–1999) and Two and a Half Men (2011–present).

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 "Read what you like because you like it, never to pretend to admire what you did not."
--Leslie Stephen

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