Upon Reflection . . .

     

Tucson Weather Today

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From:
A Tale Of Starvation
by Amy Lowell

There once was a man whom the gods didn't love,
And a disagreeable man was he.
He loathed his neighbours, and his neighbours hated him,
And he cursed eternally.
He damned the sun, and he damned the stars,
And he blasted the winds in the sky.
He sent to Hell every green, growing thing,
And he raved at the birds as they fly.
His oaths were many, and his range was wide,
He swore in fancy ways;
But his meaning was plain: that no created thing
Was other than a hurt to his gaze.

Read Entire Poem

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Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon I watched an older black & white movie titled The Miracle Worker. This was the 1962 American biographical film directed by Arthur Penn. The screenplay by William Gibson is based on his 1959 play of the same title. Gibson's original source material was The Story of My Life, the 1902 autobiography of Helen Keller.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director for Arthur Penn, and won two awards, Best Actress for Anne Bancroft and Best Supporting Actress for Patty Duke.

Plot Synopsis:

Young Helen Keller, blind and deaf since infancy due to a severe case of scarlet fever, is frustrated by her inability to communicate and subject to frequent violent and uncontrollable outbursts as a result. Unable to deal with her, her terrified and helpless parents contact the Perkins School for the Blind for assistance. In response they send Anne Sullivan, a former student, to the Keller home to tutor her. What ensues is a battle of wills as Anne breaks down Helen's walls of silence and darkness through persistence, love, and sheer stubbornness.

I had seen this 1962 movie many years ago but had forgotten much of it. And I have to admit that, while it is a gripping story, I find myself wondering about the validity of it. How in the world could a young child with such an affliction actually be taught to understand people and become able to talk and communicate, as was Helen Keller?

I just can't accept it as presented, and I feel that some facts were left out of the film. Perhaps the child was able to remember more of her life from an earlier time, before the Scarlet Fever episode.

Yes, it could be that I am too cynical, too much of a skeptic.

I enjoyed the movie, though.

I find that it was remade twice for television, in 1979 with Patty Duke as Anne and Melissa Gilbert as Helen and in 2000 with Alison Elliott and Hallie Kate Eisenberg in the lead roles.

I think I'll seek them out, maybe at the Public Library as DVDs and view them.

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TRIVIA

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 24 in 1997, U.S. Air Force officials released a 231-page report dismissing long standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.

Barely a week before the extravagant 50th anniversary celebration of the incident, the Air Force released a report on the controversial subject. Titled "The Roswell Report, Case Closed," the document stated definitively that there was no Pentagon evidence that any kind of life form was found in the Roswell area in connection with the reported UFO sightings, and that the "bodies" recovered were not aliens but dummies used in parachute tests conducted in the region.

Any hopes that this would put an end to the cover-up debate were in vain, as ufologists rushed to point out the report's inconsistencies.

Roswell continues to thrive as a tourist destination for UFO enthusiasts far and wide.

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WORD FOR TODAY

skepticism
noun
-  A doubting or questioning attitude.
-  Doubt or disbelief of religious tenets.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Sherry Lea Stringfield
(born June 24, 1967)

Sherry Stringfield is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Dr. Susan Lewis on the medical television drama ER, a role for which she received three Emmy Award nominations. She is also known for her regular roles on NYPD Blue and Guiding Light. She has acted mainly on television, but she has also played various parts in films.

Nancy Anne Allen
(born June 24, 1950)

Nancy Allen is an American actress and cancer activist . Allen began an acting and modelling career as a child, and from the mid-1970s appeared in small film roles, most notably the anchor of Robert Zemeckis's ensemble comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). A pivotal supporting role in Carrie (1976) brought her recognition, and after marrying the director Brian De Palma, she appeared in several of his films, including Dressed to Kill (1980) and Blow Out (1981). Her subsequent films include Strange Invaders (1983), The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), Poltergeist III (1988), Limit Up (1990), Out of Sight (1998), and the RoboCop trilogy.

Mindy Kaling
(born June 24, 1979)

Mindy Kaling (born Vera Mindy Chokalingam) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer who portrayed Kelly Kapoor on the NBC sitcom The Office and created and currently stars in the Fox sitcom The Mindy Project. She is also a co-executive producer, director and writer of several of the show's episodes; she also wrote, executive produced and directed various episodes of The Office.

William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey
 (June 24, 1895 - May 31, 1983)

Jack Dempsey, known as "The Manassa Mauler" was an American professional boxer. He was a cultural icon of the 1920s. He held the World Heavyweight Championship from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history.

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Skepticism is the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.
--John Dewey

NASA TV

Suddenly I Have This Weird Craving For Hen's Eggs

  

Tucson Weather Today

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I was going to write about skepticism in today's entry but then realized that I needed a bit more research before diving into a subject as deep as that. Maybe I can do some digging and attempt it soon; I might be ready by tomorrow... or not.


The day before yesterday (Sunday) my son drove me to the newly opened Wal-Mart Grocery Market, where, among a few other items, I bought a dozen Jumbo chicken eggs. Since I rarely fry anything any more, I cook eggs either by hard boiling or poaching them. Poaching is always a hit or miss proposition with me, so I decided to stick to boiling. But then I realized that I had forgotten how to hard boil them so they come out perfectly every time.

I Googled and found the precise process I have used for several years. Here it is:

If you want hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel, make sure they are several days old. Hard boiling farm fresh eggs will usually lead to eggs that are difficult to peel. If you have boiled a batch that are difficult to peel, try putting them in the refrigerator for a few days; they should be easier to peel then.

Cooking time: 12 minutes

Put the eggs in a single layer in a saucepan, covered by at least an inch or two of cold water. Starting with cold water and gently bringing the eggs to a boil will help keep them from cracking. Adding a tablespoon of vinegar to the water will help keep the egg whites from running out of any eggs that happen to crack while cooking, but some people find that the vinegar affects the taste. I don't have a problem with it and I usually add a little vinegar. Adding a half teaspoon of salt is thought to help both with the preventing of cracking and making the eggs easier to peel. Put the burner on high and bring the eggs to a boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds.

Reduce the heat to low, return the pan to the burner. Let simmer for one minute. (If you are using an electric stove with a coil element, you can just turn off the heat. There is enough residual heat in the coil to keep the eggs simmering for a minute.)

Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes. It is hard to overcook eggs using this method. The eggs can sit, covered, for up to 15-20 minutes without the eggs getting overcooked.

Either remove the eggs and place them into a bowl of ice water or strain out the water from the pan, fill the pan with cold water, strain again, fill again, until the eggs cool down a bit, strain the water from the eggs. Store the eggs in a covered container (eggs can release odors) in the refrigerator. They should be eaten within 5 days.


Today I hard boiled and refrigerated four of the dozen eggs. And even though I have not eaten even one of them yet, I am confident they came out perfectly, as planned.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people were drowned, including 128 Americans. The attack aroused considerable indignation in the United States, but Germany defended the action, noting that it had issued warnings of its intent to attack all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain.

There has long been a theory that the Lusitania was deliberately placed in danger by the British authorities, so as to entice a U-Boat attack and thereby drag the USA into the war on the side of Britain.

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WORD FOR TODAY

skepticism
noun
-  skeptical attitude or temper; doubt.
-  doubt or unbelief with regard to a religion, especially Christianity.
-  ( initial capital letter  ) the doctrines or opinions of philosophical Skeptics; universal doubt.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


George Francis "Gabby" Hayes
(May 7, 1885 – February 9, 1969)

Gabby Hayes was an American radio, film, and television actor. He was best known for his numerous appearances in Western movies as the colorful sidekick to the leading man, especially as the cantankerous sidekick of Roy Rogers in 41 movies.

Gary Cooper
(May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961)

Gary Cooper, born Frank James Cooper, was an American film actor. Noted for his stoic, understated style, Cooper found success in a number of film genres, including westerns (High Noon), crime (City Streets), comedy (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town) and drama (The Pride of the Yankees). Cooper received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, winning twice for Sergeant York and High Noon. Cooper's career spanned from 1925 until shortly before his death, and comprised more than one hundred films.

Darren McGavin
(May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006)

Darren McGavin was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears. He appeared as the tough-talking, funny detective in the 1950s television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. From 1959-1961, McGavin starred in the NBC western series Riverboat, first with Burt Reynolds and then with Noah Beery, Jr., and in later years, he had a recurring role in the sitcom Murphy Brown, as the title character's father, for which he received an Emmy Award.

Robert Hegyes
(May 7, 1951 - Jan, 26, 2012)

Robert Hegyes (pronounced Hedges) was an American actor best known for his portrayal of high school student Juan Epstein on the 1970s American sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.

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Skepticism is to the intellect as brushing is to teeth
--Chris Clarke
 

As I Understand It

    

Tucson Weather Today

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Sunday School is offered by most protestant churches to provide lessons to children regarding doctrines of Christianity. Although I do not know for sure, I believe that all or most other religions also have methods of indoctrinating children whose parents are believers in the specific faith of that particular sect, cult, or denomination.

I would like to perform an experiment and offer on this blog a series of Sunday School lessons pointing out and illustrating my personal views on various events that are meaningful and supposedly important in Bible History.

At no time will I knowingly impugn the integrity of those who call themselves believers in God. I am NOT an atheist; I am a skeptic in the face of Christian dogma, and yet I lean toward the concept of Intelligent Design of some sort.

Since my 70-plus years of being a biological life form with a thinking mind has indicated to me that everything except natural objects such as trees, rocks, stars, etc. had a designer and a maker, that everything made by mankind was intelligently designed and built by human beings. So, to me, it stands to reason that everything else in the universe 'not' fashioned by human-kind would also have a designer.

This hypothetical designer would necessarily be an entity (or FORCE?) so incredibly beyond the mere five senses of humans, so unimaginable that a human being could never conceive of its true makeup, its actual state of existence, or physical non-existence.

But my thinking mind tells me that the stuff taught to children in Christian Sunday Schools are ignorantly presented untruths, ancient stories, myths, fables, and parables, originally designed to control the actions of rebellious children and keep them in line.

The Catholic Church, it seems, is even worse.

 

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini lies in state at Milan cathedral. In his final interview before his death he criticized the Catholic Church for being 'pompous' and '200 years out of date'

So . . .

If all goes smoothly, the first lesson might appear on this blog tomorrow.

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HISTORICAL CLIP

On this date, February 8, 1949, Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, the highest Catholic official in Hungary, was convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Communist People's Court. Outraged observers in Western Europe and the United States condemned both the trial and Mindszenty's conviction as "perversions" and "lynchings."

Cardinal Mindszenty at his trial in 1949

In December 1973, at the age of 81, Mindszenty was stripped of his titles by the Pope, who declared the Hungarian cardinal's seat officially vacated, but refused to fill the seat while Mindszenty was still alive. Mindszenty died on May 6, 1975, at the age of 83, in exile in Vienna.

Mindszenty is widely admired in modern-day Hungary, and no one denies his courage in opposing the Nazi and Nyilas gangs, or his resolve in confinement... However, Mindszenty is seen as the archetypal figure of "clerical reaction" by his critics. He continued to use the feudal title of prince-primate (hercegprímás) even after the use of nobility, peerage and royal titulature were entirely outlawed by the 1946 parliament. His aristocratic attitudes and continued claims for compensation against nationalization of vast range of pre–World War II church-owned farmlands supposedly alienated large groups of the Hungarian society, which was composed of a majority of agricultural workers at the time.

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WORD FOR TODAY

pomposity [pahm-PAHS-uh-tee]
noun
1. vain or ostentatious display of dignity or importance
2. the quality of being pompous
3. ostentatiously lofty style, language, etc.
4. a pompous action, remark, etc.
pompous and puffed up with vanity.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

James Dean

Born Feb. 8, 1931
Died Sep 30, 1955

James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were as loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955), and as the surly ranch hand, Jett Rink, in Giant (1956). Dean's enduring fame and popularity rests on his performances in only these three films, all leading roles. His premature death in a car crash cemented his legendary status.

Dean was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Dean the 18th best male movie star on their AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.

Jack Lemmon

Born Feb. 8, 1925
Died Jun 27, 2001

John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts (for which he won the 1955 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award), Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger (for which he won the 1973 Best Actor Academy Award), The Out-of-Towners, The China Syndrome, Missing (for which he won 'Best Actor' at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival), Glengarry Glen Ross, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.

Audrey Meadows

Born Feb. 8, 1922
Died Feb. 3, 1996

Audrey Meadows was an American actress best known for her role as the deadpan housewife Alice Kramden on the 1950s American television comedy The Honeymooners.

Ted Koppel

 Born Feb. 8, 1940

Age: 72 years old

Edward James Martin "Ted" Koppel is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline from the program's inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005. After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008. Koppel is currently a senior news analyst for National Public Radio and contributing analyst to BBC World News America, and contributes to the new NBC News prime time newsmagazine Rock Center with Brian Williams.

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Anyone who thinks they're important is usually just a pompous moron who can't deal with his or her own pathetic insignificance and the fact that what they do is meaningless and inconsequential.
--William Thomas