____________________
I read somewhere, on some blog most probably, that Dorothy Parker once wrote: "If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy."
In my opinion, that advice is even more appropriate now than it was in Ms Parker's day. In this digital-driven second decade of the twenty-first century, it seems that there are far more writers being published (although usually only on the internet) than ever before. Sadly, a great percentage of those stories and novels are poorly crafted and even more poorly composed.
In plain American English, most of them stink to high heaven.
Curiously, there exists within this questionable lineup a goodly number of sexually explicit presentations (these even more unprofessionally constructed) and even some quite distasteful stuff, a fairly new genre generally referred to by now-acceptable sexual experimenters as 'kink.'
I tried reading some of this S&M kink and soon came to realize that it is not my cup of tea. Even though I have long ago thrown off the childhood shackles of organized religion, I found this type of story to be disgusting.
Of course, I believe that even this crappy trash should be published; it should be made available to those who profess to enjoy it. After all, if the actually do those things in their real sexual lives, the should be able to read about other people doing them in fantasy stories.
Someone asked me why I waste my time writing a blog when I could be writing a novel. And I answered, "I am writing a novel... the blog is a first draft, and contains all my notes.
On a Swedish language blog, I recently watched a short video wherein a few women decided to take off their burkhas and, bare-chested, enter a mosque. The video narration begins in Swedish but soon switches to English. Those women are, in my opinion, either monumentally brave, or else fantastically and fanatically foolish.
Warning: Bare Breasts And Profanity
Off subject note:
There is an excellent reason why Islamic countries should never be allowed to have nuclear capabilities. The reason can be expressed in two words: Suicide bombers.
_____
TRIVIA
Killer whales are not, technically, whales. They are orcas, a relative of the porpoise and the dolphin.
_____
HISTORICAL EVENT
On July 5 in 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveiled a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed "bikini," inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.
In prudish America, the bikini was successfully resisted until the early 1960s, when a new emphasis on youthful liberation brought the swimsuit en masse to U.S. beaches. It was immortalized by the pop singer Brian Hyland, who sang "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" in 1960, by the teenage "beach blanket" movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, and by the California surfing culture celebrated by rock groups like the Beach Boys. Since then, the popularity of the bikini has continued to grow.
The Modern String Bikini
_____
WORD FOR TODAY
areola [uh-REE-ol-luh]
A small ring of color around a center portion, as about the nipple of the breast or the part of the iris surrounding the pupil of the eye.
In anatomy, an areola is any small circular area on the body colored differently from the surrounding tissue. The term is most commonly used to describe the pigmented area on the human breast around the nipple.
An areola can also be used to describe other small circular areas such as the inflamed region surrounding a pimple.
_____
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
(born July 5, 1929)
Katherine Helmond is an American film, theater and television actress, who portrayed Emily Dickinson on Meeting of Minds, as well as fictional television characters, for which she is best known, including Jessica Tate on Soap, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?, Doris Sherman on Coach, and Lois Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond.
(born July 5, 1963)
Edie Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles as Diane Whittlesey in the HBO series Oz, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie.
(born July 5, 1965)
Kathryn Erbe is an American actress known for her role as Detective Alexandra Eames on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a spin-off of Law & Order, and death row inmate Shirley Bellinger in the HBO series Oz.
(born July 5, 1947)
Judge Joe Brown is a former Shelby County, Tennessee, Criminal Court judge and arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show, Judge Joe Brown.
__________
"My favorite color on canvas is nudity."
--Jarod Kintz
NASA TV
