Another Observation

Tucson Weather Today

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"People like to ask me if writing can be taught, and I say yes. I can teach you how to write a better sentence, how to write dialogue, maybe even how to construct a plot. But I can't teach you how to have something to say."
--Ann Patchett

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Blank

Tucson Weather Today

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I am thinking seriously about closing down this blog.

This does not mean that I will stop writing.

It means I will not be sharing what I write.

With anyone.

Can you imagine how much freedom this will give me?

Nothing will be forbidden.

I can express anything.

Fiction or fact... uncensored.

Expressed however I want.

WOW!

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This Is Who I Am

Writing Again

Tucson Weather Today

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Susan Sontag

The Art Of Fiction

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This Is Who I Am

A Writer Is One Who Writes... Right?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of ... New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice to people who would never have been heard.
--Bill Gates

Well, I spent way too much time recently trying to write fiction, and I discovered that I am not a fiction writer after all. Not even in the NaNoWriMo silliness.  So I guess I will just go back to scribbling down some of my life's daily happenings into my blog here, as I have been doing for a couple years now.

Blogging seems to satisfy my desire to communicate with others enough so that I can enjoy most of my time each day doing what I really want to do, which is reading books, napping, and watching movies, and viewing humorous and well-crafted television shows.

We'll see how it goes.

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Did You Know . . .?

Farmers sometimes donate their extra pumpkins to zoos for the animals to eat and play with. Elephants love them.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On November 3, 1998, former professional wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota with 37 percent of the vote. His opponents, seasoned politicians Hubert Humphrey III and St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, spent a total of $4.3 million on their campaigns. Ventura, the Reform-Party candidate, spent $250,000 -- money he raised by selling $22 t-shirts and accepting $50 donations from his supporters. His only political experience had been his years as mayor of Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, but his laid-back, straight-talking, libertarian approach to politics resonated with many Minnesotans -- especially young men who had never voted before. "I voted for Jesse because he was the most honest," one young constituent said. "If he doesn’t know something, he says he doesn’t know." Two years after leaving the governor’s mansion, Ventura moved to Mexico.

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WORD FOR TODAY

zeugma [ZOOG-muh]
noun
The use of a word to refer to two or more words, especially in different senses.
Examples: "He caught a fish and a cold" or "She lost her ring and her temper."

source

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Dennis Miller

(born November 3, 1953)

Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, television personality, and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references. He rose to fame as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in 1985, and subsequently hosted a string of his own talk shows on HBO, CNBC and in syndication.

Roseanne Cherrie Barr

(born November 3, 1952)

Roseanne is an American actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director. She began her career in stand-up comedy at clubs before gaining fame for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. The show was a hit and lasted nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997.

Kenneth Ronald "Ken" Berry

(born November 3, 1933)

Ken Berry is an American sitcom actor, dancer and singer. Berry has appeared in multiple television shows, one with his friend and mentor, Andy Griffith. Berry starred in the successful comedies F Troop, Mayberry R.F.D., and Mama's Family.

Kate Capshaw

(born November 3, 1953)

Kate Capshaw is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Willie Scott in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. During production of the film, she met director Steven Spielberg, whom she later married.

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Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

This Is Who I Am

   

Feeling Better Than Yesterday

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Originality in literature is only a new coat of paint on an old house.
--Austin O'Malley

Feeling a lot better today. Still sinus and chest congested and occasional brief coughing spells but overall feeling pretty well.

Still walking my daily two miles.

Still writing fiction,
but it's not literature.

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This Is Who I Am

   

Can Old People Still Perform?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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"I have no talent; it's just a question of working, of being willing to put in the time."
--Graham Greene

Most of the information below was previously written in a reply to a comment offered by a friend, but I decided to re-publish it, because it does skirt the edges of how, at my advanced age of 75, I manage to keep writing, even though I would rather, most of the time, not go to all the trouble and effort it takes to even think, let alone to gather together and formulate the shadowy hints of deep thoughts that float and occasionally flit around on the periphery of my consciousness and poke and prod in tantalizing prompts - with irritating irregularity.

I know so well the mental regret of no longer being able to so easily do those taken-for-granted little nothings such as instantly recalling the exact word I am searching for, those mental activities akin to the physical twistings and turnings of a strong, healthy, instantly responsive, young body.

Each blog entry makes me think, so there is a measure of selfishness ingrained therein; I would much prefer to watch a well-crafted TV movie, or again read a much-read and well-loved book. But instead, I think, and I write, no matter how difficult it seems at the moment. And afterward, I am so glad I did so. Just as daily walking (no matter how much I may dread it) keeps my body physically better than would a sedentary life, so do the pitiful dribs and drabs of researching and writing in a blog each day help keep my mind more in tune with the times - and more able to continue to successfully communicate with others.

I continue to write by forcing myself to sit down in front of my keyboard... and I write. If the words I write are not as good as I would like them to be, I simply delete them, or I publish them anyway. Often I delete everything I write instead of knowingly and callously inflicting them upon the gentle reader. But I write.

Simple as that.

(I said simple, not easy.)

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Did You Know . . .?

Americans consume 99 percent of the world's Vicodin supply.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1990, less than one year after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, East and West Germany come together on what is known as "Unity Day." Two months following reunification, all-German elections took place and Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of the reunified Germany. Although this action came more than a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for many observers the reunification of Germany effectively marked the end of the Cold War.

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WORD FOR TODAY

sonic
adjective
1. Of or relating to audible sound: a sonic wave.
2. Having a speed approaching or being that of sound in air, about 1,220 kilometers (760 miles) per hour at sea level.
3. Slang Extremely exciting and fast-paced: a sonic lifestyle.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Alfred "Al" Sharpton, Jr.

(born October 3, 1954)

Al Sharpton is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, television/radio talk show host and a trusted White House adviser who, according to 60 Minutes, has "become the president's go-to black leader"

Neve Adrianne Campbell

(born October 3, 1973)

Neve Campbell is a Canadian actress. She became known in the 1990s for her teenage roles as Julia Salinger in the drama series Party of Five, and as Sidney Prescott in the horror film series Scream. She has also starred in films such as The Craft (1996) and Wild Things (1998)

Clive Owen

(born October 3, 1964)

Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991. He then received critical acclaim for his work in the film Close My Eyes before getting international notice for his performance as a struggling writer in Croupier.

Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan

(born October 3, 1951)

Kathryn Sullivan is an American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. A crew member on three Space Shuttle missions. She is the first American woman to walk in space.

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"I have never understood why people who can swallow the enormous improbability of a personal God boggle at a personal Devil."
--Graham Greene


NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

Rethinking Agnosticism

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of man" -- with his mouth.
--Mark Twain

I intended to write a short, insightful piece about war, but then I discovered that I know little that is new about the subject except for what I have read that was written by others. For example: Henry Miller, in The Wisdom of the Heart, said: "We kill because we are afraid of our own shadow, afraid that if we used a little common sense we'd have to admit that our glorious principles were wrong."

Anything I could understandably say (or write) about war, whether foolish or wondrously insightful, has already been said.

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Book Review by PAUL CONSTANT

I Finally Made It Through Hillary Clinton's Hard Choices.
Wow, This Is a Boring Book

Read Review

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I recently read somewhere that The Oxford English Dictionary says the word agnostic first showed up as a noun for a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of immaterial things, especially of the existence or nature of God.

According to that definition, then, I now profess to be an agnostic.

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Did You Know . . .?

MIT is developing a wristband that can regulate your 'thermal comfort' possible eliminating the need for central heating and cooling.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings during the most challenging leg of the global journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227 nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was in sporadic radio contact with Earhart as she approached Howland Island and received messages that she was lost and running low on fuel. Soon after, she probably tried to ditch the Lockheed in the ocean. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found.

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WORD FOR TODAY

dreadnought  [dred-nawt]
noun
1.  a type of battleship armed with heavy-caliber guns in turrets.
2.  an outer garment of heavy woolen cloth.
3.  a thick cloth with a long pile.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Lawrence Gene "Larry" David

(born July 2, 1947)

Larry David is an American actor, writer, comedian, and television producer. He was the co-creator, with Jerry Seinfeld, of the television series Seinfeld, and was its head writer and executive producer from 1989 to 1996. David has subsequently gained further recognition for the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, also created by David, in which he stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself.

Polly Dean Holliday

(born July 2, 1937)

Polly Holliday is an American actress. She has appeared on stage, television and in film. She is best known for her portrayal of sassy waitress "Flo" on the hit 1970s sitcom Alice, and her starring role in its short-lived spinoff, Flo. Flo's signature line was "Kiss my grits!"

Ronald Arthur "Ron" Silver

(July 2, 1946 - Mar 15, 2009)

Ron Silver was an American actor, director, producer, radio host and political activist.

Lindsay Morgan Lohan

(born July 2, 1986)

Lindsay Lohan is an American actress and recording artist. She began her career as a child fashion model when she was three, and was later featured on the soap opera Another World for a year when she was 10. At age 11, Lohan made her motion picture debut in Disney's remake of The Parent Trap (1998), a critical and commercial hit. Her next motion picture was Disney's remake of Freaky Friday (2003).

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War does not determine who is right -- only who is left. 
--Bertrand Russell

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

The DAy By Day TV Stuff

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns ... instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink."
--George Orwell


There is so much to write about but most of the items that interest me are questions already answered by various scientists throughout the years.

One of those questions is:

Tectonic Plates -- were these plates perhaps originally formed from the many and diverse explosive joinings of meteoric rocks and space junks during the eons when the planet Earth was being put together? I could look it up, as I often do for such questions. But it's too much trouble, at my advanced age and nearly depleted source of energy.


On the political side, another question is:

Why is it so hard to find those supposedly destroyed emails from the IRS's Lois Lerner? Surely the NSA has copies of them.


But that's too easy, I suppose.

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Did You Know . . .?

Three suicide bombers prematurely exploded because the bombs were set on daylight savings time.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1945, the Charter for the United Nations was signed in San Francisco. The United Nations was born of perceived necessity, as a means of better arbitrating international conflict and negotiating peace than was provided for by the old League of Nations. The growing Second World War became the real impetus for the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union to begin formulating the original U.N. Declaration, signed by 26 nations in January 1942, as a formal act of opposition to Germany, Italy, and Japan, the Axis Powers.

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WORD FOR TODAY

excommunicate
verb
1.  to cut off from communion with a church or exclude from the sacraments of a church by ecclesiastical sentence.
2.  to exclude or expel from membership or participation in any group, association, etc.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Christopher Eugene "Chris" O'Donnell

(born June 26, 1970)

Chris O'Donnell is an American actor. He played Dick Grayson/Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Charlie Simms in Scent of a Woman, Finn Dandridge in Grey's Anatomy, Peter Garrett in Vertical Limit, and Jack McAuliffe in The Company. O'Donnell stars as NCIS Special Agent G. Callen on the CBS crime drama television series NCIS: Los Angeles.

Julia Benson

(born circa 1979)

Julia Benson is a Canadian actress. She trained as a ballet, tap, jazz dancer since age six. She graduated from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) in 2001 with a degree in theatre and psychology. She trained as an actress at David Mamets' Atlantic Theater Company in New York City.

Robert Selden Duvall

(born January 5, 1931)

Robert Duvall is an American actor and director. He has been nominated for six Academy Awards (winning for his performance in Tender Mercies), six Golden Globes (winning four), and has multiple nominations and one win each of the BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Emmy Award.

Aubrey Christina Plaza

(born June 26, 1984)

Aubrey Plaza is an American actress and comedian who has gained popularity with her deadpan-style comedy. She portrays April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation.

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Whether you're keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it's the same thing. What's important is you're having a relationship with your mind.
--Natalie Goldberg

This Is Who I Am

   

Failure To Communicate

     

Tucson Weather Today

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There is a common belief that because most of us are literate and fluent, there is no need to serve an apprenticeship if we want to become a successful wordsmith. … That’s what I thought until I tried to write my first novel. I soon learnt that a novel, like a piece of furniture, has its own set of requirements, laws of construction that have to be learnt. Just because I had read plenty of novels didn’t mean I could write one, any more than I could make a chair because I had sat on enough of them.
--Nigel Watts

I am working on my novel so have little time to compose thoughtful commentary for this blog. When I say that I am working I mean that I am putting in some seemingly meaningful time.

Writing is really hard.

Truly communicating is even harder.

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Did You Know . . .?

New York City cabs have an amber light that's hidden in the grille and is used to alert cops if the driver is in trouble by blinking.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1947 Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to the West Coast, was shot and killed at his mistress Virginia Hill's home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through the window and into his head, killing him instantly. Around the same time that Siegel was killed in Beverly Hills, crime boss Lucky Luciano's men walked into the Las Vegas Flamingo and announced they were now in charge.

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WORD FOR TODAY

dormant [dawr-muhnt]
adjective
1.  lying asleep or as if asleep; inactive; torpid: The lecturer's sudden shout woke the dormant audience.
2.  in a state of rest or inactivity; inoperative; in abeyance: The project is dormant for the time being.
3.  Biology in a state of minimal metabolic activity with cessation of growth, either as a reaction to adverse conditions or as part of an organism's normal annual rhythm.
4.  undisclosed; unasserted: dormant musical talent.
5.  (of a volcano) not erupting.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

John Stephen Goodman

(born June 20, 1952)

John Goodman is an American film and television actor. He's most known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne (1988–1997) and his regular collaborations with the Coen brothers on such films as Raising Arizona (1987), Barton Fink (1991), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Nicole Mary Kidman

(born 20 June 1967)

Nicole Kidman is an American born Australian actress. Kidman's breakthrough film role was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. She came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). Her performance in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) earned her a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim.Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The Others (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), Dogville (2003), The Interpreter (2005) and Australia (2008).

John Mahoney

(born June 20, 1940)

John Mahoney is an American-British actor. He started his career on the stage in 1977 and moved into film in 1980. He played Martin Crane in the American sitcom Frasier on NBC from 1993 until to 2004. He has also worked as a voice actor, and performed on Broadway and in Chicago theatre.

Candace June "Candy" Clark

(born June 20, 1947)

Candy Clark is an American film and television actress, well known for her role as Debbie Dunham in the film American Graffiti (1973). She reprised the role in for the sequel More American Graffiti (1979). Clark was also known for her role as Francine Hewitt in The Blob (1988). Her other films of note are: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), The Big Sleep (1978), Blue Thunder (1983), Cat's Eye (1985) and At Close Range (1986).

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Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
--Horace

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

This Week And Next

    

Tucson Weather Today

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Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
--E. L. Doctorow

The next week and a half will be spent out here in the wilds with Eva. Hopefully I will get some work done on my novel. And get some fresh images and insights from nature.

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Did You Know . . .?

When a pregnant woman suffers organ damage (such as a heart attack) the fetus sends stem cells to the damaged organ to help repair it.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951, were put to death in the electric chair. The execution marked the dramatic finale of the most controversial espionage case of the Cold War. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths.

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WORD FOR TODAY

nuciform [noo-suh-fawrm]
adjective
Shaped like a nut; nut-shaped.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Atticus Ronald Shaffer

(born June 19, 1998)

Atticus Shaffer is an American actor. He is known for portraying Brick Heck on the ABC sitcom The Middle, as well as voicing Edgar in Frankenweenie (2012). Shaffer suffers from type IV Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a genetic condition inherited from his mother, who has type I. His small stature from this condition helps him portray a character on The Middle, approximately three years younger than his real-life age. He is home-schooled.

Phylicia Rashad

(born June 19, 1948)

Phylicia Rashad is an American Tony Award-winning actress, singer and stage director, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.

Robin Jessica Tunney

(born June 19, 1972)

Robin Tunney is an American actress. She is known for her role as Teresa Lisbon in the television series The Mentalist (2008–present), as well as previous roles in the films Encino Man (1992), Empire Records (1995), The Craft  (1996), End of Days (1999), Supernova, and Vertical Limit (2000), and Prison Break (2005–06).

Mary Kathleen Turner

(born June 19, 1954)

Kathleen Turner is an American film and stage actress and director. Turner came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in Body Heat (1981), Romancing the Stone (1984), and Prizzi's Honor (1985), the latter two earning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, Turner had roles in The Accidental Tourist (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Serial Mom (1994) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

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All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.
--F. Scott Fitzgerald

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Dreams And Such

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Occasionally Eva submits to a bout of stretching her muscles while rolling around on the floor growling and snarling and shadow-boxing with some unseen opponent. Sometimes she falls asleep while immersed in her dream-like fantasies.

In my mind I compared Eva's involuntary instinctual activities with certain dreams of my own, but when I attempted to write about this startling comparison the result was not only stiff, shallow, and laughingly pedestrian -- it was boring and ridiculous.

In my opinion.

Perhaps I'll try again, in a fictional setting.

__________

This Is Who I Am

   

Still On A Break

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Matthew 6:5


Today, I am still working on a separate and confidential project . . .

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You fail only if you stop writing.
--Ray Bradbury

This Is Who I Am

   

5-9-14

    

 

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

"When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, 'I am going to produce a work of art.' I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing."
 —George Orwell


"Yes . . ."

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Did You Know . . .?

One McDonald's fruit smoothie contains as much sugar as 4 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

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WORD FOR TODAY

Nipcheese
noun
1.  a stingy or miserly person
2.  (nautical slang) a ship's purser

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace
(May 9, 1918 - Apr 7, 2012)

Mike Wallace was an American journalist. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his sixty-year career. He was one of the original correspondents for CBS' 60 Minutes.

Candice Patricia Bergen
(born May 9, 1946)

Candice Bergen is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role on the television situation comedy Murphy Brown. She is also known for her role on Boston Legal. She has starred in major films including The Sand Pebbles, Carnal Knowledge, The Wind and the Lion, and Gandhi.

William Martin "Billy" Joel
(born May 9, 1949)

 

Billy Joel is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel has become the the third best-selling solo artist in the United States.

Rosario Dawson
(born May 9, 1979)

Rosario Dawson is an American actress, singer, and writer. She has appeared in films such as Kids, Men in Black II, 25th Hour, Sin City, Clerks II, Rent, Death Proof, The Rundown, Eagle Eye, Alexander, Seven Pounds, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Unstoppable, and Trance.

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The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.”
--Philip Roth

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

The Best Job I Ever Had

    

 

 

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.
--Pablo Picasso

I have worked a good many different jobs in my long life before reaching the age of retirement, and the one position I really felt I was meant to do was cruelly taken from me by circumstances completely beyond my control.

But that's a story for another day.

Many stories for many days.

The wind picked up yesterday afternoon and once again the mountains to the north were obscured by dust in the air. The wind blew with gustlike regularity through the night. And yes, the surface of the swimming pool again was (not covered) littered with leaves and other foliage.

And the wind is now moderate.

Writing about myself. Good God Almighty! Why do I keep this up?

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Did You Know . . .?
You would have to consume 1,500 pounds of marijuana in 15 minutes to overdose.
Note: You don't believe it... give it a try.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1915 at 2:12 p.m., in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton ship Lusitania was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship's boilers. The Lusitania sank within 20 minutes. Germany justified the attack by stating, correctly, that the Lusitania was an enemy ship, and that it was carrying munitions.

Though the United States was officially neutral at this point in the war, Britain was one of the nation's closest trading partners. The United States formally entered World War I on April 6, 1917.

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WORD FOR TODAY

dichotomy
noun
1.  division into two parts, kinds, etc.; subdivision into halves or pairs.
2.  division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action. 
3.  Botany: a mode of branching by constant forking, as in some stems, in veins of leaves, etc.
4.  Astronomy: the phase of the moon or of an inferior planet when half of its disk is visible.

Wikipedia says: A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts, meaning it is a procedure in which a whole is divided into two parts. It is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts...

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Darren McGavin
(May 7, 1922 - Feb 25, 2006)

Darren McGavin was an American actor best known for his portrayal of the grumpy father in the film A Christmas Story, as well as for the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. 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.

Anne Baxter
(May 7, 1923 - Dec 12, 1985)

Anne Baxter was an American actress known for her performances in films such as The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Razor's Edge (1946), All About Eve (1950) and The Ten Commandments (1956).

Ivan Sergei
(born May 7, 1971)

Ivan Sergei is an American actor known for his work in television. He first became well known when he starred in John Woo's 1996 film Once a Thief. His next series was starring with Amanda Peet in Jack & Jill. From 2003 to 2004, he starred on Crossing Jordan, and then in 2004 was part of the cast of the NBC series Hawaii.

Sergei has also had roles in If Someone Had Known, Dangerous Minds, Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?, The Opposite of Sex, and 10.5. He has guest starred on Touched by an Angel, Cybill and Party of Five. In 2005 and 2006, he starred in Charmed. He also had a minor role in The Break-Up. He co-starred with Jenny McCarthy in Santa Baby and guest-starred in the October 2008 CSI: Miami episode "Raging Cannibal".

Traci Elizabeth Lords
(born May 7, 1968)

Tracy Lords is an American film actress. She first achieved notoriety for her underage appearances in pornographic videos (she was 16 years old in her first movie in 1984) and Penthouse magazine, later becoming a television and B-movie actress. Lords starred in Not of This Earth. In 1990, she appeared in John Waters' Cry-Baby. Other movies on her resume include Shock 'Em Dead, Blade, Tommyknockers, Black Mask 2: City of Masks and Chump Change.

In addition to movies, Lords has also made many appearances in television series, including Wiseguy, Married... with Children, MacGyver, Highlander: The Series, Tales from the Crypt, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Gilmore Girls, and Will & Grace among others, along with recurring roles in Profiler, Melrose Place and Roseanne.

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The distinction between literary and genre fiction is stupid and pernicious. It dates back to a feud between Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James. James won, and it split literature into two streams. But it's a totally false dichotomy.
--George R. R. Martin

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am