When Is It Right To Bully?

Tucson Weather Today

___________________

The United States often sticks its nose where it's not wanted. It's fair to say that a foreign nation might better handle its business if left to its own devices, without outside interference.

_____


WORD FOR TODAY

bully
Verb
Use superior strength or influence to intimidate, typically to force another to do what the bully wants.

According to Wikipedia . . .

Bullying is the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others. The behavior can be habitual and involve an imbalance of social or physical power. It can include verbal harassment or threat, physical assault or coercion and may be directed repeatedly towards particular victims, perhaps on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ability. The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a "target".

Additionally . . .

Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse – emotional, verbal, and physical. It typically involves subtle methods of coercion such as intimidation. Bullying behavior may include name calling, verbal or written abuse, exclusion from activities, exclusion from social situations, physical abuse, or coercion.

And . . .

As the verb to bully is defined as simply "forcing one's way aggressively or by intimidation", the term may generally apply to any life experience where one is motivated primarily by intimidation instead of by more positive goals such as mutually shared interests and benefits. As such, any figure of authority or power which may use intimidation as a primary means of motivating others, such as a neighborhood "protection racket don", a national dictator, a childhood ring-leader, a terrorist, a terrorist organization, or even a ruthless business CEO, could rightfully be referred to as a bully. According to psychologist Pauline Rennie-Peyton, we each face the possibility of being bullied in any phase of our lives.

Another name for bullying is mobbing, a common phenomenon in the form of group bullying at school. This type of bullying involves 'ganging up' on someone using tactics of rumor, innuendo, discrediting, isolating, intimidating, and above all, making it look as if the targeted person is responsible (victim blaming).

Sound familiar?

Iran must stop building nuclear devices because they are being mobbed or bullied by a group of other nations who fear the possibility that Iran is preparing to build nuclear weapons.

Which they undoubtedly are doing, in my opinion.

_____

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Sammy Davis Jr.

Born: December 8, 1925
Died May 16, 1990

Samuel George "Sammy" Davis, Jr. was an American entertainer. Primarily a dancer and singer, he was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities.

Davis started as a child vaudevillian who became known for his performances on Broadway and Las Vegas. He went on to become a world famous recording artist, television and film star. Davis was also a member of Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack".

Kim Basinger

Born: December 8, 1953
Age: 58 years old

Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model.

She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again (1983), and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman (1989). Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture nomination for her work in The Natural (1984). She won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in L.A. Confidential (1997). Basinger also acted in the movies 9½ Weeks (1986), I Dreamed of Africa (as Kuki Gallmann) and 8 Mile (2002).

Flip Wilson

Born: December 8, 1933
Died: November 25, 1998

Clerow Wilson, Jr., known professionally as Flip Wilson, was an American comedian and actor. In the early 1970s, Wilson hosted his own weekly variety series, The Flip Wilson Show. The series earned Wilson a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards.

In January 1972, Time magazine featured Wilson's image on their cover and named him "TV's first black superstar"

Sam Kinison

Born: December 8, 1953
Died: April 10, 1992

Samuel Burl "Sam" Kinison was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Kinison was known for his intense, harsh and politically incorrect genre humor. A former Pentecostal preacher, he performed stand-up routines that were most often characterized by an intense style, similar to enthusiastic preachers, punctuated by his trademark scream. He died in a car accident on April 10, 1992.

__________

If you let a bully come in your front yard, he'll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed.
--Lyndon B. Johnson

Lest We Forget . . .

ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR

 

 

The Attack
(YouTube)
 Franklin D. Roosevelt Declares War with Japan

(YouTube)

(I was two and a half years old on December 7, 1941)

____________________

WORD FOR TODAY

treachery
Noun
Betrayal of trust; deceptive action or nature.
synonyms
Deceitfulness - untrustworthiness

_____

 

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 

Noam Chomsky

 

Birthday: December 7, 1928
Age: 83 years old

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, historian, political critic, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. In addition to his work in linguistics, he has written on war, politics, and mass media, and is the author of over 100 books.

According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar from 1980 to 1992, and was the eighth most cited source overall. He has been described as a prominent cultural figure, and he was voted the "world's top public intellectual" in a 2005 poll.

Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and a major figure of analytic philosophy. His work has influenced fields such as computer science, mathematics, and psychology

Larry Bird

 

Birthday: December 7, 1956
Age: 55 years old

Larry Joe Bird is an American former NBA basketball player, coach, and team president. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Bird was a 12-time NBA All-Star and was named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times. He played his entire professional career for Boston, winning three NBA championships.

Ted Knight

 

Birthday: December 7, 1923
Died: August 26, 1986

Ted Knight was an American actor best known for playing the comedic role of Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort, and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack.

Eli Wallach

 

Birthday: December 7, 1915
Age: 96 years old

Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance as Silva Vacarro in Baby Doll, he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. Among his most famous roles are Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Calvera in The Magnificent Seven. Other portrayals include Don Altobello in The Godfather Part III, Cotton Weinberger in The Two Jakes, and Arthur Abbott in The Holiday. He has remained active well into his nineties, with roles in recent films such as Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and The Ghost Writer.

__________

"Today, the US spends less on defense as a percentage of our economy than we did at any time since he Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the world's only superpower, that is an invitation to very serious trouble."
--Steve Forbes

I Have Been Called A Skeptic

 

Tucson Weather Today
 

_________________

 

Three Propositions For Which I Have Doubts

The speed of light is six trillion miles per year.

 

The universe is thirteen and a half billion years old.

 

The speed of light cannot be exceeded within the space of
our universe by any physical object originally propelled
by any purely physical means.

_____

 

Each day Just a short time after she eats her morning meal Eva goes out (with me as her escort) to the back deck to check out all of the existing new and exciting scents that hang in the air and then drift in from out over the desert. To watch over this land, her home range, her domain, is Eva's instinctive job, her solemn duty, her main responsibility. And she does it well.

On one of those recent mornings, I grabbed up my little camera and snapped a quick shot.

 

Sunrise Over Mountains

 

 

_____

 



Later, around noon, I went out for a walk down Calle de Valle and turned right (west) onto Fort Lowell Road then continued on over to Malopomene. At the juncture of Fort Lowell and Conestoga Avenue, I espied a large house that is seemingly supplementing its commercial electric power.

 

 

_____

 

 

WORDS FOR TODAY

proposition
Noun
A statement or assertion that expresses a judgment or opinion.

juncture
Noun
A place where things join.

_____

 

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 

Wally Cox

 

Birthday:   December 6, 1924
Death Date:   Feb 15, 1973

 

Wallace Maynard Cox was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. television series Mr. Peepers (1952–1955), plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films. Wally Cox was the voice of the popular animated cartoon character Underdog. Although often cast as a meek milquetoast, he was actually strong and athletic.

 

 

 

Agnes Moorehead

 

Birthday: December 6, 1900
Died: April 30, 1974

 

Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences for her role as the witch Endora in the series Bewitched.

 

 

 

William S. Hart

 

Birthday:   December 6, 1870
Death Date:   Jun 23, 1946

 

William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity. A successful Shakespearean actor on Broadway who had worked with Margaret Mather and other stars, he appeared in the original 1899 stage production of Ben-Hur.

 

Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture western. Fascinated by the Old West, he acquired Billy the Kid's "six shooters" and was a friend of legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.

 

 

John Singleton Mosby

 

Birthday:  December 6, 1833
Date of death: May 30, 1916

 

John Singleton Mosby, nicknamed the "Gray Ghost", was a Confederate cavalry battalion commander in the American Civil War. His command, the 43rd Battalion, 1st Virginia Cavalry, known as Mosby's Rangers or Mosby's Raiders, was a partisan ranger unit noted for its lightning quick raids and its ability to elude Union Army pursuers and disappear, blending in with local farmers and townsmen. The area of northern central Virginia in which Mosby operated with impunity was known during the war and ever since as Mosby's Confederacy. After the war, Mosby worked as an attorney and supported his former enemy's commander, President Ulysses S. Grant, serving as the U.S. consul to Hong Kong and in the Department of Justice.

 

More about Mosby

 

_____

 

RAIN by Raymond Carver
(check it out)
 

__________

 

 It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better.
--Ambrose Bierce

 



The Fabulous 1950s

Tucson Weather Today

 

_________________

In case you missed it yesterday, The Writers Almanac featured a fine poem by Alden Nowlan titled Great Things Have Happened and you can read it here

_____

Notable Events on December 5.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress by profession; she was also the secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. Twelve years before her history-making arrest, Parks was stopped from boarding a city bus by driver James F. Blake, who ordered her to board at the back door and then drove off without her.

Parks vowed never again to ride a bus driven by Blake. As a member of the NAACP, Parks was an investigator assigned to cases of sexual assault. In 1945, she was sent to Abbeville, Alabama, to investigate the gang rape of Recy Taylor. The protest that arose around the Taylor case was the first instance of a nationwide civil rights protest, and it laid the groundwork for the Montgomery bus boycott.

In 1955, Parks completed a course in "Race Relations" at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee where non-violent civil disobedience had been discussed as a tactic. On December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting in the frontmost row for black people. When a Caucasian man boarded the bus, the bus driver told everyone in her row to move back.

At that moment, Parks realized that she was again on a bus driven by Blake. While all of the other black people in her row complied, Parks refused, and was arrested for failing to obey the driver's seat assignments, as city ordinances did not explicitly mandate segregation but did give the bus driver authority to assign seats.

Found guilty on December 5, 1955, Parks was fined $10 plus a court cost of $4, but she appealed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott#Rosa_Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks

 

Martin Luther King in background

 

Read more here . . .

Back then, in the middle 1950s era, I was preparing to go into the Air Force, which after a minor surgery, I did so in the following year. On the train ride down to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas I became one of many (four railroad cars full) trainees, many of them being black men.

In my hometown there lived all throughout my younger years only one black person, Mary Pinkerton, whose mother had been a slave. So the proximity of this group of black-skinned companions was something quite new to me. But tending toward teenage liberalist idealism, I had no trouble fitting in.

The train had a layover in Texarkana, Texas. Not in a railroad station, but in a train yard on the outskirts of town. It was announced that we would be in that location for more than two hours and we could all disembark and visit the nearby cafeteria.

We did so en masse, all four railroad cars of young men from the Northern states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and New York. When we got to the cafeteria we found that the front entrance was labeled

WHITES ONLY
COLORED SECTION IN BACK.

After a hurried consultation, wherein the WHITES declared they would eat in the back with the COLOREDS, and the blacks among us all said that, no it was fine and we should ignore it instead of causing trouble, So what we did was just yell out our displeasure and all of us turned around and went back to the train without any food.


Once, a long time ago, I wrote a short story about that incident. But it was an amateurish attempt. I didn't like the story and never tried to get it published. I have a notion to search through my old files on one of my memory sticks and look at it again. Or, if I can't find it, I might rewrite it. In fact, that would probably be my best bet.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

boycott

A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest.

_____

 

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 

Little Richard

 

Birthday: December 5, 1932
Age: 79 years old

Richard Wayne Penniman, known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the mid-1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and contributed significantly to the early development of soul music.

"Tutti Frutti" reached #2 on Billboard's R&B chart. Seventeen more hit singles followed in less than three years, three of which reached number 1. While most of these hits were characterized by a driving piano, boogie-woogie bass line, a variety of rhythmic drumbeats, and wild screams before Lee Allen's sax solos, such as "Rip It Up", "Lucille", "Jenny, Jenny", "Good Golly, Miss Molly", "Keep A-Knockin'", "True Fine Mama". During this period, Penniman's "electrifying movie-star looks" were featured as he performed his hit songs in three films, including The Girl Can't Help It (1956), in which he sang the hit title track, Don't Knock the Rock (1956), and Mister Rock and Roll (1957).

Walt Disney

 

Birthday: December 5, 1901
Died: December 15, 1966

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O. Disney, he was co-founder of Walt Disney Productions, which later became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation is now known as The Walt Disney Company and had an annual revenue of approximately US$36 billion in the 2010 financial year.

Disney is particularly noted as a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, for whom Disney himself provided the original voice.

During his lifetime he received four honorary Academy Awards and won 22 Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual in history. Disney also won seven Emmy Awards and gave his name to the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the U.S., as well as the international resorts Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

George Armstrong Custer

 

Birthday:   December 5, 1839
Date of death: June 25, 1876

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, all potential officers were needed, and Custer was called to serve with the Union Army.

His disastrous final battle overshadowed his prior achievements. Custer and all the men with him were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, fighting against a coalition of Native American tribes in a battle that has come to be popularly known in American history as "Custer's Last Stand".

Martin Van Buren

 

Birthday:   December 5, 1782
Date of death: July 24, 1862

Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States (1837–1841). Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President (1833–1837) and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson (1829–1831).

__________

On general principle, I boycott shows that don't employ actors.
--Aisha Tyler

Aisha Tyler

 

Hey Buddy, Have A Drink

Tucson Weather Today

 

_________________

An intentionally overused indoctrinational term intensely echoed by each outlet of the clueless media that makes me want to seriously vomit is The Fiscal Cliff.

_____

I just recently learned that GEICO is an acronym for Government Employees Insurance Company.

Did you know that?

_____

Why do so many people on the planet drink alcohol?

 

What is so fine about fine wines?

Surely the reason for craving alcohol (aside from physical addiction) is not merely for the flavor. Modern chemistry can modify simple grape juice to create a festive and seemingly elite elixir placed within an expensive bottle, any fine flavor that might appear desirable to members of the supposed human elect -- so why has rude plebeian alcohol not been abandoned long ago in favor of mildly hallucinatory but relatively harmless drugs?

From age 15 (in 1954) until the age of 42 (in 1982) I was an avid if not addicted imbiber of various alcoholic products. Then, all at once, I simply stopped drinking anything containing alcohol.

Why?

There were many reasons; some are quite personal and some I don't wish to disclose. But the principal reason is that ingesting alcohol was making me physically ill. Not merely a suffering from a regular hangover, but a severely painful rejection by my tortured stomach and a debilitating sluggishness of my intellect. My doctor told me that I had evidently acquired an intolerance for alcohol.

So I stopped drinking alcoholic beverages.

Simple as that.


Exactly what effect does alcohol have on the human brain?

The image below is from MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE of alcohol, the brain experiences impairments in the regions shown:

Frontal Lobe (A) Loss of reason, caution, inhibitions, sociability, talkativeness and intelligence.
Parietal Lobe (B) Loss of fine motor skills, slower reaction time, shaking.
Temporal Lobe (C) Slurred speech, impaired hearing.
Occipital Lobe (D) Blurred vision, poor distance judgement.
Cerebellum (E) Lack of muscle coordination and balance.
Brain Stem (F) Loss of vital functions.

Alcohol's effects on the Brain and Body

This blog entry is meant neither as a sermon nor a morality lecture; it's just a topic nibbling at my mind at the moment. After I think some more about it, I might elaborate on the subject.

. . . Or not.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

acronym
noun
A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging.

Note: I especially like SCUBA for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

_____

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 

Marisa Tomei

 

Born December 4, 1964
Age: 47 years old

Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987. After appearing in a few films, her breakthrough came in 1992 with the comedy My Cousin Vinny, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Appearing in many films over the past fifteen years, her most commercially successful films to date are What Women Want (2000), Anger Management (2003), and Wild Hogs (2007). She received critical acclaim for her performances in Unhook the Stars (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) and received Academy Award nominations for her performances in In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008).

Note: Marisa Tomei is one of those celebrities for which I feel some mysteriously profound attraction. And I don't know why. But GOD -- she's gorgeous.

Jeff Bridges

 

Born December 4, 1949
Age: 62 years old

Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor, musician, producer, photographer, cartoonist, storyteller, and occasional vintner. He comes from a well-known acting family and began his first televised acting in 1958 as child with his father, Lloyd Bridges, and brother Beau on television's Sea Hunt.

Among his best-known major motion films are: Tron (and its sequel), Fearless, Iron Man, The Contender, Starman, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jagged Edge, Against All Odds, The Fisher King, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Seabiscuit, Arlington Road, and The Big Lebowski. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart and earned his sixth Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in 2010's True Grit.

George A. Hormel

 

Born December 4, 1860
Died June 5, 1946

George Albert Hormel was the founder of Hormel (then known as George A. Hormel & Co.) in 1891.

Hormel was born in Buffalo, New York, USA, in 1860 and later settled in Austin, Minnesota. He established his meat packing company in 1891 and established a food company that continues to thrive today. He remained head of the company until 1929 (passed to his son Jay Catherwood Hormel).

Tyra Banks

 

Born December 4, 1973
Age: 38 years old

Tyra Lynne Banks is an American model and television personality. She first became famous as a model, appearing twice on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and working for Victoria's Secret as one of their original Angels. Banks is the creator and host of the UPN/The CW reality television show America's Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and was the host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Banks is one of four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.

__________

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

What Is Patriotism?

Tucson Weather Today

_________________

 

After watching yesterday's Sunday morning TV news shows I have come to the conclusion that the greatest share of the panelists are doing nothing more than reenacting their most recent dinner conversations and cocktail party chit chats, while the invited guest politicians and elected officials only repeat their party's 'talking points.'

Viewing these give 'em what they want performances are worse than useless to the viewer who is looking for unbiased information; they are the means of spreading, legitimizing, and subtly solidifying the same old lies propounded again and again forever by both political parties.

While I honestly believe what I have just written, I can still say truthfully that I am glad and extremely thankful to the fates that I was born an American citizen. There is nowhere else on Planet Earth that I would rather live than in the United States of America.

No matter how often I complain.

_____

Freedom in America

Freedom in America
Isn't really free;
We often pay a price
To keep our liberty.

Remember those we loved,
Who fought for us, and died;
And those we never knew
For whom others mourned and cried.

At home our "war" for freedom
Is sadly overdue;
We've let corruption stage
A sad and grievous coup.

No longer can we brush off
Dishonesty and greed,
Lust for wealth and power;
We can't, we won't concede.

Complacency is weakness
Patriots can't afford;
We have to act on wrongs
That cannot be ignored.

We must give up some time,
Spent on other pleasures,
To restore America's freedom,
To keep America's treasures.

Money spent on trifles
Must now go to our cause:
Get rid of the offenders,
Constitutional outlaws.

Freedom in America
Isn't really free
It's up to American patriots;
It's up to you and me.

--Joanna Fuchs

Buy Joanna A Drink

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

patriot [PAY-tree-uht]
Noun
A person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.

_____

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 

 

Andy Williams

 

Birthday: December 3, 1927
Died: September 26, 2012

Howard Andrew "Andy" William was an American popular music singer. He recorded seventeen Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials. Most recently, he performed at his Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri, which was named after the Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini song "Moon River", with which he is closely identified.

Ferlin Husky

 

Birthday December 3, 1925
Died: March 17, 2011

Ferlin Eugene Husky was an early American country music singer who was equally adept at the genres of traditional honky honk, ballads, spoken recitations, and rockabilly pop tunes. He had two dozen Top 20 hits in the Billboard country charts between 1953 and 1975; his versatility and matinee-idol looks propelling a seven-decade entertainment career.

In the 1950s and 60s, Husky's hits included "Gone" and "Wings of a Dove", each reaching No. 1 on the country charts.

In 2010, Husky was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Daryl Hannah

 

Birthday: December 3, 1960
Age: 51 years old

Daryl Christine Hannah is an American film actress. She is best known for her performances in the films Splash, Blade Runner, Roxanne, Wall Street, Steel Magnolias, and Kill Bill.

Julianne Moore

 

Birthday: December 3, 1960
Age: 51 years old

Julianne Moore (born Julie Anne Smith) is an American actress and a children's book author. She has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs, nine Screen Actors Guild Awards, and has won two Emmy Awards.

Moore began her acting career in 1983 with minor roles, before joining the cast of the soap opera As the World Turns, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. She began to appear in supporting roles in films during the early 1990s, in films such as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and Short Cuts (1993). By the middle of the decade, she had graduated to starring roles in Nine Months and Assassins (both 1995), and her performance in Boogie Nights (1997) brought her widespread attention and her first Academy Award nomination.

Her success continued with such films as The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), Hannibal (2001), and The Forgotten (2004). She also received three more Academy Award nominations for her performances in The End of the Affair (1999), Far From Heaven and The Hours (both 2002). Her most recent notable roles include The Kids Are All Right (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), and the HBO film Game Change (2012), in which she portrayed Sarah Palin.

__________

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
--Will Rogers

Purpose Of The Universe

Tucson Weather Today
 

_________________

 

Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is an astrophysicist and the Director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium, was asked, "Does the universe have a purpose?"

His answer is here on a Youtube video of less than three minutes duration.

I first encountered the question on Taslima's blog, No Country For Women --

And I even left a comment at the bottom of the entry giving my seemingly flippant but absolutely serious answer to the question.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

penchant
Noun
A strong or habitual liking for something or tendency to do something.
Synonyms:
inclination - tendency - leaning - liking - propensity

_____

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 

Ray Walston

 

Birthday:   December 2, 1914
Died:   Jan 1, 2001

Ray Walston was an American stage, television and film actor best known as the title character on the 1960s situation comedy My Favorite Martian. In addition, he is also remembered for his roles as Luther Billis in South Pacific (1949/1958), Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees (1955/1958), J.J. Singleton in The Sting (1973), high school teacher Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and Judge Henry Bone on the drama series Picket Fences (1992-1996).

Charles Ringling 

Birthday:   December 2, 1863
Died:   December 3, 1926

Charles Edward Ringling  was one of the Ringling brothers, who owned the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was in charge of production and greatly admired by the employees, who called him "Mr. Charlie" and sought his advice and help even for personal problems.

 Britney Spears

 

 Birthday:   December 2, 1981

Age:   30 years old

Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, she began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999, which became the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist.

During her first decade in the music industry, she became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s, and became the 'best-selling teenaged artist of all time' before she turned 20, garnering her honorific titles such as "Princess of Pop".

 Lucy Liu

 

Birthday:   December 2, 1968
Age:   43 years old

Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress, artist, narrator, and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal (1998–2002) for which she was nominated for both a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, and has also appeared in several hit Hollywood films including Payback, Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda. In 2012, Liu joined the cast of the TNT original series Southland in the recurring role of Jessica Tang for which she won the Critics'
Choice Television Award for Best Drama Guest Actress.

She is currently one of the two series lead actors of the CBS television crime drama Elementary, based on the story of Sherlock Holmes, in her role as Joan Watson.

__________

"The cool thing about being famous is traveling. I have always wanted to travel across seas, like to Canada and stuff."
--Britney Spears