With Eternal Life, Nothing Is Certain But Taxes

   
August Is National Sandwich Month

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. Buffett is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's wealthiest person in 2008 and as the third wealthiest person in 2011. In 2012, American magazine Time named Buffett one of the most influential people in the world.

Warren Buffett said: "If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."

In my opinion, Warren Buffett is absolutely right.

Keep in mind, however, that I also believe that Henry David Thoreau was absolutely right when he said that "books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations." If I possess, tucked away somewhere within the cellular storage area of my brain -- in the matrix of my mnemonic-dependent memory -- the entire contents of all the books I have read in my lifetime, then I am certainly wealthy beyond all belief and imagination.

Me and Warren Buffett -- both of us wealthy in our own lights.

How 'bout that?

While reading from the rather rambling (often chaotic) chapters of Darren Greer's novel Still Life With June I came across a reference to being pissed off. And it struck me that pissed off was a strange way to indicate that the speaker is annoyed, nettled, miffed, riled, peeved, steamed, or displeased. What does 'pissed' have to do with anything? Where did the term come from?

I looked and looked, all over the Internet. The best ideas as to its origin came from a Random House website titled The Mavens' Word Of The Day. It did not answer my specific question, but it did offer some interesting conjectures.

Oh well . . .

You can't always get what  you want.

Now that pisses me off.

_____

TRIVIA

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, August 5, in 1861, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln imposed the first United States federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agreed to impose a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800.

Congress repealed Lincoln's tax law in 1871, but in 1909 passed the 16th Amendment, which set in place the federal income-tax system used today. Congress ratified the 16th Amendment in 1913.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

taxation
noun
1.
a. The act or practice of imposing taxes.
b. The fact of being taxed.
2. An assessed amount of tax.
3. Revenue gained from taxes.

A tax (from the Latin taxo; "rate") is a financial charge or other levy imposed upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many administrative divisions. Taxes consist of direct or indirect taxes and may be paid in money or as its labor equivalent.

According to Black's Law Dictionary, a tax is a "pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property owners to support the government."

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Neil Alden Armstrong

(Aug, 5, 1930 -Aug. 25, 2012)

Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon.

Loni Kaye Anderson

(born August 5, 1945)

Loni Anderson is an American actress who is known for having played the role of Jennifer Marlowe on the CBS television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati and for playing Jayne Mansfield and Thelma Todd in television movies.

J. Wesley "Jesse" Williams

(born August 5, 1981)

Jesse Williams is an American actor and model, best known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery on the ABC Television series Grey's Anatomy. He also appeared as Lena's boyfriend Leo in the film sequel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. In 2012, he starred in the horror film The Cabin in the Woods.

Maureen Denise McCormick

(born August 5, 1956)

Maureen McCormick is an American actress, author and recording artist. She is most widely known for her career as a child actress, during which she portrayed Marcia Brady on ABC's The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.

__________

It is no more immoral to directly rob citizens than to slip indirect taxes into the price of goods that they cannot do without.
--Albert Camus

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Action Movies by Guest Blogger

   

Action Movies

I've lost the illusion of credibility in action movies.

Recovering from surgery, I have what I'd consider to be lots of free time. One of the things I'm doing, during this time when I cannot do anything (doctor's orders), is watching movies I've been wanting to watch, and re-watching old favorites.

Among them, the occasional action flick.

It's the climactic ending sequence. The good guy and the bad guy are locked in lethal embrace, perhaps rolling around in some convenient dirt. Our Hero has a wound; gunshot to the shoulder, broken leg, stab wound to the gut, something. (Oh, man, is that ever going to infect.)

During the height of the action, the bad guy (and this is how we know he's truly a bad guy and we aren't like him at all) punches, kicks, or bites Our Hero where he's already wounded.

Oh, my! We draw a collective breath and ache for our idol as he grimaces in pain. He might even yell (never scream, though, oh, no) but he never, ever stops fighting.

It's a gratifying look into how we wish we could handle our battles.

Yesterday, witnessing such a scene, I laughed. I know the producer, director, and assorted staff of the production weren't looking for that particular reaction, but I couldn't help it. As Our Hero winced in pain, I laughed.

Because now I see that most likely our hero would, in reality, be writhing on the ground in pain. Not a gentle wince, not a token yell, but flat-out on the ground rolling in agony. (The exception is, of course, a good kick in the groin, which always -- always -- puts even Our Hero on the ground.)

You see, I have a wound. (It's healing fine, thank you.) And I know, now, that given how even casual movement causes such lancing pain, I couldn't survive a purposeful punch. Still, even today, working on four weeks later, I'm not sure it wouldn't put me back in the hospital. Then, when it was fresh, I have no doubt I'd have curled up and died, right there. The villain would be standing over my body, laughing evilly, as he prepared to rule an uncontested world.

Because there's no way I could deal with such pain with a grimace. I know that people's pain thresholds are different, and Heroes necessarily come with a much higher one than mine, but still, they're human.

So when the villain punched Our Hero in the gunshot shoulder, I laughed. Perversely, even laughing hurt.


Copyright 2013 Michelle Hakala

http://www.winebird.com/

   

Rule # 1 - Change Your Eating Habits

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

'Nuff Said?

_____

TRIVIA

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. Guess I had better take more naps.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. The world's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus dived at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world. It then steamed on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe.

After a career spanning 25 years and almost 500,000 miles steamed, the Nautilus was decommissioned on March 3, 1980. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world's first nuclear submarine went on exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

carbohydrate
noun
Any of a class of organic compounds that are polyhydroxy aldehydes or polyhydroxy ketones, or change to such substances on simple chemical transformations, as hydrolysis, oxidation, or reduction, and that form the supporting tissues of plants and are important food for animals and people.

A carbohydrate is an organic compound comprising only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, usually with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water); in other words, with the empirical formula Cm(H2O)n (where m could be different from n). Some exceptions exist; for example, deoxyribose, a sugar component of DNA, has the empirical formula C5H10O4. Carbohydrates are technically hydrates of carbon; structurally it is more accurate to view them as polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones.

Oh come on now...  The Downhome Dictionary says carbs are things in food that ain't proteins or fats and if you eat too many of them too often you get really fat.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Martin Sheen

(born August 3, 1940)

Martin Sheen (born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez ) is an American actor who achieved fame with roles in the films Badlands (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Sheen has made notable appearances in films, including Wall Street (1987), Gettysburg (1993), The Departed (2006), and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). He has also appeared in television, notably as President Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing (1999–2006), and lent his voice as the Illusive Man in the Mass Effect video game trilogy.

Sheen is the father of four children (Emilio, Ramon, Carlos, known as Charlie Sheen, and Renee), all of whom are actors, as is younger brother Joe Estevez.

Martha Stewart

(born August 3, 1941)

Martha Stewart (born Martha Helen Kostyra) is an American business magnate, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising, and electronic commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books and is the publisher of the Martha Stewart Living magazine, while her syndicated talk show, Martha, is broadcast internationally.

In 2004, Stewart was convicted of charges related to the ImClone insider trading affair and there was speculation that the incident would effectively end her media empire. She began a comeback campaign in 2005 and her company returned to profitability in 2006. Stewart rejoined the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2011 and became chairman of her namesake company again in 2012.

Tony Bennett

(born August 3, 1926)

Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto) is an Italian-American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, having created works—under the name Anthony Benedetto—that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City.

Raised in New York City, Bennett had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco".

Jay North

(born August 3, 1951)

Jay North is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of six, North became a household name during the early 1960s for his role as the well-meaning, but mischievous, Dennis Mitchell on the CBS situation comedy Dennis the Menace, based on the comic strip created by Hank Ketcham.

__________

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
--Mark Twain

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

There Once Was A Writer . . .

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Edgar Dean Mitchell is an American pilot, retired Captain in the United States Navy and NASA astronaut. As the lunar module pilot of Apollo 14, he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon.

Mitchell is remembered for saying, "In outer space you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, 'Look at that, you son of a bitch.'"

Mitchell has publicly expressed his opinions that he is "90 percent sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, recorded since the 1940s, belong to visitors from other planets"

Of course, Mitchell's interests also include consciousness and paranormal phenomena. Buzz Aldrin once described a psychic communication experiment that Mitchell conducted during the Apollo 14 flight, wherein Mitchell attempted to transmit information to an observer on the ground. Aldrin stated that the experiment was a complete failure.

_____

While browsing through some of my earlier journal jottings I happened upon a line I had written back in January of 2010. I thought, Did I really write that? And I answered myself by affirming, Sure I did. I could still write meaningful memoranda at that time.

Revised just a bit, I wrote:

Weeds of religion and other superstitions flourish in the untilled soil of barren minds.
--Gene Chambers

That aphorism can be found toward the end of a journal entry listing some of my early published work.

Note: In modern usage an aphorism is generally understood to be a concise statement containing a subjective truth or observation cleverly and pithily written.

_____

TRIVIA

Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, August 2 in 1876 James Butler, known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, one of the greatest gunfighters of the American West, was murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Hickok was only 39 years old when he died. The most famous gunfighter in the history of the West died with his Smith & Wesson revolver in his holster, never having seen his murderer. According to legend, Hickok held a pair of black aces and black eights when he died, a combination that has since been known as the Dead Man's Hand.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

epitome [ih-pit-uh-mee]
noun
1. -  a person or thing that is typical of or possesses to a high degree the features of a whole class: He is the epitome of goodness.
2. -  a condensed account, especially of a literary work; abstract.
synonyms 
embodiment, exemplification, model, quintessence.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Carroll O'Connor

(Aug. 2, 1924 - June 21, 2001)

Carroll O'Connor was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades. O'Connor first attracted attention as Major General Colt in the 1970 movie Kelly's Heroes. The following year he found fame as the bigoted working man Archie Bunker, the main character in the 1970s CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971 to 1979) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979 to 1983).

O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night from 1988 to 1995, where he played the role of southern Police Chief William (Bill) Gillespie. At the end of his career in the late 1990s, he played the father of Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt) on Mad About You.

Mary-Louise Parker

(born August 2, 1964)

Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, best known for her lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin. Parker has appeared in films and series such as RED, RED 2, Fried Green Tomatoes, Boys on the Side, The West Wing, and Angels in America,

Joanna Cassidy

(born August 2, 1945)

Joanna Cassidy is an American film and television actress. She is known for her role as the replicant Zhora in Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner (1982). Cassidy also has starred in films such as Under Fire, The Fourth Protocol, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Package, Where the Heart Is and Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Vampire in Brooklyn and Ghosts of Mars. From 2001 to 2005, she played Margaret Chenowith on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. From 2011 to 2013, she played Joan Hunt on the ABC series Body of Proof.

Donna Air

(born August 2, 1979)

Donna Air is an English television presenter and actress. She started her career age 10 on the hit BBC series CBBC Byker Grove, just over 20 years ago. She has also acted in many television dramas, most recently Hollyoaks and Hotel Babylon, BBC TV comedy Operation Good Guys, Catherine Cooksons six parter A Dinner of Herbs, and Lynda La Plante's Supply and Demand. Air appeared in the films Still Crazy (1998), The Mummy Returns, and Bad Day amongst others.

__________

In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.
--Alexis de Tocqueville

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Korean Space Research... WOW!

   

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Seung Jo Kim, met in Washington to discuss collaboration in aeronautics research and space exploration, including KARI's robotic lunar mission and NASA's asteroid initiative. This was the first meeting between Bolden and Kim.

"Our two agencies share a mutual interest in aeronautics research, and have identified opportunities for collaboration," said Bolden. "We also have partnered for several years in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group and are looking forward to continued discussions on potential cooperation in space exploration."

Bolden and Kim also discussed NASA's plans for a new asteroid initiative, previously announced in President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget proposal. Kim welcomed the chance to discuss opportunities for collaboration.

NASA's asteroid initiative involves robotically capturing a small near-Earth asteroid and redirecting it safely to a stable lunar orbit where astronauts can explore it.

Capturing and redirecting an asteroid integrates the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration capabilities and draws on the innovation of America's brightest scientists and engineers. The knowledge gained from the initiative will help us protect our planet, advance exploration capabilities and technologies for human spaceflight, and help us better utilize our space resources.

--From NASA Release 13-235, July 29, 2013

I don't understand what Korea can contribute to America's space endeavor. And I have found little regarding their value to NASA.

According to Wikipedia, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute is developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, high-altitude airships, and a next-generation multi-purpose helicopter project. In addition, several satellites, including the KOMPSAT (also known as Arirang) Seriese, the COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite), and the STSAT (Science and Technology Satellite), are developed, operated, or under development by KARI. On January 30, 2013, they launched a satellite into space from their own soil for the first time.

_____

A couple of interesting little factoids pertaining to today's date caught my attention.

On this day, August 1, back in 2001, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore had a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office. Christians just can't seem to accept the simple but absolutely necessary principle of separation of Church and State. They are almost as stubborn about that as are Moslems.

Also, on this day, August 1 in 1988, Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program. I am listening to him right now on radio station KNST in Tucson.

_____

TRIVIA

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

Charles Joseph Whitman was an engineering student and former United States Marine. On the afternoon of August 1, 1966 he killed seventeen people and wounded thirty-two others in a mass shooting rampage located in and around the Tower of the University of Texas in Austin. Three people were shot and killed inside the university's tower and eleven others were murdered after Whitman fired at random from the 28th-floor observation deck of the Main Building.

Prior to the shootings at the University of Texas, Whitman had murdered both his wife and mother in Austin.

Whitman was shot and killed by Austin Police Officer Houston McCoy.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

transcendent  (tran-sen'-dunt)
adjective
1. Surpassing others; preeminent or supreme.
2. Lying beyond the ordinary range of perception.
3. (Philosophy)
a. Transcending the Aristotelian categories.
b. In Kant's theory of knowledge, being beyond the limits of experience and hence unknowable.
4. Being above and independent of the material universe. Used of the Deity.

In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature and power which is wholly independent of (and removed from) the material universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways. In religious experience transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence and by some definitions has also become independent of it. This is typically manifested in prayer, seance, meditation, psychedelics and paranormal "visions".

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Tempestt Bledsoe

(born August 1, 1973)

Tempestt Bledsoe is an American actress. She is best known for her childhood role as Vanessa Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.

Note: A few years ago, I saw Tempestt Bledsoe sitting outside her room on the VIP floor of the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. She smiled at me as I walked by and gave me a little wave. A guy tends to remember little things like that.

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia

(Aug. 1, 1942 - Aug. 9, 1995) 

Jerry Garcia was an American musician who was best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead.

Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions, and was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995

In 1987, ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's came out with Cherry Garcia (my favorite ice cream flavor) which is named after the guitarist and consists of "cherry ice cream with cherries and fudge flakes"

Dominick "Dom" DeLuise

(Aug. 1, 1933 - May 4, 2009)

Dom DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the father of actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise, actor David DeLuise, and actor Michael DeLuise. He starred in a number of movies directed by Mel Brooks, in a series of films with career-long best friend Burt Reynolds, and as a voice actor in various animated films.

William Clark

(Aug. 1, 1770 - Sept. 1, 1838)

William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri. Clark was a planter and slaveholder.

Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark led the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803 to 1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States. Afterward, he served as governor of the Missouri Territory. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

__________

Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
--William S. Burroughs

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Life Should Be Inspired Before It Has Expired

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

While digitally paging through a myriad of blogs, I happened upon one that listed itself as filled with inspirational content. Not one of the declarations within was signed, so here is some of the inspirational wisdom I took away from it.

The only time it's too late to change yourself is when you're dead. Until then, you're simply making excuses or lying to yourself.

Determination today leads to success tomorrow.

Someone will always be prettier.
They will always be smarter.
Their house will be bigger.
They will drive a better car.
Their children will do better in school.
And their husband will fix more things around the house.
So let it go,
and love you and your circumstances.
Think about it.
The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart.
And the most highly favored
Woman on your job may be unable to have children.
And the richest woman you know,
she's got the car, the house, the clothes....might be lonely.
And the word says if "I have not Love, I am nothing."
So, again, love you.
Love who you are.
Look in the mirror in the morning and smile and say
"I am too blessed to be stressed and too anointed to be disappointed!"
"Winners make things happen.
Losers let things happen."
"To the world you might be one person,
but to one person you just might be the world".

There were more, many more  -- but that's enough for now.

_____

TRIVIA

Napoleon III suffered from ailurophobia - which is a fear of cats.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, July 31, 1975,Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa was reported missing in Detroit, Michigan. He was last seen alive in a parking lot outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant the previous afternoon. To this day, Hoffa's fate remains a mystery, although many believe that he was murdered by organized crime figures.

Authorities have never been able to confirm what really happened to Hoffa. He was declared legally dead in 1982.

The latest search for the remains of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa ended on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 in a field near Detroit, where federal agents had dug with heavy equipment and shovels for three days in the hope of answering the decades old question, "Whatever happened to Jimmy Hoffa?"

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

inspiration
noun
1. an inspiring or animating action or influence: I cannot write poetry without inspiration.
2. something inspired, as an idea.
3. a result of inspired activity.
4. a thing or person that inspires.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Dean George Cain

(born July 31, 1966)

Dean Cain is an American actor. He is most widely known for his role as Clark Kent/Superman in the popular American television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Zelda Rae Williams

(born July 31, 1989)

Zelda Williams is an American actress and the daughter of actor and comedian Robin Williams. Her father stated that she was named after Princess Zelda of The Legend of Zelda series of video games. Acting professionally, her first big role was that of Melissa Loggia, the main character's teenage love interest in the 2004 film House of D. In 2007, she was chosen as one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People

Wesley Trent Snipes

(born July 31, 1962)

Wesley Snipes is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist, who has starred in numerous films, including action thrillers and dramatic features. Snipes is known for playing the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy, among various other high-profile roles.

In 2010, Snipes began serving a three-year prison sentence in McKean County, Pennsylvania for misdemeanor failure to file U.S. federal income tax returns. He was released from prison in 2013.

 Joanne "Jo" Rowling

(born July 31, 1965),

J. K. Rowling is a British novelist, best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. Since, Rowling has parted with her agency and resumed writing for adult readership, releasing the tragicomedy The Casual Vacancy (2012) and -- using the pseudonym Robert Galbraith --the crime fiction novel The Cuckoo's Calling (2013) which, according to Rowling, is the first of a series. 

Note: The Writer's Almanac has a nice write-up about J.K. Rowling today.  When I was reading it early this morning, I noticed the following sentence: "It took J.K. Rowling awhile to find a publisher for her novel..." and I thought, 'Is that correct English grammar, using the word 'awhile' instead of the two word form, 'a while?' I haven't looked it up yet. But I will.

__________

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
--Jack London

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Hey! Who You Callin' Fatso?

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Book Review:
Michael Moss' Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

With Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Michael Moss has laid out the foundation and blueprints of the inevitable future raft of class action lawsuits targeting the food industry for knowingly and scientifically designing products that encourage their over-consumption despite their known and well understood risks.

The book is a painful joy to read. Painful because it does a bang up job of demonstrating just how screwed we all are -- not only in that the food industry is savvier and scarier than we might imagine, but in the complicity of government to look the other way...

When I read the above described book review, it did not make me want to read the book, but it did make me angry. At first. Then my anger morphed into the usual sadness that nearly overcomes me every time I remember all the malicious ills visited upon the heads of the people by the greed, corruption, and general viciousness of government officials in cahoots with heads of industry.

Do not be too quick to pooh-pooh all of those seemingly laughable conspiracy theories.


My own struggle with an expanding waistline isn't progressing smoothly. I have not gained a pound in the last month or so, but neither have I lost one. But I'm not giving up, just rethinking the method. Present weight: 175 pounds.

I've been told: Persevere and you will win the prize.

We'll see.

_____

TRIVIA

Francis Bacon died in his attempt to find a better way to serve food. He caught a case of pneumonia while attempting to stuff a chicken with snow.

The whole story

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, July 30 in 1956, two years after pushing to have the phrase "under God" inserted into the pledge of allegiance, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a law officially declaring "In God We Trust" to be the nation's official motto. The law, P.L. 84-140, also mandated that the phrase be printed on all American paper currency.

The first paper money with the phrase "In God We Trust" was not printed until 1957. Since then, religious and secular groups have argued over the appropriateness and constitutionality of a motto that mentions "God," considering the founding fathers dedication to maintaining the separation of church and state.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

diet [die-uht]
noun
1. The usual food and drink of a person or animal.
2. A regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss.
3. Something used, enjoyed, or provided regularly.
adjective
1. Of or relating to a food regimen designed to promote weight loss in a person or an animal.
2.
a. Having fewer calories.
b. Sweetened with a noncaloric sugar substitute.
3. Designed to reduce or suppress the appetite: diet pills; diet drugs.
verb intr.
To eat and drink according to a regulated system, especially so as to lose weight or control a medical condition.
verb tr.
To regulate or prescribe food and drink for.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger

(born July 30, 1947)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-born American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served two terms as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011. Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was the sword-and-sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian in 1982. This was followed by a sequel, Conan the Destroyer in 1984, and in 1984, he made his first appearance as The Terminator. During the 1980s he made a number of successful films, such as Commando, Raw Deal, The Running Man, Predator, Red Heat, and Twins.

In the 1990s Arnold starred in Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop,  Last Action Hero, Eraser, and Batman & Robin in which he played the villain Mr. Freeze.

 In 2003, he made his third appearance as the title character in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which went on to earn over $150 million domestically.

Lisa Valerie Kudrow

(born July 30, 1963)

Lisa Kudrow is an American actress, comedian and producer. She gained worldwide recognition for her ten-season run as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends,

Laurence John Fishburne III

(born July 30, 1961)

Laurence Fishburne is an American actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It.

From 2008 to 2011, he starred as Dr. Raymond Langston on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Fishburne has starred in several cult classics, including Boyz n the Hood, Deep Cover, and King of New York. He won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in Two Trains Running (1992), and an Emmy Award for Drama Series Guest Actor for his performance in TriBeCa (1993).

Hilary Ann Swank

(born July 30, 1974)

Hilary Swank is an American film actress. She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for playing Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (1998) and a struggling waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby (2004).

__________

After a lifetime of losing and gaining weight, I get it. No matter how you slice it, weight loss comes down to the simple formula of calories in, calories out.
--Valerie Bertinelli

NASA TV
   

This Is Who I Am