Guest Blogger 9/7/14

The Search For Custom.dic

It began innocuously enough -- subtly, gradually. But soon the need consumed me and I was helpless before it.

Ah-ah, get your mind out of the gutter. It may be keeping mine company, but that's not a good place for it.

I refer, of course, to the file that lists the words that I've added to the spellchecker in Microsoft Word. Custom.dic. If you have Word, you have a custom.dic.

It's not my fault they named it that.

First it was funny -- Wherehouse Entertainment comes up as Whorehouse  Entertainment and I decide quickly that 'Wherehouse' is something I'd better add to the custom.dic file. Then there's all those employee names I'm always using. Roger, and Sheryl, and Fran, and Debbie. Gotta add those, too, otherwise you're forever telling the machine, "Yeah, I know Fran and yes, it's spelled right!"

Then little by little, you find you're adding words by the dozens and can't seem to stop. What's one more word? Anaheim, sure. I'll use that again. Solipsistic, yeah, gotta have that one.

Soon you're adding acronyms. DPA, PD0, and CAC certainly need to be there.

Then one day, you're checking a letter and Pow! the spellchecker throws a word up there that you've never seen before. It wants to change 'Barstow' to 'Barctow'. Barctow? How in the world did Barctow get into the custom.dic as a proper word?

Thus begins the search. To find the custom.dic and rid it of irregularities.

You look on the d:, and the s:, and the k: drives. Not there. You look on the c: drive but can't find it there, either.

But it must be there; Word is based on c:, so it has to be with Word.

Wait! Here's a Find File feature in File Manager. Could it? Would it?

Trembling fingers type in the word 'custom.dic' and press enter.

One file found! It's hiding on c:, but in a subdirectory of a subdirectory of a subdirectory. Custom.dic doesn't want to be found.

You wouldn't believe the words I took out of there. Some were recognizable, barely. Others had no place in the English language.

Today I have a slimmer, trimmer custom.dic and it's clean as a whistle.

Unlike your mind.

Copyright 2014 Michelle Hakala
http://www.winebird.com/

   

Some More Stuff

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
--John Locke

Below is a a relatively older photo of me with my granddaughter recently posted (not by me) on Facebook:

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Heavy rains are forecast for the weekend here in Tucson.

After dark, when I recently took Eva out for her last piddle of the night, she paused and stuck her nose down off the concrete deck onto the decorative rocks. I saw her quickly pull back her head. She then returned to nosing the curious object, and immediately jerked her head away from it again. By that time I was close enough to pull her back and head her off in the proper direction, and as I peered at the object in the dim light I saw that it was a small snake. It started angling off toward a rock pile. I couldn't tell if it was a baby rattler or not, only that it was about a foot long and dangerous looking (to me).

When the serpent was safely hidden in the rocks, I watched Eva do her business and then took her inside. And saw her off to bed, petting her head and assuring her that she was such a good girl.

Next morning I searched the area before allowing Eva out for her morning run around the pool deck. The snake was nowhere to be seen.

They are good at that, these creepy creatures... not being seen.


Hackers Breach Security of HealthCare.gov

The above is an intriguing article in the New York Times. Below is the opening paragraph:

WASHINGTON - Hackers breached security at the website of the government’s health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov, but did not steal any personal information on consumers, Obama administration officials said Thursday.

I am wondering how anyone could possibly know that no personal information was stolen. Could the hackers not be able to copy information without revealing their activity, no matter what 'administration officials' might say?

After all, cyber-security professionals have been warning that the health care site was a ripe target for hackers eager to gain access to personal data that could then be sold on the black market.

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Did You Know . . .?

The novel Native Son by Richard Wright is now required reading at many high schools across the country.

Note: Native Son is about a black man named Bigger Thomas who gets a job as a chauffeur for a beautiful young white woman and accidentally kills her.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1901, President William McKinley was shaking hands at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, when a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz approached him and fired two shots into his chest. The president rose slightly on his toes before collapsing forward, saying "be careful how you tell my wife." On September 16, after receiving a funeral befitting a president in Washington, D.C., McKinley's coffin was transported by train to his hometown of Canton, Ohio, for burial. Czolgosz was convicted and executed in an electric chair on October 29, 1901.

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WORD FOR TODAY

deleterious [del-uh-TEER-ee-uhs]
adjective
harmful; injurious; hurtful

If something is deleterious, it does harm or makes things worse. Smoking has obvious deleterious effects on your health, not to mention your social life.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Jeffrey Marshall "Jeff" Foxworthy

(born September 6, 1958)

Jeff Foxworthy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television and radio personality, author, and voice artist. He is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a comedy troupe which also comprises Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, and Ron White. Known for his "You might be a redneck" one-liners, Foxworthy has released six major-label comedy albums.

Jane Therese Curtin

(born September 6, 1947)

Jane Curtin is an American actress and comedian. She came to prominence as an original cast member on the hit TV comedy series Saturday Night Live in 1975. She went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie portraying the role of Allison "Allie" Lowell. Curtin later starred in the hit series 3rd Rock from the Sun, playing the role of Dr. Mary Albright.

Christopher James "Chris" Christie

(born September 6, 1962)

Chris Christie is the 55th Governor of New Jersey and a leading member of the Republican Party. He is viewed as a potential presidential candidate in 2016.

Swoosie Kurtz

(born September 6, 1944)

Swoosie Kurtz is an American actress. For her television work, she has received eight Emmy Award nominations, with one win for Carol and Company in 1990. Other television credits include the NBC drama Sisters, Huff, Pushing Daisies, and Mike & Molly. Her films include, Wildcats, Dangerous Liaisons, Stanley and Iris, Citizen Ruthm and Liar Liar.

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Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
--Joseph Addison

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What's Life Without Bureaucracy

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.
--Honore de Balzac

A SOMEWHAT SAD STORY

It's been two weeks since I filed an online temporary change of address with the United States Postal Service and I have not yet received any forwarded mail. By the way, they charge your credit card $20 now for the temporary change of address service.

The telephone here is out of order, so yesterday I had a cab take me to my apartment at Toscana Cove to pick up my accumulated mail. The round-trip cab ride cost me $35. Here's the sad part. When I got there I found my Mail Box empty of mail.

So I figured my mail is piling up at the local post office. I can't call the P.O. because the phone here is out of order, and I didn't call from my apartment because the cab's meter was running. And besides, the USPS customer service online info page says that I must always include my confirmation number in all telephone calls, which I do not have. It is printed at the top of the printed out and signed application for service that I gave to my mail carrier two weeks ago.

So I sent an email to the USPS Customer Service department with the sad story and requested a reply via email. It said, "Thank you for using the USPS - you should receive a response in one or two days."

Time will tell.

I guess a lot of wasted time, energy, and frustration would have been avoided if I had only allowed myself to have one of those consarned cell phones.

Oh well . . .  I'll get it all straightened out sooner or later. Don't get much mail that amounts to a hill of beans anyway.


It rained hard last night from about 7 o'clock till after I went to bed at 9:00. Rain pounded down, thunder thundered, lightning flickered and flashed again and again. and Eva lay quietly on the carpet right at my feet the whole time.

She does not like thunderstorms.

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Did You Know . . .?

A robot named HitchBot traveled all the way across Canada in a month, relying on rides from strangers and tweeting photos and status updates for the entire journey.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1975, President Gerald R. Ford survived an attempt on his life in Sacramento, California. The assailant, a petite, red haired, freckle-faced young woman named Lynette Fromme approached the president while he was walking near the California Capitol and raised a .45 caliber handgun toward him. Before she was able to fire off a shot, Secret Service agents tackled her and wrestled her to the ground. Seventeen days later, another woman, Sarah Jane Moore, a mentally unstable accountant, tried to assassinate Ford while he was in San Francisco. Her attempt was thwarted by a bystander who instinctively grabbed Moore's arm when she raised the gun. Although she fired one shot, it did not find its target. The bystander, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran named Oliver Sipple, was publicly thanked by Ford three days later.

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WORD FOR TODAY

bureaucracy
noun
1. government by many bureaus, administrators, and petty officials.
2. the body of officials and administrators, especially of a government or government department.
3. excessive multiplication of, and concentration of power in, administrative bureaus or administrators.
4. administration characterized by excessive red tape and routine.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Michael Keaton

(born September 5, 1951)

Michael Keaton is an American actor who became popular for his early comedic film roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice, and later gained international fame for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne / Batman in Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns. He has appeared in various other films, including Night Shift, Mr. Mom, Clean and Sober, Pacific Heights, The Other Guys and Jackie Brown, and has also provided voicework for Pixar's Cars and Toy Story.

Raquel Welch

(born September 5, 1940)

Raquel Welch is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in Fantastic Voyage (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century-Fox. They loaned her to a British studio where she made One Million Years B.C. (1966). Although she had only three lines in the film, the doe-skin bikini she wore became a best-selling poster that turned her into an iconic sex symbol and catapulted her to stardom.

George Robert "Bob" Newhart

(born September 5, 1929)

Bob Newhart is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide bestseller and reached number one on the Billboard pop album chart -- it remains the 20th best-selling comedy album in history.

Newhart later went into acting, starring in two long-running and award-winning situation comedies, first as psychologist Dr. Robert "Bob" Hartley on the 1970s sitcom The Bob Newhart Show and then as innkeeper Dick Loudon on the 1980s sitcom Newhart. In 2004 he played the library head Judson in The Librarian and in 2013 he guest starred in three episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Katerina Alexandre Hartford "Kat" Graham

(born September 5, 1989)

Kat Graham is a Swiss-born American actress, model, singer, and dancer. She is best known for her role of Bonnie Bennett on The CW television series The Vampire Diaries.

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Bureaucracy is like a fungus that contaminates everything.
--Jaime Lerner

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World News: The Latest And Greatest

     

Tucson Weather Today

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We were at a beach one summer, and I had a bathing suit on. My wife looked at me and said: "Boy, you are skinny, aren't you?" I said: "Honey, I'd like to remind you that it was minor defects like this that kept me from getting a better wife."
--Lou Holtz

Recently, on TV's The CBS Morning News I heard the guest expert of the day, a doctor (an attractive, scrupulously made-up, young, female doctor) explaining to Charlie Rose and the audience that sexual activity is good for people because it releases endorphins that reduce stress, give pleasure, and make the participants feel good. Charkie began to laugh, and when questioned about it, explained his laughter by shaking his head and saying something like it's such a surprise that having sex feels good.

Now that's an example of up to the minute, relevant, in-depth Television News.


The following is an example of Online Published News:

E.O. Wilson recently calculated that the only way humanity could stave off a mass extinction crisis, as devastating as the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, would be to set aside half the planet as permanently protected areas for the ten million other species. “Half Earth,” in other words, as I began calling it -- half for us, half for them. 

Read the entire piece


A news story from The Chicago Sun Times reported that Republican Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner disclosed Tuesday that he belongs to a an “exclusive wine club that cost upward of $100,000 to join.”

WOW! Does this mean that a wino is running for governor? I can hardly wait to read that story in its entirety.

Note: The Urban Dictionary defines a wino as someone who props up walls in the street, drinking an unidentifiable drink (it needn't be wine, could also be spirits, special brew, or lighter fluid) out of a paper bag whilst swearing incoherently and dribbling.

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Did You Know . . .?

Bedbugs can survive in the freezer for three days.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Geronimo was the last American Indian warrior. For almost 30 years he fought the whites,but this wiliest and most dangerous Apache warrior of his time, surrendered in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, on this day in 1886. After several years of imprisonment, Geronimo was given his freedom. He moved to Oklahoma where he converted to Christianity and became a successful farmer. Transformed into a safe and romantic symbol of the already vanishing era of the Wild West, he became a popular celebrity at world's fairs and expositions and even rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905. He died at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909, still on the federal payroll as an army scout.

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WORD FOR TODAY

midden
noun
1. A dunghill or refuse heap.
2. Archaeology A mound or deposit containing shells, animal bones, and other refuse that indicates the site of a human settlement. Also called kitchen midden.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter

(born September 4, 1981)

Beyonce is an American singer, songwriter and actress.

Phillip "Phil" Lewis

(born September 4, 1968)

Phil Lewis is an actor and comedian, often seen in comedic roles. He is best known for his role as Mr. Moseby on Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spin-off, The Suite Life on Deck. Lewis also played T.C. on The Wayans Bros., Hooch on Scrubs, and had a recurring role as Roy on Yes, Dear and has played small parts in more than a dozen films. He also appeared in episodes of Lizzie McGuire, as Principal Tweedy and in Friends as Chandler's boss.

Khandi Alexander

(born September 4, 1957)

Khandi Alexander is an American actress. She is best known for the roles of Dr. Alexx Woods in the CBS police procedural series CSI: Miami, as LaDonna Batiste-Williams in Treme, and as Catherine Duke in NewsRadio. She also had a major recurring roles in NBC medical drama ER as Jackie Robbins and as Maya Lewis in the ABC drama Scandal. Alexander also received critical acclaim for her performance in the HBO miniseries The Corner in 2000.

Mitzi Gaynor

(born September 4, 1931)

Mitzi Gaynor is an American actress, singer and dancer.

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Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.
--Katharine Hepburn

This Is Who I Am

   

A Dog's Life (2014)

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.
--Bill Bradley

A few days ago, Eva was surprised in her daily struggle of chasing away those pesky water-skimming wasps and the myriad birds of many colors flapping just a few tens of feet above the surface of the swimming pool. She takes her guard duties seriously.

What surprised her was the loud bass drum-like whup-whup-whup approach of a low-flying military helicopter that grabbed her attention, Eva first jumped straight up toward it, barking deep-throated snarls, all four feet leaving the ground in a mighty leap. This effort proved ineffectual, so she reluctantly resorted to chasing the big bird, all the way from The East wall to the West gate.

After a few more minutes of sporadic barking, Eva slowly ambled back from the gate to drop down and lie loose-limbed in front of the door.

She gad done her job well. The flying threat had been duly chased away.


Yesterday morning Eva suddenly took off barking in a raucous frenzy of speed and blind rage, and before I could respond she was jumping up toward the top of the pool deck's East wall. By the time I reached her leaping upward struggles and grasped the loose skin around her neck, she had almost made it to the top, one foreleg making it over and the rest of her body slamming against, then sliding down, the stucco wall.

A small pack of coyotes loping languidly over the sparse scrubland between the deck wall and the neighbors house had been the stimulus for Eva's sudden bout of madness.

Needless to say, Eva is today confined, collared and leashed to a large cement block whenever she resides outside by herself, and will until further notice, even when I am out there with her.

Once before, I have been told, she escaped the confines of the fence and attacked a neighbor's dog.

Eva is not human. She's a dog. She thinks like a dog. I am sure she does not remember that dangerous dogfight incident, nor the current coyote one, and that she does not know why she is being constrained.

But I know. I know that if she did escape she would immediately engage those unsuspecting coyotes in a bloody battle.

Yes, I know.

And I must do what has to be done.

NOTE: definition of raucous: loud, rough-sounding, and harsh.

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Did You Know . . .?

J.R. Smith of the New York Knicks was fined $50,000 for untying opponents' shoelaces during games.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1935 a new land-speed record was set by Britain's famed speed demon, Sir Malcolm Campbell. On the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, Campbell and his 2,500-hp motor car Bluebird made two runs over a one-mile course at speeds averaging 301.129 mph. In breaking the 300-mph barrier, he surpassed the world record of 276.82 mph that he had set earlier in the year. Today, the land-speed record stands at 763.035 mph, set by Britain's Andy Green in 1997. Green's record was the first official land-speed time to exceed the speed of sound.

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WORD FOR TODAY

hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianist
Noun
1. a person who loves to use extremely long words
2. One who is prone to using big words.
3. Anyone who has a fascination for or who enjoys using excessively long words.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Carlos Irwin Estevez

(born September 3, 1965)

Charlie Sheen is an American actor. Sheen rose to fame after a series of successful films such as Platoon, Lucas, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Wall Street, Young Guns, Eight Men Out, Major League, Hot Shots!, The Three Musketeers, The Arrival, Money Talks, and Being John Malkovich.

In the 2000s, Sheen became best known for his television roles. He replaced Michael J. Fox in Spin City and then starred in Two and a Half Men. He's currently starring in the FX comedy series Anger Management. In 2010, Sheen was the highest paid actor on television and earned $1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men.

Valerie Ritchie Perrine

(born September 3, 1943)

Valerie Perrine is an American actress. She played soft-core porn actress Montana Wildhack in the film of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and as comedian Lenny Bruce's wife, stripper Honey Bruce, in Bob Fosse's Lenny. One of her best remembered movie roles came as Miss Eve Teschmacher, moll of criminal mastermind Lex Luthor, in Superman. She reprised her role as Miss Teschmacher in Superman II.

Steven Ralph "Steve" Schirripa

(born September 3, 1957)

Steve Schirripa is an American actor, producer, author, and voice artist. He is best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on The Sopranos.

Nichole Marie Hiltz

(born September 3, 1978)

Nichole Hiltz is an American actress. Her most recent long-running television credit is for USA Network's In Plain Sight. Hiltz has made guest appearances on several television shows including NYPD Blue, The O.C., Strong Medicine, Cold Case, The Shield, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, V.I.P., CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Bones, and Smallville. She also appeared in three episodes of Desperate Housewives.

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Energy and persistence conquer all things.
--Benjamin Franklin

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More About Religion

     

Tucson Weather Today

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When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
--Desmond Tutu


According to a 2012 Pew Research poll  religion is an the downswing.

The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.

In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).

That's interesting, and encouraging.

Perhaps people are beginning to think for themselves.

Perhaps.


On a similar note...

In The New York Times Sunday Review there appeared a piece titled Between Godliness and Godlessness. It was one man's quick review of the book, Waking Up, written by Sam Harris.

Here is the opening:

ALMOST midway through Sam Harris’s new book, Waking Up, he paints a scene that will shock many of his fans, who know him as one of the country’s most prominent and articulate atheists. He describes a walk in Jesus’ footsteps, and the way he was touched by it.

This happened on “an afternoon on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, atop the mount where Jesus is believed to have preached his most famous sermon,” Harris writes. “As I gazed at the surrounding hills, a feeling of peace came over me. It soon grew to a blissful stillness that silenced my thoughts. In an instant, the sense of being a separate self -- an ‘I’ or a ‘me’ -- vanished.”

Had Harris at last found God? And is “Waking Up” a stop-the-presses admission -- an epiphany -- that he slumbered and lumbered through the darkness for too long?

The complete review:

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Did You Know . . .?

There exists a Canadian dairy magazine called Cowsmopolitan

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1969, America's first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York. ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry, eliminating the need to visit a bank to conduct basic financial transactions. By the 1980s, these money machines had become widely popular and handled many of the functions previously performed by human tellers, such as check deposits and money transfers between accounts. Today there are well over 1 million ATMs around the world, with a new one added approximately every five minutes. It's estimated that more than 170 Americans over the age of 18 had an ATM card in 2005 and used it six to eight times a month.

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WORD FOR TODAY

affiliation [uh-fil-ee-AY-shuh n]
noun
1. the act of becoming formally connected or joined
2. a state involving mutual dealings between people or parties or countries

An affiliation is an official connection to something. To have an affiliation to something is to be affiliated with it. The Tea Party pretty clearly has an affiliation with the Republican Party.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Thomas Mark Harmon

(born September 2, 1951)

Mark Harmon is an American television and movie actor who has appeared in a wide variety of roles since the mid-1970s. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as former Gunnery Sergeant/Marine sniper turned NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the hit CBS series, NCIS, a role that has become Harmon's best-known role to date while also giving him international recognition.

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe

(Sept 2, 1948 - Jan 28, 1986)

Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Keanu Charles Reeves

(born September 2, 1964)

Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break, and The Matrix trilogy as Neo.

Salma Hayek Jimenez

(born September 2, 1966)

Salma Hayek is a Mexican and American film actress. In 1991 Hayek moved to Hollywood and came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as Desperado, Dogma, and Wild Wild West.

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Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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Labor Day 2014

     

Tucson Weather Today

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In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.
--Lee Iacocca

Today is a federal holiday in the United States.

Today is Labor Day.

Labor Day is annually held on the first Monday of September. It was originally organized to celebrate various labor associations' strengths of and contributions to the United States economy. In modern times it is largely a day of rest. Many people mark Labor Day as the end of the summer season and a last chance to make trips or hold outdoor events.

Labor Day, as are most holidays, is a day (or a weekend) for the masses of workaday stiffs to go out and spend, spend, spend so the super rich Fat Cats can get richer and fatter.

I am not merely a curmudgeonly cynic. I am a just guy who is able to observe, analyze, and reach an obvious conclusion. In other words I am one of those people considered by the hoi polloi as being a know-it-all pain in the ass.

Note: Hoi polloi is a borrowing of the Greek phrase hoi polloi, consisting of hoi, meaning "the" and used before a plural, and polloi, the plural of polus, "many." In Greek hoi polloi had a special sense, "the greater number, the people, the commonalty, the masses."

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Did You Know . . .?

The Kumbuk River Hotel in Sri Lanka is shaped like an elephant.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

The town of Hinckley, Minnesota, was destroyed by a forest fire on this day in 1894. A total of 440 people died in the area. Fires near two rail lines south of Hinckley broke out and spread north. As the raging fire reached the town's train depot, 350 of the townspeople got on a train to escape. The train had to pass right through flames, but reached safety in West Superior, Wisconsin. Other Hinckley residents sought refuge in the swamps near town, but many in this group were killed In all, 300,000 acres of town and forest burned in the fire, causing about $25 million in damages. In Hinckley, 228 people died. More than 200 others in the surrounding areas also perished, including 23 Ojibwa natives.

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WORD FOR TODAY

shoal
noun
1. A shallow place in a body of water.
2. A sandy elevation of the bottom of a body of water, constituting a hazard to navigation; a sandbank or sandbar.

A shoal, sandbank, or sandbar is a linear landform completely within or extending into a body of water. It is typically composed of sand, silt, and/or small pebbles.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Phillip Calvin "Phil" McGraw

(born September 1, 1950)

Dr. Phil is an American television personality, author, psychologist, and the host of the television show Dr. Phil, which debuted in 2002. McGraw first gained celebrity status with appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the late 1990s.

Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin

(born September 1, 1939)

Lily Tomlin is an American actress. She became a featured performer on television's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Tomlin's career has spanned television, comedy recordings, Broadway, and motion pictures. She has starred in such films as Nashville, 9 to 5, All of Me, The Beverly Hillbillies, Orange County, and I Heart Huckabees. Her notable television roles include Laugh-In as a cast member from 1970–73, Ms. Frizzle on The Magic School Bus, Kay Carter-Shepley on Murphy Brown, Deborah Fiderer on The West Wing, and Lillie Mae MacKenzie on Malibu Country.

James Robert Rebhorn

(Sept 1, 1948 - Mar 21, 2014)

James Rebhorn was an American actor who appeared in over 100 films, television series, and plays. At the time of his death, he had recurring roles in the current series White Collar and Homeland.

Lara Pulver

(born September 1, 1980)

Lara Pulver is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayals of Erin Watts in the popular British BBC spy drama Spooks, and Irene Adler on BBC's TV adaptation Sherlock.

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Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.
--Anais Nin

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