Never Let Zeal Outrun True Charity

    
NASA TV

Tucson Weather Today


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I've heard that John Lennon once said,  "I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people."

 You know what? I envy him for saying that, for believing that, and for living that way, for living as much as is possible according to his beliefs.

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Do you give to charities? Which ones?

I discovered an online listing of really, really bad charities that should more properly be called agents for legal thievery.

It's titled, America’s Worst Charities

The 50 worst, ranked charities by money blown on soliciting costs.

Totals are from the latest 10 years of available federal tax filings. Even a rapid reading of this list will probably blow your mind.

America’s Worst Charities is the result of a yearlong collaboration between the Tampa Bay Times and the California-based Center for Investigative Reporting, the nation’s largest and longest serving nonprofit newsroom dedicated to watchdog journalism. CNN joined the partnership in March 2013.
Last updated 06/15/2013

LINK

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TRIVIA

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 21 in 1964 Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob near Meridian, Mississippi. The three young civil rights workers were working to register black voters in Mississippi, thus inspiring the ire of the local Klan. The deaths of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), caused a national outrage.

Ku Klux Klan

On the forty-first anniversary of the three murders, June 21, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter. The 80 year old Killen, known as an outspoken white supremacist and part-time Baptist minister, was sentenced to 60 years in prison.


More details

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WORD FOR TODAY

pretty
adjective
-  pleasing or attractive to the eye, as by delicacy or gracefulness: a pretty face.
-  pleasing to the ear: a pretty tune.
-  pleasing to the mind or aesthetic taste: He writes pretty little stories.
adverb
-  fairly or moderately: Her work was pretty good.
-  quite; very: The wind blew pretty hard.

According to Grammarphobia --The word 'pretty' used as an adverb isn’t dialectal, regional, or confined to speech. It’s been standard English since the 1500s. It is common in informal speech and writing, but is neither rare nor wrong in serious discourse.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Prince William Arthur Philip Louis 

(born June 21, 1982)

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is the elder son of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Charles, Prince of Wales, and third-eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He is second in the line of succession, behind his father, to the thrones of sixteen independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, The Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Prince William married his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Middleton, on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey.

Mary Loretta "Mariette" Hartley
(born June 21, 1940)

Mariette Hartley is an American character actress. Hartley began her film career with Ride the High Country (1962), a western with actors Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. In 1962, she appeared in an episode of CBS's Gunsmoke. She was cast in an episode of the Jack Lord adventure/drama series about the rodeo circuit, Stoney Burke, and had a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie in 1964.

In the 1963-64 television season, she appeared in an episode of ABC’s drama about college life, Channing and in two episodes of NBC's The Virginian. In 1963, she was cast as the character Hagar in "The Day of the Misfits" of the ABC western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role. and in 1966, she appeared as Polly Dockery in the series finale, "A Burying for Rosey", of ABC's The Legend of Jesse James. She also made three guest appearances on NBC's Bonanza, one in 1965 (“Right is the Fourth R”), another one in 1968 (“The Survivors”), and the last one in 1970 (“Is There any Man Here?”).

She appeared in way too many other films to list here.

Michael Gross
(born June 21, 1947)

Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic and dramatic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties and the Graboid hunter Burt Gummer from the Tremors franchise.

Meredith Ann Baxter
(born June 21, 1947)

Meredith Baxter, also known for some years as Meredith Baxter-Birney, is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her acting roles including three television series: Family (1976 - 1980), an ABC television-network drama, Family Ties (1982–1989), an NBC television network situation comedy, and Dan Vs. (2011–present), a situation comedy on The Hub television-network.

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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
--Lao Tzu

NASA TV

    

To Boldly Go . . .

    

Tucson Weather Today

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Teach me your mood,
O patient stars.
Who climb each night,
the ancient sky.
leaving on space no shade, no scars,
no trace of age, no fear to die.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson


There has been tremendous improvements to the NASA TV channel. I have been watching it a lot lately. Way too much, I fear... it's habit forming. Have to tear myself away and get back to my other pressing tasks. Such as writing this blog.

Give it a try if you are interested in outer space and technology.

NASA TV


John Young, veteran of Gemini’s 3, 10; Apollo’s 10. Apollo 15; STS-1 and STS-9 said, "NASA is not about the ‘Adventure of Human Space Exploration’…We won’t be doing it just to get out there in space -- we’ll be doing it because the things we learn out there will be making life better for a lot of people who won’t be able to go."

NASA TV lets you virtually go along for the ride.

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TRIVIA

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 20 in 1979, President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter climbed to the White House roof to celebrate the installation of the $28,000 solar-heating system of solar-energy panels there. The system consisted of 32 photovoltaic panels that generated enough energy to provide hot water for the entire White House.

In 1986, President Reagan had the solar panels removed.

LINK

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WORD FOR TODAY

collaboration
noun
-  the act of working with another or others on a joint project
-  something created by working jointly with another or others
-  the act of cooperating as a traitor with an enemy

Collaboration is working with each other to do a task.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Nicole Mary Kidman
(born 20 June 1967)

Nicole Kidman is an Australian actress, singer and film producer. Kidman's film career began in 1983. She starred in various Australian film and television productions until her breakthrough in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films over the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). She followed these with other successful films in the late 1990s. Her performance in the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001) earned her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim.

Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The Others (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005) and Australia (2008).

John Stephen Goodman
(born June 20, 1952)

John Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne (1988–1997), for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for providing the voice of Sulley in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. Other prominent roles he has portrayed include his leading voice role in Frosty Returns, his recent supporting roles in Argo, Flight, and The Artist, and a cameo in C.H.U.D. As a film actor, he has frequently collaborated with the Coen Brothers on such films as Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and upcoming indie drama Inside Llewyn Davis.

Morna Anne Murray
(born June 20, 1945)

Anne Murray is a multiple award-winning Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary music whose albums have sold over 54 million copies worldwide as of 2012. Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, "Snowbird" (1970).

Patrick John Mahoney
(June 20, 1940)

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

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
--Arthur C. Clarke
  

I Want It Done MY Way

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I once edited a small-press print magazine, Whispers & Shouts, and I soon learned that most writers (especially young writers) do not desire helpful criticism of their submission, no matter what they say; they want praise.

There was one young lady that I thought had potential... the story she submitted was interesting and she seemed to be adept at most of the usual skills writing students are enjoined to acquire.

But there was one glaring error; the story's ending was so much of a cliche that any observant reader past the age of thirty would recognize it immediately. When I notified her of this, and offered an alternative ending (which was original and delightful, if I do say so myself) and told her I would accept the story for (paid) publication if she would rewrite it using the alternative ending , the young girl responded swiftly with, "No. I want it printed just the way I wrote it. Please send my story back in the SASE I originally sent you."

Of course, I did so.


Youthful writers are not the only writers that are offended by somewhat harsh but truthful criticism. Some are aged individuals, often those who have been unsuccessful in getting their work published over a span of  years. Some of these otherwise intelligent and logical oldsters can grow unbelievably angry and childishly abusive when receiving straight-talk criticism. They suffer what I like to call the old "I'll take my bat and go home" syndrome.

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NASA reports that the Cassini spacecraft is going to compose a Special Portrait of Saturn … and You!

NASA's Linda Spilker writes:

"One of the most exciting Cassini events in 2013 will be the unusual opportunity on July 19 to image the whole Saturn system as it is backlit by the sun. With Saturn covering the harsh light of the sun, we will be gathering unique ring science and also catching a glimpse of our very own home planet.

"One of the best parts of the mosaic we're making on July 19 is that we'll be able to take a picture of Earth - and all of you - from about 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away. We think Cassini's July image is a special opportunity for Earthlings to wave at our photographer in the Saturn system. We hope you'll go outside, look in the direction of Saturn and send us pictures of yourselves waving."

LINK

Linda Spilker is the Cassini project scientist, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.


There is another blog post about Viewing Saturn -- When and Where to look if you want to Wave at Saturn by By Jane Houston Jones.

From Los Angeles (and western states) wave at Saturn low on the eastern horizon from 2:27 to 2:42 p.m. PDT on July 19, 2013. Saturn’s approximate location is shown, but it will not be not visible in the daylight.

LINK

Jane Houston Jones is a member of the Cassini education and public outreach team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a long-time amateur astronomer and host of JPL's "What's Up" stargazing videos.

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TRIVIA

Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula."

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 19 in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths, by the electric chair. The Rosenbergs were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime and their case remains controversial to this day.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a statement declining to invoke executive clemency for the pair. He stated, "I can only say that, by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done."

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WORD FOR TODAY

enjoin
verb
1. To direct or impose with authority and emphasis.
2. To order (someone) to do (something); urge strongly; command
3. To prohibit or forbid.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Moses Harry Horwitz
(June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975)

Moe Howard was an American actor and comedian best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades. His distinctive hairstyle came about when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a pair of scissors, producing a ragged shape approximating a bowl cut.

Phylicia Rashad
(born June 19, 1948)

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

Maxwell Emmett "Pat" Buttram
(June 19, 1915 - Jan. 8, 1994)

Pat Buttram was an American actor, known for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry and for playing the character of Mr. Haney in the television series Green Acres.

Mary Kathleen Turner
(born June 19, 1954)

Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Romancing the Stone, Prizzi's Honor, The Accidental Tourist, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The War of the Roses, Serial Mom, and Peggy Sue Got Married.

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Hemingway's remarks are not literature.
--Gertrude Stein
    

National Aeronautics & Space Administration

    

Since my house burned down
I now own a better view
of the rising moon.

--Mizuta Masahide

 

Tucson Weather Today

 

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I subscribe to the NASA newsletter and thereby receive as many as five emailed pieces per day about space exploration and new technology updates. I have to admit, though, that some of the startling revelations described by NASA seem to be closer to scientific guesses instead of actual newly discovered facts.

For example: NASA astronomers claim to have discovered  and identified a goodly number of black holes, all of them situated many, many light years distant from the Earth. Since they are all so far from out solar system the images catalogued from here are necessarily images of things that existed once upon a time in the Earth's far past. And perhaps exist no longer. Who knows what could have become of them and their neighboring stars over a period of thousands and thousands of our solar years?

Also, the growing list of stars with orbiting planets, as identified by the 'wobbling' effect of the star brought about by the planetary  orbit, seems to me to be a great leap of faith rather then rock solid proof of the planet's existence. I can imagine too many variables, both known and unknown, to accept as fact the present method of locating planets in extremely distant star systems.

I seem to remember reading that not all astrophysicists and cosmologists agree that black holes, as such, even exist, at least in the form now recognized by contemporary science.

Oh well . . . space/time will tell, I suppose.


The latest NASA newsletter I received (yesterday) began with this:

"After an extensive year-and-a-half search, NASA has a new group of potential astronauts who will help the agency push the boundaries of exploration and travel to new destinations in the solar system, including an asteroid and Mars. Eight candidates have been selected to be NASA's newest astronaut trainees, hoping to be among those who are the first to launch from U.S. soil on commercial American spacecraft since the retirement of the space shuttle."

That's interesting. There is a list of these new astronaut trainees with introductions and pictures:

LINK

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TRIVIA

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 18 in 1983, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the space shuttle Challenger was launched into space on its second mission. Aboard the shuttle was Dr. Sally Ride, who as a mission specialist became the first American woman to travel into space.

During the six-day mission, Ride, an astrophysicist from Stanford University, operated the shuttle's robot arm, which she had helped design.

Sally Ride

 

Her historic journey was preceded almost 20 years to the day by cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, who on June 16, 1963, became the first woman ever to travel into space.

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WORD FOR TODAY

trepanning
verb
Using a tool for cutting shallow holes to remove a core, as from a skull.

Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created through other body surfaces, including nail beds. It is often used to relieve pressure beneath a surface. A trephine is an instrument used for cutting out a round piece of skull bone.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

James Paul McCartney
(born June 18, 1942)

Paul McCartney is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and his collaboration with Lennon is one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After the band's break-up, he pursued a solo career, later forming Wings with his first wife, Linda, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.

Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini
(born 18 June 1952)

 Isabella Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.

Roger Joseph Ebert
(June 18, 1942 - April 4, 2013)

Roger Ebert was an American film critic, journalist and screenwriter. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. As of 2010, his reviews were syndicated to more than 200 newspapers in the United States and abroad. Ebert also published more than 20 books and dozens of collections of reviews.

Richard Allen Boone
(June 18, 1917 - Jan. 10, 1981)

 Richard Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun - Will Travel.

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Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
--Ezra Pound
    

6-17-13

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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TRIVIA

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 17, in 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Senate investigations eventually revealed that President Richard Nixon had been personally involved in the subsequent cover-up of the break-in; additional investigation uncovered a related group of illegal activities that included political espionage and falsification of official documents, all sanctioned by the White House. Nixon became increasingly embroiled in the political scandal.

On July 29 and 30, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, charging that Nixon had misused his powers to violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, obstructed justice, and defied Judiciary Committee subpoenas. To avoid almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigned from office on August 9.

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WORD FOR TODAY

corollary
noun
1.  natural consequence: something that is a natural consequence of or accompaniment to something else
2.  statement easily proved from another: a proposition that follows, with little or no further reasoning, from the proof of another
3.  obvious deduction: something that is very obviously or easily deduced from something already proven

A corollary is a statement that follows readily from a previous statement.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Barry Manilow
(born June 17, 1943)

 

Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter and producer. He is best known for such recordings as "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana (At the Copa)". In 1978, five of his albums were on the best-seller charts simultaneously, a feat equalled only by Herb Alpert, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Mathis.

Venus Ebony Starr Williams
(born June 17, 1980)

 

Venus Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 32 in singles as of May 27, 2013. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on February 25, 2002, becoming the first African American woman to achieve this feat during the Open Era.

Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich
(born June 17, 1943)

 

Newt Gingrich (born Newton Leroy McPherson) is an American politician, author, and political consultant. He represented Georgia's 6th congressional district as a Republican from 1979 until his resignation in 1999, and served as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Gingrich was a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.

Erin Margaret Murphy
(born June 17, 1964)

 

Erin Murphy is an American actress who is best known for her role as young Tabitha Stephens on the top-ten television sitcom Bewitched, which ran from 1964 to 1972. For the first season, she shared this role with her sister, Diane, as they were of similar appearance and stature. As they got older and looked less alike, Erin played the part alone.

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The Bible is literature, not dogma.
--George Santayana
    

The Sunday News Is Not New

    
Tucson Weather Today
 

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The reason I was so late in posting today is because I invested the first three hours this morning in watching the Sunday morning news shows on TV.

And I learned nothing concrete by doing so.

And I knew beforehand that I would not.

But I did it anyway,

And that indicates how insane I seem to have become in my old age.

Damn!

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TRIVIA

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is 'screeched.'

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space. After 48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.

Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova

 

The first American woman in space was astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, who served as mission specialist on a flight of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.

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WORD FOR TODAY

magnanimity
noun
-  loftiness of thought or purpose,
-  extreme generosity

Defined by Noah Webster
noun
Greatness of mind; that elevation or dignity of soul, which encounters danger and trouble with tranquility and firmness, which raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of benevolence, which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, interest and safety for the accomplishment of useful and noble objects.

Magnanimity is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes.

Its antithesis is pusillanimity.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Stanley "Stan" Laurel

(June  16, 1890 - Feb. 23, 1965)

Stan Laurel was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as one half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. In 1961, Laurel was given a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his pioneering work in comedy.

Lauren Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf

(born June 16, 1955)

Laurie Metcalf is an American actress. She is perhaps most widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne and has also had series television roles as Carolyn Bigsby on Desperate Housewives and Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. Her motion picture roles include the voice of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and the character Debbie Loomis/Debbie Salt in Scream 2, as well as roles in such critically acclaimed films as Making Mr. Right, JFK, and Mistress.

Geronimo

(June 16, 1829 - Feb. 17, 1909)

Geronimo was a prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache wars.

 "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a battle with Mexican soldiers. His Chiricahua name is often rendered as Goyathlay or Goyahkla in English.

In 1886 Geronimo surrendered to U.S. authorities after a lengthy pursuit. As a prisoner of war in old age he became a celebrity and appeared in fairs but was never allowed to return to the land of his birth. He later regretted his surrender and claimed the conditions he made had been ignored.

Geronimo died in 1909 from complications of pneumonia at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Joan Van Ark

(born June 16, 1943)

Joan Van Ark is an American actress, most notable for her role as Valene Ewing, which she originated on the CBS series Dallas and continued for thirteen seasons on its spin-off, Knots Landing.

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“AMNESTY is the state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.”
--Ambrose Bierce
    

Yeah, But What Is It, Really?

    

Tucson Weather Today
 

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An autobiography tells the story of a life,
while the memoir tells a story from a life.

I have been writing what I thought of as autobiography, but have now come to realize that it will never be finished. So perhaps I should settle for authoring instead a memoir, or maybe a series of them. What I have, at least temporarily, saved from editorial deletion and vowed to keep from a massive quantity of written words, though, should more truthfully be categorized as a work of semi-factual fiction.

And that might be the best way to preserve this somewhat rambling piece of debatable history... as I remember it.

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TRIVIA

Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 15 in 1846 representatives of Great Britain and the United States signed the Oregon Treaty, which settled a long-standing dispute with Britain over who controlled the Oregon territory. The treaty established the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia as the boundary between the United States and British Canada. The United States gained formal control over the future states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and the British retained Vancouver Island and navigation rights to part of the Columbia River.

More

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WORD FOR TODAY

literate [LITT-uhr-uht]
adjective
1.  able to read and write: having the ability to read and write
2.  knowledgeable: having a good understanding of a particular subject
3.  well-educated and well-read: well-educated and cultured, especially with respect to literature or writing

The primary sense of literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from a critical interpretation of the written or printed text. Key to all literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text.

Literature is the art of written work and can, in some circumstances, refer exclusively to published sources. The word literature literally means "things made from letters" and the pars pro toto term "letters" is sometimes used to signify "literature," as in the figures of speech "arts and letters" and "man of letters." Literature is commonly classified as having two major forms -- Fiction and Non-fiction -- and two major techniques -- poetry and prose.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Ice Cube
(born June 15, 1969)

Ice Cube (born O'Shea Jackson) is an American rapper, record producer, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director.He built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer, director, actor and producer in cinema.

Additionally, he has served as one of the producers of the Showtime television series Barbershop and the TBS series Are We There Yet?, both of which are based upon films in which he portrayed the lead character. His popularity increased after his critically acclaimed role as 'Doughboy' in John Singleton's hood-based drama, Boyz n the Hood. He has signed on to star in and produce Welcome Back, Kotter, a big-screen adaptation of the 1970s television series. Ice Cube will play the title character, originally portrayed by Gabe Kaplan

Courteney Bass Cox
(born June 15, 1964)

Courteney Cox is an American actress, producer, and director. She is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream, and as Jules Cobb in the sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination. Cox also starred in the FX series Dirt. She owns a production company, called Coquette Productions, which was created by herself and then-husband David Arquette. Cox has also worked as a director on her sitcom Cougar Town and the television movie Talhotblond.

Neil Patrick Harris
(born June 15, 1973)

Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, producer and magician. He is best known for the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold & Kumar series, and the title role in Joss Whedon's musical web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Helen Elizabeth Hunt
(born June 15, 1963)

Helen Hunt is an American actress, film director, and screenwriter. She starred in the sitcom, Mad About You, for seven years before being cast in the 1997 romantic comedy film, As Good as It Gets for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Some of her other notable films include Twister, Cast Away, What Women Want, Pay It Forward, Soul Surfer and The Sessions. She made her directorial debut in 2007 with Then She Found Me.

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Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.
--Boris Pasternak