Monthly Archives: June 2012
Quote of the Day
“When someone wraps their own hate speech in a ‘god blanket’ it makes it easier for a subset of people to accept, and eventually it may even gather a following. The problem is that anyone outside of that subset is turned away from not only that particular subset, but from the entire religion.”
– Dennis Mansfield, on his former friend Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association.
Filed under News
June 19 Notable Birthdays
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Actor Louis Jourdan (Gigi, Three Coins in the Fountain, The VIPs) is 91.
Actress Gena Rowlands (Peyton Place, A Woman under the Influence, Night on Earth) is 82.
Actress Marisa Pavan (Diary of Anne Frank, The Rose Tattoo, What Price Glory?, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ) is 80.
Singer Tommy DeVito (The Four Seasons) is 76.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar human rights activist and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is 67.
Author Salman Rushdie (The Jaguar Smile, Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses) is 65.
Actress Phylicia Allen Rashad (The Cosby Show, One Life to Live, Murder, She Wrote) is 64.
Singer Ann Wilson (Heart) is 61.
Keyboardist Larry Dunn (Earth, Wind & Fire) is 59.
Actress Kathleen Turner (Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, Serial Mom, Naked in New York, House of Cards, Accidental Tourist) is 58.
Singer – dancer Paula Abdul (Forever Your Girl, Straight Up, Opposites Attract, Promises of a New Day) is 50.
Actress Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Timecop, Caroline at Midnight) is 45.
Actress Robin Tunney (The Craft, Encino Man, Empire Records) is 40.
Filed under Birthdays
On June 19…
1623 – Scientist – philosopher Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
1856 – Author Elbert Hubbard (A Message to Garcia, Little Journeys) was born in Bloomington, IL.
1865 – Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Emancipation Proclamation was in effect, nearly 3 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued it, and all slaves in the state of Texas were free. The event is now recognized and celebrated in Texas as “Juneteenth.”
1867 – Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, installed as emperor of México by French Emperor Napoleon III in 1864, was executed on the orders of Benito Juarez, president of the Mexican Republic.
1910 – The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington; an idea credited to Sonora Louise Smart Dodd.
1911 – The first motion-picture censorship board was established in Pennsylvania.
1934 – The U.S. Congress established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY, two years after being convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets.
Filed under History
Quote of the Day
“Let’s be clear. Not only are we digging out of a hole that is 9 million jobs deep; we are digging out of an entire decade where 6 million jobs left our shores.”
– President Obama, in a speech in Cleveland last week.
Well, I’ll be damned! Do I detect some back bone growing inside that man?
Filed under News
Picasso Vandalized in Houston Museum
Normally people who use their cell phones in a museum or any venue are too preoccupied with their devices to notice anything else. But, a visitor to a Houston museum caught a man vandalizing a painting by Pablo Picasso on June 13. The man has yet to be identified, but he managed to stencil over Picasso’s 1929 “Woman in Red,” before escaping. Museum officials immediately rushed the painting to their onsite conservation lab. Their quick response ensures the likelihood the artwork will be saved.
A 24-second video has appeared on YouTube. Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said investigators are reviewing both surveillance video from the museum and the video posted on YouTube. When asked if police think the vandal and witness were working together, she said, “We’re taking all the information and we’re looking at all aspects of the incident.” She would not say whether police have spoken to the witness who shot the video.
This is not the first time one of Picasso’s works has been vandalized. In 1999, an escaped mental patient in Amsterdam cut a hole in the middle of his “Woman Nude Before Garden,” a 1956 painting.
Filed under Art Working
June 18 Notable Birthdays
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Singer – songwriter Paul McCartney (The Beatles; Wings) is 70.
Actress Carol Kane (Taxi, The Princess Bride, Hester Street, Addams Family Values, Carnal Knowledge, Dog Day Afternoon) is 60.
Model – actress Isabella Rossellini (Twin Peaks, Fearless, Blue Velvet, Crime of the Century, The Impostors) is 60.
Actor Brian Benben (The Brian Benben Show, Family Business, Radioland Murders) is 56.
Film producer Barbara Broccoli (GoldenEye, Crime of the Century, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough) is 52.
Actor Eddie Cibrian (Sunset Beach, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Young and the Restless, Beverly Hills: 90210) is 39.
Filed under Birthdays
Chief Writing Wolf 