“I was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting. It had been one of those days.”
– Jim Greer, former chairman of the Florida GOP, during a deposition in his lawsuit for back pay from the state.
Filed under News
Actress Lupe Ontiveros who co-starred in popular films such as Selena, As Good as It Gets and Real Women Have Curves, died of liver cancer Friday in Los Angeles. She was 69. A native of El Paso, Texas, Ontiveros began her career in 1976, when she had a brief role as a maid on Charlie’s Angels. Like many Hispanic actresses of her time, that was pretty much all she could get. But, while she embraced her ethnic heritage, she also refused to let herself be defined by it. She received greater notoriety after portraying Yolanda Saldivar, the woman obsessed with singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, in the 1997 film Selena. Saldivar shot Selena to death in 1995, after Selena’s parents discovered Saldivar had been embezzling money from the Selena fan club she managed. Saldivar is now serving life in prison.
Most recently Ontiveros appeared in ABC’s Desperate Housewives as a nosy mother-in-law. Regardless of whatever character she played – no matter how stereotypical – Ontiveros set a high standard for all actresses to follow. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Filed under News
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Singer Mick Jagger (The Rolling Stones; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer) is 69.
Actress Helen Mirren (Ilyena Lydia Mironoff; Prime Suspect, The Hawk, White Knights, The Queen) is 67.
Drummer Roger Taylor (Queen) is 63.
Actress Susan George (Straw Dogs, Jack the Ripper, Mandingo, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry) is 62.
Dorothy Hamill (Olympic Hall of Famer; Olympic Gold Medalist ice skater [1976]; U.S. Ice Skating Champion [1974-1976]; developed new skating move: Hamill camel) is 56.
Actor Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, A Time to Kill, Outbreak, Consenting Adults, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Lost in Yonkers, Henry and June, Working Girl, Wiseguy, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, L.A. Confidential) is 53.
Actress Sandra Bullock (Speed, Speed 2: Cruise Control, The Net, While You Were Sleeping, A Time to Kill, Hope Floats, Forces of Nature, Miss Congeniality, Fool Proof) is 48.
Actor Jeremy Piven (The Larry Sanders Show, Ellen, Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, Kiss the Girls, Cupid, Serendipity, Highway, Black Hawk Down) is 47.
Actress Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor, One Against the Wind, Much Ado About Nothing, Haunted, Shooting Fish, Brokedown Palace, Alice Through the Looking Glass) is 39.
Filed under Birthdays
1775 – The U.S. Congress established the U.S. Post Office and named Benjamin Franklin as its first Postmaster.
1788 – New York entered the U.S. as the 11th state.
1796 – Artist George Catlin was born in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
1856 – Playwright George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion, Man and Superman, Saint Joan) was born in Dublin, Ireland.
1894 – Author – philosopher Aldous Huxley (Brave New World, Crome Yellow, Point Counter Point) was born in Surrey, England.
1908 – U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte ordered the creation of a federal agency later called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
1909 – Actress Vivian Vance (I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Lucy in Connecticut, The Lucy Show) was born in Cherryvale, KS.
1928 – Movie director Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange) was born in New York City.
Filed under History
“Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city. We’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion.”
– Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, in response to statements made by Chick-fil-A’s president, Dan Cathy, that gay marriage will bring God’s judgment on America.
I hate to see a popular restaurant get wrapped up in something as innocuous as gay marriage – especially one I like so much! I used to visit Chick-fil-A all the time, often while heading into work. A Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit with jelly and a large sweet tea could get me ready for the day better than a 4-pack of Red Bull! Sadly, I can’t bring myself to support a company that interjects itself into politics over gay marriage. Poverty, failing test scores – that I can understand. But, same-sex marriage? How the hell does that figure into a chicken sandwich? Americans can politicize anything!
Filed under News
I read two articles in the Dallas Morning News recently that Texas is home to two of the worst counties in the nation for road rage accidents: Bexar (which comprises San Antonio) and Dallas. I was surprised. You mean, Dallas isn’t number one? Anyone who lives in the Dallas / Fort Worth metropolitan area can feel my pain. It’s one of the largest and most populous in the U.S. Both cities are ringed by suburbs with impressive populations. The entire region is commuter-based. And, that’s the crux of the problem. There are too many people on roads and highways that are in a constant state of repair. I guess you could point to overpopulation as a factor in that mess. And, no one wants to take what little mass transportation there is. The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system has spent decades trying to convince people to use their services. But, in 1996, when they opened their train line from North Dallas to downtown, I laughed. The Japanese already had a train that topped 200 miles per hour. Dallas had one that looked like a glorified toy ornament. In fact, I called it the ‘DART choo choo train.’
But, it’s not so much congestion and road work. It’s how people drive. They’ve become assholes in recent years. Cell phones count as one of the greatest technological inventions of the 20th century. But now, they pose a health hazard. People who talk while driving run the risk of either hurting someone in a wreck, or getting their head blown off because they forgot there’s a turn signal on their vehicle.
It’s easy to get pissed off while driving in traffic. People do the stupidest things. I’ve leaned on my own horn more than a few times. I’ve come close to dropping into road rage hysterics more times than I can count. Sometimes, I honestly wish I had a gun – just for show. Seriously! Just to hold it up and let that idiot on a cell phone know I have it. I must admit I have anger issues. But, that’s mainly because I’m not a people person and because most people are jerks – especially when they get behind the wheel.
I feel rather secure in my big black Dodge Ram 1500 truck. The driver of one of those new eco-cars tried to get tough with me, while traveling up I-35 a few years back. I have ‘Hot Wheels’ bigger than those stupid things. I hated to give in to someone else’s stupidity (I really do!), but this guy deserved it, as I cut back in front of him and slammed on my brakes.
Not long after I had foot surgery in 2007, I headed to another follow-up appointment; my first since getting off crutches and into a walking boot. Some idiot in a sedan weaved in and out of traffic, as if she had designed and built the road, cutting in front of me and I don’t know how many other drivers – more than once. When I cut back in front of her – just to show her other people can be assholes, too – she had the audacity to get pissed off. When I stopped at a left turn red light, she got out of her car and stormed up towards my truck. Here I am – my still-damaged foot encased in a walking boot – and some bitch wanted to start a fight. But, I quickly grabbed my old truck club and hopped out onto my right foot. Turning to face her, truck club held up like a ninja sword, I was ready for battle. She was a big girl, too. I’m barely 5’8,” but none of that stopped me. I was already in a bad mood because of that foot. I didn’t want to reinjure it stuffing up her crotch or her ass. She stopped when she me holding up that club / sword and approach her. We exchanged nasty verbiage; the words “asshole,” “bitch,” “fuck” somehow wound their way into the terse dialogue, before she retreated to her car. I scribbled down her license plate number, as I’m sure she did mine, and thought of calling 911. But, I had to get to that doctor’s appointment.
The North Texas Transit Authority (NTTA) tells people to drive nice and be considerate of others on the road. That sentiment worked well in the immediate aftermath of 09/11, when everyone realized how precious life is. Now that the compassion has worn off, people have gone back to being…well, people – assholes. Drive friendly? Well – I do most of the time. I really do! I use my turn signal. I don’t tailgate. I try to keep my middle finger in its place between its brothers. But, it’s so DAMN HARD! Have a nice day. And, use your freaking turn signal!
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Actress Barbara Harris (Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Those Terrible Things about Me, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Peggy Sue Got Married, Plaza Suite, A Thousand Clowns) is 77.
Singer – guitarist Manuel Charlton (Nazareth) is 71.
Singer – bass guitarist Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire) is 61.
Cartoonist Ray Billingsley (Curtis) is 55.
Actress Bobbie Eakes (The Bold and the Beautiful, JAG, Choosing Matthias) is 51.
Actress Illeana Douglas (The Perfect Woman, To Die for, Grace of My Heart, Chasing Amy, Picture Perfect, Weapons of Mass Distraction, Bella Mafia, Message in a Bottle, The Next Best Thing) is 47.
Actor Matt LeBlanc (Friends, TV 101, Reform School Girl, Ed, Lost in Space, Charlie’s Angels, All the Queen’s Men) is 45.
Filed under Birthdays
1844 – Realist painter Thomas Eakins (Walt Whitman, The Thinker, The Clinic of Dr. Gross, The Clinic of Dr. Agnew, Max Schmitt in a Single Scull) was born in Philadelphia, PA.
1943 – Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was voted out of power by the Grand Council and later arrested.
1956 – The Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish-American liner Stockholm collided in heavy fog, some 45 miles south of Nantucket Island. Of the 1,662 passengers and crew aboard the Andrea Doria, 52 died in the initial collision. The remaining passengers and crew managed to board the Stockholm. Everyone from both ships was rescued the next day, before the Stockholm sank.
Andrea Doria
1978 – The first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in England. The daughter of Lesley and Gilbert Brown, she was the first baby conceived outside the mother’s body.
Filed under History
Chief Writing Wolf 