August 8, 2012 · 9:33 PM

August 8 Notable Birthdays

If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”

Actress – swimmer Esther Williams (Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Dangerous When Wet, Neptune’s Daughter, Million Dollar Mermaid) is 91.

Actor Richard Anderson (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Escape from Fort Bravo, The Long Hot Summer, Hit the Deck) is 86.

Singer – songwriter Mel Tillis (I Believe In You, Coca-Cola Cowboy, Ruby Don’t Take Your Love to Town, Detroit City, I Ain’t Never, Commercial Affection, Good Woman Blues) is 80.

Actor Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Tootsie, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, Rain Man, Dick Tracy, Hook, Search for Tomorrow, Outbreak, Sphere) is 75.

Connie Stevens (Concetta Ingolia; singer: Sixteen Reasons, Kookie, Kookie [Lend Me Your Comb]; actress: Hawaiian Eye, The Grissom Gang, Parrish, Back to the Beach) is 74.

Actor Keith Carradine (Pretty Baby, The Long Riders, The Moderns, Kung Fu, Will Rogers Follies, Nashville) is 63.

TV host Deborah Norville (Today, Inside Edition) is 54.

Guitarist David Evans (‘The Edge’; U2) is 51.

Singer J.C. Chasez (’N Sync) is 36.

Actress Lindsay Sloane (Mr. Rhodes, The Wonder Years, Dharma & Greg, Working, My So-Called Life, Between Mother and Daughter) is 35.

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August 8, 2012 · 8:40 PM

On August 8…

1866 – North Pole explorer Matthew Henson was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

1876 – Thomas A. Edison patented the mimeograph machine, describing it as a method of preparing autographic stencils for printing.

1879 – Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and indigenous peoples during the Mexican Revolution, was born in Anenecuilco, México.

1919 – Film producer Dino De Laurentiis (The Bible, Barbarella, Nights of Cambria, La Strada) was born in Torre Annunciata, Italy.

1963 – A gang of 15 thieves stole £2.6 million ($7 million) in Buckinghamshire, England, in Britain’s “Great Train Robbery.”  All but three of the gang were identified by fingerprints.

1974 – President Richard M. Nixon announced his resignation in the wake of the growing Watergate scandal, becoming the first U.S. president to resign from office.

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August 8, 2012 · 8:02 PM

Cartoon of the Day

Can we give this damn Chick-fil-A crap a rest now?  I mean, children are going to bed hungry every night in America, and we’re still worried what some right-wing nut job said?

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August 8, 2012 · 7:57 PM

Pictures of the Day

Yosemite National Park is known primarily for its stunning vistas, but it’s also known for 8 manmade bridges; most of which span the Merced River.  The oldest is Yosemite Creek Bridge, which was built in 1922, and sits below Yosemite Falls.  All 8 of them were placed on National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1977, but that apparently hasn’t guaranteed them full protection.  Three of them, in particular, face demolition: the Stoneman, the Sugar Pine and the Ahwahnee.  Environmentalists want them removed to help the flow of the Merced, while historians claim the bridges are examples of early rustic architecture and therefore, are too culturally important to destroy.

Despite the park’s 1,200 square miles of wilderness, 95% of the 4 million annual visitors stay in the one-by-eight-mile valley, where the Half Dome and El Capitan walls of granite, stands of pines and stair-step waterfalls are the main attractions.  Now these 3 bridges have become a focal point.  What happens to them is anyone’s guess, but the matter is sure to be contentious.

“The bridges have become a proxy war for those who want to keep the same level of visitor amenities and those who want to see reduced infrastructure,” says Anthony Veerkamp of the NTHP.  “They are treating them more as infrastructure rather than historic resources that need to be planned for their own remarkable value.”

Stoneman Bridge

 

Sugar Pine Bridge

 

Ahwahnee Bridge

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August 8, 2012 · 7:38 AM

Last Moments

Like any animal photographer, Tou Chih-kang likes to capture expressions and personality.  He creates the kind of pictures any pet owner would love.  But, the dogs in his photos aren’t pets, and no one will ever see the animals again.  The canines in Tou’s works are among the thousands of homeless shelter dogs in Taiwan – and they’re all on death row.  After he photographs them, the animals are taken away to be euthanized.

“I believe something should not be told but should be felt,” says Tou, 37.  “And I hope these images will arouse the viewers to contemplate and feel for these unfortunate lives, and understand the inhumanity we the society are putting them through.”

His photographs are like formal portraits, designed to bestow dignity and prestige upon the subject.  In many of the dog portraits, the animals are placed at angles that make them look almost human.

This year Taiwanese authorities will euthanize an estimated 80,000 stray dogs.  Animal welfare advocates say the widespread nature of the problem – Taiwan’s human population is only 23 million – reflects the still immature nature of the island’s dog-owning culture and the belief among some of its majority Buddhist population that dogs are reincarnated humans who behaved badly in a previous life.  Many Taiwanese care for their animals, but others abandon pets to the streets once their initial enthusiasm cools.

“Animals are seen just as playthings, not to be taken seriously,” says Grace Gabriel, Asia regional director of the Massachusetts-based International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The dogs who wind up in the Taoyuan Animal Shelter are picked up by roving patrols, funded by local governments, of workers equipped with large nets.

After Tou photographs them, veterinary workers take them for a brief turn around a grassy courtyard before leading them into a small, clinical-looking room where they are killed by lethal injection.  Tou, who uses the professional name Tou Yun-fei, says he began his project because the Taiwanese media were not paying enough attention to the dogs’ plight.  He says he doesn’t believe in having pets, but the problem had long plagued his conscience.  He says that while some of his friends refuse to even look at his photographs, others say the images taught them to take pet ownership more seriously.

A few photos already are on display at Taoyuan city hall, part of a bid to raise citizens’ awareness of the responsibilities that come with raising a pet.

“I am a medium that through my photography, more people will be aware of this issue,” he says.  “I think that’s my role.”

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August 7, 2012 · 9:37 PM

August 7 Notable Birthdays

If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”

 

Garrison Keillor (humorist, radio host: A Prairie Home Companion; author: Radio Days) is 70.

Singer B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas (Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Hooked on a Feeling, [Hey Won’t You Play] Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, I Just Can’t Help Believing, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry) is 70.

Actor John Glover (Julia, Melvin and Howard, Great God Brown, In the Mouth of Madness, Night of the Running Man, Dead on the Money, A Killing Affair, An Early Frost, The Evil that Men Do, Last Embrace, Annie Hall) is 68.

Actor David Rasche (Out There, Dead Weekend, The Masters of Menace, An Innocent Man, Native Son, Manhattan, Sledge Hammer!, Nurses) is 68.

Actress Caroline Aaron (Crimes and Misdemeanors, Edward Scissorhands, Husbands and Wives, Sleepless in Seattle, Weapons of Mass Distraction, Primary Colors, Running Mates) is 60.

Bass guitarist Andy Fraser (Free) is 60.

Actor Alexei Sayle (Stuff, Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, Gorky Park, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Carry On Columbus) is 60.

Actor Wayne Knight (Seinfeld, Dead Again, JFK, Jurassic Park, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Space Jam, For Richer or Poorer, Toy Story 2) is 57.

Singer Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) is 54.

Actor David Duchovny (The X-Files, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Beethoven, Red Shoe Diaries series, Playing God) is 52.

Actress DeLane Matthews (Dave’s World, FM, Eisenhower & Lutz) is 51.

Actress Sydney Penny (The Thorn Birds, Santa Barbara, All My Children, Pale Rider, Running Away, Bernadette, St. Elsewhere) is 41.

Actress Charlize Theron (That Thing You Do!, Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering, The Devil’s Advocate, Hollywood Confidential, Mighty Joe Young, The Cider House Rules, Reindeer Games) is 37.

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August 7, 2012 · 8:46 PM

On August 7…

1782 – General George Washington created the “Badge for Military Merit,” later named the Purple Heart.

 

1947 – Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl completed his 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti.

1959 – The unmanned U.S. satellite Explorer 6 took the first photograph of Earth from space.

1964 – The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, prompting America’s expansion into Southeast Asia.

Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in a post-midnight press briefing at the Pentagon points out action in the Gulf of Tonkin, August 4, 1964.

1990 – President George H.W. Bush ordered the organization of Operation Desert Shield in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2.

 

1998 – The U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam,Tanzania were bombed, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans.  The attacks were linked to Al Qaeda.

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August 7, 2012 · 8:17 PM

Cartoon of the Day

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August 7, 2012 · 8:11 PM

Pictures of the Day

Rock City is near Ruby Falls in the Lookout Mountain region of far northern Georgia, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Supposedly you can see 7 states from the highest vantage point atop the mountain – a claim first made during the Civil War – but that’s never been proven scientifically.  Regardless, almost every point on the mountain provides stunning vistas with massive and ancient rock formations and over 400 native plant species.  Rock City is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year as an official tourist attraction.  Unfortunately, they’ll only be open through September 3, but here’s a small collection of pictures of this incredible locale.

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August 7, 2012 · 7:33 PM

In Memoriam – Marvin Hamlisch, 1944 – 2012

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch died August 6 in Los Angeles.  He had just turned 68 on June 6.  He collapsed Monday after a brief illness.

Admitted to Julliard at age 7, Hamlisch fell in love with the theatre and eventually became one of America’s most renowned songwriters and musical composers.  He is among a handful of artists to win every major creative prize, some more than once, including an Oscar for “The Way We Were” (1973) and a Tony and a Pulitzer for “A Chorus Line” (1975).  Other works include the score for the 1973 film The Sting and the song “Nobody Does It Better” from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

He often teamed up with fellow lyricist Carol Bayer Sager and singer Barbra Streisand.

In more recent years, Mr. Hamlisch also became an ambassador for music, traveling around the country and performing and giving talks at schools. He often criticized the cuts in arts education.

“I don’t think the American government gets it,” he said during an interview at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, Calif.  “I don’t think they understand it’s as important as math and science.  It rounds you out as a person.  I think it gives you a love of certain things.  You don’t have to become the next great composer.  It’s just nice to have heard certain things or to have seen certain things.  It’s part of being a human being.”

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