Photographs courtesy Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic.
Filed under Classics
Photographs courtesy Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic.
Filed under Classics
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Playwright David Storey (The Performance of Small Firms, This Sporting Life) is 79.
Author Wole Soyinka (Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka; The Strong Breed, The Lion and the Jewel) is 78.
Actor Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gunmen, Excalibur, L.A. Story, Conspiracy Theory, X-Men) is 72.
Actor Robert Forster (Cover Story, Diplomatic Immunity, Delta Force, Standing Tall, The Death Squad, Medium Cool, Reflections in a Golden Eye, Banyon, Nakia) is 71.
Drummer Stephen Jo Bladd (J. Geils Band) is 70.
Actor Harrison Ford (The Fugitive, Clear and Present Danger, Presumed Innocent, Star Wars series, Indiana Jones series, Apocalypse Now, American Graffiti, Sabrina, The Devil’s Own, Air Force One, Six Days Seven Nights, Random Hearts) is 70.
Singer – guitarist Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) is 70.
Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, is 68.
Actor – comedian Cheech (Richard) Marin (Desperado, Far Out Man, Born in East L.A., Rude Awakening, Nash Bridges, Judging Amy) is 66.
Singer Louise Mandrell (Put It on Me, Everlasting Love, Reunited [with husband R.C. Bannon], You Sure Know Your Way Around My Heart) is 58.
Filed under Birthdays
100 B.C. – Roman writer and emperor Gaius Julius Caesar was born.
1832 – U.S. Indian agent and explorer Henry Schoolcraft stumbled upon the source of the Mississippi River. Its 2,552-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico begins at Lake Itasca, MN.
1836 – John Ruggles of Thomaston, ME, received patent #1 from the U.S. Patent Office under a new patent-numbering system. Before Ruggles, a U.S. Senator from Maine and the author of the 1836 Patent Act which brought back the examination process, there had been 9,957 non-numbered patents issued. Ruggles received his patent for a traction wheel used in locomotive steam engines.
1938 – Spectators paid 25 cents to witness the first television theatre that opened in Boston, MA. Some 200 people watched the variety show with dancing and singing lasted 45 minutes. The acts were performed on a floor above the theatre and transmitted downstairs by TV.
1960 – At the Democratic National Party convention in Los Angeles, Sen. John F. Kennedy was nominated for the presidency, defeating fellow Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.
1985 – At Wembley Stadium in London, Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live AID, a worldwide rock concert designed by Irish singer Bob Geldof to raise money for famine- and drought-stricken Africa. The concert continued at a number of venues around the world, linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.
Filed under History
“For more than 20 years, Magic Johnson has been HIV positive – but it’s never been revealed who he contracted it from. Last night on PBS’s Frontline documentary, ‘AIDS in Black America,’ Magic disclosed the same vague answer he’s given the press since 1991: “Sleeping with a lot of women.” Still, it seems odd that there’s been no follow-up about which of these women was HIV positive. Or how many. If anyone has any more information about who gave Magic Johnson HIV, please feel free to contact us. I think we can afford to pay more money for this now.”
– Gawker, a gossip web site offering money to anyone who can provide information about how Johnson became infected with HIV some 20-plus years ago.
Noting that the rate of female-to-male sexual transmission of HIV is very low, Gawker – and perhaps even the Frontline documentary that aired July 10 – speculates that Johnson may have contracted the virus from a transsexual prostitute at a party thrown by Eddie Murphy.
Some folks in America just don’t want to accept that HIV isn’t only a gay White man’s disease. Of course, the vast majority of gay men don’t even have HIV, much less full-blown AIDS. But, who wants facts when there’s a rumor to be passed around like…well, like a virus!
Filed under News
Advocates for red light cameras are already citing this crash in Roselle Park, NJ, on June 29 as evidence for the need to expand the program. I’ve seen too many people run red lights in the Dallas area where red light cameras are common. Amazingly, nobody was injured in the Roselle Park crash, but the red light runner was taken to jail.
Filed under News
I always felt Rush Limbaugh is an arrogant bastard, but he’s even outdone himself now. This time around, like a typical conservative Republican, he blames the poor and unemployed for their own plights and expects them just to make things better for themselves.
Earlier this week, Limbaugh proclaimed:
“The sad truth is that employment is not pivotal… No job, no employment, no pain. For a whole heck of a lot of people whose expectations for themselves are not very high…. There are no jobs, and yet they’re still eating. I’m telling you, there’s a new reality out there…. Because it’s not resulting in that much pain, not nearly as much as it used to…. The so-called victims of the unemployment circumstance are not suffering as unemployed people in the past did.”
With Republicans in Congress refusing to negotiate with President Obama – determined more to destroy his presidency than help the American people – our nation’s economic crisis hasn’t abated. Of course, if Obama had grown some back bone at the end of 2010 and refused to budge on the Bush tax cuts, matters might have improved by now. But, I’m not an economist. I am, however, a citizen and a voter who’s experienced unemployment for the better part of the past 18 months. For me, there’s no joy in that. I’ve all but exhausted by savings and completely wiped out my old 401K. I’ve been able to put off my reimbursing my student loans, but that can’t last much longer. Fortunately, I just found a contract position that begins next week. Hopefully, that will endure. Last summer I landed a 90-day contract gig that the client pulled after only 3 weeks because their vendor wasn’t producing the work as anticipating. It was difficult to explain that to prospective employers, but I worked through it.
I remember the 1990 – 92 and 2001 – 02 recessions very well. But, I’ve never seen it this bad. So, while Ann Romney spends more on her dressage horse than most people earn in a year of legitimate work and Rush Limbaugh squats atop his ivory tower, the rest of us normal folk continue to struggle. And, we won’t forget what our elected officials did to us and didn’t for us. Poor Rush though. All those years of Viagra and Vicodin usage apparently have had the same effect as methamphetamine.
Filed under News
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Piano virtuoso Van (Harvey Lavan) Cliburn is 78.
Actor – comedian Bill Cosby (I Spy, The Bill Cosby Special, The Cosby Show, Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids, Leonard VI, California Suite) is 75.
Singer – songwriter – musician Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac) is 69.
Actress Denise Nicholas (Room 222, In the Heat of the Night, Ghost Dad) is 68.
Health and weight loss expert Richard Simmons is 64.
Actor Jay Thomas (Murphy Brown: Gold Rush, Mork & Mindy, Married People, Love & War, Cheers, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Straight Talk, Little Vegas, The Gig) is 64.
Singer – bassist guitarist John Wetton (Asia) is 63.
Actress Cheryl Ladd (Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor; Dancing with Danger, Changes, The Grace Kelly Story, One West Waikiki, Charlie’s Angels, Poison Ivy) is 61.
Actor Jamey Sheridan (The House on Carroll Street, Shannon’s Deal) is 61.
Actress Mel Harris (Mary Ellen; Thirtysomething, Sharon’s Secret, The Spider and the Fly, Raising Cain, Desperate Motives, Wanted Dead or Alive) is 56.
Kristi Yamaguchi, 1992 Olympic gold medalist figure skater; 1992 U.S. and world figure skating champion, is 41.
Filed under Birthdays
1817 – Writer – philosopher Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, MA.
1854 – George Eastman, inventor of the Kodak camera and flexible roll film, was born in Waterville, NY.
1861 – The Confederate States of America signed a treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, giving them several Indian allies during the Civil War.
1862 – The U.S. Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.
1864 – Botanist George Washington Carver was born in Diamond Grove, MO.
1895 – Lyricist – songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II was born in New York City.
1908 – Actor – comedian Milton Berle (The Milton Berle Show, Texaco Star Theatre; actor: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Oscar, Side by Side) was born in New York City.
1917 – Artist Andrew Wyeth (the Helga pictures, Christina’s World, Young Swede, Adrift, Wind from the Sea, Knapsack) was born in Chadds Ford, PA.
1960 – The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale.
1982 – E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial broke all box-office records by surpassing the $100-million mark of ticket sales in the first 31 days of its opening.
1984 – Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale announced that he’d chosen Rep. Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, making her the first woman to run on a major party ticket.
Filed under History