Actor Bryan Brown (Breaker Morant, Full Body Massage, Blame It on the Bellboy, F/X series, Dead in the Water, Gorillas in the Mist, Cocktail, A Town like Alice, The Thorn Birdss) is 65.
1894 – Dr. Alfred Kinsey (The Kinsey Report, The Sexual Behavior in the Human Male) was born in Hoboken, NJ.
1910 – Playwright Jean Anouilh (Becket, Antigone) was born in Bordeaux, France.
1929 – Singer – songwriter June Carter Cash (Jackson, If I were a Carpenter, Ring of Fire) was born in Maces Spring, VA.
1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off on a global airplane flight aboard the Winnie Mae.
Wiley Post (L) and Harold Gatty with the Winnie Mae.
1961 – The Antarctic Treaty, signed by twelve nations in 1959, took effect. The treaty guaranteed that the continent of Antarctica would be used for peaceful, scientific purposes only. The twelve original signers of the treaty were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. Since that time, 28 other nations have signed the pact.
Flags of the Antarctic Treaty signatories
1972 – Title IX of the 1972 education amendments is enacted into law, prohibiting federally funded educational institutions from discriminating against students or employees based on gender.
A dog sits waiting in the cold autumn sun,
Too faithful to leave, too frightened to run. He’s been here for days now with nothing to do
But sit by the road, waiting for you.
He can’t understand why you left him that day
He thought you and he were stopping to play.
He’s sure you’ll come back, and that’s why he stays
How long will he suffer: How many more days?
His legs have grown weak, his throat’s parched and dry
He’s sick now from hunger and falls with a sigh.
He lays down his head and closes his eyes
I wish you could see how a waiting dog dies.
I can’t verify the authenticity of this poem’s author, but it’s heartbreaking nonetheless. I have a soft spot for animals, especially dogs, as anyone familiar with this blog knows very well. If you can help, please donate to your local ASPCA to keep more animals from suffering.
Painter and sketch artist Painter and sketch artist LeRoy Neimandied Wednesday, the 20th, in Manhattan. Neiman was one the sports world’s best known artists, capturing the energy of athletes and athletic events in bright quick strokes. Neiman’s paintings, many executed in household enamel paints that allowed him his fast-moving strokes, are an explosion in reds, blues, pinks, greens and yellows of pure kinetic energy.
He has been described as an American impressionist, but the St. Paul, MN, native preferred to think of himself simply as an American artist.
“I don’t know if I’m an impressionist or an expressionist,” he told the AP. “You can call me an American first. … (but) I’ve been labeled doing ‘neimanism,’ so that’s what it is, I guess.”
He worked in many media, producing thousands of etchings, lithographs and silkscreen prints known as serigraphy.
But Neiman’s critics said his forays into the commercial world minimized him as a serious artist. At Playboy, for example, he created Femlin, the well-endowed nude that has graced the magazine’s “Party Jokes” page since 1957.
Neiman shrugged off such criticism.
“I can easily ignore my detractors and feel the people who respond favorably,” he said.
Neiman was a World War II veteran who participated in the invasion of Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was a self-described workaholic who seldom took vacations and had no hobbies. He worked daily in his home studio at the Hotel des Artistes near Central Park, which he shared with his wife.
“I just love what I do,” Neiman told the AP. “I love the passion you go through while you’re creating” and the public’s “very thoughtful and careful studied and emotional reaction of what you’re doing.”
Singer – songwriter Kris Kristofferson (Me & Bobby McGee, For the Good Times, Help Me Make It Through the Night, Loving Her was Easier, Why Me; actor: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, A Star is Born, Semi-Tough) is 76.
Actor Michael Lerner (Radioland Murders, Omen 4: The Awakening, Barton Fink, Eight Men Out, The Postman Always Rings Twice) is 71.
Actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (The Russia House, Quo Vadis, Out of Africa, Kindergarten, Never Say Never Again) is 69.
1898 – Author Erich Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front) was born in Osnabruck, Germany.
1906 – Film director Billy Wilder (The Apartment, The Lost Weekend,Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like it Hot, Sabrina, Irma La Douce, The Front Page) was born in Sucha, Austria – Hungary.
1942 – V-Mail, or Victory-Mail, was sent for the first time. Used a special paper for letter writing during WWII, V-Mail was designed to reduce cargo space taken up by mail sent to and from members of the armed services. The letters written on this special paper were opened at the post office, censored and reduced in size by photography. One roll of film contained 1,500 letters.
1944 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill into law, legislation designed to compensate returning members of the armed services for their efforts in World War II.
1964 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Henry Miller’s controversial book, Tropic of Cancer, could not be banned.
After a cell phone video of Rochester, NY, school bus monitor Karen Klein being cruelly harassed by students went viral, one viewer thought it would be nice to create a retirement / vacation fund for the beleaguered woman. Klein says she doesn’t want the involved students arrested, just “grounded all summer, or maybe all year.” She adds that she’s been overwhelmed by the public’s response. Klein’s fund is now approaching the $600,000 mark.
As a victim of school bullying, I’m so glad this case came to light. While Klein has some measure of sympathy for the brats who harassed her, I feel they should get smacked around by an adult, preferably a man like me who knows how Klein feels.
