“I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew.”
– Obama again.
Second Quote of the Day
“Last year at this time, this very weekend, we finally delivered justice to one of the world’s most notorious individuals.”
– President Obama, at the White House Correspondents Dinner, before a picture of Donald Trump appeared on a nearby screen.
Filed under News
Bitter Reaction to No Fiction Pulitzer
A couple of weeks ago the Pulitzer Board stunned the literary world by not selecting a winner in its fiction category. For book lovers it’s like breathing – how could you not do it? This is the first time since 1977 that Pulitzer hasn’t chosen anyone to receive its literary fiction award; usually a guarantee of free publicity and increased sales for the winner and their publisher. A 3-member panel selects the fiction category, after reviewing hundreds of books and sends 3 finalists to Pulitzer’s board for a decision.
The authors who missed out this year are Denis Johnson for Train Dreams; Karen Russell for Swamplandia; and David Foster Wallace for The Pale King, which was compiled from notes he left when he died in 2008 and published last year.
“Every publisher in America would agree that it is a missed opportunity,” said Paul Bogaards, director of publicity at Alfred A. Knopf that published Swamplandia! He cited the tenfold sales boost for previous winner Jennifer Egan and her book A Visit From the Goon Squad. “It has a demonstrable effect on sales, especially in the fiction category,” he added.
But, Pulitzer administrator Sig Gissler called the lack of a fiction winner “unusual,” but noted that none of this year’s finalists received a majority of board votes. “I can say that multiple factors were involved. Beyond that, we do not discuss the deliberations, which are confidential,” he said in an email. “We realize that the lack of an award in Fiction is a disappointment to many. We regret that. But I can assure you that the Board made a considered decision.”
Chairwoman of the Pulitzer fiction panel Susan Larson told National Public Radio that the jurors had read some 300 books and were “shocked … angry … and very disappointed” that the Pulitzer board couldn’t pick a winner. “I think we all would have been happy if any of books had been selected,” she said.
Filed under News
April 29, 2012 – 235 days Until Baktun 12
Survivalist Tip: Dealing with allergies this spring wreaked havoc on my immune system. This happens every year, but it seems to be worse this time around. Of course, I know why – it’s a precursor to the coming apocalypse. With that I feel it’s important we all should add Echinacea to our medicinal supply. Echinacea has become the most popular herb in American today. But, unlike other herbs such as tofu and pita bread, Echinacea is truly American-made. Indigenous Americans have used it for thousands of years. Unfortunately, it didn’t help fight off the variety of ailments Europeans brought, such as small pox, typhoid and jock itch. But, it did ward off bad attitudes. How else do you think the Indians have survived the past 500 years?
Previously, Echinacea had been considered a treatment for scarlet fever, syphilis, malaria, blood poisoning and diphtheria. But, it doesn’t combat any of those things. It’s strictly for defense of airborne pathogens, although Muslims in airplanes are not among them. But, science has proven that Echinacea does work to reduce the effects of colds, coughs and sore throats. It possesses a variety of natural chemicals: polysaccharides, glycoproteins and alkamides. It also provides a defense for the immune system against future colds and allergens. Echinacea now comes in a variety of forms: pill, liquid and dried powder for tea. Any of these are effective, as long as it’s pure Echinacea. If you happen to be outdoors – perhaps trying to flee to safety – you can identify Echinacea by the distinctive lavender or light purple color of the flower.
Regardless of how you consume it, it’s best to start loading up on Echinacea long before December 21. That way you can laugh at all the bad attitudes that surround you.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
Today’s Notable Birthdays
If your birthday is today, “Happy Birthday!”
Actress Celeste Holm (Gentlemen’s Agreement, All About Eve, High Society) is 95.
Zubin Mehta, conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, is 76.
Singer Duane Allen (Oak Ridge Boys) is 69.
Singer Tommy James (Tommy James and The Shondells) is 65.
Actor – comedian Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) is 58.
Actress Kate Mulgrew (Columbo, Ryan’s Hope, Roots, Daddy, Throw Momma from the Train) is 57.
Actor Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, In the Name of the Father, Age of Innocence) is 55.
Actress Michelle Pfeiffer (Dangerous Liaisons, Batman Returns, The Fabulous Baker Boys) is 54.
Actress Eve Plumb (The Brady Bunch, Little Women, … And God Spoke) is 54
Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 44.
Tennis champion Andre Agassi (Wimbledon [1992], U.S. Open [1994]) is 42.
Actress Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction, Mad Dog and Glory, Final Analysis) is 42.
Filed under Birthdays
On April 29…
1429 – Joan of Arc, a 17-year-old French peasant, began a crusade to relieve the city of Orleans of English control.
1854 – Through an act by the Pennsylvania State Legislature, the Ashmun Institute became the first college chartered exclusively for African-Americans. It was renamed the Lincoln Institute in 1866.
1879 – Electric arc lights were used for the first time in Cleveland, OH.
1945 – American soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, where tens of thousands of people had perished.
1992 – A jury in Simi Valley, CA, acquitted 4 White police officers of beating motorist Rodney King the previous year. The verdict prompted widespread rioting through much of Los Angeles.
2004 – The National World War II Memorial opened in Washington, D.C.
Filed under History
Pictures of the Day
Fellow blogger “Free Spirit” truly lives up to her name. In her “Fabulous 50’s” blog, she emphasizes that, once you turn 40, you don’t have to be sedate and sedentary and do everything society expects of a proper citizen. I’m just now discovering that. Today, she embarks on her next great traveling adventure: a foray into Africa. After centuries of exploration and colonization, Africa still seems to hold a great deal of mystery to the uneducated and unenlightened. Africa, for example, is one of the largest land masses on Earth. All of the United States, china and India, as well as most of Europe could fit into it. Madagascar alone is about as large as the United Kingdom, which is slightly larger than the state of Alabama. Africa also is home to some of the most advanced societies the ancient world has ever produced. Egypt is the first that probably comes to most people’s minds, but there was also Nubia, Nok and Timbuktu; even Ghana and Sudan were home to highly-organized and well-structured kingdoms. Considering Free Spirit’s eponymous journeys, here are just a few photographs of Africa, courtesy of National Geographic.
Limestone formation in Egypt’s White Desert. Photograph by Clemens Emmler.
South Africa’s Table Mountain. Photograph by Santjie Viljoen.
A Bururi long-fingered frog, last seen in Africa in 1949, and re-discovered in Burundi in December 2011. Photograph by David Blackburn.
Koranic Sankore University in Timbuktu, Mali. Timbuktu was a thriving center of scholarship instrumental to the spread of Islam in Africa. It retains three notable mosques and one of the world’s great collections of ancient manuscripts. Photograph by Naftali Hilger.
Avenue of the Baobabs, an area near Morondava, Madagascar, is all that remains of a once thick forest cleared for farmland. Growing 80 feet or more, baobabs are valued for fruit and bark. Photograph by Pascal Maitre.
A pink-hued, or strawberry-colored, male leopard wanders South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve. Tourists had seen the animal before, but only recently was it captured on film. Officials suspect the leopard has erythrism, a little-understood genetic condition that’s thought to cause either an overproduction of red pigments or an underproduction of dark pigments. Photograph by Deon De Villiers.
Quote of the Day
“After Barack Hussein Obama suddenly cast-off his Muslim roots, rejected his mother’s disbelief in God, turned tail on the Islam of his early life and converted to Christianity – BLAM – he’s elected President.”
– Republican congressional candidate Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber,” in a letter he plans to distribute to churches during his campaign.
Filed under News
