Actress Tina Louise is 78.
Actor Burt Reynolds is 76.
Brazilian songwriter and musician Sérgio Mendes is 71.
Singer Sheryl Crow is 49.
Half-term Alaska governor and 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is 48.
Actress Jennifer Aniston is 43.
Singer-songwriter Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) is 35.
Actress and singer Brandy (Norwood) is 33.
Actor, model and martial arts aficionado Taylor Lautner (“Twilight” movies) is 20.
Filed under Birthdays
1752 – Through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin, the Pennsylvania Hospital opened. It was the very first hospital in America.
1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary, left Springfield, IL by train for Washington, D.C.
1916 – The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented its first concert. The symphony was the first by a municipal orchestra to be supported by taxes.
1916 – Birth control pioneer Emma Goldman was arrested in New York City for lecturing and distributing materials about birth control.
1958 – Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess (flight attendant) by making her initial flight this day on Mohawk Airlines from Ithaca, NY to New York City.
1966 – Willie Mays became the highest-paid baseball player in either league as he signed a two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants for a salary of about $130,000 a year.
1968 – The new 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden officially opened in New York City. It was the fourth arena to be named Madison Square Garden.
1970 – Japan launches its first satellite from the Kagoshima Space Center, becoming the world’s fourth space power.
1989 – The Rev. Barbara C. Harris of Boston was consecrated as the first female bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican Church.
1990 – Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s leading antiapartheid figure, was freed after 27 years in prison.
Filed under History
Survivalist Tip: If you live near the ocean, buy a large boat. Not a raft, a canoe, or one of those inflatable things – an actual boat! Predictions are that, with the onslaught of the apocalypse, the seas will rise dramatically and inundate coastal areas; thus a boat will come in handy. If your neighbors laugh at you, just remind them that people laughed at Noah. If they don’t believe in the story of Noah, mention global warming. If they don’t believe in global warming, it’s probably best if they drown. They’ll just take up too much room on your boat anyway.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
A stray dog runs across the frozen Danube River in southern Romania. Eastern Europe is experiencing its worst winter in decades, and the Danube – a key shipping route – has been mostly shut down due to heavy ice. It’s a winter like this that gave Mary Shelley the idea for Frankenstein, so who knows! Some great literary monsters may be lurking in the minds of the stranded citizenry.
Filed under News
“I’m glad that you played the Rachel Maddow clip because I think she is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception. I would be all for that. And all of the rest of the crowd at MSNBC, too, for that matter.”
— Fox News pundit Cal Thomas in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Webster’s Dictionary:
ass – n., O.E. = Cal
hole – n., O.E. = Thomas
Filed under News
This vending machine at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg (where else?), Pennsylvania dispenses the “morning-after pill,” condoms and cough drops. Cough drops?! What about breath mints? Gum? Penicillin? Well, at least they’re trying. When I was in college, we had to sneak into the drug store to buy cough drops.
Filed under News
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 Lincoln Continental is being put up for sale in Smithville, Texas, on March 3 by its current owner, Dan Kruse Classics. Proceeds from the auction will go to the LBJ Foundation. The car is currently on display at the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History in Smithville.
Filed under News
Looks like Obama backed down – again!
Filed under News
I don’t care how fashionable this would look on me, I’m not spending $68 for a piece of lambskin. You could buy a pack of regular condoms for $12. If you’re in a hurry, just grab some cellophane and a rubber band.
Filed under Curiosities
On a sweltering June morning, Jason De Leon shrugs off his pack in a rugged gorge in Arizona’s Coronado National Forest. He hunches down over a scattering of water bottles, checking for dates, and asks a student to take the site’s GPS coordinates. Above his head, along the rock face, travelers have transformed a small, secluded hollow into a shrine lined with offerings: rosaries, crucifixes, candles, scapulars, and small pictures of saints, each bearing a printed prayer in Spanish. “Take care of me in dangerous places,” reads one card. “Protect me from thieves and in evil times,” entreats another. Nearby, a small engraved plastic pendant offers a more direct prayer: “The other side, Tucson, Arizona, 2010.”
This is an extraordinary article by Heather Pringle in one of my favorite magazines, Archaeology, that documents the massive flow of illegal Latin American immigrants through the desert Southwestern U.S. via the items they leave behind. It’s not a pretty picture, as the migrants – desperate for work and a chance at a better life – end up desecrating the environment and leaving mounds of trash. And, of course, who has to clean up that mess? The American taxpayer. As someone of Spanish and Mexican Indian ancestry, I guess I should feel some kind of connection to these people – but I don’t. They’re not really my people – whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. My people are American citizens – whether native born or naturalized – who respect this country and the laws that govern it. My paternal ancestry in Texas goes back more than 400 years. My people settled this state long before the Mayflower Pilgrims even set sail. Still, this editorial highlights a critical dilemma in 21st century America.
Filed under News
