Live truth instead of expressing it. – Elbert Hubbard
TODAY – FEBRUARY 20th – MONDAY
51st day of 2012 with 315 to follow.
Holidays for Today:
*Card Reading Day
*National Sticky Bun Day
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BIRTHDAYS ON THIS DATE:
- 1759 Johann Christian Reil, German physician, founder of psychiatry (Islands of Reil in cerebral cortex named after him, described arcuate fasciculus and locus coeruleus)
- 1902 Ansel Adams, San Francisco, California, photographer and conservationist (known for his black and white photographs of the American west, especially Yosemite National Park)
- 1924 Gloria Vanderbilt, New York City, New York, socialite and clothing designer (early developer of designer blue jeans)
- 1926 Richard Matheson, Allendale, New Jersey, author (What Dreams May Come, The Incredible Shrinking Man, I Am Legend)
- 1927 Sidney Poitier, Miami, Florida, actor (Lilies of the Field, To Sir With Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)
- 1934 Bobby Unser, Colorado Springs, Colorado, retired racing driver (won Indianapolis 500 three times)
- 1937 Robert Huber, Munich, German chemist, known for Cyanobacteria Crystallography
- 1937 Roger Penske, Shaker Heights, Ohio, racing driver, race team owner and entrepreneur (winner race in late 1950s, owns Penske Racing team, Penske Corporation)
- 1938 Richard Beymer, Avoca, Iowa, actor (West Side Story, Twin Peaks)
- 1945 Brion James, Redlands, California, actor (Leon Kowalski in Blade Runner, 48 hours, Silverado, The Fifth Element)
- 1946 Sandy Duncan, Henderson, Texas, singer and actress, best known for her performances in the Broadway revival of Peter Pan and in the sitcom The Hogan Family
- 1946 J. Geils, New York City, New York, guitarist (The J. Geils Band)
- 1947 Peter Strauss, Croton-on-Hudson, New York, actor (Kane and Abel, The Jericho Mile, Masada, Soldier Blue, The Secret of NIMH)
- 1949 Ivana Trump, Czech-born American socialite, fashion model, author (former wife of Donald Trump)
- 1950 Walter Becker, Queens, New York, guitarist (Steely Dan)
- 1951 Edward Albert, Los Angeles, California, actor (Butterflies Are Free, Midway, Beauty and the Beast tv series, Guarding Tess)
- 1953 Poison Ivy, San Bernardino, California), musician (The Cramps)
- 1954 Jon Brant, Chicago, musician (Cheap Trick)
- 1956 Charlie Adler, Boston, Massachusetts, voice actor (The Smurfs, I Am Weasel, Rocko’s Modern Life, Decepticon Starscream in Transformer films)
- 1963 Ian Brown, Warrington, England, English singer (The Stone Roses)
- 1964 French Stewart, Albuquerque, New Mexico, actor (3rd Rock from the Sun)
- 1966 Cindy Crawford, DeKalb, Illinois, model
- 1967 Kurt Cobain, Aberdeen, Washington, musician (Nirvana) (d. 1994)
- 1975 Brian Littrell, Lexington, Kentucky, singer (Backstreet Boys)
- 1988 Rihanna, Saint Michael, Barbados, Barbadian singer
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Of course there is not formula for success except, perhaps, an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings. – Arthur Rubinstein
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HISTORICAL HAPPENINGS:
- 1685 René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France’s claim to Texas.
- 1792 The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
- 1816 Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
- 1864 American Civil War: Battle of Olustee occurs – the largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
- 1872 In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
- 1873 The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California.
- 1877 Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake receives its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
- 1901 The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
- 1931 The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
- 1933 The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.
- 1935 Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
- 1942 Lieutenant Edward O’Hare becomes America’s first World War II flying ace.
- 1943 American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- 1943 The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.
- 1962 Aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
- 1965 Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
- 1998 American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
- 2005 Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
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The Preacher came to call the other day. He said, “At your age you should be thinking about the hereafter.”
I told him, “Oh I do all the time, no matter where I am — in the parlor, upstairs, in the kitchen, or down in the basement, I constantly ask myself, ‘Now, what am I here after?’”
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ONE-LINERS: The ski season is finally here. This list of exercises will help you get ready…
- Visit your local butcher and pay $30 to sit in the walk-in freezer for half an hour. Afterwards, burn two $50 dollar bills to warm up.
- Soak your gloves and store them in the freezer after every use.
- Fasten a small, wide rubber band around the top half of your head before you go to bed each night.
- If you wear glasses, begin wearing them with glue smeared on the lenses.
- Throw away a hundred dollar bill – RIGHT NOW!
- Find the nearest ice rink and walk across the ice 20 times in your ski boots carrying two pairs of skis, accessory bag and poles. Pretend you are looking for your car. Sporadically drop things.
- Place a small but angular pebble in your shoes, line them with crushed ice, and then tighten a C-clamp around your toes.
- Buy a new pair of gloves and IMMEDIATELY THROW ONE AWAY!
- Secure one of your ankles to a bedpost and ask a friend to run into you at high speed.
- Go to McDonald’s and insist on paying $8.50 for a hamburger. Be sure you are in the longest line.
- Clip a lift ticket to the zipper of your jacket, get on a motorcycle and ride fast enough to make the ticket lacerate your face.
- Drive slowly for five hours – anywhere – as long as it’s in a snowstorm and you’re following an 18-wheeler.
- Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the spray blast your face. Leave the ice on your face until it melts. Let it drip onto your clothes.
- Slam your thumb in a car door and don’t bother to go see a doctor.
* Repeat all of the above every Saturday and Sunday until you’re ready for the real thing!
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pic of the day: Found in an abandoned cat bed…
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WARNING! ENTERING THE PUN ZONE!
A man is out walking on a warm day along the edge of a remote pond. He is on the bank enjoying the view when he suddenly loses his footing and falls into the pond. The water is not deep but he does have to struggle to make it safely back to shore. He climbs out, dripping wet, and notices that his wallet is not in his pocket.
As he ponders the pond, wondering whether he should jump back in and search for his wallet, lo, what wonders appear! As he is looking at the surface of the water, he sees a school of large carp chasing something around.
One carp emerges at water surface and what does he have in its mouth but the guy’s wallet! Suddenly another carp appears at the surface and the first carp flips the wallet to the second carp who catches it in his mouth. Then a third fish appears and on and on it goes.
After watching amazed for several hours, he decided to report this strange behaviour to the experts, but they told him it was a well known phenomenon – it is known as carp-to-carp walleting.
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At the Oceana, Va., Naval Air Station, I was training a young ground-crew member on how to direct an F-14 into the fuel pit. I glanced over to check wing clearance and when I looked back I discovered that he had taxied the aircraft too far forward for the fuel hose to reach.
“You’ll have to send him around again,” I informed the trainee.
“What?” he said, surprised. “They spend millions on these things and you can’t put them in reverse?”
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TEN WAYS YOU KNOW YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION IS A LITTLE SLOW
1. Text on webpages display as Morse Code
2. Graphics arrive via FedEx
3. You believe a heavier string might improve your connection
4. You post a message to your favorite Facebook group and it displays a week later
5. Your credit card expires while ordering from Amazon
6. ESPN website exhibits “Heisman Trophy Winner”…for 1989
7. You’re still in the middle of downloading that popular new game, “PacMan”
8. Everyone you talk to on the Skype sounds like Forrest Gump
9. You receive emails with stamps on them
10. When you click the “Send” button, a little door opens on the side of your monitor and a pigeon flies out.
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TODAY IN TRIVIA: Swan Lake
~ Swan Lake is though by many to be one of the greatest classical ballets of all time. Its romance and beauty has allowed the classic ballet to mesmerize audiences for more than 100 years.
~Although Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score, the first production in Moscow wasn’t well-received. Although several versions exist, most ballet companies stage the ballet according to the choreography of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov for their St. Petersburg performance of 1895.
~ Swan Lake is traditionally presented in four acts. The first American production was performed by the San Francisco Ballet.
~The ballet moves require flexibility and technical dancing. The main character, the princess, has two characters to perform, meaning her job is extremely difficult. One character is a swan, while the other is a princess.
~The music of the Swan lake ballet was composed by Tchaikovsky, and he completely reinvented it by using rich colors and sweeping passages.
~ As opposed to other work of his, the Swan Lake ballet music is light and will mock music that he once wrote for his nieces to keep them entertained. Music he had worked on before was incorporated into the ballet music making it even more unique.
~Tchaikovsky also composed the Nutcracker ballet music as well as the Sleeping Beauty ballet music.
~ Interested in Black Swans? Costumes can be found at Black Swan Costumes!
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QUIP OF THE DAY: Joy shared is joy doubled; sorrow shared is sorrow halved. – Albert Schweitzer
THAT’S (ALMOST) ALL FOLKS!
Thought for the day. . .
No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only little. – Edmund Burke
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