This is the archive for July 2009
From wikipedia:
Mary Morris Vaux Walcott (July 31, 1860 – August 22, 1940) was an American artist and naturalist known for her watercolor paintings of wildflowers.
She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a wealthy Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) family. After graduating from the Friends Select School in Philadelphia in 1879, she worked at home and on the family farm. During this time she took an interest in watercolor painting, and began painting illustrations of wildflowers that she saw on family trips to the Rocky Mountains of Canada. She also became interested in glaciers at that time.
See dozens of Mary Vaux Walcott's botanical illustrations, free from the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.
Posted by courier at 12:58 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869–May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels
The Magnificent Ambersons and
Alice Adams.
Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, the son of John S. Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington. He was named after his maternal uncle Newton Booth, then the governor of California. He first attended Purdue University but graduated from Princeton University in 1893. While at Princeton he was editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine and formed the Princeton Triangle Club. He was also voted the most popular man in his class. When Tarkington's class graduated in 1893 he lacked sufficient credits for a degree at Princeton, where he attended classes for two years. His later achievements, however, won him an honorary A.M. in 1899 and an honorary Litt.D. in 1918.
He was one of the most popular American novelists of his time, with
The Two Vanrevels and
Mary's Neck appearing on the annual best-seller lists nine times.
Read Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington, one of
21 of his works available free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 09:59 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Wii Sports Resort
For: Nintendo Wii
From: Nintendo
ESRB Rating: Everyone (cartoon violence)
Nintendo was perhaps more lucky than good with "Wii Sports," a terrifically fun compilation of games that made the Wii remote look considerably more versatile than it actually was.
With "Wii Sports Resort" — and particularly, thanks to the Wii MotionPlus attachment that's bundled inside — that illusion is now for real. The MotionPlus attachment allows the Wii remote to mimic real-time motion in ways the remote cannot do on its own, and "Resort" takes full advantage en route to establishing itself as a superior sequel.
Structurally, "Resort" feels a lot like the original "Sports." Each of the 12 available sports (up from five) features a handful of modes built around the sport, and each mode offers a single-player mode with scalable difficulty, two- or four-player local multiplayer or (in most cases) both. Online play, once again, is a no-show.
Posted by courier at 06:04 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Dr. José Celso Barbosa (July 27, 1857 – September 21, 1921) was a medical Physician, sociologist, and political leader of Puerto Rico. Known as "The father of the Statehood for Puerto Rico movement", Barbosa was also the first Puerto Rican with an American (United States) medical degree.
He was born in the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Barbosa received both his primary and secondary education in Puerto Rico. He was also the first person who had both black ancestry and white ancestry to attend Puerto Rico's prestigious Jesuit Seminary. After graduating from the Seminary, Barbosa tutored private students to save money to attend college. In 1875, he moved to New York to attend prep school where he learned English in a year.
Learn more about Dr. José Celso Barbosa; read a free pdf pamphlet from the Office of Legislative Services for the House of Representatives and Senate of Puerto Rico.
Posted by courier at 03:01 PM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as
Antonio Machado (July 26, 1875 – February 22, 1939) was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98.
Machado was born in Seville one year after his brother Manuel. The family moved to Madrid in 1883 and both brothers enrolled in the Institución Libre de Enseñanza. During these years, and with the encouragement of his teachers, Antonio discovered his passion for literature.
Read poems by Antonio Machado, free from poemhunter.com.
Posted by courier at 01:44 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914, Los Angeles, California – December 31, 1994) was a decathlete and football star before finding even greater fame as a pioneering African-American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960. He served in the US Army during World War II.
Learn more about Woody Strode, free from the Internet Movie Database.
Posted by courier at 06:26 PM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Jamie Maxfield, Courier Correspondent
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Review
Anybody driving past Century 25 in Union Landing last Tuesday, they would have seen the mass of people waiting in excitement to see the newest movie in the Harry Potter series.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was long awaited, seeing as the original release date was supposed to be in November of 2008, but it was worth the wait. There were seven showings of the film that night, from midnight to 12:30, all of which were sold out long before the premier.
Posted by courier at 08:28 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 23 July 1856 –1 August 1920 (aged 64), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called him the "Father of the Indian unrest". He was also conferred upon the honorary title of "Lokmanya", which literally means "Accepted by the people (as their leader)".
Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of "Swaraj" (self rule) in Indian consciousness. His famous quote, "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it !" is well-remembered in India even today.
Learn more about Bal Gangadhar Tilak, free from freeindia.org.
Posted by courier at 12:47 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Gene Trainor
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
FORT WORTH, Texas — When Carter Schimpff enrolled at Texas Christian University four years ago, he began work on what he thought was a marketable degree: a bachelor of business administration with a major in finance and a minor in real estate. At the time, housing markets were booming, and millions of dollars were being made in the investment and mortgage industries.
Posted by courier at 06:45 PM. Filed under: Features
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From wikipedia:
Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American poet born in New York City.
She is best known for "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883; its final lines were engraved on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1912. The sonnet was solicited by William Maxwell Evarts as a donation to an auction, conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" to raise funds to build the pedestal.
Learn more about Emma Lazarus and her poetry, free from NPR.org.
Posted by courier at 05:55 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Reviewed for: Playstation 3
and Xbox 360
Other versions available for:
Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS
From: Activision
ESRB Rating: Teen (mild language, violence)
As licensed tie-in products do, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" scores an unintentional direct hit as a game that, for seemingly avoidable reasons, feels every bit as disposable as the movie on which it is based.
It didn't have to be this way, because "Fallen" does an awful lot right on the mechanical side.
The various Transformers — and you can embody quite a few of them by playing out the story from both the Autobots' and Decepticons' sides _ control as they should in robot form. Outside of some temporarily clumsy helicopter controls, they also move fantastically well in their vehicular incarnations.
Posted by courier at 11:26 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Finding both inspiration and provocation in the poetry of T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote poetry that was traditional in form, difficult and often archaic in language, and which sought to express something more than the ironic despair that Crane found in Eliot's poetry. Though frequently condemned as being difficult beyond comprehension, Crane has proved in the long run to be one of the most influential poets in English language of his generation.
Read poems by Hart Crane, and learn more about him, free from Poets.org.
Posted by courier at 11:24 PM. Filed under: In Quotes
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This unauthorized replica
of the holiday classic PEZ
snowman, in the Guinness book
of Records as the world's largest
PEZ. is featured in Gary Doss'
Burlingame PEZ Museum.
Maria J. Avila/San Jose
Mercury News/MCT
SAN JOSE, Calif. &8212; It took more than 30 years for the creators of Pez candy dispensers to give the little plastic figurines feet, and they never did get hands. But now the long arm of the Pez Candy Co. has reached all the way from Linz, Austria, into U.S. District Court, where it has slapped the tiny faces that fill the Museum of Pez Memorabilia with a lawsuit.
The legal broadside, which was filed in San Francisco last month, singles out a 7-foot-10 snowman, built especially for the Burlingame, Calif., museum, that has been recognized by the Guinness record keepers as the world's largest Pez dispenser. Pez seeks to have the snowman melted down.
And, says the museum's newly hired lawyer, the company is demanding that the museum's "curators," Gary Doss and wife Nancy Yarbrough Doss, turn over all profits from the Pez shrine's 14 years in business.
"From a branding perspective, I think Pez should embrace the Dosses and the museum, instead of trying to attack them," said Rodger Cole, the Mountain View-based trademark attorney from Fenwick & West LLP.
Fat chance.
Posted by courier at 05:53 PM. Filed under: Features
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From wikipedia:
Alexander III of Macedon, popularly known to history as Alexander the Great, was an Ancient Greeki[›] king (basileus) of Macedon. Born in 356 BC, Alexander succeeded his father Philip II of Macedon to the throne in 336 BC, and died in Bablyon in 323 BC at the age of 32.
Alexander was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and it is presumed that he was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire, adding it to Macedon's European territories; according to some modern writers, this was much of the world then known to the ancient Greeks (the 'Ecumene'). His father, Philip, had unified most of the city-states of mainland Greece under Macedonian hegemony in the League of Corinth. As well as inheriting hegemony over the Greeks, Alexander also inherited the Greeks' long-running feud with the Achaemenid Empire of Persia. After reconfirming Macedonian rule by quashing a rebellion of southern Greek city-states, Alexander launched a short but successful campaign against Macedon's northern neighbours. He was then able to turn his attention towards the east and the Persians. In a series of campaigns lasting 10 years, Alexander's armies repeatedly defeated the Persians in battle, in the process conquering the entirety of the Empire. He then, following his desire to reach the 'ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea', invaded India, but was eventually forced to turn back by the near-mutiny of his troops.
Visit The Ten-Horned Beast: The Alexander the Great.
Posted by courier at 05:29 PM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From
The Courier's Archives:
Posted by courier at 05:50 PM. Filed under: Comics
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Herbert Marcuse (July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-Jewish philosopher, political theorist and sociologist, and a member of the Frankfurt School. His best known works are
Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and
The Aesthetic Dimension.
Herbert Marcuse was born in Berlin to Carl Marcuse and Gertrud Kreslawsky and raised in a Jewish family and served in the German Army, caring for horses in Berlin during the First World War. He then became a member of a Soldiers' Council that participated in the aborted socialist Spartacist uprising. After completing his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Freiburg in 1922 on the German Künstlerroman, he moved back to Berlin, where he worked in publishing. He returned to Freiburg in 1929 to write a Habilitation with Martin Heidegger, which was published in 1932 as Hegel's
Ontology and Theory of Historicity in spite of Heidegger's rejection. With his academic career blocked by the rise of the Third Reich, in 1933 Marcuse joined the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, emigrating from Germany that same year, going first to Switzerland, then the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1940.
Visit the Herbert Marcuse Official Homepage.
Posted by courier at 04:35 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Posted by courier at 05:17 AM. Filed under: Opinion
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From wikipedia:
Mary Jessamyn West (July 18, 1902 – February 23, 1984) was an American Quaker who wrote numerous stories and novels, notably
The Friendly Persuasion (1945).
West went to Whittier College in the 1920s. There she helped found the Palmer Society, in 1921.
Much of her work concerns Indiana Quakers. Although she was born in Vernon, Indiana she left the state at the age of six when her family moved to California. Asked about this in an interview, she said, "I write about [Indiana] because knowing little about it, I can create it."
Listen to two short excerpts from radio programs featuring Jessamyn West's work, free from the California Legacy Project.
Posted by courier at 05:09 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
Every food recall pushes "Food, Inc.," Robert Kenner's documentary about the state of our food supply, into the news.
"There's a tremendous interest in this subject," Kenner says. "Every time something we eat is recalled, interest goes up."
Rave reviews aren't the only reason a movie that isn't playing in many theaters is creating a stir.
Posted by courier at 05:41 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 Malden, Massachusetts – March 11, 1970 Temecula, California) was an American lawyer and author of detective stories, who also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
Gardner graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1909, and received his only formal legal education at Valparaiso University School of Law Indiana. He attended law school for approximately 1 month, was suspended from school when his interest in boxing became a distraction, then settled in California where he became a self-taught attorney and passed the state bar exam in 1911. He opened his own law office in Merced, California, then worked for five years for a sales agency. In 1921, he returned to the practice of law, creating the firm of Sheridan, Orr, Drapeau and Gardner in Ventura, California .
Visit the Erle Stanley Gardner Virtual Museum.
Posted by courier at 02:30 PM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Walter Tunis
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The trouble started right about sundown, just as the Felice Brothers took the stage. That's when the power went out.
Thus, the coarse, celebratory music of the ensemble — a family band from upstate New York that blends modern and Appalachian folk, zydeco, blues, primitive country and more into a Band-like roots-music quilt with sometimes-punkish leanings — was left without any power.
Posted by courier at 11:52 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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Hardcover: 476 pages
Publisher: Riverbend Publishing;
First edition (June 10, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1606390031
ISBN-13: 978-1606390030
A book by first-time novelist William Pack, called
The Bottom of the Sky, takes readers from rural Montana to the financial center of Wall Street and high-tech hub of Silicon Valley. The writer's own journey had been just as interesting.
The Bottom of the Sky follows the different paths of a brother and sister. Author William Pack says the book is fiction, inspired by elements from his own life.
"Certainly the venues are autobiographical," said William Pack. "The primary protagonists are born and raised in rural Montana, particular outside of Roundup, Montana, in abject poverty. So from that standpoint, that is where my life started as well."
Posted by courier at 06:09 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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Thomas Bulfinch (July 15, 1796 - May 27, 1867[1]) was an American writer, born in Newton, Massachusetts. Bulfinch belonged to a well educated Bostonian merchant family of modest means. His father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Bulfinch supported himself through his position at the Merchants' Bank of Boston.
Although Thomas Bulfinch reorganized Psalms to illustrate the history of the Hebrews, he is best known as the author of
Bulfinch's Mythology, an 1881 compilation of his previous works:
1.
The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855)
2.
The Age of Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur (1858)
3.
Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of the Middle Ages (1863)
The compilation assembled posthumously by Edward Everett Hale, known simply as
Bulfinch's Mythology includes various stories belonging to the mythological traditions known as the Matter of Rome, the Matter of Britain and the Matter of France, respectively.
Read The Age of Fable, by Thomas Bulfinch, one of
four of his works available free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 04:18 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Red Faction: Guerrilla
For: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and
Windows PC
From: Volition, Inc./THQ
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood, strong
language, violence)
Volition's past work on the "Saints Row" and "Red Faction" have joined forces for one extraordinary lovechild in "Red Faction: Guerrilla," which ditches the franchise's claustrophobic first-person shooter roots in favor of a full-scale, third-person liberation of open-world Mars.
"Faction" originally established itself by allowing players to destroy environments before destructible environments became remotely commonplace, and "Guerrilla" makes its name not only by applying that principle to a persistent, open-ended landscape, but by once again doing it better than anyone ever has. Advancement through the game opens the door to all manner of explosive technology (rockets, atomic rifles, armored vehicles and mechs), but it's just as fun to leisurely decimate a fortress with nothing more than your absurdly powerful sledgehammer. The ensuing mayhem feels astonishingly authentic: Buildings come apart and topple realistically rather than in a manner that feels anywhere near scripted.
Posted by courier at 03:54 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
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By Lesley Clark
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — Long-suspended talks between the U.S. and Cuba will resume Tuesday, the latest signal of the Obama administration's efforts to revive ties between the two nations.
The State Department wouldn't confirm the resumption of the talks, but several members of Congress said they were scheduled to be held in New York, for one day.
The U.S. delegation will be headed by Craig Kelly, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Dagoberto Rodriguez, a Cuban Foreign Ministry official and the former head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, will lead the Cuban delegation.
Posted by courier at 06:39 PM. Filed under: News
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From wikipedia:
Stewart Culin (July 13, 1858 - 1929) was an ethnographer and author interested in games, art and dress. He believed that similarity in gaming demonstrated similarity and contact among cultures across the world.
Born Robert Stewart Culin, a son of Mina Barrett Daniel Culin and John Culin, in Philadelphia, Culin was schooled at Nazareth Hall, a well-regarded boy's school in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. While he had no formal education in anthropology, Culin played a role in the development of the field. His interest began with the Asian-American population of Philadelphia, then composed chiefly of Chinese-American laborers. His first published work was an 1887 article entitled
The Practice of Medicine by the Chinese in America. In 1889 Culin published a report about Chinese games, an 1890 article about Italian marionettes was inspired by a visit to a marionette theater in New York.
Read "The Value of Games in Ethnology," by Stewart Culin, free from the University of Waterloo.
Posted by courier at 04:10 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From The Courier's Archives:
Posted by courier at 08:57 PM. Filed under: Comics
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From wikipedia:
Beah Richards (July 12, 1920 – September 14, 2000) was an American actress with a long career on stage, screen and television. She was also a poet, playwright and author.
Born Beulah Richardson in Vicksburg, Mississippi, her mother was a seamstress and PTA advocate and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans and two years later moved to New York City. Her career started to take off in 1955 when she portrayed an eighty-four-year-old-grandmother in the off-Broadway show
Take a Giant Step. She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of
Purlie Victorious, The Miracle Worker, and
A Raisin in the Sun.
Read Beah Richards' obituary, free from
The Guardian.
Posted by courier at 03:51 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Posted by courier at 04:44 AM. Filed under: Opinion
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By Carrie Rickey
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
PHILADELPHIA — Slim as lightning, Kathryn Bigelow makes movies charged with adrenaline and electricity, action thrillers like "Blue Steel" and "Point Break." The 6-footer with the radiant presence of a Redgrave and the steel nerves of a high-wire artist is drawn to stories about daredevils addicted to the rush.
Her latest, "The Hurt Locker," about a U.S. bomb-disposal technician in Baghdad in 2004, plugs viewers directly into the central nervous system of such a risk junkie, and it's earning Bigelow the best reviews of her career. "An instant classic that demonstrates ... how the drug of war hooks its victims and why they can't kick the habit," the Wall Street Journal salutes.
"The Hurt Locker" is a topical exploration into mindful violence and one warrior's mindset: The acute focus that makes Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) such a cunning creature of war is the very quality that makes him unsuited to just about everything else.
Posted by courier at 11:34 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Ann Ward Radcliffe (9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English author, a pioneer of the gothic novel. It was her technique of the explained supernatural, in which every seemingly supernatural intrusion is eventually traced back to natural causes, and the impeccable conduct of her heroines that finally met with the approval of the reviewers, transforming the gothic novel into something socially acceptable.
Read The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe, one of
two of her works available free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 07:29 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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(l-r)Vivian Campbell, Rick Savage, Joe Elliott,
Phil Collen, Rick Allen, of Def Leppard live in 2007
wikipedia photo
You don't need to be bonked in the head by a massive piece of Broadway scenery to figure out that something is going on.
As AC/DC's surprise double-platinum No. 1 "Black Ice" album and the success of the Broadway musical (and future motion picture) "Rock of Ages" would suggest, '80s hard rockers of all sorts are once again at the peak of pop culture.
And Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott says he knows why.
Posted by courier at 10:14 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
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Jester Hairston (July 9, 1901 - January 18, 2000) was an American composer, songwriter, arranger, choral conductor, and actor.
Hairston was born in Belews Creek, a rural community on the border of Stokes and Forsyth counties in North Carolina. At an early age he and his family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His grandparents had been slaves.
He graduated cum laude from Tufts University and studied music at the Juilliard School as well. He worked as a choir conductor in the early stages of his career. His work with choirs on Broadway eventually led to his singing and acting in plays, films, radio programs, and television shows.
Read an interview with Jester Hairston, free from the African American Music Collection of the University of Michigan.
Posted by courier at 12:04 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Leah Koenig
Mother Nature Network (mnn.com) (MCT)
What does your typical morning routine look like – a blurry-eyed stop at Starbucks for a banana and takeout latte before hopping on the freeway? You are not alone. What if, instead of the stressful gridlock and disposable cup, you tried biking to your office and treating yourself to a freshly-brewed mug of coffee once you arrived? For Vanessa Farquharson, it is all in a day's greening.
As a 20-something Canadian journalist and self-proclaimed sustainability-novice, Farquharson challenged herself to make one green change to her life every day for an entire year and blog about it along the way. Over the year, she tackled the radical (e.g. unplugging her refrigerator and foregoing toilet paper) and the small (e.g. streamlining her beauty care products and attempting to date green), while trying not to alienate her friends or family by turning into a "smug hippie."
Posted by courier at 12:03 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Learn more about Louis Jordan, and hear him perform, free from LouisJordan.com.
Posted by courier at 12:50 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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"Grand Slam Tennis"
For: Nintendo Wii
From: EA Sports
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Before the Wii was marketed as a system for everyone, it was pegged as a beacon for unprecedented immersion. Now that Nintendo's $20 Wii MotionPlus peripheral is finally here — and, more importantly, games like "Grand Slam Tennis" are on board to support it — that original claim finally holds true.
It demands mentioning that "Tennis" plays fine without the peripheral. The same control scheme from "Wii Sports" is included, and "Tennis" betters it by mapping lob and drop shots to the A and B buttons and allowing players to use the D-pad to shift their character between quadrants on the court. A more advanced scheme, incorporating the nunchuck attachment, affords players full character movement along with the same shot controls. "Tennis" allows you to swap schemes and difficulty levels on the fly, which makes establishing your ideal setup reasonably painless.
Posted by courier at 06:41 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Ezzard Mack Charles (July 7, 1921 – May 28, 1975) was an African-American professional boxer and former world heavyweight champion.
He was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, but is commonly thought of as a Cincinnatian. Charles graduated from Woodward High School in Cincinnati where he was already becoming a well-known fighter. Known as "The Cincinnati Cobra," Charles is best remembered for his wins as a heavyweight, but most experts feel he was in his prime as a light heavyweight. Although he never won the championship at that weight, Ring magazine has rated him as the greatest light heavyweight of all time.
Read a 1950 article about Ezzard Charles and Joe Louis, free from Google.
Posted by courier at 04:33 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Tom Lasseter
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
MOSCOW — Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on Monday agreed to cut as many as a third of the nuclear warheads in their strategic arsenals, but acknowledged that disagreements linger about a proposed U.S. missile defense shield.
Obama and Medvedev stressed that the proposal marked a turn away from the post-Cold War lows of the past few years.
Posted by courier at 06:43 PM. Filed under: News
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From wikipedia:
Dr. Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander (July 6, 1915–November 30, 1998) was an African-American poet and author born in Birmingham, Alabama. She wrote as Margaret Walker. One of her best-known poems is "For My People".
Her father Sigismund C. Walker was a Methodist minister and her mother was Marion Dozier Walker. They helped get her started in literature by teaching a lot of philosophy and poetry to her as a child.
Learn more about Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander, free from The Nation magazine.
Posted by courier at 12:38 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Mary Walcott,
1902 illustration by John W. Ehninger(July 5, 1675 – after 1719) was one of the witnesses at the Salem Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts in the years 1692 and 1693.
She was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Walcott (1639-1699), and his wife Mary Sibley (1644-1683), both of Salem, and was about seventeen years old when the allegations started in 1692. Her aunt, Mary Woodrow, the wife of Samuel Sibley (1657-1708), was the person who first showed Tituba and her husband John Indian how to bake a witch cake to feed to a dog in order that she and her friends might ascertain exactly who it was that was afflicting them. Joseph B. Felt quotes in the
The Annals of Salem (1849 edition) vol. 2, p. 476 [from the town records]:
March 11, 1692 – "Mary, the wife of Samuel Sibley, having been suspended from communion with the church there, for the advices she gave John [husband of Tituba] to make the above experiment, is restored on confession that her purpose was innocent."
Read Mary Walcott's Salem Witch Trial testimony against George Burroughs, free from the University of Virginia Library.
Posted by courier at 12:53 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Posted by courier at 04:51 AM. Filed under: Opinion
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From wikipedia:
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) was an American astronomer and the deaf daughter of a Congregational minister. A graduate of Radcliffe College, Leavitt went to work in 1893 at the Harvard College Observatory in a menial capacity as a "computer", assigned to count images on photographic plates. Study of the plates led Leavitt to propound a groundbreaking theory, worked out while she labored as a $10.50-a-week assistant, that was the basis for the pivotal work of astronomer Edwin Hubble and radically changed the theory of modern astronomy, an accomplishment for which Leavitt received almost no credit during her lifetime.
Read Henrietta Swan Leavitt: a Star of the Brightest Magnitude, free from the American Chemical Society.
Posted by courier at 04:48 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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MOON
3 stars
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
Directed by: Duncan Jones
Rated R for language
The outer-space indie "Moon" puts the alien in alienation.
Ever-interesting Sam Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, a contractor running a one-man mining operation. His employer is LUNAR Corp., a benign enterprise that supplies Earth's energy needs with Helium-3, a precious gas extracted from the moon's surface. Nearing the end of his three-year term, he's eager to be reunited with his wife and young daughter. He talks to the moon base's resident computer, GERTY, as if it was human, but otherwise he seems unaffected by his long solitude.
Alert viewers will suspect that something more worrisome is afoot. The video communications from Sam's Earthbound bosses are condescending and unconvincingly supportive. The seemingly friendly computer is voiced by Kevin Spacey, an actor who couldn't tell you the time of day without seeing duplicitous. Sam's quarters are unkempt, and Rockwell is renowned for playing wackjobs. He gives hints of psychological wear and tear. When he takes a rare drive in a lunar rover, he crashes and loses consciousness. Waking up in the base's medical facility, he's confused, and comes to believe he's not alone up there.
Posted by courier at 05:06 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia:
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was a prolific and well-respected writer, writing more than 20 books during her lifetime and also publishing two volumes of journals and correspondence shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book,
Serve it Forth, was published in 1937. Her books deal primarily with food, considering it from many aspects: preparation, natural history, culture, and philosophy. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored the art of living as a secondary theme in her writing. Her style and pacing are noted elements of her short stories and essays.
Fisher was born Mary Frances Kennedy in Albion, Michigan on July 3, 1908. In 1911, her father, Rex Kennedy, moved the family to Whittier, California to pursue a career in journalism. Although Whittier was primarily a Quaker community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the Episcopal Church.
Learn more about M.F.K. Fisher at the M.F.K. Fisher Foundation webpage.
Posted by courier at 04:31 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Cary Darling
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
Every decade or so it happens.
African music, often exiled by the pop mainstream into the land of world-music exotica, threatens to make a broader incursion into American consciousness.
The '60s: South Africans Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba scored breakthroughs while the New York group the Tokens went to No. 1 with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," their take on a Zulu song written in 1939.
The '70s: Cameroon's Manu Dibango comes up with a global hit in 1972, the sweaty, sax-drenched instrumental Soul Makossa, considered by some to be the first disco track.
Posted by courier at 11:48 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Before becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. He was nominated to the court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967.
Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, the great-grandson of a slave. His original name was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood in second grade because he disliked spelling it. His father, William Marshall, who was a railroad porter, instilled in him an appreciation for the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law. Additionally, as a child in Baltimore, he was punished for his school misbehavior by being forced to write copies of the Constitution, which he later said piqued his interest in the document.
Posted by courier at 12:30 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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By Kim Janssen
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Did you struggle to make it past page 20 of "Moby Dick"?
Do you live in fear of people discovering you've never read "Hamlet"?
Too busy for CliffsNotes?
Two University of Chicago freshmen believe they've found a solution. The pair recently signed a book deal with Penguin Books to rewrite 75 classic novels and plays as "Twitterature."
In a move likely to be greeted by book-lovers with a mixture of horror and why-didn't-I-think-of-that jealousy, college roommates Alex Aciman and Emmett Rensin, both 19, are rewriting classics by Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Dante and other greats in 20 or fewer 140-character tweets.
Posted by courier at 05:56 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
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From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
William Strunk, Jr. (July 1, 1869, Cincinnati, Ohio—September 26, 1946, Ithaca, New York) was Professor of English at Cornell University and is best known as the author of the first editions of The Elements of Style, a guide to English usage, which he had printed privately in 1918 for the use of his students. It became a classic on the local campus, known as "the little book".
In the original edition, Strunk describes the purpose of the book as follows:
"It aims to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention ... on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated."
Read William Strunk's classic "Elements of Style," free from Bartleby.com.
Posted by courier at 12:04 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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