Today’s Birthdays: July 22nd

Edited From Those Were The Days

1784 – Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel
German astronomer and mathematician: first to triangulate the heavens by observing the parallax of the star 61 Cygni [the change in its angular position as the Earth moved between opposite extremes of its orbit]: Bessel estimated the distance of the star to be 10·1 light years [the Bessel function]; died Mar 17, 1846

1822 – Gregor (Johann) Mendel
botanist: his theories formed basis of genetics and heredity in today’s science; died Jan 6, 1884

1890 – Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
mother of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy; died Jan 22, 1995

1893 – Karl Menninger
psychiatrist: founded [w/brother & father] the Menninger Clinic and Foundation, Topeka, KS to care for people with emotional problems; died July 18, 1990

1898 – Stephen Vincent Benét
Pulitzer prize-winning poet: see American Poet Day [above]; died Mar 13, 1943

1898 – Alexander (Stirling) Calder
sculptor: wood, bronze, mobiles; died Nov 11, 1976

1923 – Bob (Robert) Dole
U.S. Senate majority leader, 1996 GOP candidate for president of U.S.

1924 – Margaret Whiting
singer: Moonlight in Vermont, It Might as Well Be Spring, Now is the Hour, Far Away Places, A Tree in the Meadow, w/Jimmy Wakely: Slippin’ Around, Wedding Bells Will Soon Be Ringing

1928 – Orson Bean (Dallas Burroughs)
comedian, actor: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; game show panelist: To Tell the Truth, I’ve Got a Secret, Keep Talking; author: 25 Ways to Cook a Mouse

1932 – Oscar De La Renta
fashion designer

1934 – Louise Fletcher
actress: High School High, Two Moon Junction series, Nightmare on the 13th Floor, Final Notice, Flowers in the Attic, Invaders from Mars, A Summer to Remember, Natural Enemies, Lady in Red, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1937 – Chuck Jackson
singer: Any Day Now, I Don’t Want to Cry

1939 – Terence Stamp
actor: Superman: The Movie, Far from the Madding Crowd, Alien Nation, Billy Budd, Wall Street, Young Guns, The Real McCoy

1940 – George Clinton (aka Dr. Funkenstein, also Maggot Overlord)
singer: groups: The Parliaments: [I Just Wanna] Testify; Funkadelic: LP: Funkadelic, Maggot Brain, One Nation Under a Groove, Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome, Trombipulation, The Electric Spanking of War Babies; Parliament: Mothership Connection; Brides of Funkenstein; Parlet; Bootsy’s Rubber Band; solo: LP: Computer Games: single: Atomic Dog; Parliament/Funkadelic motto: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Followomic Dog

1940 – Alex Trebek
game show host: Jeopardy, Concentration, The $128,000 Question; narrator: Heart of Courage

Here’s Dirty Alex (foul language warning!)

1941 – Thomas Wayne (Perkins)
singer: Tragedy

1943 – Bobby Sherman
singer: Little Woman, Julie, Do Ya Love Me; actor: Shindig, Here Come the Brides, Getting Together; founder of TAC-5, a paramedics group

1944 – Estelle Bennett
singer: group: The Ronettes: Be My Baby, Baby I Love You, Do I Love You, [The Best Part Of] Breaking Up, Walking in the Rain

1944 – Rick Davies
musician: keyboard, singer: group: Supertramp

1944 – Sparky (Albert) Lyle
baseball: NY Yankees pitcher: Cy Young Award [1977]

1946 – Danny Glover
actor: Lethal Weapon series, Silverado, Escape from Alcatraz, Chiefs, The Color Purple, Angels in the Outfield, Places in the Heart

1947 – Albert Brooks (Einstein)
actor: Broadcast News, Lost in America, Private Benjamin, Taxi Driver

1947 – Don Henley
drummer, singer: groups: Shiloh; The Eagles: Hotel California; solo: Dirty Laundry, All She Wants to Do is Dance, The End of the Innocence; songwriter: The Boys of Summer

1955 – Willem Dafoe
actor: Platoon, Mississippi Burning, Clear and Present Danger, New York Nights

1963 – Rob Estes
director, actor: Silk Stalkings, Melrose Place, Days of Our Lives, Aces: Iron Eagle III, Terror in the Mall, Outreach

1963 – Joanna Going
actress: Search for Tomorrow, Another World, Dark Shadows, Wyatt Earp, Still Breathing, NetForce, Cupid & Cate

1964 – John Leguizamo
actor: The Fan, To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, Super Mario Bros., Carlito’s Way, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Casualties of War; actor, playwright: Mambo Mouth, Spic-O-Rama; comedian: House of Buggin’

1964 – David Spade
writer, comedian, actor: Saturday Night Live, Just Shoot Me, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, Coneheads, A Very Brady Sequel, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, The Rugrats Movie, Lost & Found

1965 – Michael Hickenbottom
pro wrestler/actor: WWF Superstars of Wrestling, Wrestlemania series, Royal Rumble series, Sunday Night Heat, WWF Smackdown!, Armageddon

1965 – Patrick Labyorteaux
actor: JAG, Mame, Little House on the Prairie, Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College, 3 Ninjas, Redemption of the Ghost, Hollywood Palms

1967 – Irene Bedard
actress: Crazy Horse, Grand Avenue, Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee, Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale; voice-over: Pocahontas

Quote Of The Day: H.L. Mencken

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me.  They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.

H.L. Mencken (1880--1956)

–H.L. Mencken

Today In History: July 22nd

Edited From Those Were The Days

1933 – Aviator Wiley Post ended his first around-the-world flight on this day. Post traveled 15,596 miles in just over a week (7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes). His famous plane was called the Winnie Mae.

1933 – Caterina Jarboro became the first black prima donna of an opera company. The singer performed Aida with the Chicago Opera Company at the Hippodrome in New York City.

1934 – Public enemy number one, the notorious John Dillinger, was gunned down and mortally wounded by FBI agents at the Biograph Theatre in Chicago, IL.

1937 – Hal Kemp and his orchestra recorded the now-standard tune, Got a Date with an Angel, for Victor Records in Hollywood, California. The distinctive vocal on the tune is provided by Skinnay Ennis.

1944 – The Bretton Woods (New Hampshire) Conference created the International Monetary Fund on this day. The IMF is “…a cooperative institution that [many] countries have voluntarily joined because they see the advantage of consulting with one another in this forum to maintain a stable system of buying and selling their currencies so that payments in foreign money can take place between countries smoothly and without delay.” The IMF was based on the ideas of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Director of Monetary Research, Harry Dexter White, John Maynard Keynes of England and the IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction & Development). The IMF began operations in Washington, D.C. in May 1946 with 39 member countries.

1955 – U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon chaired a cabinet meeting in Washington, D.C. It was the first time that a Vice President had carried out this task.

1963 – World Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston hung on to his boxing title by knocking out challenger Floyd Patterson in the first round of a bout in Las Vegas, NV.

1965 – Till Death Us Do Part debuted on England’s BBC-TV. The show was so popular that it became a TV series in Great Britain and was the forerunner of the 1971-92 CBS-TV hit, All in the Family, starring Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton.

1967 – The Billboard singles chart showed that Windy, by The Association, was the most popular record in the U.S. for the fourth straight week. The Los Angeles-based sextet would make way for Jim Morrison and The Doors a week later when Light My Fire became the hottest record of the mid-summer.

1975 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee had his U.S. citizenship restored by the U.S. Congress.

1977 – Tony Orlando announced his retirement from show business. Orlando was performing in Cohasset, MA when he said that he had finally decided to call it quits. Orlando had two solo hits in 1961 (Halfway to Paradise and Bless You) and 14 hits with his backup singers (known as Dawn) through the mid-1970s. He also hosted a weekly TV variety show with Dawn (Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent) from 1974-1976.

1979 – Frenchman Bernard Hinault won the Tour de France in 103 hours, 6 minutes and 50 seconds. It was the second time that the bicyclist had won the event. He took a little longer to complete the course the previous year, finishing in 108 hours and 18 minutes. Hinault won this event again in 1981, 1982 (his best time, 92 hours, 8 minutes and 46 seconds) and 1985.

1985 – Bruce Springsteen became the hottest ticket in the rock concert biz as 70,000 Cleveland fans lined up (in less than three hours) to grab tickets to see the ‘Boss’.

1990 – Greg LeMond won his third Tour de France. He outdistanced all other cyclists by finishing in 90 hours, 43 minutes and 20 seconds. His time was slower than his past wins. LeMond won in 1986 and again in 1989 with his best time of 87 hours, 38 minutes and 35 seconds.

1994 – O.J. Simpson pleaded “absolutely, 100 percent not guilty” to charges he murdered his ex-wife, Nicole and restaurant worker, Ronald Goldman; and the case was assigned to Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito in Los Angeles.

“Tasteless” Political Joke Of The Night…

Two Crocodiles were sitting at the side of the Thames in Central London

The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, ‘I can’t understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We’re the same age, we were the same size as kids. I just don’t get it.’

‘Well,’ said the big Croc, ‘what have you been eating?’

‘Politicians, same as you,’ replied the small Croc.

‘Hmm. Well, where do you catch them?’

‘Down the other side of the lake near the parking lot by the Parliament House.’

‘Same here. Hmm… How do you catch them?’

‘Well, I crawl up under one of their Lexus cars and wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out, grab them by the leg, shake the shit out of them and eat ’em!’

‘Ah!’ says the big Crocodile, ‘I think I see your problem. You’re not getting any real nourishment. See, by the time you finish shaking the shit out of a Politician, there’s nothing left but an arsehole and a briefcase.’

Same Name Couple To Wed After Meeting On Facebook

From the New York Daily News

A couple with the same name who found each other through social networking website Facebook are to tie the knot.

The Kelly Hildebrandt's are getting married...

Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt, 20, was bored one evening last year when she put her name into the site and came across Kelly Carl Hildebrandt, 24.

She sent the only other Kelly Hildebrandt, of Lubbock, Texas, a message and they became friends.

Ms Hildebrandt, a student from Miami, Florida, said she believed the chain of events was “all God’s timing”.

Her fiance described her first message to him, in April last year, as reading: “Hi. We had the same name. Thought it was cool,” reports the Associated Press news agency.

He said: “I thought she was pretty cute.”

Mr Hildebrandt admitted, however, that he had worried they might be related.

Nevertheless, the two were soon in daily contact by phone and e-mail and he “fell head over heels” after visiting her in Florida.

In December, she found a diamond engagement ring he had hidden in a treasure box on a beach.

“I thought it was fun. I had no idea it would lead to this,” Mr Hildebrandt said.

The couple plan to tie the knot in October and have confirmed that they do not plan to pass their first names on to any future offspring.

Dutch Man Allegedly Targets Queen For Wearing Fur

Queen Beatrix wears fur--she must be killed...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch animal rights activist, known in the Netherlands as the ‘vegan streaker’, has been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack against Queen Beatrix because she wears fur.

The prosecution office said Tuesday it was investigating whether the man was planning an attack against Queen Beatrix following a witness statement alerting authorities.

A decision will be made Wednesday whether to keep him in remand detention.

“He is also under suspicion of possession of a gun,” public prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin said.

But a defense lawyer for suspect Peter Janssen has told public broadcaster NOS the allegations he planned an attack were rubbish and the tip-off was designed to discredit him.

Police arrested Janssen Monday on suspicion of planning an attack on the queen, who was the target of an attack in April when a man rammed his car into a royal parade in the city of Apeldoorn on the Queen’s Day national holiday.

The attacker and seven other people were killed in that attack.

De Bruin said police raided Janssen’s house and the house of an associate Monday following a witness statement made in a separate inquiry, but that no firearm was found.

The witness statement suggested Janssen planned an attack because Queen Beatrix wears fur, he said.

Janssen previously made a stir when he burst into the live TV show of presenter Paul de Leeuw wearing only string underpants and the Dutch words for “Stop Animal Suffering” written in large black lettering on his bare chest.

De Leeuw responded by ripping the man’s pants off, prompting Janssen to dash out of the theater.

"I'm strongly against the selling of beaver fur pelts!"

B.S. Report–These are the members of the so-called compassionate crowd.  Now, I’m not crazy about the killing of animals for their fur either.  But is it illegal?  If not, work to have it made illegal if you feel that strongly.

Many of these individuals come from cradle to grave socialist havens–so they don’t have to work very hard.  This gives them plenty of time to get involved in all sorts of causes that generally wreak havoc on the civil society.

So sorry Mr. Beaver--you should have spoken up earlier...

Single Australian Women Turning To Dogs Instead Of Men

From the Australia Daily Telegraph

THEY used to be man’s best friend – but now it’s single women whose lives have gone to the dogs.

Trusty mate ... Christine Andryszczak with her Rottweiler, Tayla

Australia’s single women are turning their backs on men and opting for a much more loyal and reliable companion – a dog.

“In the past year 60 per cent of our new business has come from young single women,” Sydney Petcare owner Richard Durant said.

“It’s a growing trend I’ve noticed over the last few years. These are women who live busy lives.

“It’s almost like a child substitute. They lead busy lives and they’re not in a relationship.

“That’s why dogs like Maltese terriers, which are the second most popular dog in Australia and the most popular dog in Sydney, are popular – they’re little and they have human-like features.”

“They want company when they get home. In many cases you’ll find the dog sleeps in their bedroom, and even in bed with them.”

Dogs New South Wales president Dr Peter Higgins agreed.

“The fastest growing segment of dog owners in the inner city is young single women,” he said.

Australian Companion Animal Council president Dr Kersti Seksel said single women chose dogs as pets for a sense of security.

“If you live alone, having a dog as a companion to come home to is often more appealing than a flatmate,” she said.

“Owning a dog increases the feeling of safety and security.”

Banker Christine Andryszczak lives in Rozelle in Sydney’s inner south-west with her rottweiler-doberman cross Tayla.

“I got her when I bought my first house. It was mainly for security but she quickly became a companion more than a watchdog,” she said.

B.S. Report–Guys, we’re quickly becoming obsolete…Scientists have now begun to manufacture sperm artificially so women really don’t need us at all.  Someday, we’re going to be locked in cages and kept by women as some sort of museum pieces…

Men--we're an endangered species...

Summer Means Barbecue! Here Are Some Very Affordable Portable Grills

B.S. Report–If summer means one thing in America–it means barbecue!  And as part of our ongoing consumer outreach program, here are some fine portable grills brought to you by our redneck friends and neighbors…

“Genius” Whoopi Goldberg Questions The Moon Landing

B.S. Report–She gives credence to the theory that there isn’t intelligent life on Earth…

Chinese Flock En Masse To Crowded Pools, Beaches To Escape The Heat

From the UK Daily Mail

There was barely enough room to tread water as thousands of swimmers crowded into a pool in an attempt to escape China’s scorching heatwave.

But the fact there was no elbow room was not going to stop the fun in the world’s most populous nation.

Families desperate to escape the heat grabbed their rubber rings to jostle for space at a local pool in Nanjing, the capital of the Jiangsu Province.

Rubber ring to rubber ring: Swimmers still manage to smile despite being crammed into a swimming pool in Nanjing, China, as a heatwave sweeps across the country

B.S.–Hi, excuse me please; I’m here to swim laps…

A heatwave has blasted many parts of China with temperatures reaching a sweltering 40 degrees.

Stretches of sand were covered in a kaleidoscope of colour as beach-goers struggled to find a spot free for their towel.

With a population of over a billion, China’s inhabitants will be hard pressed to find relief.

Beach-goers struggled to find a free spot in Dalian

And with crammed pools and thousands flocking to the sea, residents had to resort to jumping into the polluted Yangtze river to cool off.

As the Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory issued a red alert on high temperature, some took to more invetive measures to protect themselves from the sultry air.

Children took advantage of the weather to run amock in the fountains of People’s Square.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–Sometimes we forget just how good we got it here in the States.  This should serve as a reminder that even the simple recreation of a neighborhood pool or the beach is an ordeal in some places.