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- June 12, 2018
- Samuel Z. Arkoff, American Producer of B Movies
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During my younger years I was a fan of the "B Movie" ... because they were mostly that "weird and wonderful" variety of my favorite horror and scifi flicks which would engage my interest in the outlandish or macabre for hours on end — sometimes interrupting my sleep as the result of a powerful imagination.
I would often times see "Samuel Z. Arkoff presents ..." or some variant thereof in the title or ending credits and I began to associate this name with a movie I could sit and watch.
Samuel Zachary Arkoff
June 12, 1918 – September 16, 2001
His formula for low budget movie making included:
- Action (excitement as a factor for entertainment)
- Revolution (controversy or unique thematic elements)
- Killing (violence)
- Oratory (noteworthy dialog and epic speech)
- Fantasy (common fantasy themes acted out for the viewing audience)
- Fornication (sex as a component of interest in younger audiences)
I suppose that my ability to suspend disbelief has beome jaded with all the cgi and over-the-top special effects we now have compared to that with which he was able to work. Regardless, the Samuel Z. Arkoff movies still have me watching; albeit somewhat less "enthralled" than I was in my youth.
He passed this life in 2001 shortly after his wife. He leaves two children, producers in their own right.
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- June 11, 2018
- National German Chocolate Cake Day
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German Chocolate Cake ... named for one Sam German's baking chocolate and NOT the country Germany is one of those intoxicatingly decadent confections which has been my most favorite since I first tasted a piece in my early childhood.
• The chocolate.
• The caramel.
• The coconut.
• The pecans.
It's an old fashioned treat in the absolute best grandma tradition.
So if you are ever fortunate enough to have one baked up for you ... you're mighty lucky so ENJOY.
Happy National German Chocolate Cake Day !
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- June 10, 2018
- Ball Point Pen Day
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So the schools aren't teaching cursive writing anymore. I was somewhat disturbed by the news when I was informed regarding it ... but others at work were more at ease with the notion of less education as a matter of course in The Republic.
My friend Chris at work said that the bulk of writing is done at keyboards anymore and the signature, the appearance of which I once held as such high value was "electronic" in our new age business models.
While I fully understand the conceptualization and implementation of such a rationale, I still think we're raising successive generations of stupidity.
I suppose this is fine and well and good given the status quo for exhibited intellectual capacity as well ... OH what am I saying. Boo.
June 10 is Ball Point Pen Day in honor of Laszlo and Gyorgy Biro, the two brothers who invented the device on this day in 1943.
Ball point pens have an ink application mechanism which was unprecedented in it's time utilizing a ball which both capped the ink inside and permitted the user to control the application of the ink onto the paper during use.
My personal preference in pens is the Bic Clic Stic which I use because of the excellent line quality it produces. It is a medium point pen and came to my attention when I noticed all the vendors handing them out as personalized kitsch at technology conventions and meetings.
Suggestions for marking the day include more inked writing during the day ...
Perhaps avoiding the computer keyboard altogether. Though this alternative is not really feasible for a coder like myself — surely some of you may find it practical at work.
Happy Ball Point Pen Day !
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- June 9, 2018
- The Devil and Joseph Welch
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Joseph Nye Welch, Special Counsel to the US Army confronts Senator Joseph McCarthy during congressional hearings
On this day in 1954 Joseph Welch faced a political devil named Joseph McCarthy who was actively engaged in a personal witch hunt for communists in the United States of America. The "Red Scare" he originated has been the chagrin of constitutional proponents since it's advent in the 1950s. At congressional hearings to determine if communism had infiltrated the United States Army, Mr Welch in the capacity of special counsel for the Army took Senator McCarthy to task regarding his blanket condemnations of citizens in search of communists who simply were not there ...
This practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence had cast a dark abiding fear over the United States and subsequently many citizens of the country were forced into a sense of angst and forboding with it's blacklists, accusatory rhetoric, and drastic consequences for those so wrongfully accused until Mr McCarthy went after one young man too many and finally met his match.
"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness."
Thus began the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries which subsequently became known as "McCarthyism" with it's resulting mass hysteria often compared to the witch hunts of colonial Salem.
... When McCarthy indicated relentlessness, Mr Welch angrily interrupted ...
"Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Joseph Nye Welch, Esq
Special Counsel to the United States Army
Public rebuke of Senator Joseph McCarthy
June 9, 1954
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- June 8, 2018
- Hummingbirds Going Without
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So last night I made hummingbird food and washed the two feeders.
Then while getting everything ready I inadvertently poured out the sugar water I had gone to so much trouble to prepare.
So today the poor buggers will simply do without. I'm too distracted because I hate going shopping anymore because I despise walmart, the waltons, the entire stupid fema camp partner mentality of these mom and pop operation destroying monopolistic predators —
Not to mention their base of insipid inbred southern puke employees.
I need less distraction and LESS walmart in my existence.
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- June 7, 2018
- The Engima of Alan Turing
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Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, computer scientist and visionary who was essential in the success of British efforts to break the WWII German high command's coding system known as 'Enigma'.
The rewards for his tireless works did not consist of accolades or admiration from colleagues nor the public. Quite the contrary he was persecuted for his sexuality and given the option of 'chemical castration' in lieu of imprisonment when convicted of gross indecency.
The tragedy culminated in his suicide by cyanide poisoning in 1954.
Thousands of signatures were obtained on a petition calling for the government to issue a formal apology and the prime minister of Britain, Gordon Brown has complied.
He related that Mr. Turing was treated inhumanely under a legal system which was homophobic at the time.
... Some things take so long
But how do I explain
When not too many people
Can see we're all the same
And because of all their tears
Their eyes can't hope to see
The beauty that surrounds them
Isn't it a pity ...
George Harrison
from his song Isn't It a Pity
The tragedy of this story gives me pause to reconsider my petty preconceived notions regarding human sexuality, the value of life and just how much we lose when we allow prejudice to intercede in matters pursuant to the greater good.
Mr. Turing's story was one of human triumph that was unmercifully turned to tragedy by societal mores which became conventional politics and allowed to become some accusatory and judgmental bludgeon -- much like aspects of the the Inquisition, witch hunts in Salem Massachusetts, and the Nazi regime. Comply or die.
Though I might not agree with another persons sexual preferences it is those horror stories such as that of the treatment of Alan Turing by the law no less that have made me a more tolerant person and cultivated my personal wish to understand and support human rights. I am glad that society at least attempts to be more enlightened in these regards.
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- June 6, 2018
- Sandra Bernhard
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One of those entertainers who has always piqued my performing arts interest is Sandra Bernhard.
Sandra Bernhard
comedian actress singer author
I have always admired a rapier wit and succinct critical tongue and she has exhibited both in spades.
Her forte is stand up comedy but she had forays into acting and writing which were equally interesting and thought provoking.
I feel that it all falls back to that previously mentioned rapier wit being applied to other disciplines.
Be all that as it may today is her birthday and I hope she has a magical time with however that time gets spent.
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- June 5, 2018
- World Day Against Speciesism
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One of those modern tragedies in which we now live is the so-called "animal holocaust" whereby we are losing species of animals due to poaching, habitat infringement, pollution, and generally reeking havoc on the biosphere as though we own it.
Unfortunately, the cause suffers by radical lefties such as the Farm Animal Rights Movement and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who attempt to form public opinion in their own image by promoting a rather self serving World Day Against Speciesism annually on this day.
While I am all for conservation of natural resources, be they animal, mineral, or vegetable the entire idea of speciesism and it's assignment of different values, rights, or special consideration to individuals solely on the basis of their species membership is a bit far fetched for my personal tastes.
The concept leads us down the trail that "animal rights" are being subjugated primarily by carnivore and trophy seeking humans for their own agrandisement and that as people we should 'cease and desist' in favor of letting animals assume their own roles with their own rights and so on ...
This has led to habit provision for retired scientific test animals which I view as heartwarming and wonderful but the entire notion of invading scientific laboratory sites for the emancipation of lab animals is deleterious to the pursuit of testing prior to application and therein lay the crux of my opinion:
Animals do not possess intrinsic rights, to live or otherwise because the human species has dominion over them.
While it would be lovely for mankind to leave the animals alone and subsist on soylent green or some other manufactured foodstuff I feel it's unlikely this will ever become a practicality.
Those methods imposed by Peta and the rest of the tree hugging animal rights advocate wussies can just go on whining about how horrible the rest of us are.
Then ... please just shut up and pass the A1.
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- June 4, 2018
- Me and X-Ray Specs
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When I was a rambunctious misbehaving child in Virginia Beach that fantasy land which constituted the bulk of my existence included various products my gullible little mind believed in to the nth degree ... oh how in retrospect the clarity in realization of my utter naivete still stings to this day.
One of those coveted possessions I never acquired were X-Ray Specs, as advertised in the many comic books I read as well as a little rag called 'Grit' that the kid next door would let me read because he always had extra copies and I rarely had any money.
It seems that these things were touted as a 'real' functioning x-ray visioning system one could slap on their head and get busy with all manner of peeping tom like skullduggery for the sum of one whole dollar.
Oh the fantasies that notion triggered in my little pea sized brain to include seeing Sandy White from down the street nekkid (sic) or perhaps the charming and beautiful Georganne Cosgrove from across the street, Angela Bohannon on the other side of the Boulevard ... or one of the pretty little Fisk girls next door; not to mention those little Page girls over on Clover Street and OH ... I never did anything.
It seems that the lack of that experience was not for naught as well for in my fresh young uninitiated mind I could not account for the lack of a high power mechanism driving a cathode and anode in a vacuum tube in the presence of some visualizing screen. That information wouldn't come for years later, long after leaving Lavender Lane.
So, as it was Angela, Sandy, Georgeanne, and the little Fisk and Page girls were totally safe from my would be peeping predatory inclinations ... inasmuch as they could only exist in my imagination ...
It seems that the things I never had the opportunity to get away with eclipsed those for which I was punished many times over. If only I could have pulled off ANY of those little boy schemes I planned with such care and in such detail as a pupil in the second and third grades at Aragona Elementary.
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- June 3, 2018
- World Clubfoot Day 2018
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The term 'clubfoot' (Talipes Equinovarus) in the context of diagnoses refers to a deformed foot which exhibits a twisted configuration such that the sole cannot be placed flat on the ground..jpg "Talipes Equinovarus (clubfoot)")
Typically, it is either congenital (a birth defect) or the results of poliomyelitis, an infectious viral disease process affecting the central nervous system which can cause temporary or permanent paralysis.
World Clubfoot Day was introduced in 2013 by the Ponseti International Association, and is observed on the third of June each year corresponding to Ponseti's birthday.
The date arises from the signing of the Iowa Clubfoot Declaration during the 2nd International Clubfoot Symposium which was held in Iowa City, Iowa on October 4 and 5 in 2012.
The goal of World Clubfoot Day is to raise awareness about clubfoot disability and its prevention using the Ponseti method.
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- June 2, 2018
- International Whores Day 2018
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As a sailor I liked whores.
©2003-2018 IllustratedEye
Not the domestic Spruill Avenue variety, but those in foreign ports. Some of them were very accommodating offering various comfort items in addition to the primary commodity and Barcelona in particular had one lady I actively sought out for that very reason.
We became rather good friends as it were.
It's easy to cast judgement on those who require means of putting food on the table, paying rent, buying necessities and so forth.
I have always been lucky to have a skillset which was somewhat in demand. Everyone is not so lucky.
Today is International Sex Workers Day. On June second the day honors sex workers and recognizes what is frequently exploitation of both their persons and their working conditions.
The day commemorates the occupation of a church called Église Saint-Nizier in Lyon by more than a hundred sex workers on the second of June in 1975 in an effort to publicize their inhumane working conditions.
It has been celebrated annually since 1976.
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- June 1, 2018
- Neighbors Day 2018
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There is a concept known as "Home Owners Associations" in the United States. Some communities both require you to be a member, pay dues, then allow them to rule you into the ground. My late stepfather was not too big on the idea. He declined the $20 annual dues and would not participate in their activities.
Today is Neighbors Day. It is an offshoot of those Housing Associations located in cities and towns internationally.
In the literature the day is listed either on or shortly before or after the first of June. The crux of the celebration is inviting the neighbors over for some type of celebration of living in proximity.
Personally, I'd just as soon be left alone. I suppose I get it honest.
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- May 31, 2018
- Jean Stapleton
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Jean Stapleton was one of those standards from my childhood. All in the Family was a series on the teevee which my father had pretty much taken to and watched regularly, meaning that we all sat and watched it with him.
Born Jeanne Murray, she was an American actress who graced stage, television, and film.
Among those elements of an immense body of work, she portrayed Edit Bunker, wife of Archie Bunker and gave that character a certain child like innocence abd wonder yet retained that firm grasp on life and living.
There were many lessons from what she imparted to the presentations covering the full spectrum of both emotions and social awareness to her performances.
She passed on this day in 2013 and the world will be hard pressed to replace her in those dramatis personae of which she was so integral a character actress.
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- May 30, 2018
- John, Joy, and the last birthday cake
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Today is John's birthday. He's been gone what seems like long years now. We try to honor him at the Fort Jackson National Cemetery and we remember him most every day. It's hard to suffer the passing of someone who cared about you so much and there are moments that are more difficult than others.
We can only wait for that grand reunion when the blended family circle will again be unbroken and we meet in the eternity.
Happy Birthday John and we miss you !
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