Friday, July 10, 2026

bel-esprit \ bel-es-PREE \ , noun; 

• a person of great wit or intellect. 

Origin: Bel-esprit entered English from French in the mid-1600s. Esprit can be traced back to the Latin spiritus meaning "spirit." 

self helpless

• The condition of somebody that is unable to deal with life, usually found sitting around a neglected apartment with bad hair and bad outfit.

I saw Kenny at our high school reunion, he's still living with his parents and saving up for a camaro ...totally self helpless.

History 

• Monkey Trial: proceedings began against John Scopes, who broke Tennessee state law by teaching evolution to high school students (1925)
• Meher Baba: Indian spiritual master began a silence "to save mankind from monumental ignorance," which ended up lasting 44 years till his death (1925)
• Battle of Britain: German began to attack Britain by air (1940)
• Telstar: the first communications satellite was launched into orbit (1962)
• Coca-Cola Classic: the Coca-Cola Co. announced it would bring back its original formula after customers reacted negatively to New Coke (1985)

Birthdays

• John Calvin 1509
  Camille Pisarro 1830 (impressionist painter)
• James Whistler 1834
• Aldolphus Busch 1842
• Nikola Tesla 1856 (genius)
• Marcel Proust 1871
• Mary McLeod Bethune 1875
• Edmund Clerihew Bentley 1875
• John Gilbert 1897
• Ljuba Welitsch 1913
• Milt Buckner 1915
• Dick Cary 1916
• Don Herbert 1917
• David Brinkley 1920
• Jake LaMotta 1921
• Jeff Donnell 1921
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver 1921
• Jean Kerr 1923
• Fred Gwynne 1926

  
• David N. Dinkins 1927
• Ivan Passer 1933
• Jerry Herman 1933
• Sandy Stewart 1937
• Lawrence Pressman 1939
• Mills Watson 1940
• Robert Pine 1941
• Ian Whitcomb 1941
• Arthur Ashe 1943
• Jerry Miller 1943 - Musician (Moby Grape) 

  
• Ron Glass 1945
• Virginia Wade 1945
• Hal McRae 1946
• Sue Lyon 1946
• Arlo Guthrie 1947
• Ronnie James Dio 1949 - Musician (DIO)
• Cheryl Wheeler 1951
• Neil Tennant 1954 - Musician (Pet Shop Boys)
• Bela Fleck 1958
• Hawkshaw Wilson 1960 - Musician (BR5-49)
• Peter DiStefano 1965 - Musician (Porno for Pyros)
  Peter Serafinowicz 1972 - Actor / comedian (The Tick)
  Sofia Vergara 1972
• Jessica Simpson 1980 

   

  
  

   

   

   

   

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

  

Turtle Thursday: Perspectives [2026]

This is an unusual shot of Dante, a diamondback terrapin. Stacey took the pic while Dante was swimming along the waterline creating some strange split perspective shot of the little girl.

Pic taken with an Olympus FE-180 digital camera.

Thursday, July 9, 2026

estivate \ ES-tuh-veyt \ , verb; 

1. to spend the summer, as at a specific place or in a certain activity. 
2. Zoology . to spend a hot, dry season in an inactive, dormant state, as certain reptiles, snails, insects, and small mammals. 

Origin: Estivate derives from the Latin aestīvāre , with aestīvus meaning "relating to the summer." 

Droid rage

• Wanting to throw your Apple device at the wall because it has never performed the way your Android device did.

Anne: Ugghhhhhh! My iPhone X is frozen and won't let me text, AGAIN! I hate this thing. What a waste of money!

Jimmy: Anne, it sounds like you've got a bad case of droid rage. Maybe you should have gotten any Android phone.

History

• Wimbledon: the precursor to the tennis tournament first began; only Gentlemen's Singles was played (1877)
• cross of gold: William Jennings Bryan delivered a speech to the Democratic National Convention supporting bimetallism, advocating a silver standard in addition to the gold standard (1896)
• Johnny Weissmuller: swam 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds, thus breaking the minute barrier (1922)
• Grateful Dead: psychedelic rock-country-jazz band played its last concert, a month before the death of lead singer Jerry Garcia (1995)
• Midsummer Classic: MLB All-Star game ended in a tie after 11 innings; both sides had run out of pitchers (2002)

Birthdays

• Ann Radcliffe 1764
• Elias Howe 1819

  
• Ottorino Respighi 1879
• Clara Bow 1907 - Actress (Down to the Sea in Ships, The Plastic Age)
• Harold C. Fox 1910
• Leonard Pennario 1924
• Red Kelly 1927
• Ed Ames 1927 - Actor, musician (The Ames Brothers)
• Lee Hazlewood 1929
• Jesse McReynolds 1929
• June Jordan 1936
• James Hampton 1936
• Brian Dennehy 1938 - Actor
• Richard Roundtree 1942 - Actor
• Dean Koontz 1945 - Author
• Bon Scott (AC/DC) 1946
• O.J. Simpson 1947 - Football player, actor, murderer
• Chris Cooper 1951 - Actor
• John Tesh 1952 - Musician, television personality
• David Ball 1953
• Debbie Sledge 1954 - Musician (Sister Sledge)
  Fred Leo Nukis (Eric Fred Norris) 1955 Stern Show
• Tom Hanks 1956 - Actor
• Kelly McGillis 1957 - Actress
• Jimmy Smits 1958 - Actor
• Jim Kerr 1959 - Musician (Simple Minds)
• Marc Almond 1959 - Musician (Soft Cell)
• Courtney Love 1964 - Musician (Hole)
• Frank Bello 1965 - Musician (Anthrax)
• Scott Grimes 1971 - Actor
• Enrique Murciano 1973 - Actor ("Without a Trace")
• Jack White 1975 - Musician (White Stripes)
• Fred Savage 1976 - Actor ("The Wonder Years")
  Linda Park 1978 - Actress ("Star Trek: Enterprise") 

   

   

   

  

  

   

    

  

    

 

  

Hasselhoff Wednesday: For Stacey's Berfday this week!

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

meta \ MET-uh \ , adjective; 

1. pertaining to or noting a story, conversation, character, etc., that consciously references or comments upon its own subject or features, often in the form of parody: A movie about making movie is just so meta—especially when the actors criticize the acting . 
2. pertaining to or noting an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary, especially one that consciously references something of its own type. 

noun: 

1. a consciously and playfully self-referential story, conversation, etc.: That dialogue was an example meta at its best . 
2. an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary: writing a meta to explain the character’s motivation . 

verb: 

1. to analyze or comment on something in a meta way: I spend more time metaing about the show than actually watching it. 

Origin: Meta can be traced to the Greek preposition of the same spelling meaning "with," "after," "between." It entered English in the late 1800s in the context of chemistry.

Sarah Palin Effect 

• The principal that expertise on a certain subject can be gained through geographical proximity to it

Gov. of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is a proclaimed expert on foreign affairs with Russia due to Alaska`s proximity to Russia and can thus be called the "Sarah Palin Effect"

History 

• Liberty Bell: was rung to call Philadelphia citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence (1776)
  
• The Wall Street Journal: began publication (1889)
• Ziegfield Follies: producer Florenz Ziegfield staged his first "follies" on the roof of New York City's New York Theater (1907)
• Roswell UFO Incident: A report appears in newspaper Roswell Daily Record announcing "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region." (1947)
• Oklahoma!: the Broadway musical's soundtrack became the first album to go gold (indicating one million sales), as certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (1958)
• The Soviet Union charged Gary Powers with espionage. He was shot down in a U-2 spy plane (1960)
• Vietnam War: U.S. troops begin withdrawing from Vietnam. (1969)
• The Solar Impulse completed the first 24-hour flight by a solar powered plane. (2010)

Birthdays

• Jean La Fontaine 1621
• Ferdinand von Zeppelin 1838
  

  
• John D. Rockefeller 1839
• Louis Jordan 1908
• Billy Eckstine 1914
• Faye Emerson 1917
• Pamela Brown 1918
• Craig Stevens 1918
• Harrison Dillard 1923
• Shirley Ann Grau 1929
• Roone Arledge 1931
• Jerry Vale 1932
• Marty Feldman 1933
• Steve Lawrence 1935
• Barbara Loden 1937
• Faye Wattleton 1943
• Jeffrey Tambor 1944
• Johnny Jai Johnson (Allman Brothers Band) 1944
• Cynthia Gregory 1946
• Kim Darby 1948
• Raffi Cavoukian 1948
• Wolfgang Puck 1949
• Anjelica Huston 1951
• Margaret Stowe 1952
• Marianne Williamson 1952
• Kevin Bacon 1958
• Toby Keith 1961
• Graham Jones 1961 - Musician (Haircut 100)
  

  
• Andy Fletcher 1961 - Musician (Depeche Mode)
• Rob Burnett 1962
• Joan Osborne 1962
• Corey Parker 1965
• Billy Crudup 1968
• Beck 1970
• Drew Womack 1970 - Musician (Sons of the Desert)
• Kathleen Robertson 1973
  Mindy Vega 1974 (t3h pr0n)
• Tavis Werts 1977 - Musician (Reel Big Fish)
  

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

Review Tuesday: Project Hail Mary (2026)

  

 

Project Hail Mary

(2026)

A science teacher is sent out into space on a mission to save the sun.

I don't get out to see too many films these days. In a post-COVID world, something really has to pull me in to get around to seeing it. This time around, my BFF suggested watching PROJECT HAIL MARY. I know that this is another film based on a book by Andy Weir (The Martian) so I agreed.

 

The movie starts off with Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awakening from some sort of an induced coma on a space craft that the other crew members are all dead. As a clever mechanism for all teh exposition without making it dull. The rest of the movie is about the mission and what he has to do to get it done. 

 

The movie is pretty long, but quite a lot of fun to watch. It doesn't drag. Now I see what all of teh hype was all about. I agree! Loads of fun, smart, and worthwhile to see!