Motley Moose – Archive

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The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.

For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.

The important stuff to get you started:

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– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).

– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”

– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”

(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)

You can follow the daily moosetrails here: Motley Moose Recent Comments.

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Let the greetings begin!

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Found on the Internets …

McConnell: We Will ‘Crush’ Tea Party Challengers ‘Everywhere’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) believes that incumbent Republicans won’t have a problem holding their seats in the 2014 elections.

“I think we are going to crush them everywhere,” McConnell said about Tea Party challengers in a New York Times interview published Saturday. “I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country.”

E.J. Dionne: The Right’s New Clothes

Republicans truly are having the internal debate that [Rep. Paul] Ryan called “messy,” “noisy,” and “a little bit uncomfortable.”

But Ryan may have revealed more than he intended when he downplayed conservative divisions. “For the most part,” Ryan insisted, “these disagreements have not been over principles or even policies. They’ve been over tactics.”

In which case, this is not an argument over ideas at all, but a discussion of packaging.[…]

But what’s most troubling here is that it did not occur to Ryan to check the [brown paper bag lunch] story because it apparently didn’t occur to him that most kids on free lunch programs have parents who do care about them. They just can’t afford to put a nutritious lunch in a brown paper bag every day.

Ryan was so eager to make an ideological statement about family structure that he was not bothered by the implicit insult he was issuing to actual families of children on the lunch program. A little more empathy could have saved Ryan a lot of trouble. He apologized for the factual error but not for the insult.

… for now, I am inclined to respect [Sen. Ted] Cruz for giving us his views straight and not pretending he’s manufacturing new ideas. If conservative rethinkers such as Ryan have more than rhetorical and tactical differences with Cruz, they have yet to prove it.

(Bolding mine)

More …

A little birdie told me …

Minority groups carried Obama to victory by giving him 80% of their votes are on track to become a majority of USA population by 2050

— Jeff Gauvin (@JeffersonObama) March 9, 2014

When you think about how large the universe is, you'll understand why I need such a big gun. Merica. #Cosmos

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) March 10, 2014

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hold hands as they return to the White House from Florida. pic.twitter.com/Yd9LwsV0ZL

— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) March 9, 2014

This is why your grandfather stormed Omaha Beach pic.twitter.com/rfhVlGFZjV

— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) March 9, 2014

BooMan: I’ve Lost Interest in CPAC

Here are some examples of actual CPAC 2014 seminars:

– Fossil Fuels Improve the Planet

– More Guns, Less Crime: How Law Enforcement is Beginning to Embrace a Well-Armed Civilian Population

– Healthcare After ObamaCare: A Practical Guide for Living When No One Has Insurance and America Runs Out of Doctors

Kentucky Southern Baptists Draw Crowds With Gun Giveaways

It’s an hour before suppertime, and the line outside Lone Oak First Baptist Church in Paducah, Ky., is wrapped around the building. The people are waiting for more than a Bible sermon; there’s a raffle tonight. Twenty-five guns are up for grabs.

“We’re doing two things here. One, we’re going to talk about the Second Amendment to bear arms. But that isn’t the primary thing,” [Sunday school teacher David] Keele says. “The primary thing is who Jesus is.”

Well … sort of.

“[If] somebody kicks your door down, means to hurt your wife, your kids, you – how do you turn the other cheek to that?” [God believer Tom] Jackson asks.

The Machaen family lives across the street from the Lone Oak Church. On a recent winter day, Cesar Machaen is lobbing snowballs with his wife and three children. He hadn’t read the signs promoting a gun raffle.

“Real guns? I don’t know what to say,” says Machaen, who was raised Catholic. “You go to church for peace, not to kill or fight.

Republicans’ young-people problem

… a new study by the Pew Research Center on millennials – defined as those between the ages of 18 and 33 – suggests that Republicans will have another major demographic issue on their hands in future elections: Young people are more liberal and are more inclined to support Democrats than the generations that have come before them.

When millennial independents are asked which party they lean toward, 50 percent say they identify as Democratic or lean toward the Democratic Party. Just 34 percent identify as Republican or lean that way.

And, on the right role for government to play in people’s lives, a majority of millennials (53 percent) favor a bigger government that provides more services, while 38 percent find a smaller government with fewer services more appealing. That’s almost exactly the opposite of the other generations Pew tested; all three of them – silent, baby boomer and X – preferred a smaller government.

Weather …

TheVane: What Does El Niño Mean for the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season?

Through three degrees of separation, El Niño years tend to dampen hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin. The strongest El Niño ever recorded occurred in 1997 and deep-sixed that year’s hurricane season. This isn’t an absolute certainty, though. Depending on when or even if El Niño conditions form this summer and fall, it could form too late (or too weak) to have a dampening effect on this year’s tropical cyclone activity. This was the case a decade ago. Despite a strengthening El Niño during the summer of 2004, the season saw 4 devastating hurricanes in Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.

Music …

Folk Alley Presents: Leyla McCalla

March 9, 2014 The cellist and folk musician balances original compositions with Haitian folk songs on her new album. Watch McCalla perform a song that gives musical life to words Langston Hughes wrote long ago.

Editor’s Note: Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

  Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely.

The check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.

It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:

Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:

Be kind to each other… or else.

What could be simpler than that, right?

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

HAIL and FAREWELL to the British pop singer Duffy Power – who in 1963 recorded one of the first Beatles’ covers ever (with the future Cream rhythm section of bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker backing him) – who has died at the age of 72.

ART NOTES – also in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of its advent: posters, letters, photos and drawings help chronicle The World at War, 1914-1918 at the Ransom Center in Austin, Texas through August 3rd.

TEN YEARS AGO the two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett turned-in a fine performance as the Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin – who was murdered by some of the organized crime figures she was following. Last week, the kingpin who (it is believed) ordered her murder … was shot himself, and is now in a hospital recuperating.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Priscilla the Cat – an English kitteh who went missing five years ago in Lincolnshire, England … and then waltzed up to Ruby Murphy at a bus stop as if no time had passed at all.

SCIENCE NOTES – in wondering why so many more males than females are afflicted with autism – and I have an nephew who is – an essay entitled “Why it’s not Rain Woman” speculates that women have fewer cognitive disorders than men do because their bodies are better at ignoring the mutations which cause them.

SAD to learn that in this economy, over 10,000 bars and restaurants closed last year in Spain – widely considered to be the country with the highest number of bars per capita.

FRIDAY’s CHILD is Boulette la Chatte – known in the English language as Meatball the Hero Cat – a French kitteh who alerted members of a multi-family home to a fire, then was feared lost in it … but who turned up safe a few hours later.

CHEERS to the former SCTV star Andrea Martin – a Portland, Maine native – who has a recent Tony Award, two upcoming Broadway plays …. and is set to publish her memoirs this year.

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

SEPARATED at BIRTH – the Scottish author Iain Banks – whose first collection of poetry will be published posthumously, eighteen months after his death last June …. and Steven Spielberg the Academy Award-winning director.

   

……and finally, for a song of the week …………… … as a follow-up to last week’s profile of a noted session player: someone who did so on drums, Earl Palmer – who, along with someone he mentored (Hal Blaine) and Nashville’s Buddy Harman – is among the three most-recorded drummers of all time. Few people know his name, but a look at some of the recordings he made will make one’s head nod in recognition. In addition, he is one of the pioneers of modern R&B and R&R back-beat style drumming; reportedly he was the first to use the word “funky” descriptively.

The New Orleans native was born to a pianist father and a mother who brought him with her and his aunt on the black vaudeville circuit … as a five year-old tap dancer. His sense of rhythm was further enhanced by lessons in piano, music theory and percussion at the city’s Gruenwald School of Music after serving in WW-II. There he sensed the Army’s institutional racism – as most black recruits were confined to service departments (although as a munitions handler, his task was less menial than for others).

In his early twenties, he began his career as drummer for the noted New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew – who is still alive in his 94th year – yet he found more work as a session player at the famed New Orleans studio owned by Cosimo Matassa from 1950-1957. His drumming can be heard on many hits recorded by Professor Longhair, Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis and – especially – for Little Richard and Fats Domino (which will be recounted later). And thus Palmer was definitely “present at the creation” of the rock-n-roll era, helping to shape its drum sound. He later said that one could identify New Orleans drummers, as their bass drum sound came from parade music.

Yet in 1957, Earl Palmer pulled-up stakes and left New Orleans – ostensibly to accept an offer to be an A&R man in Los Angeles for Aladdin Records  – but also to escape Jim Crow (declaring it “the best thing I ever did” despite having left his wife and children behind). Soon enough, the burgeoning LA recording scene was happy to welcome him into its Wrecking Crew and he later won elected office in musicians union Local 47. And recording on albums, films and TV became his mainstay for decades (although he did record two albums as a leader in the early 1960’s).

After retiring from session work in his later years, Earl Palmer returned to his first love (jazz) as a member of an LA-based jazz trio. Earl Palmer died in September, 2008 at the age of eighty-four after a long illness.

Now, to showcase just some of his career highlights.

In New Orleans in the 1950’s: his drums are heard on “I Hear You Knocking” (Smiley Lewis), “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” (Lloyd Price), “Tipitina” (Professor Longhair), “The Girl Can’t Help It” (Little Richard) and often for Fats Domino (“The Fat Man” and “Walking to New Orleans”) just for starters. This work alone would ensure his place in history. Yet upon relocating to LA, his career surged.

He backed musicians as diverse as Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, Bobby Vee, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Neil Young, Tom Waits and Elvis Costello. He was also able to record with stars from the jazz world (Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic and Count Basie) as well as bluesman B.B. King. Here are just a few of the hit singles you can hear him on.

“La Bamba” and “Donna” (Ritchie Valens), “Summertime Blues” (Eddie Cochran), “Rockin’ Robin” (Bobby Day), “You Send Me” (Sam Cooke), “High Flying Bird” (Judy Henske),  “Little Old Lady from Pasadena” (Jan & Dean), “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” (Righteous Brothers), and “River Deep – Mountain High” (Tina Turner).

His film score soundtracks include “Judgement at Nuremberg”, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World”, “Cool Hand Luke” and “In the Heat of the Night”.

And for TV themes? How about: “The Flintstones”, “77 Sunset Strip”, “I Dream of Jeannie”, “Green Acres”, “The Brady Bunch”, “The Partridge Family”, “The Odd Couple”, “M*A*S*H”, “Mannix” and perhaps most notably “Mission: Impossible”.

Tony Scherman wrote a biography Backbeat: Earl Palmer’s Story – published in 1999, along with as much as a compliation album as can be found of his work. The following year, Earl Palmer was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a sideman. In his own autobiography, Little Richard declared him “possibly the greatest session drummer of all time”.

Where to start? Well, let’s begin with an instrumental from his 1961 solo album … with The Clovers’ 1952 hit One Mint Julep – that years later received a hit version by Ray Charles – in which Earl Palmer’s drums are showcased on.

And below you can hear it.

But perhaps the hit single in which Earl Palmer’s drums propel the song most distinctively: is I’m Walkin’ from 1957. And below you can hear this Fats Domino classic.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.

On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:

For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.

The important stuff to get you started:

– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.

– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)

– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).

– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”

– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”

(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)

You can follow the daily moosetrails here: Motley Moose Recent Comments.

~

Let the greetings begin!

~

The President’s Weekly Address post is also the Weekend Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, President Obama highlighted the momentum building across the country to give Americans a raise and reiterated his call for Congress to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. The President has already signed an executive order to raise the minimum wage for people working under new federal contracts. Companies large and small are choosing to give workers a raise because they know it’s good business. And Governors across the country are answering the President’s call by working to raise their states’ minimum wages. Now, it’s time for Congress to get the job done and restore opportunity for all Americans by raising the minimum wage to “ten-ten.”

Transcript: Weekly Address – Time for Congress to Raise the Minimum Wage for the American People

Hi, everybody.  This week, I traveled to New England, where I was joined by four governors who are working to raise the minimum wage in each of their states.  And they’ve also joined me in calling on Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour.  Because it would give nearly 800,000 Americans in their states a raise – and lift wages for about 28 million across the country.

So these governors aren’t waiting for Congress to make up its mind.  And in my State of the Union Address, I asked America’s business leaders to go ahead and do what they could to raise their employees’ wages, too.  And increasingly, it’s not just large companies like Costco or the Gap that choose to pay their employees higher starting wages.

It’s smaller businesses like Jaxson’s, a family-owned ice cream parlor in South Florida.  They answered the call and raised their wages so that more than 70 employees would earn at least $10.10 an hour, without cutting back on hiring.

And two weeks ago, an Atlanta small business owner named Darien Southerland [SUTH-er-lind] wrote me to share a lesson his grandmother taught him – that if you treat your employees right, they’ll treat you right.  And Vice President Biden paid him a visit this week.

I agree with these business owners, which is why I issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour.  It’s good for our bottom line.  And working Americans have struggled through stagnant wages for far too long.

A clear majority of Americans support raising the minimum wage, because we believe that nobody who works full-time should have to live in poverty.  About half of all Republicans support raising the minimum wage, too.  It’s just too bad they don’t serve in Congress.  Because the Republicans who do serve in Congress don’t want to vote on the minimum wage at all.  Some even want to get rid of it completely.  Seriously.

That’s why what business leaders and everyday Americans are doing to raise wages is so important.  Because change doesn’t come from Washington – change comes to Washington.  I’ve always believed that, and it’s true in this case, too.  Outside Washington, Americans are ready to put aside old political arguments and move this country forward.  The American people are way ahead of Congress on this issue, and we’ve just got to let Congress know that.  It’s time for “ten-ten.”  It’s time to give America a raise.  And it’s time to restore opportunity for all.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Bolding and underlining added.

~

~

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.

On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:

For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.

The important stuff to get you started:

– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.

– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)

– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).

– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”

– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”

(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)

You can follow the daily moosetrails here: Motley Moose Recent Comments.

~

Let the greetings begin!

~

“Particularly since the shutdown, I’ve had a spate of emails and letters and phone calls saying, ‘Run for president again,'” McCain said.

HA

HA

HA

HA!

Meanwhile, in “real America”:

PPP’s newest Arizona poll finds that John McCain is unpopular with Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike and has now become the least popular Senator in the country.

So, who are these McCain voters?

So with all this McMentum, what’s McCain’s message?







Let’s close this with a final McCain Deep Thought…

Interrogatories

What is your favorite cereal? Milk or no milk?

What books are you reading right now?

Who is your favorite historic (pre-20th Century) person?

The Twitter Emitter

16 degrees. It's been so cold for so long that I now understand Russian literature.

— John Schwartz – NYT (@jswatz) March 6, 2014

So, CPAC begins, and DC city government reports that there's something bad in the water. Just sayin'.

— Chris Lehmann (@lehmannchris) March 6, 2014

Conservative CPAC conference starts today. All porn is discretely billed to your room as "Reagan Tribute."

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) March 6, 2014

What? Putin isn't speaking at CPAC? #CPAC2014

— LiberalPhenom (@LiberalPhenom) March 6, 2014

CPAC Review, by the Numbers 1. There is no Income Inequality in America. 2. Education is Bad 3. Deregulation is Good. 4. Reagan #cpac

— Ina (@InaMaziarcz) March 6, 2014

Jay Carney refuses to say what Obama's going to do about all those tweeters making that same 'Crimea River' joke.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) March 6, 2014

Those rough-looking ppl surrounding Trump? Big game hunters. Their job is to take down Trump's hair if it makes a run for it.

— Hunter (@HunterDK) March 6, 2014

If #CPAC 'd put Wayne Lapierre & Donald Trump in pit, play Star Trek fight music & give em each a shank I'd make any donation they asked4.

— Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) March 6, 2014

If only Putin would attack the poor in the US, then the GOP in Congress might come to their aid. #Ukraineaid

— Steve Weinstein (@steveweinstein) March 6, 2014

For every copy of Profiles in Courageousness I sell at #cpac, I will be donating 25 cents to pay off Speaker Boehner's bar tab

— Jack Kimble (@RepJackKimble) March 6, 2014

O'Reilly says "Muslim nations" won't take female prez (Hillary) seriously forgetting "Muslim nations" elected female heads of state 4 TIMES!

— Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) March 7, 2014

On This Day

In 1850, Senator Daniel Webster gave his three hour “Seventh of March” speech in support of the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received his patent for the telephone.

In 1926, the first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversation occurred between New York City and London.

In 1965, State troopers and a sheriff’s posse attacked a march by 600 civil rights demonstrators in Selma, AL, in what came to be known as Bloody Sunday.

In 1975, the Senate revised its filibuster rule, allowing 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds of senators present.

In 1996, three U.S. servicemen were convicted in the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl and sentenced by a Japanese court to up to seven years in prison.

In 2003, Broadway musicians began a four-day walkout.

In 2011, Charlie Sheen was fired from the sitcom “Two and a Half Men” by Warner Bros after continuous misbehavior and weeks of his angry, manic media campaign against his studio bosses.

Born on This Day

1481 – Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter (d. 1537)

1671 – Robert Roy MacGregor, Scottish folk hero (d. 1734)

1693 – Pope Clement XIII (d. 1769)

1752 – Jean-Louis De Marne, French painter (d. 1829)

1786 – Michel-Martin Drölling, French painter (d. 1851)

1802 – Edwin Henry Landseer, British painter (d. 1873)

1817 – Alexandre Antigna, French painter (d. 1878)

1820 – Ferdinand Mallitsch, Austrian painter (d. 1900)

1841 – Carl Kronberger, Austrian genre and portrait painter (d. 1921)

1849 – Luther Burbank, American botanist (d. 1926)

1872 – Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (d. 1944)

1885 – Milton Avery, American artist (d. 1965)

1886 – Virginia Pearson, American silent film actress (d. 1958)

1900 – Carel Willink, Dutch painter (d. 1983)

1902 – Heinz Rühmann, German actor (d. 1994)

1908 – Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d. 1973)

1930 – Antony Armstrong-Jones, British aristocrat, Lord Snowdon, former husband of Princess Margaret

1940 – Daniel J. Travanti, American actor

1942 – Tammy Faye Bakker, American televangelist (d. 2007)

1943 – Chris White, British musician (The Zombies)

1944 – Sir Ranulph Fiennes, British soldier and explorer

1944 – Townes Van Zandt, American musician and songwriter (d. 1997)

1945 – Arthur Lee, American musician (Love) (d. 2006)

1946 – Matthew Fisher, British musician (Procol Harum)

1946 – Peter Wolf, American musician (The J. Geils Band)

1951 – Francis Rocco Prestia, American musician (Tower of Power) memories!

1952 – Ernie Isley, American musician (The Isley Brothers)

1958 – Rik Mayall, British actor

1964 – Wanda Sykes, American actress and comedienne

1970 – Rachel Weisz, British actress

1971 – Peter Sarsgaard, American actor

Died on This Day

1724 – Pope Innocent XIII (b. 1655)

1750 – Cornelis Troost, Dutch painter (b. 1696)

1810 – Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, British admiral (b. 1750)

1826 – Abraham van Strij the Elder, Dutch genre painter (b. 1753)

1931 – Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)

1942 – Lucy Parsons, American anarchist, communist and labor organizer (b. 1853)

1950 – Hugo Scheiber, Hungarian painter (b. 1873)

1957 – Wyndham Lewis, British painter (b. 1882)

1975 – Francine Larrimore, French born American actress (b. 1898)

1988 – Divine, American actor (b. 1945)

1993 – Albert Crommelynck, Belgian painter of portraits and frescoes (b. 1902)

1999 – Stanley Kubrick, American film director (b. 1928)

2006 – Gordon Parks, American photographer (b. 1912)

Today is

National Crown Roast of Pork Day

National Cereal Day

National Be Heard Day

World Book Day

World Maths Day

Name Tag Day