Did LeBron James think of playing pro football? When Lebron James was in high school, he was a star football player, earning all-state honors as a wide receiver in his sophomore year, and helping his team make it to the state championship semifinals in his junior year. Some sports analysts thought he could have been drafted to the NFL. Instead, his prowess on the basketball court brought him far greater acclaim. When he was 18, he was the number one NBA draft pick, chosen by the Cleveland Cavaliers. During his tenure with them James has racked up a series of "youngest-ever" stats: he was the youngest-ever player to score more than 50 points in one game, the youngest to score 2,000 points in a season, the youngest to score 10,000 career points, the youngest to be named NBA Rookie of the Year, the youngest to have two All-Star MVPs, the youngest to be named to the All-NBA first team, the youngest to record a triple-double and the third youngest player (behind Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson) to post 15 triple-doubles. Happy 25th birthday to basketball phenomenon LeBron James.
Quote:"I never worry about individual accolades. Never have and never will. I feel like the individual awards will come with the team's success." — LeBron James
Who decides who gets the Kennedy Center Honors? Each year the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees receives a list of nominations for the Kennedy Center Honors from former award recipients and members of the Kennedy Center's national artists committee. The Board of Trustees then decides who will receive the honors. An annual event since 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors are considered one of the most prestigious awards an artist can receive for his or her contributions to American culture. This year's honors were presented two weeks ago, in a gala affair, to honorees Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert de Niro and Bruce Springsteen. The awards ceremony will be broadcast tonight at 9 PM ET on CBS-TV.
Quote:"These performers are indeed the best. They are also living reminders of a single truth... the arts are not somehow apart from our national life. The arts are the heart of our national life." — Barack Obama, on this year's Kennedy Center Honors
Where does the name Denzel come from? If a person's surname is Denzel it probably means his ancestors came from either Denzell in Cornwall or a place called Tenze in Mecklenburg, Germany. It's not a common first name, and most people who hear the name Denzel think of just one person: Denzel Washington. He was named for his father, who, in turn, was named for the doctor who delivered him, Doctor Denzel. Washington, who rarely even saw movies as a child, grew to be one of the world's biggest stars, bringing home two Academy Awards: one for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Glory and a Best Actor Award for his performance in Training Day. Washington has often taken roles portraying real people. He played Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in The Hurricane (1999), Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000), Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007) and Melvin Tolson in The Great Debaters (2007). Happy birthday to Denzel Washington, who turns 55 today.
Quote:"You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud, too. That's a part of it." — Denzel Washington
In J. M. Barrie's book, where does Peter Pan live?Peter Pan — Neverland's favorite son — tells Wendy that he lives "second to the right, then straight on till morning." The fantasy adventure story went through several incarnations and adjustments before it became the musical play that so many are familiar with now. Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn't grow up, was first mentioned by J. M. Barrie in a novel he had written for adults, called The Little White Bird. Barrie expanded on the character, turning his story into a three-act play, which debuted in London on this date in 1904 at the Duke of York's Theatre. He only turned the story into a novel of its own several years later; it was first published in 1911, as Peter and Wendy.
Quote:"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another." — J.M. Barrie
What instrument did Paul Klee play?Paul Klee was a prolific Swiss painter who also played the violin for Bern's symphony orchestra. Born on this date in 1879 to a musical family, his affinity for music is often seen in his art. Klee was noted for his mastery of line, form and color, and his whimsical paintings tread the line between abstract and figurative. He produced more than 10,000 paintings, etchings and drawings over his lifetime. Klee spent much of his adult life in Germany teaching at the Bauhaus Academy, but, in 1933, Nazi persecution forced him to resign from the university and flee with his family back to Switzerland, where he had grown up — his mother was Swiss and his father was German. He was only granted Swiss citizenship posthumously.
Quote:"A line is a dot that went for a walk." — Paul Klee
In Gulliver's Travels, who ruled whom:
the Yahoos or the Houyhnhnms? The savage, unsavory Yahoos — the
representation of all that is bad about humans — were
ruled by the Houyhnhnms,
a race of calm, stable and intelligent horses. Gulliver's
Travels was the best known work of author, poet
and clergyman Jonathan
Swift. In a review of his own life, called Verses
on the Death of Doctor Swift, he wrote, "For
poetry, he's past his prime, He takes an hour to find a
rhyme; His fire is out, his wit decayed, His fancy sunk,
his muse a jade. I'd have him throw away his pen, But there's
no talking to some men." Swift, born on this date
in 1667, was a biting satirist who was one of the founding
members of the Scriblerus
Club.
Quote: "Every man desires to live long, but no
man wishes to be old." — Jonathan
Swift
Spotlight: The Rubicon is a small, reddish river in north-central Italy that spills into the Adriatic. It would still be meandering in obscurity had Julius Caesar not decided to cross it with his army on this date in 49 BCE. What made his decision noteworthy was the fact that the Rubicon was the border between his province, Cisalpine Gaul, where he was allowed to have an army, and Italy, where he wasn't — so his crossing the river was in effect the declaration of a civil war within the Roman Republic (which he won). To cross the Rubicon now means to take a fateful, irreversible step. Other river-based idioms are to swim the Tiber, meaning to convert to Roman Catholicism, and its converse, to swim the Thames — to convert to Anglicanism.
Spotlight:Alaska is 50. The territory once known as Seward's Folly became the 49th and largest US state on this date in 1959. US Secretary of State William Seward bought the 587,875 square miles (1,522,595 sq km) in 1867 for $7.2 million. Here are some other tidbits of trivia about the state that makes up America's extreme northwest: the state motto is "North to the future"; its flower is the forget-me-not. The state bird is the willow ptarmigan; the fossil is the wooly mammoth; the insect is the four-spot skimmer dragonfly and the state sport is dog mushing. Alaska is an exclave of the US, separated from the other mainland states by British Columbia, Canada.
Quote:"It was the best purchase ever made." — Richard Nixon, of Alaska
Spotlight:Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all? Generations of readers were frightened and delighted by the story of Snow White, terrorized by her wicked, jealous stepmother. The film version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in Hollywood on this date in 1937. The first full-length, animated feature film was made by Walt Disney and cost $1.5 million. Some 750 artists made nearly one million drawings for the 83-minute film, 250,000 of which were used. In the film based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the dwarfs were given names: Happy, Bashful, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey and Doc.
Quote:"A frog in love would not be enchanted to learn that her beloved had turned into Prince Charming." — Mason Cooley
Spotlight: For the first time since it was erected in 1961, the Berlin Wall was opened on this date in 1963. It remained open for the holiday season, but closed again on January 6, 1964. Some 4,000 people crossed over to visit relatives during this period. The wall had originally been erected by East Germany to prevent its citizens from defecting to the West. Over the course of the Wall's existence nearly 200 people were killed trying to escape to West Germany. In November 1989, the border was finally reopened. Over the next few days, Berliners celebrated by breaking off pieces of the Wall.
Quote:"It was the first female-style revolution: no violence and we all went shopping." — Gloria Steinem, on the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989
Spotlight: The Wright brothers made their historic first airplane flight on this date in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC. First Orville and then Wilbur took their invention to the sky for about a minute each. Though others had flown in gliders and balloons, the Wright brothers' flights were considered the first gas-powered, sustained flights in a heavier-than-air vehicle. Orville's flight lasted 12 seconds, and traveled 37 m/120 ft. Wilbur flew the only controlled flight of the day, 279 m/852 ft in 59 seconds.
Quote:"If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance." — Orville Wright
Spotlight: Ask people to think of a romantic activity in New York City and many will immediately conjure up images of a couple, bundled cozily under a blanket, riding around Central Park in a hansom cab. The clop-clop of the horse's hooves adds to the atmosphere. Joseph Hansom designed the first hansom cabs in 1834 to take people around the busy London streets. Hansom, an architect who designed
Birmingham Town Hall
,
Mount St. Mary's College
near Sheffield, and some 200 other buildings, was born on this date in 1803.
Quote:"Costs less to keep than a horse. Doesn't get sick. Doesn't eat when it doesn't work." — Advertisement for US
Electric Carriage
Co. of
New Chicago
, c. 1898
Spotlight: In German, they're called "Schlümpfe"; In Hebrew, they're known as "Dardassim"; the Spanish call them "Pitufos"; and Italians call them "Puffi." In English, they're called Smurfs, and they're celebrating their fiftieth birthday. Smurfs first appeared on Oct. 23, 1958, as guest stars of the Belgian cartoon Johan and Peewit, drawn by Pierre Culliford (aka Peyo). The little blue creatures lived in a forest somewhere in Europe, and no non-Smurf could find them without a Smurf guide. The first — and for a long while, only — female in the group, Smurfette, was created by their archenemy, Gargamel, who hoped that she would cause jealousy and dissension in the group.
Quote:"No casting spells on your own." — Papa Smurf, stating the first rule of Smurfdom
Spotlight:T.S. Eliot was born on this date in 1888. The author of The Waste Land (1922), he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. Eliot was born in Missouri, but moved to England in 1914, where he remained until his death. His plays include Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). One of Eliot's most famous poems is his early work, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915). Eliot's children's book, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939), was the inspiration for the hit musical Cats. He has said, "When a Cat adopts you there is nothing to be done about it except put up with it until the wind changes."
Quote:"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." — T.S. Eliot
Spotlight: Mmmmm. Chocolate. There's white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. With Americans consuming nearly 15 lbs (7 kg) annually, it was only a matter of time until someone proved that, besides being delicious, chocolate is actually good for you. Research has shown that the antioxidants in the confection can lower blood pressure and the risk of cardiac arrest. American chocolatier Milton Hershey was born in Pennsylvania on this date in 1857. And Roald Dahl, who wrote the popular Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was born on September 13, 1916.
Quote:"And, Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted. He lived happily ever after." — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory September 01, 2008
Walter Reuther
Spotlight: On September 5, 1882, the Knights of Labor organized the first parade honoring New York's workers. Two years later, they voted to make it an annual event. Over the next ten years some thirty states across the US followed New York's lead and declared a day to honor laborers with parades, fairs, barbecues and picnics. In 1894, an act of Congress finally declared the first Monday of September to be a federal holiday — Labor Day — dedicated to America's work force. Halfway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, Labor Day signals an end to summer and the beginning of the new school year. And on this date in 1907, labor leader and UAW chief Walter Reuther was born. Happy Labor Day!
Quote:"If you're not big enough to lose, you're not big enough to win." — Walter Reuther
Spotlight: It was on this date in 1896 that publisher Adolph Ochs took over the failing New York Times and began to build it into one of the world's leading newspapers. When he acquired the NY Times, the paper had a readership of less than 10,000. Ochs' practice of reporting the news objectively, coupled with reducing the price to a penny, worked to drastically increase readership. In 1904, Times Square was renamed for the newspaper, which had just moved its headquarters to 42nd St. With its motto, "All the news that's fit to print," the NY Times has garnered nearly 100 Pulitzer Prizes to date — more than any other newspaper.
Quote:"Give the news impartially, without fear or favor." — Adolph Ochs
Among John Huston's other awards were three Golden Globes: for Best Motion Picture Director (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Prizzi's Honor) and for Best Supporting Actor (The Cardinal). He received an Independent Spirit Award for his direction of The Dead; a Silver Ribbon from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for his direction of Moby Dick; a London Critics Circle Film Award for directing The Dead; three National Board of Review awards for directing, for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Asphalt Jungle and Moby Dick; and National Film Critics Circle Awards for direction for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Moby Dick and Prizzi's Honor. More
August 04, 2008
What a Wonderful World
Spotlight:Louis Armstrong once said,"There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind." He sure did. Born on this date in 1901, Armstrong became one of the most influential musicians in jazz history. He made his mark early in his career playing the cornet, and later switched to the trumpet; the way his cheeks puffed out when he blew the horn earned him the moniker "Satchmo," a distortion of "Satchel Mouth." Armstrong became lead singer for his bands, moving into swing and pop music; he was also one of the first scat singers. His vocal performance of "Hello Dolly" brought him a gold album and a Grammy for best vocal performance. His version of "What a Wonderful World" gained popularity when it was played by Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam.
Quote:"If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out." — Louis Armstrong
Spotlight:Pierre Charles L'Enfant — the architect and urban planner responsible for designing Washington, DC — was born on this date in 1754. L'Enfant was born and studied in Paris, but he chose to fight in America's Revolutionary War, arriving as a military engineer, under Marquis de Lafayette. After the war, he was commissioned to design a new Federal Hall in New York. President George Washington was so impressed with his work that he hired L'Enfant to plan the capital city's layout. L'Enfant was difficult to work with and, having antagonized members of Congress and key people on his project, he was dismissed from his position. Some 75 years after his death, in 1901, Washington, DC, was built largely according to the plan that L'Enfant had drafted.
Quote:"How prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid out Washington as a city that goes around in circles!" — John Mason Brown
Spotlight:Emily Brontë, the author of Wuthering Heights, was born on this date in 1818. Her story of star-crossed lovers Catherine and Heathcliff became a classic that was made into several movie versions. Emily's older sister, Charlotte, penned Jane Eyre, and their younger sister, Anne, wrote Agnes Grey. The three Brontës also wrote poetry, which they published under male pseudonyms. All three women died young, Emily and Anne of tuberculosis, and Charlotte of complications during her pregnancy.
Quote:"If I could, I would always work in silence and obscurity and let my efforts be known by their results." — Emily Brontë
July 25, 2008
Marie and Pierre Curie at Work
Spotlight: Pierre
Curie and Marie
Sklodowska wed on this date in 1895. The two became
the formidable scientific team that discovered polonium and radium.
In 1903, they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Professor Henri
Becquerel for their discovery of radioactivity.
Pierre Curie was a professor at the Sorbonne until
he was killed in an auto accident in 1906. Marie Curie took
his post, becoming the first woman to teach there. She was
also the first person to win a second Nobel Prize, this
time in Chemistry for her continued work on radium and its
compounds.
Quote: "I never see what has been done. I only
see what remains to be done." — Madame
Curie
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Simon Bolivar
Spotlight:Simón
Bolívar, known as "the Liberator" of
much of South
America, was born on this date in 1783. Bolívar
envisioned an Andean empire
the length of South America, and saw himself as the one
who could lead the fight to achieve this. He eventually
liberated the nations which became Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru,
and — the land named for him — Bolivia.
Bolívar served as president of both Colombia (1821-1830)
and Peru (1823-29); a better liberator than ruler, he was
forced to resign in 1830. He died just a few months later.
Quote:"Judgement
comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement." — Simón
Bolívar
Google Sitemap (don't
expect too much here, it (sitemap) is a work in progress---sorta)
Spotlight:Blackout!
On this date in 1977, New York City got hit by a 25-hour
blackout, kicking off a looting and rioting spree in the
city. The power
outage occurred after several strikes of lightning hit
power lines in upstate
New York. Power stations fell one after another, overtaxing
neighboring stations until an hour later, when the main
station for NYC crashed, and with it went the city's lights.
Power was restored late the next night. More than 1,600
stores were looted and vandalized, and nearly 4,000 people
were gathered up in the largest mass arrest in the city's
history. Damage to the city was estimated to cost some $300
million.
Friday, July 11,2008
Spotlight: Scottish King Robert
I, known as Robert the Bruce, was born on this date
in 1274. Though he had sworn allegiance to Edward
I of England in 1296, a year later he switched sides
and began fighting for Scotland's independence. He was crowned
King of Scots at Scone in
1306, though Scotland had not yet achieved self-rule. Making
slow inroads, Bruce's victory at the Battle of Bannockburn
(1314) was a major stride in achieving his goal. In May
1328, England's King
Edward III recognized Scotland as independent with Bruce
as its king.
Please don't forget our troops and remember they did not have a vote on this war.
Spotlight: If you're looking for a job, the employment section of the newspaper is often a good placeto start. The first American woman in space got there by answering such an ad. When she was 26 years old, with four degrees already under her belt, Sally Ride saw an advertisement for an astronaut program placed by NASA in the Stanford University newspaper. Ride and some 8,000 others responded; 35 were accepted to the program, six of whom were women, Sally Ride among them. Six years later, Ride went up in the space shuttle Challenger; in 1984, she returned to space, this time on an eight-day mission. Ride has written several books for children, all of them about space and the solar system, and she has created organizations to encourage girls to pursue studies in math, science and technology. Happy birthday to Sally Ride, who turns 57 today.
Quote: All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary. — Sally Ride
Spotlight: It was thanks to William Gladstone Steel that on this date in 1902, President Theodore Rooseveltsigned a bill establishing Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. At 1,932 ft (589 m), Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the US and the seventh deepest in the world. As its name suggests, it is a caldera lake: its water fills a deep depression that resulted from the collapse of a volcanic mountain. Aside from its startlingly clear, blue water, one of the lake's most famous features is a full-sized tree trunk that has been drifting vertically in the water for more than a hundred years.
Quote: Stay tuned! I may not be here, but my show was picked up! — Aaron Spelling
April 21, 2008
Spotlight: Kindergarten: a pleasant and sunny place where children are nurtured as they grow, so they bloom like flowers. The man who came up with the concept of a play-based early childhood education system — and, later, its name — was Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, who was born on this date in 1782. He established the first preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds in Germany in 1837. The Prussian minister of education accused Froebel of being an atheist and socialist and, in 1851, the minister closed the schools down. While kindergartens were gaining popularity in other countries, they were banned in Prussia until 1860, eight years after Froebel's death.
Quote: All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. — Robert Fulghum
Friday: April 18, 2008
Thursday: April 17, 2008
Spotlight: Most of us have been plagued by halitosis — bad breath — at some time in our lives. Chronic sufferers purchase hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of toothpaste and mouthwash each year. Recent studies have come up with the organism chiefly responsible for the malady: solobacterium moorei. Most bad breath is a result of the breaking down of bacteria in the mouth, leaving deposits on the roof of the mouth, the teeth, the gums and especially the tongue. Researchers found that brushing twice a day with antibacterial toothpaste and using a toothbrush with a built-in tongue scraper can help to eliminate chronic bad breath, and chewing on parsley, mint leaves, apples and citrus fruits freshens breath.
Quote: You must have crossed the river before you tell the crocodile he has bad breath. — Anonymous
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Spotlight: On a desert mountaintop on the western shore of Israel's Dead Sea, King Herod the Great built himself a stronghold (37-34 BCE) called Masada, from the Hebrew word metzuda, for fortress. When the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 70 CE, the surviving Jewish Zealots fled to Masada. At the end of a siege that lasted three years, believed to be on this date in 73, the Romans finally breached the walls of the fortress. They found that the Zealots, led by Elazar Ben Yair, had chosen to commit mass suicide rather than be taken as prisoners and sold into slavery by the Romans.
Quote: "A victory? What have we won? We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea." — Peter O'Toole, as Cornelius Flavius Silva in the TV movie Masada
Friday, April 12, 2008:
Spotlight: On this date in 1621, Samoset, the first Native American to make contact with the Pilgrims, strolled into their camp in Plymouth Colony and, in his broken English, welcomed them to the area and asked for a beer. A member of the Abenaki tribe, Samoset had learned English from fishermen who had spent time on Monhegan Island. Several days later, Samoset returned. He was accompanied by Squanto, one of the few remaining members of the Patuxet band of the Wampanoags, previous inhabitants of the area, who had been mostly wiped out by a plague. Squanto became the Pilgrims' trusted guide and interpreter.
Samoset Greeting Pilgrims
test
test
test
Tuesday; March 4, 2008
Spotlight: Notre Dame's legendary football coach Knute Rockne was born 120 years ago today. His Fighting Irish went unbeaten and untied for five out of the 13 seasons Rockne led them, winning the last 19 games he coached, and his .881 percentage (100 victories, 12 losses, 5 ties) remains unmatched. Rockne revolutionized the sport: he initiated intersectional rivalries, built the first national games schedule, worked to develop the forward pass, and he used his knowledge of anatomy to design new uniforms and equipment for his team.
Thought for Today:
ABSTINENCE
Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from total abstinence itself.
"Mark Twain"- autograph inscription in album to Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, reported in The Washington Post, June 11, 1881
Tuesday, December 18, 2007: 7 days to Christmas....and Janurary 1, 2008 will happen in 2 weeks.
"I reckon you will be just about as happy today as you choose to be; me too." Okay, that being the case I choose happy. The quote (or something very like it) is attributed to Abraham Lincoln I believe. While I do believe the quote, I can't take credit for it....everything I say has already been said by someone else....no original thoughts.....can you fathom that? No, no no, changing a few words around does not make an original thought.....there simply are none left...BUT there are tons of them that weren't copywrite protected.....so have at it if it blows your skirt...who's to know---or care?If you look at anything too long you will very likely find something that distrubs you a bit, or more. So if you are going to study anything be prepared to get a little disgruntled at times......I think time really is moving faster. Darn, I wish Einstein was still here to study this speedy situation; or maybe he already did and I just thought I understood that theory of whatchamacallit. Just kidding---I never really thought I understood it---whatever gave you that idea? just because I explained it a few times (while under the influence of "loudmouth") that's a tonic that may still be popular---I used my share a long time ago and have not much noticed it of late.................
I always thought the "doppler effect" had something to do with the weather? Well I guess it does but it also has to do with the changing frequency of sound as it travels, so I will post this explanation if anyone is interested.....
Christian Johann Doppler Austrian physicist (1803–1853)
Christian Doppler, the son of a stonemason from the Austrian city of Salzburg, studied mathematics at the Vienna Polytechnic. In 1835 he started teaching at a school in Prague and six years later was appointed professor of mathematics at the Technical Academy there.
Doppler's fame comes from his discovery in 1842 of the Doppler effect – the fact that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the velocity of the source relative to the observer. The effect can be observed with sound waves. If the source is moving toward the observer, the pitch is higher; if it moves away, the pitch is lower. A common example is the fall in frequency of a train's whistle or a vehicle siren as it passes. Doppler's principle was tested experimentally in 1843 by Christoph Buys Ballot, who used a train to pull trumpeters at different speeds past musicians who had perfect pitch.
Doppler also tried to apply his principle to light waves, with limited success. It was Armand Fizeau in 1848 who suggested that at high relative velocities the apparent color of the source would be changed by the motion: an object moving toward the observer would appear bluer; one moving away would appear redder. The shift in the spectra of celestial objects (the Doppler shift) is used to measure the rate of recession or approach relative to the Earth.
"the testing by Christoph Buys Ballot in 1843 is interesting and I will have to find out more about that....."
Today is Thursday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2007. There are 18 days left in the year, only 12 to Christmas.....are you ready??
"Good judgment comes from experience; and experience, well, that comes from bad judgment." _ Anonymous.
Today's Birthdays:
Happy Birthday to -- James Charles Webb -- he is 70 today. Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 87. Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 82. Actor Christopher Plummer is 80. Actor Robert Prosky is 77. Country singer Buck White is 77. Music/film producer Lou Adler is 74. Movie producer Richard Zanuck is 73. Singer John Davidson is 66. Singer Ted Nugent is 59. Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 59. Country musician Ron Getman is 59. Actor Robert Lindsay is 58. Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 58. Actress Wendie Malick is 57. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 54. Country singer John Anderson is 53. Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 53. Singer-actor Morris Day is 51. Actor Steve Buscemi is 50. Actor Johnny Whitaker is 48. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 40. Rock singer-musician Thomas Delonge is 32. Actress Chelsea Hertford is 26. Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 26. Country singer Taylor Swift is 18.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Dec. 13, 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
On this date:
In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted present-day New Zealand.
In 1769, Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter.
In 1835, Phillips Brooks, the American Episcopal bishop who wrote the words to "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was born in Boston.
In 1918, President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.
In 1928, George Gershwin's musical work "An American in Paris" had its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York.
In 1944, during World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze attack that claimed more than 130 lives.
Thursday: November 15, 2007
Spotlight: If you've been thinking about kicking the smoking habit, but couldn't seem to get started, today is the day. It's the 30th annual Great American Smoke-Out, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The rules are simple: just put away your cigarettes for 24 hours. Maybe you'll be inspired to give them up for good. Some helpful tips for quitting: keep active, drink lots of water and juices, change your routine, avoid situations that tempt you to smoke, and buddy up with someone who will help you make it through the day... and beyond.
Quote: "Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking." — Nat King Cole, who died of lung cancer at 45
Shrek, the Book
Spotlight: Wiliam Steig loved to draw. When his father lost the family's money during the Depression, Steig — to make ends meet at home — began to sell cartoons to The New Yorker magazine. Nearly 40 years later, he turned to writing and illustrating children's books. Among his award-winning books is Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. In 1990, Steig's Shrek! was released; it told the story of a green ogre who leaves home to find a bride as homely as himself. William Steig was born 100 years ago today.
Quote: "To tell the truth, I don't read children's books. I'm an adult. I just write them." — William Steig
Spotlight: Stick a dime in the expired parking meter of a stranger's car. Visit a housebound relative. Compliment a coworker. Let a harried parent and child check out ahead of you at the supermarket. Help serve dinner at a local soup kitchen. Give up your seat on the bus. Write a note of thanks to someone who has had an influence on your life. Collect bottles and cans for recycling and give the proceeds to charity. Smile. It's Random Acts of KindnessDay.
Quote: Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. — Mark Twain
In the News: Monday: November 12, 2007
Peru: 4,000-year-old mural-filled temple uncovered, complete with steps to Ventarron, a fire-worship altar (story)
Spotlight: There are aptitude tests and occupational tests, intelligence tests and personality tests. One of the most famous of the personality tests is the Rorschach — or Inkblot — Test. The psychologist shows you several cards with inkblots on them, and you describe what you see in the blots and how it makes you feel. Hermann Rorschach, the Swiss psychiatrist who created the test, was born on this date in 1884. In recent years, the inkblot tests have lost favor in the mental health community.
Quote: "But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know." — Alan Watts
Spotlight:
signed a bill establishing 
Spotlight: We would have all had a lot more free time were there no 
Spotlight: 
Spotlight: If you've been thinking about kicking the smoking habit, but couldn't seem to get started, today is the day. It's the 30th annual 
