Pop Culture Challenge, History and Science Excerpts and the Birth Date Thing..

I wish Clyde was here so I could pick on him, er.. play with him.

Two sad puppies today. Clyde is off to the vet to get his teeth cleaned and NOT HAPPY about it. Bonnie, for all she ignores him or picks on him, doesn't really seem to know what's going on and is a bit restless. It does seem quiet without the little fella around. In sympathy, I'm going to my dentist today to get a chipped tooth looked at. WE DON'T LIKE DISRUPTIONS!

Well, let's move on to the normal things.

(Update on Clyde. Two teeth pulled and he's doped up until I go get him this afternoon.. Poor little boy. He's had a few teeth removed the last couple of years.)

The Missus's Pop Culture Challenge

Today, I'll look at Days 19 - 21.

Day 19 - TV Series You wish they would Rerun from the Beginning. I chose The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. It only ran for one year and was the sequel to the Man from U.N.C.L.E but I liked it so much. Stephanie Powers, as April Dancer, was lovely and Noel Harrison as her partner, was soooo cool! Jo chose Capital City, which I've watched with her, from her videos. :). Other selections included Ashes to Ashes, Lost in Space, L.A. Law, etc.

Day 20 - Who is your Favourite Actress. I chose Amy Adams, such a great actress. Jo chose Bette Davis. Other choices included Helen Mirren, Holly Hunter, Audrey Hepburn, Reese Witherspoon. The options were pretty well endless, in my mind.

Day 21 - Favourite Television Series of the '80s. I picked Family Ties. It didn't hurt that it featured Meredith Baxter Birney and Justine Bateman. Of course, it also introduced Michael J. Fox to the world. Jo chose a show she still watches online, Howard's Way. Other choices included LA Law, Dynasty, Hill St. Blues, etc. All excellent.

Next category will be a film that made you cry. Too many to name in my case.. :)

Great Historical Events

Today's excerpt from Treasures of Use and Beauty cover 1782.

"First Steamboat

1782. First boat propelled by steam was placed upon the Potomac river, by James Rumsey, a Bohemian, which was seen and certified to by Washington.
Feb. 6. - Resolutions passed in the House of Commons in favor of peace.
April 17. - Holland acknowledges the independence of the United States, and a treaty of amity and commerce secured through negotiations of John Adams.

Last Battle of the Revolution

June 24. - Last battle of the Revolutionary War - a skirmish near Savannah, and some slight skirmishes in South Carolina, in one of which the gallant young Col. John Laurens lost his life.
July 11. - Savannah, Ga., evacuated by the British.
Aug. - War closed between the United States and Great Britain.
Nov. 13. - Preliminaries of peace between the United States and Great Britain signed in Paris.
Dec. 14. - Charleston, S.C. evacuated by the British."

Moving along to 1783 in my next entry.

Science of Common Things

Today's excerpt from Prof. L.G. Gorton discusses the sun and other things of interest.

"How far is the sun from the earth? Ninety - one million miles. (Ed. Note. According to Google it is 92.96 million miles) What is light? (Ed. Witty response. The opposite of dark?) Light is that mode of motion which is capable of affecting the optic nerve. It is the vibration of an infinitely rare, exceedingly elastic, and subtle medium known as ether, which fills all space and permeates every transparent substance. (Ed. Note. The good professor waxes quite eloquent on this idea.) How fast does light travel? One hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second."

In the next entry we'll discuss rays and beams of light and other things.

The Birth Date Thing 10 November 2004

US Billboard #1 Single 10 November 2004

My Boo by Usher and Alicia Keys. My Boo was the 4th single released from American R&B artist, Usher's, album Confessions. It was co-written by Usher and Alicia Keys (and others).

UK #1 Single 10 November 2004.

Wonderful by Ja Rule. Ja Rule is an American rapper, singer, song writer and actor from Queen's New York. Wonderful was his first UK #1. The song featured American pop singers R. Kelly and Ashanti.

Moving along to the world of books and awards...

New York Times #1 Fiction Best Seller 10 November 2004

Northern Lights by Nora Roberts. This is the second time since 2001 that Nora Roberts had the #1 on my birth day... and I've never read any of her books. I probably never will.

"Lunacy, Alaska - population 506 - is Nate Burke's last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he had watched his partner die - and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepts a job as Chief of Police in this freezing, remote town, where darkness falls by mid-afternoon. It's a big change - maybe too big. But just as he's beginning to wonder if this has all been a terrible mistake, an unexpected kiss with feisty bush pilot Meg Galloway under the brilliant Northern Lights lifts his spirit and convinces him to stay a little longer.

However, when Nate uncovers an old unsolved crime, he discovers that Lunacy isn't quite the sleepy little backwater he imagined. And his discovery will threaten the new life - and the new love - he never dreamed he'd find . "

The book was turned into a made for TV movie starring Eddie Cibrian, LeAnn Rimes and Rosanna Arquette.

Pulitzer Prize Winner 2004

The Known World by Edward P. Jones. This was the 2nd book by American writer Jones.

"Set in Virginia during the antebellum era, it examines the issues regarding the ownership of black slaves by both white and black Americans."







Nobel Prize Laureate 2004

Elfriede Jelinek (Austria). Born in 1946, Jelinek is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power."

Hugo Award Winner 2004

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. This was Bujold's 4th Hugo winner since 1991. I will have to try one of her books and see what I think of her writing. It is a fantasy novel, the sequel to The Curse of Chalion.

"In a land threatened by treacherous war and beset by demons, royal dowager Ista, released from the curse of madness and manipulated by an untrustworthy god, is plunged into a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered souls of a realm."




Edgar Award Winner 2004

Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin. Resurrection Men is the 13th book in the excellent Inspector Rebus mysteries by Rankin. Conveniently it's also the last one I've read so far. Jo bought me most of the series for Xmas back when I was stationed in Victoria. This was one she couldn't find but I managed to get a copy at a local bookstore. It's a great series, well worth trying. The first book is Knots and Crosses if you want to start it. My review is below.





"Another excellent Rebus story. This book finds DI Rebus sent back to refinishing school (in a way) after an incident at his local police station. He throws a mug of tea at boss, Gill Templar, and finds himself sent for retraining with a group of other reprobates from other districts. But there is more to this assignment than meets the eye and I'll let you read the book to see what. In the meantime, DS Siobhan Clark, Rebus' protégé, is deeply involved with a team trying to solve the murder of an art dealer. This brings her into contact with an old adversary of Rebus, Big Ger McCaffrey. I have enjoyed the Rebus stories so much over the past two or three stories. Ian Rankin has really hit his stride over the past couple of stories. I do like how the other characters, especially Siobhan have come into their own and are well-developed personalities. Rebus is still Rebus, although he now has a lady friend (I hope it lasts). This story moved along very nicely, had some very suspenseful moments and was entertaining from beginning to end. If you haven't tried the Rebus series, you really need to do so." 

Man Booker Award Winner 2004

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Hollinghurst is an English novelist, short story writer and poet, born in 1954, and has won various awards, the Somerset Maugham award, the James Tait Black Memorial Award and the Man Booker Prize. The Line of Beauty was his 4th novel.

"In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.

As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends."

Giller Prize Winner 2004

Runaway by Alice Munro. This was Munro's 2nd win since the inception of the award in 1994.

"The incomparable Alice Munro's bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband, to three stories about a woman named Juliet and the emotions that complicate the luster of her intimate relationships. In Munro's hands, the people she writes about women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and children become as vivid as our own neighbors. It is her miraculous gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own."

There you go. Maybe I'll get a picture of Clyde for my next entry. Have a great day!