An excellent, brief summary of the situation in Georgia — past and present — by Michael Dobbs in The Washington Post.
Take five or so minutes and you will have a balanced understanding. Very worthwhile.
Day: August 15, 2008
TV crawl of the week
Best line of Friday evening
Would President McCain have handled the Georgia-Russian thing as well as Bush:
“It’s hard to know since he’s a corrupt, pandering politician who is clearly willing to do anything to get elected, but if we take him at his word, we’d have to assume that we’d have declared war on Russia.”
“I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed. 20-30 million tops…”
The Cowboy’s Dresser, Dies at 107
Jack A. Weil, a garter salesman, breezed into Denver in 1928 in a new Chrysler Roadster to start a new life. He exceeded his hopes and became a king of cowboy couture — almost certainly the first to put snaps on Western shirts (17 on a shirt), and most likely the first to produce bolo ties commercially.
His Rockmount Ranch Wear Mfg. Company has sold millions of shirts, including at least one shipment to Antarctica, since it started in 1946. Clark Gable wore one in “The Misfits” with Marilyn Monroe, and Heath Ledger’s shirt in “Brokeback Mountain” — plaid fabric, diamond snaps and saw-tooth pockets — was Style No. 69-39.
Until Wednesday, when he died at 107 in Denver, Mr. Weil was still chief executive of the company he founded and, until just before his death, came to work daily. He was regularly called the oldest chief executive still working.
If NewMexiKen lives that long I could be doing this blog for 49 years.
Best line of the day, so far
“At some point you just have to let your parents go and make their own mistakes and just hope that you raised them right.”
Source protected to preserve the parent-child relationship.
Pretty good line of the day
“John McCain blames his love of ABBA on being shot down in Vietnam: ‘A lot of my taste in music stopped about the time I impacted a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane…’ War IS Hell”
For the record, the number one hit in the U.S. on the day McCain was shot down (October 26, 1967) was “To Sir, with Love” by Lulu. “The Letter” by the Box Tops had preceded it as number one earlier in the month.
ABBA did not have a top ten hit in the U.S. until 1974.
Coffee is good for you line of the day
“[R]esearchers found that a typical serving of coffee contains more antioxidants than typical servings of grape juice, blueberries, raspberries and oranges.”
From an article in The New York Times and first posted here two years ago.
Feast of the Assumption
Today, August 15, is the Feast of the Assumption, the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the feast celebrates both the “happy departure of Mary from this life” and the “assumption of her body into heaven.” That she “was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things” is a principle of Catholic dogma.
August 15th
… is Napoleon’s birthday. He was born August 15, 1769 (and died in 1821, at age 51). As an adult, Napoleon was just over 5-feet, 6-inches tall (1.686 m), about average for his countrymen at the time.
Four time Oscar nominee for best supporting actress (one win), Ethel Barrymore was born on this date in 1879.
Pulitzer-winning author Edna Ferber was born 120 years ago today. She’s known best for So Big (Pulitzer prize in 1924), Show Boat, Cimarron, Giant and Ice Palace.
TV chef Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California, on this date in 1912.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 70.
Pro Football Hall of Fame member Gene Upshaw is 63 today. Upshaw played for the Raiders, 1967-1981. (Ahh, the glory years.) Upshaw has had a second career as Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association since 1983.
Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth, is 58.
Grace, that is, actress Debra Messing, is 40.
Ben Affleck is 36.
The Wizard of Oz premiered 69 years ago tonight.