This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.
. . .You want to know the best part? The juicy, plump, dripping irony?
The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were “1984” and “Animal Farm.”
I did get my 99¢ back, though.
“We can finally stop talking about the first lady’s penchant for showing off her toned arms and the national conversation can turn to something substantive: her husband’s unflattering, baggy blue jeans.”
Ellen Warren — Chicago Tribune
Hey, it’s hard to wear tight jeans (let alone throw the ball) when you’ve got on kevlar underwear.
This was just three years ago.
Chancellor Merkel is 55 today.
“The ‘golf is a real sport’ argument is getting brutally murdered by Mark Calvecchia & Tom Watson right now.”
Bill Simmons (sportsguy33) on Twitter
Calvecchia is 49 and, one could say, fat. Watson is 59. They are currently near the top of the leaderboard in the British Open.
Awesome sets of photos.
Today, nearly eight years after the initial invasion of Afghanistan, the country remains unstable at best, and the U.S. is now pouring thousands of new troops into the country, joining the international coalition to combat the Taliban insurgency. This year, bomb attacks on coalition troops have reached an all-time high – at least 46 American troops killed by IEDs this year, part of the larger figure of 1,249 coalition deaths to date. On June 25th, U.S. officials announced the launch of Operation Khanjar – 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of NATO and Afghan forces pushing into various parts of Helmand province attempting to secure the area ahead of Afghanistan’s presidential election next month. Consider this entry a double-issue – there has been so much powerful photography coming out of Afghanistan the past few months, I had a very hard time editing down to just these, recent photographs from Afghanistan.
Fifties TV host Art Linkletter is 97 today. He’s the one that said “kids say the darndest things” and had a panel of them on many of his shows to prove it.
Phyllis Diller is 92 today. Before she became a kind of parody of herself she was actually very, very funny.
Diahann Carroll , the first African-American actress to appear in a TV series and not portray a domestic worker, is 74 today. The show was Julia and she was a nurse and single mom. Ms. Carroll was nominated for a best actress Oscar for Claudine in 1975.
Kiefer’s dad Donald is 74 today. Donald Sutherland’s breakthrough role was as Vernon Pinkley in The Dirty Dozen, then as “Hawkeye” Pierce in M*A*S*H. He has more than 150 credits listed at IMDb.
Spencer Davis is 67.
Camilla is 61.
Lucie Arnaz is 58.
David Hasselhoff is 57.
And one of my favorites, Andre Royo, “Bubbles,” is 41 today.
Elbridge Gerry was born on this date in 1744. He signed the Declaration of Independence, the Article of Confederation, but was one of three delegates who did not sign the Constitution, in Gerry’s case because it did not include a Bill of Rights. Gerry was the fifth U.S. vice president, serving the first year-and-a-half under Madison’s second term before dying. And, of course, he is the person for whom gerrymandering is named. He was the Massachusetts governor who signed a particularly egregious redistricting plan in 1812.
Joe DiMaggio did not get a hit on this date in 1941. Too bad, if he had his consecutive game hitting streak would have been 73. As it was, he hit safely in 56 consecutive games up to this date — and 16 after. (44 is the best by anyone else.)
At AmericanHeritage.com a couple years ago, John Steele Gordon told a famous good DiMaggio story:
[This story] story concerns his brief, disastrous marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Monroe was a film actress, used to working in front of cameras and technicians, not audiences. After their wedding, DiMaggio and Monroe went to Korea to entertain the American troops fighting there against the Chinese communists. There were perhaps 5,000 soldiers on the air-base runways waiting to greet them, and when they stepped out of the plane, the soldiers started cheering. Monroe, startled by the ovation, turned to her husband and said, “I bet you’ve never heard such cheering, Joe.” DiMaggio, who had brought a sold-out Yankee Stadium screaming to its collective feet more times than he could count, just said quietly, “Oh, yes I have.”
Then he beat her.
Billie Holiday died 50 years ago today. She was 44.
Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, Billie Holiday lived a tempestuous and difficult life. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since.
Or ever.
Treat yourself [opens iTunes].