Saturday, June 10, 2006

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and a Wikipedia Meme

Sunny - Hi 112 Lo 84 for Baghdad, Iraq
Showers - Hi 70 Lo 57 for Northern KY, USA

Song of the week: Dead Man's Party,
Oingo Boingo

Ramble:

I'm working on a post celebrating my 1st year of blogging, so this weeks post is light.

However, I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to reflect on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. I dedicate this week's Sunday Song to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. I don't take death lightly...

HOWEVER, our guys- our fighting men- you know, the guys in the white hats, the ones willing to put their lives on the line to keep us safe- took out a bad guy this past week.

NO MORE will this dead man plan suicide bomb missions, NO MORE will this man plan the assassinations of diplomats, NO MORE will this man plot and murder innocents, NO MORE will this man behead Americans, NO MORE will this man be the poster child for "Kill All the Jews", NO MORE will this man kill American soldiers. He no longer has the ability to plan or hurt anyone ever again.

He is dead.

For that, I am thankful- One less bad guy on the planet.

I offer a heartfelt thank you to the soldiers, airmen, and marines for a job well done.

OK... I mentioned that I'm keeping it simple this week because I've been working on a post marking my 1st year of blogging... I don't know if I'll have it up next Sunday... being Father's day... but it will be up by the end of this month... Truth be told, Michael gave me a video iPod and it is the coolest thing ever! Free time at home on the PC has been loading it with my favorite music.... I have a capacity of 7500 songs... Currently, I have over 700 songs loaded as well 4 episodes of The Office. I'm telling you this is the most fun... Get one if you can!

...and now for the meme...

I saw this meme over at Green Pastures, Still Waters and I thought it looked like fun.

Go to Wikipedia and search your birthday (not the year). Then you post three (3) items: two (2) births and one (1) death.

Here is what I came up with:

Please note I only picked names that I recognized and knew something about.

1. Birth: Kofi Annan was born on 8 April, 1938.... good grief.... that one blows.... The one organization I detest more than the ACLU would be the United Nations.... I can't go there, so enough of that... enough of him...




2. Birth: Sonja Henje was born on 8 April, 1912. Now this is a little goofy. I love Sonja Henje. She was an Olympic figure skater and I believe she competed in 3 separate Olympics. I know she won the gold. She was grace on ice... for her time... looking at clips today... eh...(I know... I could actually READ Wikipedia... but where is the fun in that? I prefer to pull bits and pieces of useless information from my brain...it's much more entertaining for me). What I really liked about Sonja, besides her accent were her movies. You see, after she became the sweetheart to the world, naturally, Hollywood wanted to capitalize on that... My favorite Sonja Henje movie is Sun Valley Serenade. It is such an amazing little movie. It is very formulaic (is that a word?) Refugee girl from the war fleas to the land of the free and meets a really cute piano player in a big band.... The big band leader was naturally Glenn Miller. The cute guy... John Payne... (the guy that played the lead and love interest of Maureen O'Hara in Miracle on 34th Street), Milton Berle plays the wacky one liner manager of the band, the amazing Nicholas Brothers tapped their way through a number and the unbelievably beautiful Dorothy Dandridge does a number in the movie. Fun movie... watch it. I'm going to have to track it down...I haven't seen it in about 10-15 years... Amazon, here I come.

3. Death: Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973. I've never been a huge fan of Cubism, but I liked a lot of his early work - his Rose Period, especially. Cubism always struck me as hard and cold and unfeeling... mechanical in emotion. Art must always speak to me emotionally in order for me to understand and appreciate it. So... here is something a little less mechanical, although it is cold, harsh, and hollow. It is titled: Bust of Woman, 1923. It can be found at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. This is one of the best little museums I have ever been to... If you are out in California and have never been... go... If you enjoy art museums and are headed to Pasadena or to Disneyland... go... I love that place...


Now... Back to Sun Valley Serenade...

OK... now who should I ask to do this meme???

1. The Lone Ranger
2. Jedi Master Rob - completed Thanks!!
3. Diane - completed Thanks!
4. Bisqui - completed Thanks, Carlo!
5. Lemuel -completed Thanks!!
6. Laura -completed 6/27 Thanks Laura!
7. Michael -completed Good job, honey! 6/19
8. Captain B I feel like a giddy school girl. My favorite blogging Marine put his response to my meme in the comments of this post. I didn't expect him to play because it wouldn't fit into the theme of his blog... what a great guy... great blog too...

* David played!
* There's a new Marine in my blog life and he is a Gunny serving in Okinawa. You know how I feel about Marines. Thanks for playing Gunny!

I'm hoping if I invite enough folks to do this... at least one or two will do it. This isn't mandatory... I just thought it would be fun... There are no rules...make it as simple or as complex as you wish. I of course, had to ramble. My initial goal was to just post pictures... HA! In any event, if you do this... let me know!!


Blogs and Links to Check Out This Week:

I'm participating in my first carnival... with the Blogging Chicks, of course. Go visit here and find out what this Carnival of Blogging Chicks is all about...

Big Fat Institute
And Then I Woke Up
Morning Coffee I had to add this one because the coincidence of it all was weird...


Final note...

Michael and I went on our first historic house tour of the year on Saturday. We visited Farmington in Louisville, Kentucky- not the best of renovations, but the historic value of this former hemp farm is priceless when considering the rich history of Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln visited this lovely Federalist style home. I will leave this weeks blog with photos I took on Saturday.

Today is a garden tour with Mom and Michael.

Have a great week everyone!


view from side of house

barn, but the openings looked like an archer's window. You can be on the inside and shoot in any direction, but it would be very difficult to get a shot into one of the openings

summer kitchen

ice house


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Nice Blog!

So Just how many Morning Coffee's are there out there?

Laura said...

I adore SUN VALLEY SERENADE! The Nicholas Brothers, the great Glenn Miller music, the title song...they really don't make 'em like they used to. :) Happy almost first blogiversary, Laura

Anonymous said...

Nice post. That looks like Jane Austen's house. Longborne was it?

I agree about the dead man. You were too kind.

I like that you have an artistic sensibility. I could use one nice painting in this house. It doesn't have to be a signature, but so many directions to choose from.

Mike said...

Did we take any of that hemp home with us?

Cathy said...

Darrell: Thanks. And I don't know... but I think I will take it upon myself to research this... I will add every single morning coffee or similar blog to my blogroll... I'm adding you now...Stay tuned...

Laura: I could have guessed you like that movie. One thing I am certain about... I could watch movies with you all day...

Mark: I don't recall the name of Jane Austen's home although if I were ever to make it to England, her home would be on my list of places to go.

As far as original art is concerned, my suggestion is get something that comforts your heart and soul when you look at it. When it is in your home... it should reveal a part of your personality...one of my favorite pieces of art work is something my then 11 year old niece did for me... It is perfect.

Honey: No.

J.M. Rob said...

Here's my meme-y response, thingy:

http://bewarethedarkside.blogspot.com/2006/06/cathys-meme.html

So you did or didn't bring back some hemp? I was. . uh. . just wanting to know. 'Could use some rope. . that's all. Yeah, rope.

Laura said...

"I could have guessed you like that movie. One thing I am certain about... I could watch movies with you all day..."

It would be a blast! :) Laura

Anonymous said...

That was interesting! I've got mine up Cathy.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for including me. My birth was in Dec and instead of a post I thought I would put the results here:
Birth#1
Nostradamus Latinized name of Michel de Nostredame, was one of the world's most famous authors of prophecies. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555.

Birth#2
Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the United States Navy. He was the highest ranking naval officer held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Stockdale led the U.S. air squadron during the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

Death
John Randolph "Jack" Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer director, and writer who is most famous for his role as Detective Joe Friday in the television series Dragnet.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Webb grew up poor in the Bunker Hill slum section of Los Angeles to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother; he was raised Catholic. He was a sickly child and studied art as a young man. One of the tenants in the rooming house run by his mother was an ex-jazzman who imbued Webb with a lifelong interest in jazz when he gave him a recording of Bix Beiderbecke's "At the Jazz Band Ball."
Just the facts ma’am……………..

Gunny John said...

Hmmmm,

I'll follow the Capt's example:

Births:
William Shakespeare- self explanatory.

Michael Moore- Had to look twice, but yep, I have the same birthday as the maggot.

Deaths:

King Alexander I of Scotland
Howard Cosell- sports journalist.

Anonymous said...

:-)

Done!

Laura said...

I'm a couple weeks behind, but I'm working on my "meme" post right now! :) Best wishes, Laura