May 12, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
May 12 is … Limerick Day
Edward Lear was born on this day in 1812 in Highgate, England. Lear was a poet and a talented illustrator. A big champion of the limerick (which dates back to the early 18th century), Lear wrote Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense and other such amusing pieces. The Nonsense book especially helped the limerick to become very popular. The limerick is the only fixed-verse form indigenous to the English language.
So, what are you waiting for? Write a limerick today! Here’s one to get you started:
There once was a man named Nation,
Who worked for a radio station.
Although he was tall,
His hands were too small,
Wee paws for station identification.
Who worked for a radio station.
Although he was tall,
His hands were too small,
Wee paws for station identification.
I didn’t write that Limerick, I just reprinted it from anonymous, he writes a lot.
Peavey was not the winner but the White Sox won Wednesday night in an usual game that featured the tiebreaking run scoring on a wild pitch in the tenth inning that was thrown during an intentional walk to Paul Konerko. He White Sox scored five runs late in the game to get it into extra innings.
On May 12th throughout recent history;
1831 - The first indicted bank robber in the U.S., Edward Smith, was sentenced to five years hard labor on the rock pile at Sing Sing Prison.
1847 - As you jog around the block today, think of Mormon pioneer William Clayton. It was on this day that he got tired of counting the revolutions of a rag tied to a spoke of a wagon wheel to figure out how many miles he had traveled. So, while he was crossing the plains in his covered wagon, he invented the odometer.
1917 - The first imported horse to win the Kentucky Derby was the English-bred colt, Omar Khayyam. He won $49,070 -- the top prize.
1950 - The American Bowling Congress abolished its white males-only membership restriction after 34 years.
1953 - The Boston Red Sox dropped Dom DiMaggio, Joe’s brother. As a result, Dom announced that he was retiring from baseball.
1955 - Sam Jones of the Chicago Cubs pitched a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning 4-0. Jones became the first black pitcher to throw a major-league no-hitter.
1955 - Gisele MacKenzie played a singer on the NBC-TV program, Justice. She introduced her soon-to-be hit song, Hard to Get. The song went to number four on the Billboard pop music chart by September.
1955 - Passengers crowded in to ride the last run of the Third Avenue elevated, The El, in New York City. The way-above-ground train trip down memory lane went from Chinatown to the Bronx.
1957 - A.J. Foyt earned his first auto racing victory in Kansas City, Missouri. He went on to become a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 -- in 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1977.
1970 - Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs smacked home run number 500. He would get 12 more before his great career as first baseman (and shortstop) with the Cubbies came to a close in 1971.
1971 - The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias. Mick couldn’t remember her whole name very well, so she became known as Bianca the world over.
1976 - Sixteen-year-old, racing-jockey Steve Cauthen rode in his first race. He finished far back in the pack at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY. However, Cauthen got his first winner just five days later.
1977 - The Eagles earned a gold record for the hit, Hotel California. The award was the second of three gold record singles for the group. The other million sellers were New Kid in Town and Heartache Tonight. Two number one songs by The Eagles -- Best of My Love and One of These Nights -- didn’t quite make the million-seller mark.
1978 - From the And You Thought We Had This Straightened Out By Now file: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that it would alternate men’s and women’s names in the naming of hurricanes. It was seen as an attempt at fair play. Hurricanes had been named for women for years, until NOAA succumbed to pressure from women’s groups who were demanding that Atlantic storms be given unisex names. “It’s not fair that women should get all the attention for causing damage and destruction,” one women’s activist claimed. David, Allen, Hugo, Mitch and Andrew agreed.
1985 - Lionel Richie received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (his alma mater). Richie had put 14 hits on the pop charts in the 1980s, including one platinum smash, Endless Love (with Diana Ross) and four gold records (Truly, All Night Long, Hello and Say You, Say Me). All but one song (Se La) of the 14 charted made it to the top ten.
Paul McCartney is said to be getting married to a successful New York business woman, Nancy Shevell, the daughter of a wealthy trucking magnate. This will be his third marriage after his first wife, Linda died from cancer and his second wife, Heather Mills, mined the gold and split. Paul is apparently going to get married without a prenuptial agreement. He only wants a short agreement that protects his children’s trust funds. If I were his lawyers, I would increase my legal malpractice insurance coverage before doing this work.
Below is a Weekly Review put out by Harper’s Weekly online.
President Barack Obama announced that the government
would not release pictures of Osama bin Laden's
mutilated corpse, saying, "We don't need to spike the
football." The Associated Press filed a Freedom of
Information Act request for all photos and video shot
during the raid on the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan,
where bin Laden was hiding, and reporters discovered
cabbage, potatoes, and marijuana growing around the
property. Sarah Palin tweeted that President Obama was
"pussy-footing around," and the White House released
footage found in the compound showing bin Laden watching
himself on television, as well as propaganda-video
outtakes. A Kuwaiti newspaper published a document
purporting to be bin Laden's will, in which he
apologized to his children for not spending enough time
with them, commanded them not to join Al Qaeda, and
ordered his four wives not to remarry. Bin Laden's
twenty-nine-year-old widow told Pakistani investigators
the two had not left their house in five years, and
Native Americans criticized the U.S. military for giving
bin Laden the code name Geronimo, after the Apache
warrior whose fabled ability to walk without leaving
footprints allowed him to evade capture. The Dalai Lama
suggested that the assassination was
justified. "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what
happened," His Holiness said. "If something is serious
and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have
to take counter-measures." After researchers in Texas
simulated schizophrenia in a computer, the machine
spontaneously took responsibility for a terrorist
bombing.
Earthquakes struck Mexico, Alaska, and Japan on the same
day, and the United Nations estimated that by the year
2100 the world's population would reach 10.1 billion. A
U.N. investigation determined that a cholera outbreak
that killed more than 4,500 people in Haiti last year
was caused in part by the improper disposal of fecal
matter from U.N. peacekeepers. Memphis braced for its
biggest flood in nearly a century, and an uninhabited
Massachusetts house called 911 after water from a burst
pipe short-circuited the phone system. The
50-million-year-old fossil of an ant the size of a
hummingbird was discovered in Wyoming, and a 56-year-old
Canadian woman was found alive after surviving in the
Nevada wilderness for seven weeks on trail mix and
snow. President Obama visited the World Trade Center
site and returned to Washington in time to host the
Cinco de Mayo party at the White House, where he warned
that "you do not want to be between Michelle and a
tamale."
Col. Muammar Qaddafi's forces scattered land mines in
Misurata to disable evacuation and supply routes for the
antigovernment forces holding that Libyan city; in Cairo
twelve people died and nearly 200 were wounded during
clashes between Muslims and Christians; and a local
Palestinian won the Gaza strip's first marathon, which
ran the entire length of the territory. The world's most
wanted Nazi war crimes suspect, ninety-seven-year-old
Sandor Kepiro, went on trial in Hungary, and Minnesota
state representative Matt Dean called the writer Neil
Gaiman a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000
from the state of Minnesota," referring to a fee Gaiman
received for a speaking engagement last year, and later
donated to charity. Amid an ongoing power struggle
between Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, several of the president's close
advisers were arrested and charged with sorcery and
"connections with the unknown worlds." Two imams en
route to a North Carolina conference on anti-Muslim
prejudice were removed from a commercial flight because
their manner of dress was making the pilot
uncomfortable, and programmers developed headsets that
allow the game Angry Birds to be played using mind
control. British mountaineer Kenton Cool became the
first person to use Twitter from the peak of Mount
Everest. "Everest summit no 9!" tweeted Cool. "1st tweet
from the top of the world thanks to a weak 3G signal &
the awesome Samsung Galaxy S2 handset!"
-- Margaret Cordi
Just a couple of thoughts I had. Along with some thoughts of Margaret Cordi.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
www.ebookmall.com (Do search by my name or book Title)
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Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had tried and failed." - William James
