Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

The Daily F Bomb, Friday 2/7/14

Interrogatories

Are you touchy-feely or reserved? Do you hug a lot?

Do you ever fly the American flag? Any flag?

Do you often attend theatrical events (including ballet and opera)? How about museum exhibits? What is the last of any of these that you saw?

The Twitter Emitter

On This Day

In 1497, the “bonfire of the vanities” occurred when supporters of Girolamo Savonarola (who made a habit of this sort of thing) burned thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.

In 1795, the 11th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. The amendment ruled that federal courts had the authority to hear cases in law and equity brought by private citizens against states and that states did not enjoy sovereign immunity from suits made by citizens of other states in federal court.

In 1898, writer Émile Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J’Accuse, an open letter that accused the French government of anti-Semitism in their jailing of Alfred Dreyfuss.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba.

In 1964, the Beatles arrived in New York for their first American tour, kicking off rock ‘n’ roll’s “British invasion.”

In 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti’s first democratically elected president.

In 1992, European Community members signed the Maastricht Treaty, which led to creation of the euro.

In 2011, AOL Inc. announced the $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post website.

Born on This Day

1478 – Sir Thomas More, English statesman, humanist and author (d. 1535)

1606 – Nicolas Mignard, French painter (d. 1668)

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1741 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss artist (d. 1825)

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1804 – John Deere, American manufacturer (Deere & Company) (d. 1886)

1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist (d. 1870)

1823 – George Washington Wilson, Scottish photographer and painter (d. 1893)

1830 – José Tapiro y Baro, Spanish painter (d. 1913)

1837 – Philip Sadee, Dutch painter (d. 1904)

1837 – José Jiménez y Aranda, Spanish painter (d. 1903)

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1862 – Bernard Maybeck, American architect who designed some of the finest buildings in the Bay Area (d. 1957)

1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)

1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1951)

1887 – Eubie Blake, American musician and composer (d. 1983)

1889 – Harry Nyquist, important contributor to information theory (d. 1976)

1895 – Anita Stewart, American film actress (d. 1961)

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1898 – Dock Boggs, American musician (d. 1971)

1908 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983)

1912 – Russell Drysdale, Australian Artist (d. 1981)

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1912 – Roberta McCain, American, mother of John McCain

1915 – Eddie Bracken, American actor (d. 2002)

1918 – Markey Robinson, Northern Irish painter (d. 1999)

1927 – Juliette Gréco, French singer and actor and fashion icon

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1934 – King Curtis, American saxophonist (d. 1971)

1934 – Earl King, American musician (d. 2003)

1946 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (d. 2011)

1949 – Joe English, American drummer (Wings, Sea Level)

1955 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor

1956 – Emo Philips, American comedian

1960 – James Spader, American actor

1962 – Garth Brooks, American singer

1962 – David Bryan, American musician (Bon Jovi)

1962 – Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian

1965 – Chris Rock, American actor and comedian

1968 – Sully Erna, American singer (Godsmack)

1974 – J Dilla, American record producer (d. 2006)

1974 – Danny Goffey, British musician (Supergrass)

1975 – Wes Borland, American guitarist (Limp Bizkit)

1978 – Ashton Kutcher, American actor

Died on This Day

1801 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish etcher and illustrator (b. 1726)

1808 – Jan van Os, Dutch painter, specializing in seascapes and still life (b. 1744)

1823 – Ann Radcliffe, English novelist (b. 1764)

1848 – Christen Købke, Danish Realist painter (b. 1810)

1873 – Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish writer (b. 1814)

1897 – Charles Édouard Boutibonne, French painter (b. 1816)

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1902 – Thomas Sidney Cooper, English painter (b.1803)

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1939 – Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter (b. 1886)

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1942 – Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator (b. 1876)

1959 – Daniel François Malan, South African Prime Minister, father of Apartheid policy (b. 1874)

1959 – Guitar Slim, American blues guitarist (b. 1926)

1965 – Nance O’Neil, American actress (b. 1874)

1968 – Nick Adams, American actor (b. 1931)

1999 – Bobby Troup, American musician and actor (b. 1918)

2000 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician (b. 1947)

2000 – Dave Peverett, English musician (Foghat, Savoy Brown) (b. 1943)

2001 – Dale Evans, American actress and singer (b. 1912)

2001 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (b. 1906)

2008 – Tamara Desni, German-born British actress (b. 1913)

Today is

National Fettuccine Alfredo Day

Send a Card to a Friend Day

Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbor Day (instead of just the usual finger you wave at them)

Ballet Day


10 comments

  1. freedapeople

    Are you touchy-feely or reserved? Do you hug a lot?

    I’m touchy-feely except I don’t like it when people kiss me on greeting. I prefer a hug or a handshake, depending upon my closeness with the person.

    Do you ever fly the American flag? Any flag? Not a flag flyer, but I do put out candidate signs at election time.

    Do you often attend theatrical events (including ballet and opera)? How about museum exhibits? What is the last of any of these that you saw? I used to go to these all the time when I lived in NYC. Out here in the woods where I live, not so much. I mostly get to see live music. Raised with Broadway and off-Broadway, most of the theater offered here pales by comparison. I don’t get to Boston often enough to see anything and not keeping track.  I also love dance, and haven’t seen that in a while. There were two decent small opera companies in my area, but have either folded or scaled down quite a bit. I miss art museums. A lot.

  2. Gee

    Thought Friday would never get here.

    Are you touchy-feely or reserved? Do you hug a lot?

    Do you ever fly the American flag? Any flag?

    Do you often attend theatrical events (including ballet and opera)? How about museum exhibits? What is the last of any of these that you saw?

    I think I appear reserved because I respect other people’s space.  I like a good hug.

    No flag but my freak flag.

    Almost never these days.  Museums more often than the other things.  I saw a play called How I Learned to Drive (Paula Vogel) a few years ago.  That was very good.

  3. Floja Roja

    I was raised by parents who weren’t big on hugs and caresses and all that, so I had to learn how to hug. I am not touchy-feely in the respect of touching people other than hugs or an arm thrown over a shoulder. That can be invasive.

    I’ve never flown any kind of flag. I’m such a lousy American, I never found our flag to be particularly pleasing on an aesthetic level, unless painted by Jasper Johns. I wanted a pirate flag when I was a teenager, but never got one.

    I cannot think of the last time – oh wait, yes I can. I saw a production of 1984 downtown LA a few years ago. And a friend’s improv group. Otherwise I am bad about stuff like that, even though it is always rewarding. Except Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff. I just cannot get into him.

    As for museums, I now work right across the street from LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), so I have no excuse. So if that Calder exhibit goes away before I get there, somebody kick me.

  4.    I think we all want that American Dream where we can be rich enough to drunkenly kill several people & not go to prison.

       – William K. Wolfrum (@Wolfrum) February 6, 2014

    That was the kid who suffered from “affluenza” — which was not a joke, it was a defense (that worked!!) in a Texas courtroom. I hope there is a judge with the courage to throw him in prison if he so much as sneezes wrong while he is on probation.

    Here is one I found:

    This one really ticked me off:

       “AOL’s health care expenses went up this yr, just as they have every yr since the company was founded, but this time it’s Obamacare’s fault”

       – Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 6, 2014

    Apparently, the idiotrepeneur who owns the company dumped $200 million into a pet project for a service that no one wants. And blaming the company’s financial woes on two women who had difficult births? I am surprised Tim Armstrong (who may be the ugliest person I have ever seen, both his face and his soul), didn’t get A**hole of the Day. He is certainly grossly incompetent:

    But health care experts ThinkProgress contacted questioned why a large self-insured company with more than 5,000 employees could not absorb the additional health care costs associated with the pregnancies. Large employers typically purchase reinsurance, which could cover a substantial share of big claims and ensure stability in cases of larger-than expected medical payouts.

    “The Affordable Care Act is simply a convenient whipping boy for any decision an employer makes to cut benefits,” Tim Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee, said. “Assuming AOL had reasonably generous coverage like most large employers, it should not have experienced any significant changes in its benefit structure for 2014. Perhaps it had to pick up a few more employees that had not been covered before or reduce premiums for a few employees, but it is hard to see $7.1 million here.”

    Back after lunch.

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