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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 27, 2019 21:03:43 GMT
Did indeed.
Mary Beard was my client when I was working.
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Post by questa on Nov 30, 2019 3:25:52 GMT
Oz media full of Clive James interviews etc. I have always liked his humour and seriousness. He lived not far from where I grew up and my best friend went to Sunday school with him.
Jonathan Miller is more of a blow for me. Years ago he did a TV series on the human body which was excellent. He showed a little white mouse and fondled it as he described the next part in which the mouse would be gassed. He then put the mouse in its box and said, "but this little morsel of life will not be hurt just for a TV episode." I loved him for that.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 30, 2019 14:58:45 GMT
Today is the birthday of Mark Twain and Winston Churchill. Interesting combination.
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 7, 2019 14:04:21 GMT
Pearl Harbour was attacked this day in 1941.
As a result America joined WWII.
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 23, 2019 16:13:22 GMT
It is The Night of the Radishes in Oaxaca.
Honest.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 23, 2019 16:14:22 GMT
That explains everything!
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 23, 2019 16:23:47 GMT
If only we had somebody to report on it.
Sigh.,,,,
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 24, 2019 19:28:15 GMT
We are just one day from the delightful execution on December 25, 1989 of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. My parents and grandmother were staying at my place for Christmas and I think we saw the execution replayed on television at least 30 times that day. My grandmother started scowling and hiding her eyes after the first dozen or so times. That will always be my memory of Christmas 1989. But I liked it anyway, because it was probably the last time that the four of us were together at Christmas.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 3, 2020 19:32:43 GMT
Today is Greta Thunberg's 17th birthday.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2020 23:33:07 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Jan 4, 2020 3:11:01 GMT
Well, I hope people will stop calling her a child. I suppose anyone under the legal age of majority can get called a child, and teenagers deserve certain protections, but it is insulting to call teenagers "children" (in the sense of minor, not children of our parents).
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Post by casimira on Jan 6, 2020 16:58:10 GMT
TWELFTH NIGHT, EPIPHANY, KING"S DAY!!!!!!
Call it what you will, it's CARNIVAL TIME!!!!!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 6, 2020 17:21:48 GMT
Yessssss! Apologies to you, Casimira, as I know New Orleanians can get tired of this right now, but the rest of us need a peek at the joy that is Mardi Gras ~
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Post by Kimby on Jan 6, 2020 20:47:17 GMT
TWELFTH NIGHT, EPIPHANY, KING"S DAY!!!!!!Call it what you will, it's CARNIVAL TIME!!!!! I call it Undecking the Halls day. All our holiday lighting came down today, except we usually leave some colored lights around the windows in the TV room a while longer, to maintain the party atmosphere. ;-)
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 8, 2020 12:37:51 GMT
Another interesting combination. Today would be the birthdays of Stephen Hawking and Elvis Presley.
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Post by whatagain on Jan 8, 2020 14:21:48 GMT
Today is the birthday of our son Robin. 24. It is also the day of the death of Francois Mitterand.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 8, 2020 15:38:00 GMT
❤️️ Whatagain
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Post by bjd on Jan 8, 2020 15:48:10 GMT
It's also my birthday today but I prefer being from the same date as David Bowie than with Elvis Presley. Allegedly we share it with Kim Jong Un too.
Sorry that it's a sad day for you, Whatagain.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 8, 2020 16:16:56 GMT
Birthday Bjd! Have a happy day and a great year.
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Post by whatagain on Jan 8, 2020 21:38:14 GMT
Happy birthday bjd !
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Post by lagatta on Jan 9, 2020 2:06:03 GMT
Yes, at least Mitterand had a good run... Never met him but did meet Danielle.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 17, 2020 16:46:10 GMT
Today is the 100th anniversary of the start of Prohibition in America.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 17, 2020 17:29:43 GMT
That certainly fixed everything.
Also on today's date, President George Bush triggered Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991. We can thank him eternally for bringing peace permanently to the Middle East.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 18, 2020 16:19:59 GMT
Prohibition in the US was at the origin of some major fortunes in Canada.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 18, 2020 16:39:04 GMT
Some good comes from every bad thing.
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Post by Kimby on Jan 18, 2020 22:30:20 GMT
I read that prohibition was directly responsible for at least four US Constitutional amendments. Two are obvious: establishing (18th) and abolishing (21st) prohibition. But the others are less intuitive. Women’s suffrage (19th) got passed because the backers of prohibition knew that women were more strongly in favor of prohibition than men were and would vote for laws enforcing prohibition.
The 16th amendment, allowing the US government to collect income taxes, was made necessary by the fact that much of the federal revenue was raised from taxes on liquor, which would be going away under prohibition.
I think perhaps the 17th amendment, which called for US Senators to be elected by popular vote instead of being selected by the state legislatures, was also seen as advancing the prohibition agenda.
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Post by casimira on Jan 20, 2020 14:35:44 GMT
Martin Luther King Day here in the US.
It occurred to me a couple of years ago that MLK is the only person to have a holiday designation honoring him.
At some point, I don't recall when, the US combined George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays into President's Day rather than two separate holidays. I do know that it was well after my schooldays when we would have two separate days off from school.
Also, ironically, and sadly, when my husband worked as a paramedic for the city of NOLA he dreaded working MLK Day as it was one of the most violent days of the year. (Likely due to people celebrating all day fueled by alcohol and/or whatever).
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 20, 2020 16:44:13 GMT
Oddly enough, on this same day in 1942, the leaders of the 3rd Reich adopted the "Final Solution" concerning Jews at the Wannsee Conference.
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Post by whatagain on Jan 25, 2020 16:00:37 GMT
Today in 65 Churchill passed away. A poet a writer a courageous man a soldier and a great statesman.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 25, 2020 16:57:16 GMT
I was in France for the funeral -- one of the first live broadcasts on Eurovision.
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