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Today is the birthday, in , of Christopher Robin Milne, only child of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.

Christopher Robin Milne was born at 11 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London , on 21 August 1920, to author Alan Alexander Milne and Daphne Milne. On his first birthday on 21 August 1921, Milne received an Alpha Farnell teddy bear, which he later named Edward. Eeyore was a Christmas present in 1921 and Piglet arrived undated. Edward, along with a real Canadian black bear named Winnipeg that Milne saw at London Zoo, eventually became the inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh character.

An early childhood friend was Anne Darlington, also an only child. Several poems by Milne’s father, and several illustrations by E. H. Shepard, feature Darlington and Milne, notably “Buttercup Days”, in which their relative hair colours (brown and golden blond) and their mutual affection is noted (the illustration to this latter poem, from Now We Are Six, also features the cottage at Cotchford Farm).

The first collection of stories about the character is the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children’s verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and many more in Now We Are Six (1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. The stories are set in Hundred Acre Wood, which was inspired by Five Hundred Acre Wood in Ashdown Forest in East Sussex—situated 30 miles (48 km) south of London—where the Londoner Milne’s country home was located.

Christopher Robin Milne (21 August 1920 – 20 April 1996), son of author A. A. Milne and the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Photograph by Marcus Adams, 14 March 1928.

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Signsses…

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On this day in 1961, Tamla Records released the Marvelettes first single, ‘Please Mr. Postman’. The song went on to sell over a million copies and become the group’s biggest hit, reaching the top of both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts. The song is notable as the first Motown song to reach the No.1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=425GpjTSlS4&list=RD425GpjTSlS4&start_radio=1

Today is the birthday, in 1910, of Eero Saarinen, Finnish-American architect and industrial designer who created a wide array of innovative designs for buildings and monuments, including the General Motors Technical Center; the passenger terminal at Dulles International Airport; the TWA Flight Center (now TWA Hotel) at John F. Kennedy International Airport; the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center; and the Gateway Arch. He was the son of Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen.Finnish-American architect and industrial designer.

Eero Saarinen was born in Hvitträsk, Finland (then an autonomous state in the Russian Empire) on August 20, 1910, to Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen and his second wife, Louise, on his father’s 37th birthday. They migrated to the United States in 1923, when Eero was thirteen. He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where his father taught and was dean of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and he took courses in sculpture and furniture design there. He had a close relationship with fellow students, designers Charles and Ray Eames, and became good friends with architect Florence Knoll (née Schust).

While still working for his father, Saarinen first gained recognition for his design capabilities for the ‘Tulip Chair’ he designed together with Charles Eames. Further attention came also while Saarinen was still working for his father when he took first prize in the 1948 competition for the design of the Gateway Arch National Park.

After his father’s death in July 1950, Saarinen founded his own architect’s office, Eero Saarinen and Associates. He was the principal partner from 1950 until his death. The firm carried out many of its most important works, including the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in Holmdel Township, New Jersey; the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri; the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana; the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which he worked on with Charles J. Parise; the main terminal of Washington Dulles International Airport; and the new East Air Terminal of the old Athens airport in Greece, which opened in 1967. Many of these projects use catenary curves in their structural designs.

One of his best known thin-shell concrete structures is the Kresge Auditorium at MIT. Another thin-shell structure is Ingalls Rink at Yale University, which has suspension cables connected to a single concrete backbone and is nicknamed “the whale”

Saarinen died on September 1, 1961, at the age of 51 while undergoing an operation in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a brain tumor. He was overseeing the completion of a new music building for the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Washington Dulles International Airport

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Someone’s about to lose an eye!

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Cute!

SIGNZZZZZZZZZZZ

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Today is the birthday, in 1952, of American singer-songwriter-musician Doug Fieger, with The Knack. Their first single, ‘My Sharona’ was an international No.1 hit in 1979. Fieger wrote ‘My Sharona’ for Sharona Alperin, who later became his girlfriend. He died of cancer on 14th Feb 2010 aged 57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVt2O8NnOIshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVt2O8NnOIs

On this day in 1692, five persons (Martha Carrier, John Willard, George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr., and John Proctor) were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts (known today as Danvers). Their execution was a part of a much larger quasi-religious hysteria that gripped the area under which more than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in the disease-ridden jails without trial.

A majority of people accused and convicted of witchcraft were women (about 78%). Overall, the Puritan belief and prevailing New England culture was that women were inherently sinful and more susceptible to damnation than men were. Women who did not conform to the norms of Puritan society were more likely to be the target of an accusation, especially those who were unmarried or did not have children.

Bridget Bishop, a midwife, was the first person executed in the Salem Witch Trials

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Always the two percent…

BADA BING BING BING!

Germany once banned and burned books to silence ideas. Today, a German bookstore displays ‘Banned in the USA’.

I wish my siblings would stop calling me “spoiled” just because I’m the baby in the family. The fact is, my parents kept having children until they found one they liked. It’s so not my issue.

Just remember, it takes two people to destroy a relationship. So it’s not just her fault….it’s also her mother’s.

FYI… You pee on a jellyfish sting, not a jelly stain. My apologies to the lady at Waffle House this morning.

MAGA Republicans realizing South Park doesn’t like them is as hilarious as watching them realize that neither does Rage Against the Machine, Aerosmith, Green Day, Marvel, Star Wars, The Boys, every decent comedian… or their kids.

Cars these days have to many gadgets. I tried to reverse, and it played a video of somebody getting run over by a car.

I accidentally used my real personality at work today. I’ll just take myself to HR.

Did you know that while a tinfoil hat stops the NSA from reading your thoughts, it makes your head stand out like a Christmas tree on the CIA’s hunter-killer drone radar?

Just wanted to update everyone on my diet. It’s day two, and I’m happy to announce that I think I’m okay with being fat.

Her: Does this dress make me look fat? Him: Does this tie make me look bald? Her: But you are bald! Him: Exactly!

I sleep better naked. Why can’t the flight attendant understand this?

I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised.

What is a 3 letter word that starts with gas? Car.

What do you call a milkman wearing pantyhose? A dairy queen.

Teacher: Use the word fornication in a sentence. Me: This tie is perfect fornication like this.

We named our two kids ‘War’ and ‘Peace’. It’s a long story.

Do not believe things written on a bathroom wall. Sharon was NOT up for a good time. What an awkward conversation THAT was.

Police have confirmed that the person who fell tragically from an 18th floor nightclub was not a bouncer.

Headline – Russia lures confused old man to Alaska in elder scam.

You have to be bold to ask a person out. But if you want to ask a geologist on a date, you have to be a little boulder.

What do you call a book club that’s been stuck on one book for centuries? Church.

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Today is the birthday, in 1939, of Ginger Baker, drummer with Cream who had the 1966 UK No.11 single ‘I Feel Free’. Baker was also a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, Blind Faith, and Ginger Bakers Airforce and is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences. He has also had other collaborations such as with Gary Moore, Hawkwind and Public Image Ltd. Baker died on 6 October, 2019 at the age of 80. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_u1eu6Lpds

August 17 (this post is written a day early) was the birthday, in 1893, of Mary Jane “Mae” West. an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned more than seven decades. Recognized as a prominent sex symbol of her time, she was known for portraying sexually confident characters and for her use of double entendres, often delivering her lines in a distinctive contralto voice.

She was frequently associated with controversies over censorship and once stated, “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.”

West was five when she first entertained a crowd at a church social, and she began appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She began performing in vaudeville at age 14 and on Broadway at age 18. Eventually, West began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in the 1926 play Sex, which she wrote, produced, and directed. Although conservative critics panned the show, ticket sales were strong. The production did not go over well with city officials, who had received complaints from religious groups, and the theater was raided and West arrested along with the cast. She was taken to the Jefferson Market Court House, where she was prosecuted on morals charges, and on April 19, 1927, she was sentenced to 10 days for “corrupting the morals of youth”. Though West could have paid a fine and been released, she chose the jail sentence for the publicity it would garner.

She made her film debut in the role of Maudie Triplett in Night After Night (1932) starring George Raft, who had suggested West for the part. She did not like her small supporting role in the drama at first, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite portions of her character’s dialogue. One of several revisions she made is in her first scene in Night After Night, when a hat-check girl exclaims, “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds”, and West replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.”

By 1933, West was one of the largest box-office draws in the United States and, by 1935, she was also the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst). On March 26, 1958, West appeared at the live televised Academy Awards and performed the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with Rock Hudson, which received a standing ovation.

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…and I’ll have a diet coke, please…

Today is the birthday, in 1958, of Belinda Carlisle, singer, from all-female American rock band The Go-Go’s, who had the 1982 US No.2 single, ‘We Got The Beat’, and the 1982 UK hit single ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’. Their 1981 debut album, Beauty and the Beat, is considered one of the “cornerstone albums of US new wave music”. Carlisle had the 1987 solo, US & UK No.1 single ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGEyBeoBGM

On this day in 1824, Liberia was founded as a project of the American Colonization Society which believed that black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. Between 1822 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, more than 15,000 freed and free-born African Americans, along with 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans, relocated to Liberia. Gradually developing an Americo-Liberian identity,

Between 1461 and the late 17th century, Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders had contacts and trading posts in the region. The Portuguese named the area Costa da Pimenta (“Pepper Coast”) but it later came to be known as the Grain Coast, due to the abundance of melegueta pepper grains.

In the United States, there was a movement to settle African Americans, both free-born and formerly enslaved, in Africa. This was partially because they faced racial discrimination in the form of political disenfranchisement and the denial of civil, religious, and social rights. It was also partially because slave owners and politicians feared uprisings and rebellions of enslaved peoples.

Believing themselves different from and culturally and educationally superior to the indigenous peoples, the Americo-Liberians developed as an elite minority that created and held on to political power. The Americo-Liberian settlers adopted clothing such as hoop skirts and tailcoats and generally viewed themselves as culturally and socially superior to indigenous Africans. Indigenous people did not enjoy birthright citizenship in their own land until 1904.

African Americans depart for Liberia, 1896. The ACS sent its last emigrants to Liberia in 1904.

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Ambition and self-confidence…

Don’t piss off your baggage handler…

That first sip…

and now….TRASH PANDAS!!!

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How people communicated before the digital era…

(Thanks, Bob)

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SIGNZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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On this day in 1976, ABBA released ‘Dancing Queen’ as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Arrival. Dancing Queen’ (which had the working title of ‘Boogaloo’) went on to top the charts in more than a dozen countries including the United States where it became ABBA’s only No.1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s